Shelob's School-Girl Prey [extended version]

The feeling of cold stone against her skin woke her up first. As she shot her eyes open, Emma realised that the atmosphere was a lot more humid than it should have been and that she was in complete darkness. She shivered. The young girl, lying against the stone ground, lifted her upper body and looked around her, vainly trying to see something, a disturbed look on her face. She had no memory of coming here at all. She didn’t even know where “here” was.

Emma rose on her knees. She was a young and attractive British girl whose liking for sports showed through her slim body and firm, toned limbs despite the presence of noticeable curves in the places they attract attention. Her light brown hair was tied in a ponytail, revealing her pretty face to the world. That is, when there was light. Despite her efforts, she couldn’t see anything from her surroundings. She patted her pocket and was relieved to find her phone still inside her trousers. At least not everything was at its worst, she thought while pulling it out and using it to brighten the place. Her eyes widened as she discovered what was around. A cave. A huge cave, splitting into several corridors on the sides, and, to her disgust, infested by cobwebs that covered sometimes the whole height of the cave, from the ground to the ceiling four meters higher… She pointed her phone towards the ground around her, looking for the spiders that had obviously woven these, but found none. What kind of spiders could create webs of such size, she wondered, or more what number? She turned her phone to face the screen and winced at the sight of the little icon informing her that no network was available.

There was no sound anywhere in the cave, so she thought she’d better spare as much battery as she could and turned off the backlight and tried to remember how she had gotten here. After a few seconds, she realised her last memory was being in her school bus on the way home. She was actually still wearing the yellow shirt and dark blue jacket that was her school uniform, along with her tight black trousers. She focused on details that could help her but couldn’t remember anything particular but the fact that she was reading a book. She frowned. There was something about the book, it was one of her favourite. How could she have forgotten which one it was if she loved it that much? Had her memories been messed up with? It bugged her for a few seconds until she decided there were more important matters at the moment. Matters like finding how to get out of here. At this thought she swallowed her saliva, looking at the three corridors that surrounded her, none looking more reassuring than another. “Okay” she whispered to herself, “get yourself together and move.”

She stood up, pointing her phone everywhere around. Suddenly, she felt something touching her hair. She cried in surprise and jumped away from whatever it was, waving her hand over her head like crazy. She felt sticky threads against her fingers and sighed in relief. She only had touched a cobweb. She stared at her hand and frowned at how thick and sticky the threads were. She had never seen silk that strong, she even felt it resist when she folded her fingers. When she tried to wipe it against her shirt, half of it stayed on her hand and she had to pull far to make the threads snap between her skin and the fabric. She grew concerned and looked at the massive webs that covered the walls and sometimes formed pillars in the middle of the room. She was slowly realising that she couldn’t allow herself to fall into one of them. She had no idea what kind of spiders could weave those, especially since none were to be seen, but after all she had no idea where she was… The thought of a giant spider erupted in her mind, but she smiled at it. No spider could be a lot bigger than the biggest tarantulas without having its exoskeleton collapsing over itself. Still, this was disturbing, and she couldn’t get out of her mind the fact that she had screamed pretty loudly. She regained composure though when she checked for noise and heard nothing. Little did she know her cry hadn’t gone unnoticed…

Having no way to determine which corridor was the best, the young girl chose the one that seemed to have the less webs inside and entered it, carefully avoiding to touch any of them. Her slender form and flexible body helped her in that and though she was getting forward slowly, she was getting forward nevertheless. Foot after foot, she walked over, under and between curtains of sticky webs, touching the rock only when it was clean of the slightest trace of silk. But soon, she found herself in another large room, filled with huge webs, and with several corridors along its walls. She watched what was in front of her and felt despair growing in her heart. This labyrinth could cover miles and miles for what she knew, and her phone’s light was too weak to allow her to distinguish a room from another. She saw herself getting lost, turning round and round in this place until she lose her balance and fall into the webs, struggling with the sticky threads only to trap her limbs more and more into a prison of silk… Her breath grew quicker as this horrible scene unfolded in her head. How could she be there? She knew this wasn’t a dream – or a nightmare, it was far too real and coherent even for a lucid one.

The young girl felt tears coming to her eyes when suddenly, a rustling sound rolled and echoed against the walls of the cave, making her let out a high pitched squeak and jump in surprise. In reflex, she turned around swiftly to look behind her, scared to death by this simple noise to the point she didn’t pay enough attention to the silk ribbon on the wall next to her and pushed her elbow against it. She gasped when she felt the threads through her clothes and pulled against the webs, to no avail. After another look behind her to check again if there was nothing, she cursed herself in a low voice for being so easily frightened. A rock had probably fallen somewhere far into the cave… “Keep your head on your shoulders!” she muttered as she thought of a solution, “You need it.”

After a few more seconds trying to pull on the web from any angle to free the sleeve of her jacket, she understood she had to remove the cloth if she wanted to get out of this predicament. Reluctantly, she made her hand travel safely through the garment and abandoned it here. She watched the silk with increased fear. She now had the proof it could be her doom… She breathed out and closed her eyes to regain composure. She couldn’t let herself go like this. Gathering her courage, she started to cross the room as slowly as necessary.

It took her several minutes to reach another corridor, and she mentally noted the path she was choosing. She had regained strength and was resolute not to give up like this again. It would have been a lot different if she had seen what was after her… A rather long moment after she had left the room, a monstrous form entered. Shelob, last child of Ungoliant, had begun tracking down the intruder in her lair. The tremendous spider moved carefully, without making a single sound or vibration, knowing her kingdom perfectly. She approached the cast-off jacket, hanging in a curtain of silk, and picked it up with one of its legs. It studied it a short moment, then threw it on the ground and resumed moving. It wasn’t an Orc. It was something a lot rarer, and a lot more delicious… Drops of drool fell from the mandibles of the ancient creature at the idea of such a meal of choice. As silent as a shadow, it entered the tunnel Emma had taken. This prey wasn’t escaping her.

It seemed the said prey was getting lucky, though. Her lead and the fact that her unknown pursuer was taking great care not to warn her gave her enough time to reach what seemed to be an exit. Emma almost cried when she saw a faint light at the end of the corridor she was in. Her nerves had menaced to drop out several times, but she had managed to keep going at the price of an incredible effort. A few minutes later, after striding over a few more cobwebs, she saw the sky for the first time in hours. A terrible, dark red sky clouded with ashes, but a sky nevertheless. She dropped on her hand and knees, breathing rapidly, then let herself go on her side. She stayed there a few minutes, resting, a lone girl lost in a yellow shirt and tight black trousers in the middle of an unknown place… After a moment, she gathered what was left of her strengths and will, and stood up to face the path she had to take out of the horrible cave. All she could see was rock, dark rock everywhere. Even on her right and left, two walls of rock delimited the path. Having nowhere to go but forward, she walked, absentminded, still recovering.

Her mind snapped out as soon as she heard the noise. The crumble of a rock, nothing more. But it got her to volte-face in a split second, eyes darting. She saw nothing. Her pretty face was beginning to ease off when she felt a sharp pain in her lower back, just above her right hip. She let out a loud cry, half in surprise, half in pain, and tried to reach for what had stung her. But already, her muscles were responding erratically, and her move became an awkward spasm. She wanted to look behind her, but turning her head was impossible. A strange feeling was spreading from where the venom had entered her system, chilling and burning at the same time, but somehow relaxing her. Even her facial expression had frozen, her eyes wide-opened and her lips parted, a mask of shock and surprise. A strangled moan escaped her mouth, her very last attempt at making a body that had already ceased to belong to her react.

Her legs gave way under her, but a pair of long, spindly legs caught her before she hit the ground. Shelob had won the race. Her prey hadn’t escaped. The giant spider turned the body of the young Emma to maintain it horizontally, then reached for its spinnerets with another pair of legs and pulled long, sticky ribbons of silk that she anchored to her prey’s feet. She then started to slowly rotate her body, making the silk rise. Emma saw her captor after the first half-turn. Her body remained totally immobile in the spider’s clutch, ever so slowly turning over as ribbons of silk climbed over her, covering her firm calves, holding her ankles together tightly. But her glassy eyes showed her the creature, and in her fogged mind too slowed down to feel fear, she marvelled at the existence of a giant spider. By the time she had formed that thought, her knees were covered by the web Shelob was weaving. Drool was dripping from the clicking mandibles of the monster, anticipating how delicious this creature was going to be. She was taking great care of the small, pale treat she was cocooning, for it looked so weak and fragile… Her legs turned it over so carefully, so slowly, applying silk in a form of art she had mastered for so long. The ribbon of web clung onto Emma’s toned thighs, fusing her legs together. With each spin, the giant spider overlaid slightly the new thread with the previous one, making the silk rise more slowly, but be thicker already. She wanted her cocoon to be perfectly tight, preventing anything that could flaw this delicate catch. Emma was a mere puppet in her clutches, her hair and limp arms rising and falling as she could only contemplate her world spinning around her, the silence only disturbed by the soft rubbing noise of the silk against her trousers and her captor’s legs. The venom made her feel good, careless. Nothing that was happening to her mattered anymore and her mind was drifting away in its own quiet world.

Soon, the helpless girl’s legs completely disappeared under the sticky web. Shelob gave it a yank, ensuring the cocoon was properly clinging to her prey’s limbs, and then resumed her slow rotation. She applied the ribbon of silk over Emma’s lower bum, covered her abdomen, and then her whole buttocks. The silk snugly hugged her curves and, her mandibles clicking with excitement, the spider couldn’t help but drooling more at how soft and juicy this frail creature was going to be. So much better than Orcs. Drops of drool fell on Emma’s chest, dampening her yellow shirt and making it hug her breasts in a fashion that would have been provocative in any other circumstances. But there was no one to watch but a giant spider whose concern was more making this cocoon nice and tight.

Shelob picked up the limp arms of her prey, brought them against her sides one after the other and, pulling a new, thick ribbon from her spinneret, secured her wrists against her already cocooned upper thighs. The monstrous spider then resumed her slow and steady spinning, Emma’s empty eyes staring in front of her. She could feel the soft pressure of the silk against her arms grow stronger and higher through the fabric of her shirt as her world turned round and round, so slowly, but so ineluctably. Shelob kept drooling over her upper body and soon, threads were applied against her soaked chest and she could feel the soft, yet sticky substance pushing gently against her breasts and her back. Another turn, another ribbon and her shoulders were covered. Again, the spider gave a quick yank and Emma felt the silk tighten even more against her, hugging her athletic body so snugly her form was clearly visible under the cocoon. Without marking a pause, the beast pulled new threads from her spinnerets and anchored them to the growing cocoon. The helpless girl felt silk progressively covering the naked skin of her neck as she was rotated again, Shelob making sure the hanging ponytail was caught in the ribbon, followed by her chin. When the next turn brought the silk over her lovely parted lips and her nose, she realised in her fogged mind how trapped she was. Even if she wasn’t paralyzed by the venom, she couldn’t have moved a muscle.

The ancient spider took special care when she covered the face of her prey, aware that she could choke it and kill it if she didn’t pay enough attention. A dead meal was so unsatisfying, and there was no way she was going to spoil that one. When the thick ribbon covered her shocked eyes, the young girl showed no reaction. Her world faded in darkness and the soft, insisting pressure of the silk was everywhere on her body. She felt the sticky substance against the skin of her hands, her neck, her face, against her lips… When the tightness around her feet increased, she understood the spider was starting to add another layer. The spinning motion returned, and the slow, steady rise of the cocoon as well. Shelob was taking her time now, spinning at an incredibly slow rhythm, savouring the moment and how lucky she was to have had such a treat getting lost in her lair. As she felt her body being hugged ever so tightly, Emma somehow felt safe. Nothing could reach her there, out of the world. Her thighs were covered again, then her butt, her belly… Her chest was constricted harder, and she felt her breathing becoming a bit less efficient, but her clouded mind didn’t care. She felt good in here. Her neck was next, giving her a slight choking sensation, then her face again, still as carefully. The operation repeated a third time, taking even longer, furthering the helpless young girl’s dizziness and enhancing even more the snug feeling she had.

Shelob’s mandibles were clicking loudly as she added the last ribbon around her succulent prey’s cocoon. This creature was the catch of a lifetime. As she brought the tight cocoon, still clearly showing the lost human’s form, under her to carry it into her cave, she knew she wasn’t going to consume this precious meal before long. The venom, coursing through her veins, could easily keep her in this state of half-consciousness for weeks, alive and healthy. And the immobile wait would make her even tenderer, even more delectable…

She was still drooling as she anchored the cocoon to the ceiling, deep inside the labyrinth of corridors…