One leg after another, the thing that called herself SHEOLGOLATH crept out of the depths toward the pale silver light of the fog-veiled sun. Though she had long lived in this forest, the creature did not call the forest home, nor would she ever. To call it home would be to concede that she belonged to the forest, and that was not her aim.

No, SHEOLGOLATH did not belong to this forest, for it was her intention that it would one day belong to her. SHEOLGOLATH would see to it that all fell under her dominion and that of her brood. She would rival the very trees in size. She would rival the mightiest of beasts in strength.

One day, all of this would be hers.

One leg, then the next, then several more pulled her hairy bulk from the earthen hole, and the creature burst forth into the pale sun’s rays. The whole forest lay under a blanket of fog, diffusing the light so that it fell only softly upon SHEOLGOLATH’s eight eyes. Dimmed though it was, the light was yet unpleasant. Were she any other creature, she might have blinked in the light, for her lair beneath the fallen leaves was dark as dark could be. Her eyes, however, could not blink.

She scuttled heavily across the forest’s detritus-ridden floor into the shade of one of the many looming trees in this realm. There she waited, hairy body heaving, until she rose up on her eight spindly legs and made off deeper into the wood to seek out its darker shadows.

As she marched, each of her sensitive legs caught the faintest of tremors through the dead matter on the forest floor. She felt the footfalls of creatures far larger than she and the creeping of things she would call prey if they dared the ground near her.

SHEOLGOLATH would devour all those that crossed her path on her hunt, for she intended to rival even the hawks and eagles that owned the skies.

A staccato tremor, this one very near. Something crawled on many legs.

Secreting herself under a mass of leafy detritus, SHEOLGOLATH waited. A shape appeared, one dark and sinuous that extended and retracted. She felt the tiny tremors of its hundreds of legs as it crept nearer, nearer, nearer.

Sun glinted off the curved plates of its chitinous carapace. A twig under one of SHEOLGOLATH’s legs tilted under the thing’s weight.

In a flash, she sprang from her hiding place, seizing upon the long creature and crushing her fangs through its carapace. The creature—a millipede—writhed about in pain, its hundreds of legs kicking as it squirmed. She felt its thrashing through the forest floor. She saw its writhing shape slap about in the dim vision of her eyes.

SHEOLGOLATH let her venom pump into the thing’s body to paralyze it and liquefy its insides. A long moment she held it braced to the ground with her legs and fangs, after which it finally fell still with one final quiver. In death, it curled in upon itself, appearing as a black spiral against the forest floor.

Moments later, she drew its liquefied insides through its ruptured carapace into her body. Her stomach filled nigh to bloating, and she discarded the remains, resuming her march deeper into the wood.

Shadows darkened, though the sun was surely climbing higher. The depths of this forest eschewed light, and the reason for this became apparent to SHEOLGOLATH’s sight as she marched ever onward. Little more than light and shadow was the world to her many eyes, though there was one element of color that danced across her view from time to time. She saw it again as she neared the darkest reaches of this domain.

A thing of violent electric red darted between the colossal trees ahead. Light feared it, and darkness clung to it. The very trees seemed to quiver as the wind itself warped about to evade whatever space the thing occupied.

Were she any lesser creature, SHEOLGOLATH would flee the red thing in the dark. Most other creatures did, bounding on hooves or buzzing on wings whenever it made its presence known. SHEOLGOLATH, however, did not have such a fluttering, cowardly heart. Her will was iron, and her appetite fierce.

She would consume the red thing in the wood, and would thereby metabolize its power into her own strength.

SHEOLGOLATH did not call this forest home, for that would imply she belonged to it. She intended to one day call this place her domain, and she would consume—

Vibrations. Buzzing. A deep thrumming sound permeated the air and stirred the hairs on her legs.

A shadow fell over SHEOLGOLATH, and she stopped and spun about to bring her fangs to bear against whatever thing dared approach her.

Too slow. Something sharp jabbed her abdomen from above, leaving behind a piercing pain followed by a spreading, blazing numbness. At the edge of her vision she saw a glinting shape hover about, just out of reach of her forelegs and fangs.

She found her movements more sluggish, then she at last collapsed upon the forest floor, her world little more than buzzing above and burning pain throughout her body. The buzzing thing landed on her and began dragging her over the leaves and twigs and dirt. The shadows of the forest shifted in her view, the looming trees edging past inch by agonizing inch as this creature tugged her along.

The darting red thing in the dark flashed a moment, then vanished. The forest brightened, paining SHEOLGOLATH’s eyes.

No. No!

Then shadow. A tilting of the world. SHEOLGOLATH fell into darkness as the creature that had stung her pulled her into its lair. Darkness and pain were all she knew, and time stretched as if infinite. She knew not the passing of days or the shimmering dark of night. She knew not the falling of the rain or the waning of her strength, for all was buried under a haze of endless pain.

A burning pain from her attacker’s venom.

Days passed in fire and horror.

A gnawing pain from its larva as it chewed its way through her body.

Days passed in biting terror.

A growing, bulging pain as it writhed and grew within her.

Days passed as all other sensation waned in the waxing of the thing gorging itself upon her.

Through it all, SHEOLGOLATH could not so much as twitch her legs.

The pain finally burst as a writhing thing tore into her heart.

The last that SHEOLGOLATH saw was a flicker of violent electric red, after which she and her destiny faded together into oblivion.

The Astral Wanderer is brought to you by The Seer and the Starlit Key, a new fantasy novel available on Amazon and Kindle! Buy the book, or share this story with someone who may find it interesting. All proceeds go toward helping helpless tarantulas become somewhat less helpless in future incarnations. Really!