Book One – Chapter 8

Her retreat sealed off, Midnight was caught on the edge between instinct and strategy. Her instincts were a frenetic pulse urging her to gain distance from the immediate threat, to rush back to the intersection, where the allure of multiple pathways echoed louder with every heartbeat. Yet, against this primeval call, Midnight resisted.

Forcing herself into the mindset of a trapper, she reasoned that the intersection, with its myriad uncharted tunnels, presented a perilous disadvantage. Four paths, two inaccessible to her, would render her vulnerable to the yet unknown number and kinds of predators, while offering them various options to attack and retreat. Still, her primal instincts compelled her to go there. It was a disconcerting realisation.

She held her ground. The tunnel she occupied allowed attackers only two openings — the retreat to the intersection and the now web-sealed passage in the opposite direction.

Furthermore, the three tunnels at the intersection featured meticulously prepared traps, adorned with webs that could stretch endlessly, structures potentially perfected for years with every prey that fought and fell victim before Midnight. In contrast, the webs around her were fresh, their extent constrained by the limited time the trappers had to erect them. Though Midnight was confined, her movement restricted, her position also limited the number of beasts that could attack simultaneously.

Midnight listened, smelt and felt. Was the web structure still expanding, shifting in movement, or has it settled into a static trap? Where were the trappers? Around her? Above, ready to drop down? Behind the foremost net structures, biding their time waiting for her to break through? Midnight strained to discern the disturbances caused by foreign presences. She strained to delve deeper into the darkness that concealed these skilful predators.

In the recesses of her consciousness, as her senses spanned her surroundings, Midnight’s thoughts, like a web of their own, wove observations into a strategy. It contradicted her intrinsic nature, but her first conclusion was that she should remain motionless. Drawing sustenance from the energies that enveloped her, she could endure a vigil for however many hours it took for the trappers to unveil their presence — through a restive stir or an outright assault. However, the passage of time, a double-edged blade, would also serve as a breeding ground for more elaborate webs, extending their hold on Midnight from both ends of the tunnel.