Tormented Tarns spiders in your hair, spiders everywhere

@Tatsuya 8/19/2015

 
Pale eyes balefully followed the procession of a slowly growing congregation of clouds clustering overhead. Oblivious to a singular flaxen wolf's quiet resentment, the fluffy masses continued to coalesce into progressively larger sun-shielding groups, casting the world in a dim off-blue-grey light. What a dreary day, Sien lamented. But, she forcefully reminded herself, there is no light without darkness. At least, that's what Niall would've said. Maybe. Probably.
 
Licking her lips anxiously in self-recrimination, she tried again. Perhaps we will be blessed with life-giving rain, she thought deliberately, concentrating, as per the Creator's grace. There. That was better. And sunlight will follow? her traitorous mind couldn't help but selfishly add. As if in response, the clouds slowly thickened over where she'd last seen the sun. She grimaced. Well, she'd tried. Content, if not entirely satisfied, with her morning blessing-prayer, Sien rose to her paws, edging out from beneath her overnight shelter of thick undergrowth.
 
Although she was dimly aware that she was supposed to be trying to 'live freely', whatever that actually meant, she hadn't been able to quell the instinctual need to lie low and exercise excessive amounts of caution these past few days. This new place was...unsettling. The apprehension she felt was less because the territory was unfamiliar to her - that concept was nothing novel - but rather that it was all more muted than it should've been. Fewer wildlife, fewer sounds, fewer everything. The hollow emptiness that lingered tensely was compounded by an unusually crisp freshness to the air and the combination served to make her incredibly uneasy.
 
Nevertheless, as a disciple of the Sunbound Sect, discomfort was no excuse for avoiding new experiences, or so she'd been told. And thus she pressed onward, pausing only when she reached the edge of what appeared to be an irregular grid of small pools, separated by low, narrow ridges that presumably served as pathways. Pathways for spiders, by the looks of it. What a curious setup. After performing a quick survey of the scene, Sien was just about to casually, dismissively continue when she caught herself. Despite having already reflexively catalogued and internalized any information she’d felt was worth remembering during her initial glance-over, she stopped and made sure to take a good long moment to observe, appreciate and pay her due respects to the beauty and majesty of this formation.
 
She made a point of noticing the way the light gleamed off the pools to create mirrors, in spite of the overcast sky.  And the way the impressively varied and numerous spiders clambered over one another. And how they fought and ate one another. She stared at an especially large, leggy spider intently for a few seconds, considering - but an unfamiliar smell chose that moment to make its presence known and she immediately refocused. Pack wolf. Only one, her nose informed her. Perhaps because she’d just been in the middle of concentrating on Sect ideologies, Sien actually managed to maintain her composure for once – merely tensing rather than automatically assuming a defensive fight-or-flight stance. Do you need…? The words came out more forcefully than strictly intended, and she trailed off uncomfortably, leaving the something, or someone, left unspoken.