RP: The Spider Named Scraps
- The Spider Named Scraps
After the point in time where Layla discovered that she could sometimes trick the kraken into providing fish for her, the child found that eating was at least a little bit easier. Using the pond was still not a great option as it required her to travel deeper into the forest where the dangers were greater. So she kept those trips to a minimum. She often found, as well, that the kraken trick was providing more fish than she could eat before it started to rot, and rotting food in the forest was dangerous no matter where you stayed.
She had one time spotted a creature dwelling in the trees eliminate an entire camping group that had dared to light a campfire, and even if the child had the tools to do so herself, she probably would have been too nervous to try. Her fish was often eaten raw, though her kitten side rather enjoyed this aspect, and the scraps tossed into the underbrush for smaller critters to dispose of.
Little did she know; some of the baby spiders of the Dark Abyssal types sometimes lived in the underbrush. It was easier for them to catch small prey without fear of being exposed to the larger of their kind, or the other creatures of the trees. At the time that Layla still hadn't figured out a great way to manage her food, this little critter had been fortunate enough to benefit from the child's discarded scraps.
As some spiders are predisposed to do, it found itself interested in following this bountiful source of food. This particular baby spider, though Layla did not know it, was of a more mild egg-batch that was great for domestication. As the creature grew in size, living always just out of sight, the child began to notice the skin-molts, the extra high number of squirrel skulls in an area, the musty smell of fresh webs and spider-dust.
Then one day the spider, about the frame of a medium sized dog, cautiously presented itself to the child. She was startled of course, being approached by something that could still probably eat her. With a shriek she had jolted up a mostly barren tree, forgetting that the spiders were prone to climbing and living in them. The spider dropped a web-tangled bird to the ground under the tree before retreating.
Though Layla could not understand, the spider had; the two of them shared a bit of mutualism. A benefit to co-existing. Having noticed the child had not provided scraps for a few days, the spider took it to mean the child had failed to hunt. In an effort to preserve it's otherwise free food source, the spider did the work of one meal in hopes of receiving several more. It took a few similar encounters for Layla to understand what the spider was doing but eventually she grew accustomed to the company.
Not to mention; she finally had someone to talk to.