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Roi and his spiders moved fast. Marigold and I had to run to keep them in sight. “Maybe we should have told your mom where we are going.” Marigold puffed the words between breaths.

She was right. Again. “Too late for that now. We’ll use my father’s comm when we get to him.” I just hoped that was sooner than later.

The south cliff wall loomed close before us, much more than the houses behind us. Too big to fit through the rocky entrance, several of the spiders perched at the base close to my shortcut—the chimney-like vertical tunnel in the cliff wall. Marigold and I walked the last yards to the cliff. The spiders moved away, except for one—the smallest of the bunch, a spider that looked more blue than black. It skittered around, a few feet away from us.

“That was nice of them.” Marigold said, resting her hand on my arm and catching her breath.

“Who? The spiders? What’d they do?” I took a swig of water from my water bladder and passed it to her.

She sipped at it and smiled. “They know they make you uncomfortable. They’re giving you some space.”

Uncomfortable. What an understatement. Being near the things made my skin crawl like it was covered in, well, spiders, only of the normal small variety like on Tatmus Delta. Even looking at the monstrous things, sitting there shifting their weight from side to side like they were waiting to pounce at any moment, made my stomach twist. Marigold obviously had a different opinion of them.

“You mean they’re being considerate?” I asked. “The spiders? Considerate? What would even make that cross your mind?”

“It’s pretty obvious. Why else would they do it? They aren’t scared of you.” She chuckled a little and quickly covered her mouth, her eyes wide. “I’m so sorry, Xander. I know it’s not funny.”

“Whatever.” I walked away from her to the chimney. All of the spiders took off, climbing up the cliff face. The smaller blue spider lagged behind the rest. I think it was looking at me, but I was too annoyed at Marigold to care. Marigold followed behind me, repeating her apologies, and a few giggles.

The Marigold that only hours before showed up as an inconsolable mess was now completely undetectable. Instead, Marigold buzzed with an energy—bordering on excitement—and I didn’t understand it at all. People were being slaughtered, more lives were at stake, and she had to know any diplomatic resolution with her family was impossible at this point.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

And she giggles?

The only difference between then and now was Roi. I really did not like him.

I dropped to my hands and knees to crawl into the tunnel entrance to the chimney. “Where is Roi?”

His head popped out of the tunnel. “I am here!” he shouted, inches away from my face.

I backpedaled, falling on my butt. “Damn it, Roi. Damn you!” I shouted back at him once my shocked lungs allowed it. Marigold helped me up, stifling more laughs.

Roi scuttled all of the way out of the tunnel entrance and stood in his weird crouched fashion. That same infuriating smile plastered on his face. “Xander moves fast. Again, I am impressed.”

“I’d like to impress my fist upon your face,” I mumbled.

Roi scowled, perplexed. “That would not be impressive.”

Marigold laughed hard enough to snort.

“Damn you, Roi, you blighter.” I pushed past him and crawled into the tunnel.

Some moonlight trickled in from the top of crevice and through the crack in the canyon wall. I found my stash of gloves, grateful there were extras. Marigold emerged next. “Not much light to go by,” I said, handing her a pair of gloves.

She slipped them over her bandaged hands. She took a deep breath, some of her excitement seemed leeched by the difficult climb. “Who goes first?”

“Roi does!” Roi bolted past us out of the tunnel and jumped up the first ten feet of the vertical climb.

“Yuan’s Light.” The words slipped out my mouth. I could make the climb at a decent rate, but Roi almost flew up the up the natural rock chimney, barely making contact with the walls at all. I had to admit, I was impressed.

“Wow.” Marigold sounded just as dumbfounded as I felt. “That was amazing. Did you see how he just jumped up that?”

And with that, any admiration I felt toward Roi disintegrated. “Blighted showoff.”

Marigold still stared up to where Roi disappeared into the dark. “How did he do that? It’s not humanly possible to jump that high…”

“That’s because he’s a freak.” I put on my gloves, noticing they were my oldest and worn pair, my fingers more exposed than protected. “More spider than human.”

“Why do you hate him so much? I think he’s amazing.”

“Nah, really?” I sneered and tossed the gloves away. “I hadn’t noticed that at all.”

Marigold pursed her lips at me. “Don’t be that way, Xander. It’s not an attractive trait in you.”

“My apologies. Maybe I should give Roi a big hug when I see him next. Tell him ‘Thanks for bashing my head in! Let’s be friends.’”

She tsked at me and smiled. “Might work.”

“Whatever. We don’t have time for this.” I motioned up with my head. “You go first.”

“So you can catch me if I slip or so you can stare at my backside?”

I won’t lie, I did want to catch her in case she slipped, but she filled out her pants nicely too. “Both,” I grumbled. “Let’s go.”