Opera in Underland

3. Definitely Not a Caterpillar

"... And then they blew up the big round ship - BOOM!" Pud'n spun around to put emphasis on that last bit. "And they lived happy ever ever and danced with the teddy bears."

"Well, no offense, but I really don't see what that has to do with the walrus and the carpenter," the girl pointed out. It seemed the original story had taken quite a detour. Here she was expecting cabbages and kings and instead she got Death Stars and Ewoks.

"What's a carpenter?" Billy asked while staring at her blankly.

She could actually feel her eye twitching in frustration. She liked to think of herself as intelligent and reasonable, but some people just naturally tried her patience. Like this boy, who seemed not to understand anything that wasn't produced by his own considerably sized nose.

The other two weren't all that much better, actually. They were hopelessly naive and cheerful. Irwin was okay, she supposed, but relating to him still felt like a chore. Even though they weren't all that far apart from her in age, she felt like an adult compared to them. And in the meantime, they were no closer to finding a way out of these tunnels, or finding their friend - Junior, that was his name. Where had he got to?

The girl sighed. "Never mind," she answered Billy, who promptly went back to not worrying at all about whatever a carpenter was.

She decided to distract herself with the rock formations again. Geology could be interesting, given the right time and place. And hey, no time like the present. So she picked up a small rock from the tunnel floor, tucking her hair back and examining it.

It looked like obsidian. It had a nice sheen to it though, an indigo mixed with a dark green, so dark you could hardly distinguish it from the black of the main stone. She wondered to herself if there were any gems down here. With this much heat and pressure, it was definitely possible. And they would be much more brilliantly colored than this now solid black piece of volcanic glass.

That's about when she figured out that it was solid black because there was a large shadow being cast on it.

"Um... guys..." The girl felt the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. Something was very wrong about this shadow. The others seemed to realize it too, as they turned around to look at her.

And with shrieks and horrified looks at some spot above her head, they took off running down the tunnel without her.

"Wait!" she yelled, not wanting to be left alone.

"Yeah dad, wait! I just want to talk!"

That was definitely not her voice, or any of the kids' voices. She slowly turned her head up to look at the source, and saw a gigantic spider hanging from the tunnel ceiling.

She screamed, which made the spider scream, and they both stumbled back somewhat, equally alarmed by the other's alarm. They stared at each other, eyes wide in shock - two on the girl, at least four visible on the spider. After they both seemed to calm down enough to catch their breath, it was the spider who spoke first.

"Oh - oh gosh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you that badly. I was just trying to talk to my dad."

"Y-your dad?" she stammered, backing up against the tunnel wall, heart still pounding. "Who?"

"Oh, that would be Billy. He never seems to have time for me anymore, since I hatched. In fact he usually wants to squish me. But I just know I can convince him to love me." The spider seemed very sincere, even cheerful and kind. "I'm Jeff, by the way. And who might you be?"

"People - people tend to call me Opera," she managed to get out. Now was not the time to worry about real names. "So... Jeff... Billy is your... father?"