Chapter 8: 8. The Spider’s parlor

Branches thicker than most logs, snapped beneath me as I fell. Each one hit slightly slowing my descent, turning it from a deadly fall into a painful downward tumble. The constant snapping finally coming to a stop when I landed in a pile atop my coils.

I bounced up and down for a second, my snake half far softer than I thought. Then, once the bouncing had stopped, I looked up and saw that No weevils had followed me down. They probably just assumed that I was dead after falling so far. 

An assumption they couldn't really be blamed for making. 

The distance they had thrown me down was huge, certainly enough to kill anything else my size. My survival was nothing less than a miracle. 

It was also an opportunity. Now I had the element of surprise and a second chance to claim the trees bounty. Or I could just leave. Which wasn't exactly a bad idea. I could always come back when I was stronger, or better equipped. 

Or so I thought. 

There was no exit out of the tree down here, and I wasn't strong enough to break the wooden walls of the tree. I was essentially trapped in here with no way out except for the way I entered. Which was quite a ways upward, so I immediately began to head straight up. Climbing the tree once again. 

Only to encounter another issue shortly after. There were webs all along the walls, spanning from one wall to the spire of wood in the center. Which was bad enough on its own, but these webs were also infused with essence. I could detect a thin layer of it going through every individual line and string, making these webs far stronger than they should have been. 

Choosing to avoid them, I went looking for a safer way up. One that preferably didn't promise a date with a giant spider. The weevils were enough already. 

And after a bit of searching I found my path. Off to one side of the tree there was a row of thick branches heading upward. They were like stairs, only they weren't Naga friendly in the slightest. There was a gap in-between each branch that looked like it was almost too big for me to cross. 

Slithering up on the first branch to get a closer look, I discovered that they were almost certainly too big. Still, I dared an attempt. Tightly wrapping a part of my length around the first branch, I lifted my upper half as high as I could and tried to stretch across. With every second that I held myself over the gap I was made more aware of how heavy I was. It felt like my body was trying to pull me down. An anchor of soft violet meat and scales with an even softer anchor up top. The heft of my belly, my breasts, and even my hips weighed on me the most. 

Yet, in spite of how my fat drooped down trying to drag me below, I made it across. The second branch creaking loudly as I settled on it and pulled the rest of me across. 

Then I did it again, and again. After enough times the weight of my body stopped feeling like so much of a burden. Instead it felt like I was just soft and cute and big. I liked it. And I liked it even more when I finally got off the branches and slithered onto a large wooden platform. 

The platform was a breath fresh air. No more gaps, for a little while at least, and it was big enough for me to slither about comfortably. But after a moment or two I noticed that the platform was set up almost like a house - of sorts. 

There were mysterious bottles set up on a counter made of webs. A bed made of webs, along with a place for... Meals. And even separated areas that resembled rooms. 

"Hello." Came a voice from behind me. A horrifying voice that sent a chill down my spine. And not a metaphorical one, but a real chill. "What brings you to my parlor?" It continued. 

Slowly I turned around, and then looked up to where the voice had come from. There, sitting above my head was a giant spider dangling from a web. It was mostly black in appearance, with red lines across certain parts of its body. 

It was also staring right at me with all six of its eyes. 

"Can we not fight?" I asked. 

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The spider laughed in response. "You are a contestant, are you not? Fighting is the way of a cultivator, and yet you seek peace?" It, a he I was sure, questioned while dropping down. "Or perhaps you do not see a way to win this fight, hmm? And you wish to live." 

"No. I just don't wanna fight you, save us both some trouble." 

"Oh you poor thing. The only trouble I'll have is devouring your bloated corpse." 

The spider detached from his web, dropping down on all eight of his legs. He crawled toward me, boldly scuttling forward. I raised my tail, thorns unleashed, and swung it down. 

Only for it to stop mid-swing. Caught on what I soon realized were near invisible webs. 

"Beautiful aren't they?" The spider said, taunting me as he drew nearer. 

I pulled on the webs, trying my hardest to free my tail. It wasn't enough. Every tug of my tail only succeeded at displaying how durable and strong the webs were. And with a little less than half my length caught in the air I was practically defenseless. As if to prove that point, the spider crawled onto me, his approach slowing. His fangs beared. 

I beared my own fangs and tried to slither, in any direction. It was useless, there were more webs wrapped around me, keeping me stuck in place. All I could do was wait and hope. And wait I did. 

The spider took his time traveling my length. He ran his spear like legs along my scales and stopped at random intervals. Occasionally talking about how tasty I looked. 

Then, at long last, he reached my still human half. He stared down at me, forcing me to look him in the eyes. My own reflection stared back at me in his red orbs, a smile creeping on its face. 

"Any last words before i- Ahhh!" 

I poked him in several of his eyes. Expectedly, he reeled back in agony, screaming in pain. Before he could recover, I grabbed one of his legs and pulled. Still unbalanced, still recovering, the spider reacted too late. He fell off me onto his back and just as he was getting up on his legs I rolled over. It took more effort than I expected, the webs were stronger than they seemed and I was even heavier than what I looked like. 

Regardless, I rolled over onto the spider. He was laid flat instantly, and less than a moment later I felt him go completely stiff. The sound of cracking chitin and crunching bone followed. 

All at once the webs that bound me lost most of their strength. They snapped apart with little more than a tug on my part, setting me free. Once free, I rolled off the spider to see what was left of it. 

A surprising amount apparently. 

Most of its body was perfectly intact, only smushed and flattened slightly. I poked at it a few times, just in case, to see if there was any sort of reaction. After finding none, I tore off one of the spider's spear like legs. Not out of spite or rage, but because I needed a weapon. A real weapon. If my tail could disabled or even cut off I'd be defenseless and need to rely on my hands. With a weapon that wouldn't be the case anymore. 

So, with my new spear in hand, I continued upwards. Leaving the spiders corpse to rot.