Obtained
Halloween Blood Moon Festival story contest
The Spider Cactus
The carnival had been eerie, though she supposed she ought to have expected that considering the shape of the caravans. It had certainly lived up to its name, a Blood Moon Carnivale could hardly be something cheerful and jolly now could it? Which begged the question...why exactly had she gone in the first place? She did not really have an answer, to be honest - she had been bored..what better place to cure boredom then a carnivale. Even a creepy one. But if the rest of the Carnivale had been odd then the fortune teller with her mysterious message...or perhaps warning was a better word....had been the most disturbing and as she walked slowly down the path, hooves sending up small puffs of dust as she went it was that encounter that she dwelled upon the most. The world had much in tore for her? What could it possibly mean? She was old, lived alone in a sheltered and dull glen and had a penchant for collecting exotic plants. The trip to collect those plants were the only exciting things that had happened to her in quite some time and if she were honest she would have to admit that those trips would be exciting to only to another plant lover like her.
Surely the strange gypsy mare had been mistaken, been trying to scare her. Giving a brief nod as though to reassure herself of this fact the elderly mare continued on her way home, each step taking her further away from the glowing carnivale lights, and the lingering unease the Fortune Teller's words had left within her mind.
By the time her glen came into view the warning had been all but forgotten and the old mare went about her evening business in relative bliss, chattering away to her plants in a loving tone as she tended to their needs, a bit of
water drizzled her...some bad leaves nipped off there as she made her rounds. Her newest acquirement she saved for last..she was more then proud of the plant, a small cactus she had carefully transported from far away. It was hard to transport a cactus you know...and she was suitably proud to have done so. Not only that but the plant seemed to be thriving in its new environment! Beaming at the plant she blinked, peering closer for a moment before laughing and shaking her head. How silly..for a moment she had thought the plant had actually wiggled as she talked to it.Absurd..plants were alive yes but they certainly didn't move!
Chuckling again at what she jokingly referred to a her impending insanity..imagine plants moving!..she settled down for the night, falling asleep quickly and snoring lightly under the moonlight. She was not sure what it was that awoke her at first..a small stinging sensation that spread quickly up her leg, snorting she jerked her head up as the stings multiplied, swinging her head around to see what the cause of this discomfort was, had she laid down on an ant's nest? Through the flickering moonlight, filtered through the leaves of the overhead branches the mares eyes cast over that oh so precious cactus..and what she saw cause a scream to surge through her body. Spiders...small hatchlings surged and oozed out of the cactus, spreading across the ground and to her horror he realized..onto her. An adrenaline surge brought the mare to her feet, shrieking she leapt about and tried to fling the tiny insects away but they clung to her hide and the venom from their bites oh so quickly began to overwhelm her old and frail body. Dizzy, staggering the mare collapsed, sides heaving in an attempt to suck air into her fading body the mares eyes, wide and rolling fell upon the cactus..and the incoming wave of hatchlings. The spiders did not seem to care that she had nursed their incubator to good health and swarmed over the helpless mare in their birthing hunger, biting, feeding and devouring her as their venom finally brought about her death and ended her torture.
Or so it seemed at first. Kakio was not sure at first what had happened to her, she vaguely recalled some horrific experience but the details were hazy...unfocused and crawling to her feet she did not pay much attention the seething blanket of spiders on the ground, they seemed to be covering something but she couldn't make out what it was. The last thing she recalled clearly was the fortune teller at the carnivale...there then was where she would return, there she would find out what had happened to her and why she couldn't remember anything since. Turning the mare began to walk, not noticing when part of her leg swept through a piece of wood without resistance...not noticing that the seething swarm of spiders scuttled after her, leaving behind the mortal remains of the ghostly mare they followed. Back to the carnivale. Back until she understood.
Fanatical invaders with an obsession for organic, bio-engineered weapons? That has Pirata written all over it, while the spider mare doesn't follow the Vong's obsession with a higher power she does believe in culling the weak and using her poisonous spiders to do so. Vicious, cruel and possessing little to no mercy, Pirata follows in the Vong's footsteps of crushing her enemies or enslaving them.
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