1 Chapter 1 The Hatching

"Hurry along, little ones. We only have a short window now," said the soft soothing voice.

I blinked my eyes, trying to get them to focus on the face of whoever had that beautiful voice. A prod to my back had me stumbling forward and I fought my way through the thick strands of webbing that had kept me safe my whole life.

"Why do we have to hurry?" asked another voice to my left.

"Is something wrong?" asked a voice to my right.

"This plant is slotted to be torn down, so any who don't hatch in time will be lost," said the voice gently.

The tone of sadness made tears spring into my eyes, making me even more blind than I had been.

"Hurry now, along here," said the voice.

I followed the dim image as it led me across the hairy branch I scrambled across. I lay down silk as I ran, hoping not to get lost and feeling my siblings rushing after me.

The entire world began to shake and I grabbed the branch with everything I had, so as not to fall.

"No! Hurry! You need to keep running!" cried the voice in panic.

"But..." I began to complain, moving a little as the world shook even harder. The panic in that voice gave me the courage to keep running, grabbing the hairs themselves to keep going.

"Quick! Jump to the next leaf!"

I came to the end of the branch, but I didn't see another leaf to lunge for. There wasn't time to waste, and I had built up too much speed to stop now, so I closed my eyes tight and jumped as far as I could, reaching out blindly for anything as the wind whipped past me.

My legs grabbed ahold of something flat and I clung to it with everything I had. Trembling in the realization that I was still alive.

"Three, only three," whispered the voice sadly.

"Three?" I asked, opening one eye carefully.

In front of me was the face of a spider. Her eyes blinked at me in greeting and I froze. Was she going to eat me?

"Don't be afraid little one, I have already eaten today," chuckled the spider, moving her face away from me. "You have two siblings who managed to survive by getting dragged along on your silk."

I turned to look behind me as my brother and sister peeked over the edge of the leaf I clung to.

"You moved fast!" whispered my sister with wide eyes.

"I got tangled in your silk on purpose," grumbled my brother, wiggling a foot that was still ensnared.

"Welcome to the Garden, little ones. I had hoped more would make it out of the egg before the clean-up began, but I guess it can't be helped. If you will follow me, I will teach you about your new role."

"Our new role?" I asked, turning back to the spider. Her voice was the one that made me feel all warm inside!

"You are very special," said the spider with a small smile.

"How are we special?" asked my sister.

"Because we made it?" asked my brother.

"Well, because you made it, yes, but not entirely," chuckled the spider.

I climbed up the leaf, following the branch it was attached to all the way to the trunk of the plant, and then the spider started climbing up even further. I sighed and followed. My legs were so much smaller than hers, so it took me much longer to get where she was going. My siblings were breathless trying to keep up. I was bigger than either of them.

"Us spiders have been tasked with a very important job here in the Garden, and it is my job to teach it to you before I die," said the spider with a smile.

"What do you mean before you die?" I asked, with a frown.

"Well, I should have died before now, but I was granted extra time in order to teach you what you need to know," explained the spider.

She paused in her climb to let me rest a little, and to let my siblings catch up.

"What job?" asked my sister finally.

My brother was still too tired to say anything.

"If you look out from here, you will see that all of the plants in the Garden are being torn out. There is only bare dirt in each pot. Only this plant is spared this yearly death. Our jobs are to protect the plants until the cold time comes. The Owner will plant new seedlings in each pot, but the Enemy sends vermin each year to try and kill the plants. Our job is to kill the vermin before they are successful."

I looked up at the huge spider before me and tried to envision what she was talking about. We were on a plant, and as I looked out behind me, I saw nothing. There was nothing but a blur of color.

"I don't know what you mean," I said, shaking my head. "What are pots? What are vermin? What's a seedling and why does the enemy want the plants to die?"

"Can you not see the pots of dirt?" asked the spider, pointing out at the blur.

I turned and looked, squinting my eyes to see whatever she was trying to get me to see.

"I'm sorry but I only see a blur of color."

The look of horror on her face made me uncomfortable.

"You must be too young, yes, that's all it must be. You will be able to see it once you are older."

She nodded to herself and rubbed her front legs together in agitation. Closing her eyes for a moment, she finally seemed to come to a decision.

"I only have a short time, so I must teach you what I can before that time is up."

I nodded to her, not understanding. I had so many questions, but I was also very tired.

"You all should already know how to build webs, so I won't explain that to you. You need to build a web each day to capture as many of the Enemies vermin as possible, so the plants that the Owner grows stays healthy and produces a lot of food for him. Normally there would be an army of you to accomplish this task, but unfortunately the vermin from last year took out most of the egg sacks. You're egg sack survived only because I protected it personally. With only three of you, I fear this task may be too much for you."

I looked at her fret for a moment and nodded. "We understand that we need to keep the Garden safe from the Enemy for the Owner, but if we see these vermin, must we merely wait for them to get caught in our webs? Can we not hunt them?"

"Hunt the vermin?" she asked, scrunching her face in uncertainty. "I've never heard of a spider actively hunting them before. If you find the need, I suppose whatever it takes, just be sure you manage to lay eggs at the beginning of the cold season, or there will be no Garden Guardians for the next year."

"Garden Guardians," whispered my sister.

"Yes, that is what you are."

"Only three? Well, here's hoping for a good year," rumbled a loud voice.

"They barely managed to escape the last plant," said the spider, turning to speak to whoever was making the rumbling voice.

"It couldn't be helped. I told you today was the day the plants were torn down," said the voice.

"I know," she said. There was a level of exhaustion that was way worse than what I was feeling.

"Are you okay?" I asked, reaching out to touch her with one of my front legs.

"No, I'm dying. And I haven't explained everything to you yet."

"Then hurry up!" said my brother, tapping the ground in annoyance. "How are we to protect the Garden for the Owner from the Enemy?"

"You mustn't talk to any of the giants, except for the Owner. Only he knows we are special. If you build webs in the way of the other giants, they will tear them down, and they don't care to try and keep from killing you when they do so. But if you allow any of the vermin to harm any of the plants, they will complain about you not doing your job. It's very difficult, only possible by the best of the guardians. A normal clutch will have hundreds of spiders to accomplish this task."

"But, there's only three of us," said my sister.

"Yes, it seems impossible," the spider sighed.

"What else do we need to know?" I asked, watching as she seemed to sag where she was sitting.

"Wild spiders may come from outside the garden. If they do, be careful befriending them. Some may be just as troublesome as the vermin. However, I feel if you have any chance at succeeding, they may be your only hope."