The Spider Cave, part 2.

Spiders were hard to chop. They moved strangely and attacked suddenly. He chopped three at start of cave and two more back here but didn’t know how much more he could chop before he respawned. Oak hoped Boss would not be too angry with him, he didn’t want Boss angry with Oak. He was close, not much more, he would respawn soon. If only he could chop one more spider for boss. . .

Oak felt something on his shoulder, not spider, something light and soft. Then something on neck, something nice, something wonderful. Oak felt strong again, more determined to chop. He would chop these spiders good for boss, keep chopping till he respawned.

‘Squish’ went spider under his axe. One more spider, one more, boss would be happy. Oak would kill all spiders to make boss happy. Spiders tough in numbers, not so tough alone. Soon he chopped and spider squished. Oak was weak, but he made it, he turned to find boss.

“Oak! Help! Get this thing off me!” Her voice was muffled but boss was calling, he looked, saw a spider wrapping something in webbing, sticking it to the ground. He saw little legs kicking. The spider pinning her arms, her back.

“Help!” came the desperate cry and Oak’s hesitation ended. He lunged forward as the spider moved behind boss, by her legs. His chop gashed the spider, knocked it off of Boss. It turned, hissed and lunged at Oak, his axe met it in the air, chopping the spider in half.

“Oak! Please!” Boss’s voice wasn’t angry, Boss was scared. Oak knelt down, pulled web off Boss, more web. Oak tried to be careful, Boss had little wings, beautiful weak wings, and Oak was big and clumsy.

“Oh Oak, that was so close, that was so awful. I hate spiders so much.” Boss was crying.

Most of web was off Boss, but wings were all messy and stuck together. Oak picked boss up, held her in his big orc hands.

“Oak, look over there.” Boss pointed to the wall. “Egg sacks, hurry Oak.”

Oak set Boss down, used stick to gather web. He hoped it was enough for bed. Oak didn’t want to fight more spiders. Oak was tired, weak, needed to rest.

“Come on Oak, pick me up, let’s get out of here.” Boss told him. Oak smiled, he didn’t like this cave, he didn’t like spiders.

Oak walked out of the cave, saw the light low in sky, and paused. He set Boss on his shoulder and looked at the light cutting through the wood, touching the ground, making everything beautiful.

“You like the sunset Oak?” Boss asked. Oak felt her lean against him, her tiny shoulder resting on the thick muscles of his neck. Her small, soft legs brushing against his chest.

“Yes, Boss, I like.” Oak sighed and started walking.

Boss couldn’t fly, Oak needed to get her back home before night creatures spawned. Get Boss safe. As they walked Boss rested on his shoulder, and she started to sing, her lovely soft voice singing words he didn’t know, Faerie words. He liked the words though, liked way Boss sang them. He liked singing Boss even better than angry yelling Boss.

When song ended Boss pressed her lips to Oak’s neck again. He felt strong again, like he could fight spiders all night if Boss asked him to.

“Thank you, Oak.” She said. Oak smiled. Big smile like orcs not supposed to make. Oak didn’t care.

Back at their cave Boss climbed in the small pool of water, started telling him things she need for bed. Oak got wood, the special wood he had cut with shiny axe. He got feathers, smiled, remembering Boss plucking them from the hawk. He pulled out the fine spider silk from the egg sacks. He thought about fighting spiders, how hard they were to chop. Then he thought about standing outside the spider cave, looking at light dip low, shine through the uncut wood, feeling boss’s tiny, soft legs on his shoulder.

It was the best day Oak could remember.

He carried all of the things they had gathered to the crafting station. Set them down for Boss to use, then went back. Boss was splashing in the pool, rubbing her tiny boss legs, her small arms, pulling webbing out of her hair. Oak was entranced. Small boss had always been beautiful, but after today she was more, he saw boss kill hawk, saw her help with spiders, felt her lean against him, resting on him. Boss looked up, saw him.

“Um, Oak, are you okay?” She asked.

“Oak is happy.”

“Yeah, I can tell.” She replied. “Hey, I need your help. Can you grab the webbing stuck between my wings? I can’t reach it.”

Oak stepped over to small pool, knelt down and carefully pinched his fingers over the strand of webbing.

“Good, just hold it, don’t pull.”

Boss twisted and splashed and fluttered her wings until the webbing pulled loose.

“Oh, finally.” She cried. “I hope I never see another spider for the rest of my life, Oak. They are awful, just awful.”

“Oak grow strong,” He told her. “Oak chop spiders for boss.”

“Yeah, if you were stronger you would kill all the spiders, wouldn’t you?”

“Oak kill all spiders for boss.” In that moment, he meant it, if Boss asked him to, he would go back to spider cave, chop till he respawned. Then he would respawn, go back, and chop them again.

“You are sweet Oak.” Boss stretched her wings and lifted off the floor. “By the rainbow, it feels so good to be free of that awful webbing." She flew around a bit, then turned to Oak with a smile. "Alright, Oak, follow me. We have a bed to make.”

Oak followed Boss to the crafting station. She looked at the pile of things, looked at the station, then turned to Oak. “Okay, big guy, do your thing.”

Oak punched the pile of things a few times, and it turned into a bed, a big dark wood bed covered in red. It looked soft, it looked good enough for Boss. Boss looked at bed, looked at Oak, back at bed.

“Okay, Oak, put it in your inventory, then take it out and put it right over here.” Boss said pointing. Oak obeyed. When he placed it where she wanted it was even bigger than before. It was orc sized bed now, the bed looked more orcish too, smooth lines were now jagged and twisted. Bed still looked soft, but too big for Boss.

“Boss?”

“Come on Oak, you need another bath.” Oak followed again, but this time after Oak splashed in water, Boss flew to his chest.

“Hold still Oak.” Boss pulled out some moss and started rubbing it against his chest. Oak felt his face get hot, felt his pants grow tighter.

“Boss. . .”