Two guards stood outside a minor fortress, staring out into the ink-black night. Their prince was locked away safely inside, which was exactly where they wanted him to be. The guards were patrolling the area around the gate, making sure that there would be no rival lord attempting to gain any sort of power or edge with an attack during the night--there were plenty of those that would send an army to take this little small parcel of land, they knew. Roving nobodies, organized hordes, even the crazies as they called them had all taken a shot at trying to seige the castle, but it was all for naught. The defenses were rather strong, after all--it had taken two generations of builders to build and fortify the walls to the strength that they were today.
The guards wandered about on their patrol, oblivious to the figure that was scaling the wall behind them. It stuck to the shadows, almost blending into the scenery as the patrol passed overhead. The figure paused momentarily on its climb, taking a quick second to wriggle in place before moving on ahead further up the wall. In the moonlight, one could make out one, two, even three slender chitinous legs quickly gliding up the wall.
Idle chatter from above, from between the patrolling guardsmen. The figure heard it pass its position before it climbed over the edge of the fortification. Quickly scuttling behind them, it bent over and bit down on the neck of one guard, leaving two sizable marks with a drop of sickly-green liquid sizzling quietly on his flesh. A second later, the guard seized and fell over, twitching slightly and eyes somewhat glazed over. His partner pulled out his weapon, whirling around with weapon drawn and hoping to find whatever had caused his partner so much pain. Behind him, however, was nothing but the wind and the sky.
"Sh-Show yourself, f-fiend!" The chill in the air was either finally getting to him, or he was scared out of his mind. He did not notice, however, the tail end of a monstrous creature barely poking out from
behind the wall he was supposed to be protecting. With a near-silent
thwip, a long strand of what appeared to be silk stuck to the guard's ankle, followed by another and another until several dozen strands seemed to coalesce themselves into a rope. By the time he looked down to see what was happening, he was pulled to the floor and dragged off the top of the wall in a screaming fit.
"Shh... Keep quiet or she'll eat you..." a soft feminine voice cut through the darkness as the guard wriggled around from the rope around his ankle.
"W-W-What? Eat-t-t-t m-m-m-m-me!?" the guard's eyes grew wide as the figure of a young woman leaned out of the darkness. She appeared slender and pale-gray in the limited light, but there was something enchanting about her form, even with the dark hair covering her face save for one yellow eye and half of her smirk.
"W-What...
are you?" the guard gasped, paling as two long slender legs emerged from the darkness--the legs of a massive spider. His jaw dropped as she pulled her hair back, revealing not one but four other yellow eyes staring intently at him.
"I am death."
The creature bit down on the guard's neck, feeling two fangs quickly pierce his flesh and inject the venom into his body. It would only take a few second to get the full effect she needed, but soon the guard was limp and seizing like his partner. She, however, was feeling rather peckish--it had been an entire day since she had eaten last. Besides, this lord had asked her to perform an assassination in his name and what had he done for her in return? Attempted to have her killed? No, she needed to send a message--killing him outright would never do... unless, of course, she was contracted to do so, then she would have fun with him...
The guard currently ensnared by her web was first to be completely encased in the stuff. Out of sight of any other guards, she stuck him up on the wall before biting into his neck once again and drinking the fluids that began spilling out from the open wound. After a few minutes of this macabre spectacle, the guard was completely drained of liquid, nothing more than a husk of petrified flesh and web. The guard she had bit before received the same treatment--why let a good meal go to waste?
With these husks completely drained, she made sure that they would be visible when the sun finally came up. Her deed complete, the creature scuttled back out into the wilderness, knowing full well which direction to go to find one Castle Yuki. One of her agents had informed her of rumors of a meeting of those that would wish to unite the world under one rule. If this was the case, why was
she not invited? Perhaps they were afraid of her, which was completely logical--it's not every day that one meets with a drider, let alone one that runs one of the most successful assassins guilds in the land. She felt it time to make her presence known to whomever might be waiting for her there and let them know what they were getting themselves into without her there.
After travelling for another day and night (and also stopping to feed on another victim or two), the drider came to a rather imposing castle. She had heard that this place was run by a demon lord. She found this rather amusing--a creature of entropy and chaos was attempting to bring order to a world that had none. Did they think that it could be done? Regardless, she was here now, and the least she could do was to infiltrate--
Or perhaps she would not have to infiltrate after all. A group of creatures stood at the front gate of the castle, speaking to themselves as if in some sort of club. The smell of rain was in the air, but was there a storm that passed through here recently? It seemed so, but the drider had not seen anything like on her travels...
Regardless, she clambered up the side of the castle wall, out of sight of the others before crawling around the corner and merely waiting above the gate, observing the group and waiting for someone to announce her presence. If they did, she would probably be invited in--if not, then she could always sneak in after them...