Gentleman in the Forest (old ver.)

The King's Spider: Gentleman in the Forest

The sun beat down into the forest through the clouds that were hanging in the sky. Felicity King walked through the forest on the beaten path, at least for now. She had finally managed to get a three day weekend from her job at a call center, dealing day after day with the same inane customer service complaints from older people who just didn't want to use the internet for whatever reason. She planned to enjoy as much of it outside as she could, far away from her home and her everyday problems. It had taken her a very boring 30 minute drive to get to this forest but as she breathed in the fresh air and scents of the forest trees and grass, she felt it had absolutely been worth it.

The leaves and twigs littering the forest floor in autumn crunched loudly underneath her crimson red painted boots as she marched on. She was eager, almost desperate, to get and feel as far away from her life as she reasonably could. The drive here had been the worst kind of torture. With her car's radio broken, she had been forced to drive alone in silence and her mind started to wander. She had thought of how much she hated her job, and how unfulfilled and trapped it made her feel. Felicity thought of her devastated love life, never quite the same after her last real boyfriend had come out as gay and unceremoniously dumped her for her brother, Benjamin.

Ever since then, her love life had been nothing but rough. She liked doing athletic activities whenever she could and loved how it helped to empty her mind and lift her mood. She would often go bike riding, hiking and play any sport with anyone wished to play with her. The big problem was, it left her with a toned, muscular physique that only seemed to attract meat-headed guys who thought she'd open her legs for them if they proved they were as fit or more than she was. The only other people who seemed interested in her were girls who thought she swung that way just because most of her interests didn't really align with what a girl was "supposed to like". Obviously, neither of those parties ever got anywhere with her. Then there was Mom and Dad.

She loved them, of course. They were wonderful and supportive people, at least when they weren't going on about how she needs to date someone because they're afraid that she'll end up alone. She was convinced at this point that all they really cared about were getting grandchildren to spoil, and she supposed she could understand that but she wasn't going to settle for someone who didn't appreciate her for her. Of course getting to that stage would require somebody with enough caring and patience to actually get to know her. She figured she would find a Mister Right just for her someday, but if not she had promised her parents that she would adopt when she turned 40. They agreed but weren't exactly thrilled about having to wait for 11 more years when they all celebrated her 29th birthday together last month. The only real highlight of that birthday dinner had been the pleasant exclusion Benjamin and her ex.

The wind whipped up out of nowhere, sending her medium-length raven black hair billowing around her and right into her eyes. She let out a surprised shriek followed shortly after by an annoyed groan as she got what she could out of her eyes and started to head towards a pond she knew was nearby. She knew the water wouldn't be super clear, but it should still provide enough of a reflection to fix her hair if she was lucky enough to get enough light shining in it. She went through a couple of trees she knew marked the path towards the ponds, learned from an entire childhood playing in this forest with her parents and her brother. To her pleasant surprise, it seemed luck was actually on her side today.

The pond gleamed in the sunlight and Felicity stepped up to it, catching the reflection of her deep green eyes as she started getting her hair back in order. In truth she had wanted to tie it back or wear a hat but nothing seemed to match her chosen outfit today, a sky blue flannel button up shirt and khaki hiking shorts. When she first found the outfit in her closet she had laughed, thinking it would make her look like a rugged mountaineering version of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz but she was glad she chose it now. It felt somehow right for this outing, like she was going to come across something wonderful and new today.

Thinking about it, looking for something new and wonderful in these woods she grew up in sounded great. It would be just the thing she needed to really feel like she was getting away from her everyday slog, and so she bid the beaten path farewell. Picking a direction that wouldn't just lead back to the parking lot and her car, she set off through the trees. There was a small thrill she felt doing this, wandering around where most people would be too afraid to go. She breathed in the forest air again with a deep inhale. She loved the smells of this place, especially as they danced with the fresh air in the wind.

Unfortunately, this state of mind caused her to make the mistake of walking through the forest without stopping to make sure she kept her bearings. The contented little tune she was humming ceased immediately as she darted her head all around to see everything in this new part of the forest without paying proper attention to where she was walking and ran face-first into something hard and flat. She swore loudly as she fell backwards onto her ass, tenderly checking her nose once she had regained her footing to make sure she hadn't broken it. As she got back up onto her feet, she looked to see what it was that she had bumped into.

Warning, Mating Season in progress! Please do not enter into the woods past this sign!

It was somebody's stupid sign! Why was this even placed out here on a stake instead of on a nearby tree anyway? Besides Felicity thought, Nothing that lived in these woods enters mating season at this time of the year. She took another look at the sign. There was no official seal or statutes listed, and it was completely handmade. Admittedly the craftsmanship and penmanship on this sign were phenomenal, but it clearly wasn't official. She knew that this had to be somebody's stupid prank, and worse yet it was somebody's stupid prank that made her fall on her ass!

Well she wasn't going to listen to this sign. In fact, she was going to do precisely what this sign wanted her not to do! She dusted off the back of her shorts and proceeded to walk slowly and triumphantly past the offending hunk of wood, flipping it off the entire way and continuing on her hike. It didn't take her long to get over her irritation at first but as she kept walking, she kept coming across more signs in the woods that would renew that irritation. She made a point to cross each sign with a single-finger salute as she came across them and before she even knew it, she was ridiculously deep into the woods where even the light from the sun was starting to become dimmer.

To make matters worse, it started to rain out of nowhere and hard. She nearly cursed herself for letting her temper get the best of her like that but it wouldn't really do any good at that point. Right then, she needed shelter to wait out the storm in. The weather report she had read before scheduling this weekend hadn't mentioned a chance of rain, so she probably wouldn't have to wait long before she could start heading back to her car. She bolted through the woods, being careful not to trip and hurt herself, until she managed to come across a large cave by a lucky break.

Felicity ran into the shelter of the cave, shaking what little water she could off of her as she muttered a soft curse at the rotten luck of the bad weather. The trees were too thick this deep in the woods to get a good luck at the sky too, so she couldn't even guess how long she'd have to wait here or when it would be safe to go back to her car. She decided that since she was stuck anyway, she might as well look around. After all, this wasn't exactly a safe place to escape the rain if a bear lived here, now was it?

As she looked around, one thing came immediately to mind. This cave was clean, unnaturally so. Almost like somebody regularly swept the floors, but who would do that? It's a cave in the middle of nowhere for god's sake, nobody would choose to live here. At least, that's what she was thinking until she saw the electrical wires. They had been tucked out of the way in the darker corners of the cave, but she found them all the same.

She followed the wires, her curiosity piqued, and soon found a large open area. It was well-lit and filled with many of the comforts of home. The entire area seemed to have been arranged like a very large studio apartment with a kitchen, a living room with a large beanbag sofa, a dining area, an entertainment area complete with both a TV and a computer, and what appeared to be a tailor's studio, all within easy sight of each other despite their spacing being a bit larger than she would have set it. She looked around in amazement, wondering what person set themselves up here so well despite living so deeply in the woods. At least until she felt herself being suddenly yanked high up above the ground.

She didn't even have time to scream before she found herself being spun around rapidly, with something wrapping around her body tightly from her shoulders down. She finally found her voice and started to scream in fear as she was wrapped more and more for several moments. She was being cocooned in thick webbing. The spinning finally stopped, but she was still screaming. Tears came to her eyes as she wondered what in the hell was even going on as she felt herself being lifted up again, much more slowly and a much shorter distance. Then, she came face to face with a pale white-skinned young man, probably about her age.

"Would you please stop screaming?" He asked politely, but forcefully. Trembling, she took a good, long look at him as she did her best to hold back her panic. He had a soft, slender face with chestnut brown hair and odd, purple eyes. He was wearing a very fancy-looking suit vest with a white button up undershirt that seems to perfectly hug a lithe, lean body. He doesn't look like he should be able to pick her up, but he doesn't appear to have any troubles doing so. Her eyes wandered down, past some strange cummerbund-like wrapping around his waist where she would expect pants to start. Then she sees that from the waist down, he has the body of a giant black spider. Eight long, sharp-looking legs sprout out from a body and thorax and her screaming began anew.

"Oh for the love of all that is sacred!" he shouted while his large legs began skittering, bringing them both down to the floor as he shifted his arms to hold her princess-style. "It's echoing all throughout my home, so please just stop screaming!"

"Oh god! Oh god I don't want to die! Please!" she screamed out, tears staining her face and running down her cheeks. The spider-person's only response was to simply roll his eyes.

"I'm not going to hurt you, I promise." he said in a calm tone. "I'm just upset because you've invaded my home. Not mention you've tracked water simply everywhere." He started to walk through his cave. "And why are you even this deep in the woods? Didn't you see all the signs I put up? I hand-made those signs and put them everywhere!" He shouted indignantly right before they go past the kitchen she saw earlier. Seeing the cutlery in his kitchen, her fear of a quick death changes to something more sinister.

"Are you gonna eat me?! Please, I'm sorry! I didn't know anyone lived here, I swear! Please!" she cried. Her pleas elicited a look of offended disgust from him.

"I'm not going to eat you. Nobody's going to eat you!" he says, offended. "Humans." He mumbled, rolling his eyes.

"Please just let me go. I'm sorry. Please. I'll never bother you again, just please let me go. I want to go home." she said in a quieter tone and crying much more softly.

"I would like to, believe me I would." He replied gently. "But I know how this works. If I let you go, you'll probably tell everyone about the 'scary monster' you found in the woods. Even in the best case scenario, you'd get curious about me, come back in secret, somebody would follow you for some reason then discover me and I'd get chased out of yet another home. This is my third home. It's the one I've had for the longest and frankly I'm tired of moving."

She couldn't believe him. Especially not now, as he climbed up the wall, higher and higher into the cavern straight up the wall. All she could think of was all the horrible things that could happen to her. She knew that spiders wrapped their pray up in webs before digesting them inside a cocoon. He could be planning to do that to her, just acting nice to lower her guard before striking or worse, planting eggs inside of her that would hatch and eat her from the inside out. Her sobbing continued as her thoughts got worse and worse, the progression of nasty thoughts only stopping when he laid her down.

"You should be safe up here." he said to her as he placed her on a small ledge high up in the cavern. "Just try not to move too much so you don't fall off. I'll be back later."

"What are you going to do? What even are you?" she asked, her voice still shaky and her throat hoarse from crying.

"Well, I'm going to go take a nice, soothing bath to calm myself down. As for what I am, well you humans call my kind many different things. Spider-centaurs, Driders, Chimeras, Arachne. Personally though, I would prefer if you just called me by my name." He said as he stepped back onto the wall. "Nathaniel Ashton, professional tailor and handyman." he said with a small bow before skittering down the wall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nathaniel had to get away from her. Mating season had begun barely an hour ago and her scent was intoxicating, filling his body with primal desires. He took a deep breath as he hurried down the wall, past his studio and the entertainment area and into the small side tunnel that housed his bathroom. Of course it had been impossible to set up a good shower in a stone cavern, but he had managed to purchase a hot tub online and used it to bathe with. His bathroom was modest but certainly enough for him, with a large mirror, a hand sink, his bath and well off in the corner, a large toilet he had built himself. It was more like a large urinal in its design and was the only thing that he hadn't been able to properly attach his water unit to, so it need to be flushed using a large bucket he kept nearby.

He looked in the mirror, noticed how much eyes were bugging out and his nostrils were flaring. He had been fighting to keep himself under control with every inch he stepped. He was actually almost thankful for her whining and insulting comments, as it helped keep his mind off the state of her. Webbing her up, he had seen her very closely. Her well-toned, perfectly-muscled legs and arms were hard not to notice with him in the throes of the heat of mating season as he had started to cocoon her. He hadn't even meant to web her up so thoroughly but once he had picked her up, his instincts had commanded him to web her well, to show his skill and prove his worth as a potential mate.

He shook his head vigorously, banishing those thoughts from his head. He would not give into instinct, he could not. To do so would go against every belief he ever held. He knew what he wanted, corny though it was. He wanted to find true love, the kind of love he saw nearly every day between his own parents. His mother had overcome her own instincts as an Arachne in order to stay with his father, instead of leaving to safety as soon as she had gotten pregnant as their kind usually did. He knew he would find that one day, he just had to be patient. In the meantime though, he still had to deal with damned heat he was in and having his unwelcomed visitor's scent stuck all over him was not helping matters.

Besides, he thought to himself as he started heating the water in his tub, there was no way that someone as pretty as she was wouldn't already be somebody's beloved. Even if he were to entertain the thought of simply having a quick fling, he'd never be able to forgive himself if led to her not being able to be with her love because being with him had made her feel sullied. He shook his head again. He needed to get control of himself. Even his thoughts were starting to entertain the notion of sex and he wouldn't succumb, no matter what. This bath would certainly help. The smell of being clean would restore his sanity, then from there it was just a matter of figuring out how to deal with his uninvited guest. He was certainly resourceful, after all. He was certain he could figure out how to make sure she was taken care of without succumbing to the influence of mating season.

He started to undress as he contemplated how to go about this. His purple suit vest, a personal favorite of all the clothes he had made, had only a single button securing it and came off the easiest. He folded it neatly so that it would not be wrinkled when he came out of the bath, then started to unbutton his white undershirt while thinking. She didn't seem like a bad person to him, so maybe the best course of action was to convince her to be friends after mating season had passed. He would just need to keep his interactions with her limited and do his best to keep his head on straight for the next couple of days. After that, the heat of mating season would finally fade and he'd be back to normal.

The undershirt slid off smoothly over his arms, baring his upper body as he examined himself once again in the mirror for any other signs of over-excitement. His chest and torso seemed to lack any serious muscle tone or definition, but his skin was soft and smooth. It complemented his pale hue well, he thought. He took a deep breath, sighing in relief as he didn't notice any further signs of arousal. He lightly traced the outline of his pectorals with his fingers just to make sure the sensations didn't cause arousal. He turned himself around, taking a look at his strong spine and smooth back before he was finally satisfied that he would be safe to take off the last of it.

He reached for his waist to the large purple cummerbund that he used to maintain his dignity. After all, he couldn't exactly wear human pants or underwear with his lower body being what it was. He had made all his clothing himself, then perfected it for comfort and coverage so that was no chance of the embarrassment. In his cummerbund, an erection as it would simply grow straight up and be unnoticeable to anyone who thought to look. He unlatched it in the special covered securing fasteners that he had made and now stood naked in front of the mirror. His manhood dropped away as he took the undershirt and cummerbund and folded them neatly next to his suit vest.

As he walked over to the water, he was thankful that he had remembered that ledge he had placed the woman on earlier. He preferred to keep his modesty after all, and he was honestly afraid that he might shriek like a small child if she were to walk in on him in his current state of undress. No, he would much rather nobody heard his shrill, embarrassed screams. His hand tested the water, and a gentle, satisfied smile graced his face. It was perfect, and warmed up just in time. The cave could be a bit chilly when it rained and his naked body was letting him know that it didn't appreciate the theft of warmth.