Interesting?
Harper ties the buttonless shirt - handkerchief-style.
Is that understatement or wry observation?
She brushes off tears
with backs of pawed hands a rather feline
gesture. Flushed cheeks heighten
defiantly glinted eyes.
Well? I assumed YOU
were female,
why presume I am MALE?
Are superior beings prone to idiotic sexism much like
inferior entities?
You are right to chastise me
although it is not my tendency
to believe that Power resides
with the male of the species,
no. It is simply that you are so
very tiny and that in MY species
denotes masculinity.
Oh. Well, apology accepted, then.
None given.
Harper eyes the Arachnid with distaste
but decides to let it
slide.
You are female then?
I am.
Where is your mate, the male of your species?
Long gone.
Oh? Where?
Chillingly swift, the Arachnid rears, a Wolf spider poised
to strike.
Harper cowers
although disgusted by her instinctive reflex.
Her right arm hooks in front of her face -
lame attempt to fend off the monster.
She looks like nothing more terrifying
than a fledgling raising a featherless wing -
utterly pointless
utterly vulnerable.
It is then that an uncanny sound
rumbles throughout the surrounding hillsides.
Harper risks a shifty peak. Straightens in a rush of rage, scandalised
by the effrontery.
You're laughing?
Oh,
growls the intensely tickled spider,
how can I not?
and continues the quaking, rich, thunder-rolling sound.
Harper is like to splinter teeth,
so fiercely does she feel the insult. Why? Why did you
rear up on me?
What
did you mean by it?
Oh, oh. Oh, dear me, ah.
Hum. All right. Calm. Yes.
I have not laughed like
that in many millennia.
I simply wished to validate
the answer to your inquiry.
The Arachnid fondly strokes her distended abdomen.
Smug is the word that comes readily to mind.
Harper
Naturally enough is horrified!
You ATE him?
You claimed earlier you ate Time.
And so I do but the female of my
species also consumes her mate.
That is unspeakably savage, obscene, uncivilised, barbaric.....
No,
The Great Spider corrects,
that is a time-honoured practice.
Nobly accepted by the male as
both appropriate and obligatory.
Gorging on the father of your children
how can that be viewed as appropriate?
Indeed it is very practical. He had
given of himself already and thus
rendered himself unnecessary.
What a foul practice, Harper observes bitterly.
Not at all, it is a spiderish one.
And that is one of many differences between arachnids and humans.
Oh, indeed, you presume to judge?
You, member of a species that has
devoured or destroyed countless
others, I think your kind refer to it
as extinction. A tidy little term that
- negates all responsibility.
Harper growls low-throated, bares teeth but chooses
to submerge her temper.
She wisely decides to change tack.
You called me Harper several times, where then
is my harp?
