The barking of dogs in the not-so-far distance made Naomi's heart beat even harder somehow and her legs pump with the desperate energy of someone who knew they couldn't be caught. Shouting followed the sound of the dogs and the crashing of many people in pursuit could be heard as her pursuers fumbled through the thick underbrush of the huge oak forest. The woods were far from kind to her, and it was only her small form that kept the worst of the branches from raking her. They still tore, ripping at her long blonde hair that streamed behind her and catching in her cotton gown to open seams and tear great rents in it as she flew through the deep midnight woods. Her bare feet pounded through the leaves and scattered acorns, but her thick calloused soles felt nothing. All she could think about was running. Running, and the reason why she ran.
Tears streamed from her wind and leaf whipped eyes as she cursed the masters stupid son. He had been cute, charming, but as a slave she knew she could never be with him. But he had taken a liking to her, and many nights had visited her in her corner of the cellar to brush her hair, whisper sweet nothings in her ears, and then crush her face into the pallet while he brutally fucked her. It had hurt, yes, but she had been blinded by the simple kindnesses the boy had shown her, and had bourne it as silently as she could. She would barely even whimper as his 8 inch cock would slam in and out, the boy not even caring to use oil to lubricate his entry. She saw now he was nothing more than a cruel man who took what he wanted, and swore her revenge.
They had finally been caught just this night, him forcing her to ride him and crying out that she was raping him when the butler had stumbled on them when going to get a late night bottle of wine for his master. The boy had pretended to struggle, and had punched her in the jaw as soon as she scrambled off him. Knowing the sentence for such a crime was death, she had fled into the deep, forbidding woods that none of the servants even entered.
The dogs sounded even closer, their barking getting more frantic as they smelled the prey getting nearer. The men shouted encouragement, but their voices were even more distant. They just couldn't keep up with the animals. The dogs were trained to tree their quarry and wait, but even so she had heard stories of other masters using their dogs to hunt and kill escaping slaves and panic raced through her at the thought that her master's animals might actually be trained in that way. She ran even faster, a punch of adrenaline causing her vision to grey and before she could see it the ground opened up under her and she fell screaming into a deep cave. She bounced off a branch and with a thud she didn't hear or feel her head struck a rock and she blacked out.
The touch of sunlight on her cheek woke her. She moaned in pain, her head a throbbing drum of pure pain and disorientation. She wondered if she had been fed too much of the master's wine by her cruel lover and that this is what a hangover felt like before she remembered last night's events. With a start she was fully awake, but opening her eyes felt like staring at the sun. She was, actually, now that she thought about it. She tried to shield her eyes with her hands, but something stopped them from moving. She wiggled, and felt like her whole body was trapped. She felt like she imagined babies did when swaddled tight in their blankets, but it wasn't a comfortable feeling. Se could move her head at least, and she tilted it down to escape the sun and see what had happened to her.
Opening her eyes once more, she saw her whole body was wrapped tightly in a white, stringy, cocoon of some sort. The strands felt sticky, and they bound her tightly from neck to toe. They also seemed to be attached to the rocky walls of the pit she had fallen into, leaving her pinned against a wall. From her vantage point she saw a few other bundles, but they all looked old and dried out, save one. There was a smaller, wriggling bundle suspended in the air in the middle of the shaft of the pit, crying piteously. She couldn't see much of it, but thought it might be a dog of some sort. Maybe one of the dogs that was chasing her last night? The shaft of the pit had one opening leading from it sideways into the ground, but it was shadowed completely in darkness and more stringy webbing. She could hear a rustling noise from inside the cave, however, and hoped against hope her imaginations of a giant spider of some sort were just imaginings.
But no. Moments later, a large, dark leg that seemed to glisten in the sunlight extended from the cave. It was followed by another, and then the golden head with multiple black, glittering eyes followed. It was... gigantic. Its mandibles clicked softly as it slowly picked its way across the web to the struggling dog. The things head was as big as she was. It had to be as big as the ice house the master kept. Its huge golden abdomen gleamed in the sunlight as it settled its bulk into the webs above the struggling dog. From the tip of its huge body a small stinger extended, and the spider wasted no time in stabbing it into the dog. The animal shrieked, but fell totally still and silent as whatever the spider injected it with went to work. It seemed like an eternity later, with Naomi hardly daring to breathe, before the spider used its 2 smaller front legs to detach the now-still dog and bring it to its mouthparts. The mandibles grasped it, and a small pair of fangs stabbed into the bundle and began to drink.
Naomi sobbed, realizing the dog wouldn't be nearly enough to satisfy the massive beast, and went limp in her bonds. She had tried to escape the cruelty of the people that owned her, and she comforted herself with the knowledge that at least now she would die instead of being tortured by people who only wanted her for her sex and her hard work. Tears dripped down her cheeks as she shook with the remembered pain of those nights in the cellar, never knowing if she would be raped or not. It was better to die in the free air, she thought, and not in a damp pit.
The spider dropped the bundle with a rustling thump and Naomi looked up through tear-clouded eyes to see the beast start picking its way over to her. She matched its gaze the whole way, watching it mince delicately over the strands towards her. It settled directly in front of her, its 2 largest eyes seeming to judge and weigh her against some inner need. Naomi knew she was going to die. She wasn't going to be afraid anymore. The massive beast came to some decision, and before Naomi could really react it used its short pair of legs that lay right by its mouthparts and pushed her head to the side, exposing her neck. Naomi struggled, wanting to get away if possible, but she felt the prick of its fangs on her neck and the heat of some foul venom being injected. She screamed as searing pain throbbed down her neck to her chest and across her limbs, before it settled somewhere behind her navel.
Her head felt almost disconnected from her self, her mind and consciousness drifting somewhere upwards, until she fancied she could look down and see her own tightly wrapped form hanging limply in the spider's web. The world shimmered, and suddenly she could see a glowing, pulsing halo around both her and the spider. Hers was a deep, almost abused red, and the spider glowed with a golden light that outshined its already blinding abdomen. She wanted to reach out, and with surprise she felt herself doing just that. Her ethereal hand slid forward, and met the glowing aura of the great spider. She felt an electric shock in her mind at the contact, but found herself unable to break the contact. The glowing threads of light seemed to wrap her soul now, but the tenderness of the contact made her want to cry in a way she couldn't sort out.
The spider wrapped her glowing form in its shining webs, soothing the angry red pulsing and pouring warmth and love and acceptance into her. As she drew deeper into it, she finally saw the true shape of the mighty beast. The glowing aura wasn't shaped like a spider at all; it was a man. And as she realized this the thoughts and story of the man filled her head.
He had been a slave as well, but not to the same master as she was. He had been a slave to a dark sorcerer hundreds of years ago, toiling in the fields to grow the strange ingredients for his masters brews and dark magics. One day he had been called to deliver a load of stinking rotwort to the top of the tower, and when he deposited the load into the storeroom, the sorcerer called him to the center of the giant room that opened to the night sky. Forced to obey, the sorcerer had him bound and gagged and laying on his side in the center of a strange circle of carved glyphs. There was lots of chanting, and a foul substance was poured over his head, and seconds later there was a massive flash of light and he had become the gigantic spider.
Confused and unable to sort out how to work all these extra limbs, the man had collapsed into the center of the circle and was dragged away to a large stone pit with a metal grate on top. He spent years there, being visited by the sorcerer at odd times but being fed daily. The dark was soothing on his sensitive new eyes, and with enough time he learned how to move and walk and spin webs. He built himself a cozy nest, but yearned to escape these cramping confines and be free of the misery the sorcerer had put him through. His size had doubled since he was first transformed, and the pit was getting to be too small.
One day, he decided he had had enough. The next time they came to throw another meal to him, he bolted far faster than anyone had suspected and forced the grate off the top of his hole. His strength surprised even him, and before he really knew what was happening, he was free. He looked about, and seeing the dark woods he fled for their safety. No one tried to chase him, and soon enough he was so deep in the woods, no one would every try to find him. It was here he started looking for a comfortable nest once more, and finding a crevice under a large rock he dug it into a comfortable shaft for his web and trap.
The story flew through Naomi's mind in the blink of an eye, pictures and sensations and feelings of despair and joy. She was almost breathless from the long flight as if she herself had made such a journey. The man-who-was-a-spider held her glowing form close, and she could see what his desires and intentions were. She didn't want to die, but she shuddered at the thoughts flowing from this massive beast. The deep love for her he held sealed it for her, and she voiced her agreement in her thoughts to this plan of action. She felt herself withdrawing back to her physical form, the golden strands of the spider caressing and promising the pain would be short lived compared to what was to come.
