On a leaf, duh

I spread my wings and fly towards the nearest bush. I’m pretty sure it’s only 10 or so feet away, but it still looks fuzzy and out of focus. Glasses aren’t really a thing anymore, but luckily we all now seem to have decent sight… for our size. Still, not a big deal. 10 feet to us now is a massive distance, so it actually feels like my sight is better than it was before.

I avoid flying too high though. Our little community can fight off most threats our own size, like spiders and the like, but if I get snatched up by a bird then that’s it. We can even send massive amounts of ants away, though that is mostly thanks to Silk Touch, who apparently knows how ant pheromones work and helps us make sure the ants never try to attack us. She also is one of the first to go weird pagan worshipper, and refuses to tell anyone her human name. A trend that is picking up, with a several people choosing whimsical sounding names. Funnily enough, many of the names remind me more of My Little Pony, rather than any fairy based franchise.

As I get closer, I instinctively cover my nose. Something must have defecated near here last night. That’s probably what the alarm was earlier. It was just a caution alarm, so I just stayed away… my nose doesn’t work. I sigh again as I remember the bump on my face is purely aesthetic. I do my best to lower my white fluffy antennae away from the smell, but it’s clear that I either need to leave or just accept that I’m smelling this. And I can’t leave since I said I’d help.

I fly closer and then under the bush, landing carefully. Any aphids will be on the leaves, but it can be easy to miss a spider web or other threat if I just go straight for the leaves and branches. It’s a lot easier to spot at a glance a safe spot on the ground. Looking around… yep, there is some kind of mantis creature, holding stock still and almost looking like a leaf bud. Won’t land near that.

Insects are weird. They are smarter than most people give them credit for, but they still mostly hunt in ways that only make sense if your prey is either stupid or blind. Luckily this means I just have to be alert, and I can travel safely… I shake my head to ward off thoughts of what a mantis claw could do to me if I ever was caught off guard. And those chelicera, no doubt it would begin eating me before I was even dead. A shiver runs down my spine. I probably should get someone to come with me. School was right, the buddy system is great… I sigh again. No, I’m already here. I can do this. It’s just a bush, and I just have to find an aphid and then run off with it.

Checking my surroundings one more time, I fly up into the air and quickly land on a lower branch that I could confirm was safe from below. I look at the nearby leaves… no luck. Damnit. The higher I go the higher the odds of a mistake. I look again for a new spot that is safe. And then fly to it. And then search. And repeat. And repeat. And repeat.

Seriously, I should have told Jack to fuck off. Aphids are not worth this kind of stress. It isn’t hard work, but damn is it tense. Over there, a spider web. And an aphid, already caught in it. Yeah, not getting that one. I can’t even see the spider yet, but I don’t care how big it is. I’m not messing with any spider, even if it’s small enough to punt. That’s still too damn big for a spider. And most I see around here are much bigger than that.

I catch sight of the spider, a mostly black thing almost the size of me, with legs that make it seem even bigger, expertly skirting along the web towards the struggling aphid.

Yeah, no. I move on. And finally spot a free aphid. I doubt this is the one that escaped, but it really doesn’t matter. And now… I slowly walk towards it. Very slowly. For all my criticisms of the stupid hunting methods of insects, I can’t argue with results. I get closer as the aphid mindlessly munches on the leaf it’s standing on. The green little piggy is a bit taller than my knees. And this one doesn’t have wings. Nice. I’m not sure what the difference is between the ones with and without wings, but the winged ones are definitely more annoying.

Having reached close enough without spooking it, I grab it and lift. It immediately starts to flail and twist its legs, but aside from looking creepy they can’t actually do much. Which is exactly why we use aphids. With the struggling but helpless creature held above my head, I walk to the edge of the leaf and confirm I have a safe path down. And then I just jump. Sure, it took a while to get this high, but flying while carrying the aphid would be awkward and it’s only about a foot off the ground. I don’t even think it’s possible for me to reach a fatal speed while falling anymore. So I just make sure I don’t lose my grip on the aphid when I hit the ground, and fall.

He almost manages to jostle free, but it’s all good. I make my way back to Jack, this time on foot. It’s a little slower, but it’s not like I’m on a schedule. None of us are. We just… exist. I make it back to Jack and hand him the still occasionally struggling aphid.

Jack is basically a beetle fairy. He’s got a weird horn on his head that makes it look like he’s eternally wearing a helmet, and his back side has a set of clumsy wings under a stiff outer carapace… so yeah, a beetle. “Thanks a lot. Hope he wasn’t too much trouble. I hear Leonard is going to try cooking again. Considering the results last time… we definitely need extra aphids.”

I… am very upset to learn that the main concern for the number of aphids we have is that a wannabe chef might mess up so badly that multiple are rendered inedible. But, I can’t say that. Small community, we are all in this together, so I just smile. “No problem at all. Always happy to help. I’m sure he’ll figure it out this time and it will be delicious.”

I notice Jacks eyes momentarily slip downward before he looks back to my face. Clothes are hard to make at our size. Most materials don’t really work the same way on our scale. And of course before we all got here we each had to travel by ourselves all the way here. There wasn’t much need or options for clothing. And on top of that, we generally don’t exactly look like what one would expect of a naked person. My own white neck fluff extends a bit downward, like a very fluffy white mane, and just barely covers my breasts. Well, okay. It covers about half of them. But that’s something. I self consciously fold my arms. I also have little fluffy patches around my wrists and ankles, which annoyingly makes me think of a poodle. Either way, I use the extra fluff from my wrists to completely cover my chest.

“Well, if you don’t have anything else, I’m going to talk to Silk.” I take a step away, but stop to give him an opportunity to load me up with any more work.

“Thanks again. You’re always a great help.” He turns away and casually drags the aphid into a leaf and tree sap enclosure. Hopefully he knows that won’t last and will need to be replaced…

No, don’t worry about it. I actually do need to talk to Silk. I leave Jack’s little aphid farm, and flutter up onto the nearby tree root. Silk lives up the tree, at the bottom of the canopy. Come to think of it, most of the spider fey seem to have decided to live up there. I mean, I think only Sarah lives off of the tree. Oh well.

I begin to fly up, but don’t ever get too far away from the tree. Don’t want to give any birds any ideas. As I fly up, I pass by a few other fey. They seem to easily cling to its sides, and are working at some natural sap spots. Most of the sap that is excreted by the tree is inedible, but even that sap is useful as it is very sticky and great for use as a glue for building things. Only a few spots ooze out a much thinner and less sticky and much more edible sap. But that’s really all we need. Food, shockingly, just isn’t an actual problem for us. At least, not right now. I have no idea what we are going to do come winter. Will the sap still flow? Could we even get it in the cold?

I continue on up the tree, deciding not to worry about our impending doom. Not much I can do about it right now. I’m just helpful to others. Except right now. Right now, Silk is helpful to me. Which feels kinda nice. I reach the first few branches of the canopy and start to head down a branch that Silk lives on. The branches up here have quite a few spider webs strewn about, but here it’s actually comforting to see. Silk and the other Spider fey like to experiment and try all kinds of different ways to spin a web, and leave it out all the time to see how well it lasts. Most insects in the area are already caught in a web, or naturally funneled to places that make it easy to see and avoid them. Even lots of birds seem to be too annoyed by all the webs to frequent this area. While I still keep aware of my surroundings, this part of the canopy is far safer than it has any right to be.

I reach Silk’s house. Well, it’s really just a bundle of leaves stuck together with sap and web, but honestly it’s one of the nicer houses. Silk is stretching out a glob of web, practicing her spinning. I think. She stops as she spots me. “Hey there little night light. What brings you here?” Silk is basically a spider centaur, like most of the spider fey. Her spider body is mostly black with large white and red splotches along both her humanoid and spider back, symmetrical on both sides. Her arms have a chitinous exoskeleton that makes it look like she’s wearing finely made black gauntlets, and her black hair surrounds a face filled with black eyes. Her two largest eyes are located as expected, then she has a smaller set on the outside of her face and two more sets running up her forehead. Her breasts are pretty large, so unsurprisingly she has managed to make herself a bra of her own silk, although it’s not very impressive looking. It looks more like a bunch of glue got smashed together into the approximate shape of a bra, and then she just **** it on. In fairness, it was probably her first attempt.

I ignore the nick name of night light. It’s not my fault my wings glow in the dark. It sucks because they don’t even glow enough to actually act as a light. I just can’t hide at night. “Did you manage to make any progress on clothes?”

Silk beams with confidence, “what do you think?” She reaches down and pulls out a simple shirt. If I was normal sized, I would be unimpressed. But knowing how difficult it is to actually weave the wet blobs of spider web into thread, and then to further weave it into a shirt… it’s absolutely beautiful. A simple shirt and yet also a work of art worthy of the highest accolades.

I clear my throat, **** to not show my glee at the reveal of the simple shirt. “It looks… nice.”

Silk grins, not fooled at all by my act of nonchalance. “Ah huh, it is nice. Very nice. So nice in fact, that I think it deserves a very special favor…”