Moth Ch. 006

Please forgive the redundant copyright messages, I've found that sometimes my stories are copypasted in part and used elsewhere.

Copyright of Nanna Marker 2010.

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On the last day of fall, Lei still lived in the spider's tree and had reason to believe that, since the lizard, he had saved her from a couple more daytime predators.

Her swiftly accumulated fat had rearranged itself, making it obvious that she was fall-chubby and not pregnant. She had pointed out her new appearance to "Black", (his refusal to offer his name had forced her to nickname him,) but he still referred to her as "Scrawny".

Not that they talked enough to have much need for names or nicknames. Black hadn't approached her since the day he had saved her life by killing a lizard, had woken her, and had accused her of being an aspiring baby-murderer. Lei only approached him when her loneliness became unbearable and that wasn't too often.

She had been too busy to be lonely. In between gathering and eating a whole summer's worth of food, she had had to craft tools for survival. She didn't believe for a moment that every season would be as plentiful as this unusual fall. Not even in the forest of her childhood's dreams. Also, she couldn't rely on Black's protection forever, and even if she could, she shouldn't.

So she had made weapons for herself. A primitive bow, a few dozen arrows, and a spear. She had also made a couple of primitive knives, to spare the one she had inherited from Oli. She had also made, and worn down, a couple of woodpeckers. To enlarge an old bug-hole in the tree's trunk.

On this last day of fall, the old bughole was large enough to accomodate a cocoon. She had carefully lined the hole with dry moss, round fragments of sieve, and as many feathers as she had been able to get her hands on.

It would be her first winter alone. She wished she didn't have to cocoon through it. As terrifying as it would be to face the cold awake, as hard as it might be to find food during winter, the thought of unguarded sleeping through it all was terrifying.

From the amount of corpses Black was webbing undried, she had guessed he wouldn't be sleeping all through the cold. Through the last month of fall she had tried to convince herself to beg him to protect her cocoon, but she hadn't been able to swallow her pride long enough to ask.

Written by Nanna Marker; literotica ID ellynei.

This was the last day of fall. Her web glands had woken and were producing the liquid silk. Her stomach had had to empty itself of acid and the remains of her last meal to make room for it. The vomiting had voken her in the middle of the day. Now sunset was approaching, the vomiting had long ceased, her wings had drained and fallen off, and she was safely in her hole.

Soon the liquid silk would be ready and she would have to cocoon. Then she would sleep for five months. When she woke, she would have new wings, and her body would have matured to full adulthood. If she woke that was...

Terror iced her skin. Her branch was closer to Black than this hole was. When she had slept on the branch, Black would happen to see danger heading her way. Down here, in this hole, he wouldn't "happen" to see anything. What if he didn't even realise this was where she would be hiding?

Surely he had seen her work on the hole? She had seen him work on his. But would he check on her? Was she too far down?

She had to ask him.

Lei crawled out of her hole. Her back felt naked without wings. With hands and feet she crawled up the trunk, carefully grabbing hold in the bark's deep ridges. Climbing was frightening when you had no wings. If she lost her grip she would fall and break every bone in her body, or simply die.

Finally she made her way to Black's branches.

"Hello?" she called.

There was no reply.

"Hello?" she tried again, louder.

There was only silence.

Lei shivered, not just from fear. It was cold.

"Hel..." she began, but was cut off by a burp. With the burp came a smooth liquid. Automatically she opened her mouth and spat.

On contact with the air, the liquid became silk.

Lei closed her mouth. Fine strands of silk, hang from her lips.

"Black," she yelled, and more silk spurted from her mouth.

She covered her mouth with a hand. She couldn't cocoon out here. She'd never survive winter if she did. Her stomach turned in an attempt to empty itself. She forced it back.

There wasn't time to get back to her hole. She turned back to the trunk and desperately crawled for Black's winter-hole. She could only hope he would forgive her.

Lei only just made it inside before puking out a big squirt of silk. With her hands she spun it around her feet.

If Black had been there, she would have tried to tell him she was sorry.

She really was. She hadn't intended to invade his privacy.

Another squirt of silk erupted from her mouth and with one hand spinning silk above her head, and the other hand spinning it around her legs, she slowly cocooned her lower half.

Black's winterhole was unbelieveably warm and soft. It was lined with spidersilk, but there was absolutely no stickiness to it. Here her cocoon would be even safer from the cold than in her own hand-made hole.

Again she vomited silk.

Of all the days Black could have used for an excursion, why did this have to be it?

How would he react when he came home and found her wrapped in her own silk like his food was in his?

Posted on literotica.com with permission of author: Nanna Marker; literotica ID ellynei.

Lei wept while her silk glands again filled her stomach sack.

"What are you doing?" Black's voice was harder than ever.

She turned her face to him. Black's face was in the opening of his hole, his body was outside. He looked angry.

Silken web hang from Lei's lips, to her hands, to her waist. She tried to speak but no sound came out, only more silk. She held it out to him, trying to explain she had no choice, but she had no time to perform a pantomime. More silk erupted and she had to use it.

"What is happening to you?" asked Black.

Maybe it was her imagination, but there was a note of desperation in his voice. She looked at him. If her eyes expressed just a quarter of her feelings, then maybe he would understand.

There was no more time to communicate. Silk streamed continuously from her mouth and instinct told her hands where to place it.