Category: Anatomy/Physiology
Subcategory: Respiratory Function
There is tremendous variation in the respiratory tracts of spiders. While most spiders have at least one pair of lungs in the front portion of their abdomen, some have two, and a minority have none, favoring small tubular tracheae scattered throughout the body instead. The relative size and position of these structures varies a great deal as well, and even in spiders that have both, they are not always equivalent in function even within a family of spiders, much less the larger groupings. There are relatively few ‘rules’ and only some loose guidelines, like the presence of more extensive respiratory tracts in more active wandering spiders, or the increased vulnerability to desiccation as the tract grows.
Just as he felt he couldn’t hold on another moment, his chest burning with the borrowed discomfort, Jon felt his legs breach the surface.
He was upside-down, but that was ideal. Oregano had been hanging from his abdomen, and Jon’s own lungs operated on this side anyway.
Jon grabbed the carrier sac and squeezed hard. A stream went shooting out of the sac like a water balloon springing a leak. Oregano hadn’t responded to the pressure, so Jon sent an impression of an air horn through their link.
Oregano startled back into full awareness, pulling himself from the carrier. Jon felt some movement on his abdomen as the rat gasped and coughed, spitting out water. After the rat got a few gulps of air, he calmed considerably. Jon could still feel him shaking, sitting on his thorax between his middle legs.
Jon took a few deep breaths of his own. One of the spiderfacts had implied some spiders could live hours or days beneath the surface, but this was mostly the case in water-adapted species. Jon was surprised he hadn’t been more distressed himself. He didn’t think jumping spiders were especially suited for underwater survival.
“You’ve forgotten about that ridiculous life affinity of yours. It has a lot of impact on things like this, and will only get crazier as you progress and improve your toughness.”
“You keep using that word like I should know what it means. I have no idea what an affinity even is.”
“Chalk it up for one more line item in the gab session then. We’re getting close to being somewhere we can talk. You should probably turn over so you can see.”
Jon turned slowly, grabbing Oregano with a palp and rolling over. As he placed the rat on his head, he noticed Oregano was shaking still. Jon gave him a gentle pat before withdrawing his palps back into the water.
With his head over the water, Jon still couldn’t see a damn thing.
“You need to bond the monocle. It will help you gather the light down here, or even make one if you need to.”
“Is it the same process as the staff of the magister?”
“Yes, but be careful how much energy you put into it, or you’re going to have some regrets. Oh, and Oregano, cover your eyes.”
Reaching out to the monocle with the energy, Jon repeated the process he had done with the staff. He let only a hair of energy into the monocle, but still got a surprise as the system message popped up,
“Successfully bonded with magic monocle of the prismatic path: light affinity improved, light mana reservoir formed.”
The surprise was a burst of light like a flash-bang as the item bonded.
“You know, I miss a lot of body parts, but I think I miss the eyelids most of all,” Jon said, grabbing at his eyes.
Loo grunted in amusement.
“The reservoir is only a temporary one as the monocle doesn’t come equipped with a storage mechanism. If you funnel energy into it, it will convert it as fast as you give it, but the energy will immediately try to be used. If you don’t direct it, it will make one of those bursts. Try again when your eyes are ready and picture a ray, something directed.”
Jon drifted for a minute or so, flipping onto his back as he waited, taking a few more deep breaths. It was difficult to be sure in the dark, but he thought his eyes were adjusting again.
Jon flipped again, then focused on the monocle, picturing a spotlight as he funneled a trickle of energy into it. The resulting beam allowed him to see, but he felt little better off than he had before.
“It’s just rocks in every direction. Are you sure this is an exit?”
“Yes. Keep looking till you see a spot the light doesn’t come back from.”
As he scanned the underwater cavern, Jon finally saw what Loo was talking about:
“You mean that black spot over there? There’s no reflection at all.”
“Yup. Use the staff and your telekinesis, pull yourself by the edge of it if you can.”
Concentrating on his new telekinetic power, Jon grasped at the edges of the black spot, pretending to do a pull-up towards it. His body began drifting towards the space almost reluctantly.
“What next?”
“You go through it. Make sure the rat is holding on to you or he might get lost on the other side. The journey may be a bit bumpy.”
They drew closer and closer to the space, and Jon realized the cavern was larger than he initially thought, as was the black spot. It had to be at least a three times his own width.
The exit looked as solid as the surrounding rock, and Jon felt a little silly as he pulled himself towards it, fearing some prank by Loo. He approached the darkness, then he crossed the threshold. There was a tingling sensation of pins in needles in all his limbs.
His stomach dropped like he had been shoved off a cliff, and he found himself in blinding light. He was falling, unable to find purchase.
“OHHH SHIT!”
*THWACK!*
The pain was brief, and he found himself back in the water. This water was far warmer, and the light was still everywhere. As his eyes adjusted, all he could really see was blue-green water. He floated back up to the surface, where he began bobbing up and down slowly.
“Loo, am I in the fucking ocean?”
“Maybe. I don’t know the name, but it certainly seems like some large body of water. You probably want to leave. There’s a shore that way, the one lined with mangroves.”
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Jon began searching about after flipping onto his belly again, spying the mangroves a short distance away.
He began pulling telekinetically. At first the effort was significant, but as he began drifting towards them, it became easier. Less than a minute later he was crawling up onto one of the trees.
Jon looked around for a moment, taking in his surroundings. The water was the aquamarine color he associated with flyers for Caribbean resorts. He was standing on the outer roots of the trees, sheltered by the branches overhead. Water lapped gently under the roots. Jon did not see any living creatures, much to his relief.
“You really need to start looking up. It’s a problem. More on that later.”
Jon checked the sky, then froze. There were dozens of flying forms above. As he watched, one of them soared over the area where he had been moments earlier. The bird had the wingspan of a small plane.
“Seagulls?”
“Is that the word for it in your language? I hadn’t dived far enough in to know. But yes, that’s a very large bird, and it looks a bit peckish.”
“Jesus. Why didn’t they grab me?”
“Didn’t you choose to call me Loo? And it's hard to be certain. You probably weren’t worth the energy to them, we can discuss it when you find a safer spot. I would move further into the mangroves. I’m getting a feeling of a sanctuary path from them. If that’s accurate, they’ll have passive features nurturing small creatures, and feed on life energy. They’ll be happy to have you around with your strong life affinity.”
“Again with dropping the terms I’ve never heard. And did you say the plants will be happy?”
“Yes.”
“Like they’ll benefit from my presence, or like they’re sentient beings with feelings happy?”
“Both. You have a pretty narrow view of intelligence. Herman told you, and I will tell you again: let go of the rules from your planet, or you will die. Plants can be sentient, though it usually only happens around level 7 to 10. These ones aren’t quite awakened, but they have a general awareness of your presence. Feel the minds for a moment.”
Reaching out, Jon quickly encountered a diffuse mental presence all around him. There was an expectant and welcoming energy to the presence, but not words or images. He felt safe.
“Can I trust them?”
“Of course not. However, you can trust their incentive to keep you alive. Sanctuary paths feel like that: warm and safe. The beings that follow them thrive on protecting their inhabitants, and they often charge a toll for their services. You’re the perfect tenant, so they’ll want you alive. If you die, the affinity and associated energy goes away with you. If you’re an apple farmer you’re not going to just chop down the orchard for no reason.”
“I think the term is orchardist.”
“Absolutely not. I reject it. It sounds like someone who specializes in testicles.”
“You haven’t found the word for seagull but you had time to look into etymologies?
“I had my reasons. On an unrelated note, from now on you are calling me Louis.”
“Fine. Take away my one remaining joy.”
“You’ll find others. You seem to enjoy slaughtering small animals. Taxidermy maybe?”
“I had to! I even tried to prevent their suffering at the beginning. Then I realized they were a bunch of dicks.”
“At least some of them were female. Also, that ‘mercy’ is one of the topics up for discussion. In fact, we’ll hit it first.”
“Being a dick is not the exclusive domain of males.”
“Well, I guess you’re teaching me something new. The dao of dick. As always though, you need to quit the jabber and move it. Those gulls haven’t bothered to follow you yet, but there’s no guarantee that’ll hold. Ask the trees for safety, and they’ll help you find sanctuary. In return, they’ll want you to give up some of your life energy before you rest.”
“Are they going to let me leave after?”
“Probably. They’ll want you to get stronger. If you get stronger you’ll have more energy to bring back. Anyway, offer them some energy and see if you can find a safe place to stay the night.”
Jon reached out to the trees, picturing a hotel. There was no response. Then he tried picturing high walls, and a man paying passage to get behind them. Still no response. Louis snickered, and Oregano came to his rescue.
The rat sent an image of seeking a safe den, a tree. The image changed, and now the rat piled treasures and seeds in the den, eating pests and giving back to the soil.
There was silence for a few more seconds. It was finally broken by a feeling of warmth and light from the trees. Jon wasn’t sure if it was an illusion or not, but golden sunlight began filtering down through the branches, forming a shining path moving further into the forest.
Jon picked up the rat, placing him on his shoulder.
“You don’t have shoulders anymore.”
“Stop listening to my thoughts damn it!”
“Oh believe me, I absolutely would if I could. Like an endless rattling little motor. Weren’t you supposed to be into meditation?”
“I never said I was good at it.”
“And so we all suffer.”
“Some suffering is inevitable.”
“Dear god. Please, please stop.”
“You believe in God?”
“The sky Santa from your home planet? Or the angry guy from the first testament who had strong opinions on shellfish? Either way the answer is no. But I certainly believe in the gods I have seen here, so the expressions still work.”
Jon ignored Louis as he moved further into the forest. The water beneath them disappeared, and a marshy swamp filled with brackish water took its place. The light was tinted green with the leaves of the mangroves far above.
Jon took some time to process the size of these trees. He didn’t recall how large mangroves got on earth, but he figured it was at least twenty or thirty meters high. These trees were many times that height, more the size of redwoods.
“How would you know, you never saw one.”
“You are an incredibly invasive little parasite.”
“Thank you.”
“It wasn’t a compliment.”
“I reject that.”
Jon let out an internal sigh, then moved on. He kept following the path, searching for a good place to rest. Eventually, they came to a large clearing, with a small grassy island poking out from the murky waters. Jon jumped over to it, and decided this would be his place to settle down.
He was just wondering what the protocol was for paying for his stay, when he felt the trees reaching out to him again.
As the trees made contact, Jon saw another mental image.
For a moment, he saw only the grey-white light he had previously seen in his internal vision. Then he felt a twinge as Louis pushed something gently into place, and something clicked.
The light shifted into a mix and match of colors. At the base of his brain lay a white-blue star of light, which he intuitively recognized as his psionic reservoir. Near his heart and gut, there was a brilliant glow of golden light, with bits of green and black flickering into view as it came and went. As the light moved to the periphery it dulled and transitioned into deeper blue, before turning brown where his feet met the Earth. The tree gently pulled at the golden energy near the heart.
“Push the energy out for them, or you’re probably going to get a less than warm welcome. Pretend like the spot you feel the pulling is an item you’re trying to bond.”
Jon pushed, sending the golden energy towards the place where he felt the pulling sensation at the top of his back. He pushed out a little, then a bit more, and then let loose a small torrent. There was a brief connection to the plants around him, like he was one with all of them and they with him. When the energy was about a third gone, the mangrove’s presence withdrew, and the sense of connection faded with it.
As Jon watched, sprigs of a new mangrove trees popped up beside him on all sides of the island. The growth left a gap large enough for him to pass and another smaller one for Oregano. The trees began to stretch and grow visibly.
“Interesting. You should move onto the island, I think they’re investing all the energy you gave them into making this little home. They must really want you to come back. Those trees are brighter than I gave them credit for. ”
The area felt protected. Jon felt Oregano pop off his shoulder, carrying the den mother’s eye with him off to a corner of the den and doing a little caper. Jon didn’t ask where the hell the rat had been storing it. Oregano popped the eye into his mouth whole, then passed out in the corner twitching.
“Is he ok?”
“He’s fine, just trying to advance. Alright, time for a little chat.”
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