Tribute Masterbook: BIG SPIDER WARNING

Red's tail hit the ground with a crash and a clatter. Her neck ruff puffed in irritation. 

 

"A wasted trip," she snarled to herself. Pyrope squinted at the small human text on the walls. 

 

"Hey!" She shouted to catch everyone's attention. "Says here this place has a way to directly communicate with the gods. I'm sure we can find it, given how good looking this place still is." Red paused, looking around.

 

The temple looked almost pristine. Aside from some cobwebs from ambitious spiders, including one the size of a tyto, there was minimal damage. Vaguely, Red wondered if the spiders had played any part in the abandoning of this holy site. She also debated eating the giant spider, but couldn't be bothered to care. Unless it was in front of something important. But what were the odds of that? 

 

Green was the first to leave the dais in the center of the temple. He went to examine the walls with the humans, since he was smaller than his companions. Seaspray turned to walk down one of the tunnels she'd seen that was large enough to hold a Rhakos of her size. The tunnel slowly became more and more cramped. The rocks pressed against her body. She considered backing out, but when she went to step backward, a jagged outcrop pressed into her leg painfully. Forward it was. Just as the tunnel was threatening to block all her movement, it opened up into a large cavern decorated with symbols associated with Nokt. Dang it.

 

Red, meanwhile, was investigating the top of the temple. She wasn't sure how the worshippers would communicate with any of the gods unless there was a hole in the top. She wasn't capable of hovering, so Red grabbed one of the rope like threads of webbing from the massive spider down below. It held incredibly well. 

 

The roof did have a hole in it. Multiple, in fact. As Red pulled her neck back to look from more of a distance, she noticed the holes seemed to form a pattern. They almost resembled constellations drilled through the thick stone. She made a mental note to investigate closer to noon and at night, when Nokt's face would shine through.

 

Something was tickling one of her feet. She looked down, noticing the spider had crawled up its web and was investigating the potential for her to be prey. She snorted and took to the air, deeming this section of the roof to be searched. 

 

Green investigated a small doorway that clearly was incapable of allowing large breeds through. It didn't open fully when he pried at it, forcing him to wiggle through the narrow opening. Once inside, he blinked a few times as candles sprung to life dramatically. The candles flared along a path that wound up to the top of the room. As Green followed the lights, the flickering fires changed color behind him. Purples, blues, greens, even red. All the colors illuminated the walls and the floor, casting minimal shadows. At the top, Green looked down.

 

The candles had perfectly formed the shape of a massive moth. The colors of the flames and the width of the light they cast formed the colors and patterns visible in Galyx's form in the night sky. The minimal shadows only added to the effect, outlining parts that would be shaded were Green looking at Galyx themself from this same angle. Green shrank into himself slightly, slowly navigating back down the pathway. He slid through the doorway, hearing the sounds of the candles flicker out. 

 

Pyrope and Erebus had stumbled into a small collection of ancient scrolls and books. Pyrope opened one that looked promising. The cover featured a ball of flame, which she interpreted as Daius. Surely that was a good sign. As she thumbed through the pages, she realized it was just a log of prayers to the sun God. She leafed to the back of the book to see if any of Seaspray's challenges had been logged. As she got closer to the end, she was sure the book was actively getting heavier. 

 

She set the book on the floor, aware if it was getting heavier, she'd get pinned beneath it when holding it. At last, minutes worth of page turning later, the final page was revealed. As she watched, new prayers added themselves to the page, reaching the bottom and continuing on the next page. Pyrope slammed the book shut. Not today, Satan. Or Daius. By now, they were interchangeable. She shuddered, lifting the now lightened book to set it back on the shelf. She skipped the Nokt and Galyx books, but couldn't resist looking briefly at the void patterned tome. 

 

"Find anything?" Erebus grunted from where he was sat on a large stone, poring through a scroll.

 

Pyrope shook her head slowly. "Maybe. Found some prayer books," she replied. She skimmed the first couple pages of the Void book before setting it back. 

 

An exclamation from Erebus made her jump and shriek. He leapt to his feet. 

 

"Schematics! Look!" He pointed to a series of drawings on the scroll. Interestingly, it featured little caricatures of humans standing roughly where they were at. A rhakos doodle was in a cavern that was dedicated to Nokt. A Cara sketch was half through a door that led to Galyx's chamber, and a gryph was scrawled across the main room, which was dedicated to Nokt. She shuddered at the depiction of a spider larger than a man that some clown had drawn in a few feet behind where she and Erebus were standing. 

 

"There!" Pyrope pointed at a courtyard outside that displayed a Daius sigil. Erebus closed the map. He marched to stand in front of the dais.

 

"Seaspray! Green! Red!" He bellowed, the noise echoing through the main hall. Red flicked her tail lazily from where she was laying on the floor. Her neck was adorned with sections of snakeskin and cobwebbing. She did raise her head to at least look like she was paying attention. Green squeaked from where he was caught in a doorway. A lot like how the Cara had been on the map, in fact. Seaspray wailed in distress in the tunnel to Nokt's cave. Exactly where the rhakos had been on the map. Pyrope swiped the scroll from Erebus. Sure enough, the two humans on the map had moved. And so had the spider… still mere feet behind them. Pyrope paled. Red chortled. 

 

Yep. Giant spider. Right behind her. She casually handed the map back to Erebus and set her backpack securely on the floor, out of her way. And proceeded to pass out.