Today was a momentous occasion for the entire Spider Kingdom. The Spider King was holding the hand of his wife, she was coiled at an awkward position, her muscles tense, and her breaths heavy. Something like this would be an intimate affair in most cultures, but in this particular case the soon-to-be parents were surrounded by spiders and Lamia alike; it was a public affair and part of traditional Lamia ritual.
Even in this crucial moment, or maybe because of its significance, the Spider King had a plethora of anxious thoughts. He was becoming a father, yes! But the two of them were of different species so understandably he had worries about how the child might turn out. What if it was some sort of mutant? But even then, he would love and take care of that child.
The idle thoughts and anxieties were meaningless, so instead, “Push!” he encouraged.
The Lamia Queen hissed sharply “SSS!”
“Pu…” He tried to encourage again but, “it's out? It’s out!”
It was over as soon as it began. Apparently, the Lamia didn’t have to strain as much as humans did during their labour. He looked at the freshly laid egg, it was rather large, its shell leathery and pale, and it looked exactly like your average Lamia egg.
“Wait…” He realised something, and his own naivety made him blush in embarrassment. That was because he expected a child here and there but… “We’ll have to wait for the egg to hatch, right?”
“That’s-sss right.” The Lamia Queen picked the egg into her arms with affection. “Put it with the rest of them.”
The Friendly Lamia took the egg ever so carefully to bring it to the Lamia Hatchery.
For an obvious reason, he felt overly protective about the egg. “Can we keep it here in our room?”
“No-sss, it might not look it, but the egg is Royal Lamia Egg, it holds-sss a princess inside. As-sss is tradition, It has to stay with the rest of the eggs. You sss-see…”
The Lamia Queen went on to explain that the presence of the Royal Lamia Egg will influence other eggs in the hatchery. The new hatchlings will be born already feeling loyalty to the new princess, they will be her servants from the time of birth. This was how new Lamia Villages were made. So, in other words, even if the egg looked ordinary, it was nothing but.
“I too was destined to leave my village, but you know what happened…”
“Yeah, the Worm and the…” The death of old Lamia Queen. “I’m sorry for that.” The mood grew heavy for a moment.
“No, sss, don’t be. If it didn’t happen, I would have never been your wife.”
Never say never, but, “I see what you mean. So anyway, will it take long?”
“A few months perhaps.”
So, he’ll need to wait a bit more until he meets his child. Yet, he had another pressing question.
“You’ve said it will be a princess, but can it be a prince?”
“A boy lamia, sss? That never had happened.”
So, it is impossible, meaning that he was destined to have daughters only. Not that it was bad.
“I can’t wait for her to hatch!” He exclaimed hugging his wife.
“SSS!” She hissed affectionately, “Me too. I know, sss, she’s destined for greatness.”
“Of course, she is our child!”
The egg hadn’t even hatched but the two parents were already pushing their wild hopes onto it.
The Royal Lamia Egg was put to rest with the rest of the eggs in the Lamia Hatchery, blending in perfectly. Despite looking exactly like the others, the Lamia knew the egg was special. It might have been smell or something magical in nature, but the Spider King didn’t possess the ability to tell the otherwise identical eggs apart. If he wanted to know he had to go and Identify each egg. Which was a hassle. So he proposed marking it, to which he was promptly denied. Apparently, it was a type of survival strategy to have the special egg mixed with all the others. Even if, the MegaFarm was super safe, the Lamia insisted on this tradition. In the end, the egg was left to incubate, such things couldn’t be rushed.
While we’re on the matter of Lamia hatchlings, a certain group of Chaos Lamia were experiencing a growth spurt. May it be because of their unique mutation, or suitable environment, they were outgrowing their Cave Lamia peers. That particular spawn wasn’t just hatchlings hunting stray squirrels in TomGrape fields, they were now in their teenage phase. It was scary how quickly some monster races could grow! And as teenagers do, they were looking to make trouble. But in better words, they were just looking for their place in this strange world.
The issue was that the Cave Lamia, while they tolerated Chaos Lamia, didn’t recognise them as a part of their ‘tribe’. It was rather frustrating for the Spider King and otherwise a stupid problem. His wife, Lamia Queen also didn’t recognise them as her subjects, and as she did predict, the Chaos Lamia didn’t recognise her as their Queen either. In other words, there was this awkward situation where the girls, Cave Lamia and Chaos Lamia, didn’t want to talk with each other and just excluded or ignored one another. This was very sad, but a common occurrence even between humans.
However, Chaos Lamia weren’t human, so a typical solution might not even work. It was so bad now that the teenagers were even trying to pick fights with Cave Lamia. It was clear they were trying to claw some recognition and status here. And it was particularly hard to control them since they had no Queen to unite and guide them; at least, not yet.
However! There was an authority they recognised… a certain airheaded tippity top man.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
…
The Spider King, was walking down the familiar cobble path to store the freshly acquired Slug Jelly. This had become an integral part of his daily routine, he would enjoy fondling… no, acquiring the most precious substance in the Monster Realm. Something only he was allowed to do, and what great honour it was! But he wasn’t there at the Johny’s shed for tomboyish foolery, he was also there to receive reports on what was happening in Aurelian Dutchy. Simply put, the preparations were going well and that was that.
But maybe it’s not all that. Recently his idyllic walk to the jelly vault had attracted an increasing crowd of spectators. No, they weren’t spiders, it was a flock of curious girls. They slithered in the shadows trailing just behind him. They were hiding under their ability to cast Illusion. But they were merely children playing with their perks, it had zero effect on him. Yet, he had to wonder, why did they decide to pick on him?
For some time already, he’d been ignoring their antics hoping they’d get bored. However, that didn’t happen, if anything their stalking only increased.
“Ahh, if only there was a Queen to deal with the lot of you.” He alluded to the lack of a leader among the Chaos Lamia. “With my two eyes, I spy… One Lamia.” He pointed directly at the Illusion. “Two Lamia, Three Lamia, Four…” He began pointing them all.
The blatant detection like this made them lose composure and break their illusions.
“SSS!” The lamia number twelve hissed bashfully and slithered hurriedly to hide beneath the vine-web.
The Spider King kept walking and detecting all the lamias on his path.
“The trouble children can’t hide from my watchful eyes. Ha-Ha-Ha!” He cackled like a villain. “You can’t prank the King. The naughty Lamia will be caught and punished!” He threatened but only playfully.
Yet still, the Chaos Lamia stalked from the shadows, or at least they tried.
“With my two eyes, I spy… Trouble!” He let go of the two buckets he was holding and launched into a sprint. “I caught you!” He grasped the Lamia by her tail breaking her Illusion. She was trying to pretend to be a rock, how dumb… There were no rocks in MegaFarm, like none! “Now you pay!” He reached.
“No! SSS!” The lamia hissed in terror.
“Tickle, tickle, tickle.” The punishment was merciless, and by having a Lamia wife he already knew all the weak spots.
“S-s-s!” The lamia squirmed and coiled. “Help!” She begged for her allies.
“You have to stop playing pranks on others and picking fights with Cave Lamia.”
“No!” The lamia remained defiant despite the relentless assault.
“Bad children will be punished with tickles! Tickle, tickle, tickle.”
“S-s-s!” The lamia was cry-laughing now, and unfortunately none of her ‘allies’ came to help.
“I won’t stop until you promise to behave! Tickle, tickle, tickle.”
“No… S-s-s!” The lamia squirmed. “I… I…”
“I can’t hear you!” But then… “Oh, no!” He overdid it. The defiant lamia peed herself.
Understandably, he let her go that instant.
“I promise to behave! Wha-aaa!” She slithered away in tears.
“I’m sorry about that!” He shouted to the distance.
But hey, as mean as it was, the Lamia troublemakers disappeared from his near surroundings. So, he took that victory while promising himself not to overdo it next time. He grabbed the two buckets and continued to the vault without being assaulted by an attack of Illusions.
Unbeknownst to the King, the spider peacekeeper observed the entire interaction. Like the King, the spiders too struggled to deal with the unruly teenagers.
“Bad children. Will be punished. With tickles.” The spider chirped happily at this piece of wisdom. “If the Spider King says so. The spiders will do so.” It nodded vigorously.
That day, the Chaos Lamia received what they deserved.
As odd as it might be, the next day, on his walk to the vault the King was assaulted with even more Illusions. It was not revenge, it happened because the Chaos Lamia turned to like this odd game he was playing, and the threat of punishment only made it more thrilling. Hence, the game of detection and punishment became a part of the daily routine. But soon the Chaos Lamia began targeting him not just during the morning walk but anytime he was out for something. They were rather enjoying the attention they were getting. Yes, at times it was annoying, but it was not all that bad, maybe it was the attention they needed or someone to tire them out, but ever since they stopped picking fights with spiders or Cave Lamia.
The Chaos Lamia used Illusion to blend into their surroundings, very much like Cave Lamia’s Camouflage perk. And they were getting very good at it. It was becoming harder and harder to spy any Lamia with his two eyes. But the game wasn’t meant to end there.
“With my two eyes, sss,” Someone hissed from disguise. “I spy Spider King.”
He turned to look at the direction of the voice. “Where are you?” He narrowed his eyes. “Aha!” He ran towards the trunk of IronOak, a part of it broke off and attempted to escape. “Caught you!” He dispensed the punishment.
As the game carried on, he noticed something rather peculiar. A Centauri was walking towards him. It wasn’t entirely a rare sight to see them walking from one place to the other, but there was something critically wrong with this one.
“Ha! You can’t fool me!” He caught up with Centauri in no time at all and grabbed for her chest. “Those weapons are way too small!” Naturally, his hands grasped only air. “Got you!” He caught the lamia.
“No! SSS! I worked on this for weeks!” She protested. “S-s-s. No, stop, I’ll pee!”
“Ha! You’re bluffing! You made a rookie mistake and shall be punished! Tickle, tickle, tickle.”
Maybe she wasn’t bluffing, or maybe out of spite, the Lamia peed herself…
Later that evening, when he was back home, the Queen Lamia sniffed at him. Her eyes narrowed and her face developed a scowl.
“Those scoundrels-sss! SSS! They’re marking their territory, sss, claiming sss-someone who isn’t theirs to claim.” She hissed in displeasure.
He understood only part of it. “Huh?”
“They peed on you on purpose. To sss-spite me!”
“Oh, I think it was just an accident. It must have been only a drop, I didn’t even notice.” He said so in his defence.
The Lamia Queen gave him a suspicious look. “I'm glad you managed to tame them. But don’t overdo it, sss. The other Lamia might grow jealous of all the attention they get.”
By other Lamia she must mean her, and her only, regardless of that he replied, “Of course, I’ll make sure to play with the Cave Lamia hatchlings too. So all is fair.” That bunch was still chasing squirrels but soon they too might decide to make trouble. “Consider all of this as me trying to get experience in interacting with children. Soon we’ll have our own trouble to look after.”
“Our child will make no trouble, sss!” She hissed all too sure of herself.
“Of course, it won’t.”
“SSS-speaking of trouble.” She handed him an envelope. “From the Dark Fortress.” She was entrusted to receive messages like these in his absence.
The seal was broken meaning that she had read it already. “Trouble?” He took the parchment out of the envelope reading it all start to finish. “Bad JuJu?”
“Sss, I don’t know anymore than you do.”
The letter described a disturbance happening in the Dark Fortress, something was haunting the humans in the Catacombs preventing them from working to expand them. That something was simply described as ‘Bad JuJu’. But that was only a kobold superstition, right?
“They want me to investigate it for them.”
“Yes-sss, I’ve read the letter.”
“Wanna tag along?”
“SSS! No, too cold, you handle that. And it sss-sounds too ominous-sss!”
“Not you too!”
The superstition of Bad JuJu claimed yet another victim.