ok I know these chaps are getting boring... next one after this one will be more exciting I promise!
Chapter 15
After they had eaten the group was rested, letting their meal settle. Hoth noticed during this time that Shriek was looking over Spider very closely, her face practically up against his skin. Once in a while he noticed she would nip him gently. Sometimes this would cause Spider to wince slightly, though through most of it his eyes were closed and he had an expression of pure contentment on his face. He had seen her do this before, when they
were still in the cell, and he thought it was just part of their courtship, but now...as he watched it seemed to serve a different purpose. He noticed that Shriek was looking everywhere, over every inch of his skin and around every spine, using a handfoot to move the spines and skin when necessary. And Spider would let her move his arms around so she could get a better look, at one point he even rolled onto one side. Finally curiosity got the better of him and he walked over to them.
"Um..." Hoth started looking slightly embarrassed, "I'd hate to interrupt something that looks like a private matter but...what the heck are you doing?"
"Grooming." Shriek answered without looking up at him, "Basically looking for parasites and removing them from his skin."
"Parasites? What are those?" Invy asked, who had also been watching them.
"Tiny bugs that...if yer don' remove them could make yer very sick...even kill yer." Spider answered, opening his eyes to look up at them.
"Eek..." Kilk said with a shudder, "How do you get rid of them?"
"There are a couple of ways...one is what Shriek is doin' an' 'nother is a mud bath. Personally I prefer this method..." Spider said with a slight rumble as Shriek checked his neck, pausing a moment to lick his face.
"Look's like that method requires you to really trust the one doing it...." Juk mentioned.
"Well, " Spider said as he stood up, "we are all kin here, so I don' see how we can't trust each other." There was a snarl from Delta. "Well...with one exception..."
"If we decide to try it what do we look for?" Hoth asked.
"I'll show yer." Spider said getting up, "Goliath come 'ere."
Goliath did so and at Spider's command laid down, acting just an obedient puppy. Spider then used Goliath as a giant guinie pig, showing the others what to look for and teaching them how to remove the bugs. Goliath did snap at a couple of them when they accidentally bit down too hard with trying their luck at removing the bugs, but most of the time he just laid there, very placid.
Once Goliath was thoroughly 'debugged' the group practiced on each other, though a couple took some convincing to let someone 'debug' them....
When the grooming lesson was finished, Spider reviewed with them the sound lesson and taught them how to make the various sounds he and Shriek used. By the time lunch came, they were all familiar with each other’s unique howl.
After lunch they were again lounging about, settling their meal. Suddenly Spider got up and walked over to a tree and looked up at it. The others looked at him puzzled, (all save for Shriek, who had a knowing smile on her face) wondering what he was up to.
"Want some desert?" Spider asked with a smile.
"Um...sure but...what's in the tree that we could possibly eat?" Charr asked.
"Fruit...and it looks ripe."
Invy perked up with interest. "Fruit that is safe to eat?" she asked.
"Yep, hold on I'll grab some."
"Looks too high up for you to reach Spider." Charr said, "Maybe we should have Goliath...knock...the....tree.....down.......whoa"
They looked on in shock as Spider easily climbed the tree and proceeded to knock down some of the fruit down to them.
"Knocking the tree down would be counter-productive." Spider said as he knocked down more fruit, "fer if yer knock it down, the tree will die and yer wouldn't get any more fruit from it." Once he knocked down enough he climbed back down again, "In this case...the long term benefits greatly outweigh the short term."
The he knocked down were, in a sense, jumbo sized peaches. They were 7 inches in diameter, orange and red in color, and had a soft lining of fuzz covering it. The group sniffed at them cautiously, then they started taking small bites out of them. They found it rather pleasant tasting and they quite happily ate more, savoring the sweet taste. Soon they were all quite full and were dozing in the afternoon sun.
Spider and Shriek took the opportunity to sneak off and spend some 'quality' time alone together...
[ October 01, 2001: Message edited by: Dragadon ]
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