Greykin Mountain

| 23 | What Do You Want?

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Jackson stared into the cavity at a tree's base. "You...want me to stick my hand in there?"

          "Yes," Tokala answered.

          "Why couldn't you just...ask one of the others that are in their human forms?" he questioned, looking back at the orange wolf and the three others standing behind him. Why were they even here?

          "Because everyone else has their own tasks."

          "Be quick," the beige wolf said with a smirk. "Don't get bit."

          "Bit?" he uttered, confused.

          The three wolves snickered.

          Tokala sighed, silencing them. "Frost spiders burrow in these trees sometimes."

          Spiders? Jackson shivered in dread.

          "The grim root also so happens to grow inside these spiders' nests. Foxes eat the spiders though, so it's highly likely there isn't one in there."

          "And if there is? Are they venomous?"

          "To a human, but not to us."

           Jackson stared down at the possible spider nest again. He didn't care what Tokala said, he still didn't want to stick his hand in there.

          "You came out here to cadejo-infested woods and you're scared of a spider?" one of the other wolves called.

          "He's a city boy—he's probably scared of anything with more than four legs," another muttered.

          With a pout on his face, Jackson crouched down. He'd prove them all wrong. But as he stared into the black hole, he gulped quietly. Was there a spider in there? What did it even look like? How big was it—more importantly, how big were its fangs?

          "He's not gonna do it," one of the wolves muttered, snickering with the others.

          Even Tokala chuckled.

          Jackson exhaled deeply and edged his shaking hand closer to the hole. The thought of a tarantula latching onto his fingers horrified him, but he wasn't going to let anyone think he was a coward. What was a spider next to zombie wolves?

          Slowly, he moved his hand into the hole.

          "You'll know it when you feel it," Tokala said. "It's sort of squishy."

          "The spider or the root?" Jackson exclaimed, pulling his hand out as he looked back at him in panic.

          "The root," he laughed.

          Sighing, Jackson moved his hand back into the hole. Surely, if there were a spider in there, it would have bit him just now. So, he reached in deeper until his hand met with the soggy ground at the gape's bottom. Then, he felt around for a few moments until his fingers brushed over something...soggy. Could that be it?

          He gripped it and hastily pulled his hand out—but when he saw what was in his hand was actually a sack of spider eggs, he winced in disgust and dropped it to the ground.

          The three wolves laughed.

          "Shit, man. You better hurry up before mommy gets home," one of them called.