Randolph was again ordered to take the evening watch and guard the creature’s cell. And again, the stupid, sleeping oaf was to be guarding the cell with him. But again, the guard was sleeping against the rock wall. Randolph shook his head. How has he not been caught yet? He’s always sleeping on the job. Oh well, it’s better hearing him snore than sputter horseshit out of his mouth.
Randolph heard the familiar clatter of the cart coming down the corridor. Time for that monster’s meal. Why does Lord William keep such a monstrous creature here? A giant dridder of all things. How could he control such a creature, and for what? This is insane.
He could hear the cart that would be filled with meat and water for the creature getting closer. What could justify sending a child in there to feed a giant creature? It’s dangerous enough for a man, let alone a boy. If that monster should get ahold of him, it would show mercy, even to a boy. Even if Felix is a slave, that is not a justifiable excuse to throw him in such danger.
But what could Randolph do? He could speak out against Lord William’s decision. Even General Ethan, the highest ranking individual under Lord William and even Lord William most trusted, couldn’t even speak out against Lord William. His word was law and anyone who should defy it was punished accordingly.
The poor slave came into view, pushing the large cart with his shoulder. Randolph quickly noticed that something was off. Felix held his left hand close against his chest and didn’t move a single finger from that hand. The young boy also appeared to be limping, but Randolph wasn’t sure whether it was because his leg was injured too or it only looked like he limped due to the way he pushed the cart with his shoulder. But the worst sight was when Felix finally came into Randolph’s light. The boy’s face looked like a disaster: a swollen lower lip, a terrible welt on Felix’s right cheek bone, and the purple skin around his right eye puffed out too much for his eye to stay open.
Randolph couldn’t stop his face from expressing the shock he was feeling and he couldn’t stop his mouth or throat from uttering out in a horrified whisper, “Felix?”
Felix looked down, hiding what had become of his face.
Randolph turned his head. The other guard still slept. He brought attention back to the boy and crouched down. The boy immediately cringed and lifted his right arm as if to block any oncoming attack. Randolph wondered how many time fists had to have followed in order for the young slave to instinctively protect himself from any sudden movement of a guard. He just couldn’t understand the cruelty of slavery and how such a thing could exist, or worse, how a young boy could be subjected to such cruelties.
“It’s alright, I’m not going to strike you,” Randolph said. “What happened to you?”
The boy’s arm lowered slowly and while it still covered his mouth, he said, “Nothing.”
“No, something happened. What was it?”
“Nothing.”
Randolph set his hand on Felix’s shoulder and the boy cringed again. “Who did this to you, Felix?”
Felix looked into his eyes and quickly avoided eye contact again. “The… the noon guards,” he finally said.
Randolph knew the guards that protected the cell during that shift. He hated all of them, and now he had more reason to hate them. He saw that the other guard was still asleep. “Felix, do you need me to come in there with you?”
His eyes widened and he quickly shook his head.
“You look too weak to do this. I can do it for you and-”
“No, it’s my task.”
“Then at least let me come in there with you so that monster doesn’t take advantage of your weakness. I could protect you.”
“No, I’ll be fine. Please, just let me in the cell.”
Randolph sighed, he didn’t like putting the boy in the cell with such a monster, but the boy just didn’t trust him. Maybe all the guards to the young slave were worse monsters than the creature in the cell, because at least that creature was chained up. “Alright,” he conceded and unlocked the door for Felix. Once the young slave pushed the cart through with great struggle, Randolph closed the door, but he opened the panel to keep his eye on the situation.
Among the sound of the clattering cart, Felix heard an additional sound. He recognized it to be the panel sliding and clacking open, but Felix didn’t turn around to check if what he heard was true. That would look too suspicious. He saw Arachne’s eyes rise quickly in the darkness and instantly feared she would call out like she usually did. He shot his finger up to his mouth and although her eyes seemed confused by Felix’s action, she didn’t speak. When Felix was close enough to be able to whisper without the guard hearing, or at least he hoped it was far enough from the door, he asked, “Is the guard watching us?”
He saw the eyes travel away from him to the door and then come back. He saw those eyes nod.
“Then you’ll have to back up. We can’t let him hear us talking or see you helping me.” He could tell Arachne didn’t like this, but she backed up anyway so that it didn’t look like she was right on the edge of the white line. “I have to do what I did the first I fed you. So, I can’t stay long.”
He was glad that the water bowl was on the edge of the white line. He reached out, after painfully kneeling down, and dragged it closer so he could fill it.
“Felix,” Arachne whispered so softly he could have sworn the voice came from a human. “You’re hurt.”
“Yes, but I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure? You look terrible. Why would they do that to you?”
“I’m a slave. I’m nothing at all.”
“Not to me.”
“You don’t mean that.” Felix stood up and hobbled to the cart. He kept his gaze averted from the giant eyes that looked down at him filled with concern, a look that Felix still couldn’t understand fully. “No one believes that.”
He tried lifting the cart to tip the meat out onto the other side of the line like the first time, but with only one hand available, it was way too heavy for him. He struggled, but he couldn’t lift it up enough to spill the meat.
“Felix, you’re too hurt. Let me-”
“No, I can do it myself. I have to.”
His muscles exerted to such an extreme they felt like they’d rip through his skin. He bent his legs and tried to lift with his shoulder as well, but he just couldn’t pry the cart upwards. All the excretion just weakened him even more. The vision he had left with a swollen eye faded fast.
Something slipped and his body lurched forward and he toppled beyond the white line. Instead of trying to stop his fall with his right hand, he tried to use his working hand to grab the cart, but the card only slid from his fingers and he toppled into the darkness. He completely forgot about his legs and instead his broken hand hit the rock floor first. But before that pain even took full effect throughout his body, the rest of his body fell into his broken hand, worsening everything. He tried to scream, but the sound settled in his throat and the pain kept it there. The pain wouldn’t even allow him to breathe. His mind and body shut down and he faded into blackness.
When Felix fell, it took all of Arachne’s will power to keep her from rushing to his aid. But she couldn’t allow the guards to know about her and Felix. If she were to be the cause for more injury to Felix, she wouldn’t forgive herself.
Felix did not uncurl and he did not move, just like that afternoon. “Felix?” she whispered. It didn’t take too long for her concern for his well-being to overcome the fear of the guard seeing. It no longer mattered that the guard saw her care for Felix; all that mattered was that Felix was alright. She ran to him and placed some fingers on his small shoulder. She gentle shook him, and when he didn’t wake up, she carefully turned him over, but she saw him wince while she rotated him on his back. She had to keep in mind to be careful, because Felix was small, smaller than she remembered, and hurt. She didn’t want her own hands to be responsible for hurting Felix more.
“Felix, please wake up,” she said.
The door opened and she saw one of those tiny creatures with the shiny outer shells, the type of creature that hurt Felix in the first place, standing in the doorframe. No, it can’t have him, it can’t! She pinched Felix’s shoulders and lifted him just enough for her to scoop her hand under him. He really did look smaller, or more likely, she experienced another growth spurt without noticing it. Quickly yet gently, she positioned him so that he lied along the length of her right hand. He was still longer than her hand, but not by much, only half of his shins, his ankles, and his feet rested on her wrist. She brought her hand against her and used her free hand to cover the other side of her right hand, ensuring that Felix would not fall. She retreated to her corner, hoping the shiny shell creature wouldn’t follow her.
Once she settled her spider body on her bed, she cradled Felix while simultaneously stroking his side with her pointer finger. Tears welled up and only proof that Felix was alright would stop the tears. But he wouldn’t wake up.
Randolph pressed his hands against the door and he leaned his eyes closer through the opened panel when he saw Felix fall. “Get up, get up,” he said as if his whispers were going to save the young slave from being eaten by that beast. He hoped that Felix would quickly get up and retreat back over the line, but the boy didn’t budge and the purple outline of the creature’s hands drew nearer to the defenseless boy’s body. Randolph snapped his head in his fellow guard’s direction and he was still sleeping. To Hell with it, Randolph couldn’t allow himself to just stand there and watch a ten year old boy be devoured by a monster.
Never locking the door back up after letting Felix in the cell, Randolph threw the door open, but the monsters giant hands came down on him. He snatched one of the everlasting torches on the wall (the torches never went out unless they were doused with water and once doused, it becomes useless), unsheathed his sword, and ran for the giant hands that lifted Felix away and retreated into the darkness.
After swinging his torch around in the blackness for quite some time, he eventually came across the corner that the creature was hiding in. The dridder’s size was intimidating and its massive black spider body was frightening, but Randolph had someone else’s life to try and protect.
“Where is he, beast?”
The creature’s giant head looked away from whatever it was hiding against it and looked at him.
“Where is the boy? What did you do to him?” Randolph pointed the fire at the giant monster.
“You can’t have him!”
“Where is he?”
“You can’t have him! I won’t let you take him!”
“Let him go! He’s just a boy. Are you going to eat a boy? Are you that heartless?”
“You can’t take, Felix. I won’t let you hurt him again!”
“Where did? Did you just call him Felix?”
“That’s his name. You’re not going to hurt him again.
Randolph paused and took in what he didn’t realize before. The dridder was definitely holding something in her hand and the other hand blocked it from his view, but the dridder wasn’t hiding it as if trying not to get caught. It seemed to be holding it protectively. Felix? And the dridder’s face, it was young, younger than even Felix. The monster is only a child? And did it accuse me of hurting Felix? Why would it care, it’s a dridder!
“What do you mean hurt him again?”
“You creatures, you’re the same as Felix, but you hurt him just because he’s a slave. I don’t want you to hurt him anymore. It’s not right.”
The dridder’s cheeks were wet. It was crying. Tears leaked from those ruby eyes, real tears. “I’m not one of those guards, but why do you care?”
The dridder looked down at what she was holding and the hand blocking it from Randolph’s view began stroking the thing. “He’s my friend.”
Randolph was astounded, but he believed the creature. It was the creature’s face, its eyes. “I’m not like the guards that hurt Felix. I came in here to help Felix, because I thought you were going… I thought you were going to hurt Felix.”
“You… you wanted to help Felix?”
“Yes, please, let me see him.”
The dridder brought what she was hiding closer to her and looked down at it before looking back at Randolph.
“It’s alright. I may be able to help.”
“You promise not to hurt him?”
“I promise.”
The dridder looked down at what she was holding once more before lifting her blocking hand away to reveal that it was indeed Felix she was holding. Gingerly, she lowered her hand down on the rocky floor in front of Randolph. He knelt down and started to put his hands under Felix.
“Please, be careful.”
She really did care about this boy. “Don’t worry. I will.” Randolph picked Felix up and placed him on the floor, the torch and the sword were on either side of Randolph.
“Is he alive?”
Randolph placed his hand on the boy’s chest. The chest moved and the heart beneath it pulsed. “He’s alive, but unconscious.”
“He fell on his hand. It was broken before he fell on it.”
“The pain must have been so great he passed out. I can help his hand, but I’ll need some of your webbing.”
“We can’t use my webs. Felix said that if guards saw my web around his hand, they’d know we’ve talked and bad things would happen.”
“I know something that will cover the webs, but the webbing would be a stronger wrapping.”
“Okay.”