“Wake up.” The voice came with a nudge on his shoulder. “Hey, kid. Wake up.”

        Felix opened his eyes and saw Bowan kneeling beside him. His large hand left Felix’s shoulder as soon as the boy’s eyes opened.

        “Just thought you wanted to wake up before breakfast comes so you can get a head start when it finally arrives, on account of that hand of yours,” Bowan stated.

        Felix sat up and discovered he was indeed in the slaves’ quarters. He and Bowan were the only ones awake. It was earlier than Felix ever woke up before, but it was for the best if he wanted to grab some food before the other slaves devoured it all. His hand felt different. He looked down and saw cloth wrapped around it tightly. He didn’t recognize the cloth; it wasn’t slave clothing or rags, that’s for sure. It didn’t even look like it came from clothing. It looked like actual bandages. “How?” This was all Felix could udder while a brigade of questions stormed his mind.

        “The guard that carried you to bed probably wrapped your hand up.”

        “A, a guard carried me here?”

        “He did. Just came in here, carrying you in his arms, and set you down in the closest vacant bed, and then walked off. He didn’t say a word.”

        That would explain how Felix ended up in the slaves’ quarters, but the last thing he remembered was… passing out in Arachne’s cell! The guard had to have gone in there to take in out; he had to have walked in the cell to pick up Felix’s unconscious body. Why would a guard go out of his way, leave his post, and help a slave? But other horrible thoughts came to mind. What did the guard see? What happened in there while I was unconscious? Does he know about Arachne? But the only question that escaped his mouth was, “What about the cart? Did he take that back to the kitchen?” Because he couldn’t let anyone else know his secret and his real fears.

        “Don’t know. All I saw was him carry you to bed.”

        “Why?”

        “You mean why would he do that?”

        Felix nodded.

        “In my experience, I’ve found that people are only nice to you when they want
something from you. There is no such thing as kindness for the sake of kindness; people always want something in return. Who knows what the guard wants from you. For all you know, he could be someone who fancies boys.”

        Felix hoped that wasn’t the case. He heard too many rumors of slave women being raped guards and even some of Lord William’s guests. He didn’t know which guards had their way with women, but they were all the same to Felix, all of them had the same face to Felix, except for the strange one who only seems even stranger now. When Bowan said experience, Felix remembered that Bowan apparently used to live in Felarya. Felix wanted to ask him about those experiences in Felarya, but Felix deemed it foolish to ask. Clearly, Bowan didn’t have the best life in Felarya on account of his hatred towards the place and the creatures that that lived there. Bringing up bad memories of the place would only anger the man.

        But by avoiding that question, Felix let out another question that he immediately wished he kept back as well. Other than talking to a giant dridder that was supposed to eat humans, this question was probably the boldest and stupidest thing he did. “And what’s your reason for helping me?” Did he really say that? Did he say that to the only slave built stronger than even most of the guards, a loner with a frightening reputation? Felix sealed his mouth shut and held his breath. Bowan stared back at Felix with cold, unblinking grey eyes. Felix didn’t study the man’s expression for much longer and instead looked down at his legs. He hoped that if he avoided eye contact, Bowan would lose interest and forget the question. But in the unbearably long silence, Felix knew that Bowan’s glare never left him. Felix prepared himself for the blow.

        But instead of hitting Felix, Bowan said, “Let’s just say that it has something to do with that monster.”

        Felix didn’t understand what Bowan meant, but he wasn’t going to make things worse by asking him to elaborate. Felix just sat there and kept his mouth closed. Never in his five years of enslavement was he so glad to see the guards come with breakfast. He ran over to the pile, grabbed a loaf, and stayed far away from Bowan as he ate.

        Felix entered the kitchen and was relieved to see the cart there, already filled with Arachne’s breakfast. When he approached the cart, Sloane took one quick glance before returning to his work. “Thought you was dead, boy.  When I saw Randolph returning the cart ‘stead of you, I thought Lord William’s pet ate you.” Sloane’s eyes never left the counter full of food Felix would never be able to eat. Sloane’s voice was empty of concern. Clearly, the chef didn’t care whether the young slave was eaten or not; he was just stating a fact.

        Felix gave no reply and pushed the cart with his good hand and shoulder, but the cart didn’t move as far as it should have with the force he exerted. It was heavier. He examined it and realized that the cart was indeed fuller. Felix pushed again, still barely moving it, but at least he was making some progress. I wish I had both my hands.

        Sloane must have heard Felix’s grunts. “Lord William says it’s finally going through its growth spurts. They’ll become more frequent till it finally reaches the height it should be at its age. Then it will grow normally. That hand of yours better heal quickly, the cart’ll only get heavier and Lord William will not want his pet to miss a meal, unless he deems it needs to be punished.”

        Felix realized that he hated every time the chef called Arachne “it”. He had to hold back the need to correct Sloane and tell him that Arachne was a “she” and not an “it”. She had a name.

        He managed to push the cart out of the kitchen.

        Felix eventually brought the cart to the dungeon corridor. His hand tingled, but that was less of a concern. His body was exhausted and he wasn’t even at the cell yet. Hell, this was only breakfast; he still had all his chores and two more meals to bring to Arachne. How could he hope to last throughout the rest of the day?

        It relieved him when he finally stopped the cart in front of the cell guarded by two very tired guards. “I’m here — with breakfast.” Felix said.

        Felix expected to hear a grumble or maybe a complaint from at least one of the guards due to how early the day was, but he didn’t hear anything from the guards. He looked up at the guards to see one of them already turned around and opening the door. Felix looked up at the other guard who only stood beside the door and stared down the corridor behind Felix. Felix looked back, but nothing else was coming down the corridor. The guard stared at nothing and the guard’s expression just as blank as his eyes. Felix recognized the empty expression in the guard’s face. It was a face that could only belong to one of Lord William’s puppets: soulless men and women whose bodies were completely under Lord William’s control. Felix didn’t know how Lord William was able to turn people into puppets, but knew that most feared dark magic was involved. However Lord William is able to do it, once he turned someone into a puppet, nothing of the former individual remains. Their thoughts, memories, personalities, wants, and feelings were wiped clean, leaving nothing else but an empty shell that has no choice but to follow Lord William’s exact instructions. Everything that once made them a person, everything that made them human, was taken away. Puppets were the ultimate slaves.

        Thankfully, Lord William didn’t decide to make every one of his slaves and guards into his puppets. There were just as many rumors about why Lord William didn’t just make everyone his puppets as there were of how he made them his puppets in the first place. Why would he allow people to still have their free will (if one could consider those enslaved still having free will) when he could so easily take it all away from everyone and not have to ever worry about being disobeyed again?

        Maybe Lord William had a tiny sliver of a heart, because who would want to rule a world full of puppets? It would be too lonely of a life. After all, puppets couldn’t even speak.

        Believing Lord William had any kind of heart was too difficult for Felix to imagine.

        Maybe it was because the spell (if it came from him using dark magic) was too powerful for Lord William to use whenever he pleased. Maybe it took too much out of him to turn everyone into puppets.

        Felix hoped that was the truth, because it showed that Lord William was indeed still mortal and could be weakened. Felix feared a different rumor was the truth.

        Maybe he kept himself from turning everyone so that he could still cause others to suffer. A puppet didn’t complain or feel anything, even pain. If he allowed some people to still have their minds, he’d still be able to make others suffer.

        The sounded more like Lord William.

        Felix wondered what these guards did to become puppets. It could have been anything. There were no set punishments for breaking the rules. It all depended on how the guards, or in worse cases, Lord William felt that day. One slave could steal from the kitchen and only get a whipping for it, while another could miss a single spot when cleaning and get turned into a puppet. Punishment was unpredictable. There was no telling what the guards did.

        The guard finished unlocking the door and opened it. He turned to reveal a similar blank face that resembled the other guard. The guard held the door open until Felix pushed the cart through. The door immediately shut behind him.

        The familiar sad, worried eyes greeted Felix on the other side of the cell, but those eyes were bigger as if the concern that filled them was too great for the eyes to contain and all that concern forced the sockets and the eyes themselves to expand. But of course that was a ridiculous idea. Felix knew that the eyes were bigger because Arachne grew just like the chef said she did. Felix could now fit his whole head in each of her eyes and still have room in them. And she was supposedly still growing. How big could a seven year old dridder from another world get? And how big would she be when she grew up? Felix just couldn’t imagine it; she was gigantic enough already.

        But even though Archne’s new size still scared Felix, those eyes made her less frightening. It was the concern, the kindness, and the gentleness in her eyes which made her appear harmless. But of course, he kept in mind that anything that size was dangerous, no matter how gentle. Accidents could still happen.

        Felix looked away from the eyes and focused on the cart full of meat, because he felt strange whenever he saw those giant ruby irises. He felt good. He felt like he was no longer alone; he felt like someone actually cared. It happened whenever Felix entered the cell and it grew stronger every time he came to feed Arachne. They were feeling that Felix couldn’t understand and every time he felt them, he force those feelings back down, because when one’s life was filled with suffering for longer than one could remember, one didn’t know how to react to something good. Good was just a foreign concept to Felix. His first reaction was to deny the good feeling. He told himself it was a lie, he told himself that the dridder only pretended to be nice, because why would something so large care about something so small and weak and a slave of all things. And this time, Felix had Bowan’s words to help fuel the denial and suspicion:
There is no such thing as kindness for the sake of kindness; people always want something in return.

        What does this dridder want from me? What does anyone in this castle want? Freedom, a way out. Is she only pretending to be nice to me, because she thinks I could help her escape? If Felix’s suspicions were true, he couldn’t allow her to catch on that there was nothing he could do. He knew of no way to escape and all his hopes and dreams of someday escaping had already evaporated long ago. He had been a slave long enough to not want to escape. Escape was pointless. Besides, what would he do if he were to escape? Where would he go? The only thing Felix knew was how to be a slave, and the castle was all he had ever known. He would know what to do with freedom.

        He was halfway to Arachne when he noticed the silence, well, except for the clattering wheels and his heavy breathing. Archne hadn’t greeted him; she had yet to utter a single word. He noticed her eyes no longer focused on him, but on the door behind.

        Felix almost froze in place, but instead he did something more foolish: he turned around. Did Lord William assign the puppets this morning’s shift to spy on him? Did the guard tell his master about him and the dridder? But that wouldn’t make sense. If he told, would Felix still be allowed to feed Arachne? He looked to the door and discovered the panel was closed and no one was peeking in. Felix let out the breath he held in as soon as he realized his first assumption about why the puppets were there must have been true: they assigned the puppets that shift because no one wanted it. They always force the puppets to do the least desirable jobs, because puppets didn’t complain. “It’s alright to speak, Arachne. No one’s watching us.”

        “Oh good. Felix are you alright? Does your hand still hurt? What happened? What did that guard do to you? Did he hurt you or-”

        “Please, Arachne. You’re asking too many questions at once.

        “Sorry Felix, I just want to know if you’re alright.” Why did she have to make sure he was alright every time he came to feed her? It was always the first thing she said when he entered. And why did she have to sound so sincere?

        “My hand won’t heal for a while, but for now it is fine.” The tingling came back, but Felix ignored it.

        “But what happened? What did the guard do to you?”

        “I don’t know, but as far as I can tell he wrapped up my hand and brought me to bed.”

        “You don’t remember?”

        “I was passed out.”

        Felix pushed the cart to the line and was exhausted. “Felix, let me just take the cart this time. I don’t want you hurting yourself again.”

        “Fine by me.” Felix plopped down on the floor to catch his breath while Arachne reached out and pulled the cart the rest of the way over the line. Felix looked down and tried to control his breathing.

        “Felix?”

        Felix looked up to see that Arachne wasn’t eating but looking back at him with those concerned eyes. “I’m just tired,” he told her. “The cart’s heavy and it’s not helping that I only have one hand I can use. And it’s just going to get heavier.”

        “I’m sorry, Felix. I wish I wasn’t going through my growth spurts. I don’t want to make things harder for you.”

        “There’s nothing we can do about that.”

        “I don’t want to be big if it’s going to be harder for you.”

        Does she really mean that, or is that all part of the act?

        “Do you want some food?”

        “I’m not hungry. I ate breakfast.”

        “Oh.” Arachne began eating her food while Felix just rested.

        Felix couldn’t take it anymore; he just needed to know. “Arachne, what happened last night?”

        She swallowed a mouthful of meat. “What do you remember?”

        “I only remember pushing that cart, trying to lift it, falling, and then waking up this morning in the slaves’ quarters.”

        “You fell on your broken hand again, but you didn’t wake up this time, but I couldn’t do anything about it because that guard was watching. But then he came in, and I was worried he was going to hurt you like the other mean guards and I took you with me to the back corner where I sleep.”

        “I fell on your side?”

        “Yes, and I picked you up and took you to the back because I thought the guard wouldn’t cross the line to get you. I wanted you to be safe from him.”

        However, if Felix would have been awake at the time, he didn’t think he would have felt safe in the back of a dark prison cell with a giant dridder whose hand he could fit in. It wasn’t comforting to know he was at the complete mercy of a giant spider child. But he was still alive; that was something to grateful for.

        “But the guard did cross over and he demanded that I give you to him, but I told him no and I told him I wouldn’t let him hurt you and, and.”

        “What happened, Arachne?”

        “He knows!”

        Felix’s heart dropped and the back of his neck prickled. “How much does he know?”

        No longer eating the food and sounding like she was on the verge of crying, “I didn’t think he’d follow me, only the whip creatures pass the line, but he did follow me and He wanted me to give you to him, but I told him no, I told him he couldn’t have you and I said… I said. I said your name! I’m sorry, Felix, I shouldn’t have said your name but it slipped out and now the guard knows we’ve been talking and I’m sorry, Felix, I’m so sorry.”

        “Arachne, please calm down.” Her voice was getting louder and she was getting closer to full-fledged sobs. Holding in the sods forced her body to shiver and her breathing to stutter. She no longer looked like she could possibly be faking it. To Felix it looked real. She looked miserable and sorry. Her gigantic size only made her look even more miserable, because giants were big and strong and had the power to do whatever they wanted to humans. Someone like Felix didn’t stand a chance. Plus, this particular giant had a spider body, making it terrifying. One could easily take one glance and consider Arachne a vicious and evil monster by just her appearance, even though Felix had never really seen her completely just her outline because she was always in the dark. Dridders were supposed to be monsters, creatures that ate humans; they were creatures that deceived humans and ensured them in webby traps; they entombed humans in web coffins and then they bit them, injecting the human prey with digestive acid, melting away the human’s internal organs to mush before sucking it all out for nourishment. However in a giant dridder’s case, it could just swallow the human prey whole, because Arachne could probably swallow someone whole, well maybe not an adult but a smaller human for sure, and she was only a child herself. Surely giant adult
dridders were big enough to swallow human adults. A monster with all that power and a creature that terrifying shouldn’t be able to cry; it shouldn’t look miserable and weak; it defied all logic of what monsters were. The crying made her seem human; it made her seem like she was truly sorry, and not just because  she may have ruined her chances of escaping by revealing to a guard that she and Felix talked. There was something more, as if she were crying because she failed Felix. Felix felt like getting up, walking over to her side of the prison cell, and helping her. He never experienced such a feeling: to want to help someone else. To think about someone else over himself was unheard of. He stayed seated.

        “I’m sorry, Felix. I said your name and he found out we are friends.”

        Friends? She thinks they were friends? Was it just another trick to get Felix to trust her, or did she really feel that way? Felix didn’t know anymore.

        “I still told him that I wouldn’t allow him to hurt you, but he said that he didn’t want to hurt you, he said that he came in because he thought you were in trouble, he thought I was going to eat you, I told him that I would never eat you, you’re my friend, Felix, I could never hurt you. Never! I’m sorry, Felix, he knows everything.”

        The guard ran in the cell to help me? He risked his life to save me, even if Arachne claims I was never really in any danger, but he didn’t know that. How could someone do that?

        “I told him about your broken hand and he said we needed to wrap it up.”

        Felix looked down at his hand. “So he did do this.”

        “I helped. It was his idea, but I did help. Is it alright?”

        “It tingles a bit, but what did you do to help.”

        “I wrapped it in my webbing, and he wrapped the cloth over it to hide it.”

        Felix fiddled with the bandages and sure enough, his hand was wrapped in webbing under the cloth.

        “It’s not too tight, is it?”

        “No, it’s fine. Could you please keep eating, Arachne? I need all the extra time I can get.”

        “Sorry, Felix.”

        “And please, could you stop saying you’re sorry.”

        “Sorry.” She began eating faster.

        Once she finished, she sniffed and asked, “Felix, did I do the right thing?”

        Felix sighed. “Given the outcome, you did the right thing.” Unless that guard tries something else.

        “Good.” Arachne pushed the empty cart back to Felix after she drink the water. “Felix, I still don’t even know what kind of creature you are?”

        “What?” He looked up at her eyes again.

        “I’ve never seen tiny creatures like you and the others. What are you?”

        “Would that matter?”

        “Well, just because I’ve never seen one of your kind before I ended up here, it doesn’t mean I’ve never heard of your kind before. I may have heard the name of your kind.”

        “I’m a human.” Felix turned the cart and left the cell.

        “A… a human? Felix is a human!” Arachne said with a horrified voice. She backed up and curled up in her web bed.