Not much is known about Royal Spidders, but we know enough to give them their name accurately. Royal Spidders live similarly to ants, in colonies with a queen. I saw one once when I was wandering south of Riverhold but ran back when multiple spidders crawled out of the tree I was investigating. After the guard looked around inside they said it was like an ant nest, and said they saw webs everywhere and mushrooms being cultivated before being chased out. We then bounced around name ideas for this type of spidder, and eventually we landed on royal because, "ants have a queen, so maybe these spidders are royalty," someone said, and the name stuck from then on.
Knowing this, I reached for my walking stick reflexively, before clenching my fist and turning to Maddie, "We should look around more, not much is known about Royal Spidders, so this would be a good chance to figure stuff out."
"Alright," Maddie said, "let's go."
There wasn't much more to see this close to the ground, so we began to climb. The light was dim, but there were quite a few small holes in the tree to let in enough sunlight so we could see. We had to lift each other up some ledges, and there were some paths that were vertical, but we found the remains of a food storage area, another mushroom farm, and a room at the end of a long passageway filled with dead spidders. They were all slightly different, most likely to fill different roles in the group, and we must've found their graveyard.
"These spidders must be pretty smart to have a spot for their dead, huh." Maddie remarked, investigating the jaw of a medium sized spidder.
"Yeah, I wonder what happened here." I responded, inspecting the bodies.
"What do you mean?"
"Well," I said pointing at the corpse, "there are wounds that look like spidder bites, and we haven't seen any live spidders anywhere."
"So did somethin' wipe them out?"
"Possibly," I said, "I could've been a Wild Spidder that found its way in, but I doubt the entire nest would fall to one lone spidder."
Maddie stood there in silence, before saying, "Well, let's look around more, maybe we'll find something."
I nodded before leading the way down the path we came in, and after wandering around for ten or so minutes, we found a high ledge, at least three times my height.
"I don't think we can get up there," Maddie said, "I think we've looked around as much as we can."
"Yeah, but…" I didn't know why, but I felt there was something important on that ledge. I walked over to it, and felt a wave of despair and sadness wash over me, and that confirmed my suspicions.
"I'm gonna take a look up there." I told Maddie, "Just wait here, I won't be long."
"Ok, just call for me if you need anything." Maddie continued, somewhat under her breath, "It's not like I can leave without you anyways."
After giving her a nod I look a few steps back before running full sprint towards the wall. I managed to get three steps on the almost sheer surface before I started to drift away from it and grabbed onto the ledge with the tips of my fingers. I took a deep breath, knowing that if I fell, I would've sprained or broken something.
Pulling myself up and standing on the ledge, I saw the last survivor of this nest, the Spidder Queen. She had all the usual spidder features, but with a much larger abdomen, similar to that of ant colonies' queens. She was surrounded by other spidder corpses and broken egg sacks, and after she tried to move I noticed she was missing two legs on her left side.
When she saw me, I got the same feelings I did at the bottom of the ledge, but much stronger now, I could feel my eyes watering up and I knew she was in pain. She spat some webbing at me, and I put my hand out in front of me to prevent it from reaching my body, but it fell short about halfway to me. I was relieved for a brief moment, as Queen Spidder webbing is used to construct some parts of the nest and is almost as strong as stone. If it touched me, I'd have no way to get out.
Some additional thread oozed out from her mouth, before she slumped over, still alive, but exhausted from standing on only six legs. I don't know why, but I decided to move closer, and as she bared her fangs weakly, I took a knee and bowed. The fear that she was feeling earlier faded, overcome by confusion and curiosity. I could understand her confusion. If I was weak and dying, and another creature showed up and instead of attacking or eating me, showed me respect, I wouldn't know how to react.
I lifted my head, before asking, "Your majesty, what happened here?"
I knew the Royal Spidder Queens were more aware than their subjects, as I was able to feel emotions from her, like with the mystery creature, but not from other spidders. I need to figure out what this ability is soon, I thought to myself, before the waves of emotions from the queen swept over me one by one.
First, shock at the attack on her subjects, and then panic trying to rally forces to mount a defense. The feeling of shock again, followed by a seething anger, one of her daughters betrayed her and attacked the nest with subjects under her rule. Her still loyal subjects fought back, and the pain of loss increased with each of their deaths. She ran, fear for her life overshadowed by the regret of not being able to protect them. Reaching the place she is now, she was cornered and bitten. This is when the true pain began, and I flinched at the first wave, but fell to the ground from my kneeling stance after the queen's legs were torn off. Lastly, was the feeling of wounded pride, as her daughter didn't see the need to finish her off and left her for dead. And then loneliness, days and days of loneliness, regret, sadness, and despair. She was alive, but barely. She had eaten the bodies of her fallen citizens to keep herself alive at first, before giving up on her life.
I stood up, as tears fell from my eyes. I walked over, kneeled again, and put my forehead on her head, "It's okay. It's okay." I repeated softly as I pet her head like you would a dog or cat. "It's okay, you can rest." I finally said, "There's nothing left for you to do, but I'll remember you, and cherish the knowledge you bestowed upon me today." I closed my eyes and held my breath, before saying to the now silent queen, "You can rest."
I sat down, leaving my hand still on her body. I looked around, memorizing the area and the scenes she played out for me, before wiping the tears from my eyes and scaling down the ledge.
"Damn, you took so long," Maddie said, "What was up there?"
I took a deep breath and then paused before responding with the lie, "Just more dead spidders, same type of wounds. Maybe there was a rebellion."
"A rebellion? In spidders?" Maddie thought for a moment, "I guess it's possible, but you sure have a wild imagination Prez."
I thought back to everything I had seen before saying, "Yeah, I guess I do." Looking around I said, "Alright, let's head back to camp, we should grab any mushrooms we see here, they're most likely edible."
As we headed back, grabbing mushrooms on the way, I thought that I shouldn't be the only one with this knowledge of the Royal Spidders. I decided to dedicate the back of my journal to information about what I've seen, heard, and experienced while out in the wilds, so that others in the future will know what to do to survive and what to avoid. I labeled it "The Explorer's Guide to the Wilds" and wrote down everything I knew about Spidders, rageshrooms, and anything else that the Voyagers saw as new, while Holly and Jack were teaching Jake how to cook. It's nothing more than rough statements for now, but when we get back to Riverhold, I'll get a second book to write it more formally. After we ate the jerky and mushroom stew, I climbed the nest and laid down on one of the branches. After a few minutes, Maddie climbed up and went to sleep on a branch just below mine. I didn't get much sleep that night, as I couldn't get the visions out of my mind, and thought, "How many intelligent species are in this land?"
If something as primitive seeming as spidders can form societies, what other species could we interact with, and would they ever try to interact with us? It was late into the night, to the point where it became the early hours of the morning, before I went to sleep.
I awoke on the eleventh day of travel being shaken awake by Maddie. "Prez, hey Prez. Wake up, we're about to head out."
I groggily muttered, "Huh?" before fully opening my eyes, and taking a deep sharp breath, "Ok yeah, right, right. I'll be down."
"Ok, well come on, you need to lead the pack."
I looked for my walking stick, and once again remembered I no longer had it, before descending the trees with my backpack and leading the expedition through the next two days without a hitch.
"Why have you been so quiet lately?" Maddie asked on the twelfth day, "What's up?"
"I'm just a bit tired, that's all." I said, putting on a smile. What I said was not necessarily a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth. I've still been having trouble sleeping, kept awake by questions about this world and, for the first time in my life, myself.