“It’s lucky I did,” she added, waving her hand to the trees ahead of Kre’s intended path. “There are some spidersnakes that lurk in the tree branches off that way. Pretty nasty, those.”
Kre reflexively took a step closer to his horse as a shudder ran down his spine. He didn’t know what spidersnakes were, but he was absolutely certain he didn’t want to meet one. “Well, um, can you take me to the cam… er… I mean the settlement then? I’d very much appreciate it.”
“Of course,” she said before turning on her heel and heading back in the direction from which she had emerged. Kre grabbed the reins and hurried after her, not wanting to be lost in the woods a second time and especially not wanting to meet a spidersnake for the first time.
“You wouldn’t feel a thing, you know,” she called over her shoulder as they walked. She wasn’t looking, so she didn’t see the puzzled look on Kre’s face. “Spidersnakes numb their victims where they bite.”
A chill went down Kre’s spine and he scanned the trees above as if his eyes could pierce the darkness and spot the vile creatures. Of course, having never seen one before he had no idea what to look for, but he assumed that it would be fairly obvious given the critter’s name.
“They actually don’t look like spiders nor do they resemble snakes. They’re plump little bugs, black to dark brown in color, about size of your thumb and they have hundreds of short little legs that let them wriggle along like a wormdo.”
Another creature that Kre had never heard of. “What are those?” he asked tentatively, afraid to hear about something more horrific than the spidersnakes.
A brief moment of frustration seemed to emanate from the guide, but she seemed to recover quickly. “What’s what?” she asked lightly.
“The wormdos.”
She muttered something under her breath and another wave of frustration seemed to burst forth. “What about them?” This time her response was curt and strained, as if the words themselves were causing her an extreme amount of pain.
Kre sighed, “You just compared the spidersnakes to these wormdo things and I don’t know what you mean by that. I’ve never seen either creature in my life.”
“Well,” she said, gesturing towards the trees with her hands. “I told you basically what they look like. The only way to describe how they move is to compare them to a wormdo.” With that, she stopped walking and turned to face Kre. Even in the darkness, he could clearly see a look of hopeful expectation on her face as he stepped nearer.
“Ok, please explain to this poor bumpkin just what a wormdo is.”
She sighed and swore something under her breath. Then she tapped her ear, “I’m sorry, I missed that… can you repeat yourself?”
Kre was getting tired of all of this. Tired of walking around in the dark. Tired of not knowing anything about the world. Tired of other people demonstrating how much more they knew than he. Tired of… well, everything that’s happened to him in the last week.
He could feel the anger rising up, but he tried to keep it tempered. She was only trying to be helpful, he told himself. So, he cleared his throat and forced a smile, “What’s a wormdo?”