Something was tickling my feet.

Well, that's what it felt like, anyway. I wiggled my toes, trying to discourage whoever it was. Still half asleep, I figured it had to be my cat, bugging me for breakfast. But my bed was warm, and comfortable. I didn't want anything to do with getting up and moving. Not yet, anyway.

But the sensation didn't subside. Sighing with frustration, I opened my eyes and prepared to give the stupid cat a piece of my mind. Except my cat was nowhere to be seen. Neither was my bed. Or my house!

I found myself lying on my back on some sort of rocky ground. What I’d thought were my blankets was some sort of thick white webbing which stretched from my feet up to my knees. And the thing that was tickling my feet? Definitely not a cat!

Eight black eyes glared at me from the face of the biggest spider I'd ever seen. Hell, this was the biggest spider anyone had ever seen! The thing was the size of a small collie.

As I was wondering just what the hell the thing was, my mind flooded with a crazy load of information about the spider. It was just…there. One moment I had no idea what I was looking at beyond ‘big-ass bug.’ The next, I practically knew the thing’s cell phone number.

Small Cave Spider

Basic rank monster

Powers: Venom, Web

I didn’t know where the info was coming from, but venom didn’t sound good. And if this was a small cave spider, I didn’t want to meet the big ones. With a cry of alarm, I kicked my legs, trying to dislodge the thing. It clung tightly to me, not willing to be removed so easily. As I watched, the spider lowered the front of its head toward my thigh. The thing was going to bite me!

"No way that's happening!" Thanks to the web around my feet and ankles, I could still barely move my legs. But I could still move the rest of my body. I pushed hard with both arms, jerking my torso as hard as I could. The force of the movement flipped me completely over onto my belly, carrying the spider with me. It tried to dive out of the way, but because it had been hanging on so hard, it was just a hair too slow.

The spider gave a satisfying crunch beneath my knees when I landed on it. It wiggled spasmodically for a few more seconds, but I was pretty sure it was already dead. It definitely wasn't trying to bite me anymore, anyway. That was a step in the right direction.

As the arachnid died I felt a strange rush, almost like a burst of adrenaline, but not quite the same. My skin tingled a moment, then the energy seemed to flow down toward my belly and settle there. I shook my head, not sure what to make of the strange sensation, but it faded quickly. I had bigger problems.

"Where the hell am I?" I asked. I had no clue how to answer that question. While I worked at ripping webs from my legs, I looked around, hoping to see some answers.

There was a cliff face about ten meters to my right. A number of small caves dotted the face, mostly around the lower level of the cliff. The ground around me was rugged, rocky, and barren. It looked like what I might expect to see in a volcano caldera. In fact, that felt like a pretty good bet. The rock beneath me had that rough, porous quality that I associated with pumice. So, a volcano, then?

"Hopefully, not an active one," I said aloud. Giant spiders were bad enough!

I got myself to my feet as I looked around, trying to get my bearings. A burning sensation in my left arm got my attention right away. Had the spider managed to get a bite in while I was asleep? Worried, I pulled up the sleeve on my t-shirt to see…a tattoo?

It was on my upper arm, just below the shoulder. The image was a person, maybe a man? The face was mostly hidden by a hooded cloak, so it was difficult to tell. The tattoo looked half-completed, as it was only outlines at the moment.

The really strange thing about the image was I didn’t remember getting any ink.

Had to set that bit of weirdness aside for a moment so I could put priority on figuring out where I was, how I got there, and how to get back home.

I reached down to poke at the dead spider, half wondering if this was some kind of strange dream. It would definitely rank as the wildest one I’d ever had, if so. But the dead spider felt awfully real…for a moment. Then the spider’s crushed body began disintegrating right before my eyes, turning into pale blue smoke. Within moments, there was nothing left except a small pile of tiny clear crystals. I scooped them up and counted them; there were five of the things. Unsure what they were, I slipped them into a pocket.

I looked around again, trying to figure out what on Earth was going on. But I was beginning to wonder if that wasn't the root of my problem: Earth. Like, I was beginning to wonder if I was still there at all.

Creatures like the spider I killed had once existed on Earth, but not for millions of years. I was willing to bet they didn’t dissolve into mist back then either. Either I was going crazy, or I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

Wherever I was, I didn’t have much with me. I was wearing street clothes, at least — a t-shirt and jeans. My wallet was in my pocket. So was my iPhone, but when I pulled that out it was dead as a door nail. The wallet was a mess, too. A pair of deep puncture marks penetrated the leather, and everything inside the wallet was a soggy, slowly dissolving mash. I tossed it away and carefully wiped my hands to make sure none of the stuff had gotten on me.

The spider must have bitten me while I was asleep and hit the wallet instead of reaching skin. If I hadn’t had the wallet, that venom would have ended up inside me instead of in the wallet. I shivered at the thought. I had a feeling I wouldn’t have woken up at all in that case.

I paced about a little, checking the surrounding area. It was all desolate. Nothing growing and not much moving. There wasn’t anything around to burn for a fire, either. If it got cold in this place at night I was going to be in trouble.

The best bet might be to head for those caves in the cliff face. They’d give me shelter, at least. But that might also be where the spider had lived. It might have friends. I didn’t want to meet its friends. I didn’t have any better ideas, though. So I crept closer to the nearest cave, hoping I could get a peek inside without waking up anything living in there. If it was empty, awesome. I would have a base of operations I could use for the time being. If there was anything inside, well... There were other caves. If I could get away without being noticed, that is.

Before I got too close, I noticed movement not far from the cave’s mouth. I froze in place, then slowly lowered myself toward the ground, hiding myself among some of the rocks. It was another spider. No, it was three spiders, and they were all carrying something large with them, wrapped in a cocoon of silk. Whatever it was they carried, it wasn’t moving, but the general shape looked like an adult human.

The spiders kept pushing on with their burden. Even with three of them, it was rough going over a few spots where the rocks were particularly bumpy. They managed, though, exhibiting far more strength than I’d have thought their small forms would have. Finally they vanished into the darkness of the cave.

I sat there a minute, trying to figure out what to do next. Clearly, that was what they’d intended for me. The spider had been wrapping me up to haul me into their cave as a snack for later. While I watched, a second trio of spiders hauling a second body came ambling past. Like the first set, these ones struggled here and there with their burden, but they managed well enough. Soon the second cocoon was inside the cave as well.

That decided things for me, though. If there had been only three more spiders, I might have risked trying to fight them to free whoever was captured in there. But with six? I would just end up one more cocoon for a spidey-snack. There was nothing I could do for the poor souls captured in there. It was time to head elsewhere and find some sort of safety.

I shifted my weight to rise and my hand slid over the rocks. Loose bits of sharp rock skittered away from my palm, and one particularly sharp, glass-like chunk sliced my palm open.

“Shit!” I couldn’t help but cry out from the pain, but then clamped my lips shut. Had I been loud enough to be heard? The answer came in two sets of eight legs, scuttling over the rocky terrain. A pair of large spiders came darting out of the cave, heading in my general direction. Whether they’d somehow heard the noise I made, or were just coming to check on the one I’d killed, I didn’t know. But they were headed right for my hiding spot, and there was no way they were going to miss seeing me!