5.5: An attempt at parley
Meanwhile, Alcock decides to visit the bulb spiders who have camped a little to the north. Every year, the spiders migrate past the Potting Shed, and every year there is trouble. They have no qualms about attacking and, not to put too fine a point on it, trying to eat his smaller colleagues. That must never happen.
But Alcock left the army disillusioned with the idea of might: that might is generally right. Surely it must be possible to be friendly, if temporary, neighbours with the bulb spiders? Surely he can ask them their plans and perhaps even offer to help them in some way.
He can see that they have set up camp higher up the stream that flows sometimes in winter unnervingly close to the Potting Shed.
As he draws closer he hears a chilling sound. It is only 10am and yet the bulbs are singing one of their carousing songs. Of course, they are singing it in the Common Tongue which, of his Potting Shed colleagues, is spoken only by Keith, the ring tailed lemur. But while no one could make out the individual words of their guttural growls and vulgar squeals, he knows how it would be expressed in a proper language. It is a song of restless threat, a delight in the animal strength of the bulbs’ limbs and ligaments.
Look at my fingers moving, moving,Look at my fingers moving!
Fingers moving all the time.
Fingers moving just like mine.
Look at my fingers moving, moving,
Look at my fingers moving!
A chill runs up his spine and perhaps this distraction is the reason why, before he can get close enough to suggest a parley, he is surrounded by their sentries. They pounce on him, belching and cackling but yielding no quarter, and the interview, such as it is, doesn’t go well for him.
Finally managing to shake them off, he returns hurriedly home. Rational discussion won’t work and he refuses to take up arms against the spiders. So what else can he do?