“Hm~ mmmMmm~ hm hm HM~ hmmmm~”
“Mmm~ Hmm~ Hmmm~”
The two travelers, Iris with Lily on her back, hummed together in random tunes as they traveled through the forest. It had first started with Iris humming, but soon Lily had joined in.
Iris had also been admiring the wildlife, seeing birds with two pairs of wings, bugs ranging from large beetles to small multi-legged insects, she even admired the plant life as the whole forest was a stark difference to the little sand bar she had found herself on a short while ago.
Granted, now that she thought about it, that island had gone through a rapid change after she had fallen asleep… she didn’t explore it much, only remembering the two features that stuck out, the mountain and the large world tree… what ever that was.
“Hey Iris, it’s getting late.”
Pulled out of her train of thought by Iris speaking up and tapping the top of her head, she looked back to her “Huh? It’s still light out isn’t it?” She glanced around, it was still as bright as day everywhere she looked.
“We have been traveling for hours…it’s getting dark.” Lily motioned around her, then pointed off into the distance “Can even see the moons over there.”
“Moons?” Iris looked up, moving her gaze passed the trees to the little clearing in the canopy to where Lily had pointed out, and indeed you could see them. About a quarter of the way into the night sky two moons had risen from the horizon. The two were different in size, one simply dwarfing the other, the smaller of the two also seemed to rapidly orbit the larger one as they rose into the sky.
“Huh, two moons now.” Iris crooked her head to the side, she didn’t remember their being any moons but then again… she always passed out during the day, but more importantly it appeared as if she could see perfectly in the dark, something she should have picked up on earlier after multiple instances of being in complete darkness.
Also, it would seem like Lily had some sort of dark vision, as it was only a little dark to her even after the sun had set.
“So, we should stop then? I’m fine with going still.” Iris asked, not feeling tired in the slightest.
“Yes, other mom said its dangerous at night.” Lily yawned, crawling off Iris’s back, causing Iris to shiver at the prickling sensation. “Monsters come out, like goblins, wolfs, orcs, and if we are really unlucky drakes and ghouls.”
“All those?” Iris’s face lit up, excited at the prospect of encountering more life.
Lily had walked up to a tree with a particularly thick set of roots at the bottom of it, deciding this was a good place to set up camp “Yeah, and not just those. Other mom…” Lily paused, taking multiple strands of silk into her hands as she started to weave them between the roots “…said there are even husks and hollows.”
“Eh?” Iris pulled up behind Lily, watching her work “What are those? Why are they worse then the other ones?”
Lily shrugged “I don’t know, I have only seen goblins and wolves that mother had brought back…as well as other adventurers.”
Iris perked up “adventurers? What’s that.”
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Lily paused, turning around and becoming momentarily startled because of how close Iris had gotten to her “…you don’t know about adventurers? Other mother said they were everywhere, where have you been living?”
“Island in the middle of the ocean.”
“…” Lily stared at her for a solid minute, before slowly turning around and continuing her work “My other mother said they are people from every background that go out and do various things, like gathering materials or exterminating monsters to keep everyone safe.”
“Oooh, sounds cool.” Iris nodded to herself.
“Right!” Lily spun around “My other mother was an adventurer, she told me a lot of stories how top rankers in the adventurers guild would go out and stop big bad monsters from terrorizing everyone, rescuing captives, and how everyone would shower them in praise for defeating huge ones like dragons and giants!”
Iris was taken aback, taking one step back as Lily excitedly told her about the adventurers “Ah, I see… she must of told you a lot.”
Lily nodded “Yeah! She told me of all her stories that she did herself, she saved a village from a goblin infestation and did a lot of escort missions, she even encountered a Husk hive before in something called a raid! With lots of other adventures!”
Iris had to take another step back as the little Arachne had approached her in her excited retellings. As taken aback as she was, she couldn’t help but smile, the girl really loved her other mother. “Wow, that’s impressive.” She said, having no clue what a husk hive even was.
Lily nodded, with more force behind it “Yeah, she was amazing, but all that ended when….ah.” She paused, her face becoming solemn “Yeah…she was…” she then turned around, going back to work on what ever it was she was doing.
“…” The air became awkward, Iris having no clue what to say. Regardless, she approached the girl from behind and hugged her.
“…” Lily, after a bit of hesitation, gave into the hug, but then shook her off and started focusing on her work.
After around thirty minutes Lily had finished what she was working on, a personal sized hammock for herself between the tree’s roots. Once finished she quickly climbed up onto it, settling in the middle.
“Cute.” Was all Iris could say towards the image of the small Arachne, snuggling up and getting comfy on her own.
“Hrm?” Lily looked up “What? Want one? Sorry but I’m almost out of silk for today.”
Iris waved her off, then fell perfectly backwards “This is enough for me.” She said, her back in the dirt. All in all, it was more comfortable then the hard rock she slept on before.
“…I feel bad…”
Iris waved her off again “It’s ok~ it’s ok~” She laughed “I’m not even tired, so I’ll just wa-“ was all she managed to say before promptly passing out in the dirt, her body going limp.
---
“I..uh…what?” Lily stared at the now unconscious Iris in disbelief “Uh, Iris? Hello…?” She got up from her web, carefully skittering over to the girl “Iris?”
Getting no response, she carefully extended one of her legs towards her, giving her cheek a poke “Hard.” She frowned, she had found out earlier but Iris was unnaturally hard, her cheek didn’t even squish when she poked it. Earlier that unnatural hardiness made it extremely awkward when climbing her, but not impossible.
She continued to poke her, sighing in relief when she saw the girl was at least breathing “…” She glanced around to make sure no one was looking, then plopped down right next to her head. “I really don’t know who are what you are…”
Earlier that day, Lily had decided to leave her hive, something her other mother had strongly suggested she’d do after she realized Lily was not like the other Arachne, according to her Lily didn’t listen to her instinct, what ever that meant, but no… she kinda understood it… so she listened to her.
She was going to leave the hive with her other mother, who was growing very weak after so many clutches, so having decided she went to get her, but…
Iris shook her head, not wanting to remember what she saw, she just remembered how she ran, attracting the attention of her sisters that she managed to avoid and make her way out. She ran and ran until she unfortunately ran into her mother, the hives brood mother, who had been out hunting…
Terror, was all she could remember of that encounter, her mother wanted her to go back, to continue to weave for them, but she refused, she refused with all her might but…the efforts cost her two legs…and just when she had given up hope, a flash, and next thing she new a naked lady was messing with the little remains of her mother.
She couldn’t believe it, she had been saved, and what’s more the person who had saved her was nice… na?ve, but nice. Reminding her a bit of her other mother even… she was weird, and seemed to know less about the world then she did, but nice. She even offered to travel with her, it was a dream come true.
“Thank you.” Lily patted Iris’s head, before teetering back to her web and plopping down on it, swiftly falling asleep.
