It didn’t take long for them to get to their destination. Even having to stop so Pipuck could patch up the st wounded bear the Daog dragged to them. Eventually they reached the spiders.

  They heard them before they saw them. A loud, skittering, cttering noise that grew louder as they grew closer. Practically guiding their path with what Temate thought was a strange rhythm, a sort of beat akin to a marching band drummer. Or rather, hundreds of drummers.

  “Is that… whistling?” Toni asked.

  Fun fact Temate had learned for a campaign he ran a while back. Spiders were not necessarily silent creatures, in fact a specific brand of spider from Australia - because of course it would be Australia - was known as a 'whistling spider'. This was because they could perform a unique form of stridution, which sounded like a whistling hissing noise. Much like what they were hearing now.

  “Yes. Yes it is.”

  The spiders were unsettlingly loud, whistling, hissing noises, clicking from striduting their fangs. There was even a low constant buzzing likely from the webbing, some spiders could vibrate their webs rapidly to create a buzzing noise. As they grew closer, the buzzing began to hurt his head slightly, but as they rounded the final corner the sounds began to fade.

  Then they saw the webs. They were thick, huge webs that filled the passage ahead of them. Right where Temate had fought, and been soundly beaten by, the Nitha previously. It was like something out of a horror film, white thick strands of webbing covered the tunnel. No part was so thickly covered you couldn’t proceed deeper in. However, their overpping nature made it impossible to draw a straight line of sight down even to where the next light should be.

  Then they saw the spiders. Surrender noticed first, hissing at the forms skittering around beyond and within the first yer of webbing. This drew the rest of the groups eyes and Temate narrowed his as he began to count. It was a foolish decision really, but it distracted from what he was seeing a bit, helped him keep his stomach and cool.

  They were covered in thick, white bristles that could be seen vibrating on the rger ones whenever whistling would start. Each of the creatures were slowing as their web spinning concluded, seeming content with how far they have travelled. Their huge, singur lensed eyes glistened with dark hunger in the light of the nearby sun mp.

  The rgest one, which likely measured up to Temate's stomach, stood calmly amongst the others. It seemed to stare right at them, but did not act, it just waited, watching and occasionally whistling or plucking at the webbing around it. Communicating, commanding? That idea made Temate shudder, then he heard a stifled shout behind him.

  “Fucking HELL that’s-” Toni cut herself off as she shivered and turned away stopping to lean on the wall. Temate turned to her.

  “You okay little T?” Temate asked, pcing a hand on her back.

  “Yeah I uh, I don’t normally mind bugs, even spiders. Some of those though…”

  “Big aren’t they, eh?” A shrill cackling voice rose from beside them and Temate whirled. He reached for his machete but stopped when he saw who spoke.

  “Sgoinneil I assume.” He said, restraining the surprise as he looked down.

  “You assume correctly young ‘un! You must be Temate, the bear human! Oh don’t give me that look, Honey can hide things from anybody, but nobody hides things from ol go go!”

  An elderly bear stood on two legs beside them. Thick, shaggy grey bck fur, a bright white V patch glimmering on her chest. Her two ears were much rger than the other bears Temate had seen and had rge clusters of hair sticking off of them. Her snout was longer and narrower than any other bear, and her grinning face revealed smaller, wider teeth not meant for tearing flesh.

  Her legs shook violently, practically vibrating the air around them and forcing her to lean on an eborate cane. Her cws were longer than other bears, and thicker, not quite as sharp at least in appearance. Though as Temate had learned, appearances were deceiving when it came to bears. One hand rested atop the bear head topper of an eborately carved dark wooden cane, the other wrapped around the shaft just beneath that.

  Despite the use of the cane, and her intense shivering, she did not slouch but stood tall and proud, which made her all the stranger to Temate. Because she was small, very small. So small in fact that Temate couldn’t really process the idea that she was a bear. So small that-

  “What... what kind of bear are you?” Toni said as she looked down at Sgoinneil.

  Yes, down. Sgoinneil was shorter than Toni. Sure it was only by a few inches but still! Temate racked his brain, he knew tons of weird, stupid bits of information. Partially because of his dives down vast internet rabbit holes, and partially because he constantly sought it out. The weirder things you knew, the better and more interesting you could make a story after all.

  “PAH, what a rude thing to ask.” Sgoinneil wacked Toni’s leg with her cane in a singur motion that Temate barely tracked.

  “OW! Sorry geez you don’t have to hit me I’m-” Sgoinneil cut her off.

  “Loud? Rude? A bit dense and-” Sgoinneil sniffed the air “-smelling of fire and steel? You must be Toni then!” Toni blinked at the description, too stunned to reply.

  “You know us?” Temate asked, he noticed as Sgoinneil briefly gnced at Pipuck.

  “Aye, little Pip shared some information, your fates, one of them, in exchange for certain guarantees. That’s a wily little pixie-”

  “Spiras.” Pipuck snapped.

  “Oh heavens no, you’re much more pixie like than any of those annoying little motes of light. Too clever for one, too detached for another.” Sgoinneil grinned at Pipuck who simply crossed their arms and gred at the bear. Then Sgoinneil turned to Surrender who moved behind Temate cautiously.

  “That means you’re the little gremlin girl, Surrender correct? A good word, powerful, ay? Last gremlin I met was Azmetera.” Sgoinneil smiled and waved one of her paws at Surrender who’s ears perked up.

  “You know mother?” Surrender asked.

  “Oooooh, is that your mother? Well that makes sense it sure does, you’ve got the same spirit!” Sgoinneil poked a cw at Surrender and smiled broadly. “How is the sweetheart? Still living in the same old tree?”

  Surrender shook her head in response. “Find cave in crevice. Much nicer! Safer!”

  Sgoinneil ughed loudly, which caused the spiders beyond her to stir. They began to skitter and thud up further, chasing after the noise, all but the biggest which simply began whistling. Temate moved to block them all off, pulling his bone shield, formed using [Bone Salt], and hefting his bde.

  “Ooooh well I’m gd to hear that, though make sure she doesn’t dig too much, I’m learning that there are some nasty biters in the dark pces beneath.” Sgoinneil responded to Surrender, unbothered by the rush of noise and limbs behind her.

  The spiders came, a thundering ctter of exoskeleton on stone and then… they crashed. In one rush they smmed into what appeared at first to be open air before a bright gleaming yellow barrier leapt up from the earth to block their path. They hissed and snarled against it, cwing and biting at the barrier in a ther of rage and likely pain.

  When they gave up and began crawling back into the tunnel there were dozens of the arachnids corpses left behind. Crushed by their kin against the barrier, they fell to the ground. Some twitched, but most simply fell limp and wet as the barrier faded. Pipuck whistled loudly and eyed Sgoinneil.

  “Pretty impressive barrier work, why didn’t you do tha’ when they were further into the tunnels?” They asked.

  “Simply put, I did not know how. Hell I didn’t even know if it would work this time!” Sgoinneil cackled loudly.

  “What?! You were so calm though!” Toni replied.

  “Of course I was, does no good to be panicking now does it?” The bear said as she spped Toni on the shoulder causing the girl to stumble a little. “Besides, this biiiig strong protector was here to watch my back.” Sgoinneil spoke in a teasing sensual tone and motioned with her chin towards Temate who still held his stance.

  “How long will it hold?” He asked.

  “Hmmmm….” Sgoinneil thought for a long time. “No clue!” She eventually replied, shrugging. “It will hold as long as it can, and by then I will have figured out a better way.”

  “And if you haven’t?” Temate asked.

  “Well that’s not an option now is it.” Sgoinneil said as she walked over toward the barrier and looked at the spiders beyond. “There’s more of them than we thought, I don’t have a choice but to figure out a better way.”

  “What about fire? You could just burn the webs and wipe them all out at once couldn’t you?” Toni asked, stepping up and putting an arm on Temate’s own. He lowered them as she gently pushed down, but did not sheathe his machete.

  Sgoinneil turned to look at them and ughed maniacally. Another rush of spiders pressed against the barrier reaching for her. That only caused her to ugh more.

  “Us? FIRE?! Hahahahahaha you must be mad girl, fire is the one element bears will not work. Hrmm actually.” Sgoinneil raised a paw to her chin, stroking her wild hairs. “Honey did mention something about trying to burn them and the spiders putting out the fire on their webs... Anyway, we are capable of working such an element, but it is inherently contrary to our Idea so we do not.”

  “But what about the sun mps and sun pits and stuff you have everywhere?!” Toni asked incredulously, motioning backwards to one of the mps in the wall not 10 feet behind them.

  “What about them?” Sgoinneil looked at Toni like she was crazy.

  “They’re fire, aren’t they?!”

  Sgoinneil blinked then looked confused. “No they’re not, they’re heat and light. That’s different.”

  Toni’s face screwed up in a way Temate was learning to recognize. She was overwhelmed, fbbergasted, mad with frustration at the insanity. The insanity of what Temate recognized as a difference between her understanding of the world and the bear’s Ideal perspective.

  He put a hand on her shoulder. “Toni, breathe, things work a bit differently with magic from what I’m gathering. Heat and Fire aren’t intrinsically linked for everything, did I get that right?” Temate looked up to Sgoinneil who gave him a big grin.

  “Oooooh, you have a knack for this! Though you spoiled my fun, I wanted to tease the girl a bit more.” Sgoinneil started giggling

  “What do you mean?!” Toni half shouted.

  “Oh I understand your confusion little Toni, so I wanted to py with you a bit but it’s as your sturdy friend says. Heat and Fire are not intrinsic to each other, not as we see it. One need not lead to or come from the other.” Sgoinneil expined.

  As she did so, she whisked her hand in the air creating a small globe of sunlight, the warmth filled the space around it. She then took that and a piece of webbing stuck in her fur, and held them together. After a moment she pulled them apart.

  “It didn’t burn at all.” Toni said, surprised. Surrender watched, mouth agape in her own form of shock.

  “I could ‘ave expined tha’ easily enough, y’know that’s my job righ’?” Pipuck spoke up, smacking Temate’s arm.

  “Oh, sorry Pip.” Temate said as he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

  “Aaaah shu’ i’ I’m messin’ with ya d, I’m gd you’re pickin’ i’ up so quickly.” Pipuck smiled up at Temate and he smiled softly back. Then he turned back to Sgoinneil and asked the question burning in his mind.

  “Is there anything we can do to help?”

  Sgoinneil rubbed her chin some more thoughtfully.

  “I can make fire!” Toni said very suddenly and excitedly in the quiet. Everyone turned to her, then Temate raised his eyes in realization.

  “Oh! Right your [Eternal Fme], it’s true she can make fire…” Temate trailed off in thought. He didn’t really know what her limit was, he had to assume there was one. Infinite fire was bad, well infinite anything could be bad used right. Fire was inherently destructive, but the skill was also called [Eternal Fme] so…

  Poke.

  “Ah, sorry I was just wondering how much fire you could make before you ran out of… mana? Energy? Power?” Temate looked down at Toni who smiled back at him.

  “I mean, quite a bit. Enough to burn that nest down.” She waved over towards the thick webs choking the tunnel.

  “Well we can’t do it from here, the wards would have to come down and that would pose danger to Bearbhaile.” Sgoinneil looked thoughtfully at Toni. “We could have a small tunnel opened to allow you access to the webs deeper in, but I know not how dangerous that might be.”

  “Hmmmm.” Everyone began thinking,

  “‘Ow abou’ instead of talkin’ abou’ i’ ‘ere we go somewhere more comfortable. It’s gonna take time whatever we do, and talkin’ ‘ere runs the risk of the spiders bashin’ the wards again.”

  “Oh! Good idea little pix- aaaaah Spiras.” Sgoinneil grinned as Pip gred at her. “Why don’t we go grab a nice cup of tea hmm?”