Dear Lou Dau,

I lost count of the date.

We went into a cave led by some Hopi villagers. It creeped me out and reminded me of that story you and dad told me all the time--- “Ali in Wonderland”, was it?

I have never seen that many spiders in my life, and I was traumatized. And it was only at the entrance of the cave! Everyone was quiet in such a sacred site; I had to keep walking with my mouth shut despite the goosebumps all over me. To make matters worse, the shamans told us to get rid of our torches before entering the cave to avoid damaging the spiders’ homes.

I was just glad that I brought the night-vision goggles you put in my bags before I left. There was a dilemma there: I could walk into the darkness like everyone else, trip and fall into the spiders’ hairy legs or venomous fangs; Or I put on the goggles and watch my footings but pay the price of watching them marching beside us.

That reminded me of something Dad used to say, “Fears don’t disappear; they are conquered.”

Well, I’d rather see them than touch them, so I put on the goggles. For all the time they were hanging there, I thought they were decorations for our tent, but it has proven itself to be a perfectly functioning antique. Though everything was green, I clearly saw the spiders avoiding us and rerouting themselves to ensure we wouldn’t walk on them. The cave was starting to become a tunnel. From the echoes of our footsteps, I reckoned there would be a big open space ahead of us.

One of the shamans telepathically told me I was doing exceptionally well for someone who’s deaf to the voices of the Great Spirits. He told me they welcomed me and would grant me the knowledge and the means to be the bridge of the surface and the underground people.

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

That was a lot to take in, and I had never shoulder that large of responsibility in my life.

We entered what looked like a workshop of spiderwebs. All the spiders along the way were worker that was there to contribute their web. Through the help of the goggles, I got to see the spiders crawl onto each other, stacking up into a human shape. It was a creepy scene, not gonna lie, and I was pretty sure I was shivering down to my spines.

And then it happened, one little, even cute looking baby spider swung down in its web and landed on my shoulder, its black-pearl-like eyes stared right through the goggles into mine. The next I felt was a sharp pain from my neck. Pardon my language, but the little shit bit me and it was the worst pain I have ever experienced. I could feel my heart beating slower and my body losing its temperature while a burning sensation tortured me. I think the lack of oxygen in my blood caused me to pass out. As near-death experiences go, that was relatively uneventful and lame: no heroic sacrifice, no one-liners.

After I woke up on a pile of giant tarantulas, surrounded by their hairy limbs, I feared them no more and felt the same amount of affinity as I would generate for puppies and cubs. They might have grown a few more limbs and eyes, but they were surprisingly gentle and caring creatures, The figure I saw earlier sat right before me, in a shape of a crone clocked made out of spider silk. I could understand them, in fact, all of them. I could feel their vibrant lives, overflowing with divinity----intangible and unseeable, but I swear it was there, humming, vibrating, and I felt it in me, too. Apparently, I was “injected with concentrated divinity” to help me do my job.

The crone informed me that she was an emissary of the spirits, voices, and will of this world. Her spawns had gifted me with enough amount of divinity for me to understand them. Oddly, I did feel stronger and faster after the bite. Good old Saul did not receive as big of a gift as me, though; he only gained his sight back. Clearly, that was enough for him. He was on his knees and praying in ancient languages I had never heard before.

The spider mother was offended by what he said and ordered the gigantic tarantulas to kick him out of the cave.

Then I was told believing in any old Sapien monotheistic faith would be a sacrilege mistake to make in front of the Spirits and the Voices.

“It will be your purpose and your duty to unite the underground world with the new world above. Daughter of Adam and Li Lisi. Communicate with them, assimilate them, show them their mistakes, and teach them our way, tame them with divinity.” Yeah, that’s about all I can remember from all the mumbling from the crone. I was not brave enough to figure out what face was beneath her hood. Or there was a face at all.

Anyway, I am running out of paper to write, so I’ll end there. No worries! I am even healthier after what happened today. I got a better appetite, I required less sleeping to be energetic, and I could arm-wrestle with the warriors traveling with us. Oh, oh, one last thing. That little spider that bit me is now living in my backpack. It calls itself Tommy, by the way.