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Éomeléo continued west through the great forest, liking it less and less all the time. He could see eyes all around him. He shuddered at the size of these beasts, and hoped that they would leave him well alone. He guessed that this was wishful thinking, and he was all too right.
With terrible speed and skill, a giant spider descended from the forest-roof not ten feet in front of him. It was monstrous, slimy and wicked-looking. It licked its lips, or did the equivalent. Éomeléo could not tell.
He wasn't as scared as he had been when confronted with the swarm of mosquitoes, and he attempted to strike up a conversation with the beast; but apparently this was a dumb spider. It just looked at the Gondorian as if he was trying to teach a cat Sindarin. Birds had been disturbed by the movement of the monster and fluttered hither and thither among the trees. Éomeléo begged the spider to feast on them, but to no avail. The spider started dancing over to the man.
"Poor fool" muttered Éomeléo, as he took out his sword and dove into a collision with the homicidal arachnid. Gondor's finest steel won the day easily, the blade slicing through the head of the spider, sending it into sickening convulsions before it finally lay still. Éomeléo walked on, his boots sticky with spider-goo.
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