Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Celia had never liked bugs, but living in a sub-tropical climate, she had gotten used to dealing with them. Though to be honest, she had never dealt with one this big before. Still, this was her job here and she was trying to stay in La’ver’na’s good graces, so she and her guys weren’t fed to the Mother Tree. Taking a deep breath, she called to the wandering spider.
“Here! Over here, girl. Come here—do you want scritches?” Which was what she’d always called to her cat, Mr. Bigglesworth to get him to come out from behind the couch.
It had worked with Mr. Bigglesworth and it worked with the enormous spider-cat too. It came skittering over to her, it’s long, hairy legs working and its mouth open in a hissing-purr.
Celia tried not to shudder as she reached for it.
Just concentrate on the face—don’t look at the legs, she ordered herself. The face is cute—look at the face.
But she couldn’t seem to take her own advice. As she began stroking the long, silky white fur on the creature’s abdomen, her eyes kept wandering to the many-jointed, chitinous legs which all ended in horrible claw-like feet. Also, the silky-looking fur felt greasy under her fingertips. She didn’t enjoy petting the enormous spider-cat as she used to enjoy petting her own cat before he went over to the rainbow bridge. The swollen abdomen was nothing like Mr. Bigglesworth’s sleek back and sides and the hissing-purr just sounded weird.
The spider-cat didn’t seem to like the way she was stroking it, either. After a moment, it turned its head and glared at Celia, giving her a deep, angry hiss that had no purr in it at all and showing long, lethal looking fangs. Also, it hadn’t produced even an inch of silk from its quivering, bulbous abdomen.
Meanwhile, Sess’ely’s spider-cat had already produced two whole baskets of silk and was working on a third.
“Hey—what am I doing wrong?” Celia asked her friend. “She, uh, doesn’t seem to like me,” she added, nodding at her hissing spider-cat.
“Oh, some of them can be so cranky.” Sess’ely shook her head. “Look—here comes the Mistress of Silks now. Maybe she can help.” She raised her voice and called, “Excuse me? Mistress? Can you help us?”
“Yes, girls—what is it?” The Mistress of Silks swept over, wearing an elaborate gold silk dress that prominently displayed her bright blue nipples.
“Oh, Mistress—Celia’s holy spider isn’t making any silk.” Sess’ely nodded at the hissing spider-cat which Celia was still petting—though extremely warily since it seemed pissed-off.
“Oh dear.” The Mistress of Silks shook her head and looked at Celia. “Do you not have an affinity for animals, my dear?”
“I think she just got a cranky one,” Sess’ely said helpfully. “We got here first, but I took her to see the dying vats and when we came back she was frightened and didn’t get to pick her spider.”
“That’s a great shame.” The Mistress of Silks shook her head. “But as this holy spider doesn’t seem to like you and there are no others available at the moment, I’m afraid you’ll have to come along and work in the vats today.”
“Oh, does she have to? We were just getting to be friends—I was hoping we could work together today.” Sess’ely looked heartbroken but Celia was perfectly okay with the new assignment. She had no interest in petting any more of the huge, hairy spider-cats.
“That’s okay,” she said quickly. “I’m just not as good at, uh, petting holy spiders as you are. I don’t mind working at the dye vats. And we can always sit together at lunch,” she added.
“Well…okay.” Sess’ely sighed, then brightened. “I heard from someone we get tinga fruit for lunch—you’re going to love it!”
“I’m sure I will.” Celia smiled at her. But then again, her new friend had been sure she would love petting the spider-cats too and look how that had turned out. She was reserving judgment on the tinga fruit until she actually tried it. “Well, I’d better get going,” she said.
“Come right this way, my dear,” said the Mistress of Silks, nodding at her. “I’ll show you what to do and leave you to it. I must go back to mind the silk shop on Branch One.”
She took Celia back to the huge vats and showed her how to dump a basketful of fresh white holy spider silk into a dye vat, stir it around with the paddle for a while, and then fish it out and leave it on one of the broad, purple leaves to dry. There was a leaf for each of the colored dyes and it was important not to mix them up.
“Be certain you keep the colors separate,” the Mistress of Silks cautioned her. “And there’s really not much else to it. I’m afraid you’ll be working alone today, though,” she added, looking around. “All the other girls are petting the holy spiders.”