A mounted knight in shiny armour stopped by the gate of Aurellium, the human capital. Right behind him were the rest of the mounted knights, slowly approaching the gate. The guardsman instantly recognised the importance of the knight. The knight had an Aurum symbol on his shield and a golden wreath on his helmet. They were the royal knights, Ordin of Aurum, and the knight in front of them was the Commander.

“Open the gates!” The knight ordered.

Sure, the guard would open the gates, no problem, if only there weren't an army of monsters right behind the knights.

“Are you deaf? We won’t make our charge wait!” The knight yelled, his voice magically empowered with authority.

“Yes, sir!” The guard finally responded. “Open the gate.” The rusty but thick portcullis moved ever so slowly.

Indeed, he was informed by the King that this will happen, and orders were orders, but even then this didn’t seem right. Why did they have to welcome monsters inside? This was crazy!

“Faster!” The knight bellowed impatiently. “I’ll get you disciplined for this embarrassment.”

He wasn’t the one operating the turning wheel, but whatever… The guardsman swallowed his discontent and just watched the menacing army of monsters get closer and closer to the Aurellium walls.

The gate opened ever so faster and the knights poured into the streets. It was a rare chance where a commoner could see the royal knights in full splendour, so men, women and children dropped their boring chores and flocked to the street to watch the procession.

“Give way! Move!” A knight urged the people to give them way.

“Clear the street. Bugger off!” Another knight hit a common man with the sheathed sword.

The knights were pushing and herding the people back to the sides, and they were quite rough in their task.

“They’re in an awfully foul mood.” A woman commented.

“What's going on?” A man asked shocked by the ill behaviour of their adored knights.

“Tsch!” Knight Commander clicked his tongue. “You have to keep the street clear! For your own sake!” He urged waving the sheathed sword threateningly.

Indeed the brutish behaviour of the otherwise noble knights had a reason, a good one. They were doing it for the safety of the people. The knights knew that no sane man was prepared for the sight to come. And it was their job to keep the commoners from hurting themselves here.

The knights cleared the street pushing the crowd to the sides, and took positions to guard it. They there here to form a barrier between the people and what is to come.

And then it came. The commoners only heard the rumours, they were wild and hard to believe. While, yes, they expected monsters and demon men, somehow the real thing was more unbelievable than even the most outrageous rumour.

Monsters poured through the open gate. No, they walked in orderly neat ranks. In the lead, a group of humanoid monsters, spider warriors, marched in between the funnel the knights had formed. The creatures were tall, imposing, and to everyone's surprise, they wore armour rivalling those of the royal knights. The bright orange armour was shiny and polished, pieces of it were gilded in yellow, obviously gold. Over the armour was a tunic of the finest fabric, it was vivid blue and there wasn’t even a speck of dust on the material. Even the tunic was embroidered in golden threads. A belt held a tunic at the narrow midsection of the creature, the buckle was golden and encrusted with a single emerald. It was obviously a decorative piece unfit for a real battle, but the commoners didn’t know that, no, they just stared at it with mouths agape.

“Is that real gold?” A man was surprised.

“So shiny!” A kid clapped in joy.

“It’s dangerous, get away.” A concerned mother took him off the street.

“Is that…” A fat merchant stuttered in disbelief. “They’re carrying enchanted weapons. All of them.” He whispered to himself.

“Aha! So that’s why the axes glow.” The customer nodded sagely as if he just solved the great mystery. “The axes are enchanted!” He shouted to everyone.

“Oh!”, “That’s why!”, “I see…”, “Makes, sense.” The people nearby began nodding in understanding giving their silent thanks to the loud man.

Not everyone looked in awe and wonder. Some were nervous, afraid even.

“How can monsters afford armour like this?” An armour smith wondered aloud.

“Their armour is better than the knight’s.” A city guard expressed his worries to a colleague.

“I don’t like this.” A man shut the shutters on his window and went back to minding his business.

The knights might have overreacted because the people subconsciously, either from awe or fear. were giving way to the marching monsters.

“So far so good.” A right-hand man shared with the Commander.

“Keep your vigilance, next is the King of Spiders. And all it takes…” He didn’t finish so he didn’t jinx it. He was afraid that some fool might decide to throw something at a spider or worse, their King.

The people kept gossiping about the fairytale-like spiders clad in gold and ate the sight with wonder-filled eyes.

“Wow! What is that!” A teenager pointed at the black structure emerging from the gate.

“No way!” A group of boys jumped giddy with excitement. “It… it flies!”

“How?” Even their father was in disbelief.

Everyone was so taken aback by the magical construct that they failed to notice the massive spider pulling it. The Spider Leader didn’t mind, he just strutted proudly at a steady pace, pulling the King's throne.

“How can it fly?” A man scratched his head while looking at the fat merchant.

“Beats me.” Even he, a merchant of magical devices, had no clue. “if I haven’t seen this, I would say it’s impossible.”

“That’s the King of Spiders.” Someone said the obvious.

The King in question appeared quite eccentric but in a good way. His unusual clothes were largely to blame. He wore black trousers and a black jacket, the hems threaded with a gold thread. On top of his head, he had a tall and wide-brimmed cylindrical hat, also black and decorated in gold thread. The clasps, the buttons and other decorative pieces were solid gold. But that didn’t end at that, on his neck and hanging low to his chest he had a massive chain of gold, not one but a few of them, covering the neck and chest in bling entirely. The black suit emitted a shadowy dark aura, but that only made the gold stand out and shine more.

“That’s a funny crown.” Someone commented making a knight glare threateningly at them. “I mean this looks very fashionable.”

“Fashion +25.” A tailor said, burning the design of the suit in her mind. She knew this will catch on.

“Is that… his woman?” A youthful gal asked her boyfriend.

“You mean the Queen? Look she has a sceptre.” He wondered by it was the Queen with the sceptre and not the King.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“And her dress is so shiny. Look at all these gems, I can see the rainbow.”

Indeed, the multicoloured gems made the Lamia Queen sparkle in the bright sun, it was almost blinding.

“Mama, why does she have a tail?” A toddler pointed at the extremely long appendage just chilling on the stairs of the floating throne.

“A what dear?” She lowered her gaze for a moment and was left surprised. “I didn’t even notice. She ain’t human at all.” She clasped her mouth in shock.

“Her figure is quite pretty, too bad we can’t see her face over the veil, I bet she’s a beauty.” A husband voiced what many were thinking.

A wife elbowed his side. “You're forgetting something.” She pointed at the tail she was now aware of. “She ain’t human. She’s a snake or something.”

A husband looked. “Meh, I still would…” A powerful stomp on his toes didn’t allow him to finish and further embarrass the wife.

Now, the King of Bling and The Queen of Rainbow were at the centre of the gossip. Everyone expected the King to be more spider and less man. But he had a handsome face and appeared as an extremely wealthy ruler. Eccentric, yes, but he didn’t look like a scary tyrant or some evil sorcerer, not at the moment at least. His Queen was more shy and reserved, but even then the people found some charm in that. There was this mystery in the air about the Queen. Her skin and face were hidden by the cloth and shiny sparkling light, leaving the young men guessing how she looked under all of that. There was a debate going on if her tail added to that mysterious charm or not. All of them were unaware of the real culprit, a thing that would spew heart-shaped sparkles now and then.

The King smiled, met the eyes of the folk and waved happily to everyone. The spiders were neat and shiny, they walked in an orderly fashion, and whatever threat people felt from them had completely disappeared. Soon the people forgot that there was a literal army of monsters marching to the Palace. They just began treating it like some sort of a theatre play, better – a carnival. They clapped and cheered at the marching monsters. They were just having fun from the spectacle.

The monster march didn’t end with the King. Behind him marched more spiders, some less human than the others. The more animalistic spiders hauled big blue backpacks on their back. They were stuffed full of various goods.

While the commoners enjoyed the ongoing carnival/parade or whatever this was. Not everyone was won by the show. The guards and retired veterans, men who knew how to fight, men who knew war – all remained disillusioned. There was no cheer in their faces and for many reasons at that. The Spider King was shamelessly flexing his might, his small army looking mighty and formidable, even worse, the peasantry was eating from his grimy hand with pleasure; forgetting what he really is and what he had done.

The discipline of those spiders was shockingly high and their enchanted gear even if decorative was leagues better than what the Human Kingdom had to offer. It was infuriating to see the monsters looking better than the humans. It was outrageous to welcome a King Slayer to their capital as if his evil deeds were forgotten.

But even then, the guards, the veterans and all others knew that this was done out of necessity. And they had to obey King Aurelius II orders, otherwise, it would be treason. The times were dark indeed, so dark that they had to turn to darker forces for help.

“Supplies.” A Guard Commander made a right guess.

“Yeah, we need them.” A guard nodded his head, and his stomach rumbled. “Commander, do you think we’ll get the ration today?”

“We better do!” He was the Guard Commander but even his family had to fast and eat less.

The spiders finished moving into the inner walls and made camp at the Merchant's Square. The Guard Commander thought the decision was odd, if it was him he would have the spiders camp outside the capital. There shouldn’t be any monsters within the walls! What if someone gets eaten? But the orders came from above and he had to do his job.

“We’ll have squads one and two to patrol the Square, three will watch over the spiders, and the rest shall border it and keep the general peace.” He relaid orders to his assistant.

“Understood, sir.” The guards went to keep the peace and spy on the spiders.

The Guard Commander moved deeper into the Merchant Square, he wanted to see the situation with his own eyes. If he understood everything right, the spiders were to hand out the food ration to the commoners, free of charge for two days, which was paid by the treasury, then they would be able to buy whatever from the spiders. How all of that would pan out, he had no idea.

“They better not jump the prices just because everyone is starving.” He grumbled remembering the grain incident.

At this point, he was expecting another riot. Then the people are hungry and when there is free food at their noses you can't just expect them to form orderly lines and take the parcels obediently. Mind you, the spiders were meant to hand out the food; the person who made that decision was a fool!

By the time he reached the centre of the Square, the spiders were done setting up their booths. Just like a merchant would, they erected a tent and a stall, just that their stall stood out from the others. They looked too expensive considering that it was just fruits they handed out. The tent was made out of fine blue fabric resembling silk, it was luxury cloth, way too bright and way too clean for a simple tent. And the stall itself looked exotic, it was white wood and it was carved and decorated. Behind the tents, there was a pile of overly large backpacks, stuffed with fruit. This was just the tip of the stock, most of it was being moved to the royal granary for safekeeping.

“They took furniture with them…” He didn’t know what to think about that.

The people were already informed about the free ration and were piling around the stalls.

“Here it begins.” He tensed up giving a meaningful look to his comrades.

Squad one and squad two will do everything that they can to keep the peace. And squad four and five were keeping most of the people out of the Merchant’s Square so that too many people won’t flood at once.

A finely dressed spider finished setting up, chirped something and raised a parcel of fruit. People rushed towards it like starved animals, pushing one another out of the way. That spider screeched in an unearthly voice, retrieved a stick from under the table and waved it threateningly.

The spiders weren’t allowed weapons in the Merchant’s Square, but a stick was just that – a stick, unless it was in the hand of that creature, a dangerous monster, so as a Guard Commander he should have known better. “Oh, no!” he rushed in before it could kill someone.

The people recognised that this wasn’t a human they were dealing with, and for once, acted rationally and backed off the stall not risking it. “Uff… that was close.” The Guard Commander breathed in relief.

The spider chirped something in a more mellow tone gesturing with its four hands frantically and spoke, “OrDer.” It didn’t sound quite human but it was understandable.

“OrDer. UnDerStand?” It chirped in a commanding tone.

The people were shocked, but the Guard Commander was the one who was shocked the most. He could accept monsters walking like humans, dressed like humans, pretending to be humans… You could do all that with an animal and that was just that – a well-behaved animal in a costume, but… Monsters didn’t speak! His preconception about how this world worked just crumbled at that moment.

And, for the better, under the threat of an angry monster and a looming stick, people formed an orderly line and took their share of the fruit one by one. They even thanked the creature at the end.

The Guard Commander jumped the line, willing to converse with the creature.

“You can speak?”

“No.” It chirped.

“But… but you can.”

“Me No UnderStand!” It chirped in displeasure. “OrDer.” It gestured to the line.

Guard Commander looked at the spider, somehow it looked more human all of a sudden.

The spider screeched again, chirped angrily and repeated. “OrDer!” And then it just bonked the Guard Command with the stick.

“Auch!” He felt that even through his helmet.

Someone laughed behind his back. He turned to look but the laughter stopped and everyone had innocent looks on their faces.

“Never mind. Carry on.” He stepped away from the stall.

If a tad bit slow, the food handout proceeded in an orderly fashion. The peacekeeping stick saw some action, but in the end, it was judged to be an acceptable use of force. The guards didn’t need to intervene.

He remained there watching it go smoothly. He wondered how the royal gala went, after all, his wife and daughters were there; an unexpected courtesy from the King, and the reason why he was working here so hard. He worried slightly about their safety, after all the Spider King was allowed some spiders in the Palace. And monsters were monsters…

“Ehh…” He waved the bad thoughts away. “Oder of Aurum is watching the event over.” He didn’t need to worry.

The night fell, and the people dispersed back to their homes. He, however, couldn’t allow himself such luxury because he will remain to help with the night watch. Once again, someone decided that the spiders will set camp here in the Square. But better here than in guard barracks, even if his perception about the spiders changed, he wouldn’t want to defile the sanctity of barracks by the presence of monsters.

He watched the spiders lay down to sleep over an open sky.

“Ah, of course, they wouldn’t need a bed or a roof, monsters…” He didn’t finish.

A tall figure loomed right behind him. It was that Spider Merchant he watched for the best part of the day.

Calling it a monster probably wasn’t a good thing. “My apologies, I didn’t mean to offend you.” As a Guard Commander, he didn’t want to be the one who caused an incident.

The spider chirped something in a happy tone and was handing him a bottle.

“What is it?” He asked unsure whether to take it or not.

The spider seemed insistent. “Grupp-Grupp.” It spoke in human.

He took the fancy bottle, uncorked it and sniffed at the liquid. “Wine?” He probably shouldn’t but took a sip anyway.

His eyes watered. “Oh boy, I didn’t expect that.” It was a high-grade spirit.

He looked for the spider but it was already gone, as if it disappeared into the shadows.

“Was this a bribe or a poisoning attempt?” He wasn’t sure. “But hey, that stuff is good.” He swirled the fancy bottle deciding to keep it.

Unbeknown to him, some other guards received various gifts in encounters of a similar fashion. Birthing an urban legend of the Gifting Spider. It appears in the darkest night popping out of the shadow. It looms out tall and menacing, making no sound and saying no word. It gives strange and exotic gifts and then disappears as mysteriously as it appeared. The legend says it is unwise to refuse the gift, those who do… turn into a shadow and disappear at the first light of daybreak. Never to be found again.