Return to Jorgaldur Volume III: blood warrior

Single Arachne seeks... (I)

Quilxia was the youngest of the group. In fact, she was barely in her fifties, so she was quite inexperienced. If not, she would have been more suspicious, or maybe not. The half-elf was quite a sociable person.

While the rest of the elves continued to hide, or were showing themselves reluctantly, she talked for a while with that Goldki, more and more confidently. The remains of the trolls ended up dispelling her doubts, as well as the admiration she felt for that golden-haired elf. The skill with which the useful parts had been separated was undoubtedly exceptional.

She didn't hesitate to tell what she knew about a cave from which spiders sometimes came out. Anyway, it was no secret either. Even her companions ended up greeting, still reluctant and distrustful. Although some were also somewhat bewitched, as attracted to the supposedly beautiful and skillful elf as they were distrustful.

Soon, Goldki said goodbye, even though Quilxia had invited her to travel with them. However, if she did, she wouldn't be able to return to the mansion and rest in a fluffy bed, while hugging a no less fluffy cat demihuman.

The vampiress didn't have much more trouble the rest of the trip. She exhibited an aura slightly higher than the area she was walking through at any given time. It made the inhabitants leave her alone. The few that ignored her aura end up dismembered.

The hardest part was finding the cave. It didn't show up on her virtual map, so she ended up summoning half a dozen Bats, as she wasn't sure how high up the mountain it was. In fact, she found close to fifty caves, most of them only a few meters deep.

Eleven of them were quite large, and even the tunnels branched off, so it took the scouts some time to go through them. In two of them, they didn't survive the exploration, as they were trapped in spider webs.

The vampiress approached the closest one, and she began to walk a tunnel preceded by a Blood Hound. It was in charge of getting caught in the cobwebs, and falling into ambushes. The spiders themselves didn't come out of their hiding, due to the level of the hound itself, or the vampiress'.

"It doesn't look like my memories of the game, but I'm not completely sure," she told herself after a while.

Back then, in the cave she was looking for, it could be identified a main passage. It wasn't always obvious at first glance, but it was there. In the current cave, the tunnels turned to one side and the other, without following a predefined path.

However, she kept walking through them. There was something strange, although she didn't quite know what it was. Some walls looked excavated, as if something had been dug up, and perhaps it was recent.

It was when she came across a huge thick spider web covering one of the tunnels that she frowned. That wasn't normal, so she decided to investigate it, although her first attempt wasn't very lucky. The hound became completely trapped.

She decided to open a path with several Darkness Blasts, since using a Pillar seemed a bit excessive. As she reached the other side, she was met with eight eyes staring back at her.

"Oh, you're just a woman... Wait... Did you see what you did!? You broke my door! Do you know how hard it was to make it!? Couldn't you have just knocked!?" the arachne got angry.

Gjaki blinked several times, totally taken aback. In the game, the arachnes were evil and terrible beings when found in caves. Other times, they were normal citizens. It was one of the strange contradictions in the game, and this arachne didn't seem to belong to either group.

"Was that a door?" she asked, confused.

"Of course it was! What else could it be!? A table!?," she ironized, still angry.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Sorry to have bothered you. I'd better leave," Gjaki turned around.

"Wait! I... I'm sorry... It took me a long time to make a door this elegant, and I got carried away. Don't leave, please. Stay for a drink. Almost no visitors come. I have tea and wine!" the arachne pleaded, completely changing her attitude.

The vampiress hesitated for a moment, as she feared that it could be a trap. However, she soon dismissed it. Even if it was, her power was tremendously superior to the arachne's. She turned and came closer, though she was still looking at her suspiciously.

"Why're you here? What's your name? I'm Gjaki."

"I'm Espid! I'm waiting for my future husband!" she answered enthusiastically.

"Your fiancée?" Gjaki asked, somewhat taken aback.

"No, no. You know, like in the tales. A hero goes through the cobwebs, and falls in love with the arachne."

"What kind of stories are those?" the vampiress wondered, but she didn't say it out loud.

She stared at Espid, not quite sure what to make of her. Meanwhile, her host was preparing tea, which turned out to be much better than what could be expected in a cave lost in the mountains.

"You know, the others told me it was silly. That what I should do was take human form, and seduce someone handsome and strong to have his babies. But I don't want that, to raise them by myself. You know, he'd find out the truth when they were born with eight legs. He'd realize what I really am. So, I want someone who'll accept me as an arachne from the beginning. I want him to stay with me, to be my husband. I want him to come to me, and falls in love," she assured.

Gjaki stared at her, stunned. Undoubtedly, that arachne was naive and innocent. In a way, she was adorable.

"I hope you'll be lucky," she wished her from her heart, although she doubted it would be like that.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed, as she was weaving with her own threads. Nonetheless, it didn't prevent her from talking.

"What're you doing?"

"I want to make nice clothes for when he'll come. I'm not very good at it though," she lamented.

"Can't you buy them?" the vampiress was surprised.

The tea was of good quality, and that wasn't the only thing. It didn't seem like she had financial problems.

"It's hard. To receive my beloved, it has to be with clothes made with my silk. But, how do I find someone willing to make it?" she answered sadly.

Gjaki looked at her, not sure if it was a tradition, or just something out of those tales. However, it didn't matter much either. She smiled.

"Maybe, I can help you," she assured, as she pulled out her portable tailoring platform.

Espid's eyes widened. After that, she spent about fifteen minutes thanking her, crying, and generating spider silk.