RolePlayGateway™

Humans were such peculiar creatures. Nireko often wondered what they tasted like. Oddly enough, however, he never felt interested in eating one. Right now he sat hidden in the branches along the tree line of the dense forest, watching two young girls playing in the backyard of their home on this warm, sunny morning. If he wanted to, the spider could snatch them up and take them away for an afternoon meal. But he opted not to. He had plenty of opportunities to eat a human, but he never took advantage any of these opportunities. He preferred instead to stay back and observe.

It intrigued Nireko that humans lived in such large and lavish nests. Why would any sensible creature need such a massive dwelling when usually said creatures only lived in hives of two to four members? A nest as big as the one the two girls played outside of could hold a hive of at least eight. The girls weren't even very big; if he had decided to eat them, they'd have been more of a pre-meal appetizer than an actual meal. His perch was high enough that he could overlook the entire yard they played in. It was a normal-looking human yard, with neatly trimmed green grass and brightly-colored metal structures alien to him that the girls played on.

Then an anomaly appeared. It was only there for a moment, but Nireko saw every detail of it. A small patch of grass in the far right corner of the yard suddenly faded from bright green to a dark, glowing red. The grass blades began writhing and curling up like tentacles. They stretched upwards and waved around. Then just as suddenly as it happened, the bizarre spectacle was over. The tendrils shrunk back down and phased back to green. That wasn't right. That wasn't right at all. That paired with the nights growing longer confirmed to Nireko that something very unusual and probably bad was happening. He retreated into the forest. He had to contact someone about this.

Her eyes opened slowly. Another day, more work, more boredom. Reluctantly she got out of bed and started dressing up. She decided to wear something else other than what she would normally wear, and chose a green, flowy skirt and a blouse to match the skirt. She hadn't worn those in a long time.
Something was just not right today, she thought. She was having a horrible headache and a terrible feeling in her gut. She thought that going to the garden might clear her head, but the nearer she got to it the worse it became.
Then she noticed something. Something horrible. The tidy patch of land she set aside for flowers especially so that they would not be trampled upon, was a disaster. They were brown and shriveled up, their once beautiful petals now dry and wilted. She gave a strangled cry of horror.
"The flowers!" she gasped. This was highly abnormal. All of the flowers in your backyard which blossomed well before couldn't suddenly die. Gently, she touched one of the flowers with a finger, stroking it. She closed her eyes, and she saw figures. She couldn't see who they were, they were too blur. But she knew they weren't good news. A dark aura was around them, reaching towards her like tongues of flames. She gasped in shock and jerked her finger away.
A single word lingered around in her mind, an unwanted intruder: Shadowland.