Sticky dresses and sweet surprises

Sticky dresses and sweet surprises


Quietly Aarina slipped out of her dorm room. She wore a simple dress of a dark red color to abide the dress code for a day. “Curse that cat and her stupid ideas.” She mumbled to herself and earned herself a quiet chitter from her companion.

Today was May 4th on the island of Antikythera, which meant that it was the day of the ‘Pretty Dress Party’. This day, every single student and teacher of the academy, as well as many elven villagers that joined the celebrations for their own amusement, was required to wear a dress of some sorts. The prettier and flashier, the better. Of course, this did not only apply to female students and teachers, but also to the male population of the academy. Not that it was really special, since boys often ended up in girly dresses, or as complete girls, when visiting Beryl’s classes. In fact, Aarina wouldn’t have cared about the celebrations at all, since she didn’t mind wearing dresses. She often did so in her free time anyway. No, what annoyed her about this day was the fact that May 4th wasn’t just the day of the ‘Pretty Dress Party’, but also her own birthday.

“Not that it really matters…” She mumbled to herself while exiting the dorm. “After all, she’s not even conscious.”

This early in the morning, barely anyone was awake at all. The sun barely scratched the horizon and its faint rays illuminated her path towards the main building of the academy. Aarina bypassed the large entry door and rounded around the building. She ghosted through the gardens and beheaded a rose from a nearby bush as she made her way to the far end of the building and then turned her gaze to the windows on the first floor.

She crooked her head and hissed a quick order to her companion. Immediately it jumped onto the wall and scuttled upwards towards and past the windows on the first floor.

It stopped at a window on the second floor that was tilted slightly to let in some fresh air. After making sure that no one was in the room, it slipped inside and scuttled out onto the hallway of the second floor. Sticking to the ceiling, the spider made its way through the academy and down the staircase to the first floor. There it made its way to the back of the hallway and the infirmary that lay there. It snuck to the door and quickly tapped against it to mimic someone knocking on the door. Quietly it waited directly above the doorframe and when Morgana opened the door after yelling multiple times from the inside, it stealthily slipped inside and immediately hid itself from the nurse’s sharp eyes.

After realizing that no one was there, Morgana closed the door again. “Must’ve imagined it…” She mumbled to herself as she made her way back to the small office attached to the infirmary and that she was currently using as her art studio.

Realizing that its ploy had been successful, and driven by Aarina’s mental order after watching the nurse leave through her companion’s eyes, the spider scuttled over to the beds at the far end of the room. Several beds were positioned in a line at the wall, each with a set of curtains to be drawn around it in the case a patient needs rest. Except for one of them, all the beds were empty. The one that wasn’t was at the far end of the room, near the window. Quietly the spider scuttled closer above the bed with Raven sleeping below. At a mental cue, it dropped from the ceiling onto the mattress of the sleeping girl. Carefully it crooked its head and listened in case the nurse had heard the small noise created by dropping onto the mattress. Satisfied that she hadn’t, the spider jumped off the bed and onto the floor.

Outside, Aarina had been looking upwards at the windows of the infirmary the entire time. Now, she turned around and sat down at the base of the wall, her back leaning against it. She focused her powers and closed her eyes, before allowing her consciousness to drift.

Several minutes later, she found herself in front of Raven’s bed, crouching on the floor. Quietly she exhaled a sigh of relief. “It worked…” She mumbled with a soft smile.

When she turned to Raven however, her smile faded. The girl wasn’t looking good. In fact, she was looking about as living as a corpse. Her mouth and nose were covered with a see-through muzzle that was connected to a machine via a thick tube to ensure that she was getting enough oxygen. At the same time, several wires were stuck to her skin in various places, monitoring her vitals to be projected on a screen nearby.

With mixed feelings, Aarina looked down at the helpless girl. On one side there was the pure hearted wish that this was just temporary and that Raven would soon be well again. On the other side there was her experience with death born from her past and the knowledge that the girl in front of her would need a miracle to push through and return to the world of the living. Briefly her thoughts wandered to Vogen and she clenched her fists to suppress the anger that his face created within her.

In the end, he was the reason that Raven was in her current state. All, because he had been unable to control the other side of him. Because he had been unable to control the beast that slumbered in his body.

<”Just like you couldn’t back then…”>

The voice, her own voice, rang through her mind.

“I’m also a failure…” She mumbled as thick tears splattered onto the ground and Raven’s mattress. “I wasn’t there to protect you when you needed it… I was always only in the way…”

Gently she placed the Rose next to Raven’s head on her pillow. “But I will change.” She said quietly and wiped away her tears. “I will not let you go in this fashion, bunny. Raven. I will find a way to bring you back. I… I p-promised I wouldn’t drag you down anymore… ever since that time… I regret what I d-did back then, even though it saved your life…” Without being able to stop them, her tears kept falling. “I… I know my promises must seem meaningless to you… I broke them so much… yet you never hated me, bunny… I… I still… I still l-l-love y-you, Raven…”

At her last sentence, she broke to her knees and cried thick tears into the sheets of Raven’s bed. She remained in that position until Morgana found her and threw her out of the infirmary, claiming that Raven needed rest and that Aarina was just ‘getting in the way’.

Quietly she walked down the hallway and to the next window. Her cheeks still wet from her tears, she opened it and jumped out into the gardens. She didn’t really feel like going to class on a day like this. After rewarding her companion with a snack and drying off her tears, Aarina made her way to Wayfort River and the village that lay beyond.

Around her, the elves of the village began their daily life, most of them wearing dresses of some sort. Even the children that were out on the street wore dresses, much to the delight of the girls and dismay of the boys. As she passed through the village, Aarina saw more than one of them complain noisily, which usually resulted in either laughter or a quick scolding and explanation by a nearby adult.

Suddenly however, she heard not amused laughter or playful scolding, but a high pitched giggle followed by a squeal of fear, which soon turned into the purring of a cat. Her initial reaction was to turn away instantly to avoid meeting Beryl, which she assumed was responsible for the purring. Her second reaction was the complete opposite as she realized that it was not the usual happy, overzealous purring that Beryl emitted, but rather a shy, quiet purr. Somewhat curious, she moved closer to the alley the sound was coming from and gave her companion quick order. Immediately it jumped onto the wall and scuttled high on top of the roof of the nearest house, before moving to the edge of the roof and the alley that lay beyond.

The scene that unfolded before the spider’s eyes was a rather strange one. A young girl from the village was sitting on top of a few old boxes, of course wearing a cute and frilly dress. On her lap was the head of a neko, who she was furiously petting with a happy smile on her face. The neko had her eyes closed and seemingly enjoyed the petting session. She also was wearing a rather frilly, pink and yellow dress. The person that drew the spider’s interest however was a second elf, a boy that seemingly refused to wear a dress, that was frantically backing off of something hiding in the shadows of the wall.

“S-stay away f-from me!” He shouted and backed off further without noticing a few stones that lay behind him. A moment later his foot shuffled against them and he fell over backwards.

“Ina got you naow!” A childish voice squeaked and moments later the alley was momentarily consumed in pink light.

When the light subsided, the boy was gone. In his place, the spider saw a scared neko, wearing a lovely green and light blue dress. It had a few too many frills for Aarina’s tastes, but other than that it looked quite cute. Intrigued, she commanded the spider to crawl closer. Somewhere in her memory something stirred as she thought of that pink flash. She had experienced this before already.

Suddenly a humanoid face appeared from beyond the edge of the roof, directly in front of the spider’s face.

“Buh!” The childish voice from before squealed, causing the poor creature to jump backwards in fear. “Ina scawed yuu!” The face giggled and floated upwards, revealing the rest of the body.

She had a more or less humanoid upper body, albeit with pale blue skin. Her face bore a mischievous expression as she giggled at the scared spider and examined it with her deep purple-blue eyes. Her pink hair floated in the soft breeze and twirled around the two wings that grew out of her head, each about the size of her lower arm. Growing from her back were two skeletal structures covered in thin, stale purple fur. Amidst this fur, several blue eyes blinked and watched the surroundings. They closed at irregular intervals only to reopen on another spot, giving her an otherworldly and somewhat creepy appearance. This was further amplified by her lower body, which consisted of several thick and long tentacles that squirmed into all directions at the same time.

“Ne?” She crooked her head. “Ina no know yuu. Wai yuu watchin Ina?”

The words were spoken towards the spider, but Aarina felt that they were actually directed at her. A heavy chill ran down her spine as she remembered the creature from the strange portal that had opened up on academy grounds sometime in April. She also remembered what had happened to herself back then.

With several blinks of her eyes she broke the connection to her companion and then turned around to quickly run away. This was nothing she wanted to repeat. Especially not on her birthday. She knew she was abandoning the little spider, but considering how little attention people really paid to spiders as long as they didn’t come too close, she felt confident that her companion would simply be able to scuttle away and meet up with her later. Furthermore-

“Buh!”

“KYAAAA!!” Aarina screamed as the figure suddenly appeared in front of her as she turned around.

“Ina got yuu again!” The girl giggled, before crooking her head. “Who awe yuu?”

“Err…” Aarina stuttered, unsure what to do now.

“Wai yuu spaying on Ina?” She challenged Aarina.

Aarina swallowed heavily and tried to explain. “I… was just passing by and heard screaming and-“

“Ina remamba yuu!” Ina cried out all of the sudden. “Yuu spidah person!”

Aarina remained quiet, hoping that she wouldn’t also remember what happened the last time they had met.

“Ina no like spidahs.” The girl declared. “Ina like bees moar.”

“No, please just leave me al-” Aarina tried to say, before she was enveloped in pink light. “KYAAAA!” She screamed again as her body morphed without her consent. The first thing to change was her butt, which grew out to rather enormous proportions, before shaping itself into a stingerlike form. Black and yellow stripes formed on its hardened chitin surface, while at the same time new organs formed below to allow the production of the bitter venom. All new organs were directly connected to her old body, allowing Aarina to feel the production of the venom due to her powers. The next thing to change was the two pairs of wings that sprouted from below her shoulder blades, the spot that was usually occupied by her spider claws. Both pairs were rather long, reaching all the way down to her knees, and both were see through and of a silvery-golden color. The last physical change was her hair parting slightly to allow two short antennas to grow through it, both of them twitching in the slight breeze.

“Naow you cutah.” Ina said and immediately tried petting Aarina’s newly formed antennas.

“What did you…?” Aarina mumbled quietly, not entirely believing what had happened. When Ina attempted to pet her with her tentacles, she screamed: “GET AWAY FROM ME!!” At the same time she tried to throw webs at Ina to make sure she would stay away. Instead of webs however, she only managed to drench her in a sticky, golden substance.

“Nuu? What this?” Ina asked and sniffed at the substance. Moments later her eyes widened in surprise and delight and she began scooping generous amounts of it into her mouth. “Ina likeseys yummy honey!”

She was too busy with gorging down the sweet substance, that she failed to notice Aarina staring at her own hands that were now covered in a thin layer of honey as well. “What… did you do to me…?” She mumbled quietly. Of course Ina was way too busy with snacking to give an answer.

Fearful of the strange girl, Aarina backed off a few steps, before she turned and ran towards the forest, away from the crazy girl, her tentacles and her transformation powers, and towards the one place she knew was safe. The forest and the spiders in it.

When she entered the forest, she was immediately jumped on by the young Whitefang that had been waiting for her on a low hanging branch. However, instead of the usual greeting and soft petting, Aarina shied away and threw her arms sideways, causing the spider to land on the ground.

“Chrx?” It asked confused and looked up to her.

“I… I’m sorry…” She mumbled. “I just… I don’t know what’s going on anymore…” Aarina helplessly flapped her wings and slid down the trunk of a tree.

“Klz chu?” The spider asked and crawled closer to comfortingly tap her arm with its claws.

“Just look at me… I… now I’m really just a monster…” She mumbled and drew her knees close.

“Xutz tra!” The spider exclaimed annoyed and jumped on Aarina’s arm. Briefly it looked up at her face, before clicking its fangs and turning to her hands. “Chu? Qura!”

“What…?” Aarina asked confused and looked up with tearstained eyes.

“Qura krru.” The spider purred happily and continued to lick the remains of the sweet honey from her palms.

“You… like it…?”

The spider nodded and continued licking her palms until there was no trace of the honey left. “Chuda?”

“What do you mean, ‘more’? I don’t even know how I… managed to do that in the first place…” Aarina said and paused midsentence as an idea struck her. “Maybe if I…” She focused on her powers in the same way she usually would to spin her webs. Briefly her wings quivered, before a blast of sticky, golden fluid surged from her hands onto the nearest tree. Several moments after contact with air, the fluid solidified into a gooey mess that remained stuck to the trunk of the tree and anything else that was close enough. On her palm, Aarina once more found a thin layer of honey left.

“Qura!” The young Whitefang exclaimed and jumped onto the tree to begin nibbling and licking the gooey honey.

Aarina on the other hand was still staring at her hand. After a few moments, she gathered her powers again and focused on another tree. This time the liquid was of a more brownish color and also didn’t solidify on contact with air. Instead, it behaved more like water and splattered everywhere after colliding with the tree trunk. When Aarina looked at her palm, she noticed that the layer of honey was a lot thinner this time. In fact, there was barely anything left on her hand, it was only somewhat sticky from dried up fluid. “So the effects are the same, just with… honey?” She mumbled confused.

Contrary to the solid honey, which was just a sturdy and sticky mass, the liquid version seemed to be emitting an almost invisible gas that she quickly identified as the same neurotoxin that her Shadow Threads would give off when disturbed from their resting position. More intrigued than scared now, she tried a third time and ended up creating a solid, opaque-golden plate that seemed to be sturdy enough to be used as protection against physical attacks. When Aarina leaned it against a tree and tried kicking it, she found that while the plate did slightly give way, it didn’t crack or break at all.

She was so sunken in her thoughts that she only noticed the chittering and buzzing behind her after several minutes. Somewhat confused she turned around. “What the…?” Her eyes opened wide when she saw the gathering of insects on the tree behind her. It was mainly spiders of different sizes that had gathered, yet she could also see several butterflies, a few bees and wasps, as well as a dragonfly or two, all of them crawling over the gooey chunk of honey she had created earlier. Not a single one of the insects paid attention to the others, despite the fact that Aarina noticed several species that would under normal circumstances simply kill and eat each other. They were all focused on licking or nibbling on the chunk of gooey, golden honey.

“Quoo…” The young Whitefang sighed heavily and crawled over to its queen.

Careful, Aarina picked it up and cradled it in her arms. “You shouldn’t have eaten so much.” She softly scolded it.

“Raa tashu.”

“Was it really that good?” Aarina wondered.

“Chu…” The spider mumbled, and then suddenly jumped when a dragonfly the size of Aarina’s arm flew past it. “Quora!”

“What do you mean, ‘you want too’?” She asked. “You don’t have wings, so that won’t happen.”

“Krz!”

“What? I don’t have wings either, what… are you… talking about…” Aarina started and the gradually slowed down as she realized the truth. She did have wings currently. Quite large ones even.

“Chu?”

“I’ll see if they work.” Aarina said and experimentally flexed her back muscles. To her surprise she found that the wings reacted immediately. It took her a few tries to get them going, but after barely a minute they were twitching heavily. She remembered reading about insects and their wing musculature. Many insects had to warm up their wings and muscles before being able to take flight.

“Chura?”

“Yes, yes, I’m trying.” She growled annoyed. She closed her eyes to block out any input from the outside and just focus just on her wings. In the darkness behind her eyelids she could feel the wings. She felt the wings as part of her body. And she could also move them. She thought of the insects she had watched during her time spent in the forest and remembered that their wings had always been beating really, really fast. Aarina tried to replicate what she remembered and soon she felt air currents whirling around her. She opened her eyes and glanced over her shoulder.

To her delight and surprise, her wings were actually beating at a high frequency. When she focused a bit more, she found that she could actually generate some form of uplift through them. Curious if that was enough already, she tried to leap into the air to start her flight.

For a brief moment it looked as if she succeeded and had actually taken flight. The spider in her arms clutched tight to her chest and clocked frantically as air swept over its body. Moments later however, gravity took its toll and she crashed to the ground again, only barely managing to remain standing. Additionally, a layer of cold sweat had broken out all over her body and her muscles were trembling and quivering from the sudden overexertion.

“That…” She coughed exhausted and almost threw up on the forest floor. “N-needs some practice…”

“Chu?” The spider prodded her arm.

“I’m alright… just didn’t expect it to be… this exhausting.” She smiled weakly. “I’m sorry, but flying will have to wait.”

“Chu chura.” The spider stated and jumped on top of her head to settle between her antennas. “Chuuu…” Sleepily it closed its eyes.

“My, you are easy to please, are you.” Aarina smiled and leaned against a tree to recover from the sudden surge of nausea due to overexertion. With a soft smile she looked up at the small window of blue sky that she could see through the branches of the trees. “This isn’t all too bad.” She said. “I just hope it’s not permanent.”

Later that day, when the sun was slowly setting on the horizon, Aarina walked back towards the academy. Her companion was still resting on her head, between the antennas that poked through her hair. She was softly humming to herself as she walked the path to the dorms at the academy.

“Nyuu!” An all too familiar voice chimed out as a shadow jumped on top of Aarina. “And who are nyu? Are nyu a new student-nya?”

“Hello Beryl.” Aarina smiled weakly. Usually the appearance of the neko would annoy her, yet for some reason she didn’t mind it currently. “No, I’m not a new student. I’m Aarina.”

“Aarinya?” Beryl asked confused and crooked her head. “What happened-nya?”

“I had a run in with that strange girl from the realm behind that portal that appeared in the gardens a few weeks ago.” Aarina explained. “She seems to not like spiders and instead transformed me into this…”

“Nyu?” Beryl asked with a  questioning expression. Moments later however, the expression was washed away by a big smile and Beryl began nuzzling Aarina. “Who cares-nya, nyu looks so adorable-nya!”

With a quiet sigh, Aarina let her have her way. She didn’t even object when Beryl styled her hair into twin ponytails and invited her for some sushi in the village.

‘All in all,’ She thought, ‘this could have been a lot worse of a day.’