TRC - Lord of the Glass Desert Ch. 16

"Um... well... dangerous for the most part. Mother didn't let me wander far from our home, but once she passed, my father's need to explore set in, and I began venturing further down. There aren't many creatures down there, but there are still hundreds of traps. Luckily for me, they were constructed with humans in mind and didn't take into account someone who could walk on the walls or ceiling. I bypassed the triggers of traps that still worked, then found the mechanisms and disabled them permanently.

"My favorite part was discovering how the ancients made their traps work. In one setup, poisoned darts shoot out of holes in the wall. Then, over the next few minutes, it reloads each of the slots with a freshly poisoned dart before arming the entire system again. Another drops the floor out from under a tomb raider, dropping them into a pit of spikes. Then it uses a huge weight to close up the pit and leave the hallway looking pristine. Whoever built the ruins were amazing engineers."

Anika's face fell, "Unfortunately, the Reavers have used my exploration to their benefit."

"How so?" Kashka asked.

"Gaboh lost a bunch of men to the traps I left alone and stopped exploring deeper into the ruins. Once I killed Gaboh, Tavik took over. Tavik is a lot smarter than Gaboh. The first thing he ordered was for a group of men to continue exploring the deep ruins. When spying on their camp, I heard some guards mention Tavik discovered dust trails on the walls and ceiling that told him where the traps were."

The arachne lifted a leg and showed the foot on the end to Kashka, "My grip by itself isn't enough to keep me attached to a wall, and especially not the ceiling. My feet produce a tiny amount of silk that helps me stick. Tavik discovered where the silk collected dust over time. Without knowing, I created a path down into the catacombs.

"Not long after they found the armory and the belts worn by the Reaver I killed, the apes-girls who were helping them ran away. Instead of treating them as partners, with the belt's enhanced strength, the Reavers started trying to enslave them. One morning the humans woke up, and all the ape-women were gone.

"This left the bandits in a tough position. Their source of sex, along with the knowledge of all the traps along the road, just disappeared. Even better, thanks to some upset ape-girls, a good portion of their rum and whiskey barrels leaked through large cracks left by a hammer they found on the way out of the camp.

"Tavik wanted them dead and sent a party to chase after the women. That was when they found out the belts don't work once you get away from the ruins.

"Since then, I've been slowly picking them off as a lone Reaver wanders too far from their encampment.

"Tavik is smart and has been working through the ape-girls' traps quickly. Soon enough, they'll be able to use the road and raid merchant wagons entering Calfera again."

"That's not going to happen," growled Kashka. "We have friends traveling that road. They won't be Tavik's targets."

Anika stared at the cat for a moment as she recalled the woman's frightening stillness minutes earlier. Her face broke into a grin at the thought of Tavik in all of his bluster looking down at this short monster girl and for all his cunning, fail to understand he was about to die.

"One of the things I wanted to ask is if you might be interested in a trade? Everything you know about the ruins and the Reavers in exchange for some alone time with Kal." The cat immediately stared past her at a point on the wall before chuckling.

"What's so funny?" asked the arachne.

"Kal is complaining about the servant prostituting out her master for information."

"Are you in trouble?"

Kashka giggled, "No, if you want some time with him, there are no strings attached. He would take care of your needs even if you offered up no information in return. Although, that doesn't really apply with all you've told us already."

"Why did he want to know about me? Shouldn't he be focusing on the bandits?"

"Because Kal doesn't actually like to jump in bed with strangers. He also would like the chance to examine you and thought building a rapport would make you more likely to say yes."

"Examine me? how—"

"Before you ask any more questions, would you be okay with him coming here so you can ask him yourself? Being you two's go-between is getting tiring."

"I... I guess he could come up," she stammered, blushing.

"Promise you won't run away again?"

Anika smiled at the irony of the cat insisting on the same promise she demanded of Kal. I promise, and even if I don't keep it, I'll need to tear a hole in my back wall to go very far."

"Good," said Kashka as she began walking back toward the entrance and indicating the spider should follow.

The shadows had grown long as the sun set in the western sky, throwing the already dim rainforest into darkness that only brightened near the canopy, where they were. Down below, frogs and insects produced a cacophony with their loud mating calls and chirps. As the sun sank, the forest lit up with glowing bugs, fungus, and several flowering plants that depended on nectar-eating bats for pollination and nutrients.

Anika smiled at the show her forest put on every night and how the cat next to her was completely amazed by the display.

One of her signal threads indicated something heavy landed on the tree where Kashka first spoke to her. A bluish light began illuminating the far side and slowly revealed the human from earlier, stepping carefully from branch to branch around the trunk.

Kal stopped on one of the larger branches and laid down something square, then had a short conversation with the light on his shoulder. The mage shrugged and said a word the spider didn't recognize.

Kal, Kashka, and Anika all jumped back as a thick rope burst out the top of the canvas square and wrapped around a thick branch high above the human's head followed by a second and then a third, the last two finding similarly sized limbs in the canopy. The ropes lifted the square as it began unfolding downward until it turned into a long, thin triangle. The triangle then began unfolding to the side as the lower edge started floating upward. When the edges of the triangles eventually met again, they fused into a large circle. A few seconds passed before the bottom of the tent dropped down, making the branches above creak and sway. A human-sized doorway appeared directly in front of Kal but quickly widened after a few words from the light on his shoulder.

The human turned toward them. "Instead of risking you making a hole in the back of your home, I invite you to join me in here. This way, you can approach at your own pace and always have a way out," he called to them before disappearing through the tent's door.

Kashka looked up at her, the cat's eyes shining in the fading light. "I didn't know it could do that, and from the way he jumped, neither did Kal. Are you coming?"

Anika stared for a few long moments at the open doorway to the mage's tent. "Yes, I think I am."