The Spider's Web Ch. 01

A few faint memories presented themselves, and the athiagan set the cans aside, stretched, and headed out into the cooling evening air. He had three places to check before he'd have to resort to a blind search for a food source for the girl. Before he left his lair, Zirase paused, glancing back at the human female, a slight frown on his face. He'd never learned her name.

Over the next couple of hours, the athiagan conducted his search, venturing to the outer limits of his claimed territory and even intruding into the territory of his most tiresome neighbor, a nest of kizriks - large, wasp-like creatures that were more intelligent than animals, but not by much. While more of a nuisance than a threat to Zirase, the athiagan had observed the huge insects attack and slaughter a group of humans two days before.

Based on a rough guess, Zirase figured the girl had maybe a week's worth of food in her backpack. Despite that, the athiagan's instinct was to secure a source of food, long-term, for her. Having observed other groups of humans eating food that hadn't come from the metal containers - cans - he knew that she'd be able to eat other things. However, he wasn't sure exactly what those 'other things' might be, and she didn't seem keen to inform the athiagan about herself or her kind. Until she opened up some more, Zirase knew he'd have to keep her supplied with what little food he could find that was in the cans.

It was a mixed fortune that the Zirase ended up finding food in the kizriks' territory - it was good that he found any canned food, but he doubted the massive insects would take kindly to him invading their territory regularly to raid the cache of cans he'd found.

The athiagan gathered up what he assumed was about a week's supply of food for his human guest, bundling them into a bag of his silk and hauling the load back to his nest. He was wary on the return trip, aware of a couple of kizrik drones watching him from above, though the insects were cautious, keeping well out of Zirase's range.

About three hours after he had left his lair, the athiagan returned to find a thoroughly displeased human. She spoke angrily - and unintelligibly - at him while glaring with hate-filled eyes. Zirase sighed and shook his head as he stashed away the cans he'd found. When he returned to the room with his guest, he glanced up at her and said, "You should get some sleep. I'm sure you're tired." At her blank look, Zirase realized that he'd spoken his own language. Sighing heavily, he repeated himself in English, noted her unimpressed expression, and made himself comfortable on the ceiling of his lair, situated at the nexus of his many alert lines. Within a few minutes, he'd fallen into a light sleep, and then a much deeper sleep as his mind began to work through the huge amount of information he'd copied from his human guest.

Jack. Short for Jaqueline, his sleeping mind supplied, after exploring all the references around the words 'I,' 'me,' and 'mine.' She hates 'Jackie.'