It was at least lit down there- that much she was thankful for. Whatever word he’d spoken had the torches there at full blast.

That way she could at least SEE the terror rather than have to just imagine it. And it was…about as bad as she’d thought!

Rats. Rats EVERYWHERE. The squirming and hairy things were scurrying every which way, and she was inches away from screaming at the farmer to let her out- in fact, the only thing that didn’t was her frozen body; she’d have to actually turn around and get her lungs to work properly first. And that by itself was harder than it sounded.

As it happened, though, it was a bit of serendipity- her attempt at forcing herself to move also allowed her a moment to stop and think a bit more critically. It was only during those moments that she realized that…well, she was rather high up. Technically. Her limbs were obviously still within touching range, but part of her- the small part that still hadn’t quite yet accepted the entirety of her situation and could thus think with a bit more of a detached perspective- realized that there wasn’t any way they’d be crawling all over her any time soon. That…well, it didn’t stop the disgusted curl of her lip, but it did manage to calm her down just enough for her to actually consider the task put in front of her.

It was a fairly large stone cellar; with about a dozen barrels inside and plenty of room for more; whether they actually held anything, she couldn’t say, but the rest of it was empty- likely due to the farmer either removing what he could or just not putting anything else inside. She had space to work with, if nothing else. Right, so she needed to…kill these little vermin.

Eugh. How was she even going to do that? It’s not like she had bait or traps or…

…oh, right. She nearly facepalmed. She’d almost forgotten.

Well, she’d been getting some practice with her webbing for a while, at least. She even let out a strained laugh as she considered the dimensions of the room. The best way to solve this problem, clearly, was to do what spiders do best.

With a bit more confidence building up, and taking a deep breath (that she quickly let out due to the air smelling of staleness and RAT), she carefully, cautiously clambered into the main hall, and began to look at the best parts of the room to start her webs.

Meanwhile, outside, Junia was discussing something very important with Marcus. “There’s absolutely no way she doesn’t get harassed.”

“Whaddya mean ‘no way’? If the King says she’s untouchable, that’s that. The Church isn’t gonna pick a fight with the King now, of all times.” Marcus rebutted.

“Sure, maybe not if the whole point was to kill her or something, no,” Junia conceded. “But you saw how everyone reacted here. Heck, how WE kinda reacted when we first saw her. She’s gonna be under suspicion no matter WHAT we say. We just need to prepare for it, that’s all I’m saying.” The two of them had realized that getting her into the capital would be…troublesome, and that didn’t even cover what would happen once word of her got out to the mass public. Junia wasn’t looking forwards to that at all.

“Can’t we send word ahead?” Marcus asked with a bored look. He hadn’t seen much of the issue she had with it, confident as he was in their plan already. “Isn’t your teacher on the way back? We COULD just clear her with him and let HIM tell the Church in the capital to lay off when we show up.”

That…actually wasn’t a horrible idea, Junia had to admit. Her old master, Priest Tartin, had long since bailed on the capital, but he and her had been on quite good terms, and still kept in contact. “...yeah, that could work,” she admitted out loud. “He could probably send ahead and let everyone know that she’s clean. I mean, if it got to the Church and they actually listened- which they should. Priest Tartin was still fairly well respected, last I checked.” He was…an interesting sort, and maybe she took one or two wrong lessons from him…but she was rather appreciative of what he’d done for her, and she wasn’t planning on changing much regardless.

“Well, there ya go. Problem solved.” With that, he leaned back on his pack- no pillows in a place like this, but he’d slept in far worse conditions. “All we really need to do is make sure she doesn’t lose her nut like she nearly did earlier today.” They’d both been surprised at her reaction when people had started freaking out- frankly, they both had expected that, and it’d sounded like she had, too. At least, until it actually happened. “What was WITH that, anyway? Don’t think I’ve ever seen someone go to pieces all like that before. She was practically dancing a jig!”

“Not sure,” Junia admitted. “But you’re not kidding. For a moment I thought she was actually gonna pull herself apart with how her legs were moving. Maybe it’s a spider person thing?”

Marcus could only frown at that. “Geh. I can see how THAT’D weird someone out. Shame she doesn’t seem to remember much, though. I wonder how badly she bonked her head.”

“Bad enough, and I hope I don’t need to remind you to not bring it up,” Junia chastised. He’d already depressed her a bit by theorizing why she couldn’t remember much of anything before, and that’d sent her into a funk that took a lot of subject redirection to get her out of. For someone that could likely naturally scare the pants off of a hardened knight, she was an antsy, timid thing. That attitude had diminished her intimidation factor a great deal in Junia’s eyes.

…not that she still didn’t occasionally shiver when she looked too long at the less human parts of her. She doubted that Mia even realized that on occasion her…lower mouth, for lack of knowing a better term, would just randomly wiggle and stretch. Or that whenever she seemed startled by attention or a question, she’d kinda hunch up and for a second her backside would jolt into the air before returning to a normal posture. She did a lot of little things that, added up, painted the picture of someone obviously not-quite-human but almost…unaware of that fact themselves. She knew it was silly, though, and yet that was the most eerie part of it. These parts were so natural to her, it seemed, that it’d be easy to take a motion that likely meant nothing, and interpret it badly if it was someone looking for a reason to get violent. The local villagers were already plenty scared, but at least she and Marcus were around to help smooth things over. If she was by herself and met the wrong person…well, there went their best payday yet!

Well, that and likely a decent girl, all things considered. Mia seemed nice enough that she’d been working to get over herself. Marcus, too, as she observed how relaxed he’d gotten around her. But then, that was typical Marcus. If it wasn’t an enemy getting in his way of becoming a famous swordsman, it was a friendly face or an admirer to help. As far as he was concerned, Mia had become someone who he could help…and likely would become famous, and would mention his name as who found her and helped her return to society, or something like that.

It was a bit rude of her to think of him as selfish, though. She knew exactly why he was doing all this; the fame awarded to local ‘heroes’ and great explorers usually also meant money coming their way, whether it was via goods he could put his name on and thus advertised to the crowds, or simply better paying quests he could go on, or other things. And the more money he brought in? The better he could lift his family out of poverty. That hole in the wall that they lived in that wasn’t a whole lot better than these stables would eventually be a thing of the past if he had his say.

THAT was his real goal, and for all his antics, he was good for never forgetting that, or his roots in helping people. Junia could certainly admire that about him. And this would be a heck of a jump towards that goal if they got her to the King safely. Especially if they managed to learn more of her history and just what in the world she was in the first place. Win win all around, really.

“Well, the King’s gonna bring up her past eventually,” Marcus said, and for a moment she wondered- and not for the first time- if he could read her expressions as easily as she sometimes thought he could. For such a laid-back attitude, he could be surprisingly perceptive. “But yeah, I’ll steer clear of it.”

“Good,” Junia agreed. “Now we just need to wait until she’s done with pest control.” She paused, considering. It was obvious why Marcus had talked over her- rude though it was, it’d be a quick way to earn some gratitude and a bit less animosity for what was ultimately busywork. Still… “Actually, though, do you really think she’s…EATING them?”

“Iunno,” Marcus shrugged. “I mean, maybe? I don’t think spiders normally eat rats, but she’s a REALLY BIG spider, so maybe they’re like snacks to her?”

…right. This was also a part of Marcus. “...well, if she’s not, I think you owe her an apology.”

“...you think she’d be that mad about it?” he asked worriedly. Junia had to stop herself from sighing. “I mean, how long has she been down there? A bit now, right?”

“Enough time for the Eyes to come up,” Junia muttered, referring to the twin moons. “So yeah.”

“Then yeah, she’s probably snacking on them, or something, huh? Shouldn’t take THAT long to kill some rats. She even had a sword,” Marcus pointed out.

“One that she admitted she has no clue how to use,” Junia appended. That caused him to quiet down as he considered the reason for her lengthy timeframe.

However, as they were beginning to consider going down there to check on her, the cellar doors were thrown open, and out came Mia. She looked a bit tired, a bit sluggish.

But interestingly enough, she also looked satisfied.

With a lethargy born of hard work, she clambered into the makeshift hay bed. “Job’s done,” she muttered. “He can take a look at it in the morning. M’tired.” And she was off to sleep almost before she’d managed to actually settle down.

The two of them looked at each other, and wordlessly, they decided to not ask. Sleep followed moments later for them as well.

Sadly, they were ALL woken up the next morning by a rather loud, and ornery yell. “WHAT ON GOOD SWEET LOTERA DIDJA DO TO MY CELLER!?”

Experience and training immediately caused Marcus and Junia to shoot up, almost instinctively clutching sword and focus, while Mia merely screamed- screeched, more like- and flailed for a bit before getting upright. “Wark! Wha- huh?!”

Sure enough, the farmer was there, and almost literally hopping mad. “YA WENT AND COBWEBBED MY WHOLE CELLAR!”

This was an act clearly meant to intimidate her, but it was soon noticed by all that a tired Mia had a radically calmer mien. “...I mean, it’s kinda what I do…and it’s not like they’re gonna be hard to take down. Most of the rats are trapped, aren’t they?” It was obvious she was only half-awake, otherwise such flippant remarks wouldn’t have even gotten out of her mouth.

For a moment, he could only glare at her- technically entirely true- statement. He’d gone to check on her work earlier that morning, only to find lines of webbing EVERYWHERE on the ground- and a massive number of dead or starving rats attached to them. In a way, she HAD done as he asked- not that he was exactly pleased with the method. “I thought you were gonna make a meal of ‘em! Not leave ‘em for me to deal with!”

“Ew. Why would I eat rats?” she asked plainly. She never noticed the two teenagers behind her give each other a surprised look.

“...yew best get going, you lot,” he growled out, and that was enough to fully wake them all up.

The trio were on the road rather shortly after that- Marcus and Junia had just barely managed to buy a couple of fruits from a different farmer on the other end of the village; it wasn’t much, but it’d have to serve as breakfast. “Don’t worry. We got another stop after this one- Dundaril. It’s actually got an inn and some trade going! And after that, Charloom!”

“Charloom’s the place we got our quest from,” Junia explained. “It’s a pretty big trading town. Got a lot of stuff there. Once we’re there, we can get a real ride to the capital. Won’t have to worry about horses or bunking down outside after that.”

“Wait, we won’t?” THAT took Mia by surprise. After all, they’d never mentioned otherwise yet.

“Nope! We’ll be able to get a carriage for that! Especially if we use you as an excuse!” Her grin wasn’t at all malicious, but Mia couldn’t help but feel a bit concerned.

It must’ve showed, as Junia seemed to even out her expression a bit. “Don’t worry, you’ll love it. For now, though, let’s put Germin behind us.”

“Yeah…” Mia could only agree wholeheartedly. It wasn’t the best result, and in fact was probably better than what she’d get in bigger cities by her estimate… but she’d take it as best she could. She didn’t really have much choice.

And so with that in mind she looked to the path ahead, and tried her best to put their short, but poignant stay in Germine behind her. Maybe up ahead would be better.

“Hey, you ever hear the joke about the cow, the centaur, and the farmer?” Junia called.

That shook her out of her reverie. “No, how’s it go?” She could use something to distract her.

She caught up to Mia just as she began. “Well, one day there was a stubborn cow…”