Iris kept a serious, determined demeanor as she and Whirl methodically traversed the web-strewn woods. This was a life or death mission, she reminded herself, not just for her and Whirl but for the others waiting back in the shelter, and possibly for the other adventurers they hoped to encounter. She hadn't thought about any of this before she volunteered, but she told herself it wouldn't have mattered anyway, she was the only one fit for the job, which meant she was the one who would do it.
The tufted-eared mouse perched on her shoulder double-tapped a small paw on her neck, then pointed at a patch of webs. Iris craned forward and squinted, shifting her head in circles as she struggled to spot the next blip point beyond the webs. Iris wasn't sure what time it was, but she was pretty sure the sun shouldn't have gone down yet, it was the storm clouds and heavy rain that darkened the forest to a faint, eerie glow. The webs were easy to discern, they were thick, bright patches of white striking out amidst the dull red-brown of the trunks and roots, but discerning any particular patch of wood from the darkness itself was a struggle.
The mouse double-tapped her again, and pointed more aggressively.
"I know!" Iris hissed, "I'm working on it, give me a second. Damn."
Iris peered at the spot for a while longer until she was mostly confident, then blipped. She appeared in the air just behind and below a branch, her hands slipped off the wet bark as she grabbed for it. The mouse made a high-pitched squealing noise and clung to the collar of her robe for its life. After a fraction of a second, Iris blipped again, appearing above the branch and dropping onto it in a crouch. The mouse pounded two tiny fists against her neck, which tickled.
Iris fought back a twitch and a giggle as she spoke, "I'm sorry, I'm doing my best."
Her smile faded into a grimace as the ache in her head throbbed. Two blips in a row was pushing it with a passenger, even one as small as the mouse. She consciously checked her balance and shifted her feet slightly, she didn't want to risk getting dizzy from low mana and falling out of the tree.
The mouse triple-tapped and pointed into the darkness. The signal for danger.
Iris froze, then slowly hunched her shoulders to shrink her silhouette as much as she could. She followed the mouse's point and stared intently at the darkness. The grey, chaotic glaze of down pouring rain obscured the movement, but she noticed it after a moment, something was spinning in the dark. Webs? Or something wrapped in webs. Something else moved too, something dark, only briefly visible when in front of the white backdrop of the moving webs. Though the scene was still unclear to her, Iris grew confident she was watching a spider wrap up its prey.
She carefully checked around herself for webs, taking note of all the closest strands to be sure she wasn't touching any. The downpour was loud, like constant crashing thunder, so she didn't worry about the spider hearing her. The only concern left was sight, and she had to assume the spider could see better than her in the dark, so she moved slowly and as little as possible.
"Are there others?" she said just loud enough for Whirl to hear over the rain.
One tap from the mouse, that meant no.
"I'm going in," Iris said.
She waited a moment for an objection from Whirl, but none came. She kept her eyes focused on the movement of the spider and its would-be meal while she slowly moved her hands towards her bottomless bag. Her right hand slipped into the pouch, while the left hand grabbed the outside firmly. She felt Whirl grab a tight hold of her robe, then leapt and blipped.
She reappeared a dozen feet from the spider, its full form now visible to her where it hung suspended from twisting strands of web dangling from the canopy. It clung to a long, cocoon-like bundle of web that hung from the same strand. She twisted in the air as she pulled the greatsword from her bag, bringing the hilt around to her right side so the blade extended out in front of her like a spear braced against her hip. She held it with both hands as she collided with the spider, driving the blade clean through its abdomen.
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The spider ripped apart in an explosion of goo, freeing Iris's sword as she bounced off the bundle of web and tumbled to the ground below. She landed with a hard thump and a splash, her sword clattering on the roots beside her. After a dazed moment, she rose to her hands and frantically glanced around for Whirl.
She released a desperate sigh of relief when she saw the mouse on the ground beside her, glaring up with an unmistakable expression of anger.
"Thank the gods," Iris let out a stressed laugh, "I thought I squished you."
She held out a hand to the mouse, who scurried her arm and took its place on her shoulder. She then climbed to her feet, rolling and stretching her shoulder before picking up her sword. She looked up at the bundle of web, which now swung softly like a slightly disturbed pendulum.
"Do you think it's a person?" Iris asked.
After a short pause, the mouse tapped her twice for yes.
"Maybe it's not too late," Iris said, daring to hope.
She leaned her sword against a nearby trunk, then blipped up to the stub of a broken-off branch near the path of the bundle's swing. She held onto ridges in the trunk's bark to steady herself, waited for it to swing close, then reached out and grabbed at it. Her hands sunk easily into the web, which stuck to her skin like glue. The weight of the bundle trying to swing away nearly pulled her from her perch, but she managed to hold tight. She pulled her weight back firmly over her perch, and pulled the bundle in close.
With her free hand, she grabbed and tore at the layers of web. Individual strands broke easily, but clumps of intertwined strands quickly multiplied in strength until they were as strong as thick ropes. Discarding the webs was difficult as they clung to her skin and robes, but the rain helped to wash them away and the bark of the tree helped to scrape them off. Soon, she pulled aside a large enough clump of web to expose the body within.
It was the gaunt, lifeless face of an adventurer. She thought she recognized him, if only from her time observing the expedition members on the first day. His eyes were grey and hollow, and an open wound on his neck no longer bled. Iris grunted in anger, then shoved the bundled corpse away to continue its swing. She looked down at her shoulder as she felt the soft touch of a mouse's paw on her skin. She was pretty sure she saw sympathy in Whirl's beady eyes.
"We should cut him down," Iris said, somberly.
The mouse nodded.
Iris reached out towards her sword, which blipped and reappeared blade-down in her hand. She twisted it into a standard grip, then lightly swung it horizontally with one hand. It blipped out of her hand, reappearing up ahead in a spin. It sliced through the strands of web holding up the bundle before sinking a few inches into the trunk of a redwood on the other side. Iris got nauseous when she heard the thump of the body hitting the ground below.
"Think you can make it to the ground on your own?" She asked Whirl.
A quick squeak came from the mouse before it ran behind her neck, along the length of her supporting arm and onto the trunk of the tree. It scurried down effortlessly, digging its tiny claws into the bark like a squirrel. Iris leapt from the perch and blipped to her sword, landing her with her feet braced against the trunk as she grabbed hold of the hilt. She pushed with her feet and pulled with her hands until the sword yanked free, then flipped and twirled not-so-gracefully in the air before blipping down to the ground.
She met Whirl by the corpse, the mouse climbed up her robes and onto her shoulder. Iris started to tell her not to, fearing her tiny claws would pull threads loose from her robe, but she quickly realized that was the least of her robe's concerns. It was ripped from shoulder to shoulder near her collar-bone, barely held together at the top by the collar. She was thankful the fit of the robe kept it from revealing more than flat skin just below her neck. There was another cut on the left shoulder, revealing more of her skin. It was stained dark brown from her own blood around the cuts and down most of the torso, and stained dark purple all around from spider guts. Somewhere beneath those were mud stains, yellow wasp goop, and more of her own blood. It all ran together in the rain.
Her brief moment of distraction was interrupted when her gaze noticed the web-wrapped corpse at her feet again. *How privileged I am to have these problems,* she thought to herself, certain the adventurer before her would much rather be in her place than his. She crouched down and gently closed his eyelids, then watched over him for a somber moment of silence.
The mouse double-tapped, and pointed at a branch above.
"Right," Iris said, quietly, "guess we should get going."