Chapter 90 – forbidden petkeeping (Patreon)

Since she was apparently going to have to guide Kora down here the following day, Kori insisted that she be the one to take the lead on the way back and that the Elders should only correct her after she made a mistake. They only needed to do so the once, when they had walked for a few hundred meters down a side tunnel that was heading in roughly the right direction, but would have taken them to a small community where the miner’s had lived when the quarry was active.

She would have noticed eventually, the corridors were dustier than the proper ones which had had their dust tamped down due to the increased traffic over the weeks of construction.

It still wasn’t a quick trip; her new lab was about as far from the more populous areas of the clan’s caverns as one could get. It was almost like they’d picked the spot for that very purpose. The trek back reminded her of what Blonc had said, that she should carry the pack full of sand and run it whenever she could. She didn’t want to, but she also didn’t want him to make her work harder on his days with her to make up for it either.

While she wasn’t trying to recall the directions back to the central chamber, she was pestering Har and Bolst about the upcoming relocation. The pair had never outright said what they were moving, but she could guess from how seriously it was being treated that it was probably about her creation residing in Bolst’s lab.

“So, you’re moving the flame flask tomorrow?” She eventually asked. “I thought you’d have done that weeks ago.”

Bolst grumbled about the ‘unreasonable’ delay and didn’t offer any further explanation, leaving that to Har.

“They were concerned about keeping the vessel steady during transport.” He informed her. “Ultimately the other Elders decided that they would wait for my return so that I could pull the cart myself...” He did not sound at all pleased about their choice. “I’m sure one of the other caravan drivers could have managed it without incident, but they insisted I was the only one that everyone would trust… even Tuli wouldn’t take no for an answer…” He seemed particularly hurt that his mate had not sided with him.

“And you couldn’t do it before we left because everyone was still mad about the spiders?” She knew that the spiders were bad, Tier 3 creatures were no laughing matter and Har had explained before they set out for Whatzakt that the delay was as much about punishment as it was about safety.

Bolst couldn’t hold his complaints any longer at the mention of his former pets. “Of course, it was about the spiders… poor little things weren’t hurting anyone…” He paused for a moment before adding on, “Well, except for anyone who fell in one of my traps I suppose…”

With the exasperated tone of an argument already argued, Har’s reply sounded like he was repeating himself for the hundredth time. “Not hurting anyone?” He shook his head. “Yeah, not until they escaped and infested the entire trapper’s workshop and who knows what else.”

Bolst’s rebuttal was made with an equally exhausted tone. “I already told you; they were all females. If they had managed to escape, which I had taken all necessary precaution to prevent, then they still couldn’t breed.”

How the scale do you tell if it’s a girl spider or a boy spider?

All the spiders being girls seemed strange to Kori, confusing her both in why that would be the case and how exactly Bolst could say that with any certainty.

“Uhh… Why were they all girl spiders?” She asked, derailing the rehashing of their argument.

Bolst took the question and ran with it, clearly loving that someone was at least a little interested. “Well, it was mostly because they have larger poison glands, when they breed the female will carry their eggs until they’re almost ready to hatch and then take down the largest prey they can in order to deposit them in so the babies have a food source as soon as they emerge.” He enthusiastically explained. “They’re also larger than the males, by a good bit too, so it’s harder for them to escape if there was a crack in the enclosure.”

“The girls are bigger?”

“Yes, that’s pretty common with insects and arachnids. Birds too actually.” The way he seemed happy to teach her and answer her questions made Kori think that if he’d been a girl, he’d probably have ended up with the matrons.

“So, you knew that they were all girls because you only kept the biggest ones? What if there was just a really big boy spider that snuck in?” Kori asked another question, hitting the Elders own concerns dead on.

“See, even she sees the problem here.” Har pointed at Kori. “If even a four-year-old can spot the problem, how is it you still can’t admit that it’s a concern.”

Bolst’s shoulders slumped, he gave Kori a betrayed look briefly before he responded. “Well, yes, if it was just size that would have been entirely possible…” Even Kori could sense that there was a ‘but’ coming after that not quite admission. “But, it’s more than that! The females also have different markings than the males. Plus, I’d had them for months, if there was a male in there, there would have bred long before then. And none of the other batches ever escaped or bred, so it would have been fine.”

The last comment was new information, something he hadn’t really intended to say.

“Wait… ‘other batches’ what do you mean, ‘other batches’…” Har jumped on the slip in a heartbeat.

“Oh… ummm… you know, the ones I had before the latest group…” Bolst stammered, realizing that he’d said too much.

“And just how many did you have before this latest batch…”

“Oh, just a few… not very many…” He tried to limit the damage, worried that the coming relocation was suddenly in jeopardy.

The two continued their prodding questions and avoiding answers for some time until Kori asked another question about something that had been bugging her since Bolst had accidently admitted he’d had more than just the single batch.

“If you had multiple batches, where were you getting all the spiders from?” She asked the one question that Bolst had been hoping neither of them would. Even Har turned to her, the sudden realization that he’d have had to have a supply, and not an insignificant one at that, if he were to gather them with any regularity.

Bolst hung his head in defeat. There was no escaping it, either he told them and asked them not to tell the other Elders or he was certain they’d raise the issue and he’d be in even more trouble. The clan hadn’t banished anyone in his lifetime, but he wasn’t sure if it would stay that way if the truth came out.

“I… found a nest in a disused passage a few years ago.” He admitted. “At first, I’d planned to burn it, but the adults were already dead, I’m not sure what killed them. I was just going to harvest the venom sack to experiment with, but I found that a few of the females had eggs that were nearly ready to lay.

“So, I decided to take the eggs so I could harvest all of them when they hatched. I put them in a natural cave I had found when I was digging a pitfall, it was full of water, with just a little island of stone jutting out. It wasn’t too deep, but it was enough to corral them” As he told the story, his voice began to lose the defeated tone, he almost seemed proud of how he’d contained the arachnids. “They can’t stand water you see; they almost immediately drown and even if they get out it messes up the excretions of their carapace in some way, they never live long after.”

When neither listener seemed impressed by his methods Bolst just continued on with his tale. “Once they hatched, I’d throw them some fish now and then to keep them fed. But when it came time to start harvesting their venom, I just couldn’t do it.” He seemed at least a little ashamed about that. “I’d grown attached to them.”

“So, what you’re saying is that you have a cave full of the forsaken things?” Har asked him, horrified at the notion that what they’d disposed of had just been the tip of the ore vein.

“I’m getting to that… let me finish.” Bolst shook his head, trying to keep his story on track despite the interruption. “Yes, there were hundreds in the cave when the eggs hatched and more once they started breeding. I observed them and learned all I could about their behaviour and physiology. At first from a distance and then eventually by capturing specimens.”

“How?” Kori asked, knowing she’d never be able to even get close to an island full of deadly spiders.

“With smoke from a mixture of drift shroom caps and a flower called skullcap. It dazes and pacifies them. A fact I might add that I shared with the Circle and would never have known without studying my colony.” He added the latter part as though justification for keeping the terrifying crawlers. “After I caught them, I began experimenting to find a way to extract their venom without killing the spider, in the end I found that they’ll readily bite the petal of the skullcap flower if presented with it, so I’d just use those then distill the entire blossom, venom and all, to make the poison I used.”

“Wait… I was the one getting you that flower…” Har seemed offended that he had been unknowingly aiding in the whole thing. “You told me it enhanced the poison of your traps… something about weakening the muscles around the injury…”

“Yes, and it somewhat did. Just not enough that I’d actually use the stuff if I had another way to get the venom.” Bolst grinned at him like he was a co-conspirator. “Anyway, once I had a method to capture them and to get the venom, I began gathering small batches of them so that they were easier to work with and I didn’t need to traipse through the outer tunnels every time.”

“And then eventually we caught you…” Har finished for him.

“Yes…” The old trapper then did something completely unexpected; he dropped to his knees in front of his colleague and pleaded with him. “Please don’t tell Ortik and the others about the colony, they’ll never forgive me if they found out I had kept so many of them.”

“Don’t tell them?” Har practically exploded, “You’ve got hundreds more of the things stashed away who knows where, how could I not?”

Bolst stammered out a reply, his head still lowered. “It wasn’t hundreds… it was thousands.” He admitted to their growing horror. “And they’re all gone now.”

Both Har and Kori audibly gulped when they heard how many of the things there had been.

“What do you mean, they’re all gone?” Har hesitantly asked.

“I knew the others would never understand. Never accept that they were useful and controlled.” There was a hitch in his voice and Kori spotted a tear streaming down his scales. “The day of the festival I finally got up the nerve and went back to the cave with a dozen water runes. I started the flow and left; I couldn’t watch.”

Kori remembered the night well; the trapper had been drunk and belligerent and had said some very mean things to her. “That’s why you were so upset, even though it’d been months since we made the flask?”

“Yes, and I’m sorry I lashed out.” He seemed truly repentant about his outburst. “Once the water drained, I verified there was nothing left and have kept an eye on the area since. A few eggs survived the flooding, so I destroyed those as well…”

“So, they’re all gone, you didn’t miss any or stash some away somewhere just in case?” Har asked, sounding skeptical.

Bolst lowered his head even further, practically bringing his snout to the floor. “I swear on the scale of the revered Garnet Tyrant, they are gone and I will never again raise such a creature without the consent of the other Elders.” Once he rose from the position of supplication, he looked Har in the eyes and asked again. “Please don’t tell the others. You, I can at least trust to see the practicality of it, even if you don’t agree with what I did. But Ortik never will.” A smirk broke his begging façade. “And Blonc can’t think clear enough whenever there are spiders involved to ever forgive me.”

Har didn’t answer for several long minutes, he just stood there looking at the old trapper trying to figure out what the scale he was going to do. Kori kept quiet the entire time as well, the oppressive feeling between the two Elders preventing her from voicing her opinion.

They sounded really useful… but also dangerous… but he’d studied them and knew how to keep the spiders contained it seemed…

The fact that she didn’t really know what to think, she could see both sides but really wasn’t sure what she would have done in either of their positions, helped still her tongue too.

Finally, Har made up his mind, his posture relaxing as he looked at the repentant trapper. “Fine. If only because I want this whole saga over and done with and if I say anything, it’ll get dragged out even further.”