ORIGIN - {SPIDER WARNING}

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Fairy!

Fairy let out a shrill cheering sound at Legba's latest rhyme. "Oooohh that was a good one! Isn't rhyming so much fun?" She squealed again, pleased with herself at that one. But this really was fun! Legba wasn't noticing her trying to imitate his actions and she wasn't noticing how self-absorbed he was. Apparently, this was working.

She followed after him, worming as caterpillars do, as fast as she could (which, unfortunately, was barely fast at all) until they reached the base of the tower. Antennae brushed against the rock and she felt along the rough surface with her hairs. She could probably do this! She didn't know how, exactly, she would, but she knew, somehow, that climbing this would be possible. She lifted herself up, grabbing at the rough-textured rock with her front legs and beginning her ascent, slowly, a little unevenly, but the stone of the tower was enough to give her plenty of footholds to get her up the side.

@Legba

Being a spider, the surface wasn't too difficult, for him. It was good, rough stone. But it was very, very vertical, and he was careful to cling closely to it as he climbed.

"Why thank you. And yes, yes it is, a lot of fun," he agreed. Some part of his tiny spider brain mourned his lack of better vocabulary. He wanted bigger words. He wanted to sound Smart (and what was a better word for that-? Damn) and... and stuff.

"This sure is a long way up," he noted, almost cheerful, as he scaled the outer surface of the tower. He turned, skittering a little, carefully, to peer down.

He immediately regretted it.

"And a real long way down," he added, with an unspoken "oh, no" in his tone.

@Fairy

Fairy!

It took Fairy a moment longer to climb all the way up the side of the tower, but she eventually curled her body up and wormed her way onto the flat surface that marked the end of her ascent. She was trembling a bit with the exertion of climbing all the way up, but she looked quite pleased. Or, at least, as pleased as a caterpillar could be.

She turned and looked down, her head hanging over the edge of the tower, but she didn't experience the same sense of apprehension as Legba. The view from up here, actually, took her breath away. She didn't just look down, she looked all over Orion, to the ruined city in the distance, the stars twinkling so much closer above their heads, all of the open space and the Throne in the back.

She let out a soft sight. "It is a long way down but its so nice up here! I could just sit here and look at the cave all day! It almost seems small." She wanted to jump off, to go soaring over to those places and instinct told her that she would be able to, someday, that the joy of flight would be hers. She didn't know how long it would take, or if if would be the way she envisioned, but it would happen. She hoped that instinct was true.

She looked towards Legba. "It's wonderful, isn't it?" She really did look truly happy, antennae wiggling expressively, beady eyes glowing as best they could.

@Legba

"It is a view, for sure," the young spider answered, turning his body to peer this way, then that.

The starlit ceiling overhead sparkled. The dim, dusty cave beneath seemed to drift with motes of pale light. Furred pedipalps again rose, idly stroking down his fangs in what was undoubtedly to become a long-standing habit of thoughtful movement--a man, perhaps, stroking his goatee, in a sense. Not that a child would have a goatee.

The faintest hunger, then, rumbled through Legba's body. Some faint instinct sparked and told him to look to Fairy for food, but he dismissed that--again mostly because she was too big, but also it wouldn't be real nice to eat his only admirer, now, would it?

"I think I'm..." thought, as he tried to find the right word, "...Hungry?"

He looked to the big caterpillar, wondering if anywhere in her fuzzy grey head--or body--she might be having a similar desire.

@Fairy

Fairy!

She looked over the edge of the tower for a moment more before looking back at the spider, no sense of fear from her that Legba could, in any way, be thinking about eating her. Perhaps if she had more then two braincells to rub together, she might have been a little more frightened of her friends, but she, in fact, did not and so saw nothing to be afraid of.

Her wonder with this new world of hers and the prospect of seeing the view from the top of the tower had been a good distraction for a while. She hadn't even had to think about what would happen if she got hungry, nor did she realize that she was hungry, not until Legba expressed that he was did she realize that she had that same urge to start eating.

"You know, now that you say it, I think I could eat! What do you eat? Maybe we could find food together!"

@Legba

White eyes turned on Fairy, glowing mischievously.

"Why... things like you, I think--but smaller. And with less talking," he decided. Granted, Legba knew nothing of the existence of Lessers who could not speak--but surely if he killed something fast enough, so that it had no time to speak, that would count, right..?

Legba was far too self-absorbed to ask the caterpillar what she ate. Or, even, to be concerned that it might be him.

He began his descent, eager to find some food, again casting out his magic in a half-subconscious attempt to make the going a little easier.

I feel like something should be happening, he thought to himself--but nothing did. Sticky spider feet being what they were, though, he reached the bottom--and then turned, to see if the caterpillar had followed him back down.

@Fairy

Fairy!

Once again, Fairy completely missed Legba's little implications that he was perfectly capable of eating her and even might want to on the inside, although it wasn't impossible to see how she'd missed it. They were, after all, around the same size and she hadn't yet faced danger in her short little life.

She giggled, instead. "Oh, really? Then I better keep talking!" She followed after him, worming her way down the side of the tower. It was far more awkward going down, with her body being so big and all, but she kept a tight hold on the sides of the rocks and slid her way off next to Legba, raising herself up on her back legs, antennae waving.

She could very faintly sense something that smelled like food some ways off. "Ooooo I think I just found something I can eat! Over here!" She didn't know if things like her were all Legba could eat, maybe he could eat whatever she was thinking of eating too! That would be nice, two friends just sharing a meal together after a fun climb up the tower.

The food she had sensed was, in fact, only a meager offering of weeds sticking out through the crevices between two rocks, but Fairy descended eagerly, nibbling through the fairly dry plants quite quickly. Not accustomed to actually good food and other, more tasty plants, these weeds might as well have been a gourmet meal. "Oh, Legba you should try this, it's good!"

@Legba

The spider crept forward, following his newfound friend, and tapped lightly at the weeds with his front feet.

No-... no. How were those in any way edible? Puzzled, he turned to peer at Fairy. But she seemed content enough with it. "No-... No, I think my food's--a little different." Legba turned, lifting his forelimbs into the air, peering here and there. "Just wait here a minute, sweet thing," he told her, half-absently condescending, and then scuttled off into the ruins.

Ahh... over there. He could taste the faint urine trail, acrid, of rodents somewhere close by--and he gave chase, creeping into the shadows.

"I won't be long at all..." he called back--hoping he was right.

@Fairy

Fairy!

She had been saving some for Legba, in case he wanted to try a bit as well, but as soon as he refused the offerings, she quickly finished up the rest of them, nibbling through them until there were none left and swallowed happily. She looked up just in time to see the spider disappearing into the ruins.

Should she wait here for him? Oh, but she wanted to see him hunting! She wanted to see what kind of food he ate and maybe try a bit too, if he let her, apparently not realizing that their eating habits were polar opposites. She quickly set off as fast as she could towards Legba, antennae still waving to search for sources of plants or more weeds to nibble on while she waited. There wasn't much to offer in the way of life, however, so she put the thought back and managed to get to the entrance of the ruined city some time after her friend.

@Legba

He had, of course, some instinctive knowledge of what to eat, and how--though instead of teensy mites, this Phantom Biter would of course need larger prey. But he'd known right off, again by instinct alone, that Fairy's approach might frighten off prey.

He, for his part, lurked into the shadows, a dancing, quiet gait that quickly brought him in sight of a mouse It was somehow larger than he'd expected, but, he thought, still manageable; and he had magic, didn't he..?

The tarantula heard the sudden shuffle of Fairy behind him, and if he'd had teeth he'd have gritted them. As it was he hurried to send out his magic in a rush, hoping to simply smother the mouse with fungus.

When Fairy arrived, then, she'd see Legba turning to face her, having finished the thing off; it was a reddish mouse, lying limp and covered in bulbous black mushrooms, the spider's fangs driving into it to feed.

@Fairy

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