As I’d expected and hoped, I was able to control this whole falling asleep while staying awake part quite well. My elven torso was currently sleeping, as was Cellestra. The flame spell above us was still active, aiding me with watching her.

I could watch her unconsciously smile in her sleep as she was lost in my fluffiness for hours, and I probably would. Her long light brown hair touching my side made me want to run my own hands through it to get a better feel for it. I had to stop my mind from wandering off.

I focused again on how I would tackle this obstacle of telling her. I’d resolved to do it, but I had no idea how this was done. How would I tell her? When would I tell her? I had already decided it would be tomorrow. I thought perhaps the evening would be best when I could talk to her directly. In my opinion that made conversations more honest. While I didn’t mind Cellestra talking to my back, in this case, I wanted to see face to face.

Thinking about this made me wonder if my mother would have ever told me about how to deal with this. I was certain she had at some point told me how she and dad met each other, but I couldn’t recall it, to my regret. Perhaps I’d pushed away too many memories about them…

A wave of sadness overcame me. I would have loved for her to tell me how this worked. In my opinion, it was a shame that it had never been allowed to happen. I could surely use her guidance now…

Everything that was ahead of me regarding my parents was so confusing in general. Given their memories of me were unaffected, how would they view me? Then there was the thing with me falling in love with an elven woman. I literally couldn’t imagine their reactions about this all, but I figured there was no point in worrying about it now. Especially given that I had yet to reach them, and still had to talk to the elf about all this.

I felt like tomorrow might just be the hardest day of my life, even if that wasn’t true from a physical point of view.

As much as I was clueless about how to talk to her about this, somehow, watching her sleep peacefully seeped some of that peace into my mind. A small smile grew on my face as I watched a small trickle of saliva drip down from the corner of her lips. She then turned her face more into my fur and I noted that her lips were dry after that.

I would have shaken my spider head and smiled if I could. Not being able to do that didn’t bother me in the slightest. Not anymore.

For some reason, time seemed to pass quickly as the next day arrived much sooner than I’d anticipated. Maybe it was because I was struggling to find a way for the talk that I knew was ultimately going to have to happen. Either way, I would be happy when it was behind me.

Morning arrived and the sun rose above the horizon. An hour or two later, Cellestra stirred, and after a long yawn, opened her eyes.

“Morning,” She said simply but warmly.

I forcibly woke up my elven half from sleep and felt the sensations rushing to my torso before I rose. At the same time, I canceled my flame spell.

“Morning, Cellestra. I would ask if you slept well, but I already know the answer to that.”

She chuckled quietly. “Yeah, I slept well. My dreams were tranquil, I think. I always have a hard time remembering the good ones.”

“That’s… a pity. If it’s any consolation, all I did in my elven head’s dreams was run around green fields… pretty much the same as what I did during the day, so there wasn’t anything noteworthy there, either.”

“I’d probably wake up exhausted if I had a dream like that. Speaking of, how are you feeling? No soreness or anything?”

“I don’t even know if my legs can get sore. I can get tired, apparently, but sore? No.”

“Must be spider anatomy,” Cellestra said as she stretched her arms while getting up.

“Speaking of spider anatomy,” I started. “What are these things called?” I pointed to the shorter limbs between my pedipalps, the ones with my fangs at the ends. “I’ve been wondering for a while. Do you know what they’re called?”

The elf walked up to my front to see where I was pointing and smiled. “Chelicerae. They are called chelicerae.”

“That’s… an odd word.”

“I like the word,” Cellestra admitted. “Fangs is just so… plain, I guess. In case you’re wondering about the part connected to your head, well, one of your heads, it’s a cephalothorax.”

“Cephalothorax? I always thought it was just a thorax.”

“Well, yes and no,” Cellestra said, seemingly delighted to talk about this. “You see, a thorax is separated from the head, which isn’t the case with you. Spiders have the head fused to the thorax, thus the separate name.”

“Interesting…” I let out. “I never would have known. Any other weird spider things you know?”

“What, why are you asking?” She said with a sly smile.

“Well, you know…” I said, trying to come up with a good enough reason for me to ask it. The truth was that I just wanted to talk to her, and she seemed to know quite a lot on this subject. “Maybe it will give me an edge in a fight. Who knows?”

Cellestra giggled. “You’re too predictable.”

“Predictable?”

“I knew you’d say something along those lines,” She said, still smiling. “Anyway, as for spider facts… I don’t know what you find interesting. I mostly kept some of them for their venom, but you already know about how venom can have healing properties if prepared properly.”

“Yeah, that I knew,” I confirmed.

“Hmmm. Let me see,” Cellestra murmured as she walked to the large bag, opened it, and took some bread. She took a bite as she seemed to think about things.

“You know that many female spiders eat their mate?”

“I did not know that.”

“I thought it would be interesting to tell you that as a jumping spider tried to court you earlier. They dance and mesmerize the female to then mate them and quickly skitter away while they are hypnotized. He was basically dancing for his life.”

“And I killed him anyway…” I said softly. “I feel kind of guilty now.”

“Don’t feel guilty about that. He would have probably been eaten by whoever he tried to impress anyway.”

“Being a normal spider would surely suck, wouldn’t it?” I said, realizing once again just how lucky I was to have this blessing.

“Well, I’m happy you’re no normal spider. I mean, just look at that beautiful pattern on your back. How did that even happen?”

Cellestra’s words cheered me up. “No idea. Do you think Elysa did that on purpose?”

“She must have,” Cellestra said, staring at the colors shifting in my abdomen.

The elf finished the piece of bread she’d broken off and drank some water before excusing herself again. In the meantime, I tried to look away, but it was hard when I could look all around me. I had to turn my abdomen to her in order to give her some sense of privacy.

I conjured and drank some water, before the purple-eyed elf reappeared at my side. I finished drinking and moved my hand to the side and continued summoning water so she could wash her hands.

“Thanks,” She said. “Are you about ready to head off?”

I liked how she seemed to move with the same form of urgency that I had grown accustomed to over the past few days.

“I’m always ready. You know that,” I said with a smile.

I closed the bag that Cellestra had left open and placed it on my… cephalothorax, where I fastened it. In the meantime, the elf took the wolf pelts and placed them on my abdomen. She finished getting ready by putting the backpack back on her back.

“Well, then,” She said as she climbed on my back. “Let’s get going again.”

“My thoughts exactly,” I said as I started running in the same direction we headed towards the day before.

“You know,” Cellestra said. “At this rate, even though I don’t know how far it’s going to be, I reckon we’ll get there quickly.”

“Yeah. I suppose that’s true. You know, as boring as these plains may seem to the adventurous type, I’m glad they are there. This is much easier to navigate than the forest at high speed and I have to admit, the view, especially when you can see as much as me, is gorgeous.”

“Boring? I suppose in your example it could be. I wouldn’t mind if this is all we’ll see.”

“I doubt we’ll be that lucky. We will run into civilization sooner or later. In fact, I think I see a small settlement in the distance already.”

There, just below the horizon was a small dot in my vision. It was so far away that I couldn’t quite make out any details yet, even for someone as visually gifted as me.

“Your eyes are something else. I don’t see a thing,” Cellestra said as she leaned to the side to try to see what I was talking bout,

“Do warn me when you see it. I’m quite curious to know exactly what these eyes can do.”

The elf on my back nodded. “Will do.”