Lorelei and Death made their way through a dense forest. Around them, various insects and small critters swarmed as they watched the two curiously. Lorelei shooed away a swarm of flies before she grumbled in Death's direction. "I thought when you said we were going to go talk to a group of shapeshifters, that it would be more of the… mammal kind."

Death disguised a laugh as a cough. "I told you this was the largest collection of shapeshifters I could find that wouldn't try to attack us before we got a few words out. I never did mention exactly what they were."

They walked deeper into the forest and, when they got to a relatively clear spot, turned to address the creatures around them. Death took a quick look at Lorelei before she stepped forward. "Lorelei and I have come here to your forest, looking for your help." With those words, the swarm settled down to listen. Lorelei bit back a noise of protest when several of them chose to land on her. "If looks could kill." Death thought to herself. "If I could die, this would be very unfortunate for me." When everything was silent, Death continued. "For you see, grave events have come to pass, and now we look to build a school. We know that despite your shared classification, each and every one of you is unique. We're looking to recruit as many of you that wish to leave the forest to…"

Before Death could continue, just about every creature with wings took flight at once, and within a few seconds, the area around them was void. The only being in sight was a gigantic, grotesque looking spider. It scurried a few feet forward before it transformed into its human form, which looked just as grotesque as it had while a spider. "So what you're saying is." He stared at them with wide eyes, his voice was deep. "If I go with you, I can find more prey. I mean friends? At this school of yours?"

Lorelei and Death shared a glance at one another before they addressed the boy. "We're creating a school to unite all of the different factions. So that they can live together peacefully."

"Yeah yeah yeah." The boy interrupted impatiently. "When do I get to eat, I mean meet the prey." He licked his lips as he stared at them as if he was sizing them up.

Lorelei stepped forward with one hand raised. "Listen here, you…"

Death raised an arm between Lorelei and the boy, and it was all Lorelei could do to avoid contact with Death. "Why don't you take us to your… Home? So we can discuss this further." The boy walked excitedly away. When he was out of earshot Death whispered to Lorelei in response to yet another one of her glares. "I don't intend to let him attend the school, but I don't exactly see anyone else lining up to go either."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

As they walked, webs started to appear. The farther they walked, the more dense the trees were with them. Huge spiders could be seen. They watched them as they walked by. Soon a river appeared, and they followed it until they reached a vast web. A few spiders were gathered in the middle of the web, but the boy didn't wait for them to change into their human forms before he yelled loudly. "Ma! Da! These ladies want me to go to their school!"

Lorelei stepped forward before Death could stop her. "Not necessarily, we just wanted to… Talk to you about him wanting to go?"

The largest of the spiders jumped out of the web at them and transformed into a tall, buff looking, middle-aged lady. "Jason, I told you to keep it down." She smacked the boy upside the head before she turned to look at Lorelei and Death. "Now, what's this about some sort of school?"

Before either Death or Lorelei could collect their thoughts enough to respond, Jason yelled out. "They want me to go to this super top secret awesome school! It's far away, but that's okay because there's lots of prey, and, more importantly, it'll be really far away from that puny little runt, Bradley." At the last word, a small figure dropped down from the tree above them. He was a short, gangly young boy with dark rings under his eyes. He glared at Jason through his long wavy brown hair. "Ha! I knew you were listening, loser. Did you hear? I'm going…"

Bradley stared up at Jason, his umber eyes filled with anger. He was already slightly out of breath, but he managed to get out. "I… I thought I told you not to call me that, Jason." He flinched when Jason took a step forward but braced himself. "Don't do it again. I'm not… That's not a nice word."

Jason took a few more steps forward, and even though Bradley flinched each time, he didn't move back. "I always wondered if that name suited you, Bradley. I always thought another suited you better." Jason's face started to transform while his body remained human. His teeth grew razor-sharp as multiple eyes appeared around his human ones. "Prey."

Bradley launched himself forward with all his might, but the fight that resulted started off one-sided. Jason slapped Bradley around a few times, and once Jason had Bradley pinned, Lorelei stepped forward to intervene. Before she could, though, Bradley used every ounce of his strength to push Jason off of him. Everyone had been too distracted by their fight to realize how close to the river they had gotten, and even the meager strength that Bradley could build up was enough to launch Jason into the middle of the river.

Several people raced forward to save him. It took a moment for them to realize he hung in midair. It took another moment for them to understand why. Across the river's width, there was the biggest web that any of them had ever seen. Bradley jumped across to land on the web over Jason and stuttered as he said. "I told you… I told you. N-never call me that again, or else…" He coughed a few times before he collapsed.

When Bradley woke up, he could hear voices nearby, but he barely registered what they were saying. When he walked up, he saw Death, Lorelei, and his mother sitting together. They turned to look at him in unison, but it was Lorelei who got up and walked up to him. "Bradley, I think you're the perfect student for our school."