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[monster_san]

[Fuu's smiling face appears in the amber. Behind her, you can just see the piece of mirror, though she's too far away for the words to show.]

Hello, everyone! I hope you're all well today.

It seems as though the mirror on this branch is enchanted! It's showing a riddle at the moment.

It reminds you of a riddle the heroes would find in a storybook, don't you think? But of course, reading a story and being in a story are two entirely different things.

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[monster_san]

[Fuu waves back as Korra approaches.]

Hello there! Yes, I did wonder... I thought it was strange to have such a large mirror outside a dance studio.

[She traces her finger along one of the letters.]

I wonder which webs they're talking about.

[braavado]

[Korra leans in to read the riddle herself, brows furrowed in concentration.]

There's one that keeps us from going to the fourth floor and anything else after that. I wonder if that's it.

[She reads the words again before she points at the beginning of it.] This part worries me, too. Servant of the Tree? Captors? Sounds like a whole lot of trouble.

[monster_san]

I rather hope not. That creature beyond the webbing looks very predatory, and there are children here.

[Fuu supposes she counts as a child, too, but she's pretty able to take care of herself. Anyway, Korra's not much older.]

It's the first I've heard of it. But there's so much of the tree we can't see... [She taps her fingers on her chin.] I wonder if 'her' captor is the same as the person who brought us here?

[braavado]

[Korra jerks back in surprise, looking at Fuu.]

Wait--what creature? Did you see something up there?

[Sure there had been something faintly ominous about the web and the darkness beyond it, but Korra hadn't actually seen anything.]

[monster_san]

I saw... something there, moving around a bit. [She cups her cheek and smiles to cover her nervousness.] I couldn't get a clear look at it through the webbing, but it seems to have a lot of legs.

[braavado]

Great. [A lot of legs? That could be a lot of things, but with the web, it draws one creature immediately to her mind.]

Sounds kind of like the spider-scorpion [Korra pauses, almost saying "spirit" but catching herself in time, and stumbles on.] my mentor ran into one time.

[monster_san]

A spider-scorpion? [Well. That sounds. Like a very distressing thing to encounter.] I hope it's only one or the other--I suppose it would be hard to see its stinger through the webbing, if it has one....

[braavado]

[Korra quirks a brow at her curiously.]

What do you mean "one or the other"? I mean, there's spider-cats, too, but I've never actually seen one... [After a second of musing, Korra snaps back to attention, shaking her head.] Sorry, got a little distracted there.

So there's something up there. I wonder if we might need to...I dunno, station people up there when we start trying to solve the riddles. Just in case.

[monster_san]

It must be different things that we're used to. [Spider-cat. Well... that might actually be a little cute? Depending on which bits were which and how poisonous it was. But yeah, that can wait for another time.]

That's a sensible idea. I do have some defensive magic in case it is hostile. It really is hard to predict how it might be, if it's sentient like the other insects we've met.

[braavado]

[Korra frowns for a second.]

I wonder... would it being sentient make it less dangerous or even more dangerous?

[If it's anything like the ants, it means it runs on something other than just instinct. And if Korra's learned anything in her time as the Avatar, it's that the more something thinks and gets ideas, the more dangerous they could end up being.]

[monster_san]

....Hmm. Probably more dangerous. [BLUNT but yeah now that the question is raised, Fuu can't see a different answer. Given how much more dangerous humans are than everything else on Earth....] Spiders are ingenious enough just through evolution and instinct, so one that can think... but if it's sentient, then it would be wrong of us not to try and reason with it first.

[braavado]

Yeah. [There's a pause, before she adds:] Let's hope they're up for listening.

[To be honest, she's a little confused. It almost seems like the web had been put there to keep the spiders trapped there, and yet there's the possibility of the riddle setting them free...]