Chapter Four

Webfarmer padded softly along the tunnel, stooping at the low roofed sections & trying to follow the fanciful and incoherent story her guide was telling. The young goblin had woken her up well before sunset with tales of intruders and a war of bees and spiders, and after her attempts to settle the terrified but also somehow excited child had failed, she’d decided to play along until it had calmed down.
“This one doesn’t go into the main cave.” She tried to explain, but the child was having none of that, and kept babbling about monsters in the cavern. “This tunnel ends in a wall of the silver-glass crystals. You were just having a dream; There aren’t any invaders down here.”
“End, then up!” Came the insistent reply. “Through shiny rocks to big cave.”
Webfarmer shrugged and let herself be dragged along.
As they rounded the corner, hunched over in Webfarmer’s case because the floor bulged upwards at that point, she gestured to the softly glowing crystals.
“See? No tunnel.” She dropped into a crouch, looking into the child’s eyes … What was it’s name? Baz, Zaz, something like that … Trying to be reassuring. “Just a dream, see. No new tunnels, no invaders, nothing to be afraid of. We’re safe here.”
“No.” The child said in a serious tone. “Up!”
Before Webfarmer could react the young goblin had leaped at the wall of crystals, nimbly jumping between them as it sped towards the roof, somehow not being cut to shreds by the edges … And vanishing into the shadows at the very top of the wall.
“Ba … Za …” What was the child’s name, Webfarmer wondered as she tried to call out to it. “Where did you … You shouldn’t … Are you alright?”
A grinning face appeared above the wall of crystals, lit softly from below, sticking out of a hole which blended perfectly with the shadows.
“See? Up!” The child gestured, then pointed down. “Big three side first!”
With an expression somewhere between exasperation and admiration, Webfarmer stepped up to the wall and looked closely. The large triangular crystal did have a layer of dirt on it, far more than could have been placed by one little goblin in one climb, and it was angled just flat enough that the edges wouldn’t cut your feet if you stood on it. A little way above it, another one offered the next foothold.
“How did you find this?” She asked the little face above her.
“Good at finding tunnels!” Came the response as the child pointed out the next safe handhold. “Lots of hidden tunnels; Only Webfarmer small enough for this one.”
Webfarmer pulled herself up until she was level with the child, and fixed it with a stare.
“You mean the only reason you woke me up was because I can fit through your tunnel?” She demanded.
“Shhhh.” Said the child, putting a finger to its lips. “Close to monsters now.”
—–
Webfarmer and the child stared out from their vantage point high above the cave.
Out at the entrance, a dim fire crackled, with three large figures sitting slumped around it. Inside, past the pool with the log, more figures lay wrapped in blankets on the moss beds, well away from the glowing toadstools.
“See!” The child whispered triumphantly. “Monster Invaders.”
Webfarmer could only nod in agreement at first, taking in the crushed moss, fallen spiders, the disturbed water of the pool, and the smoke occasionally wafting in. Then she noticed other things; Rocks carefully cleared of moss to make stepping stones through the cave, a ring of earth to keep the fire from spreading.
“Look, they have lanterns.” She pointed. “Beside the ones lying down, the little glass boxes.”
At the child’s confused look, she continued.
“Like we use a silver-glass crystal on a string, or a toadstool in a pot to see by; A lantern uses a little flame.”
“Are they sleeping?” Asked the little goblin, pointing to the blanket wrapped figures. “It’s night. Why are they sleeping?”
“I don’t know.” Webfarmer replied. “I don’t know why they would come here to sleep. Invaders wouldn’t do that, and I don’t think gatherers do that either.”
She turned to the child.
“What else did you see?”
“Spiders fighting flying things. Monsters … Invaders … Gatherers … Things outside attacking flying things too. Little rolly bugs on the ground too, but the moss and toadstools ate them.”
“What sort of flying things?”
A skittering noise attracted both their attentions as a cave spider made its way across the roof towards them, dangling a webbed something. As they watched, it hung the curled-up remains of a hornet from the roof web near them, then backed away.
“That sort.” Declared the child proudly.
Looking at the hornet, Webfarmer saw movement in the distance, and watched in disbelief as a huge cave spider, easily three times the size of any of the others, made its way towards them, stopping just outside of arms reach. It was close enough that she could see a bee clinging onto the spiders back.
“What in the name of the sleeping one is happening here?” She asked, looking from spider to sleepers to hornet to fire to bee and back.
The spider, impossibly, looked straight at her and shrugged.