...and it's a good one!

"What's for lunch?" Teysa asked as the two of them set out. Aliara looked back at her over her shoulder.

"Roast fish and rye bread, with wine to follow. It's waiting for us when we arrive."

"Arrive where?" Teysa asked. She was a little frustrated at Aliara's teasing tone. "Li, where are we going?"

"You'll see!" Aliara practically skipped along ahead of Teysa, forcing her to push herself to keep up. Moving too fast sent stabbing pains through her side, and she swallowed hard. When she closed her eyes, she could still see the ragged cut in her mind's eye. The desire had come upon her so suddenly, like a summer storm, and departed the same way... and yet, curled deep in her gut, she could feel it, a lurking serpent of an idea. Free yourself. Cut this corruption from your body. Make yourself whole again.

She shuddered and pushed it down. The darkness receded with a chuckle. I'll be back. You'll see.

Aliara, noticing Teysa's grimace of pain, slowed down and extended a hand. Teysa took it and the two of them picked their way across the rocky floor. They were entering an unfinished section of the caverns, an area that had only recently been unearthed. That happened sometimes: it was always easier to connect to an expand an existing cave system than try to dig an entirely new one. This one had had its passages widened to accommodate drider bodies, but the floor and walls had not yet been planed smooth.

Up ahead, the tunnel constricted so far that Teysa feared she wouldn't be able to pass through it. She turned sideways and extended half of her legs through, then used them to pull herself through the gap. Stone brushed against her abdomen, and she closed her eyes and shivered. Having her abdomen touched was still bizarre; it was a part of her, undeniably, but a strange and alien part, and part of her brain kept stubbornly insisting that there was nothing there.

Aliara waited patiently while Teysa struggled through, then spread her arms like a street performer. "Ta-daaaaaaaaa!"

The cave they had just entered was wide and high-ceilinged, clear of the rocky outcroppings and speleothems of the other new diggings. Teysa looked around in wonder. Huge patches of the ceiling were covered in glowing moss. The light they shed was soft and silver, as bright as a full moon on a clear night. It illuminated a shallow, bowl-shaped depression that took up most of the cave. At the center was a pool, perhaps thirty feet across, of dark, shimmering water. It was not stagnant, but flowed from a waterfall that tumbled down the back wall with a dull roar. Overspill from the edge of the bowl fell away into a steep ravine at the far side of the pool and disappeared into the darkness below.

The floor of the cave sloped downward towards the pool, and the last eight or nine feet at the water's edge were dark sand, as black and shiny as obsidian. It looked for all the world like a pleasant little beach by a pond, aside from the uniformly dark cast to the sand and water. Tiny waves gently lapped against the shore.

Two figures sat on the beach, one humanoid and one much larger. Lil'esh waved to the new arrivals. "Aliara!" she called. "And Teysa! You made it!" She was all smiles, dressed in a silk robe that tied around her middle with a sash. Behind her, Jy'ven clutched a wicker basket to her expansive bosom. She looked bashful, but waved with the fingers of one hand.

"This is your surprise?" Teysa asked under her breath. Aliara nodded.

"Yes! I thought you might benefit from spending some time with friends. And Lil'esh asked if Jy'ven could come. They've become quite close, apparently." There was a hook in that sentence, a hint of something left unsaid, but Teysa didn't care to dig deeper. Her earlier unease was melting away in the face of Lil'esh's happy smile and Jy'ven's shyer one.

She and Aliara made their way over to the beach. Lil'esh had spread a silk blanket out across the fine-grained black sand and sat demurely on it. Behind her, Jy'ven was still holding the basket protectively in front of her breasts. Lil'esh beckoned, and the drider set it down with an awkward grin on her face. Jy'ven was an ambrosia mother, one of the heavy-breasted driders who nursed the spiderlings (and the other warren members, when it came to that). Most of them were dull-eyed and placid-- Aliara used to refer to them as "spider-cows" before an embarrassed Teysa put a stop to it-- but she was lively and engaging. Her hair had been styled into a half-hawk that tumbled down one side of her head in a snow-white avalanche, leaving the other side of her scalp bare. She wore only a silk scarf, but Teysa could see her shifting her body uncomfortably in an effort to cover her breasts. This was difficult-- even by the standards of the driders, who were uniformly well-endowed, Jy'ven's bust was exceptional. A constant trickle of milky ambrosia dribbled from her fat indigo nipples.

Teysa laid a hand on the other drider's shoulder, making her wince. <Jy'ven,> she said in the drider language. <Do you want a shirt like mine? I can talk to El'keth.>

Jy'ven looked up at her in surprise. <There is no problem, Tey'sa, no problem at all. I shouldn't-->

<If you want to cover yourself, you should. You have that right. Don't be embarrassed.>

Relief flooded Jy'ven's features. <Thank you, Teysa,> she said. <I would like that very much, I think. Do you think she can make me a red one?>

Aliara had drawn back with an involuntary hiss when Teysa began speaking. Now she looked up suspiciously. "What are you two talking about, hm? Care to include us?"

"Just clothing," Teysa said, feeling a little foolish. She had slipped so easily and so naturally into the drider tongue that she hadn't realized what she was doing until just then. "Sorry, I just wasn't sure if she understood Common."

"I unterstant a lit-tle," said Jy'ven, the words thick and halting. Her voice was low and surprisingly rich. She laid one hand over her heart and bowed her head towards the half-elf. "I am fery pleas-ed to make yur acquaintance, Aliara."

Lil'esh let out a delighted little giggle and clapped her hands. "Very good! See? All that practice paid off."

Jy'ven beamed, her embarrassment forgotten. She reached into the basket. "We eat?"

Aliara had, if anything, undersold the meal. The rye bread came in little brown loaves, each dusted with flour. Grain was a rarity in the Underneath, and Teysa wondered how far the bread had come. The fish was seared perfectly, cut into cubes and dusted with spices. Four crystal tumblers had been packed into the basket, and Aliara made sure they stayed topped off with sweet red wine. "This is from the Vi'teen vineyards," she explained. "Grapes grown in pitch darkness. I don't know how the drow do it, but it's supposed to be some of the finest in the world." She swished some around in her mouth and swallowed, then shrugged. "Just tastes like wine to me, but I'm no expert."

Teysa had always eschewed ****, not because of holy vows but because she didn't like the unsteady feeling of drunkenness. Now, though, she found she could sip the stuff like fruit juice. After three glasses, her head was as clear as a bell. Jy'ven, too, seemed as reserved as ever, but Lil'esh and Aliara were starting to reel a little. "I think..." the half-elf declared, one finger in the air. "I think... we should go for a swim!"

"Is it safe?" Teysa asked. The water was ominously black. She could just picture dreadful serpents and scaled horrors coiling at the bottom of the pond.

"Safe enough," Lil'esh replied. "We've-- I've swum here before. A little cold, but you get used to it." She grabbed her belt and tugged it loose, then shrugged her robe to the floor. Beneath it she wore only a pair of silken smallclothes that hugged her ample hips. She stood and stretched unselfconsciously, letting her long hair billow out behind her. Her stomach was flat with faint squares of muscle visible beneath, her arms and legs long and graceful. She stood en pointe like a dancer, then bent to touch her toes. Her breasts, small but pert and well-formed, swung free, and Teysa couldn't help noticing the way Jy'ven tracked them with her eyes.

Aliara, too, disrobed. She wore smallclothes and a tight silken bra that clung to her body. Teysa felt an absurd and embarrassing surge of relief-- for some reason, she was glad Aliara was being slightly more modest than Lil'esh. She told herself that she was being unfair and jealous, and she knew she was right, but that did not make the feelings disappear. Teysa herself debated removing her shirt, but decided to keep it on; she had nothing on underneath. She was still working to find a balance between modesty and the realities of her new form. She checked her poultice, expecting a stinging pain, and was surprised to feel nothing of the sort. When the silk was removed, the cut beneath had sealed itself perfectly, leaving only a thin pale line in her flesh. Teysa marveled at it. That's not just the medicine, she thought. This body heals fast.

"Come on!" Aliara shouted. "Last one in is a spiderling!" She dashed for the pond and threw herself in head-first. Teysa's breath caught in her throat when Aliara vanished beneath the night-black water, but she emerged a moment later, sputtering and laughing. Lil'esh dove in after her and began to tread water, only her face visible above the surface. Jy'ven scuttled forward, a little uncertain, then simply waded in; by the time she reached the spot where Aliara and Jy'ven were frolicking, the water had barely covered her navel.

All three of them turned to Teysa. "Coming, spiderling?" Aliara asked, and paddled back and forth a little. "It's-- ooh, yes, it's a little brisk, but you'll adjust. Come on!"

Teysa hesitated for only a moment. Her uncertainties, her fears, they would wait for later. "I'll show you who's a spiderling!" she roared and charged forward, sending up a massive curtain of spray that soaked all three of her companions. They laughed and laughed, and Teysa joined them. The sound of her laughter-- an unfamiliar sound, and one she had sorely missed-- echoed off the walls and the silvery, glowing ceiling.