Jungle Encounter

            “Most interesting,” said Archie as he moved the leaves aside and leaned in for a closer look.

            “What is?” asked Perry. He looked back to see his friend with his head halfway buried in a thick underbrush. He let out a sigh. What tiny jungle specimen has grabbed his attention this time, he thought while trudging over to his friend. 

            As he got closer, he noticed one of the trees sticking out of the underbrush Archie was in. It was branchless and covered in a bristly bark. Perry reached out to touch it. “What kind of trees-“ he let out a sharp yelp as the tree shuddered at his touch, followed by similar trees emerging from the underbrush. Perry’s head darted toward Archie’s direction to find him standing upright, staring back at something that was three times the size of Archie’s head and emerging from its lush hiding place.

            “This is by far the largest species of arachnid I have ever encountered,” Archie said with a twinkle in his eyes.

            The rustling of leaves and snapping of branches cut through the jungle air as the creature rose up to reveal the rest of its body along with its eight bristly legs.

            Archie moved to the side of it to get a better look. “Judging by the narrow form of this arachnid, I would surmise this species favors pouncing over entanglement to capture its prey.”

“Archie, get away from that!” shouted Perry. He grabbed his friend by the arm and turned to run only to be stopped at the sight of two over spiders coming up behind them.

       “Fascinating,” said Archie. “Arachnids are primarily solitary, with only a select few species being community based.”

“Lucky us,” Perry said with a gulp.

“Lucky us, indeed,” Archie said with a smile.

            The faint slivers of sunlight pierced through the canopy of trees, peppering the gargantuan spiders with flecks of light. Perry could see their mouths fluttering with excitement as they drew closer. He cringed closer to his companion. Was this it? After all adventures and mishaps, this was how it was all going to end? As a meal?

            “Quite curious,” said Archie, “The ratio of predator to prey is three to two and most spiders ingest through liquefied consumptions. I wonder how we shall be distributed.” He gestured a drinking and passing motion with his hands. “One hypothesis could be one having their appropriate fill, then simply giving us to the others. I speculate who would take the first bite.”

            “I’d rather not find out,” said Perry while swinging his pack at the spiders in an attempt to hold them back. “How about speculating on how to escape?” One of the spiders snagged his pack away from him with its fangs and shredded it apart; sending a chill through Perry’s body. 

            The oral rampage was drawn to a halt as a high frequency buzz emanated around them. The eight legged behemoths turned to face the same direction; ignoring the two young morsels.

            “Auditory signaling? Curiouser and curiouser,” said Archie.

            Perry saw an opening in the opposite direction the spiders were facing and once again pulled Archie by the arm. “Whatever it is, it’s giving us a chance to escape!” They sprinted past the remains of Perry’s pack and were just a few feet from the opening when another spider dropped down from above. Before Perry could react, the spider spun around to point it’s abdomen at him.

            “Oh, so they do possess that particular function,” said Archie.

            “What?” Perry turned his attention to his friend. “What particular function?”

            The answer came in the form of a translucent stream jettisoning out of the spider’s rear. The webbing hit him like a punch to the chest, knocking him down to the ground. The spider reeled him in with its two front legs and spun him around as the two back legs threaded out more webbing.

            “Such craftsmanship,” breathed Archie. He gazed at the weaving, entranced like one would at a symphony. Each leg fulfilling their own individual tasks in collaboration with each other and plopped his cocooned friend to the ground.

            Archie crouched down at his friend’s exposed head. “How does it feel?” asked. Archie. “Did it bind you too tightly or just snuggly restrained?” He poked the webbing a few times with his finger. “How sticky does it feel on the inside?”

  Perry let out a sigh. “I really hope they’re generous with the garnish.”

“That can easily be remedied,” came a voice as the buzzing faded away. “Depending on what you’re doing in our forest.” 

            Perry wiggled his body to look for the source of the voice. The spiders moved back to reveal a woman wearing a tunic and shorts with tattered edges in colors that matched the surrounding vegetation. She patted one of the spiders on its head as she walked towards the two confused travelers. Her hair was long, tattered with bits of leaves and twigs sticking out of it and her feet caked in dirt. She pulled from her back a blade that glistened a deep black and stabbed it into the ground, inches from Perry’s face.

“Care to explain?”