First Mention of O'thyl, the Spider God

Note: A pronoun reserved for astral beings is used in this short stroy; jiz (his/her)

Sand peppered Téalya's face and hands with uncountable particles. It was a dry dust from the plainlands- lacking dirt and debris from plants and other matter. The pattering of it on her hemp shawl and cape along with the keening of the winds and whisper of sliding sand were the only sounds. She pulled the hemp of her face mask over her eyes and chanced a glance at the moons. The dust storm swelled and undulated so that they could see the astral bodies but they individually faded beyond the thick layers, then came back into brilliance when the dust ebbed. Tealya blinked; her eyes stung as specks inveitably caught in her eye despite having her veil up. Her eye teared up and she blinked the dust out of it. 

Seven on the sixteen moons were out. O'thyl's Eyes. The spider god was awake tonight. Tealya wished it were true so that jiz webs would catch the dust and let them all go free of this dry drudgery.

Éayl was ahead. He pulled his legs out of sand at a sluggish pace. Each time he placed a foot, a small pile of sand and dust built up so that he had to be careful as he took each step. The other people with them were obscured by the storm but came into view regularly. Téalya felt her connection to them by their closeness even when they were out of sight. They did not speak - why waste precious energy and water? 

Téalya glanced to the side as the swell of dust finally dissipated for a  moment. There only a short dance away on her left was a bulbobush with berries ear to bursting. She danced over and picked all the berries she saw ad ate them immediately. She tasted them so sweet in her mouth, but did not stop walking to savor the flavor. The energy the berries gave her was the true reward. This strange storm was rare. Would that bush be buried when it passed? Thanks to that fortune, Tealya could keep going. She would not pass out in this way -to become more dust to blow in someones eye and bone for the still living to trip over as she had felt since late morning.

They trekked for hours and Téalya checked the moons again when she dared; She had to risk more dust blowing into her face. A brown haze obscured the skay but O'thyl's Eyes shone through and seemed even to blink as one and another of them were obscured and reappeared quickly.

They trekked on. When some of the dust was coming as orange specks it seemed a prophecy of her imminent death. One of them was near. Another kind of light so unlike the spiders god's protective gaze. This was a light that snuffed other lights out. 

Téa walked faster. She caught up with Éayl and touched his shoulder. He stood taller when she did so. This she took as him aknowledging her presence. She flicked the tapered part of his ear one time. Sparks. Now he too walked faster. The others would see the embers and know to scatter - but Éayl was blind. They split off in different directions. Within seconds Téa could not see Éayl anymore.They needn't stay together - not when death was close behind. Better that one of them die than two.  

Her fears were realized quickly. The fire roared nearby with a gutteral sound and left sand in the air hot and bright and blowing at her. The fire is not for me. The fire is not for me. She repeated the mantra. He heart was pounding. Fire roared again and this time she smelled burnt flesh. Not her own. The sand under her feet began to fall away below and behind her. She panicked. Death was here. Her death. 

She ran madly-fighting gravity and the sand pulling her down. Somehow she escaped the sinking. She ran, forgettign how precious conserving energy was. Uncaring that she was seating from the heat and exertion. A shadow burst from the brown unknown arced over her - accompanied by limbs that smacked into her face and shoulders and a blast of sand. She ran. She ran out of the enclosure. Fire roared again and she could tell that it enased the terror behind because she smelled burt flesh again. She ran. She stared straight ahead. She ran from her fears as much as from the real danger.

She stumbled over a sudden rocky section. She ran and stumbled now. Through the haze of hot sparks and stinging specks of sand an enourmous green-glazed eye  with a black elypse int he middle loomed up beside her. She flinched at the sight. She could smell the wyrm's putrid breath. The eye twitched down and focused on her. She froze and stared at the eye. The dragon must have been hunting better prey, but would surely eat her on the way. 

They probably couldn't hunt in this dust storm. That was what her friends had hoped when the first peal of sand had blown by that morning. How am I so calm? She knew. Death was inevitable so fear was irrelevent. But why was she suddenly so cold? The eye looked up and past her. It was an alien form seeming almost independent from a body, save for leathery creases of skin around it. She caught sight of scales as the winged giant leaped over her. The ground shook and sand was tossed up with it's landing. 

Téa fell to her hands. She began to shake. She had to run. Run! She ran. She ran as fast as the sand allowed her to. She followed the faint impressions of her friends - all scattered but grounded. Solid and dependable unlike this terrible storm. At some time later that she could nto discern, she stumbled over rock. The sand simply gave way - but there it still was sliding along the ground. The sky was still cast in brown witht eh moons watching brightly.

O'thyl watched her crumble. She was on her side. Her arms and legs quivered. The ground felt cold- - or was that her skin? Was the dragon watching again?

She stirred. Éayl and the others would assume she'd died if she didnt get to them. She could not hear them. Only the sound of the sand shifting magically on the rock in front of her. It seemed unaware of her plight. She followed the blowing river of sand. She followed it into a forest of rocky pillars and walls. Eventually she left the sand and dust behind. She found her friends at an oasis. Stone sentinals blocked the storm here, which itself had settled so that her friends were drinking and bathing in the water. Éayl was there. The pool was clear but Téa could see sand that had settled to the bottom. Feet splashing at the edge kicked up sand that sparkled int he moonlight. The oasis was bordered on one side by tall natural stone. Across from that was a ledge that rose up steeply but people were walking up it easily and jumping into the water with big splashes. The kids. They still had energy after trekking through a sandstorm to avoid the dragons' hunger. 

As night descended the dust dissipated from the sky. The Court of O'thyl was populated by peasant stars. Éayl sat with her and looked cheerful. He turned thiw way and that - sensing the others. It was the connection they all shared and it helped them survive in this court of winged giants. Silence comforted them. 

Téalya's eyes drooped as she drifted toward sleep. The wyrm's eye. Her eyes widened and she sat up. Next to hear Éayl tensed. He flicked her ear twice. Sparks? She held his cheek half to assure him no - half to still her nerves. There was a feeling of being watched. Then the feeling moved. She froze again. She started at the ledge where some adults were being coerced into climbing the ledge. Out there in the sky beyond - was that a shooting star? It came again but going in the wrong direction. Then it stayed there as a frozen streak in the zenith. 

Right then understandint of the sensation of being watched and the realization that there was no shooting star - but instead pitch-black carapace reflecting moonlight, snapped into place. This one had green eyes much smaller than the one that saw her during the storm and these eyes were locked on the boy that was about to jump. Téa yanked her mask down to scream nightwyrm! but Éayl grabbed her arm clearly confused and scared. Nothing came out of her throat.

The boy leapt.

The nightwyrm snapped its jaws around him at the waist. At being caught the boy hung there pinned in place and limbs limp. One drop of blood fell into the water - then the wyrm vanished down the other side of the ledge with its meal. 

Had anyone noticed? The other children were still trying to pull older ones up to jump. Adults sat exhausted on the ground or slept. Had nobody noticed? Would nobody notice that one of their lives was about to end? She could feel that the boy was alive but his presence was fading quickly. Her arm hurt suddenly. She looked down at here Éayl was squeezing her tightly in one hand. Éayl had noticed.

Téalya could not do anything to comfort him. She could only feel safe knowing that nightwyrms hunted alone, and no more of them would be taken this night.

In the morning the children cried.