The Adventures of Rat Man and Spider Dude

Sometime in the BC era… or so they guess.

Spruce ran faster through the wooded area, pulling his deer skin higher on his waist as he went. Those darned things never fit him right. Unlike his older and bigger brothers, Spruce was a measly-muscled boy who hadn’t yet reached the time where he would fill out, and those close to his age made sure that he knew it as well. Speaking of the other boys…

A rock flew by his head, and laughter shortly followed, proving to be the worse weapon that stabbed deeper in him than a stone ever could. Tears leaked from his eyes, but he ignored them and pushed himself faster. Tears were for women, and the weak. Spruce was not weak, he wasn’t, he wasn’t. Spruce was brave and courageous; he took on the beasts in the woods and protected his father’s village and the Sacred Orb from the evil spirits that lay beyond the horizon. His name was carved into the stars… if you just looked hard enough. He could do things. He could, he could. He was fast, as fast as any flying bird. But no matter what he told himself, he would never be as fast as those boys behind him. They caught up with him and he crashed to the ground with a sickening thud. Dirt stuck to the inside of his mouth and up his nose as they had him pinned beneath them.

“Forgive us, Spruce,” one of his brother’s companions said in his ear. “We are only doing what your father ordered us to.” But the eagerness that almost bled off of them betrayed that motive. No, it was a different motive, one masked in a different lie every time they did it. “Who has it? Give it here.”

Spruce closed his eyes. He knew what was to come next. They rolled him over onto his back, and a patch of thorns dug into his shoulder. He felt a jolt in the chest as another boy said, “Open your eyes, coward.”

No. Not this time. He didn’t want to see how many of the boys standing before him included his brothers, his own blood. How could they watch this happen? Take part in it without remorse?

“Sabu, he will not open his eyes.” Sabu. The firstborn son of Spruce’s father. The biggest a man has ever been at his age. The power such a trait could entitle…

“Spruce.” His brother’s mocking voice. “Father’s orders.” Sneers and jabs. “Face us, and learn your lesson.”

Spruce put extra pressure on his eyelids in rebellion. “Father would deal with me himself if he felt it was necessary to teach me anything. You know he does not trust you to anything but tasks that a yearling babe could do.”

Spruce knew he shouldn’t have said what he did. He knew that the moment of glory and defending his pride wouldn’t last nearly as long as the punishment he was about to receive. Fear glazed over him like ice.

Around him, sounds of appall resonated. Other boys voiced nudging pressures to Sabu. Was he really going to let the youngest and weakest of the family hit him so hard like that? Should Sabu let him speak like he had forgotten his place? Of course not. Sabu’s pride was bigger than the bulging muscles on his body. He wouldn’t let Spruce forget his place in the family. Not now, nor for as long as he couldn’t defend himself.

Sabu’s hand pressed against the sides of Spruce’s mouth, forcing both his lips and his eyes open and claiming him as his victim. His voice was a low growl when he addressed his helpers. “Give me the rat.”

Marble World

Teeter Totter tripped on his shoelaces and landed flat on his face. Ouch.

“Hey, kid. Keep up, will you? We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

But Teeter Totter just groaned. And his new mentor did, too. He heard her footsteps get closer, and she grabbed the back of his brand-new itchy super suit and set him upright. “I see why no one else wanted you,” he heard her say under her breath.