Double Trouble – Chapter 6 – A Change in Perspective

Charlotte

I ducked under a bit of webbing, privately wondering whether it was even worth avoiding the sticky strands anymore. They were literally everywhere at this point, and I was seriously considering the benefits of a small forest fire. Mikaela would probably shut me down if I brought it up, though. Too much chance of us losing control over it and all that… not that it would be difficult for us to put it out, but I guess there was something to be said for not burning a patch of the forest down to ash just because we got impatient.

Instead, I ducked down and placed my hands upon the earth, sending my magic pouring through my palms and into the ground. In response, the earth surged upwards, covering my hands in loose dirt and rock, which I then superheated to form a molten shell around my hands.

“Hey, Sis! Look! Lava gloves!”

Mikaela pursed her lips. She didn’t look particularly amused by my antics, but she didn’t protest, either – not even when I punched straight through the center of another web, melting my way through the filament without issue. It probably should have made the web catch on fire, too, but I was being very careful to keep the heat of my gloves contained. You’d basically have to be giving me a high five if you wanted to feel the heat.

“I’m surprised you didn’t cover the rest of yourself in lava, too,” Mikaela remarked, after I punched through another web. “I can’t say I recommend it, of course, but it would allow you to walk through the spiderwebs without issue.”

“It would be a cool look,” I admitted, “but I kinda like my outfit, so… Maybe next time!”

It was pretty basic clothing – a green top that showed off my cleavage, a red skirt that showed off most of my legs, and a pair of white thigh highs that would have matched my hair if I hadn’t dyed it red. The materials were nice, though, and the arachne silk felt good on my skin. Molten rock probably wouldn’t.

“The spiders are getting agitated,” Mikaela remarked, no doubt in response to all the hissing and clicks we were hearing.

“You know, they’re pretty talkative for spiders,” I remarked. “I didn’t know they even had vocal cords, or whatever?”

“They don’t,” Mikaela replied, rolling her eyes at me.

…Well, I assume she was rolling her eyes, anyway. I was a little too busy punching my way through spiderwebs and towards Reckt to turn around and check. 

“They use something called striation – they’re rubbing their body parts together to make noises, essentially. It’s not uncommon among tarantulas, goliath bird eaters, and the like – the bigger spiders, in other words.”

“Hence why we’re hearing it from the super-sized monster variety?” I guessed. “Well, whatever. They can make all the noise they want – won’t stop me from kicking their – whoops!”

A ball of webbing came from the left, even as I punched forward to clear a spider web. Rather than trying to get out of the way, though, I just sped up my punch and followed through, smacking the ball midflight and spinning around before making a victory sign. 

“Ha! Did you see that?”

“Yes, I saw it,” Mikaela said, the exasperation coming clearly through her voice. “And experienced it…”

I turned, surprised to find that Mikaela had been caught in a bit of webbing. Not that it lingered long on her – a bit of focus, and the strands caught fire before falling away, without leaving so much as a strand behind. All without even singing her clothing… I hated to admit it, but Sis was even better at controlling heat and magic than I was.

I was better at flashier techniques, though, which is why when another ball of silk came flying towards her from the side I shot the lava off my hand, creating a burning fist that struck the webbing mid-flight and burned it to bits, before rapidly cooling down and plopping to the earth as a mix of ash, glass, and stone.

At the same time, I felt a trickle of ash fall down atop of me, all that was left of a silk ball thrown my way.

I shot Sis a grin in thanks, but she didn’t say anything, just grabbing the solidified fist from the ground and tossing it my way. It was molten again before it even made contact with my hand, sliding over my fingers and reforming my trusty gauntlet.

“You know, I’m surprised you haven’t been using your weapon, instead,” Mikaela remarked. “You seemed so eager to use the ‘bloody’ set.”

“Well, yeah, but that’s more for showing off to normal people,” I admitted. “I’m saving the truly cool shenanigans for when we’re alone, like now. Unless you’d rather I coat my bloody blades with flame and stuff?”

“And make yourself look like a vengeful demon from hell?” Mikaela asked, arching an eyebrow. “No, I think our parents are struggling with demonic PR enough without you actively making things worse…”

“Oh, come on, live a little! What’s wrong with looking a little demonic when we’re passing as humans, anyway?”

Mikaela didn’t respond verbally. She just rolled her eyes and marched forward towards the cocoons she’d sensed in the distance.

I rolled my eyes right back at her – not that she saw – and chased after, the both of us burning through webs and the occasional direct attack from the increasingly agitated spiders.

Then, suddenly, the trees gave way to a clearing and the forest went quiet.

***

Mikaela

***

“…Am I the only one suffering a suddenly terrible premonition?” I asked, not really expecting an answer.

“Nope,” Charlotte replied, putting a little extra emphasis on the ‘p.’ “This whole setup basically screams boss fight. I mean, come on, there’s even an arena!”

It was true… for a certain definition of ‘arena,’ at least. We’d broken into the center of a clearing, a place without trees or standing webs. Instead, the ground itself was absolutely littered with webbing, sticky strands that would have clung to our feet if we weren’t actively burning it away. Charlotte had even turned her glowing hot gauntlets into molten sabatons.

“The cocoons are on the other side of the clearing,” I remarked, eyeing them. More specifically, there were five cocoons hanging from trees. Three of them looked big enough to contain a person, while the last two were about the size of a basketball. “What are the chances that our arachnid hosts will allow us to retrieve them without a fight?”

“Low,” Charlotte blithely replied. She didn’t sound particularly upset about it. “Wanna walk into the center and see what they throw at us?”

“Not particularly,” I confessed, shaking my head. “I will, of course – don’t get me wrong – but frankly, the mere idea of walking through such an obvious trap is… distasteful, I suppose?”

“‘Distasteful,’ she says.” Charlotte snickered. “Anyone else would be shaking in their boots right about now.”

“Not our parents,” I pointed out. “They’d handle this with ease. Probably suss out the exact nature of the trap while they were at it…”

That was the thing, though – I still didn’t know what the trap was. All the spiders I could sense were keeping their distance from us, staying a respectable distance from the tree line. Watching, waiting, but not approaching. It was quite unnerving even knowing that we could handle whatever they threw at us.

Still, there was little reason to think standing around would solve anything. Without a way to disarm their trap, I’d simply have to walk towards the center and spring it.

Sighing, I prepared to do just that, only to pause as the ground began to tremble. 

“Did you feel-” I was cut off and thrown through the air as something thick, long, and hairy burst from the ground under my feet. I think it intended to impale me, and it might have impaled something had I not squeezed my thighs together at the last second. An unpleasant thought to say the least, considering the thing that had just tried to force its way up my skirt was nothing less than a massive, hairy spider leg.

“Well that was rude,” I muttered even as Charlotte laughed.

“I can’t believe you almost got impaled by a giant spider!”

“I did not!” I protested, my cheeks tinged a light red. “And it wouldn’t be a laughing matter if I had been!”

“No, it wouldn’t,” Charlotte agreed, her voice uncharacteristically serious for a moment, “…but it didn’t, so ahaha!”

I cursed under my breath, wondering what I’d done to deserve such a fool of a sister. A sister who, to my surprise, managed to jump a little to the side in time to avoid another leg coming from the ground.

“Just pour your magic into the ground beneath us!” Charlotte told me. “It should make it pretty clear when it’ll attack!”

I didn’t reply, too annoyed with my sister’s wicked idea of ‘humor’ to compliment her on the idea. Still, I did as she suggested, pouring magic into the earth beneath our feet. It didn’t take long to find the source of these attacks – a massive spider, buried under several feet of rock and earth, thrusting its legs up into the air in an attempt to take us down.

How long had it been there, I wondered? Was it new to the area? Or had it merely been slumbering for an untold number of years, allowing its prey to move in and become content in their safety before finally awakening and springing its trap?

I didn’t know nor did I particularly care. What mattered was exterminating the pest. To that end, I decided to take advantage of the fact that I had already poured my magic into the earth and began to heat it up.

The spider screamed. A sound that might have sounded almost human, had it not been so feral. While the other spiders had made their sounds through striation, I couldn’t help but wonder if this one actually did have vocal cords, somehow… One could never tell with monsters. Not when it was their magical mutations that made them monsters to begin with.

Regardless, the creature apparently didn’t appreciate its burrow being turned into an oven. The ground beneath our feet trembled again, fissures opening up in the dirt as the creature heaved, attempting to break free.

Charlotte didn’t let it. I could feel her magic mingling with mine, pulling the earth back together even as I heated it, trapping the monster underground even as it screamed. Leaving the upper layers to my sister I burrowed my magic in deeper, focusing on the ceiling of the burrow and raising the heat faster. With my magic now condensed to a smaller – if still rather massive – surface area, the dirt began to glow red. It was slower than my sister’s attempts to make gauntlets, due to the sheer amount I was heating, and as such I could sense the change in the ground around us. The burning of organics as they were flash fried to ash. The minerals breaking down as they began to glow with heat. I idly wondered if the burrow would be left entirely glassed afterwards.

The spider was panicking now. Digging down from what I could tell, trying to avoid the heat. I didn’t let it, instead leaving the dirt I’d already modified to cool on its own, knowing Charlotte would work to contain the heat, and moving my attention to the dirt and rock beneath the creature’s feet. Another scream tore from it as its legs began to burn, its hairs turning to cinders, its exoskeleton cracking. I could sense it through my magic. It was dying. An unpleasant, even cruel, death… but that’s what it got for trying to put a spear me right between the legs!

“Remind me not to piss you off, Sis,” Charlotte muttered, shaking her head. “Ready to finish this thing off?”

“I suppose it is time,” I confirmed, drawing my attention away from the creature and back towards the earth I controlled. A snap of my fingers, and the earth beneath its feet began to rise, even as the earth above it came down. The earth shook as the two forces met and the rather unfortunate monster was squashed between them.

“Come on,” I said once it was done. “Lets fetch Reckt and get out of here. We still need to find those berries.”

“Can’t bear to think of yourself failing, huh?” Charlotte teased. “You know, I’m pretty sure the guild would be understanding, considering the spider monster problem…”

“What problem? The big monster’s taken care of and the others are all scattering in fear. I refuse to fail my first request just because some stupid spider monsters decided to claim wolf territory.”

“Sure, Sis,” Charlotte laughed, moving to one of the human sized cocoons. The only one whose contents were alive, excluding the basketball sized ones which we’d need to check out in a bit.

She tore through the silk with a smile, revealing the figure within, but that smile faltered when she saw the state Reckt was in.

She was fine, mind you. Not a scratch on her. Her eyes were red from tears, though, her face was covered in snot, and her pants had a wet spot. When the silk was torn open she screamed, “Don’t eat me!” and began to sob again, not even recognizing who’d come to get her.

She’d been scared, I realized. Obviously. Who wouldn’t be in the face of monstrous spiders? Captured, alone, no way to struggle and only death awaiting her… 

All while we joked with one another, bursting through webs without issue,  knowing that nothing in this world could even scratch us…

From the look in my sister’s eyes Charlotte must have been going through some similar thoughts. There was guilt in her gaze when it met mine. Guilt and uncertainty, but also a glimmer of something else. Something I wasn’t used to seeing in my sister’s eyes. Resolve.

Something told me that the next time someone was in danger she wouldn’t be so content to play around…

~~~

Author’s Notes

You know, I actually kinda like spiders… makes me feel a bit bad for that giant one. Or anyone else who pisses of Mikaela real bad, for that matter…

I was originally going to have the discovery of Reckt be from Charlotte’s PoV, but somehow it didn’t work out that way… Oh well. Writing is always an adventure like that! At least for me… never know exactly where it’ll take you, no matter how much you plan in advance… and trying to make it conform to those plans only leads to a worse product, so… Shrugs.

FallingLeaf will be busy next week, so he did me a favor and got chapter 6 done a bit early – many thanks to him! I hope you enjoy. 🙂