Drider Tickle Story

Chapter Seven

72 hours had passed during Rachael's slumber, causing grogginess to fill her every fibre as she tried to rise. ~Ugh... darn drider... darn drider venom... darn... nail... claw... whatever things. Darn... super effective sensory neurons of mine. Where are you anyway?~ She looked around. "Ven! I'm awake!" No response. "Ven?"

She groggily rose onto her two feet. "Darn pitch blackery." She snapped her fingers, trying to spark the light spell, but failing due to her drowsiness. "Oi! Work, darn you!" She managed to spark it with a fourth, much harder snap of her fingers. She then made more light spores and sent them about the cave, lighting the place up.

~Made me pass out twice in one bloody week...! I should... knock her out... yeh...~ She entered the kitchen and opened the cupboard, staring down six large muffins that had either been left there for her or not been eaten by the owner. Whichever the reason was for them being there, they ended up in her stomach very quickly.

~Uh... good shit right there. Yeh. Uh... my god. That is some good, good shit right there. Uh... yum, yum and all that. Mm...~ Upon closing the cupboard, she noticed a paper note on the door that wasn't there before. It read 'Only three of those are yours. So there'd better be three left when I get back.'
~Oh, shit. Huh... I wonder if she'll still have 'em if they're covered in bile... Well, it's her fault anyway for making the note to only show up after I'd closed the cupboard. What a mug.~

'I went out to buy stuff and won't be back for a while.'
~She buys stuff? Huh...~ She went to shower then prepared to venture. She put on a new set of clothes for the first time in a while, but left her backpack. After she left her own note on the cupboard saying 'went out for a walk. P.S. your muffins are dead.', she was gone.

Being outside again was refreshing. The air was always so clean in the forest and the temperature was just cool, cool enough for her to wear her shorts and not be cold.
"Good ol' nature. How you been, my guy?" She eventually reached a stream and decided to skip stones, something she was new to but grasped quite quickly. As she was skipping, another stone hit her in the back of her head.

"Ow! The fuck..." She turned to find no one but a small bird standing on the ground, looking innocent. "Oi, you! Did you see where that stone came from?" The bird stared innocently back, occasionally cocking its head to the side. "Of course you didn't."

She turned back round. When she went to pick up another stone to skip, another stone hit her in the head. She quickly spun back round but again found no one. Nothing but a robin looking up at her. "Why don't you just come out here so we can sort this out like... I don't know, not cowardly individuals?"

"Stop throwing them." A rather human sounding voice coming from seemingly nowhere spoke to Rachael.
"Where...?"
"Down here, you overgrown pixie." The voice came straight from the innocent looking robin. "Yes, hi."

Rachael crouched down onto her knees and stared back with a look of slight surprise. "Did you throw them stones at me?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"You're having a conversation with a robin who fluently speaks highly sophisticated English and that's the part you can't comprehend? How I threw stones?"
"...Alright. Why did you throw them stones at me?"
"To teach you a lesson. You're not supposed to throw these stones."
"Why?"
"I put them there for a reason."
"For me to throw them?"
"You're not funny. I put them there to guard the fish from the poisonous flowers surrounding the stream. The stones create a barrier that transmutes said poison into harmless compounds. If the poison gets in, all the fish die."
"Oh, sorry."
"You should be."
"Welp, I'm off now. Nice meeting you, Mr..."
"Robin."
"Really?"
"What?"
"A robin named Robin?"
"Is there a problem with that?"
"It's stupid."
"Well, what's your name them, girly?"
"Rachael."
"...I'm holding back laughter."
"Go ahead and let it out. So uh... do you... have a friend... who's a bat?"
"Really? Are we really doing this? We just met."
"Mate, you started it."
"No, I am not friends with a bat nor a knight who is dark."
"Oh... what about-"
"I'm also not friends with a wonderful woman, an alien that looks human, a bald green man nor a really fast man. Satisfied?"
"Kind of. Oh, that reminds me. Did you happen to see a drider pass through here recently?"
"Never."
"Alright then. See ya."
"Goodbye." With that she was off.

Four hours had passed since she left the cave. Ventris still wasn't back, however, and Rachael was beginning to get quite worried. Even with the knowledge that Ventris was familiar with combat, she knew that forests weren't to be taken lightly. No matter how often one spent exploring one, everything could never truly be known about the forest. With its endless mysteries and possibilities came its equally endless and unknown creatures, a great few of which would no doubt be just as hostile and dangerous.

Rachael waited for 20 minutes, becoming more and more restless until she could no longer take it. She grabbed her bag, shoved her book in and set out to find her girlfriend person or whatever.