How much time had pa.s.sed?A decade, a century, a millennium? Or more? Or was it just a day?
Regardless of how long it actually went by, I found myself in a forest full of trees of different colours.
I had arrived here by teleportation. Exhausted both physically and mentally and without any reason to stay alive, I prepared myself for my last sleep.
With the last remnants of my strength, I used my spider web and wrapped it around myself to form a coc.o.o.n. Then I closed my eyes, hoping I would never have to open them again.
But unfortunately, my wish was not fulfilled. I didn"t know how much I had actually slept but, in the end, my sleep ended and I went out reluctantly from my coc.o.o.n. The sight that appeared before me was this forest.
Although I was unaware about how much time had pa.s.sed, inside I knew that all my companions had died, including the one I loved.
It was he who teleported me away from that place that was about to be destroyed, although I preferred that he hadn"t.
But, as always, his decision proved to be correct.
Not long after my awakening, with surprise I discovered that two eggs inside me, which I had forgotten because they weren"t formed yet at time of my sleep, had been fertilized and inside them were developing two life forms.
The legacy of my love with the one who had changed my life.
To that discovery, I trembled first with wonder and then with joy. When all was lost, I had found a reason to live and something to remind me that everything we had done had not been in vain.
The fruits of our love.
At that point, I expelled the two eggs outside and wrapped them in a silk sack to protect them. So I put them on my back where I fixed them using other silk.
Because the priorities had changed, I decided to explore this place and see if it was a safe place for my two eggs while carrying them on my back.
It didn"t take long for me to explore the area and I discovered pleasantly that there weren"t any dangerous creatures. So as long as my children stayed with me, there would be nothing to fear. However, two things still disturbed my mind, the same things that had always disturbed my mind and those of my species: the human race and the demon race.
They represented the greatest danger and not knowing if the area I was in had strong humans or demons tormented me. I therefore decided to extend my research area to the outer parts of the forest where I would have been more likely to meet them.
***
It was during my exploration in the outer parts that I heard the voices of some men in the distance.
As I approached as quickly as possible, without making any noise thanks to my 8 legs that could run easily on any terrain, I discovered a group of humans on wagons.
From the appearance they seemed to be merchants, although I was uncertain. Not knowing what to do, I decided to follow them from the forest without being seen. I wanted to find out the strength level of humans in this area but attacking without information, especially with my two eggs, was risky.
I continued to follow them until evening, when the group of humans stopped for the night, setting up a temporary camp. This allowed me to finally see all the humans in the group, including those in the wagons.
Among them, I was particularly struck by a woman with brown skin. My eyes moved to her big belly. From the shapes of his body she did not seem to be fat, so she was likely to be pregnant and should not have missed much at birth.
By reflection, I turned to look at the two eggs on my back. Suddenly I felt a certain sympathy for that human woman, but I immediately repressed it, as soon as I noticed it. Part of me hated humans because of what they did but I also knew that not all humans were guilty of that.
Shortly after, I noticed the presence of other humans who were dividing at various points. From the way they were preparing themselves, it seemed they wanted to attack the group of merchants, so they had to be bandits.
It didn"t take long for my deduction to be accurate and, as I had expected, the bandits attacked the convoy. From there arose a battle between the two groups and this allowed me to evaluate their combative strength.
Fortunately they were not a threat and, despite possessing spiritual power, they were the weakest humans I had ever met. Considering their non-dangerousness, I jumped forward behind them to fight them. It would have been a great way to stretch out a little.
In a short time I killed all the bandits, including the leader nearby. It was then that I noticed the human woman I had seen before.
I realized that she was now dead, but inside her, the little human creature was still alive. Driven by an unknown reason, I decided to free the human cub. Cutting the mother"s belly, I took out the baby.
He was a male, covered in blood and amniotic fluid. He had a body so small and fragile and its weight was almost non-existent in my eyes. I realized he still had some liquid inside him. So, by sending a small portion of my spiritual power, I pushed out the liquid inside him and finally he burst into tears and gave signs of life.
At that point I was overwhelmed by another feeling unknown to me. Although he was a human baby, the enemy of my race along with the demons, I could not resolve myself to abandon him there. In the end I chose to take it with me; I didn"t know the reason for this choice, but at the time I didn"t really care about.
With a human cub between my legs and my two eggs on my back, I moved towards the forest.
***
I reached a small lake at the eastern end of the forest. The moonlight made the clear surface of the water s.h.i.+ne, giving it a silvery hue while around it reigned a pleasant tranquility, interrupted from time to time by the noise caused by some small nocturnal animals in the surroundings.
I approached the water source and plunged into it, rippling the flat liquid surface. The water near the sh.o.r.e was not very deep, so I had no danger of sinking, although that was no problem at all.
Slowly I removed the piece of robe that enveloped the child and soaked it with water. I wanted to use it to clean the baby still dirty with amniotic fluid and blood residues. However, since the water was cold, I had to use this expedient as it would have been too much for the child to be placed directly in contact with the cold water.
Although this method was not so ideal, however, since he awoke crying from his sleep, I finally managed to finish the job without too much trouble. Then, I let out some silk to use it to dry him and then to wrap it up around him so that he wouldn"t get cold.
Once finished, I returned to my den in the middle of the forest while the human cub had calmed down once it was wrapped in its silk blanket.
Arriving at destination, I took a large number of fallen leaves and gathered them together, creating a small circle where I could put the child. Then, I untied the silk that bound my two eggs to my back and placed them on the ground next to the human.
I didn"t know the reason, but the sight of my two eggs together with that human cub didn"t seem strange to me, in fact it seemed like it was the most normal picture in the world.
Fogged by this view, I began to weave a web around my position as I thought about what had happened.
"Why did I save him? He is human, after all, and I had no connection whatsoever with his mother. Yet the thought that he would die like this, in the darkness inside his mother without knowing the outside world terrified me. The problem now is: what do I do? Humans will soon find out what happened and investigate, I don"t know if this area has strong cultivators, although I doubt it, given the level of those people before. But the child needs to be with his kind... "
Absorbed in my thoughts, I was awakened by the sudden cry of the child behind me. He had woken up from his sleep and was slowly writhing in tears.
With a start, I turned and ran to him. I immediately inspected his body to see if he was okay but nothing was wrong. I therefore understood that he was probably hungry.
I slowly took him with my legs and carried him towards me. Then, pressing against my abdomen, I let out a substance similar to milk and, with my spiritual power, I carried that substance near the child"s mouth.
Slowly, I let the liquid flow drop by drop into him and soon he became full and fell asleep again.
"Fortunately he calmed down, otherwise I wouldn"t have known what to do. For now, I"d say go to sleep. Then I"ll come back to where the bandit attack happened to see if there is someone who noticed that slaughter so that I could leave this baby to them."
Thus, the spider with a human baby and two eggs by his side fell asleep in the thick web in the heart of the forest.
***
The following morning, the spider cautiously returned to the site of the ma.s.sacre and laid in wait for the arrival of other humans.
It was around noon that she saw a large group of people. These had different types of iron armors and were equipped with various weapons. From the appearance, they seemed to be more mercenaries than soldiers of some army given the diversity of their equipment.
They soon noticed the brutal scene in front of them. Since they were people who made their living making war, the view of this ma.s.sacre didn"t scare them but the conditions in which some corpses were, worried them.
"Boss, we examined the corpses. This is certainly an attack by bandits on a group of merchants. But something must have attacked the bandits since we found a wagon full of goods. The bodies of the merchants show normal sword wounds and arrows. The problems are those of the bandits: they were done in half entirely with a single blow. In addition there is the corpse of a woman with a half-opened stomach and an umbilical cord sticking out." The soldier reported to the head of his venture company.
The boss, upon hearing this, frowned and dismounted, approaching the woman nearby the head of the bandits.
"These wounds... can it be the work of some spiritual beast? So why did it kill the bandits and then leaves the corpses? Furthermore this is definitely a caesarean section, there is no way that a spiritual beast has the intelligence to do it unless it is a high-grade spiritual beast?!"
At this thought the mercenary leader shuddered at the terror of such an eventuality. He remembered very well the stories he heard as a child about the ancient era and the war of the ma.s.sacre, especially the infernal beasts known as divine beasts.
"No, no ... it can"t be. The divine beasts have been extinct for millennia. Surely it has to be a human, and one high leveled too. Otherwise he wouldn"t have left the load... but why leave the corpses like that, especially that of the woman?"
Unable to find a reason, the mercenary chief stood up and told his men. "Take some horses and tie them to the wagons. Pile the corpses of the bandits in one wagon and those of the merchants and the woman in another. We will take both of us with the cargo of goods."
Upon hearing the order of their leader, the mercenaries set to work without complaining.
Meanwhile, inside the forest, a dark figure was watching them from afar with his eight eyes.
"It"s a group of mercenaries. Judging by their actions, they do not seem to be bad people. If I left the child with them, I"m sure they would take him to the nearby city. Yet at the same time I don"t want to part with him." The spider thought to herself as she watched the actions of the mercenaries.
She remained like that all the time and, even when the mercenaries had finished their task and were leaving, the spider remained motionless as she found herself unwilling to act.
Finally, watching the mercenaries disappear on the horizon, she turned around to return to the forest where she had her den.
"What have I done? What have I done? Why didn"t I leave the child there with the mercenaries? Why is it so difficult to part with him?" Throughout the journey towards her den, the spider had repeated these questions inside her head like a chant.
Her rational side told her to leave the human cub among his kind while another side told her, for some obscure reason, not to let that child go. Finally, after hours of reflection, she made his decision.
"I have decided. It is useless to think about it so much. I"ll keep him with me and raise him as my son. I don"t know the reason for this choice but my instinct tells me not to let him go. If this is the case, I will become your mother. But to bring you up in this kind of environment, I need you to get stronger. I hope you will not hate me for this selfish choice in the future. In return I will give you all the love I am capable of, in the same way your mother would have done."
With this, the spider extracted the same milk-like liquid from her abdomen. At the same time, with one of her legs, she injured her body and blew out a tiny drop of blood from which she took only a tiny fraction. Then she joined that small part to her milk-like liquid which took on a crimson color and gave it to the child to drink.
"This will make you stronger but it will mark your future. It will probably bring you a lot of problems, but I"ll raise you to make you strong enough to solve them. However, as long as I"m alive, you won"t have to worry about getting hurt anyway. So, for now, you will grow up healthy and happy, then, when the time comes, I will teach you more about the world and about me."
With this choice the future of the child was marked towards the tortuous path of cultivation. If this was a blessing or a curse, only time could have revealed it.