The Shapeshifter

The creepy Spider Queen was now staring at him with only a meter away from each other's face. The hot breaths of the Spider Queen was giving him shivers.

"Any last words, boy?", the Spider Queen said.

Its hot breath as the words were spoken, stank like it has only eaten rotten human flesh for a millennia and the smell of it was unbearable.

Since Alex was terrified, his breathing was quite fast and he was able to inhale and smell the foul odor coming from the Spider Queen's mouth.

He had a meagre amount of resistance when it came to that kind of smell. He was unable to hold it anymore and vomited.

"Blergghhhh!"

Retching sounds came from Alex as he continued to throw up right in front of the Spider Queen.

The Spider Queen was shocked that someone actually threw up right in front of it. It has never witnessed such an event for the century that it has lived.

"W-what? Insolent!"

The Spider Queen sounded angry. It used its spider leg to flick Alex backwards and he landed just behind Reynard, who just stood up. It could be seen that although the Spider Queen was angry, it greatly held back its strength as Reynard and Alex, who have different amount of strength, landed near each other.

"Hmph!"

Reynard wasn't surprised by the temper of the Spider Queen as he had already tried to negotiate with it once and ended up in bandages. Though it liked to toy with its food for a while, that's why he was able to escape with his life and limbs still intact.

It looked at Reynard and said annoyingly, "What are you still doing here? Take your kin with you and buzz off! The next time you come here without giving me many food, then you can forget about leaving here with you life."

"Yes, yes."

Reynard quickly went to the group of children and tried to wake them up one by one, since he really couldn't carry all of them by himself. He started to wake up his son, Rezhul. He kept on slapping his son's cheeks gently so he wouldn't be shocked when waking up.

When he saw that Rezhul was about to wake up, he slowly lifted his arm and gestured to him to remain silent. Rezhul nodded as a sign that he understood.

They slowly stood up and when Rezhul's eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness, he was able to see the monstrosity that was just a few meters from them. His body trembled and his eyes started to water. It was the fear of seeing something almost incomprehensible and natural fear itself. Noticing this, Reynard quickly blocked Rezhul's line of sight with himself and said, "Go wake them up, quick."

Regardless of the words Reynard has said, Rezhul was still deeply rooted to the ground. He wasn't moving an inch, but his eyes continued to produce tears.

The actions of Reynard and the teens didn't go unnoticed to the Spider Queen, since it had 6 eyes that covers different angles. Just from the slightest of movements, it was able see what they were up to. Yet it chose to ignore them for now, since it didn't really care about it much.

No matter how careful Reynard tried, there was still one of them who was curious of what it was that Reynard was stopping them from seeing. He thought that it was only thousands of dead spiders, what harm could it make?

As he swoop in for a look, he was frightened by the appearance of the Spider Queen and shouted, "Ahhhhh! A monster!"

"Ahhhhh! A human!"

'Puchi!'

The shrill cries of the teen immediately came to a stop as the Spider Queen definitely attacked him. The Spider Queen blew off its nose and said, "Pitiful."

Reynard reacted quickly and used his arms to pushed the other children with him to the ground. He was able to see the attack of the Spider Queen and therefore saved most of their lives. But he was unable to save the last one who shouted.

The group only felt a strong wind on the Spider Queen's side and the next thing they knew was that they have been pushed to the ground by Reynard.

"No matter what happens, don't look.", Reynard immediately commanded.

Hearing the graveness in the tone of his voice, the teens complied and closed their eyes. Reynard gritted his teeth as pain and sorrow quickly flashed in his eyes. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and said, "Close your eyes and just follow my voice. Don't you ever look back."

He stood up and lead the way back from where they came from.

"Follow me."

When he started walking, he looked down and saw one of the teens from the group. His whole upper body was completely obliterated. There was no intestines, no rib bones, nothing. Only blood. Splattered in the ground. His head and limbs were pretty much in good condition, however, he was already void of life.

Reynard looked to the side and saw Alex was still on the side, sitting unconsciously with rubbles all around him. He looked down and clenched his fist so hard that it was already dripping with blood.

He knew that what he did was wrong. He knew that there was also a family waiting for Alex to come home. He only did what he did to save his tribe; more accurately, to save his son.

"Sorry.", he muttered.