Ch 1

It's early morning just before noon, a human is cooking a pan full of small meat pieces. The food's not for him, he already had a large breakfast and it's too early for lunch, the meat is for a guest. Once it's all cooked he piles it onto a plate and heads upstairs. On the second floor he walks to the middle of the short hallway on the left, a string hanging from ceiling releases the stairs to the attic. As he steps up, each wooden panel makes a soft creek. The room above is dark with barely any light, waiting for his eyes to adjust all he can see is the floor covered with loose white strands winding all over the place. He moves slowly watching his steps, just a few days ago he got tied up in a net of this stuff. He stops in the middle of the dark room holding the plate, standing there quietly. She knows he's here but he's waiting for her to respond before giving her the food.

"What did you make for me today, boy?" A woman's voice echos in the room, sweet but with a hint of venom in her tone. "More beef? Or is it chicken again?"

"Actually today I wanted to try something new," the boy says trying to sound joyful and sunny. "It's pork." He can hear the sigh under her breath.

The creature descends into view, long sharp legs nearly as long the mans height tough the floor, holding up a large round body all of it black with a slight sheen. On the front of the body rests a human torso with light skin easier to see in the darkness. She's a spider woman, an Arachne. Standing up she looks down on the human with her six black eyes, she harshly takes the plate in her claws and started picking at the pieces.

"Don't you get tired of eating only meat?" the human asks.

"I told you I'm a carnivore, I can't digest plants so just keep it simple." She says between bites. "Eh, there's way too much fat on this."

"I thought you could try different foods, there's a lot more to pick from for humans."

"It all tastes the same to me."

"It doesn't really help your kind staying in my attic while eating off government checks. Maybe try new things, we could see a movie or go to the park, introduce yourself to people and get them more used to demi-humans?"

"Just bring me food and I won't cause any trouble, like I care what any you humans think of Arachne. I only took the offer because it promised free food."

It was clear he wasn't getting through to her, his bright face melted into disappointment. Everyday for the past week has been like this, she does nothing but hide away and eat, he tries to respect her privacy but that hasn't gotten him anywhere. "I'm always downstairs if you need me."

Just as he's leaving she makes one more remark, "If you don't want to feed me I'm sure those villagers in Peru will scream with joy knowing I'll be stealing their chickens again."

The boy can't really argue. She has every right to spend her time in the attic. He's not losing any money keeping her and as long as she doesn't wander off without supervision or harm anyone of another species she's not breaking the agreement. He had hoped letting a monster person live in his house would be exciting and he could learn first hand about a new species, but nothing has changed, it's become even more lifeless than when he was alone. Maybe this is as good as it gets with Arachne. She keeps eating as if he's not even there, but then the man notice something on a shelf. It's white, standing out in the darkness, and much more concentrated than the loose strands across the floor. He cleared out his personal things from the attic so he knows it's not his. He moves to get a better look.

The boy stares at it, his vision has adjusted so he can see all the detail. It looks like a miniature white spider doll tied together with silk, it's stood up on it's own legs and has black X's for eyes from some other black thread material. It looks very well made with a lot of care. After a full week living in the same house he hadn't learned anything about her or spider people. He had just assumed she only made traps. "Did you make this?" he asks.

The spider finally takes notice, "Hey, what are you doing?"

The man gently picks up the silk doll in his hands, "I didn't know you had a hobby like this."

"Well I don't need to make traps constantly anymore and sometimes I get bored, so I knit things with spare silk. What of it?"

"If you don't want it I'll take it. I'd love to keep it in my room."

"A lot of Arachne do it", she says making a dismissive expression, "I'm not even that good at it. I should just take it apart."

Just then the man got an idea, "Hold on a minute." He rushed out of the room, jumping over the silk covered floor on his way out. He was full of energy, this was the first time she had talked to him about something other than what food she wants to eat. In no time he came back with a magazine and a small flashlight. He flipped through the pages and shows it to the spider. It's a catalog of dolls and stuffed animals.

"Humans make these too?" She said in amazement, she also hadn't seen anything new about humans since arriving.

"Girls especially seem to like them, something about a small defenseless animal makes people want to hug it and decorate their room with them." He flips through the book some more showing more stuffed animals, holding the light for both of them to easily see the pictures.

"That one looks very nice," she points to a jaguar doll. "It must have taken a lot of silk to make it"

"Actually most of these probably use wool or cotton. It's a lot softer and easier to make than spider silk, though I'd guess it's not as strong for building webs."

"I wish I could make something like that."

"If you want I could buy it for you."

"That's not necessary, I'd rather make my own animals."

"You don't share your dolls with other Arachne?"

"Male Arachne often give their creations as gifts, but it's usually just a distraction before they start trying to mate. I don't want kids with someone who can't sculpt a cat with their own silk."

"I guess it's the same for humans. We usually just buy them to make girls like us or for little kids to play with."

"Buying someone else's dolls to give to your mate. Humans are very strange." The spider continued looking through the book but then had a strange thought, "Why does someone like you have this kind of book anyways?"

The boy goes silent for a moment, in a panic he flips through the pages some more, "Coffee tables. I bought this because I needed a new table and they had some."

The spider felt this behavior was strange but thought nothing of it and turned the page back to the cute animals. One caught her attention while he quickly skipped through. "What's this creature?" She pointed to the book again. "It looks like a fat anteater."

"That's an elephant, You've never seen one?"

"Well I've seen something like it. Those small mammals that claw through dirt to eat bugs?" she tries to rationalize the similar features of the two animals.

"It's one of the largest animals alive," he says to correct her.

"It doesn't look that big."

"It's practically as tall as this room. Even preschoolers learn about these kinds of animals." In his mind it suddenly hit him how bizarre this animal from a distant continent is and how popular it is to even little kids in his own country. But to her it's something completely unworldly.

"There's no way an animal like that exists with a nose like that." She says in shock, "There aren't enough ants in the world to keep a beast like that fed."

"They have four at the zoo just downtown. They mainly eat leaves and other plants. Would you like to go there sometime?"

She drops her arrogant expression and goes silent for a moment. She turns her view to the small window and only source of light in the attic. The silence continues until she replies, "Maybe someday." The boy's face lights up, he got a 'maybe' out of her.

He then looks down at the plate he brought up and noticed it was empty. "Well I guess I'll head back downstairs." Now's a good time to leave her to her thoughts. "You know to call if you need anything." There's no need to rush her out, there's already been a lot of progress today.

Suddenly, something catches the boy's leg. A silk strand snags his foot and wraps around the rest of his leg. In an instant he's yanked into the air by his ankles, his arms and legs tied in a web of sticky silk, he's left hanging upside down from the ceiling unable to move.

"Didn't you say you didn't have to make traps anymore?" the boy says trying to keep calm.

The spider tries to hold back her giggling, "True, but I still make them to be safe. Also it's fun to watch you squirm."

The boy tries really hard to speak calmly but eventually can't help it, "I said I'd be more careful in the future because I'd hope you'd eventually grow out of it. After today's talk I'm willing to let you keep making them, but let me down this instant!", he shouts as he struggles to break free but can barely move. The spider woman can't help but laugh uncontrollably.

She works her way up to the tied up human and gently cuts him loose, trying to hold back more laughter. He hits the ground with a thud. After picking himself up he continues walking out, much more frustrated. It's nice he had a decent talk with his demi-human guest but all he can think about now is how much trouble it is climbing up to the attic to get strung up in her web traps.

"By the way," a quiet voice comes from the attic, "could you buy me one of those stuffed wool dolls sometime? Maybe a cat?"

The man smiles once more. "Sure thing, Atrea."