Chapter 5: Scouting

The man was a mess. He probably would survive, but he was still a mess. It reminded me of one time I had an allergic reaction to some medicine. The red swollen skin, difficulty to breath, sweating profusely.

Audrey took us inside her house. Her father was sleeping on a makeshift sofa nearby. It was a small house. Living room and kitchen in the same room. An open door led to a small bedroom on the left side.

"Shit." Thalia quickly went to check on him. "You said he's been like that for days?"

The woman nodded. "Our neighbor in the next farm knows some healing skills. If it wasn't for him…"

She left the sentence die. It wasn't hard to deduce the rest.

"It doesn't make sense. The spiders shouldn't be hunting so far from the nest." Thalia scratched her head. I could almost see the gears grinding inside her head.

"Maybe it's a regional thing? The fauna here's all fucked up. Those could be some variant that hunts further." I guessed

"Or the nest is getting so big the colony is getting desperate for food." Thalia's grimm words filled the room. There's that too…

Audrey just stood there, looking deeply angry and anxious. And I couldn't really fault her. There's not much she could have done before or now. It doesn't look like she knows magic, combat or healing skills. Taking those things head-on and alone is suicide at best.

"It doesn't really matter. We can take them on." I said as convincingly as I could. The girls shot me some curious looks. I just gave them a thumbs up, hoping they understood the cue and went along. "Trust us. It's going to be a-okay."

Audrey opened a faint smile. Good. At least she calmed down a little. "Thank you… hum, sorry. I didn't get your name."

"Call me Edward. Professional Adventurer and entertainer." I introduced myself with a bow. "Nice to meet you, miss."

"Thank you. Edward, Galkin, Amaris. I'm… sorry." Her voice failed for a moment. "Those things have been making our lives hell for weeks. After you left last time. When dad came home bleeding and all swollen, The others… I… I almost took a broom to hunt them down myself."

"You're angry. It 's understandable. No one blames you for that." I reassured the lady.

"Edward is right. Look, you did what you could. Now let the rest for them." Anastasia said for my relief. Thank you! Last thing we need is a furious mob charging into the nest.

Thalia nodded. Her calm expression actually inspired some confidence in me too. "We got this. Edward and I will scout the area one more time before attacking. Anastasia. You stay here. Help her if more shit happens."

The archer got up and made it out the door before any of us could say anything else.

"Hurry up, squire. I mean now!"

I stared at her for a solid moment before it hit. "Wait. Who are you calling a squire?! Hey! Wait for me at least!"

Her only answer was a "Hurry up". She was already a good ten meters out the house when I stepped outside. I had to run to catch up to her again.

I followed her down a beaten path past chicken hens and a sty out of the fence around the farm. A golden sea of crops opened to our right. The spider forest stood ominously far left.

"Since when I'm your squire?" I questioned her first of all.

"It's my gig and you're helping along. Therefore, you are my squire." She said, as a matter of fact.

I rolled my eyes at that. I hummed a soft tune to activate [Haste] so I could keep up with her easier.

"Is she your friend?" I asked. She didn't respond immediately. "You look pissed off. A lot."

"...Are you a therapist or something? The way you get into peoples minds creeps me off."

I just shrugged. "Yeah, people used to tell me that a lot. In a hella nicer way, though."

"How does someone get called a creep in a nice way?" She questioned.

"Usually they leave out the 'creepy' part. But I actually wanted to be a therapist once. Then, well…"

"Got sent here?" Her tone was… soft. Meek. We both knew what being sent to the colonies meant. Even I, a player who just fell here.

We weren't worth the effort to kill.

"Yeah. Kinda." I left it at that. She didn't ask more. Silence fell between us. A few moments later she continued.

"And thank you."

"For what?" I asked.

"For calming Audrey down. Helped a lot."

"Oh. No need. I didn't want to let her there sulking." I said.

"Still. I'm not good with, you know. Being nice and all. So thank you for that. Audrey doesn't deserve all this bullshit."

"She seems nice enough." I looked around. Still some good minutes under the oppressive heat until we get there. "I mean, when she's not freaking out."

"They… Audrey and her father. They let us stay in their house. When me and Anastasia came here two weeks ago. They fed us, kept us warm. The other farmers expected us to be over with the nest by noon. The Shepherd at least understood things like that need time. That's enough reason to help."

"Fully agree."

After that the conversation died for a while. Only the sounds of wind and nature around us. I kept an ear up in case something tried to sneak behind us.

Not gonna lie. It feels good to be able to talk heart to heart with Thalia like this. When I first met her half our conversations… our arguments, actually, were either her bossing me around or jokes at my expense.

Now it has gotten better. We still butted heads now and then, but it was the good kind. More of a rivalry, I'd say.

We made our way to a boulder near the forest. A rock standing around two meters tall at its top and large as a car. The grass around it was short enough that it would be hard for anything bigger than a rat to hide easily.

Thalia took position on top of the boulder with a pair of binoculars.

"Cover me."

I stood behind her with my violin. I still had my sword strapped to my hip for good measure.

"What the fuck... It's crawling full with spiders. Look." Thalia handed me the binoculars. I hopped over the stone to see while Thalia prepared her bow.

What I saw would put an arachnophobic in cardiac arrest. The trunks were almost covered in webs. Dozens of spiders running across the place. Sizes varying from the size of my hand to bigger than Thalia's torso. The entrance to the inner grove had so much web covering the trees that the only path now was a manhole-sized tunnel. Of course crawling with spiders.

"What in the goddamn fuck."

As I said that. Some four or five more spiders arrived dragging something covered in webs. Something as big as a cow. And still moving.

"Aaaand they got a cow. That's- that's not a good sign."

"They what?!" Thalia took back the binoculars. I decided to put back my violin and drew my sword. Just seeing those spiders send chills down my spine.

Thalia observed the spiders for some time. I couldn't see much at that distance.

"This is getting ridiculous." She mumbled. "Now they're even hunting cattle."

"Think it's too much?" I asked. Not in a playful or teasing way in the slightest. Part of being an Adventurer is knowing when something is out of your league and stepping down.

Thalia didn't respond for a few moments... Wait, fuck! I'm really acting like a squire now.

"No. But we better take care of that quickly. This is getting too bizarre for me."

We hopped back down. I barely regained my footing and she was already walking ahead.

"We'll circulate the grove. Take note of anything weird and go back before night falls."

I followed her. No that I had any other choice. I have a hunch that this gig just got much more complicated.