by Inkwolf

Darkness was all around Alleki.. He stumbled in the dark, tripping on eight legs. They twisted together and he fell and hit the ground. He looked up and saw the faintest light and he was getting dizzy. The ligh became brighter and more swirled. He began to feel sick at his stomache, Am I diying? He thought paniced yet calmed at the light hitting his face. The light started to fade and got darker and darker…

Alleki woke up in terror, his little heart racing. He looked at his hot and tense eight furry legs and then looked at a broken shard of glass “I’m still a spider.. Same as always” he said trying to comfort himself, “Was I one of the two-eyed beasts like outside the window in that dream?” he whispered to himself “Alleki? Are you whispering to yourself again rookie?” a deep sharp chatter called to him. Alleki whirled around as quickly as his eight legs would allow him to go. He gazed steadily at Commander Jereks. Commander Jerkes was a highly respected commander at a compound in the walls of a human home, and Commander Jereks always trained the Rookies at the compound, or assigned them to a full spider guardian to train. “Get up Rookie. Today you become a full guardian and get assigned a window” Every spider in the compound some day became a full guardian of the two-eyed beast’s home, and got assigned a window to watch over and protect the two-eyed beast’s who lived in that room, “Let’s go Alleki. Stop day dreaming!” Commander Jereks called once more, then they both steadily climbed the inside of the wall up near the surface of a window.

Finally! The day had come for Alleki to become a guardian and protect what ever human lived in the room. Commander Jereks along with King Zakoo climbed up on a stage that was actually a large nail in wall “Ahem.. May I have every spider’s attention please!” King Zakoo called out at the crowd “Today I have four guardians to appoint today and assign windows to. But first, they must do something in order to become a guardian. Jereks, please will you get me the ancient guardian scroll?” King Zakoo stated, so as quickly as Jereks could climb, he grabbed the scroll and then used a web to slide down next to the King “Here we are now.. Ahem. These apprentices are ready to become guardians, so now they need to take the oath of the guardian.” The king began “I as a guardian, will stay loyal and true to any promises I make” Zakoo said “I as a guardian will stay loyal and true to any promises I make” said the four apprentices “I will never back down to a fight if it is for my human. I will make sure they are safe for as long as I live” King Zakoo said, and steadily gazed at the smallest spider; Alleki. “I will never back down to a fight if it is for my human. I will make sure they are safe for as long as I live” the apprentices recited “I will willingly die to protect those around me, and will always stay true to this oath of the order of the secret guardians” King Zakoo said lastly “I will willingly die to protect those around me, and will always stay true to this oath of the order of the secret guardians” all four apprentices recited once more.

After the three other apprentices we’re appointed windows, it was Alleki’s turn “Oh this is so exciting!” Alleki whispered “Alleki” King Zakoo called. Alleki scooted forward, trembling with excitment “Alleki, your window you will defend will be.. The human’s living area window” Alleki trembled with fear this time. Why would King Zakoo put him on the frontlines in the battle field?! He was just made a guardian today! “King Zakoo! Why must you put me on the front of the battlefield! It faces the back fenced area of the Two-eyed beast’s home! There are to many cicada’s in the summer and to many wasps in the fall! Why!?” He pleaded. The big brown recluce looked deep into Alleki’s eyes and said “I am giving you orders to go there for a reason.. We need more spirited fighters like you Alleki.. Now go out there and make some wasp’s wish they never came here!” “YEEAAAAAAAH!!!” Alleki shouted, then quickly spun a web system that would pull him up to the window quickly.

Alleki woke up liying on a soft bed made from leaves and grass “Mruuh.. What’s going on h-here?” Alleki groaned. A beautiful female black widow was looking at him “Hi. We don’t know each other, but my name is Kajime. I saw you got assigned to the worst window to defend. After eighty seconds you we’re knocked out by a huge wasp that was trying to slash away the screen on the window” Alleki couldn’t speak. He thought she was the most beautiful black widow he ever saw “You.. You.. Your Beau-I MEAN- Did you like rescue me or something?” Alleki said with a shaky voice “I guess you could say that” Kajime replied..

chapter 1: Kajime’s promise
Kajime turned back to face Alleki. She looked at Alleki sympathecticly. She always wanted to be a healer, but she couldn’t because she was a Black widows; a born killer. Kajime searched through her bag of healing herbs that she made, and she found one that would work for Alleki’s leg, until she was inturrupted by a loud voice in the distance of the compound, “KAJIME! KAJIME!” she heard, “KAJIME, GET SOME OTHER GUARDIANS, WE NEED YOU AT THE FRONTLINES!” “Sorry, I gotta go Alleki” Kajime chattered, then rushed away.

When Kajime joined the battle, she looked at the area, and it was complete choas.. The place was swarming with wasps, and there was few guardians because they could handle themselves. But there wasn’t enough guardians, and when Kajime saw King Zakoo at the battle, that meant bad news, “Kajime! You finally joined” Zakoo yelled to her from across the window. Kajime quickly saw the spot where the wasps were coming in. It was a very large hole in the screen..Bigger than her and Alleki together, “Grakoth, take the left, and Hrekz, take the right, and I will go straight ahead” Kajime ordered the newer guardians, and they did exactly what she instructed. Kajime looked to her left then right. Two wasps were charging her on both sides, so quickly, Kajime jumped into the air, and the two wasps clashed together, headfirst. Then Kajime was overwhelmed by many wasps once again, so she quickly, signaled one of the new guardians to attack, and one of the guardians jumped onto one, attached silk to it, and jump from the next wasp to the next, and soon Kajime was in a circle of tied up wasps. Then out of nowhere, a large explosion sent many guardians flying downward to the ground. Kajime’s world felt like it was frozen in time, with a harsh ringing in her ears, everying started to fade into a misty black color..

Kajime started to wake up in the recovery center of the compound, “Your finally awake!” A male funnel weaver spider said “Meeh..What happened to me? Last thing I can remember is fighting in the frontlines..An explosion and I don’t know what else happened..” Kajime recalled from her memory, then the funnel weaver said “Yeah, you hit your head really hard when you fell. There are lots of others wounded or dead from the explosion..” Kajime glanced over to her left, and Alleki was there. Then to her right, she saw rows of beds with injured guardians, “May I inturrupt Relkiz?” King Zakoo’s mighty voice boomed out into the recovery center, “By the way, my name is Relkiz” the funnel weaver said to Kajime, “Is everyone here awake?” Zakoo asked, “Yes sir” another nurse called. King Zakoo cleared his voice and said, “As you may have noticed, most guardians have been wounded or have died today in an explosion… In the scene of the explosion, it also wiped out most of the wasps, and we found something in the remains of the item that blew up” Kajime was tense, and it killed her in his pause, “We found that the item that blew up, had a symbol that looked like a wasp’s head, and there was remaing powder, and that substance was a banned dust known as; Onyx dust. It is a highly flammable dust that comes from rare flowers” from al the spiders, came a giant amount of gasps, and horrorfied conversations, “I promise that I will find whoever can make these bombs, because I can tell that there is more where that bomb came from..” Kajime muttered to herself… And she intended to keep that promise..

Chapter 3: The soul takers.

It had been a week or so, since the explosion, and Alleki was finally better from the gash in his leg, and he was up and ready to go, “Relkiz, is Kajime okay?” he asked the healer, “Of course she is! Her wounds have healed greatly, but she still needs rest” Relkiz hurriedly said, then dashed over to a different patient.

Alleki was bored, and didn’t know what to do, until he remembered how quickly the cold was approaching. So Alleki ran off to find his first and best friend in the world.. Bakji.
“Bakji! Bakji!” Alleki called to his Orb weaver spider friend, “Well, well look who is finally up! Haha!” Bakji joked, Alleki didn’t really think what he said was really funny at all, so he continued his conversation, “Bakji, I wanted to know if you wanted to check all the webs or go hunting? The compound could really use it!” Bakji looked as if he was thinking then he said, “Sure, let’s go! But first we should check with the King” Alleki nodded yes, and they set off. But then Bakji started up a conversation as they walked along, “So, how do you like being a guardian so far? I honsetly enjoy it!” Alleki nodded, “Yeah, it’s good, although there has not been so much action for me.” Alleki replied “Ah, well same for me, my window is SO boring!” Bakji complained, “Well, your lucky! My window is the worst of all.. The reason there has not been so much action is because I was knocked out the first time I went into battle” Alleki complained with him. Alleki and Bakji stopped dead in there tracks, and tripped over something, knocking into each other and falling straight to the ground, “ARUUGH!! What in the world di- Bakji? Alleki? Watch where you step!” King Zakoo scolded them for tripping over him, “Ehh, heh, sorry King..” Bakji nervously added to his anger. Alleki rose up from the ground and shook off the dust that coated his abdomen and asked the King, “King Zakoo, we just wanted to know if we could go hunt er something” King Zakoo shook his head back and forth, “S-sure, but don’t be gone to long, the frost could bite your feet off!”

Alleki and Bakji had split up for the hunt, and Alleki was already in luck, he had spotted and nearly frozen cricket, just sitting there, shivering. Alleki crept closer and closer. He wiggled his abdoment swiftly, in readjusting his position for the perfect pounce. WHAM!! Something knocked into him. He soon heard a loud buzzing in his ear.. “WASPS!” he thought with a great panic. He struggled under the dead weight on him, then something cried out, “GET OFF ME!!” Alleki opened his eyes and realized he was the one who was crushing! He quickly got up to his feet and looked at what he was crushing. It was a small honey bee, who had a broken wing, “NOW LOOK WHAT YE’ DONE MATE!” the bee buzzed angrily at the young Guardian, “Give ‘em a break, he didn’ even know wot was a’ comin’ eh?” a different voice called out. Alleki turned to face the creature behind him…As soon as Alleki saw what was behind him, a spike of fear stabbed into his chest and stomache. What he saw was a Sydney funnel-web spider, “Eh wot? Never seen a kind like me? Is that ya problem pipsqueak?” The female funnel-web asked, “Y-your- b-but you-” Alleki stammered, “Speak up mate!” the angry bee buzzed again to him, “You, your so…” Alleki stammered again, “Big? Eh, you think im just gonna crush ya on the spot eh?” the funnel-web finished, “hahaha! An’ why would I do that eh?” Alleki shrugged his “Shoulders” and just kept staring at the large spider, “Im not gonna hurt ya mate! My name is Murkath, leader of The soul takers” Alleki calmed down somewhat, but still didn’t trust her or the grumpy bee, “Yeah, uh, I’m Alleki, new Gurdian to The secret order of Guardians!” Alleki proudly stated. The bee looked impressed, same with Murkath, “A fancy one ehh? Out lil’ order of Soul takers, well we ain’t really good er’ badd” the bee told Alleki. Alleki was still confused to what these Soul takers do, “Buzzwing, don’t confuse the pipsqueak!” Murkath told the bee, “The soul takers is a group of Homeless spiders, bees and beetles who take down those who threaten freedom for every bug” Murkath proudly stated out loud. Alleki was impressed.. He had never met freedom fighters like so. Buzzwing the grumpy bee had a look of excitment and shock on his face, then whispered something to Murkath, “Ehh, not bad mate!” Murkath chattered, “Tell ye wot mate. Ya lookin’ like you could be of a big use in the Soul takers. Ya don’t have ta make a decision this second, but just think about it. I have been a seeing you Gurdians havin’ a trouble with wasps and such. We know much about em’ so err, if ya join us you’d been doin’ a favor to ye Guardian friends by strikin’ at the source of the problem eh?” Murkath and explained and offered.. Alleki was greatly tempted by this, “I…Uh…. I will think about it..” Alleki said to the two, then was nearly torn in two by his own mind, by thinking, “Well, this is a great chance!” “NO ALLEKI!! You must stay loyal” “I mean, you better go before you have any emotional attachment to that dirty compound” “NOOOO!” Alleki snapped out of his battling thoughts by his friend shouting for him, “I gotta go.. Uh bye! Can we meet again in two days?” Alleki asked, and Buzzwing said “Of course lad!”

Chapter 4: The offer of “great rewards.”

Alleki rose from his nest and quickly cleaned up his bedding. He was very happy that day because today was the celebration of King Zankacore. King Zankacore was the famous spider who created The order of secret guardians. It is celebrated in the middle of the year, when all the leaves on the trees in sight, have fallen. Alleki ran up to Kajime and said, “Today is the celebration! Best day ever right?!” Kajime was feeling better, that’s why she was outside of the medical center. “My gosh Alleki, calm down, did a tick bite you or something?” Kajime joked, “Well….. No. C’mon let’s go see what we can do to set up!” Alleki called, already almost across the compound.The celebration of King Zankacore is a feast for all bugs to meet in peace at the compound. It is a time for harmony and friendship…. But most of the spiders dread the feast, because it is a rule that no guardian is to eat meat at the feast, so they will not scare anyone, “UGH! DO WE HAVE TO?!” “This is the WORST time of year for me!” “Seriously? Sliced up berries? EWWA!” that was some of the things the guardians would say, “Gee, calm down everyone!” King Zakoo yelled out to everyone, “Now, we have a lot to do, so I need all claws on deck for setup. We are expecting more bugs than EVER this year. So um. Yes, you guys over there, your on food gathering duties and um you! Yes..” “Alleki there you are!” Bakji called out to Alleki, “Oh hey Bakji!” Bakji rushed over to greet him and Kajime, “Are you excited!?” Alleki asked. Bakji made a disgusted face then said, “Sure.. But I would rather gorge myself on mea-” Alleki inturrupted and said, “Yes, we would all like to eat as much meat as we could, but it’s a rule so..” Bakji held back a chuckle and said, “Well, your just a little goody-eightshoes!” Alleki replied, “Shoes?” “Oh yeah, I heard the humans saying things like goody-eightshoes, but they said two, not eight.” Bakji explained hastily, “Ah you, ya you littler group, you will manage the gates. Opening and closing them for people’s entry” King Zakoo said as he pointed out Bakji, Alleki, Kajime and Relkiz, “Oh hey guys! I guess I didn’t realize who I was standing next to, haha” Relkiz said to the trio of friends, “Well, at least we are with spiders we know!” Bakji added in, “C’mon, we still need to help with setup before we have to get to our duties at the gate!” Kajime hastily said.

The sun slowly crept underneath the earth as the day went on. Evening turned to late evening. Late evening turned into night, and the celebration was quickly put into action. Bakji, Alleki, Kajime and Relkiz, all pushed the gates open and soon the compound was attacked by a flood of different kinds of bugs. Some flew in and up near the roofing of the compound and did loops and tricks. Some clumsily waddled in, and some marched in proudly, “King Zakoo wasn’t kidding when he said there were going to be more bugs here than ever!” Kajime said. Suddenly it seemed like time stopped for Alleki.. His heart skipped a beat and he froze. He saw the worst thing possible for him.. Murkath, Buzzwing and some Soul takers we’re here, “Hey! Alleki, wasn’t expectin’ ta see ya ere’ Eh? OH AHAHAHA I’m just jokin’ with ya little spidey!” Murkath joked, “That dose NOT help me..” Alleki whispered. He had realized that it had been FOUR days since his encounter with them, not two! “So Alleki. Have ya make yer choice?” Buzzwing added in, “Oh hey! You better find a seat somewhere, they are going like crazy!” Alleki said to throw the topic aside, “OY! The boy is right, shall we be a goin’ Murkath?” Buzzwing asked, “Why yes! Thanks for mentionin’ that Alleki” Murkath said to him.

The feast was a long one this year. Everybug ate as much as their bellies could hold, but some restrained themselves to save their stomache the pain. It was starting to grow quiet in the compound, some people talked here and there, and some beathed through waves of stomache pain and digestion, “Alleki, can we talk?” Kajime said, nearly breaking the silence, “Oh hi Kajime, sure, uh what about?” Alleki said, “Well, we can’t really talk here, we need to go outside” Kajime said before Alleki could get another word in, “Heeeyyy! Alleki! My favorite guradian here! C’mere, we gotta talk some!” Buzzwing interrupted, as he picked up Alleki and carried him outside, “HEY! Put me down! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!!” Alleki shouted up to Buzzwing, but he did not listen. Buzzwing kept going higher, higher higher, into the night, until they reached a high branch in an ash tree nearby, “It’s time Alleki, have you chosen to come with us?” some strange bug said. It crawled out of the shadows into the pale moonlight. It was Murkath. Murkath also said,”You have waited long enough boy! You must chose to come with us or stay, ya’d be doin’ yer guardian friends a favor by fightin’ on enemy territory! Killin’ them wasps at the source!” “Uhh, uhm” Alleki said, confused, almost disoriented. Did they really expect him to chose now?! “Enough is enough..” Buzzwing buzzed. Buzzwing signed with his wings, something. and suddenly a loud humming came from behind Alleki.. Oh what now!? Alleki tought. Suddenly it felt like Alleki went blind, he was being Bugnapped! He would not go down like this! Alleki twisted and turned, he bit and scratched but only felt a strange substance around his little claws…

“OH ZANKACORE! ALLEKI!!!” Kajime shouted into the black night. She saw the whole thing that happened in the tree, from a distance. She saw the large thing behind him, she saw him being picked up by the bee, she saw everything.. She had to follow them. Or the guardians would not have a chance to find the poor spider..

To be continued with chapter 5: They are twisted