Chickens of the web

Previously: Mira and her companions have stumbled on a shipwreck in the middle of a forest and discovered that it once belonged to the infamous pirate Harfigorn the Merciless and his pet ship witch Athelane. They are intent on finding the final resting place of the old marauder but first, they want a little breakfast...

Broo Fang Tane wore a pleased expression that I certainly did not share.

"We won't have to tra...vel on empty...stomachs," he said, embracing a wriggling hairy mass--or masses.

"Perhaps you won't," I responded. My gut clenched at the site of the fuzzy things straining in his embrace. Spiders. Big ones, too, with long, jointed limbs that pressed against Tane's chest in an attempt to dislodge them from his grasp. Curved teeth snapped together as they strained toward his flesh.

"There are plenty more where these...came from," he said.* He tossed them on the ground near Seymuhr's feet. One of them was dazed and didn't move right away. The other quickly righted itself and reared back on four of its legs. Two front digits curled and the thing tensed, ready to pounce. It was the size of a large cat or small dog, the limbs nearly as thick as Tane's slender arms. Seymuhr grasped one of them, pulled it toward him, and clouted it between its many eyes. Meanwhile, Tane had kicked the other and set about spearing it lengthwise with a sharp stick. Gray fluid oozed around the branch as the spider squealed in its death agony.

"I'll stoke up the fire," Seymurh said, licking his lips and rubbing his palms together rapidly.

"I think two will be sufficient," I said. I leaned against a tree, trying to keep my stomach from betraying me. "I'm not overly hungry."

"I don't believe you," Seymuhr said. "You look like you've never missed a meal in your life."

"There is always a first time then, eh?" I shot back.

Soon, the fire was crackling with the juices that seeped from the shrinking spider carcasses that Tane rotated above it. Seymuhr was enjoying my discomfort. He leaned in and broke off a spider leg--evoking a fresh hiss of steam and another foul odor--and bit into the end. The skin crackled hideously and the gray juice leaked down the corner of his mouth.

"Not quite ready," he said with a grin. "Too bad we don't have any salt..."

"Or anything different to eat," I mumbled. Then, I turned to Tane: "Are you sure you couldn't find a rabbit or a squirrel or anything?"

He merely shook his head and shrugged with his palms facing up.

"Well, we might as well have a look at this while we wait," Merrick said. He sat on a stump and opened the tome we had found in Harfigorn's chambers. "We shouldn't tarry here over long. The smell of roasting meat is liable to bring some curious predators this way."

"I wouldn't worry about that," I said, then sat down beside him...

Next: Into the hills

*Indeed, there was no need to worry about that. Spiders were so prevalent in Teg that those with the stomach for them never had reason to fear going hungry. They were, in the many places in our land where poverty was the norm, referred to as 'chickens of the web.'