Portsmith was last in line, following the group of water carriers, his cask sloshing on his shoulder. Something knocked the cask off his shoulder from a darkened area of forest beside the path they were using. Before he could think, he had pulled his whistle in one hand and sword in the other. He stabbed unthinkingly in the direction the blow had come from. His sword tip hit something that screamed and chittered back at him. Something struck him in the chest, and everything went dark.
Nymeria heard the whistle and the scream and bolted from chasing cats and rats straight towards it. Jon, still at the lake, broke into a run. Arya, Thomas, and Drena swung down the rope and swarmed down the hill. Caelan, at the boats' motion, motioned to the knight with him to stand guard and broke into a run. An archer went with him.
Jon pulled up when he saw the cask leaking beside the path. He looked left and right, but it was too dark. He started right, but then Nymeria came from that direction and jumped to the right. A second later, she began to growl and snarl, then let loose a howl of confrontation. Arya, Drena, and Thomas ran up panting.
The group dropped their heavy bags, and Arya unslung the swords on her back. She pulled a torch and lit it. Drena handed over hers as well. She held the two high, pulled her new Needle, and stalked into the darkened area. They found Nymeria snarling upwards and saw a sword and whistle on the ground beside a tree. A true nightmare awaited them in the tree branches; six large black eyes glittered down at them. A spider the size of a large water barrel was moving to avoid the torch light. Its legs were 6 feet long and ended in terrible-looking claws. Caelan ran up and started emptying his quiver into it. Two arrows stuck in its eyes, and it dropped from the tree, pulling at them with its long front legs. Jon struck it on its carapace, and the spider's body went hard to the ground. Arya stepped in to hit it, but a leg flashed out, striking her new bracer; the blow still slashed sideways, and the shallow cut poorly burned. Drena followed with a blow from her dark cutlass, splitting it in half. Smoke rose where the ichor from its body met the ground. Drena bounded up the tree and cut the captain's limp body from the webbing wrapped around him. She helped lower him down gently. Jon and Caelan took the body and gathered all the gear, then ran for the boats. They could hear many spiders thrashing about in the trees coming towards them.
On deck, Brienne heard the distress whistle and ran to the starboard railing. She could see water carriers running towards the boats, dumping their water into open barrels. They were jumping on boats afterwards. Then the away teams arrived, and she watched Arya throw a torch right and one left into the dried palm fronds littering the trees. Two trees burst into flame, and the fire spread quickly to the sides. The two who had the captain loaded Portsmith's body onto the sloop and ordered the vessel away and to return as soon as possible. They turned to stand their ground with the others. Most of the spiders shied away from the spreading blaze, but 5 very large, very angry spiders walked out of the woods toward them. Their prey had been stolen, and they came to get more back.
Brienne shouted toward shore, "Save them!" and the crewmen around her echoed the cries. They all ran to hoist and haul stuff from the boats so those boats could get back to those stuck on the beach, facing death. Caelan and the other archers pin cushioned the spiders as they came on. Nymeria ran wide of them, drawing some of them to her. One of the new enemies jumped at Drena, and she swung a wide arc, cutting its legs off on one side. Caelan snatched up an oar left on the beach and skewered the floundering beast. Jon and Arya stepped towards and both pierced the one closest to them through its eyes. It shrieked and skittered away. The two that had chased Nymeria turned back to the trapped team. The group had started wading back into the water, but the spiders still came on. The treekin archer peppered the one coming at him, but the creature leaped and struck him full in the chest. As the treekin was dropping, Drena sliced the monster in half. She turned on the second coming, but Nymeria pulled it away by a back leg. The spider turned to face her, and she jumped away. Caelan threw the oar with such velocity that it pierced that spider's shell from behind, and it limped off. The last spider closed on Jon and Arya, who both stabbed at it. It slashed at Jon, catching his arm with a glancing blow, and Arya managed to finish it with a slash that took its face off.
More spiders started coming onto the beach, but the sloop was there by then, and they lifted the limp treekin onboard and jumped in. Their momentum pushed the sloop away from shore just as a wave of spiders was jumping at them. A cheer arose from the decks.