The Cougar Review

By B.E. Summit

The blood moon watched over the ashen forest. Every hunter knew that the best time to hunt was when the moon became sanguine like that. Gnarled trees reached towards the moon with branches like grasping claws. Their leaves were falling off, for winter was soon coming.

The forest was still that night. Not a creature was making a peep. They were hiding from the last living Arachnus Stalker– the Century Spider. As it dragged its bulk through the underbrush, the only sounds came from frightened ravens flying from their perches as the spider’s eight legs thumped against the forest floor. The beast was dragging three dead men with it, tangled up by a web like a snare, their flesh mangled by its giant fangs. The spider lumbered into a deep, dark cave and disappeared, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

A pair of predators of a different breed were stalking the forest. Their village had sent them to hunt the Century Spider. Elise the Woodstalker and her apprentice, Celine, wore leather armor woven from the hide of dead monsters, though Elise’s armor was adorned from trophies of monsters she’d slain. She had bested the Starkfeste Horror, put down the Hound of Nighthold, and butchered the Rockarch Dragon. The Century Spider was trivial by comparison. Good as dead, so long as she was tracking it.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Celine asked nervously.

“What are you talking about?” Elise murmured.

“The Century Spider has lived for…well, at least a century, and every time people hunt it, they don’t return. S-Skilled hunters, too,” Celine murmured in turn.

“I’ve slain far worse than a giant spider. This will be nothing,” Elise said coldly.

“And it’s the last of its kind…is this even right –”
“It eats people. It has to die.” Elise snapped at her.
“Right. Yeah.”

Celine spotted the trail of blood left by the Spider. She saw many large hole-shaped footprints in the moist soil, confirming it was nearby.
“Look! The blood trail is surrounded by footprints! That means it just killed prey, which means this must lead to its lair,” Celine said.

“Most excellent observation, Celine. Your skills grow by the day.” Elise gave her a pat on the head. She was proud of the hunter her apprentice was becoming, even if she tended to sympathize with the prey a little too often.

They followed the tracks through the underbrush and reached the mouth of the spider’s lair. It was a huge cave, with bones scattered on the ground near the entrance.

“Crossbows,” Elise said.
“Right.”

They raised their hunting crossbows and went inside. Elise spotted nearly invisible strands of web that stretched from wall to wall like tripwires.

“Hold it. Webs. We’ll alert it to our presence if we trip them.” Elise muttered so quietly that only a fellow hunter had senses keen enough to hear her.

Celine followed Elise. They ducked under and stepped over the web tripwires to avoid any traps. Despite the size of the beast and the strength of its webs, they would be hard to spot.

They could see the decomposing bodies of animals that had wandered the Spider’s snares scattered in corners and over the ground. A grizzly bear was barely alive, struggling in vain against its silky restraints. If the noble and mighty bear was helpless against the arachnid’s snares, Elise doubted she and Celine would fare much better.

The two finally reached the end of the cave. The dead men they had been sent to find were lying crumpled in a pile against the wall.

“Where could the Spider be?“ Elise was cut off this time.

“Above us!” Celine shouted.

Hanging from the ceiling was the Century Spider. It was colossal—larger than the largest elephant they had ever seen. Its exoskeleton was rocky. The beast had legs like stalagmites and pedipalps like pickaxes. Despite its ancient age, its body showed few signs of battle scars.

The Century Spider screeched and released itself from the ceiling. Celine’s warning gave them barely enough time to roll out of the way. Dust was kicked up all around the cave as the Century Spider reared up and roared. It brought its front two legs down in an attempt to crush Elise, but she jumped out of the way.

“Aim for the abdomen!” Elise shouted.

The spider rose up on its hind legs and sprayed silk from its spinnerets at them. Elise and Celine rolled out of the way and fired their crossbows at the abdomen. The bolts flew through its armor and pierced its internal organs. The monster screeched in pain, wounded. Elise drew her dragonbone sword and charged the Spider. She plunged it into its cephalothorax. The monster roared and flailed, trying to toss Elise off, but eventually succumbed to the wounds and collapsed to the ground, dead.

“Phew.” Elise climbed down from its corpse and chopped off its head as a trophy. “Let’s go home now.”

Elise collapsed to her knees and began heaving.“W-What’s going on?” she shouted. 

A stinging pain rushed through her body. She felt her limbs begin to distend. Hair sprouted, and her skin turned tough. Hunger and rage pulsed through her. With her back to Celine, visions of the hunters who had been tasked with slaying the Century Spider flashed through her mind. Then she knew the horrible truth. Each of the past hunters, thought to be eaten, had succeeded in slaying The Century Spider. Each of them was eventually slain by the next hunter in turn. Two eyes became four, four became eight.

“Elise! Are you alright?” Celine shouted, placing a hand on her mentor’s shoulder.

Elise turned around and faced Celine, groaning in pain. When she looked at Celine, all she could see was prey.