Bareth used to be a merchant so his perception of money was different from Gareth's. Unlike the spunky man, he chose to invest his allowance into something more tangible than the 'affection' of Lamia. He wondered if Gareth even needed to keep giving them gifts, by the looks of it the Lamia would just slither to Gareth at night either way.

Never mind that, this wasn't Gareth's business anyway. So what did he spend the money on? A house seemed like a natural answer. He amassed a good amount of Slug Jelly and then traded it off to spider builders. And in no time at all he had a spidery nest he could call a home. It was rather large but not quite a mansion, actually, it only had a few rooms; but did he need more than that? He was single so the answer was obvious.

"I need some furniture." He spoke inside an empty room. "A bed for a start, and then some tables and chairs..." He started on a mental list.

Everything could be obtained rather easily, that is if you made buddies with the crafter spiders. Yes, they weren't the most entertaining conversationalists; the crafter spiders were always work-minded, but they loved to learn. The trick to make buddies with them was to teach them something.

Bareth wasn't exactly well versed in carpentry but he knew a thing or two. He told the spider crafters how to make a human table and a chair; and other simple stuff like that. The spiders jumped for joy at having new designs to work with and in the end, he had his furniture.

A similar trick worked with other types of spiders. And soon his house began to take the shape of something more proper and human-like. He had fine-crafted furniture, vivid blue carpet, and even drapes for windows. The designs still carried that spidery theme, but otherwise, they blended in well with the surroundings. All in all, it was luxurious.

"Better than I had in the Human Kingdom." He concluded.

And how about his mate, Gareth? If there was jealousy he didn't display it. In one way, since Bareth moved Gareth now had a whole room for himself. However, that building had turned into something unsavoury. There was a lot of hissing coming from it at night. Sometimes spider peacekeepers had to intervene. And by the morning there was a full crate of empty potion bottles for spiders to collect. Gareth clearly had some sort of a problem.

...

Gareth had run away from his spidery home. This wasn't the first time, nor it will be the last. Why did he run? – Well, he just needed a break once in a while. However, he knew too well that the Lamia would capture him eventually. Even if short it was still a break.

This time he grew clever and got lost in the web-maze on purpose. A, he had a good excuse now and B, Lamia shouldn't be immune to the confusing layout of the maze either.

His plan worked out, Gareth was wandering between the rows of TomGrape webs for hours. An occasional spider would give him a wave and he would wave back.

"I think I'll stay here, forever lost." He said with resolution and an ironic smile on his face. "It's not like I can go hungry." He picked up a ripe TomGrape right of the web-vine and ate it.

"What is this?" He observed something strange on the web. "It's all shrivelled and dried up." The TomGrape fruit crumbled to dust under his fingers. “It looks like a disease.” He knew it the moment he saw it, after all, he wasn’t a stranger to farming.

Gareth went to investigate the nearby plants. "It's bad if it had spread already." Indeed, some other web-vines had signs of wilting too. "This is bad!" He looked around for spiders.

There was none nearby but he noticed a moving shadow right under one of the web-vines. It was small so probably it belonged to a young spider farmer.

He approached closer and leaned under the lush leaves of the plant. "Hey, little fellow..." He stopped speaking because this wasn't a spider.

It was just a shadow! Or to be more precise, a creature made of shadows. It was very small and resembled a doll, but its head was big and onion shaped and it was entirely made out of swirling darkness.

The shadowy creature was touching the stem of the vine with its little claw-like hands and the plant was visibly wilting.

“Ahh!” Gareth shouted both in fear and surprise. No

The little monster looked at him. It had a white patch in that darkness where a face should be but it was absolutely smooth and featureless.

“AHH!” The creature imitated his voice. It was somewhat distorted.

Then it ducked under the web and disappeared somewhere further.

“I must report this to spiders!”

Gareth found some spiders to investigate the incident. They chirped with clear concern and disposed of the affected vines.

Next, they were looking for that mysterious plant-draining monster. Gareth volunteered to help but they couldn't find it. It was getting dark so he gave up.

Hence, he left the spiders to deal with the incident.

...

Every time Gareth happened to just be 'lost' in the TomGrape web-maze he would encounter the shadow monsters. Of course, he would chase them out and to the next vine... It's not like he had a way to catch or kill them. Worse, the spiders still haven't encountered even a single shadow monster. It was as if the shadow creatures were experts at avoiding spider detection.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The frequency of monster encounters grew and so did Gareth's concern. So he sought advice from his old friend.

"And why do you insist on helping? I'm sure the spiders can handle it." Bareth dismissed his concern.

"I'm not too sure about that... And if you saw them you would be concerned too. They're crazy scary!"

“I don’t know about that. Aren’t you the only one who saw those creatures?” Bareth asked with scepticism.

“Are you suggesting something?!”

“Well, all those fertility potions can’t be too good. Might affect the mind and all that. And you seem rather stressed.”

Yeah, lamias were stressing Gareth out, hence his more frequent 'walks' in a maze. Especially the knowledge that he will need to take 'responsibility' for no less than a hundred eggs. But that was the reason why he tried to solve the TomGrape wilting mystery so hard. If he was successful, the King might just excuse him from his ‘responsibilities’.

"Look Bareth, all you need to do is leave your mansion and come with me. I'll show you that I'm not imagining things."

“At this time of hour? It’s dark already” Bareth protested with his arms crossed.

"Don't be a wuss. Come on!" He nudged Bareth with his elbow.

"I'm not afraid!" Bareth protested again. "But how do you suggest we see a creature made out of darkness at night? You would just make yourself look like a fool again."

Bareth had a point there. "We'll use a lantern. I can borrow it from the Lamia. If anything, there should be more of them at night."

"Hmm..." Bareth was contemplating it. "If what you say is truth, they are creatures of darkness, the lantern light might just scare them away, and they will see us coming from a distance."

Once again Gareth had to admit that his old friend had a point there.

However, Bareth wasn't quite finished. "If anything, we should use Dark Flame.”

“As far as I know you don’t look like a spider mage.” Gareth pointed out the obvious. “Are we recruiting one?”

"What for, I have a thing right here." Bareth opened a cupboard and retrieved a magical lantern.

“Wow, how did you get that?” Gareth was genuinely impressed, after all, even the normal FireAgave Juice Lantern was rather expensive.

“Connections.” Gareth didn’t elaborate further. “So shall we go?”

“And here I thought you were scared shitless.”

Gareth just glared at him.

"When you see them just don't cling to me like a terrified maiden. These arms are for the Lamia only." Bareth teased.

"Don't get full of yourself, mate." Gareth took the lantern and headed outside.

The Dark Flame granted them sight even in the most oppressive darkness. And the best of it was that aside from dim purple flame it didn’t produce much real light.

The pair of friends walked ever deeper into the TomGrape fields. The spiders were off to sleep at this late hour, but somehow the webs looked scarier without their presence.

"It would be rather bad if we end up attacked," Gareth uttered and regretted it right after.

"So it's you who's scared!" Bareth spoke in a shaky voice. "Be not afraid younglin for I have brought a weapon." He spoke theatrically waving a stick.

Gareth recognised it instantly, it was a stick spider peacekeepers used. He had seen it in use multiple times, mostly on rowdy lamias but sometimes he would get smacked as collateral. Why? Well, the spiders said that they were being too loud at late hours or something like that. And then struck everyone.

“Do you think it will be enough?” Gareth asked staring at not so lethal weapon.

Bareth shrugged. “I’m still not convinced those shadow creatures exist.”

"Here, right there!" Gareth pointed at the completely wilted vine. "The spiders haven't cut it yet, so it's fresh. Let's look nearby."

Bareth pointed the lantern near and under the nearby web.

“W-what a...” He began in a stuttering and shaky voice but didn’t even finish.

Bareth was just standing there and trembling at the sight. A small swarm of tar-like monsters were grasping at the stem and exposed roots of TomGrape. The plant wilted in seconds and the bellies of the monsters took a rounded shape.

"Let's get 'em!" Gareth pried the stick off Bareth and jumped towards the swarm.

Bareth stood there speechless and Gareth was just whacking at the monsters with the stick. The impact would squish and squash the doll-like monster but it just bounced back to its original shape.

“Gareth stop! What if they attack you?”

"Stop prattling about and help me!" Gareth said unconcerned.

Somehow those words dispelled the fear Bareth felt and he jumped to kick and stomp at the monsters.

The two went at it for a good ten minutes. The monsters weathered their assault and once given a chance scattered in all directions. In the end, they failed to kill even a single one of the shadowy creatures.

“What a hell!” Gareth shouted frustrated.

“I think we did well to scare them off. What if they decided to drain us instead of the plant?”

Gareth face paled at those words.

“What? You didn’t think about that?” Bareth shook his head in disbelief. “ I don’t know if you’re very brave or just a fool.”

"Yeah... We weren't prepared for this. But how do we kill them? This seems impossible!" Gareth threw the stick to the ground in frustration.

Bareth picked up his stick back. “Maybe exposing them to light would disperse their bodies?” He offered.

“No, I have seen them scutter around in broad daylight.”

“Let’s get out of here then.”

Gareth simply nodded, he too was beginning to feel anxious. Getting yourself drained didn't sound all too fun. The two walked in silence. Bareth was deep in thought for some reason.

Gareth knew the likely reason. "We're lost aren't we..." After all, this was a maze.

Bareth didn’t say a thing.

"Look, I'm sorry." Gareth even bowed.

“Huh, what?” It seems Bareth wasn’t listening. “I was just thinking about this story the spiders told me.”

"Why are you thinking about some stories? Aren't there bigger things to worry about?"

Bareth gave him another glare. “You should’ve asked what the story was about.” He said suggestively.

“Okay, I’ll play that game.” It’s not that he had anything else to do aside from wandering. “What is that story about?”

“I’m glad you asked. Once upon a time, on the highest reaches of the Oberon Mountaintop..."

The story, like all spider stories was about their ruler, the Spider King and his unbelievable adventures.

"Ah, I see." Gareth pointed a finger up into the air. " The shadow monsters might be similar to wraths. We need a magical weapon!"

"Oh, you're smarter than you look. I am impressed Gareth." Bareth replied.

"Keep those snarky barbs to yourself. More importantly, where do we get magical weapons? It's not like we can ask for some."

Bareth gave another look of his. “Why not?”

“You know damn well why not!”

They were still captives here and not trusted with anything like that.

“Hmm, maybe if you asked nicely, very nicely, of those lady friends of yours. Just maybe we could get a hold of enchanted weapons.” Bareth wasn’t finished. “Or we could just inform the spiders again and let them deal with this.”

“No, I will ask the Lamia.”

For some reason, Gareth was bent on dealing with this with his own hands.

“Fine. Get a few then. I will help you.”

“You will?”

"We're friends, and this seems important to you." Bareth patted Gareth's shoulder.

The two continued to wander the maze aimlessly until a spider farmer found them at the break of dawn.