The Unicorn's Forest

Charlie enjoyed her time around the arachnoids so much that she had completely forgotten about Shirley arriving on the last day for them. Which felt like it was the afternoon of the same day as when they first woke up after getting the arachnoids to trust them, despite it being the following day. Charlie had a feeling the rest of the group had forgotten as well. Or at least she thought that when Shirley was escorted into the village by some of the arachnoids that they'd learned were the hunters of the group.

When the leader of the arachnoids, Arachnia's mother, came out, Charlie made her way over to help. Even though she had bad feelings towards Shirley, she didn't wish that situation on anyone. Charlie also just realized she hadn't learned what Arachnia's mother's actual name was.

Maybe I should ask about that before we have to leave in the morning, Charlie said to herself as she arrived just as the interrogation began.

"Who are you and how did you get here?" Arachnia's mother asked. Charlie wondered if that was the first question they ever thought to ask anyone they found in their forest plateau.

Shirley didn't respond, as Charlie was confident she didn't understand what she'd just been asked.

"Um, excuse me?" Charlie said, drawing the attention of the arachnoid.

"Sorry, but I need to deal with this first."

"Yeah, about that…" Charlie said, not sure how best to say this, but knowing she had to say something anyway. "She came through the unicorn's forest."

"How would you know this?"

"Because my friends and I know her. She's from our world."

Arachnia's mother glanced at Shirley before focusing on Charlie again. "Will there be any others who will show up?"

Charlie shook her head. "No, she was the only one who we expected to show up here. We… um, forgot to mention it to you."

The arachnoid sighed. "Very well, we'll see what we can do about this one.'

"Thanks," Charlie said, then taking Shirley's hand while her skin crawled at the contact, she led Shirley over to where her friends had gathered.

"What's going on here?" Shirley asked when Charlie let her hand go after they reached the others.

"Apparently these are those who live on top of this plateau," Beth said.

"They also have an agreement with some dwarves who live inside this plateau," Tim added.

"Isn't the word 'dwarves' rather offensive?" Shirley asked.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure they mean the dwarven race from the fantasy genre," Wes said. "You know, the race that is very hard to distinguish the gender of the individual you're looking at, since they look so masculine that you'd think they're all male. Fully bearded, deep voices, broad shoulders and all that."

Shirley shook her head. "Anyway, why are you so friendly with these… creatures?"

"They're friendly enough," Amelia answered. "They may have made us wait until they could verify how we got here, but they're really nice."

"The eggs for breakfast this morning and yesterday morning weren't too bad, even if they were spider eggs," Hannah commented offhandedly, though Charlie suspected she was trying to draw Shirley into asking about the eggs.

"Good for you," Shirley responded, not taking the bait Hannah dangled in front of her. "Are you sure they're not going to try and cook us while we sleep?"

"We're sure," Beth replied. "They had plenty opportunity to do just that the last two nights when we were in a hut they provided for us while we slept. Then Charlie here," Beth laughed as she put her arm around Charlie's shoulders again. "She slept in the hut that the leader of the arachnoids seems to live in."

Shirley stared at Charlie in shock and, despite her personal feelings towards Shirley, she couldn't help but be entertained by Shirley's reaction.

After a moment, Shirley shook her head. "Aside from that, how are you able to understand them? I mean, we shouldn't be able to know their language since we didn't even have records they actually existed!"

"Remember what you told me about thought mages?" Beth asked. "Well, I'm pretty sure that Charlie and Ralph are that."

"Wait, two?" Shirley asked. "How?"

"Why don't we slow things down?" Charlie suggested. Her head was starting to spin with how quickly the topic kept getting changed. "Though, to answer your last question, we just are. We have no idea what makes a 'thought mage' and we certainly couldn't have tried to turn ourselves into that." Charlie stopped when a realization occurred to her, at which she turned to Beth. "Wait, Ralph can understand them?"

"Yeah, he let us know that while we were waiting for you last night. That's why he hasn't spoken much. He doesn't want them to realize he can translate for us as well," Amelia said, a mischievous glint in her eye.

Charlie couldn't help but be surprised. Was that part of why he would help translate for Petals when they were first starting to help her? Charlie started to wonder.

"By the way, what kind of silk are they wearing?" Shirley asked. "It seems to be saturated with some magical energy."

"Oh," Hannah laughed. "The answer to that is kinda gross."

Shirley raised an eyebrow at that response.

"Okay, okay," Tim said. "The silk is made out of arachnoid silk."

"Wait, arachnoid silk?" Shirley sounded confused.

"Well, that and the giant spider silk too," Amelia added.

"There's giant spiders?" Shirley sounded rather less than enthusiastic about that idea.

"Yeah, they're kind of like shepherds to the giant spiders," Amelia replied.

Shirley shook her head. Apparently she might not like the idea of the giant spiders as much as Wes. Though, Charlie was certain no one could not like the idea as much as Wes.

"By the way," Beth asked Shirley. "How long were you walking around before you encountered the arachnoids?"

Shirley sighed. "Not that long. I walked straight out from the entrance to the unicorn's forest and found the road. About then is when I was surrounded by them."

"How about we introduce you to Arachnia," Charlie interrupted. She was getting bored with the conversation and the idea came to her head to introduce Shirley to the arachnoid.

"Arachnia, you mean like from Greek mythology?" Shirley asked, her voice a deadpan.

Charlie shook her head. "No, apparently she'll be the one in charge of the village when she grows up. Then after she dies, the next girl hatched, or born, will be named Arachnia and will become the next leader of the village once she grows up," Charlie said.

Shirley sighed again. "Fine, but after that I need to lie down. This world is just one headache after another."

"I understand," Charlie said. Though, she was trying to push past her own feelings towards Shirley, she couldn't help but want to ask Arachnia to feed Shirley to their spiders. Even though she didn't think her friends would appreciate the idea.

"Any idea where she is?" Amelia asked, looking around. "I haven't seen her for a while."

"Actually, I believe she's looking after her own giant spider," Charlie said.

"Wait, her own giant spider?" Wes asked, his expression looking rather conflicted.

"Yeah, I think it's similar to how on a kid of a rancher will be given a calf to raise themselves. Arachnia told me over lunch that she'd been raising this spider since it hatched from his egg," Charlie replied, part of her wondering if she shouldn't have mentioned all of that. Not because of the others now knowing about it, but because it was Charlie herself telling them about it. She had a feeling that she just set a precedent herself that might come back to haunt her later on.

As they begin to make their way to where the giant spiders are located in relation to the village, Charlie notices Wes acting a little weird. She would hve understood if he didn't want to go with them because of his arachnophobia, but he looked like he was torn between wanting to go while not wanting to go at the same time.

"What's up with Wes?" Charlie whispered to Beth.

"I'm not sure, but he's been acting a little weird all day, I think," Beth whispered back.

"Think we should have Amelia use her magic to scan him?" Charlie asked.

"Maybe, but I think I might have an idea what the problem is," Beth replied. "And if I'm right, then there won't be a reason to worry, but I also wouldn't be able to tell you if it does turn out to be what I think it is."

"What's that?"

"Sorry, can't tell you," Beth said. Then she laughed when Charlie scowled at her. "It's just that if it's what I think it is, then it'll be a very personal thing for Wes and I'm not going to out him if that's the case."

"'Out him?' Beth, you make it sound like he's doing something that he's doing something that he's afraid of telling us," Charlie said.

"That might not be far off," Beth said. "After all, if we told you who the Alex that liked you was before you found out the way you did, then that would be us 'outing her' even though it wasn't something that you would think of as bad. Especially since everyone knew you were interested in girls more than boys."

"Wait, I've never gone out with anyone before, so how would anyone know anything like that?" Charlie wondered if she should be offended at that.

"It's not about what you did or anything, but for those who know what to look for, you were an easy book to read," Beth said. "And I mean easier than most too."

Charlie stopped talking. Part of it was the annoyance she was feeling at Beth's statement about her, part of it was the idea that people could tell more about her than she ever had made public, and part of it was the frustration at not being included in whatever Beth suspected was up with Wes.

She walked in silence while her friends talked with each other the rest of the way to where Charlie knew Arachnia 'stabled' her spider.

However, as they walked into the structure, they all stopped dead cold. Arachnia was laying on the ground unconscious, the giant spider looking at her, nudging her with its left foreleg. Charlie couldn't tell if the spider was about to start eating Arachnia or if it was worried about her.

There was just absolutely no way to tell what the spider was thinking. Which only made Charlie more unsure of what to do in the situation.

_

"Charlie, go get any arachnoid you can find. They'll probably know what to do for Arachnia," Beth ordered Charlie, who immediately ran off.

Beth then turned to Amelia. "Amelia, can you scan Arachnia to see if anything's wrong with her?"

Amelia nodded, and nervously began approaching Arachnia, but when the spider moved back, it looked to Beth that Amelia became calmer.

"What's going on?" Shirley asked.

"We're not sure, but the arachnoid on the ground there is Arachnia," Beth replied, as she moved to see if she could see what might have caused Arachnia to be like this. "I hope she just collapsed either from being sick or tired rather than anything else, because at least then we can help her."

Beth was able to find a pulse on Arachnia's neck, but wasn't able to see anything that would suggest why she was unconscious. She had just found Arachnia's pulse when Charlie returned with a couple arachnoids.

One of them took a good look at Arachnia and took off. Probably to get more help, Beth mused. The other came forward and picked Arachnia up.

Beth was a little surprised at the strength of the arachnoid, since Arachnia certainly didn't feel that light. She figured, though, that it was due to a species thing. After all, the adults had to be strong enough to lift their young if it was necessary, although, it could also be magic that enabled them to do that. Regardless, there was still a lot Beth wanted to know about the arachnoids. She wondered when she might get a chance to talk at to the arachnoids again. Although, learning their other's language might take a while, even though the arachnoids might be able to dedicate more time learning English than Beth could dedicate to learning theirs.

"What's going on?" Beth asked Charlie as they started to follow the arachnoid carrying Arachnia.

"I'm not sure, but I think it's an illness or maybe a chronic condition," Charlie replied. "Either way, I can't say for sure exactly what the problem is, but they don't seem alarmed by this, so it might be something that's happened before."

"Hope it's nothing serious," Beth commented.

"Me too."

"Maybe her mother will be able to tell us more," Beth mused. "Want to see if we can find her?"

"Maybe, only if she doesn't come to see Arachnia," Charlie replied.

"What're you going to talk with her about?" Amelia asked, her eyes wide open.

"We were going to talk with Arachnia's mother about what might be wrong with her," Beth said.

"Can I come too?" Amelia's eyes suddenly took on a pleading look. "I don't know if there'll be another time that I'll be able to use my magic to try and scan arachnoids. I mean, I already scanned Arachnia, but that doesn't mean anything if I don't have another arachnoid to compare those results to."

Charlie and Beth chuckled. "No problem," Beth replied. "I'm sure they won't have a problem with us close by them."

Arachnia was taken to the hut that was where Beth suspected she lived, which was the hut that was also where Charlie had been take to the first night they were here.

Her mother was already present and directed those carrying Arachnia where to set her down. Once she was made comfortable, her mother turned to Charlie.

"Thank you for letting us know this happened. I'm worried what caused it, but I have little doubt that she'll be back to her usual self before long," she said to Charlie, who translated it for Beth and Amelia.

"Charlie?" Amelia asked. "Would you translate for me?"

"Sure," Charlie said as she started repeating for Amelia so Arachnia's mother would understand.

"Would you be willing to let me use my magic to scan you?" Amelia asked, her expression telling Beth just how awkward she felt asking that.

The arachnoid considered what Amelia asked for a moment before giving her reply, which Charlie translated for them again. "Alright, though I'm not sure what you mean. As long as it doesn't cause any problems."

Amelia thanked her and held her hands out and began moving them over Arachnia's mother, moving over most of her body. Beth watched Amelia carefully, wondering how quickly she'd be able to learn how to do that, just in case something happens to Amelia or in the event she's just not available. She figured she ask after this trip was over.

When Amelia finished, she moved over to Arachnia and it looked like she was doing the same thing as she did when they first found Arachnia, but the it became clear she was focusing on one specific spot around her chest.

"Did you find something, Amelia?" Beth asked?

"I… I'm not sure," Amelia replied. "It feels like there might be something here, but it's hard to isolate it. It's almost like… Oh shit."

"What did you find?" Beth asked, moving over to Amelia quickly.

"Um, Beth?" Charlie said. "Arachnia's mother wants to know what's going on."

Focusing so much on Amelia, Beth hadn't even realized the arachnoid had even said anything. "Uh, tell her Amelia's found something and I'm not sure if it's good or bad, but I think it could have to do with whatever's wrong with Arachnia," Beth said, as she knelt down by Arachnia.

"Is there anything I could do to help?" Beth asked Amelia.

Amelia's face was one of total concentration, to the point Beth wasn't sure she even heard her.

Then finally, Amelia said, "Sure, I need you to create a barrier in Arachnia's lungs. As long as we move quickly, she shouldn't be in trouble, but if I can't get whatever I've found out of her lungs, I think she might have problems for a long while."

"Do you want me to seal off the top or work my way from the bottom of her lungs?" Beth asked when she was about to make the barrier with her magic.

"Oh," was all that Amelia said.

"What?"

"You made a good point. If you move from the top down, there's a chance you could pop Arachnia's lungs like a balloon, as you push the air further into her lungs, while if you move from the bottom, then you could deflate them completely," Amelia said.

Beth sighed in annoyance. "is there another way I could help with creating the barrier?" she asked, wondering if she'd be able to actually do something at all.

"Umm," Amelia said as she was clearly struggling. "Okay, I got it. Create the barrier in spots. Kind of a like a honeycomb. Encapsulate her lungs all at once and each place in that barrier will hold the air already in her lungs in place, but will certainly hold in place whatever it is that I found."

"Got it," Beth said. That was certainly something she could do without trouble.

Beth was vaguely aware of Charlie telling Arachnia's mother what they were doing as she quickly got the barrier in place as Amelia described it. Almost immediately, Arachnia started to struggle to breathe, which Beth certainly could understand. However, Amelia seemed pleased after a minute.

"Okay Beth," Amelia said, her voice full of relief. "I got whatever it was in Arachnia's lungs. You can remove the barrier." Beth nodded and let the magic evaporate as she turned away.

A moment later, Arachnia started choking for a moment. Beth whirled back to Arachnia in time to see something black, small, and completely gross come out of her mouth.

"What is that?" Beth said. It almost looked like a crab of some kind. Or maybe a giant tick. She could also hear Charlie making noises indicating she was just as disgusted by it. Whatever it was, It was already far too close for Beth's comfort.

"Not sure, but I think it's a parasite and had made it's way into Arachnia's lungs. I think she might have been able to live with it for a long while, but I can't be sure, since I don't know enough about it," Amelia said, as she moved the parasite to hover in front of her face as she looked closely at it.

"Do you know what that is?" Charlie asked, Arachnia's mother.

She said something which Charlie again translated. "I'm not sure. I don't think we've seen anything like that before, but how did it get in my daughter?"

"I'll see what I can learn about it tonight, though I can't say what we'll find out, since I don't know what to even look for in it," Amelia replied. "But it does seem to have magic of its own. Not sure if that means anything or not."

"Tell her that regardless of what it is, it's no longer in Arachnia and she'll be fine," Beth said to Charlie.

Charlie smiled at Beth and relayed what was said. Beth hoped this would be the last event for them on this world this trip. She wasn't sure she'd be able to handle anything else that might come their way.