The Matriarch’s venom was quick. It raced through my veins. The burning acid deadened my muscles as it went. My wings went rigid, and I slumped to the ground. Each breath was suddenly difficult. It felt like I was suffocating, and I had to force myself to breathe through sheer force of will. My vision blurred, and the world began to swim.

You Inspect the Spider Matriarch.

Level 36 Arachnid Matron - Elite.

Disposition: Melodious, Protective, Whimsical.

Hit Points 2,500 / 2,500.

Warning! This mob has been affected by the following boon: Permanence.

Any damage inflicted by this mob may be permanent.

Quest Status: Optional.

I read the text, looking up at the blurry form of the impossibly massive spider. A foreboding sense of morbid confusion washed over me. The gargantuan mob was terrifying. She had me dead to rights. I knew she could end it at any second but, for reasons unknown, she hesitated.

My mind went to the cookies I’d obtained at the beginning of the dungeon. If I could somehow consume even just one of the three, I imagined I’d grow to a more reasonable size, one that would give me at least a fighting chance of survival. It was possible I might even dwarf the mob that now loomed above me. If so, leaving the Grotto could be a problem once the threat of death was gone, but at least I’d be alive.

I could see no other way. I had to try.

My fingers twitched in feeble response to my mind’s commands. It was no use. So long as my muscles were paralyzed, my inventory was inaccessible. That had to be another quirk of this particular dungeon. It was infuriating, but not unsurprising. Without any other options at my disposal, I could do nothing but lie on the webbed ground and wait for the end.

The Matriarch lifted one of her deadly and graceful legs, then rolled me toward her with shockingly gentle care. The movement was confident and purposeful. Still, she didn’t strike. She made no movement to continue her attack.

Instead of relief, I felt myself seized by the sudden weight of uncontrollable fear. There was no mistaking the strange sense of urgency I felt. I knew I was in danger, but darkness was the only thing that greeted me in those last fading moments.

My consciousness dripped away before I could put the pieces together, though I did try. The light faded, and darkness overtook me as my thoughts slowed. The world around me faded into nothingness. Moments passed in a blur of nightmares and dreams. Then there was sound. It was a soothing melody that cut through the nothing.

Humming. It was a soft and sweet melody that came from somewhere beside me. I tried to turn to face the source, but found myself wrapped in constricting bands of silk. I tried blinking my eyes with no success. My throat was dry and my lips chapped. I couldn’t even open my mouth. The sticky silk covered my head and limbs, woven together tighter than rope.

A new wave of panic set in as realization took hold, but the humming continued. It was strangely comforting, despite my troubled state of mind. I wasn’t alone. There was someone here with me. Extracting each breath through the matted silk was difficult, but I wasn’t suffocating. I could breathe. I couldn’t break free, but at least I could breathe.

It didn’t take long before I’d gathered enough of my senses to take an inventory of my current situation. I’d been wrapped in a cocoon of sorts, just like the ones I’d seen strewn about the grotto. I was in a… food sack.

My stomach sank.

This was why the Matriarch hadn’t finished the job. She didn’t need to kill me right away because I was a meal, a snack to be slowly broken down from the inside. The process wasn’t complete. I would be devoured once the venom had done its work.

Bile rose in my throat. There was nowhere for it to go. The thought of drowning in my own vomit was equal parts horrifying and ludicrous. Of all the ways to die in a dungeon, that one had to rank high on the list of the worst.

Not today, I thought. Not like this.

The humming continued. My breathing slowed. My thoughts became more purposeful. I was alive. I might be stuck, but I was alive. I could breathe, and I hadn’t puked yet. Thank goodness for small miracles.

Calm. Calm. Calm.

I couldn’t speak, but I could mumble and grunt, and I could wriggle, too.

“Minnee-mowwa-mear.”

I hoped the sounds I managed to garble out weren’t loud enough to draw the Matriarch’s attention. The words weren’t exactly the ones I was going for, but they had an effect. The humming stopped. Tiny vibrations tickled the web on my skin as the presence shifted, drawing closer.

“Oh, Miss,” Gertrude quietly exclaimed. Her tone was hopeful and relieved all at once.

“Mermrood?”

“I’m so happy you’re awake. Not all of them break free from the deep sleep after Mother’s bite. It doesn’t matter much to her. She eats them anyway. Dead or alive. I’m so terribly sorry. I never dreamed that things would work out this way. It’s all my fault. I never should have asked you to dance.”

One of the Spiderling’s long legs ran down and across the webbing wrapped around my spine. She was trying to comfort me in her own small way. For as large as she was, she was still just a small child at heart. Despite my dire circumstances, I couldn’t help but feel bad for her.

“Mermrood?” I mumbled through the matted and breath-dampened layers of silk. “Manu melpmee?”

She grabbed at the web around my face and gave it a gentle tug. The fibers cut away in a smooth, clean motion, freeing my eyes, nose, and mouth in one fell swoop.

A deep sense of relief washed over me. I could finally breathe without hindrance. The grotto air felt refreshing and cool.

“There you go, Miss. I think I should be able to hear you better now that your mouth is uncovered.”

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“Thank you, Gertrude,” I said, letting out a deep sigh of relief. My mind went to my circular blades. My eyes darted to the spot where they gleamed on the grotto floor. “How long do I have before your mother feeds?”

Gertrude’s obsidian eyes lowered. She shuffled awkwardly on her eight massive legs.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Mother doesn’t intend to eat you,” she replied. The words sounded small and sad. “Not this time.”

“What is it, then? What’s wrong? Why did she wrap me up like this?”

She looked away, and it all started to make sense. It was horrible and gruesome, but the pieces certainly fit.

“She wants you to feed?”

Gertrude nodded.

“That’s what happened to Leopold. He wasn’t always so mean.”

“You mean to say?” I asked, trailing off.

She nodded.

“Once we feed from Mother’s prey, we change. We still love to dance, but we’re no longer the same. We get angry, and then we eventually leave this place. Once we leave, there’s no more milk, no more dancing, and no more laughter. We must find our way in the world on our own. We have to learn to make our own music and trap our own prey. It sounds so very dreadful and lonely. I do wish I could stay small forever. Oh, Dear Miss, I don’t want to eat you. I don’t want to change.”

She began to sob quietly beside me. Tears fell unchecked from her eight gleaming eyes. I felt the wetness begin to soak the silken threads, loosening the remaining bonds ever so slightly.

“It’s going to be okay,” I whispered. “You won’t have to eat me. Not if you don’t want to, and not if I can help it.”

“Oh, thank you, Miss. Thank you so very much. But how can you say such a thing? Mother always has her way. We all eat. We all change.”

She sniffed.

“I don’t know yet,” I said, gritting my teeth as I pushed against the confines of the silk. "We’ll figure something out. I promise.”

“Would you like some help?” she asked, tugging at the threads behind my back. “I could set you free, but I don’t think you’re in any shape to escape. Not with Mother lurking about.”

“Hmmm.” I grunted, rubbing at my unhealed injuries. “You’re probably right. I’m sorry, Gertrude. I didn’t want to kill Leopold. I didn’t want to have to kill anyone. I thought I had this place figured out. I was wrong.”

“It’s okay,” she said. Her tiny voice was sad. She began slashing at the threads with deadly precision. “It’s true. He used to be nice once, but he would have killed you. I know that now.”

Her fangs gleamed in the softly pulsing light that filtered from the fireflies hovering high above. Tiny drops of venom pooled at the needle-like tips.

This was new.

“Gertrude?” I asked. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Dear Miss,” she said, glancing toward the nearest ball of milk. It was over a hundred yards away, and I could tell she didn’t dare move for fear of suffering her mother’s wrath. “I’m just a little hungry. That’s all.”

With my quest still unfinished, I needed to collect one final acorn cap of the spider milk. Then I could finally return to the Cheshire Cat, and I would be free of this grotto once and for all.

“Here,” I said, pulling one of the filled caps from my inventory and setting it atop the pile of silk threads that had been wrapped around me only moments before.

“Are you sure?” Gertrude asked. “Didn’t you need that milk for your cat?”

“Something tells me you need it more than I do,” I said, laughing. I then let out a sigh of both exhaustion and relief as the spider drank.

She continued to slurp at the puddle of milk while I observed the grotto anew. This was just a small part of the dungeon. I still needed to figure out how I was going to get back to the real world. Back to Bob’s diner. Back to Pete and Earl and everything I’d left behind.

My thoughts returned to the cookies sitting in my inventory. There had to be a reason for their existence here. I could use one of them now, but I had no idea how large I would grow. Or how fast. If I ate one and it turned out to be the wrong move, I could be stuck inside this grotto until I managed to find another way out. I now had the luxury of thinking through the consequences, and I was suddenly very happy I hadn’t been able to eat one before losing consciousness.

There were no other means of escape. The walls were too thick. Beneath the layers of silk were the entangled limbs of ancient trees. And with all these spiders, it didn’t really matter how big I grew. There were just too many of them. I would fight. I would kill. But if I couldn’t get out, I would eventually die like an animal trapped in a cage. There had to be another way.

“Gertrude?” I asked again, locking eyes with the young Spiderling.

Her gaze softened. She stared at me with an almost drugged expression. Her fangs wiggled forward and back, as if it was taking every last bit of her self control to avoid sinking the dagger-like needles into my exposed flesh. Once the process started, the milk could do little to satiate her hunger.

I did my best not to shy away from her closeness.

The creature standing beside me wasn’t just some gargantuan beast. She wasn’t just a spider. If anything, I was dealing with a monster who had the mind and heart of a child. She was still innocent in all of this and deserving of both kindness and care. She didn’t want to eat me, but her hunger would take over if we didn’t act.

“Yes, Miss?” she whispered, drawing ever closer, stopping only when I could feel the heat of her breath upon my neck.

Her fangs were dangerously close.

“Your brothers and sisters have stopped dancing. Do you think you could do me a favor? I need you to play your mother’s harpsichord?”

Gertrude took a few purposeful steps backward and then trained her eyes on the distant instrument. A strange shudder ran down the length of her enormous body.

“I — I don’t know,” she said.

“You don’t know how to play?” I asked. “Is that it? Oh, Gertrude. I’ve heard your humming. I’m sure you’ll do just fine.”

In truth, I didn’t think it really mattered how well she played the eerie-sounding instrument. All I needed was a distraction. Certainly, the mere sight of one of their siblings attempting to oust their mother would do the trick.

“That’s not it,” she answered, shaking as her head sank low in shame.

“What is it, then?”

“I’m afraid that if I play, my brothers and sisters will dance. Mother, however, will not. She’ll try to kill me. I know it. She is large and strong, and I am still very small. I won’t survive on my own. Do you think you could protect me?”

I stared up at the NPC in shock. It struck me then, like a punch to the gut. Spider or not, I had asked so very much from this not-so-small spider child, but she was indeed just a child. My heart felt heavy in my chest. She was innocent, and that innocence was worth protecting. Just as my brother, Ellis, had tried to protect me from diving in dungeons like this. Just as Earl, in his own way, had tried and failed to do the same back inside the diner.

I had to try.

“Yes, Gertrude,” I said. “I’ll protect you.”

“I do think I could play. I can feel the music bubbling up from within me. It wants to be set free, but Mother…” Her words trailed off.

“Don’t worry. It’ll be okay. I’ll take care of your mother,” I said, “but someone needs to play. I don’t want to have to fight your brothers and sisters. Understand? That’s where you come in.”

Gertrude turned her gaze back toward me.

“Are you going to kill her?” she asked. “Mother, I mean.”

And there it was. The poor child was stuck between two very difficult choices. She could save me, her new friend, and avoid Leopold’s fate in the process, but if her mother tried to attack, I’d be forced to fight. One of us would die. That or she could follow the path that had always been set before her. She could kill me and grow, just as Leopold had done. Either way, as long as her mother lived, she would one day be forced to leave the grotto. She would leave her brothers and sisters behind to start a new family of her own.

“Only if it comes to it,” I said. It sounded obvious, even to me, so I hastily added, “I won’t let her hurt you. You have my word.”

“If you kill her, we’ll run out of milk,” she said, looking out to the meandering masses of her brood mates. “We’ll be forced to feed.”

She was right. Once the milk was gone, the spiders would need to eat. If I didn’t solve the cat’s riddle and help Absolem to fly by the time that happened, I’d face their wrath, anyway. My mind began to race. There had to be a workable solution.

“Does your family only eat people like me? What about the bugs outside the grotto?” I asked, feeling slightly hopeful. “There are plenty of ants and slugs.”

“Ants and slugs?” She thought about this for a moment. She seemed revulsed at first, but then her fangs began to twitch. “I suppose they might be worth a try.”