1
Tiny furtive scuttling attracted the moss’ attention, or what passes for attention in cave moss. Little legs climbing out of the log it grew over, making their way deeper into the cave. That was new; The log had been thoroughly colonised by the moss and it’s kind, so the scuttling invader should never have made it this far.
As the moss subtly reformed to guide the … Pillbug, possibly? … along a suitable path, it reached out to it’s nearest brethren, passing along a simple message towards the cave mouth; “Is anything wrong?” In the other direction, ahead of the pillbug, it passed a different message; “Invader”.
Deeper in the cave, a cluster of toadstools very gently started releasing spores, which drifted softly down over the newly formed path the pillbug was unwittingly following. To the extent that it was aware, the pillbug had no idea that it had been detected by anything at all; It had found a path leading towards its dimly understood goal, the thing it could just barely sense somewhere deep in the cave, and with less of the moss in the way, it would get there faster. The strange dust drifting down was no impediment.
By the time the pillbug had stopped moving, poisoned by softly falling spores, a garbled message had come back from the cave mouth, reporting disruption but not destruction, impact seemingly without invasion.
The mosses and toadstools couldn’t make much sense of it, and in the very slow way of their kind, tried to gather more information, straining their senses to discover anything new. Instead of funnelling the scrap of energy they’d gained from defeating the invading pillbug into more growth, they held it in reserve, waiting to understand the situation better.
A force smashed half of the log moss flat, not destroying it, but pushing it down into the damp structure of the log. Something huge blocked the light, an enormous shape towering over the mosses and toadstools.
Determined not to be caught off guard and leave the next part of the cave unprepared, the moss reached out along paths it hadn’t used in its entire existence, reporting back to the something they guarded. With just the right kind of eyes, a spray of dim spluttering sparks could have been seen, jumping from moss patch to toadstool to wall slime, fueled by the energy from the pillbug, heading back into the depths along a hundred different paths.
The cave spider on the roof had exactly the right sort of eyes to watch those sparks. It watched them sputtering off into the distance, then turned it’s attention back to looking down on the figure sitting slumped on the log.
“How,” It wondered. “Am I supposed to catch that?”
2
The cave spider scuttled back and forth, studying the seated figure. It experimented with lowering a loop of webbing, but abandoned the plan when the loop made contact and their size difference became too obvious to ignore.
“Even if we all worked together,” It thought. “We still couldn’t capture that. We’d need a Scion.”
A tremor in the roof webbing passed along a warning; Invader. The spider looked up, then hurled a loop of webbing at a hornet as it flew by, snagging it at the same time as one of its brethren slightly deeper into the cave.
As they reeled the struggling insect in, the spider asked itself.
“What’s a Scion? Why do I know that word?”
It felt important somehow.
When the hornet was defeated, and it’s energy was sent flowed into the roof webbing, the spiders sent out a message.
“Intruder not invading. Not gathering, not destroying, damaging but not attacking.”
“What’s a Scion?” The first spider added.
A flood of messages filled the web.
“More intruders not invading at entrance.”
“Damaging because large and clumsy?”
“We know ‘Scion’. How do we know ‘Scion’?”
“Intruder not invading tried to gather; Now poisoned.”
“‘Scion’ is bigger us. Why do we know this?”
“Bees see intruders not invading outside.”
“Intruder not invading attacked while gathering? Not right.”
“Bad weather coming outside.”
“Intruder not invading gathered and ate toadstools.”
“Why!?”
“Not What Toadstools Are For!”
“Bees say ‘Scion’ like Queen. Powerful.”
“Intruder not invading dying?”
“Sick, not dying. Big creature, small toadstools.”
The cave spider, still speculatively eyeing up the seated figure, tried to imagine a spider so big it could catch the huge creature, then tried to imagine what the creature could possibly want. It wasn’t trying to gather anything, it didn’t seem to be trying to destroy anything, it didn’t seem like a threat; it was just sitting there.
The last message from the bees stuck in its mind. More intruders not invading outside, and the bees knew something about Scions, whatever they were. It started making its way along the web, heading for the entrance; This needed a direct conversation, not messages.
“Why did I think that?” It wondered, looking down at the small group of large creatures clustered around the rock pool by the entrance. “I’ve never needed to do this before.”
One of the large creatures was vomiting into a crack in the rocks, while another crouched nearby, offering a bowl of water.
“Why eat toadstools?” The web asked. “Gather yes, eat no.”
“Very new? Very young? Very stupid?” Replied the cave spider, trying to think of a reason to eat anything so clearly poisonous as a toadstool. The things glowed; Nothing that glows is good eating.
Dim sparks crawled out of the roof web and onto the cave spider as it traveled, though it didn’t notice, intent on making its way to the entrance. The way seemed clearer here, it could grip better and reach further and jump longer that it had ever been able to before.
Down on the cave floor, the vomiting figure wiped it’s mouth with a shaky hand and took a gulp of water, then lay on it’s back on the cave floor.
“No, definitely not edible.”
It pointed at the roof.
“Wonder where that one’s going?”
The figure with the bowl of water looked up & jumped slightly, splashing the one on the ground.
“Hey!”
“Sorry, but … That’s a big spider.”
They watched the cave spider make it’s way towards the entrance.
“Biggest one I’ve seen so far.” Said the one on the ground.
“It’s the only big one.” The standing figure replied. “And there aren’t any small ones.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look around.” The standing one gestured. “We’re maybe 50 paces into this cave, those spiders are everywhere, but apart from that big one heading right for the entrance in a dead straight line, all the rest are exactly the same size.”
3
The cave spider paused just inside the entrance, hesitant to go further out into the sunlight. It leaned forward, experimentally, then flinched back with a chittering hiss as it’s vision failed in the glare.
With eyes completely unsuited to the task and a mind fizzing with unfamiliar thoughts, it tried to understand what it was seeing.
Chaos.
Absolute disorder.
No roof to be seen, just an expanse of blue and white far above, turning to grey further out. In the far distance, black; Even the air itself looked dark.
In front of the cave, large creatures like the intruders not invading were in a panic. Some cowered under mats of the thickest webbing the cave spider had ever seen, some flailed at the air with branches, two more pounded at an object on the ground with shiny sticks, and all around, filling the air, angry hornets swarmed.
The bees flew in tight groups, intercepting hornets which strayed too close to the cave or to their hive, overwhelming them and bringing them crashing down. As the cave spider watched, a cooperation of sorts began to emerge, the bees intercepting hornets midair, steering them towards the centre of the clearing, and releasing them to drop within striking range of the branch welding creatures.
Unsure of how exactly to talk to the bees, the cave spider lashed out any any hornet within range, immobilising & dropping them into the moss far below to be disposed of. Around it, the other smaller cave spiders started to adopt the same strategy in the face of a seemingly endless supply of invaders actually invading.
Energy from the hornets sparked into the moss, spreading up through the slimes on the walls and into the roof web. Out in the clearing, however, the energy from those hornets killed by the branch welding creatures didn’t flow into the creatures, or the web, or the moss, or even to the hive; It just … Floated in the air.
If the cave spider could have squinted, it would have. It cleaned it’s eyes in disbelief.
“We don’t understand it either.” Said the bee perched on a clump of rock beside the cave spider. “Not invading, not gathering. Makes no sense.”
The cave spider jumped and nearly lost its grip in surprise; It hadn’t even seen the bee land. It turned the jump into an acrobatic ‘swing on one leg to reposition yourself’ manoeuvre.
“Why did they attack the hornets?” It asked. “And … Do the bees know why the invaders not invading are here?”
The bee flickered it’s wings in irritation.
“We don’t know why they’re here. They arrived after the brightness started, but not long after, and we heard them travel through the dark.”
It pointed an antenna at a hornet. Rather than fling a web, the cave spider shot out a leg and knocked the flying insect into the cave wall, where the slimes grabbed it.
“They tried to gather wood, we think, but gathered the tree with the hornet nest on it, and it fell into the clearing.”
“Gathering hornet wood, gathering toadstools.” The cave spider gestured in both directions. “The invaders not invading have no luck.”
“Or aren’t very good at gathering.” The bee agreed. “Good at killing hornets though, with help.”
They watched the scene outside the cave, which had turned into a highly effective hornet killing operation. Bees herded the hornets, branch welding creatures knocked them from the air, and the others crushed them.
“That nest has been there since before the Queen. Before the Queen before the Queen.” Commented the bee. “It’s written into the walls of the Hive. And they’ve destroyed it in less than a day.”
The spider slapped another hornet from the air.
“Does the Hive say anything about Scions? We know that word, but we don’t know why.”
“The Queen said that a spider asked that.” The bee replied. “She says it’s like a Queen for creatures without Queens. But it talks to the One In The Cave, and does things other Queens can’t.”
The cave spider reared up in surprise, then settled back again.
“The One In The Cave must be …” It gestured in the direction that everything, spider or bee or moss or toadstool or slime, instinctively knew. “But … It doesn’t talk. It just … Is.”
The bee made a sort of bobbing motion of agreement and spread it’s antenna wide.
“We don’t really understand all of that. It’s just what’s written in the hive walls.”
4
Webfarmer padded softly along the tunnel, stooping at the low roofed sections & trying to follow the fanciful and incoherent story her guide was telling. The young goblin had woken her up well before sunset with tales of intruders and a war of bees and spiders, and after her attempts to settle the terrified but also somehow excited child had failed, she’d decided to play along until it had calmed down.
“This one doesn’t go into the main cave.” She tried to explain, but the child was having none of that, and kept babbling about monsters in the cavern. “This tunnel ends in a wall of the silver-glass crystals. You were just having a dream; There aren’t any invaders down here.”
“End, then up!” Came the insistent reply. “Through shiny rocks to big cave.”
Webfarmer shrugged and let herself be dragged along.
As they rounded the corner, hunched over in Webfarmer’s case because the floor bulged upwards at that point, she gestured to the softly glowing crystals.
“See? No tunnel.” She dropped into a crouch, looking into the child’s eyes … What was it’s name? Baz, Zaz, something like that … Trying to be reassuring. “Just a dream, see. No new tunnels, no invaders, nothing to be afraid of. We’re safe here.”
“No.” The child said in a serious tone. “Up!”
Before Webfarmer could react the young goblin had leaped at the wall of crystals, nimbly jumping between them as it sped towards the roof, somehow not being cut to shreds by the edges … And vanishing into the shadows at the very top of the wall.
“Ba … Za …” What was the child’s name, Webfarmer wondered as she tried to call out to it. “Where did you … You shouldn’t … Are you alright?”
A grinning face appeared above the wall of crystals, lit softly from below, sticking out of a hole which blended perfectly with the shadows.
“See? Up!” The child gestured, then pointed down. “Big three side first!”
With an expression somewhere between exasperation and admiration, Webfarmer stepped up to the wall and looked closely. The large triangular crystal did have a layer of dirt on it, far more than could have been placed by one little goblin in one climb, and it was angled just flat enough that the edges wouldn’t cut your feet if you stood on it. A little way above it, another one offered the next foothold.
“How did you find this?” She asked the little face above her.
“Good at finding tunnels!” Came the response as the child pointed out the next safe handhold. “Lots of hidden tunnels; Only Webfarmer small enough for this one.”
Webfarmer pulled herself up until she was level with the child, and fixed it with a stare.
“You mean the only reason you woke me up was because I can fit through your tunnel?” She demanded.
“Shhhh.” Said the child, putting a finger to its lips. “Close to monsters now.”
—–
Webfarmer and the child stared out from their vantage point high above the cave.
Out at the entrance, a dim fire crackled, with three large figures sitting slumped around it. Inside, past the pool with the log, more figures lay wrapped in blankets on the moss beds, well away from the glowing toadstools.
“See!” The child whispered triumphantly. “Monster Invaders.”
Webfarmer could only nod in agreement at first, taking in the crushed moss, fallen spiders, the disturbed water of the pool, and the smoke occasionally wafting in. Then she noticed other things; Rocks carefully cleared of moss to make stepping stones through the cave, a ring of earth to keep the fire from spreading.
“Look, they have lanterns.” She pointed. “Beside the ones lying down, the little glass boxes.”
At the child’s confused look, she continued.
“Like we use a silver-glass crystal on a string, or a toadstool in a pot to see by; A lantern uses a little flame.”
“Are they sleeping?” Asked the little goblin, pointing to the blanket wrapped figures. “It’s night. Why are they sleeping?”
“I don’t know.” Webfarmer replied. “I don’t know why they would come here to sleep. Invaders wouldn’t do that, and I don’t think gatherers do that either.
She turned to the child.
“What else did you see?”
“Spiders fighting flying things. Monsters … Invaders … Gatherers … Things outside attacking flying things too. Little rolly bugs on the ground too, but the moss and toadstools ate them.”
“What sort of flying things?”
A skittering noise attracted both their attentions as a cave spider made its way across the roof towards them, dangling a webbed something. As they watched, it hung the curled-up remains of a hornet from the roof web near them, then backed away.
“That sort.” Declared the child proudly.
Looking at the hornet, Webfarmer saw movement in the distance, and watched in disbelief as a huge cave spider, easily three times the size of any of the others, made its way towards them, stopping just outside of arms reach. It was close enough that she could see a bee clinging onto the spiders back.
“What in the name of the sleeping one is happening here?” She asked, looking from spider to sleepers to hornet to fire to bee and back.
The spider, impossibly, looked straight at her and shrugged.
5
Webfarmer squirmed along the tunnel on knees and elbows, following the cave spider and trying not to kick the small excited goblin child in the face when it followed too close.
“Are you sure I’ll fit?” She asked. “Goblins aren’t as small as spiders, even very big ones.”
The spider looked back at her as it continued on its corkscrew path, somehow rolling its eyes. The child prodded her foot.
“Found this tunnel ages ago!” It announced proudly. “Goes all the way to the outside.”
“I am beginning to think,” Webfarmer muttered, “That we need to keep a better eye on what the children are doing and where they’re going.”
The spider paused, turning back slightly, then pointed a leg at her and nodded in what could surely only be a gesture of agreement.
—–
The trio emerged onto a shallow ledge, level with the treetops, looking out towards the last rays of the setting sun. The cave spider chittered in annoyance and scuttled into the shade behind Webfarmer, who held out a fold of robe as a sunshade.
“Here you go; Does this help?”
The spider crept into the pocket of shade and chittered again, somehow in a more positive tone, twisting to look up at Webfarmer.
“You’re welcome.”
They looked down on the cave entrance, directly below them.
“What in the Sleeping One’s name happened here?” Muttered Webfarmer. “Or is still happening here, I suppose.”
The goblin child and the cave spider both started to speak, or chitter in the spider’s case. The paused, looked at each other, and the spider gestured to the child with a leg in a clear ‘Go ahead’ gesture.
“Invaders cut tree and fought big bugs!” The child pointed. “Then spiders and bees and moss and toadstools fought big bugs!”
The spider tapped Webfarmer on the ankle and pointed down. Following the line of its leg, she could just make out the remains of the hornet nest.
“Those aren’t part of the Sleeping One’s domain, are they?” She asked. “They’re invaders of a sort?”
An emphatic nod from the spider.
“And the trees aren’t part of it either, so …” She paused for thought. “Did they think they were gathering but got the wrong place?”
“Tried gathering inside, but gathered toadstools!” The child contributed, then made exaggerated vomiting noises.
The cave spider nodded, then made a noise somewhere between a chitter and a snigger at the child’s antics, using a couple of legs to produce a very expressive vomiting gesture. Webfarmer chuckled, then went still and silent as she spotted movement below.
One of the figures by the fire, roused by the noises, had twisted around to look up. As she watched, it spotted her and stumbled to its feet, clumsily shrugging off a blanket and grabbing an axe.
“Shhhh!” Webfarmer hissed, pushing the child down into a crouch. “Stay down, stay quiet!”
The figure frantically looked all around, eyes wide, trying to simultaneously watch Webfarmer and look into every shadow and at every tree. It raised the axe in a far too tight grip and glanced at the other blanket wrapped figures, then into the cave.
Webfarmer slowly raised her hands and tried to make gentle calming motions. The axe welding figure relaxed slightly. As though the weather had been waiting for a signal, it started to rain.
After a few moments in the rain, both Webfarmer and the figure slumped slightly, sharing a look of annoyance. The figure took one hand off its axe and pointed towards the cave mouth, shrugging. Webfarmer pointed behind her to the tunnel, also shrugging.
Slowly, clearly waiting for something to happen, the figure moved back towards the shelter of the cave mouth, then darted back out into the clearing, waving upward.
Webfarmer leaned out to look, as the figure gestured wildly out towards the dark forest outside the cave.
“I have no idea what this thing means.” She muttered to the spider and the child as the rain got heavier. “Get inside, you idiot.”
She made eye contact, pointed firmly at the figure, then at the others still dozing by their fire, then towards the cave mouth below her.
As the figure nodded and walked into the cave mouth, nudging the others awake, the cave spider uncoiled from it’s crouch and stared at the air above the clearing, making a loud hissing noise, then twisted to look up at Webfarmer.
“What?” She asked.
The spider prodded Webfarmer and the child back towards the tunnel, turning for a last look at the dark clearing before following them in.
—–
The group of goblins stared as the cave spider chittered and pointed. There was a long pause.
“I’m sorry,” Said Webfarmer. “But I didn’t understand any of that.”
She looked around the group.
“Anyone?” She asked the ring of baffled faces, getting a series of serious looks and shaken heads.
“Something in the air, going into the cave?”
“Maybe it’s describing the hornets you mentioned.”
“Or the new people; It’s the biggest cave spider I’ve ever seen, but it’s still shorter than them.”
With an exasperated sigh, the goblin child squatted down in front of Webfarmer, facing the spider.
“You lead, I follow?”
The spider chittered and climbed up the wall, vanishing into a crack in the roof. A moment later a leg stuck out and made a beckoning motion.
“Where does that one go, … Uhhh …” Webfarmer was still blanking on the child’s name.
“Big cavern, by toadstools.” Came the reply as the child grabbed he sleeve and started leading her. “We go this way.”
“Is this going to be another tunnel I need to crawl through?” Webfarmer sighed. “Or can we walk like regular goblins?”
“Yes!” Came the enthusiastic response.
“Very well then, … ” She paused for the child’s name, annoyed. “Very well then, Tunnelfinder; Show us the way.”
Webfarmer grinned to herself as the goblin child stood up straighter and started marching with obvious pride at having been given a proper Name.
6
The Messenger Bee made its way into the cave, sticking close to the walls to avoid detection. Not that there was much chance of that; The large creatures didn’t seem to be that good at spotting … well, anything, really … but tempting fate seemed like a bad idea.
It passed the creatures who’d moved from the area around their rapidly drowning fire into the shelter of the cave mouth, just past where the heavy rain could reach. The ones lying further in hadn’t been disturbed at all by the change in weather, or, the bee noted, by the moss having grown much thicker underneath them while they slept.
It found an upside down perch on a stalactite and waggled a greeting at the nearest cave spider, which wandered over and gestured to the sleeping creatures.
“Intruders not invading, delvers not gathering, not-dwellers dragging … something?” It began. “Do Bees understand this?”
The Messenger Bee wriggled a no.
“Queen says the hive walls say nothing about this.” The Bee responded. “Not acting as an enemy, and they destroyed the nest of invaders, so … Maybe friends? Unlucky stupid young friends who don’t know about anything?”
The Bee pointed an antenna at the sleeping figures.
“Do Spiders know why the Moss is helping them?”
“We didn’t understand at first.” Replied the spider, delicately extended a leg for the bee to look along, pointing at the moss where the sleeping figures were lying on it.
“Look closely.”
—–
The Cave Spider squeezed out of its tunnel and found a comfortable position on the wall. That tunnel was bigger before; How did the intruders not invading make the tunnels shrink? They’d made a lot of other creatures shrink too, come to think of it.
The Cave Spider resolved to ask the Bees whether their Hive had any mention of things shrinking – it seemed important, but it felt like it was missing something about the situation – and settled in to observe the sleeping creatures and wait for the Goblins to arrive. The child had almost understood it, it was sure, and the bigger one was trying very hard and was getting the general idea. Unfortunately, it thought, looking out over the cave and the sleeping creatures and the baffling thing hovering just over them, the general idea just wasn’t good enough in this situation.
It stretched out a leg and gently touched a nearby strand of the roof-web, feeling the messages flowing past. Lots of talk about the new arrivals, some self-congratulatory bragging about who’d caught the most hornets, a description of what the Moss was up to … The Cave Spider let go of the rock in startlement and fell onto a patch of Toadstools.
—–
Tunnelfinder and Webfarmer made their way along the trail as quietly as they could, trying to keep the small group of goblins following them from making too much noise; The children who’d somehow tagged along couldn’t be blamed, but the adults should know better. Quite aside from it being a good idea to move quietly when there were strangers present, given that those strangers were sleeping, it was simple politeness not to disturb them.
The route Tunnelfinder had led them down had, after a lot of crawling and squirming, taken them out onto the cave floor, further back than the new arrivals, and they were now picking their way up the wide shallow stream which burbled its way deeper in. Not everyone had made it this far; Some of the crowd had seen the narrow tunnel and declared that maybe everyone didn’t need to go.
“Tunnelfinder?” Webfarmer muttered as she helped an elder goblin with a tricky bit of rock-hopping. “Was that the only way to get here, or did you pick something narrow deliberately?”
The child glanced back and flashed a grin.
“Just over there!” It responded, pointing to a cluster of moss and toadstool covered rocks.
“I don’t know about you,” The elder commented. “But I think that’s a yes; This one’s sneaky in more ways than one.”
“Even that huge cave spider agreed that we should be keeping a closer eye on what the children are up to.” Webfarmer agreed. “Which is making me wonder what they’ve been doing that the spiders know about but we don’t.”
The elder chuckled.
“No worse than what you got up to at their age, I’ll bet. Or what I was doing at the same age.”
They crept up the cluster of rocks after Tunnelfinder, moving quietly on knees and fingertips, and positioned themselves to peer between the toadstools. Further back, goblins found gaps between the rocks, or craned over each others shoulders, to see what the new arrivals were doing.
“I hadn’t thought bed-moss would grow this far from the deep.” Offered the elder. “I’ve never seen it this close to the outside before.”
“It doesn’t.” Came a flat response from lower down. “I was gathering moss up here a few days back, and I’d have noticed bed-moss.”
The speaker tried repositioning themselves, then gave up with an exasperated sigh.
“All I can see is the drenched ones by the entrance; Where can you see bed-moss?”
“Why are they still wet?” Asked one of the children. “Don’t they know how to make a fire?”
“Had one before.” Tunnelfinder replied. “But then the rain came. Maybe they don’t know fire-moss?”
“The bed-moss,” Said the elder in a firm tone, cutting off what threatened to be a long diversion. “Is only where the new arrivals are sleeping. It supports them, but not their belongings.”
Webfarmer saw motion off to the side, and spotted the Cave Spider climbing out of a patch of toadstools, it’s back covered with glowing smears. She nudged Tunnelfinder and waved, then pointed towards the sleeping strangers on their bed of thick moss.
The Cave Spider gave a multi-legged gesture somewhere between a shrug and disbelief, then pointed, first at the sleeping strangers, then at the moss. Then it looked straight at Tunnelfinder and made what could only be an eating gesture.
“Strangers eating moss? No, not that.” The child mused. “Moss eating strangers?”
It made its own gestures back, miming a mouth from below consuming a pair of wiggling legs with rather more enthusiasm than Webfarmer thought was necessary. The Cave Spider chittered a laugh while shaking a ‘no’ in response, then everyone froze as one of the strangers shifted slightly at the noise.
Webfarmer and the elder shot stern looks at the Cave Spider and Tunnelfinder, who both covered their heads in gestures of apology.
The Cave Spider cautiously gestured for attention, then made a series of gestures; A rapid fluttering of its legs, pointing both at the strangers standing at the cave mouth and at Webfarmer, a rapid circling motion taking in all the strangers, sleeping and standing, and then finally vigorous pointing at the moss.
It looked towards the goblins with what could only be a hopeful look, then slumped at the sea of blank expressions.
Tunnelfinder was muttering very quietly to themself.
“Hornets. Us outside the cave. Strangers. And the moss.”
They mimed swatting at flying things, then made a grabbing motion and pointed at the moss. The Cave Spider, watching intently, bounced up and down excitedly, while Webfarmer slowly came to a horrified realisation about what the spider was saying.
—–
The Moss hadn’t paid attention to any of that.
It had heard reports from deeper patches about goblins moving up from the deep but not gathering, which would normally be unusual but barely rated a mention by today’s standards, and it had listened to the complaints from a patch of Toadstools when a giant spider had crashed into them, squashing some and bruising others.
The Moss was focusing intensely. Somehow, these Invaders were invaders no more; They’d drawn in energy from somewhere, and the Moss was absorbing it as fast as it could, putting some into growth as a reward to the invaders no more, feeding some towards the Toadstools to quiet the complaints and stop them from trying to poison the giant spider, and spreading the rest out into the network of moss and fungus and slime and web and hive. It even directed some towards the sleeping one, just in case that could help.
It didn’t know how these things had become invaders no more, or why the energy they’d provided tasted so much like hornet, but it was determined to spread the unexpected boost as far as possible. Whatever would happen next, the Moss wanted everyone in the cave to be ready.