"Stay in there," Kimiko's father said harshly as he half-sealed his eight-legged daughter into the hollow of the tree and hid it behind piles of debris.
Kimiko clutched the mishapen spider-doll she had made herself and wished that she hadn't wandered out to look at the bee farm again. She knew it would make her father angry, but she just couldn't help herself. The bees and spiders and other insects that some of the older driders were collecting were just too interesting to ignore.
And the bee farm wasn't so far from the hut her dad had made for them anyway. It would have been just a short trip, but then she lost track of time. That's when her father had caught her there.
He'd come running from their house, looking wild and scarier than he had looked for a long time. When he saw her, he'd snapped something that Kimiko hadn't caught really, worrying as she was about what he'd do to punish her for disobeying. Then he'd grabbed her up roughly and went running.
Miss Sano, the drider who ran that farm, started to reproach him angrily, but had stopped for some reason. Kimiko hadn't seen why, she'd been distracted by the uncomfortable feeling of being carried. Then her father had sealed her into the hollow of this tree...
...and Miss Sano had let him! Kimiko had thought she was nice before.
"And keep quiet!" her father said lastly as the final obstacle was put over the board.
Stalled from any attempt at pouting, fearful of anything else happening to her for whatever she had done wrong, Kimiko listened to what was happening outside.
"They're coming," Miss Sano said frantically.
Kimiko wondered who "they" were.
"All right!" her father said. "Come on you spider-freaks!"
Kimiko sniffed bitterly, she knew her father was angry about her changing. But that wasn't her fault.
She wanted to say so, but the chittering words that spoke to her instinct stopped her.
"Humans and half-breeds?" the dry voice said, surprised and amused.
"Get away!" Miss Sano demanded shakily.
A dry chuckle came that chilled Kimiko to the bone, and then there was nothing to hear but the humming of flying insects, insects that Kimiko didn't like the sound of.
The humming of insects.
The screams of pain and rage.
Then the quiet...and dry chuckling as something heavy was dragged away.
***********
The crypt-fiends skittered quietly into the forest, seeking for the settlements of their unknown enemies. They were not so fortunate to stumble past the network of spider-scouts as others had. Nor did they pay attention to such insignificant creatures as they scouted.
They'd never even reach the outlaying homes and budding farms.
The first sign they had of trouble was when a spider almost as large as one of them leaped out of the foliage to pounce upon one of the crypt-fiends. The spider's poison may not have been a factor, but it hardly mattered as the huge thing started to frenziedly tear apart the undead nerubian.
It was a more moment later when that spider was joined by others leaping onto the small party of crypt-fiends and battle was joined.
From a safe place, Kodachi watched and fingered her vials. She winced as each of her spiders received blows from the zombie spiders, but this had to be done. With that in mind, she decided on a vial and tossed it into the fray.
************
Akane nodded across to Shampoo's hiding spot as the crypt-fiends approached their ambushcade. Between Shampoo's baksai-tenketsu hardened skin and Akane's natural protection, neither much feared the reports of swarms of deadly insects, but they were taking no precautions. Each was covered in thick silk wrappings giving only a minimal exposure to the air.
Then the crypt-fiends hit one Kodachi's traps and, in the flash of light, fire and smoke that followed, Shampoo and Akane dashed forward with hammer and bonbori to crush the disoriented undead.
*************
Elsewhere, a larger group of kumo was less lucky as one of their own grew impatient and revealed their position early. The fight that followed grew quickly even and bloody for both sides.
It was only the fifth day sense the explorers had returned, and already battle had been joined in small numbers up and down the expanse between the kumojin colony and the mountains above.
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(Posted Wed, 03 Jan 2007 19:03)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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