Straps

I took a step back looking at the entrance, my home had been dug out, looking around I saw nothing moving but I did notice signs that a fight had taken place around the burrow. Broken branches and leaves littered the ground, bloody paw prints from my clan were plentiful, reaching down to touch one of them. The blood was dry and cracked at my touch, it had been a few days since mother had brought us out for our first and what seemed to be our last hunt together.

Looking back at the entrance to the burrow I wanted to look and see if anyone remained so I stepped forward, I felt something tug on my foot as I moved forward, looking down at my foot there was a shiny thread lying on the branch. The hair on the back of my neck began to rise and I jumped from where I stood to the next tree over and hid behind its trunk. I peeked around the side to watch the burrow, I watched for only a few minutes before movement came from the entrance of the burrow, small spiders swarmed from the entrance towards where I had broken their web.

Looking at the spiders they shared similarities with the ones that had ambushed me before but these were tiny, they must have hatched recently, so that must have been why the spiders moved into the burrow to have a more defensible nest. With the webs and confined space, it would be a death trap for anything that went in, but how did the large spiders break in? The burrow's entrance was too small, even if they widened it, the larger spiders were at least twice as large as the hole. Looking back at the tree that was swarmed with tiny spiders, I slowly moved away circling the burrow, looking at the tree there was a patch of bark that was pale in comparison to the rest of the bark.

I moved down to the ground and picked up a rock, it wasn't too heavy but heavy enough that it wouldn't break on contact with the tree. I threw the rock at the large patch of whitebark I expected it to bounce off but it just smacked into the tree and held fast, before I could guess what was happening the whitebark was pushed up and away from the tree while a massive spider pounced out from the giant hole when it didn't latch on to any prey it looked around with its many eyes before moving back into the tree.

So the whitebark was just a disguised web as well as a trap and entrance for the larger spiders. I slowly backed away from my old home, there was nothing I could do here, my family had either run away or were dead. I would find them if I could but I would definitely kill these spiders who invaded my home. First thing I needed to do was get back to my cave, my new home, and find out exactly what my new body could do.

The trip home didn't take very long now that I knew where it was compared to where the burrow was, I had an idea on my way back, the spiders had devised a trap for unsuspecting enemies so if they could do it why couldn't I? Coming back into the clearing I could hear the sound of digging, I looked over to the grave to see a few beasts with long snouts ravage the grave trying to get at the body beneath the earth.

I ran towards them, closing in on the beast closer to me I jumped onto its back, I clawed its eyes out immediately just how mother had with the spiders. The beast yelped and tried to shake me off its back, I slid off its back and clawed its neck as I fell off and rolled on the ground. The second beast charged and bit my shoulder, I let out a gasp as it tried to drag and shake me, its fangs ripping my flesh. Turning my head I bit into its neck eliciting a yelp, as it let go I latched onto it with my claws and wrestled it to the ground its front claws scratched my chest and it tried to bite me with little success. I ripped a chunk of flesh from its neck and blood splashed into my eyes. It stung my eyes and my vision was tainted red, making it hard to see, I pulled the beast to the ground as it began to weaken from blood loss and clawed its face.

The fight didn't last long after as it bled heavily from its neck, I shoved it away from me and it struggled for a moment before it slumped back into the dirt. I look over to the other beast, it had been blinded and it was growling in my direction but hadn't come over in the fight, I slowly worked my way around it careful not to make a sound, it kept growling and looking around. I came up behind its left shoulder and waited, as it turned away I slashed my claws across its throat and leaped away from the beast. It whipped around and searched for me but didn't last long as the blood poured out of its neck like a fountain out quickly and fell over in a puddle of its own blood.

I spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground and walked to the grave, she had nearly been dug up by the two beasts, they must have caught her scent while passing by. I dug her back out and placed her on the side and dug deeper into the earth until the earth was too hard for my claws, the new grave was deeper than I was tall. I picked her back up and placed her in the new grave, the next few hours were filling in the grave and finding large rocks to cover it up. I stepped away from the grave only to step on something cold and sharp, after pulling away I looked for whatever I had stepped on, surprisingly it was the shiny thing that had been on my protector's arm.

I leaned over and picked it up from the grass, examining it again, the dark and shiny thing seemed to have little lights fly across its surface, like stars in the night sky. I turned it over and there were no bands to keep it in place, I wondered how it stayed on her arm during the fighting. Putting it on my arm I could feel a chill up my arm it wasn't light or heavy but had a solid weight, it rested just past my wrist and slightly beyond my elbow, that cool chill was nice maybe if I found the straps I could use it to block some attacks?

At that thought, I went to take it off and store it for later, dozens of little straps wrapped around my arm and held it tightly in place. Before I could even panic it had stopped moving, I stood there looking with my mouth agape at the strange thing that had attached itself to me, I shook my arm and it held fast without budging at all. I tapped on it a few times but nothing happened, well I got what I wished for….straps, taking in a quick sigh I looked back toward the grave with a single question. Where did you come from?