322 More Than Meets The Eye

Not all of the spider beasts in the Jungle were under her control. Some of them, if not most of the regular spider beasts, were wild. If she was in the vicinity, she would have some degree of control over them. 

But if she is not, they roam to kill. 

Vy thanked the Queen for her hospitality. Much to her surprise, when she woke up the next day, Vy found herself next to the wall. When she looked all around, she saw no traces of Red Silk, the Queen or any of spider beasts for that matter. 

When she checked on her weapons, all of them were still intact. 

"They must have moved me while I was asleep," she figured. 

Regardless, the Queen had been kind enough to provide crucial information about the wall and Jungle. It was more than Vy could have ever asked for. Looking up at the wall, she placed her hand on its cool stone surface. 

With renewed determination, she continued her journey. It was a few days later when she finally made it back to her starting point. She had taken down notes on the various locations and information she had found. 

While scavenging, she found a few pieces of blank paper. Without a pencil or pen, she used her own blood to crawl down images and landmarks of importance. Of all her findings, there were three crucial things she found. 

One, the Spider Queen's words were true. She found the site the Queen had mentioned. Corpses were strewn everywhere. The stench of rot was long gon and all that remained were bones. However, Vy realised that amongst larger skeletons were smaller, animal-like ones. 

Upon closer inspection, it seemed to belong to smaller monkey-like beasts with long limbs, a tail and sharpened teeth. These could be what Queen Willow was referring to. 

Amongst the skeletons, Vy also found interesting weapons she had not seen before. However, all of them were either badly damaged beyond repair, or missing parts. She also found empty metal casings strewn all across the floor. 

"What weapons are these," she muttered to herself. 

Something about them felt familiar. Deep in the back of her mind, she seemed to have seen or used these weapons before. From the looks of it, they were long ranged weapons with lots of fire power. 

Two, there was more than one set of symbols on the walls. In total, Vy found that there were four locations where the symbol of the rabbit had been painted on. As for the symbol of the rat, there were two. 

At the site where Vy had found the countless skeletons, she noticed that the wall had no symbol on it. When she placed her ear against the wall, Vy realised it was hollow. Yet there were no symbols painted on this section of the wall. 

The third and final detail she noticed is that the Jungle seemed to have been split into four sections, each with its own encampment of survivors. For easy reference, she named them based on the weapons found in each section. Swords, Bows, Explosives and Shooters. 

The Spider Nest was located between the Explosives and Shooters. Based on her search so far, she has confirmed that the Explosives was uninhabited by any survivors. Now, she was in the Shooters territory. 

First observation of the chests revealed that they had been opened recently, indicating that there were indeed survivors. This was always a good sign. Though there was no telling whether they would be hostile, Vy remained optimistic. 

As nightfall arrived, she quickly found a suitable spot for the night to rest. For safety, she climbed up a tall study tree to rest on one of its branches. Looking up at the night sky, she saw a galaxy of stars twinkling above her. 

It was quiet. 

She could hear the crickets chirping in the night, occasionally accompanied by the hoot of an owl. After some time, Vy drifted off to sleep. But hours later, she opened her eyes to find an owl perched on her chest staring deep into her eyes. 

Vy did not move, she kept eye contact with the peculiar owl. Something about it felt familiar, but she could not figure out what it was. The owl was calm and collected, carefully observing Vy. 

When she reached her hand out, hoping to ruffle its feathers, the creature leapt off her chest and flew away. It flew silently to a nearby branch, before setting off into the night sky. 

"If only I was as free as you are, little owl," Vy muttered to herself as she fell back asleep. 

In the morning, the rays of the morning sun stirred her awake. Groggily, Vy climbed down from the tree and stretched her arms. Her back was aching and stiff from having slept on the hard wooden branch. 

"I would kill for a night's sleep on a soft bed," she lamented as she stretched her aching muscles. 

"Hey did… did you hear something?" A voice called out from a distance away. 

Vy went into full alert mode. She quickly ran into the bushes to hide, just as the source of the voice came walking down the path she had been on. Much to her surprise, it was a child carrying a shooter type weapon on his back. 

Seconds later, the child was followed by another, who carried a smaller shooter weapon in a holster around her waist. 

"Jos, you must be hearing things!" The young girl said to her companion. 

"I was sure I heard something! It was the voice of an adult!" The child named Jos insisted. 

Seeing as it was two children, Vy did not see the need to hide from them. She emerged from her hiding spot with her hands in the air as a sign of good faith. The two children were surprised by her sudden appearance but they did not run away in fear. 

They stood their ground and pointed their shooter weapons at her. 

"I do not mean any harm. My name is Vyrena. I'm a survivor, just like you."

The two kids did not know how to react, they had not seen anyone in their part of the Jungle who was older than a teenager. Vyrena was the oldest person they had seen. 

"How do we know you're not lying?" The child named Jos asked. 

"Jos, maybe we should just get rid of her here." The young girl whispered to Jos. 

"How about you bring me to meet your leader?" Vy suggested. 

"Maribelle, maybe we should bring her to meet Boss," Jos said to the girl. 

Although they were children, they were cautious. Jos looked at Vy, unable to make a decision. Just then, he noticed the red bands around Vy's wrists. Just as he was about to ask her a question, two other children emerged to join their companions.