Loki had not forgotten his last encounter with the spider lady and her offspring. He would certainly never forget what the spider webs had done to him and the others. But, Loki had returned to the steel plated door once again. He was not sure what he was going to say yet, but he needed to make them understand he wanted to use the bar above. They had to understand that, right?
He paced in his heavy metal dive suit despite the weight on his shoulders. He had been unable to use the boots, but the suit should protect him. He had found it on the port days ago and had fit it to his small frame. He was as defended as he could be against the spiders and their venomous webs. But even he had to admit that there was the possibility he would never be seen again after today.
Loki hesitantly approached the door and rapped heavily to make his presence known. He was not sure how to ask a spider lady to leave the bar alone. She was much bigger than him, and she had proven to be faster than him the second time in the cave. He had also promised not to disturb her anymore. As he stood alone in the snow he began to rethink his plan,
Finally he smiled to himself, “Guess there aint no need ta be botherin ‘hem.” He turned and started to walk away, leaving only a calm silence. For the first time since Christmas everything would be alright.
Halfway back down the alley Loki heard footsteps, little ones, and then two forms moving his direction. It was difficult to see at first as it was dark outside and even darker in the crook between the building where Haven’s entrance laid. It was Beryl and Tepic arriving with a couple of bottles. Tepic was the first to approach, he mumbled something to Loki and patted his shoulder. Loki had been sure he had heard incorrectly though, because it had sounded like Tepic said they were here to clean out his cave.
Beryl had already moved towards the door to spray something onto the webbing, and Loki let out a scream of panic. He shouted wordlessly, but he wanted to grab Tepic and ask, ‘Whots ‘e doin?! is ‘e insane?!’
Loki could hear something crackle and snap gently, and he caught the familiar scent of ethanol. It only took a minute or two and then somehow the metal plate fell back and rolled down the staircase. The entryway to Haven was free, the sound ringing in his ears made no difference to Loki as his enthusiasm drowned out the metal doors descent. “OI! YEW DONE IT MATE!!”
His joy was cut short as he remembered how quickly the spiders had attacked before, when Avariel had broken inside. And now it would seem like Loki had broken his promise. He tried to tell them that they should go, but Beryl and Tepic informed him that the spiders had departed days ago.
Loki did a quick jig of joy in his diving suit before he realized that Beryl was already making their way carefully inside. He let them know the stairs were clear of webs before the other two entered the cave after him. Inside the cave the group looked into the spider den nervously. Furniture, walls, ceiling, everything was covered in the webs the monster lady had weaved.
“We’re going to need some more Ethanol,” Beryl understated. Loki and Tepic nodded in agreement. Tepic seemed much more grim than Loki recalled and insisted on staying behind to protect the webs. Loki figured they protected themselves just fine, but Tepic insisted.
It took some time but eventually they returned with several gallons worth of ethanol. Loki even prepared a pump spray so that they would be able to get every nook of his Haven cleared. He started with the spider webs in the upper left corner where Ben had been caught. He sighed sadly at the memory and moved in slowly The smell was nauseating, but that was a small price to pay to regain his home.He sprayed the webs on the area above and tried to focus on spraying every inch.
Two hands roughly grabbed Loki and threw him back out of the door as webbing came loose from the ceiling fell right where he had been standing. Loki gave a rough grunt as he landed, but got back to his feet. He checked to make sure his back wasn’t damaged, but then heard Beryl trying to crawl out of the webbing that had almost trapped Loki.
Tepic was by Beryl’s side using the peroxide he had kept ready. The webbing was thick and resisted it, but it was eating away at it. Beryl collapsed to the ground and let it do their job, obviously suffering from the webs effects.
Loki was much more careful in how and where he sprayed. There were several places where the webbing had been prepared to collapse onto unsuspecting victims, a thought that made him shiver.
Though Beryl couldn’t help them directly, he kept watch for more traps and gave them advice for how to reach the top levels safely. Everything from linens to his precious books were covered in those nasty webs, but the ethanol solution was working. It was able to dissolve the webbing, though it took a few minutes to eat through the thicker strands. As the substance slowly disappeared, Tepic appeared to be satisfied. Unfortunately they ran out of Ethanol before every inch was destroyed on the ceiling, but Loki kind of liked them. Tepic didn’t.
Beryl an Tepic both advised Loki that he should not ignite anything in the cave for a month, to which he agreed. He was just happy that he finally had his home back, and that he could run his new bar without any further trouble.
As long as he avoided his family for a few months he didn’t see what could possibly go wrong.
Yay!