After a while of walking through the forest, I noticed that Cellestra’s face contorted into winces of pain. When I looked closer at what was going on, it was clear that it was because of her feet. I was reminded that she said she was uncomfortable with walking such distances. Cellestra didn’t seem to want to stop, though. I had to raise a leg in front of her to make her.
“Let’s take a break. I can see you’re in pain,” I said after the elf looked at
in confusion.
“Thanks,” she replied softly as she sat herself down next to the road and reached for a canteen on her belt. I noticed her sigh deeply as her gaze rested on her feet.
“If you want, I can carry you the rest of the way,” I suggested. Cellestra’s pain was evident, and I didn’t want to make it worse.
I lowered myself and took her feet in my hands to cast healing light. Cellestra’s eyes closed as the spell soothed her pain.
“I…” She started. “Would you be okay with that?” It was clear that she did not plan on asking, herself.
“What? Just because I’ve grown an elven torso doesn’t an that much has changed, you know? I’ve carried you before, and as I said back then, it’s no issue for .”
“Uhm, okay then,” She said softly as she started drinking.
At the sa ti, a loud gurgling sound ca from my stomach. Cellestra noticed and smiled. “I knew you were hungry but you didn’t tell
it was bad enough for your second stomach to make itself heard.”
I looked down at my belly. “I didn’t even know I had a second stomach. Seems kind of redundant, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, well, I guess your anatomy is quite the exception as it is." Cellestra stood up and extended an arm, offering
her canteen. "Want so?”
“Do you have enough?” I asked. I was thirsty, but I knew I wouldn’t be affected as much. I doubted what little water she had would help
much.
She nodded. “Got another. Don’t worry. I ca prepared, after all.”
I couldn’t deny her kind gesture. I accepted the tal canteen and had my first drink with my new mouth. Even if it wouldn’t count for much, it still felt refreshing. I thanked the elf and handed the container back to her.
“I guess I could always get you so more by lting ice lances if it cos down to it. Wait, maybe I can just straight-up summon water? I’ve never actually tried.”
“If only you could summon food,” Cellestra said with a smile.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen. If anything, your ability to attract predators is as close as it gets,” I replied with a grin.
“Doubt it’s going to work here. I don’t think we’re in its usual range. I doubt
passing through this place has had much of an effect on the local wildlife yet.”
“Unfortunate,” I said, ironically. “How are your feet?” The purple-eyed elf seed to be walking around with much more ease already.
“Much better. Thank you.”
She turned her head in the general direction of our destination. “Shall we get going, then? I don’t want to hold you up any longer.”
I nodded. “Yeah.” I then lowered my body so Cellestra could step on. “You better make sure to hold on tight, though. If I see sothing to eat, I’ll go for it.”
“That hungry, eh?” Cellestra said as she stepped on my thorax. I noticed how she looked into my rearmost eyes at the back of my head.
“I can see you,” I said in a teasing voice. “And yes, it’s that bad.”
“Guess I’ll just have to hold on tight,” Cellestra half-joked as she took a firm hold of the hair on my back.
I started skittering along the road, eager to get to the place where we first encountered the bandits. From there, I could make a beeline to her ho and hopefully find sothing to snack on during the trip. As I picked up the pace, I could see Cellestra smile as she held my hair tight.
“Yeah, you’d better,” I replied to her statent.
This way, it didn’t take long before we reached the site of the battle. The log at the side of the road was a perfect landmark. From there, I skittered up the hill to the side and made my way through the forest, my eyes on the lookout for any movent.
A few minutes of silence followed before I managed to think of more conversation material. “Hey, Cellestra. If you don’t mind
asking, how have your nightmares been as of late?”
“Honest answer?” She started as her eyes looked down, unintentionally looking straight at mine. “Bad. I had this one night where it was manageable, so I thought it was going to be okay, only for the next day to be ten tis worse.”
“I noticed that, yeah,” I said as I recalled the ti where she went back to bed during the middle of the day. She’d looked awful back then. “Don’t you have so kind of potion to make them go away?”
She shook her head. “Believe , I’ve tried. They seem to co and go as they please, with so periods of terrible ones and sotis very mild ones, but there’s nothing I did that helped.”
“Until my magic…” I said softly.
“Until your magic helped with it…” She confird.
“And I guess those nightmares are part of the reason you’re looking for a cure?”
Cellestra nodded. “The bad ones have gotten worse over ti. I fear that if I don’t find a cure for my curse, it’s going to eat away at my sanity until nothing is left.”
“That sounds… horrible,” I spoke with as much compassion as I could. “Do you think learning my healing light spell might be beneficial?”
“I doubt it,” Cellestra said. “It’s not like I can cast that on myself when I’m asleep, you know?”
I sighed. “I suppose that’s true…”
“Hey, Kealyna?” Cellestra called out my na.
“Hm?”
“If you don’t mind
asking, what will you do once you find your parents?”
The question struck
like lightning. I’d been so occupied with this blessing and everything that ca with it that I’d never even thought about what would happen at that ti. At least, I hadn’t thought about how things would work out now that I had this far more… elven body. It was bound to make things at least a bit easier, right?
What would I do?
“I don’t actually know,” I said before pausing for a few seconds. “I don’t know how much they rember from our previous lives, if anything. I do not know if they know what I would look like as an adult, let alone a half spider. I was hoping that Elysa could answer so questions regarding that as well. As for what I want to do, I want to make sure that they are safe first and foremost. After that, I’ll have to see.”
“What are your parents like?” Cellestra asked, her eyes almost glowing. “You never even told
their nas.”
“I never expected anyone to be interested, to be completely honest.”
“We’re friends, right?” Cellestra asked. “Aren’t things like these what friends talk about?”
“I wouldn’t know,” I said as I looked at the ground in front of my spider head. “I never had a friend, or even soone to talk with for that matter.”
Cellestra ran a hand through my hair, seemingly in order to soothe my mind. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. I understand.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “Since I know they are alive, I’ve felt much more comfortable thinking about them. I just… it’s been so long since I’ve last seen them. I can’t seem to recall their faces, just their most notable features.”
“It’s okay. Take it easy,” Cellestra’s soft voice managed to calm
down.
I took a deep breath as I recalled my parents as best I could, but their faces were vague, deteriorated in my mind with ti. “My father’s na was… is Keelarin. His hair was… is black as a raven… goddess, this is so weird.”
“It’s okay,” Cellestra said again.
“I don’t quite rember his eyes. I believe they are brown.”
“And your mother?” Cellestra asked. “You had to get your hair from sowhere,” She said while staring at my white hair, which covered my entire elven back.
“Yeah,” I said, a small smile forming on my lips as I rembered that feature of her. “It’s hers. She has pure white hair. I’m happy I inherited hers only. Gray is such an ugly color.”
The brunette on my back giggled at my comnt. “Gray hair. I’ve not actually seen that before… unless you’re talking about old people.”
“Ugh,” I let out. “I do like my white hair, thank you very much.”
My mind wandered off to my mother again. I wondered if she would make the sa comnt that Cellestra had made about white spider hair matching well with my own.
“Lilinia...” I let out, walking ever forward.
“Her na?”
“Yes.”
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