The Stray

2-14: The Uninvited Guests

<<Er, hello.>> He turned to address the whole room, but in a voice gentle enough not to shake webs. Hoping to set an example to the dragoness, he switched to split tongues. <<"I am Timothy Weaver, adopted son of Deadhall's highest mother, Abikh-15. I'm sorry to have disturbed both your peace and your webs. I certainly didn't plan on bringing extra guests.">> He glanced at Valencia, who had the decency to flush a bit pink. <<"I have no desire to intrude upon you further. With your permission, I'll leave until tomorrow's appointment.">>

A hush fell over the crowd of spiders. He hadn't been really projecting his voice until then, and only now were many of them seeing a kindre speak in their languages. Spiders are naturally quiet creatures, but a moment later they burst into excited and confused murmurs just like a crowd of kindre would. The elder smiled, with the spider version of a quirked eyebrow.

<<You speak well, too. It seems we were right to seek you out.>> The elder said in a pleased tone. <<I am Elder Alarikh-100. I will confer with my fellows, and you shall have your answer.>>

Alarikh skittered up the webs with a speed that impressed the wolf, quickly vanishing into the webbing. Hrm. The witch turned his attention to V. "Nothing to do but wait for their answer."

V took a deep, slow breath, with one hand over her mouth to avoid sucking in webs. "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. Holy crap..."

"I've been talkin' to'em this whole time." Timothy said, amused.

"Yeah but— that one answered. I can hear it, even if I can't understand." She shook her head. "It's crazy." The dragoness went to sit down on the ground, but Timothy hastily grabbed her arm.

"It's not safe to sit anywhere, there's way more spiders here than y'can see." Judging from the Look she gave him, that was the wrong thing to say. Ugh. The wolf shook his head. "Not to deflect, but how the heck did you find me? And sneak up on me, no less."

V was still working through his last statement, looking around with no small amount of worry. "Huh? I just saw you from the air. Grey fur, pastel clothes, red bandana. You kinda stick out against a blue roof."

"Oh. Damn." He could hear his grandmother laughing at him. "Well, congrats on remindin' me I have to worry about fliers now." It was embarrassing as heck, actually, but better to learn from someone who didn't want to eat him. Ugh, if he'd been back home, that'd have been the end. Note to self, birds and bats and dragons exist. Idiot!

<<Is the pink wrecking ball leaving or not!?>> An old lady spider's voice clacked from far off.

<<"Uh, well...">> Under his breath, he added "Pink wrecking ball...?"

"Oh goddamn it, the bugs are calling me that now too?" V grumbled, suddenly looking real Toby-like. "Look, dragon puberty is rough. Try tripling in mass over like a year or two, see how graceful you are through it."

"I'm sure they didn't mean it, uh, as a slur." The wolf squirmed. "Not for nothin, but they're worried you're gonna squish someone. Or someone's home. Or set stuff on fire. I don't wanna boss you around, but I meant it earlier when I said you could—"

"Leave? I'll be graceful as a goddamn swan, damn it. And anyway, this is shady as fuck, so I'm sticking around." The dragoness set her jaw real firm, and Timothy got the sense she wasn't gonna budge. He grumbled softly at that. "I got you into this mess, n'I'll get you out."

...And now was torn between being annoyed and touched. Given that it was V, the scales were weighted to touched, at least for now. His irritation faded a little. "I can handle a little witchcraft, V, but I guess that's fine. Just let me take the lead, alright? And for sun's sake, walk where I walk slowly."