This is a long overdue request for some spider love from MoldyChicken. I seem to have made Elise into some sort of Queen of the Damned, interestingly enough. It's a neat angle, so I'll roll with it.

Disclaimer: Riot owns League of Legends. Thanks go to Espada Harribel for looking this over.

—Invasive Species—

"Here, kitty kitty..."

A cougar cub crept through the foliage. It was young enough that its caramel coloured pelt hadn't yet shown the dark spots its breed were known to have, but it still knew better than to venture this far into the trees.

That was a law bred into all creatures hardy enough to survive the unforgiving landscape that was the Komungu Jungle.

Bright green eyes were focused on a shimmering strand that trailed enticingly before it, leading it out of the relative safety of the clearing and into the shady covering of the multitude carnivorous plants the region was known for.

It dared to leap, its paws and outstretched claws touching on thick mud rather than grass as it just barely missed its target. The kitten sniffed, its hackles raising as it considering turning tail and returning to the warm, mewling brood it had left in favour of this game of cat and mouse.

"Don't be afraid, little one..."

The glimmering strand reappeared, wiggling enticingly, and the kitten dove for it. It finally captured the object and it rolled across densely packed mud, scratching at the thick, stringy substance with front and back paws. When its forward momentum halted, the kitten bit the strand, wrinkling its snout and snorting explosively at the unpleasant taste that coated its tongue.

A monstrous shadow descended from the canopy and the kitten froze, its heart beating loudly in its chest. It found it couldn't move, locked in a crimson gaze that assuaged its fear even though every instinct yowled to flee. A pale blue haze filled the clearing, ominous magic that dulled the senses and beguiled the senses.

"That's right..."

A larger cougar came crashing through the underbrush, snatching up the kitten by the scruff and tossing it aside with a twist of her neck. Just in time, too, as a giant spider descended on the spot on which it had just been standing. The cougar leaped backward to avoid getting bitten, twisting and shedding her feline form in mid-air so that it was a brown-skinned woman garbed in furs who landed in a crouch, teeth bared.

"You have no business here, Elise. Take your hunt elsewhere."

The spider clicked her mandibles together, four pairs of glowing eyes focusing intelligently on the speaker. "Nid...a.. lee," she hissed with some difficulty. Around long black legs gathered several smaller spiders—though that was a relative measure considering the size of their mistress. Each came up to the huntress's calf and the cacophony they created with gnashing mandibles was more disturbing to her than their stature.

It was a death knell to those they hunted.

A shudder of revulsion ran through the dark-haired woman's lithe form, and she hefted a wooden spear, her hands glowing crimson with magic. "I won't warn you again."

The spider stilled, as though considering the morsel before her, and the brunette used her foot to push the mewling kitten behind her. If it was a fight the Spider Queen wanted, it was a fight she would get. Nidalee, the Bestial Huntress, wouldn't allow her to touch a hair on the kitten's head so long as she drew breath.

But then, just as quickly and quietly as she had appeared, the massive spider disappeared into the foliage.

This wasn't the first time they had crossed paths-and it wouldn't be the last unless something was done. Though the Champion hailed from the Shadow Isles, she had somehow found her way on to the unspoiled greenery of the jungle, and her gluttonous appetite had made an already dangerous locale more deadly still.

Nidalee knew better than to enter the heart of the jungle, where the carnivorous plants were thickest, uninvited. After she had returned the naughty kitten to its mother, she made for a bluff over which a waterfall roared into a pool where the big cats and some small herbivores that also inhabited the clearing got their drinking water. It happened to be the only source of fresh water for miles.

So the huntress sat and she waited.

She was there for almost four hours before a figure came sauntered out of the foliage. The Rise of the Thorns was more plant than woman, her skin taking on the same red-tinged pallor of the bloodthirsty plants she nurtured. She took a running leap and jackknifed easily into the water, surfacing a moment later and wading to the shore. Nidalee continued to wait patiently, knowing full well that the other woman had seen her.

Finally, eyes the same colour and intensity of the sunset slid to the waiting huntress and the comma-shaped markings over her eyes rose questioningly. "To what do I owe this honour?"

This was a neutral ground. She had to remind herself that as she clenched her fists in response to the female's dismissive tone.

There was no sense mincing words. Already, the plant mage was tapping her foot, her arms crossed. The brunette swallowed her pride and said softly, "We need your help."

"You and your... pets?

"My family," Nidalee corrected, bristling. She had a way of getting under one's skin.

"Right. What seems to be the problem this time? Are my darlings "eating more than their fair share" or are your young too stupid to avoid stumbling into their snares?"

The huntress took a deep, steadying breath. Then, a thought occurred to her: Zyra's greatest weakness was her territorial nature; the creatures that dared to encroach upon her expansive territory were immediately set upon and devoured. Wasn't the Spider Queen just another creature to feed to her hungry floral brood?

"Neither. Though I'm curious to know how you of all people failed to notice the invasive species on your borders."

That caught her attention. The mage tilted her head and the stillness that settled over her was unnerving. She didn't even blink, the intensity in orange orbs smouldering.

Finally, she frowned, and the brunette released the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. "Why are those wretched creatures here?"

"My sentiments exactly."

"..." She turned her back on the cougar, her fingertips glowing red. Nidalee could tell from the tense set of her shoulders that she was troubled-which was heartening. Perhaps now she would be willing to work together to purge the arachnid menace from their homeland.

The silence stretched on for longer than was comfortable and Nidalee fidgeted. "Zyra?"

The Rise of the Thorns turned her head, though the far-off look in her eyes indicated that she wasn't paying her full attention to the cougar. "I will tell my kin to allow you passage through my jungle if it is your intention to destroy these pests. I will personally find their mistress and squash her."

"... Thank you." She meant it.

The Rise of the Thorns scoffed and Grasping Roots sent her soaring up, over the rise.

Once she was some distance away from the huntress and her incessant interruptions, Zyra went stock-still again, her mind becoming one with the collective consciousness of her [floral] network. Though it wasn't a simple task to pinpoint which one whispered of intruders, she pushed her psyche to its limits until she caught wind of the Spider Queen's whereabouts. The fleeting traces and scurrying spiderlings weren't enough to pinpoint her location, much to the plant mage's annoyance.

As she retreated, coming back to herself despite never having left, Zyra drummed her fingers against her thigh. Come into her garden uninvited? The nerve of the other Champion made her grit her teeth, a quiet rage bubbling just below the surface.

If there was one thing Zyra respected, it was space. Stay out of hers and you were beneath her notice. Intrude and you'd regret capturing her attention—she would make sure of it.

The red-tinged creepers responded to their mistress's ire, expanding their already vast network like many wriggling snakes. They choked the life from all that they touched, spilling crimson amidst their roots. When they chanced upon one of the spiderlings that made up the Spider Queen's entourage, they surged over top the screeching creature, smothering it and cracking open its thorax to access the organs within.

In their home worlds, combat was a very different animal. The Fields of Justice had rules in place to protect them from one another, limiting power no matter how vast.

Zyra licked her lips, the wild magic that ran through the network of vein- like tubes beneath her skin boiling like blood. She was going to enjoy hunting these damnable creatures and the retaliation that was certain to follow. And if she got the chance, she would gladly kill the Spider Queen.

"Soon."

The aggressive expansion of vines spread like pestilence and soon the jungle was just as still and quiet as Zyra preferred it.

They even outpaced a fleeing Nidalee, who shed her feline form in order to fight back. They wrapped, vice grip tight, around tan limbs, lifting her aloft, only to drop her none too gently to the jungle ground once they recognized her scent. As the woman scratched her head, her heart racing from her near brush with death, they surged onwards.

Soon, even the canopy was overrun with scarlet creepers. They formed a cocoon that pulsed like a heartbeat, blotting out the sun for a tense moment before retreating.

This sector satisfactorily purged, Zyra headed west.

When night fell, the Great Ravine glowed with an otherworldly light and from it poured the faint, incorporeal forms of spirits. They wailed as they floated purposelessly, a maelstrom of wordless cries of pain and sorrow that built to a crescendo as the Spider Queen herself emerged from the rift.

In her human form, Elise was a tall, statuesque beauty. Corpse pale and dressed to kill in a high collared ensemble that closely resembled her spider form's gaunt attributes, she fixed her glowing red gaze on the horizon. Her run-in with the Bestial Huntress earlier had been rudely interrupted, but She knew the brunette had fled to Zyra with her tail between her legs and she intended to pay the woman back two-fold.

If not for the wretched fleabag, her brood would still be alive now... but no matter. No use crying over spilled blood, the woman knew. Not when your time was better spent getting even.

Elise lifted a single, claw-tipped hand, and it burned dully with an unholy red radiance. The specters coalesced around it in a hurricane spin, caught in the gravity of her incantation and there was a hair-raising screech just before they faded entirely. The Spider Queen stooped, pressing that same hand to the earth, and from the cracks that splintered outwards from the point of contact scuttled a veritable hoard of arachnids.

Their death knell louder than it had ever been, her children followed at her heels as she strode confidently into the jungle.

As they carved a path through the undergrowth, their queen caught sight of the fallen forms of those who'd suffered Zyra's ire earlier; the ground was still damp with their fluids and their emptied husks, tossed so carelessly aside, resembled discarded seeds. Whether they were filled with the hateful spirits of the fallen, hand-picked from the Shadow Isles, or not her spiderlings were living, breathing creatures and they could most certainly feel pain.

The Spider Queen sneered. You'll get yours, Zyra. Just you wait.

A spider in her web was the most patient of creatures.

At Elise's bidding, the spiderlings disappeared into the darkness in all directions. Hundreds of pairs of beady red eyes dotted the treetops as they began to weave thick, shimmering webs that dangled the several foot distance between branches and ground. As their mistress continued her stroll, they worked diligently to create her snare.

Elise took to the treetops, hanging neatly from the intricately woven web by the spines on her dress. She clicked her tongue and a trio of spiders, these quite a bit larger than the rest, obediently went in search of her prey.

A spider in her web was the most cunning of creatures.

She didn't wait long. A cougar came trotting past, pouncing onto one of the massive spiders she had sent off and dispatching it with a single, hard bite. Apparently, it was the only survivor of the trip because the big cat kicked mud onto it and sat to wash her face with her paws.

"Here, kitty..."

Magic left her lips like a siren's song, coiling towards the cougar. It wound around her throat like a collar, leaking into her ears until emerald orbs glowed blue.

Too easy.

This time, Elise didn't shift forms as she lowered herself gracefully from the gargantuan web, and when she touched down, Nidalee didn't attack or flee. She just stared, blankly, caught in a different kind of spider's web.

Elise's jaws ached as she stood before her prey, instinct warring with rationality. She toyed idly with the idea of trussing the big cat up and leaving her to the hungry spiderlings that chittered eagerly from above, but it occurred to her that the wild mage may just be more valuable to her alive. For now.

"Change your form." Pale blue magic left her lips again as she gave the command and there was a low snarl as the cougar arched her back.

The next thing she knew, there was a spear tip pressed against her jugular and a dazed, but determined Nidalee glared up at her. She stood a full head taller than the buxom brunette and she crossed her arms over her chest as she looked down at the girl in both the literal and figurative sense. The stubborn woman was stronger than she had thought.

"What do you hope to accomplish here, Nidalee? Do you honestly believe you can stop me?"

Already, her minions were swarming around them, eagerly awaiting her command. That wild emerald gaze flicked left, then right, and Elise knew she realized she had been surrounded. Still, the spear didn't waver.

How brave.

"Leave the jungle, and you may leave with your life." Her tone was terse. "The plant mage Zyra and I have formed an alliance, and we will see you and your brood removed by any means necessary."

"Is that right? And you think your little alliance will be enough to stop me?"

How foolish.

Elise changed forms, dropping to the ground just as Nidalee's spear thrust through the air where her head had been. Her front legs glowed crimson as she lunged towards the huntress, who leaped out of her range and chucked her now glowing spear. She was an excellent marksman; the impact hurt quite a bit and the Spider Queen hissed as she recoiled.

To arms!

At her silent command, the dozens of spiderlings lying in wait in the trees leapt from their perches and swarmed the woman.

Nidalee dove for her spear, snatching it up and using it to vault upwards. She changed forms as she sailed over the backs of the arachnids, then landed amidst them, claws out and cleaving.

Elise frowned as the brunette cut a path through her spiderlings. Her side smarted, a bright green fluid leaking between her fingers as she clutched it. The wound was already beginning to heal, as it hadn't been a head-on strike, but the fact that she had been quick enough to land an attack was reason to worry. The Bestial Huntress was no slouch, clearly, but Elise wasn't going to let anyone challenge her authority without paying for it in blood.

The Spider Queen extended her arm, palm facing outwards. She needed the wretched beast to stay still for just one moment...

Her spiderlings responded to the thought, launching themselves and covering Nidalee in a squirming mass of legs. She struggled, snarling as she whipped back and forth to unseat the chittering creatures and glowing red eyes tracked her as she bucked like a bronco.

She put up a good fight, but eventually, the Bestial Huntress was overcome by an adversary that outnumbered her one hundred to one.

A well slung Cocoon trapped the brunette in a thick layer of webbing and she fell to the earth. She was momentarily stunned, and that was all the time Elise needed to change into her spider form and inflict her prey with Neurotoxin. When the cougar's consciousness faded, she reverted to her human form. Lying there on her side, she almost looked as though she was merely sleeping.

She sneered at the peaceful expression on the wild woman's face as she pushed her onto her back with a foot.

"Let's test the strength of your so-called alliance."

As the Spider Queen returned to the Great Ravine, her spiderlings marching Nidalee across the jungle like ants bearing leaves, a single spider messenger made its way towards the heart of the Komungu Jungle.

-End Chapter—

I'll have the next chapter up soon. As always, feedback is much appreciated.