Spider Ambush

Don't ask me how I got both the first and last watch that night. I suspect my fellow soldiers of doing ten minutes or so of their hour. The point is that I was dead asleep when the spiders arrived.

Whether by design or blundering, I awoke on my back, my cot atop me, wrapped in my blankets. I let out a prolonged grunt of disapproval.

"Don your armor!" someone was shouting in a woman's voice. "Face the west side of the tent in case they get to us."

I struggled to get disentangled from my bedware.

"Left face, Ayya. West is THAT wall." Corporal Drikt sighed. She blinked at me. "Omnifex. Get. Up."

"This is not a drill." Tigrin said, hurling a mace toward my head. I couldn't tell whether he was smiling or grimacing when I caught it.

I managed to get onto my feet, shield strapped to my left arm, mace held firmly in my right.

"Private Omnifex," Drikt said, "I specifically remember telling soldiers, not just people, to get into armor."