Oblivion Ch. 01

"I know, sweet, but remember what I told you of it. Remember the mountains, cast violet on the evening indigo sky. Remember how I told you of the mountains at dusk? Remember how I told you about the leaves that change color and the crisp air and the sweet smelling flowers? We talked of how I would take you into the valley and we would play in the flower fields and the soft grass? It will be just us, no masters. No cruel men to hurt us. Just us and our farm with all the animals," Kristasia whispered as she heard the demon men approaching.

The child quieted in her arms and Kristasia herself began to lose her fears in the soothing memories of her childhood in the quiet mountain villages of the northland where she had lived before the raiders came. She and her older sister had been taken and sold together at a slave fair. Her sister, the most beautiful woman Kristasia had ever known, had been happily married only two months when the men came, and eight months later she had born little Lonia before passing from the world. The grief of losing her childhood lover, of being turned a slave and raped by their new master had broken her spirit and when the childbirth had been hard upon her, she had had no will to live. She knew not whether the child would be that of her lost love or that of her vicious attacker, and neither one did she think she could bear.

The demon men passed them by and Kristasia let out a soft sigh of relief. She slowly pulled Lonia from their dark hiding place and peered out into the empty canyon. Then she pulled the child out behind, her glad to be gone from that dark place.

"Clever little mortals, aren't you?" a strangely high-pitched, though decidedly male voice called out from behind them.

Kristasia turned on her heels, dragging Lonia behind her and turned back to the crevice in which they'd hidden. A strange creature with a predominately spider-like form emerged from the crevice to stand before them. Kristasia let out a shocked gasp and barely had time to cover Lonia's mouth before the child let out a scream.

"Oh, don't be frightened, little ones," the creature soothed in a decidedly calming tone. "I mean you no harm."

"I don't believe that," Kristasia said, shaking her head as she took a step back.

"No harm at all, I promise you. I rarely see mortals this far from the towers. What are you doing here?" the creature asked as it tilted its strange head to study them with all of its eight eyes.

The creature, though having the shape of a man, was entirely inhuman. Upon its humanoid face it had two large humanoid eyes that glowed with golden irises and long black slits. Three smaller eyes stared out from above, and three more from below. Its nose was composed of two narrow slits below the three bottom eyes and its black lips were curved into an overly large smile that literally ran from one side of its jaw to the other. It had the upper torso of a man, its pale white skin bare and revealing two sets of muscled human arms. Its lower body, however, was that of a spider's abdomen, supported on four spider-like legs and coated in coarse, black hair.

"We're just passing through," Kristasia answered the creature finally as she took another step back.

"You look tired," the creature stated as it tilted its head, as if to get a better look at them with its many eyes. "You look hungry. Come into my den. Eat. Rest. You may finish passing through in the morning. Come."

"I think we're fine," Kristasia answered curtly.

"Don't be silly. I know you're hiding from the Daedran. They'll find you out here. Come into my nest. I'll hide you away, keep you safe, and provide for you. Even the child. Those beasts will kill you, and her too."

"What is this awful place?" Lonia sobbed as she looked up at Kristasia, refusing to lay eyes on the horrifying creature before them.

"This is the kingdom of Oblivion in the Ninth Realm. Silly mortal, are you lost?" the spider creature teased. "This is the kingdom of Lord Daedronus, God of the Sixth Realm."

"Is this hell?" Kristasia asked softly as she looked briefly around at the world surrounding them.

"I suppose that, for a mortal, it would be. This is where mortal souls go when they die. Death is but a transition of realms, as is life. They know they've gone too far. They're coming back. You can hear them. Come with me," the creature said as it lifted one of its human hands to motion towards the dark crevice. "If you don't, they'll kill you. Or take you to Lord Daedronus, which would surely be much worse. He has little patience for mortals right now."

Caught, once again, between the frying pan and the fire, Kristasia took Lonia's hand and together they followed the strange creature into the darkness.

"We can't see," Kristasia whispered once they were swallowed whole by the blackness.

"Of course," the creature replied.

Suddenly there was light. The spider held out a lantern filled with a glowing blue stone that illuminated the sticky, dark passageway. An impending sense of dread set in on Kristasia as they followed the spider through the dark tunnel as the walls became increasingly coated in a sticky white film which she assumed could have only been spider webbing. Then tunnel split off several times in different directions and as they ventured deeper, Kristasia had the sudden feeling that they would never find their way out.

"Here we are, pretties," the spider announced as they came into a large room coated in webs from the ceiling to the floor.

In one corner of the room, a pile of bones were stacked ominously and in the adjacent corner, a strange bundle of webbing bulged up suspiciously from the floor. In the third corner was a mass of webbing that looked similar to a nest and in the fourth was a table set with four chairs. As Kristasia eyed the table, she suddenly wondered what use it could have been to the spider man. He couldn't sit in a chair, could he?

"I don't spend much time here, so I do apologize for the mess," the spider claimed as he set the lantern down on the table. "These catacombs span most of the underground and let out very near the towers. I spend most of my time in them hunting."

"Hunting what?" Kristasia asked cautiously as her eyes fell again on the grotesque pile of blackening bones.

"Dinner," the spider replied with a shrug.

"Why are you sheltering us here? What do you want?" Kristasia demanded immediately as she began to realize that they may have been safer with the demons outsider.

"Want? What anyone wants?" he asked softly before he ever so suddenly ripped Lonia away from Kristasia and pricked her arm with a sharp stinger that had appeared on one of his spider feet.

"Lonia!" Kristasia cried as she rushed the spider, trying to grab the limp child back from him.

"Hush. I've only put her to sleep," the spider said as he held the child out of her reach. "Stay where you are. I won't hurt her."

He laid Lonia gently upon the webbed floor, a bit too close to the unmoving bundle of webbing that sat suspiciously against the wall.

"Why did you do that?" Kristasia demanded, her panic becoming nearly unbearable. They had to get out of this beast's lair. This had been a huge mistake fueled only by terror and desperation.

"She is a child, yes? Some things are not for the ears or eyes of children. She will sleep for an hour or two and will wake just as well. You asked what I wanted. I shall show you," the spider man stated as he advanced on her.

"Don't touch me," Kristasia warned as she back up further and found herself pressing into one sticky wall.

"That's what I want," the creature replied as it advanced on her, its human torso pressing her further into the wall.

"What do you mean?" she demanded as she struggled to free herself from the thick webbing even while the creature's body pressed her back into it.

"Don't fight, little one. You'll only tangle yourself up worse," he said as he gently separated her from the webbing.

"Tell me what you want," Kristasia demanded, a shiver running down her spine as the webs stuck to her skin.

"I am a strange creature cast with the wants of a man and of a spider. A spider's life is simple. He thinks very little. He waits. He catches prey. He eats. He waits. Eventually he finds a female and mates. Then he dies. A man's mind is more complex. He thinks more. He is bored. Lonely. Hopeful. He yearns. My tunnel connects to the world above more closely to the mortal communities of this land than that of other spiders. I watch them. I see them do awful things to each other and themselves, but occasionally, I see something appealing. Companionship. Love. Families," the spider stated. "Our kind mates, and if the female doesn't kill her mate, the male moves on to mate again. She raises the children until they come of age, and then chases them away or eats them. That's a very awful life, don't you think? But your kind, they stay together, they love, they raise children. I am a dreamer, I suppose. I dream of more."

"And what do your dreams have to do with me?" she asked, though she knew the answer would only further terrify her.

"I will take you as a mate instead of a spider. You'll stay with me. You won't try to eat me. You'll love me. We'll have children. We'll raise them and we won't try to eat them. I won't be alone anymore. That's what I want," he said as he looked her over with all eight monstrous eyes that never seemed to blink.

"While I do appreciate the offer, I really think we'll have to pass," Kristasia replied quickly, and having been separated from the webbing on the wall, she twisted away from him and dashed out of his reach.

"I hoped you wouldn't say that," the spider stated darkly as he dashed towards her with inhuman speed and grabbed her up in his arms.

With all four of his powerful arms wrapped around her and her back pressed against his chest, Kristasia was powerless to move, despite all her struggles.

"I know I must not attract you. I am not your kind. I am enough of it, though, that you attract me. I want you. I promise I shall be a better lover than any human male. I will do my best to please you, and with four hands, I think I should do a better job," he whispered into her ear.

"Please, just let us go," Kristasia pleaded back.

"If you deny me, I'll eat you and wait until the child comes of age," the spider threatened darkly.

Kristasia summoned all of her courage and swallowed the hard lump in her throat.

"Alright," she said softly. "You were kind in sheltering us from the demons. But I am scared. I've never been with a man, let alone... whatever it is that you are. If you wish me to love you, I shall, but will you release me now and let me come to you on my own?"

The spider paused, as if considering her words. Slowly, his hands released their grip on her. She stepped quickly from his grasp and turned to face the monstrous creature illuminated by the eerie blue light of the lantern.