Fate's Hand by Christopher Lynn Read Free Book Online Page B

scurrying across the rocks. He looked between his arms to see the hind end of a young elk running back to the forest, a long strand of white strings flowing off his back.
    Val squinted and used his hand to push off the cave wall to stand straight again. He noticed his hand was sticky and looked down. Spider webs covered his hand and forearms. His eyes better adapted, he turned full circle to discover the entire cave encompassed by long, stringy spider webs. By the rays of the morning light peeking in, he could see drops of dew glistening like diamonds on invisible strings, all down the cave. He could only imagine the large arachnid that spun those webs and decided to get his bearings in a different cave.
    Val turned away and returned to the entrance of the cave, wiping his hands on his leather vest. He stood in the light again and looked up the mountain trail to decide which way to go. He looked into the cave one last time, admiring the large shining gems of light. A slight breeze came through and shook some of the webs, causing the dew to drop off the web and sprinkle the cave floor. The eerie scene and cool morning breeze gave him chills. He shook off the feeling and rubbed his hands together. Then, immediately thinking of his numb hand, he shook it and walked away.
    Behind the wall of webs in the cave there was a slow and methodical movement. Eight large glistening diamonds came closer to the light invading the dark cave. The giant cave spider silently stepped over the freshly killed elk fawn he had caught the night before. That large mother elk would have been too large a prey for him to drag back to her babies, but the curious human would be a perfect size. She looked on into the daylight at the young man standing there. Her hind legs picked the baby elk up and began to weave her webbing around her kill. She watched as the human walked away from the entrance and farther into the mountain path. The spider turned and collected her prey, heading back to her nest. Letting the elk dangle from a low-hanging rock to let her poison work, the spider crept up the side of the cave to come to rest on the ceiling, each leg carefully placed one of the main strands connecting her large web of nets. She relaxed her muscles and waited for the next vibration to tell her she had captured another meal.
    Val walked most of the day looking around several entrances for signs of recent use. He came around a large boulder and noticed most of the rocks around the entrance were turned aside and moved. He walked to the entrance and listened. Only silence came to greet him, silence and an unnaturally foul smell. As a wind came down some distant opening of the cave, Val almost gagged from the odor. He pulled an extra shirt from his pack and wrapped it around his nose and mouth. Something was dead; his days as a farmhand told him that much at least. A small part inside him feared he would find his sister inside as the source of the smell. His teeth bit down on a small corner of the cloth and he waded into the cave.
    The faint smoke permeated the cloth and filled his nose. This cave was much drier than the last few he looked in and there was a complete absence of spider webs. He kicked a rock across the stone floor and he closed his eyes and held his breath as it skipped across the cave, echoing all the way. He waited, straining to hear anything he might have disturbed. After several minutes with no sound, he made his way in. When the light gave him no more help to see the surrounding cave, he gave up his stealth approach. Val kneeled and went through his pack for a torch and flint. He took out a small bottle of oil one of the men from the village had given him and dripped it over the torch.               Assuring himself if anything was in this cave it would have come when he kicked the rock, he struck the rock against the stone floor. When the spark caught the oil soaked rags, the cave lit up brightly. In an instant, Val saw eyes staring