The young sergeant had never seen anything like it. Since the sun had gone down and he had been woken for his guard shift something had webbed up the entire gate. In front of the appointed sergeant and his squad.
A sheet of silver spider silk covered the gate like a curtain. The twelve men of the gate house stood inside the city looking at the sealed gate.
"Is it that titan spider?" asked one of other men.
"Here!" whimpered a second. "I hoped it was just a story."
"The second company didn't just all desert last night," said the first. "Besides the dead are walking why not a spider the size of a house?"
"The only question is how are we clearing these webs," said the sergeant. "Webs should burn right? You take a torch to it see if that clears it up."
The sergeant pointed at one of the men holding a torch. The man looked at him with almost confused look.
"Did I stutter?" asked the sergeant staring daggers into the torch bearer.
The solder reluctantly nodded and approached the giant web. He held the torch in front of him. As he stepped inside the gates arch, he stopped frozen.
"Sergeant I can't move," shouted the solder panic filling his voice.
The sergeant looked at the man seemingly stuck in place. Was it a well-designed trap?
"Can you move at all?" asked the sergeant.
The solder Struggled for a bit grunting in effort. As he struggled it seemed his movements slowed.
"It's a spider web alright." Said the sergeant.
Sending in more guys to rescue him would probably result in more guys getting stuck. A plan was needed to get the man out. Why hadn't the invisible web caught fire? Was it fireproof?
"Any ideas?" asked the sergeant.
"Throw torches," said a man.
"We're more likely to burn him alive that way," said the sergeant.
"I don't want to get burnt up like the deserters," cried the trapped man.
"somebody keep an eye out for the spider that made this thing," ordered the sergeant. "If you see a spider bigger than the ball blast it."
"Yes sergeant," said a man pulling the hammer of his musket back.
"Maybe we can cut it with a bayonet," said a man.
"How would we know if its working?" said another man.
"I think the biggest problem right now is we can't see the thread," said another.
"Good point," agreed the sergeant. "we need something to expose the thread like dust… you two go gather up some ash from the nearby ruins and start throwing it into the gate. Should get stuck on the web so we can see it."
"Yes sergeant," the men said in uniform and jogged of to collect ash.
"You stay calm," ordered the sergeant to his trapped man. "We'll get you out of there."
"Thanks guys," said the trapped man.
The sergeant had never found spiders very interesting as a kid. Maybe if he had spent more time staring at them as a boy, he might have some more insight into what was going on. His youth had been spent working fields and beating the other kids into doing his biding.
A set of legs sprouted from the shadows at the top of the arch. Eight legs the size of the man's arms and a body the size of a dog or a young child. The spider danced through the air descending on the man like a feather falling to the ground.
BANG!!!
The giant spider jerked fell a few inches before stopping midair stuck in its own web.
"I want to stuff and mount that thing!" shouted the man who had readied his musket.
"Fuck just happened!��� shouted the trapped man obviously concerned.
"I just killed the biggest spider I have ever seen!!" celebrated the shooter.
"Sergeant how much longer am I going to be stuck here?" asked the trapped man.
"Ashes sergeant," said one of two men he had sent out holding two buckets of ash each. "Shit you see that thing?"
"Yeah bet you could make a good meal out of that thing," said the second of the two men.
"Sergeant!" cried the trapped man unable to see the giant spider dead a few feet above him.
"We're getting you out now," said the sergeant grabbing the first bucket.
He through a handful of ash at the back of the trapped man. As the cloud of dust drifted through the air it stuck to the invisible strands. The sergeant through more and more ash into the archway revealing hundreds of tiny threads.
"Get some sticks and start clearing these out," ordered the sergeant.
"Right," responded the men.
The group of men started to break up the webs with bayonets and found sticks. They cleared the ash covered threads making it to the trapped man and cutting him loos. His uniform had turned grey from all the ashes thrown at him.
"Its good to be free sergeant," said the man.
"Where not done yet," declared the sergeant. We still got to clear the gate."
The work continued until they had arrived at the other side of the archway. In front of them was the silver curtain that separated them from the outside world. The sergeant took the torch and touched it to the spider web. The web burned where it touched but did not spread far. A window had been burned into the wall of spider silk. The world outside was not what the sergeant remembered. It was still spring, but it was to warm for snow.
So that meant that the thick sheet of white covering everything outside was spiderweb. For as far as he could see with the torch light every tree and blade of grass was white.
The sergeant waved his men back outside of the arch.
"We are returning to the bank," said the Sergeant.
The men had succeeded at grabbing the dead spider. They looked at him confused.
"There's more where that one came from," declared the Sergeant. "Get your shit out of the gate house we can't hold this place. Bring the spider."
The men nodded and the men walled back to the gate house to collect up all the things they had left inside before retreating to the bank.
The Sergeant would not split his men now. If a hundred could not walk safely at night, he would not split his men to be picked of like so many others. He would worry about getting chewed out by the Sergeant of Arms when he got back. Until he was getting yelled at he and his boy were in mortal danger.
Come the next morning the Sergeant of Arms would promote him for being the only man with enough sense to return to the bank. The other guard posts were covered in spiderwebs. The men who guarded the other gates were gone.