Octavia looked at me with her rows of unblinking eyes. "You want us to go down into the Shimmergrove together?" she asked. "How?"

"Your spider threads are strong enough that you could carry me while lowering yourself," I said. "If I recall correctly, you did exactly that within a minute of seeing me for the first time."

"I did," she said. "And I could do it again. This would be going a lot further, but I could do it. But I can't be near you when you're using that breath attack. Or, at least, I don't want to be nearby, even if it's just the paralyzing attack. That's why I wanted to send you ahead."

"You don't have to be that close," I said. "We're underground, but this place might as well be outdoors for how much open space there is. That was why my breath attacks were so ineffective at wiping out anything besides a few stick bugs. You can hang out at the top of a tree, or retreat some distance away. Or drop me off, then go up as high as you need to be outside of the attack radius. I'll clear out the area, gather as much fruit as I can under the temporary cover, then when the gas dissipates, you can scoop it up and we'll both be out of there before the bugs work up the courage to encroach on what I've found."

Octavia pondered it, and I could see her pantomiming something out with one of her legs, as if she was trying to sketch the scene out in her mind. "Okay," she finally said. "I think that's a good idea. A great idea, even."

She spent the next several minutes creating another tether and testing it to make sure it could safely hold both our weights. Once she was confident in her setup, she quickly assembled a web sling to hold me (thankfully consisting of mostly non-sticky thread), and we began the descent.

"Is it just me, or are we going even slower than last time?" I asked.

"We are," she said. "You're heavy, so I'm trying to be careful with how fast we move down."

"If I'm heavy, then so are you," I said in a tone that I hoped came across as joking.

"Yes, we're heavy," she said. "I'm several hundred pounds, and you're even heavier than I am. More fleshy parts."

"Yeah," I said. "I think my bones are also probably denser than whatever chitin it is that makes up your exoskeleton. I assume you don't have an internal skeleton."

She pondered that for a moment. "Yes, I think you're right. I don't have a skeleton inside of me. That's…weird to think about. And to think, that as a human child, I was more bothered to learn that did have a skeleton inside of me."

As we slowly sunk into the abyss below, minutes passed in silence. Any anxiety I might have felt about what we had prepared was almost entirely replaced with boredom by now. I broke the silence by asking, "Is there a reason we couldn't have rappelled down separately? Would that have been faster?"

"You didn't rappel," she said. "You had a thread tied around you, and I lowered you by feeding you thread. Very different. I was the one doing all the work. And when I lowered myself, I was also doing all the work. I can't do both those jobs at the same time. We can only have a single tether running at once."

"Yeah, you're right," I said, now feeling dumb for having suggested the idea.

We finally got to the tops of some of the taller trees, and Octavia came to a stop. "Can I drop you onto this tree?" she asked.

"Are you sure the branches will hold my weight?" I asked. "After all, I am heavy."

"They can hold my weight easily," she said. "And if they can't, there's not very far to fall."

I looked at the branches, considering their thickness, then considered the distance I'd fall if one of them happened to snap, trying to judge the amount of fall damage I might take. If it did, I'd probably hit several other branches along the way, which would probably be less comfortable but also slow my fall considerably. "Okay," I said. "If I'm going to try this experiment, I may as well try it when you'll be right above, ready to scoop me out of danger if anything goes wrong."

Octavia set me down gingerly on the tree. I slipped and I briefly felt the sensation of falling as my hind legs failed to find purchase, but I was able to hold onto the branch with my foreclaws, and with a bit of struggle, I managed to sink my hind legs into the tree's trunk.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Fine," I said. "Not a weight problem, just a balance problem." It was surprising that the tree held my weight so well: the trunk was less than two feet in diameter, but it seemed able to support me just fine, provided I knew where to grip it. I looked up at Octavia and spoke again. "I don't really have much tree-climbing experience in this body. It's kind of a different skill from rock climbing, but I think I'll manage." I experimented by swinging my lower legs, and caught one of the lower branches. I tested the sureness of my lower grip, then released my foreclaw grip on the top branch to swing down a level.

"Wait," she said. "Hold on a moment."

I looked up, and watched as Octavia spun another sling, similar to the one that had held me.

"What's that for?" I asked.

"The fruit," she said. "I'll be carrying two bundles back up with me, one with you, and one with whatever fruit you procure."

"Ah, yeah," I said. "A grocery tote. Easier to carry everything back home when you don't have to carry each item separately, even if you do have eight appendages."

"Right," she said.

As she worked, I looked down at the ground below us, scoping things out to see if there were any spots that seemed particularly fruit-rich. I saw two armored ants carrying the same large fruit I had seen earlier — in fact, it might have even been the same fruit (though a different pair of ants, considering that one of them had been ruthlessly gored by some kind of centipede creature). The bright orange color of the fruit made it impossible to miss. Octavia seemed to see it too. "That would be ideal," she said, pointing. "The melons. They grow on the rockroot vines. See those?" She pointed at some vines that looked like ivy covering one of the larger pieces of glowstone. "If you can bring me several of those, I'll be very happy."

"Noted," I said. "Shall I be off, then?"

"Yes," she said. "Go and do your thing. I'll stay up here. If you can just roll the fruit over to the base of the tree, I can handle the rest."

"Got it," I said. I lowered myself to the next branch down, then repeated the maneuver several times, relying mostly on my tail's sense of touch to judge the distance to the next branch each time. I landed on the ground, and looked for the vines that Octavia had pointed out.

As I walked, I constantly found myself pushing foliage aside, and several times discovered ants that didn't start moving until I was practically on top of them. The first several I ran across in this manner, I tried swiping at, but after several "tings" of my claw bouncing off their exoskeleton, I gave up, and was content to let them run away.

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After walking a short distance, I saw a vine with four of the massive rockroot melons — and then I saw the swarming mass of centipedes lying around it. At first, I thought it was just one long coiled insects, but after several minutes, I could make out the heads of at least three individual centipedes. I wasn't sure whether that was more or less threatening. Would I rather face one giant centipede, or many smaller centipedes? Not like I have a choice in the matter. They were all coiled in what I'm sure they thought was an inconspicuous position. Typical ambush predator behavior: find the herbivore's food source, then use it as bait to lure prey in.

For a moment, I considered engaging the centipedes in a 'fair fight' of tooth and claw, but then my mind went back to the armored ant, and the ease with which a centipede had been able to pierce it. Better to stick to what I was naturally good at. I exhaled [noxious breath], and watched the centipedes writhe for a moment before fleeing. I pounced toward one, but it easily evaded me, leaving me alone inside my gas cloud, alone with the three giant melons.

SP: 11/16

Stick bug defeated! 2% exp toward next level Stick bug defeated! 2% exp toward next level

More unlucky collateral. Odd that even as they died, I still couldn't see them. Camouflaged, even in death.

My first thought had been to drag the vine that the melons were attached to, but I wasn't prepared for the weight of them: each of them probably weighed around 100 pounds, and I found that I had a much easier time cutting them free with my teeth and rolling them, two at a time. I delivered the first two to Octavia, then went back for the next two. By the time I returned the [noxious breath] cloud had dissipated so I unleashed another gas cloud, as the centipedes were starting to approach again — their movements were cautious, but they were getting too close for my comfort.

SP: 10/16

Less than a minute later, I returned to Octavia, who had already finished bundling up the other two melons.

"Is this a good haul for one day?"

"It's good, yes," she said. "Are you going back for the last one?"

I glanced behind me. "Did I miss a melon?"

"Yes, you did," she said. "I was watching from the treeline. It's behind some leaves, but it's definitely there."

"Alright," I said. If I could make two trips to the vine, then I could make a third. By the time I arrived, the centipedes hadn't reconverged — maybe they were twice bitten, once shy? I grabbed the final melon and began rolling it back to Octavia.

Since I only had one melon to roll back this time, I tried pushing it faster this time – instead of keeping a claw on it at all times, I shoved it as hard as I could, then chased after it, throwing part of my weight into it when I caught up to it – a bit like dribbling a soccer ball, following the ball rather than constantly maintaining control of it. The melon's almost-spherical shape made that easy, up until the moment that it hit a bit of extruded rock and bounced off the path I was taking.

I chased after the melon, following it down a shallow embankment, relieved to see that it had only dropped a few feet before landing. I watched as a group of armored ants moved from the spot where it had landed. For a moment, I was worried that the ants might try to fight me for custody of the melon, but they all fled as soon as I approached. The ground here was wetter and softer, which had caused the melon to leave a sizable dent in the ground upon landing, but I was relieved to discover that it hadn't become stuck in the mud. With a bit of effort, I was able to push the melon back up the embankment. The pushing was easy, but as I rolled the melon uphill, I saw that there was a chunk of glowstone embedded in its rind: apparently, it had landed on a shard of the glowing rock when it took its tumble. The shard was pretty firmly wedged into the melon, but it didn't seem to interfere with its ability to roll, so I decided to leave it in, not sure removing it would make things work. What was it they always said? If you get stabbed, don't remove the knife unless you're ready to start bleeding everywhere. Perhaps the same was true of melons and the juice that they held.

Once I had rolled the melon out of the ditch, I resumed my course, this time proceeding with greater caution as I had with the melons before. Fortunately, no insects came to assault me as I rolled it, which almost had me wondering if perhaps the threat that the Shimmergrove posed had been exaggerated in my mind. Several minutes later, I arrived at the tree where Octavia was waiting for me, sitting atop the highest branches. She gave me a wave as I arrived.

She had left a sticky-web sling at the bottom for me to roll the melon into, which I did. She began hoisting the melon up. As she worked, she spoke to me in a tone that sounded like a mixture of scolding and concern. "That last melon took you awhile."

I looked up at her. "I was in a hurry. Can we go now?"

"You were in a hurry, so it took you longer?"

"Yes, I tried taking shortcuts, it backfired, I can tell you the story later. Shall we be on our way now?"

Octavia inspected the fruit, turning it over. "The rind is damaged."

"Yes, mistakes were made," I said. "Mostly by me. Entirely by me, in fact. Is it a problem?"

"I suppose not," she said, prying out the piece of glowstone that was wedged into the melon. She tossed it aside. "The smell might attract more critters, but we're already on our way."

"Music to my ears," I said. "Let's go."

She lowered another sling for me — this time offering one of the non-sticky variety, likely the same one I had ridden down in. I stepped into the sling, and waited for her to start lifting. Several seconds passed as I waited for the sling to move. I felt a slight nudge, then nothing.

"Ready when you are," I said, glancing upward.

"Hold on a moment," she said. Several more seconds passed. I felt a slight tug, then nothing. "Do we have a problem?" I asked.

"You're heavy," she said.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure we established that earlier," I said.

"So are the melons," she said. "Having five melons is like having an additional Drew to carry. That's more than I can handle."

"Okay," I said. "How many melons can we take up with us?"

"Two, maybe? Making three or more trips would be very time-consuming," she said. "And I would worry that the melons wouldn't be waiting for us when I got back."

"Do you want me to stay and guard the melons?" I asked.

"No need to leave them for you to guard," she said. "If you can guard yourself, then I can take up all the melons. Then I can come back for you."

I hesitated. "Should I be worried?"

"I won't be more than a few minutes away," said Octavia. "If things go well, then it will take me a while to get all of the melons up there. But if things go badly down here, I can drop the melons and come down quickly to assist you. I'll keep an eye on you."

"Okay," I said. "We've come this far. I've already survived at least ten minutes down here, and not so much as a scratch to show for it. I can survive another ten or fifteen minutes waiting for you to deliver the goods."

"Wonderful," she said. "Like I said, I'll keep an eye on you."

"Don't come down unless it looks like I really need it," I said. "After going to the effort of rolling all those things, I don't want you dropping all the melons and erasing all our progress unless my life is in serious danger. I think I can fend pretty well against whatever's down here."

"Understood," she said. With that, she began her slow ascent upwards.

I decided to do the same, and began ascending the tree, though my method involved relying on my own muscle. Before long, I too was perched on the top of the tree, awaiting Octavia's return, now feeling silly for having worried about being left alone here: while the floor of the Shimmergrove was filled with plenty of insects, the branches up here had nothing going on. I noticed a clump of centipedes, and watched with detached disinterest. They scuttled over to the vine where I had retrieved the melons from, then began heading elsewhere. To pass the time, I studied the centipedes, trying to see how many individual ones I could pick out from among their writhing mass. I lost count after four — they were moving so much that past a certain point, it was hard to tell whether I was seeing a new centipede, or a different one, especially with how violently and randomly they seemed to be scuttling. They could scuttle all they wanted; I was perfectly content to watch from my perch above.

I watched with fascination as the centipedes seemed to follow the same path I had rolled the melons down, and I realized that the ground, while relatively hard and thick with glowstone, also had large patches of soft dirt where the melons I'd rolled had left dents — no doubt the centipedes were fascinated by the change I had introduced to the landscape in the process of removing their melons. Their scuttling finally led them to the base of the tree I was perched in, and I watched in amusement as they circled the tree trunk, each centipede following the tail of the one before it, as if they collectively summed up to a dog chasing its own tail.

Then, they stopped running in circles, and approached the tree trunk. A moment later, my breath caught in my throat as my amusement was replaced by a different emotion as I watched the centipedes approach the tree. At first, I thought they would attempt to climb it, but then I saw that they were doing something else entirely. The centipedes' mandibles – the same sort of mandibles that I'd seen break an armored ant's exoskeleton – were now biting the trunk of the tree I was sitting in.