All throughout the rest of his duties, all Felix could think about was the creature
in the cell. It invaded his mind and rooted itself deep in his brain. When he scrubbed the floors and the water still pooled, all Felix saw, replacing his own reflection, were those ruby irises in the dark. He also saw this image in the bucket of water. Just everywhere he looked the creature’s eyes stared back at him.

        He continued the brainless and mundane tasks around the castle which allowed his mind to wonder about his first encounter with the creature. What exactly was it that Felix encountered? It appeared to be half spider and half human, but big as well. Not as big as a dragon, he imagined, but still big. He had never heard of anything like it.

        But that had nothing on the creature’s eyes. They were magnificently radiant and
hypnotically beautiful. If only those eyes were part of something that wasn’t a giant spider monster that ate people. But it didn’t eat Felix. It had him right where it wanted him and could have done anything it wanted to him. Yet, it let him go. Why? Why would it spare me? I’m not important. My life isn’t meaningful. I’m just a slave. And being a slave in Lord William’s castle meant being less than human. In fact, the creature might be considered more a person than a slave. It certainly had more rights that Felix when Lord William and his guards didn’t care whether or not a slave was eaten by the creature. It probably wouldn’t even be punished but encouraged if it ate a slave.

        Felix shook his head, trying to dispel the thought of the creature sparing him. It’s probably just a trick. It’s putting me in a false sense of security. And when it believes I trust it, it will eat me. But what he thought was still illogical. Why would it have needed to trick him if it already had him? I can’t allow myself to think that. I can’t allow myself to trust it. What I saw was a giant monster. It’s dangerous. That’s why it’s chained in a cell. If I drop my guard, I’ll probably be dead.

        But in his mind, he saw the eyes again and there was something familiar within those eyes. But he couldn’t quite place what those ruby eyes contained. He felt as though he should be able to place it, but it just wasn’t happening.

        He finished all his tasks before dinnertime, all except for feeding the creature
its dinner. Luckily for that one task, he was allowed to complete it after he and the other slaves had dinner, because Sloane wouldn’t have the creature’s dinner ready until later in the evening. He waited will all the other slaves in the slaves’ quarters when-

          “Dinner is served, slaves!” a guard yelled kicking over the cart and spilling its
contents on the floor. All the slaves swarmed around the pile like a pack of wolves, except there was less sharing and unification and more fighting and every slave for themselves. It was like this for every meal. There was no guarantee that a slave would get food, they had to fight for what they wanted, a reason why the young, the old, the sick, and the weak didn’t last long.

        Felix tried to get into the fray and grab some of the stale bread, but the wall of
slaves was too great. Eventually, Felix was able to crawl underneath them, but by the time he reached the center of the chaos, all the food was gone and the slaves dispersed leaving only Felix kneeling down where the bread once was. It looked like he was going to go hungry again that night, but as he looked around the room, he knew others were in the same position as him.

        A strong voice beside Felix said, “Here, you look like you need this, kid.”

        Felix turned and saw another slave handing him half a loaf of bread. Felix acted
quickly snatched the bread out of the other slave’s hand before the other slave could change his mind. “Thank you,” Felix said just before he tore into the food. He barely chewed it. He was just too hungry. The slave sat down beside Felix and Felix could hear the slave eating his own meal. Or maybe that was just Felix hearing his own savage eating.

        “So, you’re the slave charged with feeding Lord William’s ‘guest’.”

         Felix finally turned to look at the man. He knew who this slave was, everyone did. His name was Bowan and although he was one of the oldest of the slaves, around forty years old, he was by far the strongest of the slaves. His imposing body gained the respect from both slaves and castle guards. He was not a man to be crossed.

        Why is he talking to me? He’s never even noticed me before. And now he gives me some of his food? What does he want?

        “Yes,” Felix answered.

        “What’s in that cell?”

        “I… I don’t know.”

        “You don’t know? Did you not see it?”

        “I did see it, but I’ve never seen or heard anything like it.”

         Bowan looked away for a moment and let out a breath filled with aggravation.

        Why did he want to know about the creature so much. Though Felix thought this, he didn’t dare ask Bowan out loud.

        “What did it look like?”

        “It was in the dark and mostly I could only see an outline,” Felix said. “It looked like it was part human and part spider. It’s upper half was human, but where its hips on down was a large spider body.”

        “A dridder? That’s it? That’s what’s going to be Lord William’s secret weapon? One dridder? He’s not only blinded by his need for power, but he’s lost his mind as well.” Bowan laughed. “Just a little dridder.”

        “I’ve never heard of a dridder and I’m not sure what they’re like, but this one wasn’t little. It was a giant.”

        Bowan quickly stopped laughing. His face became stone. “What did you say?”

        “It was a giant.”

        “How big was it?”

        “I’m not good with numbers and height, but it was at the very least taller than six of me.” Felix was a small ten year old, barely over four feet tall. Bowan on the other hand was closer to seven feet tall.

        “Dridders in our world don’t grow bigger than humans.”

        “I know what I saw.”

        “Then if what you’re saying is true, the situation is worse than I imagined. I only know of one place where dridders get that big, even bigger: Felarya.”

        “Felarya?”

        “It is another world that sometimes intersects with this one and others. It is the most beautiful and the most dangerous world you could ever come across. It is full of giant monsters that enjoy swallowing humans whole. It is a world where humans are near the very bottom of the food chain. And the worst part about it, there are giant creatures that are sentient.”

        “Sentient?”

        “It means that can think, talk, feel emotions like humans do. But despite this, it
is impossible to reason with them. They enjoy eating humans. It doesn’t matter to them we’re people; they’ll just eat you. We’re just a tasty, irresistible treat to them. To them, things that are littler than them aren’t a person at all. If it can be swallowed, it’s food, no matter what. There are even giant versions of a race that will eat their own littler versions of their species just because they’re littler. You can’t trust a Felaryan.”

        “You think the dridder is a Felaryan?”

        “It’s the only kind of giant dridder I know of.”

        “Lord William is insane. That creature can’t be tamed. It can’t be reasoned with or
bargained with. It’d just eat you. And dridders are one of the worst of a giant Felaryan species. If you get caught in their web, you’re as good as dead, because there’s no way you’d make it out alive.”

          “Do Felaryans always eat humans? Couldn’t there be one that doesn’t eat humans?”

        “Impossible. Felaryans are monsters.”

        “But what if one had the chance to eat you, and it didn’t. What would be its reasoning for doing so?”

        “I don’t know, but there’s no need to answer that, because it would never happen. If given the chance, a Felaryan will always eat a human. I should know.”

        Felix didn’t say anything else to Bowan and Bowan walked away.

        Then why did it spare me?