by Hex
Duo was bounding towards the truck that had just pulled into the trees. He and Quatre had been at this particular oasis hideaway for over a week. After Duo had flown away from the maguanac base with Quatre he hadn't expected to see them again quite so soon, but there they were. Well, at least a few of them anyway. Abdul, one of the few who's name he had the chance to learn before the Alliance had stuck their noses into the lives of the Maguancs and left several explosive gifts behind. Duo was certainly glad to see them again, having been so nearly helpless the last time they had been together. He could only hope to pay them all back one day for helping him.
"Adbul!" Duo cried and bound towards the truck.
The L2 native caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and pulled the gun tucked into the waist band of his pants in a fluid movement. His target was frozen within his shadow. Duo was just as still staring in horror at what was motionless in the shade cast by his form. The insect was about the size of a hardball and it was furry. Fine white cilia covered the violin-shaped body and eight legs. Two of the eight legs were raised in the air, pointed in Duo's direction. Beady black eyes regarded him over jaws filled with teeth reminiscent of claws. Duo's grip on his gun wavered for a moment. He expected a number of things when he came to Earth being constantly out numbered in mobile suit battles, being branded an outlaw, terrorist and monster, being made out to be the greatest villain the Earth had ever seen, and maybe even to die in a flash of gore and fire. But staring down a spider that looked like it could swallow his big toe in one bite had certainly never crossed hi s mind.
Abdul ran towards him and sent the over sized arachnid sailing through the air with kick and a sickening thump. Duo's face contorted and he shuddered at the sound.
"What was that thing?" Duo cried, jumping around while rubbing his body down to make sure he didn't have any crawly stowaways.
"A Camel Spider." Abdul replied, sounding slightly confused. "Master Quatre never warned you about them?"
"NO!" Duo cried, still squirming slightly. The animal populations on colonies were as strictly controlled as the environment and there was practically no insect population to speak of. The only reason Duo knew anything about spiders and other insects was from research he had done about different types of animal life on Earth. He didn't want to throw himself completely on the mercy of the Mother Nature that the colonies could only emulate. But even with the time offered of awaiting his landing on Earth, he couldn't possibly have covered all of the wonders, or in this case, horrors that the wilds of Earth had to offer.
"Well," Abdul cleared his throat, "Camel Spiders are fast. They can run nearly twenty-five miles per hour. They got their name because they run along the sand and jump up, biting the bellies of camels, screaming all the while. They'll knock them out and drain them of fluids. At night they'll sneak up on people sleeping in their tents, paralyze them with venom and gnaw off limbs or drain them of fluids. They don't make a sound when they move. They're just as silent the desert itself and twice as deadly."
Abdul punctuated his explanation with mobile features, impressions of the animal and wild hand gestures. Duo slipped his gun carefully back into the waist band of his pants. He hated the desert.
Duo rubbed his tired eyes. He was trying to read in the library with Quatre but he hadn't been sleeping very well for the past few nights. His skin constantly felt like it was crawling. It was stupid, actually it was very nearly beyond stupid but Duo couldn't shake the feeling. He was trying desperately to be subtle about it. Not blatantly slapping his skin and brushing away imagined crawling insects. But every time he started to settle for the night his skin would itch, that tell tale itch of something barely touching his skin, the gentle, barely there touch of an insect. Duo would leap from his bed, throw on the lights and flail madly, trying to dislodge the violated feeling of the imagined predator.
Quatre had been eyeing him since dinner. The blonde obviously knew something was wrong but had yet to broach the subject. Duo was leery of confessing his little phobia. On one hand it seemed ridiculous, as no one else seemed overly paranoid about any of the local insect life. On the other they were venomous, the size of his hand and HAIRY! Duo failed to repress his shudder at the last thought.
"Duo, are you all right?" Quatre asked, rising from his seat in one of the library's chairs to join Duo on the sofa.
"I've been better," Duo admitted and shifted in his seat.
"Is there something wrong? You do know you're free to leave this base any time you want. You're no prisoner." Quatre said, slowly.
"Oh! I know that. But there is something I'd like to ask you about..." Duo trailed off. He pulled his braid out in front of him and began finger combing the ends that stuck out beyond the elastic.
"What?" Quatre asked. Quatre was looking open and earnest and Duo couldn't help but feel silly. He faced down mobile suits and certain death on a regular bases and a bug was making him lose sleep.
"Well ah...." Duo let out a small laugh. "How come you never told me about the Camel Spiders?"
Quatre made an annoyed face and raked a hand through his hair.
"So who told you about that?"
"I saw one and Abdul told me about them," Duo said, carefully examining the ends of his hairs.
"Abdul, well, that explains a lot," Quatre muttered and flopped back on the sofa, legs and arms sprawled out.
"So, ya mind filling me in?" Duo asked, trying not to sound too defensive.
"Yes, allow me to dig through to the truth for you," Quatre said and let his head roll backwards.
"What Abdul told you are desert legends. Stories you tell small children, or foreigners," Quatre gave him a dry smile, "to scare them.
"Camel spiders, Wind Spiders, Wind Scorpions, whatever name you've heard, don't have venom Duo and they don't attack the belly of camels. They don't attack people in the middle of the night and eat chunks of their flesh. No camel spider will chew off your leg or try to attack you." Quatre said gently, resting his hand on the other boy's shoulder.
"Are you sure? I saw the teeth on those things myself." Duo stated firmly but a sense of relief was slowly chasing through his limbs. Quatre seemed exasperated and tired rather than serious. Some how Duo got the feeling that the wool had been pulled over his eyes and he wasn't the first victim either.
"Positive." Quatre said, then laughed. "Abdul got me too. I was so paranoid I slept for five nights straight in Sandrock. But only after I had searched the entire cockpit for any sign of an insect. Camel spiders actually eat smaller insects and animals like small lizards and rodents. They have no venom. They hide in the shadows of large objects and even follow the shadows around. That's why it looks like they're chasing people, or vehicles."
"But they're really chasing the shadows." Duo let out a sigh of relief, feeling a bit sheepish. "How the hell did you find this all out anyway? Did someone clue you in?"
"Er... no." a faint blush crawled over Quatre's cheeks. "I'm a little... compulsive some times. When there's something that scares me, that I'm really genuinely afraid of, I need to know everything there is to know about it. I spent hours reading up on Camel Spiders. It was how I found out Abdul had completely hoodwinked me. Needless to say I was relieved and annoyed all at the same time."
"So ... ah... you ever pay Abdul back?" Duo asked, toying with the end of his braid.
"No. I've been considering it for some time, but I need the er... appropriate way of paying him back for warning me about the particular dangers of Camel Spiders." Quatre said a small, vicious grin curving his lips. "I do know that Abdul doesn't care for snakes all that much."
"Oh, but I like snakes." Duo said, an eerily similar, small, vicious grin curving his lips.
"Now that sounds interesting." Quatre murmured.
Note: This fic was written as a result of the wild rumours flying around about the Camel Spiders in Iraq and an email K's mom received about them. That email was forwarded to K with a "Are these real?" from her mother. K did some quick net research and after tormenting me with the results (see: well rounded information about Camel Spiders/Solpugids) and pictures of the bloody things, I had to torment other people. And hopefully give you all the heebygeebies and crawly skin that it gave me.
Abdul's version of Camel Spiders are the rumours flying about. Quatre's information is the result of my own and K's research on the creepy crawlers. Camel Spiders are not actually spiders even if they are arachnids and are more rightly named Solpugids. A Camel Spider's top speed is 10 miles per hour and they do move without making a sound. They eat small rodents and insects. They have no venom therefore can not anesthetize a human and chew off their leg. Camel Spiders ARE NOT aggressive and DO NOT attack people or camels. The stories you may have heard about Camel Spiders are more like desert legends equivalent to alligators in the sewers. But as Quatre told Duo, they do hide in shadows and will pursue those shadows, giving the illusion of chasing a person or animal. ( Don't worry, you're not an anole, bug or mouse so they aren't interested in eating you lovies.)
For more information on camel spiders/Galeodidae/Solpugidae/Rhagodidae go to these websites:
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcamelspider.html
http://boingboing.net/2004/04/09/the_truth_about_came.html
http://home.global.co.za/~quagga/solpugid.htm
http://www.snopes.com/photos/bugs/camelspider.asp
http://www.arabianwildlife.com/nature/insect/ins09.html
Now excuse me while I vacuum and dust my entire room and wrap myself in a meticulously checked blanket and try to sleep with a can of Raid in my hands. Man writing this made my skin crawl! X(
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