DARK WOODS
Part 2
By Shadow-Owl

Waking up inside the tent, Elaine saw the glow of her phone next to her head. She reached over as she was still slightly asleep. The goat gave herself a moment, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. 

Once her eyes adjusted, she noticed that Irene had texted a few times, at around 1AM. Placing her phone down, she sat up to stretch. Celeste was still deep in sleep next to her in her own sleeping bag. 

Elaine played with her hair a little, nervously. Aside from a few crickets and owls, it was very quiet. She got out of her sleeping bag quietly, so as to not wake her friend. All she was wearing were a plain white tee and pink panties. Elaine crawled over and unzipped the tent. Her shirt loosely hung below her as she poked her head out to look around. 

The fire was a little dimmer than before, but the moon helped her see better, despite the diminishing glow of the fire. Elaine was a bit disappointed that Raiya didn’t put the fire out, she hoped Irene would correct this, but it seems she didn’t. 

She wanted to put the fire out, a bit worried it might cause a forest fire, but she was still in her skinnies. Elaine was about to go back to sleep when she remembered Celeste trying to help her boost her confidence with some advice. Elaine sighed, and carefully got out of the tent. She was immediately hit with the cold, causing her to gasp quietly, it chilled her as her soft legs were coated in the winter embrace of the night, despite it being summer. 

Sucking it up temporarily, the goat walked over to make sure the rocks around the fire were secure, and to find a way to put it out without waking the others up. She thought she could use the liquid of the melted ice inside the cooler to put it out, but it would cause too much noise. 

While standing there, she grew a little more comfortable in what was essentially her underwear, but she also noticed the other tent was open. In the beginning she thought they left it open to let cold air in, but then she noticed there were tracks next to the other tent. 

Elaine blinked, as she recognized them as Irene’s. It led out of the tent, and seemed to lead out into the woods. At first she thought they were from yesterday, but realized that the tracks would’ve needed to be fresh to still be present. 

She got closer to the tent to check inside without entering, and noticed that only Raiya was snoozing with her arms splayed about, but no Irene. A sense of dread washed over the shy and nervous goat, before she looked back at the tracks. 

Although she was a bit of a fearful girl, she cared for her friends deeply. She returned to her tent, where her phone still sat. She grabbed it, and turned the flashlight on. 

She walked back to her tent, and quietly, as to not wake Celeste, reached for her bag. She searched a little, but found her second skirt, which was a little shorter than the one she wore yesterday. 

Walking down the dirt trail had a whole different feel at night, especially around 2 in the morning. Elaine also felt a little vulnerable walking like this, and regretted not waking the others, but she had figured back there that perhaps Irene just got lost or something else. 

Elaine bit the inside of her mouth nervously, as she shined the light down the path. The tracks were leading toward the lake, which gave her the idea that Irene was probably wanting to swim again. As she walked, she heard the crickets and other wildlife disappear slowly, which sparked a sense of anxiety. 

“Why is it getting quieter?” She asked herself, under her breath. As she was trying to follow the path, she heard a hushed moan toward her left. She stopped instantly, the hairs on her neck raising high as she looked over to the general direction that she heard it from. “H-Hello?”

She shined her light in front of her, but saw nothing in the woods, it remained dark with only faint light coming from the sky. 

“Irene?” She called out, thinking it was Irene, but she didn’t hear the moan again, which started to unnerve her even more. Feeling more than freaked out by now, she decided to just call Irene. As the phone was waiting for the call, she heard a faint, but noticeable music track playing…in the woods. 

It was Irene’s ringtone, which made Elaine confused, why was the music coming from in the forest off the trail? That same sense of dread returned, as Elaine reluctantly followed the phone ringing. The woods seemingly loomed over her, as she looked around with the flashlight on her phone. 

“Irene, this isn’t funny, please!” She spoke, feeling like Irene was pulling a prank on her. She kept calling out her friend’s name, but stopped once she heard some rustling in the brush. 

Elaine felt like eyes were on her, as she looked for Irene. After a few seconds, she typed her number again, just so she could keep following the ringtone. Elaine followed it until she reached a small area with several bushes and trees surrounding her. She looked down, and saw a distinct shape on the ground. She reached down to grab it, and confirmed it was Irene’s phone. Elaine’s eyes widened, as she felt her heart sunk from the horrifying realization. 

Elaine stood up, and she turned around to run back to the campsite. Her eyes watered a little, as she tried to get back onto the trail! 

While running though, her phone battery died. She briefly glanced down at her phone, noticing that the flashlight turned off on its own. She slowed her sprint to pace herself, huffing a little as she stared with disappointment at the fact that now she needed to return in the dark. 

Elaine glanced up and around, her anxiousness seeping back in as she realized how dark it was getting now. She looked around, fearful as it was now completely silent, no crickets, no owls hooting, not even any rustling. 

The goat backed up, glancing behind her briefly before facing forward. In that moment though, she failed to notice a dangling thread, hanging at her level. 

Elaine bit her lip, chewing on it nervously as she felt vulnerable to the wilderness. While backing away from what she sensed was something in front of her, her shirt touched the thread, which stuck to her tee. She felt a very light tug at her shoulder, causing her to jump with a quiet ‘eep!’ as she looked at where she felt it. The goat tried to brush it off, but it was stuck to her shirt like glue! 

It was then she took a second to think, staring at it, and realized it looked to be some kind of fishing line. She tried to pull it off, but noticed it was sticky. Suddenly, the thread pulled her up with immense force! 

“What the!? Wait!” She protested, as she was now almost ten feet off the ground! Elaine looked up at who…or what was pulling her up, and saw just in time, as the moon finally peaked over the treeline to shine on her assailant. 

Her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. Above her, a large spider the size of a grizzly bear was pulling the thread! It was covered in black hair, with two large bulbous eyes, resembling an ogre spider. It had remained undetected due to its dark colored body, camouflaged by the night. It was sitting on top of a gigantic web nestled between two large trees as it hauled her up like a fisherman!

For the first time in a long time, Elaine screamed! She screamed so loud, both in sheer terror and in the hopes of waking her friends!

The spider dragged her up, and with quick thinking, Elaine managed to slip out of her shirt, revealing her light pink bra which had a cute bow in the center, and fell toward the ground, as she braced for impact! 

But she didn’t fall, instead she felt the horrifying arachnid grab her arms! She tried to thrash her arms in an attempt to free herself, but the spider pulled her up and took hold of her waist with its other free legs! 

Grabbing both of her arms, Elaine was manhandled by the arachnid, forced to have her arms pinned to her sides, as she kicked her legs in the air! Her skirt moved as she did so, which seemed to annoy the spider, as it quickly tore it off, revealing her matching pink panties! 

Elaine looked up, just in time to see slightly thicker silk between two legs in front of the spider, she got a good look at the arachnid, it was even more terrifying up close, causing her to scream in sheer terror! 

It was a mistake, as the spider suddenly lunged its two legs into her face! 

“AAAH–HHMMMMNN!!!!” Elaine’s scream was muffled as the thicker web went into her mouth and gagged her! It quickly wrapped the thread around her head! The silk was in the shape of a ball gag as she struggled harder than ever before!

Despite her screams, the arachnid was quick to fire a thread from its spinnerets, attaching to her abdomen before it rapidly spun her. Elaine whimpered as she closed her eyes tightly to avoid getting dizzy, but it was futile. It rotated her in various directions, and it moved quickly for its size. The silk felt…lukewarm, but she couldn’t focus as she tried to wiggle out of its grasp. 

The web held her arms down, as it moved downward, her kicking legs were slowed down with her thighs being stuck together, leaving her knees to kick weakly before the first layer completely sealed her legs down to her hooved feet. 

It then advanced back up to her shoulders and face. It seemed the spider slowed down when the thread reached her face, applying a thin layer carefully before resuming on wrapping her in at least two layers of silk, yet kept her eyes upward unwrapped. 

Elaine was taken aback by how strong the web was, she had briefly heard of the strength of spider silk, but she didn’t think it was THIS strong.

The tight web hugged the girl, but she felt no comfort from this, the silk was just thin enough to see her features and lovely lingerie, only humiliating the poor caprine. It kept wrapping her, dressing her in the new custom-made, full body silk suit, before it stopped spinning her for a moment. 

Its legs pricked her sensitive skin beneath the web, causing her to sharpen her breath, it was checking for imperfections in it’s work, it was becoming a bit difficult for her to breathe as she could only take in air through her nose, but the web only allowed a small amount. It wouldn’t be so bad, if not for her panicked state. It seemed the spider took note of this, and one leg seemed to pull a tiny bit of silk off her muzzle, allowing her to take in more air. 

When doing this, it brought her up face to face. Its black eyeballs stared into her soul, Elaine’s were blurry as she was tearing up, her eyes and horns remained unwebbed. The spider got close to her face, as if observing her for a moment. Elaine tried not to look at it, feeling like she was going to faint from terror. While looking away, she noticed something she hadn’t before. On the web above her, she was able to see silhouettes of other cocoons like hers, one was twitching while the other remained motionless. She couldn’t see any details due to the darkness around, with very little moonlight illuminating them, but they appeared to be alive, which both frightened her, but comforted her at the thought that they could still be saved. 

Just when she saw them, the spider suddenly lowered her down to its spinnerets, and she was given one last look at the world, before the web was applied over her head, her entire vision was hindered, but she was able to see a little, like looking through a slightly foggy morning. Her horns stuck out from the silk, not that the spider cared. The spider observed her for a few seconds, before it resumed looking over the squirming girl, her whimpers were silent, as she prayed her friends heard her.  Elaine knew she was done for, and didn’t bother to struggle. 

It moved down below. Elaine couldn’t see what was happening, only managing to turn her head slightly as the spider attached something to her feet, presumably more silk, before she felt her back half being lifted.

With its meal now fully packaged, the spider pulled the poor bovid higher up into the huge silk lair upside down. It grabbed hold of her, and placed her in the center, keeping her upside down as she could only wiggle a little, bending her knees before the arachnid began spraying her with a much thinner, but still strong web over her, to keep her pinned to the web. 

With that, the spider crawled up the gigantic web, seemingly retreating into the tree branches, leaving Elaine alone for the night. Elaine’s breathing sharpened, looking around aimlessly, not able to see anything. It was here she realized she wasn’t escaping, and within the next few minutes she tried to slow her rapid, panicked breaths. Though she wasn’t afraid of spiders before, she was afraid of them now. After a couple of minutes of being mummified, she started to calm down. She took a second to mentally tear into herself for not waking the others up, had she done that in the beginning, none of this would’ve happened! 

She thought she’d find Irene and bring her back, but it seemed she was in for something else. Her only hope was that her screams woke her friends, or perhaps even Irene heard her. Once she remembered her crush, she quietly sobbed, realizing she didn’t get to confess her feelings. After another minute or two, she closed her eyes, and began to relax inside her cocoon, trying to conserve energy for another struggle, even if she knew it was futile. 

She was hoping that, if her friends didn't find her, local rangers would at least see her in the daylight…