While Arachne waited for Felix to return with lunch, she tried to take a nap. She approached the nest of webbing that she built in the corner. She laid her spider body flat on expansive and thick bundle of webbing. Because of the layers upon layers of webbing, it was comfortable to sleep on. Then she bent her human-half forwards to lie that down on the web bed as well. She reached over to the side and pulled an extra layer of webbing that she used for a blanket. She crossed her arms and laid her head on those arms. Although this new bed was designed like her old one and was still just as comfy as her old one, Arachne just couldn’t sleep. I didn’t get any sleep last night. I’m tired, but why can’t I sleep?
She kept her eyes closed, but her mind wouldn’t shut down. The cell wasn’t much different from her old cave. The only major differences were the chains and the fact that she was in a different world. That is if she understood Felix correctly. He said one of the reasons Lord William believed her to be a monster was that she was from Felarya, and Felix made it sound like Felarya was a different world from his own. But if that was true, how did she come to be in another world? She just didn’t understand it. One night she slept in her cave and when she woke up the next morning, she discovered she was in the middle of a forest she didn’t recognize. Confused and terrified, she sought shelter before a monster spotted her out in the open. She didn’t even notice that the trees were different and smaller than the ones she was used to seeing. (The trees were still bigger than her, but just not as enormous as Felaryan trees.)
She scurried through the forest and came across small, strange looking creatures. She stayed back at first and curiously examined the large group of small creatures. They were small, but some of their body parts were similar to her own: torso, neck, head, arms, hands, and fingers. But they only had two strange legs. Their lower half was so peculiar. How can these creatures get around with just two legs? Their skin shined in the sunlight. No, that wasn’t skin; it was like some sort of outer shell, and for some reason, it entranced Arachne. She watched the creatures long enough to hear them speaking in the same language as her! This meant that the tiny creatures, although doll-sized compared to her, were people. Still thinking that she was in Felarya, she thought she would be able to relate to them, because the monsters ate smaller creatures and she used to be as small as them. Surely if she tried to befriend them, they would befriend her. She didn’t realize the flaws in her logic. Now that she was bigger, smaller creatures considered her to be a monster, despite the fact she used to be smaller and understood what it was like to be small in Felarya. Also, she wasn’t in Felarya anymore and that made more complications.
Arachne stepped out of her hiding spot and approached the tiny creatures. She asked if they could help her find shelter from the monsters, because surely they had to have some form of shelter if they were still alive. They just had to have something to hide from the monsters. But as soon as she showed herself, the creatures surrounded her and attacked. Being very young and unwilling to harm another person, Arachne just cried and pleaded for them to stop. The next thing she remembered was being ordered into a large wooden cage on wheels just big enough to fit her, and she was carted off to Lord William’s castle.
She opened her eyes, because it was useless trying to sleep. Her mind wouldn’t stop thinking, worrying actually. And her mind wasn’t worrying about what Lord William wanted her to do or the terrible creatures that whipped her. Her mind worried about Felix, the closest thing she had ever had to a friend. Even if he was one of those creatures, Felix was the only good thing about this other world she was trapped in. She couldn’t stop thinking about Felix’s broken hand and how he got it. How could they do that to him? He’s one of them. If those creatures couldn’t even treat one of their own as a person, what chance did Arachne have with them not viewing her as a monster? And what Felix said he was, a slave, that concept she didn’t want to understand. How could something like that be real? What those creatures were doing to their own kind was worse than what the monsters from Arachne’s world did to people. Was it possible that Felix’s life was worse than hers? Maybe not for long, Lord William wanted her to be his new slave, but in the form of a weapon. He wanted her to become one of the monsters she had nightmares about all her life.
The lock on the door clicked, signaling Arachne that someone was coming. She did what she normally did when she heard that sound; she cowered and hoped that the Felix walked through those doors with his cart full of food. She peeked when she heard the door open. She saw the familiar cart of food with Felix pushing it. She shot up and had to stifle the excited cheer that wanted to greet Felix once she saw him. She remembered his warning about her speaking too loudly. The guard might hear her, especially with the door opened. She held her breath to keep all the relief and excitement that wanted to explode out of her.
But just when Felix pushed the cart through the entrance, a hand shot out and grabbed Felix’s broken left hand and pulled it away from his chest. The hand twisted Felix’s forcing Felix on his knees. Arachne’s face was stricken with horror. Felix screamed the most painful scream Arachne had ever heard. She rushed to his aid, but was jerked to a stop by the chain attached to the cuff around her waist straightened out. She wasn’t even close to where Felix was being tortured. It was pointless trying to reach out, because eventually the chains attached to the cuffs around her wrists and neck would straighten and her finger tips would only reach the white line. Arachne thrashed against the chains, but they didn’t even give at the slightest. She was completely helpless to save Felix.
Suddenly, Felix was kicked and he fell forward into the cell just before the door was closed and locked. Felix curled up on the floor and stopped moving. “Felix?” Arachne whispered hopefully loud enough for Felix to hear, but loud enough for the guards outside the door to hear. “Felix.”
But Felix didn’t reply. He didn’t even flinch.
“Felix! Felix, say something.” Her voice was not drenched with fear and concern.
Felix still didn’t move.
Felix is dead! He’s dead! No, he can’t be, he just can’t be. Oh, please don’t be dead, Felix. You have to be alive. You have to be.
“Felix, please wake up,” Arachne pleaded. Tears burst freely from her. She didn’t want to lose the one person good in this new world. But when Felix still didn’t answer, Arachne began to sob harder than when she was first chained up in the cell.
When the pain finally subsided, Felix senses came back to him. The first thing he noticed was the sobbing that had to be coming from Arachne. His body groaned as he slowly stood up using the cart for support. He could see Arachne’s outline sobbing into her hands. He didn’t realize they were tears for him. He shouldered the cart past the white line and stopped before he could go over the line as well. He stood up, still keeping his left hand against his chest and looked up. Arachne still cried.
“Arachne!”
Arachne paused immediately and peeked out from tear soaked fingers. When she saw Felix standing before her, alive, she uncovered her face and stared at him with wide eyes.
“I’ve brought your lunch.”
“F-Felix?” Arachne voice quivered in shock. “Y-you’re alive!”
“Yeah, and I brought you lunch-”
“I don’t care! Felix, that terrible person hurt you. You were already hurt and he
hurt you more. You can’t let them do that to you. It’s wrong, it’s-”
“There’s nothing I can do about it. I’m a slave.”
“But you have to do something about your hand, Felix. You’re hurting.”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve been through worse. It’ll heal eventually.”
“Isn’t there anyone who could-”
“There is no one that could help me. Other slaves are too busy worrying about themselves, the guards and soldiers could careless, and complaining to Lord William could get someone killed.”
“C-could I do something?”
Felix stood stunned.
“I want to help. Please, let me help you, Felix.”
She wants to help me? But she’s a giant dridder from a monstrous other world, and I’m just a worthless slave. I don’t understand. Felix looked down and sighed. “If I wrap my hand up in something tight enough, it could help. The last time I broke a bone, I used part of my clothes to wrap it up, but these clothes are so worn. I don’t have much left of them. I can’t afford to rip much more off them.”
“Clothes?”
“You don’t know what clothes are?”
Arachne shook her head.
Felix pinched part of his shirt and pulled at it a bit. “This is clothes. It’s something we wore to cover ourselves up.”
“That’s not an extra layer of skin?”
“No.”
“Why do you wear clothes then?”
“They cover up… certain parts of our bodies and keep us warm and it’s just indecent to go around in the nude. People just aren’t naked in public. It’s just. Wait, are you wearing anything?”
“Why?”
“Well, what about winter?”
“Winter?”
Doesn’t she know about anything? I know she’s young, but do I have to explain everything to her? Then again, I am talking to a creature from another world that never had parents to teach her things. Besides, I don’t even know what kind of customs or morals this Felarya might have. “Winter is when it gets really cold outside and it snows. Do you know what snow is?”
Arachne shook her head.
“Then, you’ve never been through a winter.”
“Where I lived, it was always really hot. I think I would have been too sweaty in
clothes.”
“None of that matters. The point is that I need to wear clothes; it’s just what we do around here. And slaves only get one set of clothes.”
“You can have some of my webbing. You could wrap your hand in that.”
Felix sighed. “I appreciate the offer, but I can’t accept it.”
“Why not? I want to help, Felix. Please let me help you.”
“And what happens if I do wrap my hand in your webs and the guards see it? What do you think they’ll think? They’d realize that you helped me. Let’s face it, as hard as that may be for them to believe you helped me, them believing I stole some of your web would sound far more outlandish to them. What do you think will happen if they discover we’ve been talking to each other?”
“I—I don’t know.”
“They’d punish you and probably kill me for just us talking to each other. That’s why no one must find out.” What have I gotten myself into?
“So, we can’t be friends?” Arachne whimpered.
“Only if everyone else doesn’t find out. Now, please just eat. I’m already behind on my tasks and I need to get them all done before they’ll allow me to eat diner.”
“It’s alright, Felix. You can have some of my food if you miss your diner.”
“It’s your food though. It’s bad enough that I’ve ate some of your food twice.
“It’s not bad if I want you to have some. You having one bite isn’t going to make me go hungry.”
“A piece of meat may be a bite to you, but it’s a whole meal to me. If the guards
find out-”
“They won’t find out.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Arachne finished her lunch in silence. She couldn’t stop looking at Felix’s hand. When she was finished, she pushed the cart to him and he brought it back to the door. He asked to be let out and the door opened. Before it closed, Arachne saw a metal fist smash against Felix’s face and he fell over in the corridor. Before Arachne could see anything else, the door closed, cutting off her view of the situation. But that didn’t stop her from being able to hear it. She walked back into her corner and cried for her friend. She wanted to be free of that dreadful place, but not without Felix.