North towards the Arachne capital

Progress is not particularly fast. You can tell that Mistress is moving far more slowly than she could alone, but she seems tolerant of how much her eggs are slowing you down.

Your walk continues until lunchtime, when you take a break to eat, but then continues until mid-afternoon, by which point you are utterly exhausted.

As you struggle to put one foot in front of the other, Mistress looks at you. "OK, stop here, Tarissa," she says.

"I am impressed that you got as far as you did," she continues after a pause. "Not many new slaves could do that on the day after their first breeding. As a reward, I will carry you the rest of the way." She crouches down and motions to her back.

"That said, I do expect that you will work to improve your stamina even more. As my ****, you represent me. Even if I am not unreasonable in my expectations, it will reflect poorly on me if my **** is not capable of working a whole day when necessary."

"Of course, Mistress," you reply as you climb on her back.

=======

The remainder of the journey is far quicker, eight legs far outpacing two in the forest terrain. By the time the sun begins to set, you can see occasional webs in the trees overhead, slaves and Arachne moving around on them.

"This will do nicely," Mistress says. "It will only be a few minutes walk into town from here in the morning. You should cook yourself a meal, while I set up a temporary web between these trees."

You make a fire to cook another chunk of meat from Xyl's bag, occasionally glancing up into the gloomy sky to see Mistress working on the web. She descends on a silk thread to eat her own meal, ordering you to hang the hammock (which you brought with you) between two of the trees once you are finished eating. Then she suggests that you go to bed, so as not to be late again in the morning.

You follow that advice, and drift off quickly after a tiring day.