Months had gone by since the conversation with the jumi commander. The new spiders I found and brought back needed time to live in the cave, and somehow turn into new drider. I wasn't sure how long their lifespans were, but it wasn't like I was going to kill them just because I wanted their species added into what I could birth.
If I could birth them anyway! I knew that my current children were all spiders, except for Sting and Cletus, but they each had their own slight differences in rulesets, I guess. I don't know how Sting got to be a scorpion since I couldn't do that until he came. Malas had said that it was his own choice, so maybe Sting got something like that too? I had asked, but he didn't seem to understand the question.
I had seen the first few snowflakes fall earlier today, but it was rather surprising since it didn't feel cold enough for snow. At night it did, but the sun was only just beginning to set... Then again, this world had magic, or so the lady from the office window had told me, and some of my skill pop-ups confirmed, so maybe it didn't actually have to go by normal meteorological sense.
But I wasn't able to help myself but get adventurous and investigative, especially now since the forest was cleared of the scalewolves. The big millipedes still appeared seemingly out of nowhere at night, and there were a couple other creatures that I couldn't make sense out of, like the two-tongued anteater, but it was safe during the day. We did find a few more spots of beeswax in one or two trees, but luckily I was able to keep those away from anyone eating them stupidly.
The first time, it was a learning experience. I had only been a parent as a black widow and a caveman, so it wasn't like I was paying a huge amount of attention to the obvious "don't let your kids put random things in their mouth". I figured that wouldn't happen, but we all knew how wrong I was at this point.
Since I had no fears of being attacked anymore, I could focus on investigating the straight edges of the forest. The bunched-up-looking hills at the East and West edges had a whole bunch of broken-up intertwined tree roots. Some of them were obviously upside-down, since roots got harder and more... woody, I guess, when they were exposed to air, like people usually saw on oak trees.
The maize had stopped being able to produce or grow months ago, and the jumi tax collector we didn't kill and eat was let go. It took him awhile to understand that you didn't have to beat the birds in order to make them obey. He said something about 'he was trained that way', but I didn't care. You don't have to hurt gentle animals in order to make them obey; you can just train them with rewards. Food, attention, and cuddles go a very long way. We let him take one of the birds when we sent him on his way.
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Inside the tunnel, Aneis and Sun had made a really nice twin-web going from the archway to the bottom of the cavern below. There were little water streams in a few places along the walls, probably from the stream on the surface and maybe the lake. The streams criss-crossed along the hard rock ground, but in some places it was surprisingly deep and almost lake-like. As long as you could consider a twenty foot wide pool with moving surface water a lake. On one end there was even what would probably count as an isolated island, since it didn't even touch a wall.
The Yuck hadn't progressed over the spiderwebbing we had placed all over, so if we wanted it to go downstairs, then we'd need to probably add wood and leaves or something to the web in order to get it to go that way. It was fine for now.
Hopefully the other drider that the jumi were having to deal with weren't active in my absence during my preparation. Though I was busy mostly with making my nest more comfortable and busy investigating the area to learn more about how seasons, weather, and local plants worked, it wasn't like the others were inactive.
Cletus and Bander had learned from me how to carve rocks, and had worked on finding some thin, hard stone and shaping it into armor. Cletus's molasses-like mucous was pretty useful for that.
Djraine wandered around at night with Sting. Djraine would find the new millipedes, and Sting would help kill them or shore up numbers.
Speaking of Shore- he mostly wandered around with Dulcet and Lyre as they sang. He didn't sing along, or at least not usually, but he did like finding new berries and seeds around the forest. We decided to store them downtairs instead of somewhere else, so migrating birds wouldn't steal them from us this time.
Laina and Mels were working on some sort of widened corral for the birds. When I asked what they were doing, they said that Djraine suggested something about clearing a tree or two and building better web walls, so plants could grow where the birds could eat whatever grew. Not a bad idea.
Aneis and Sun were... mostly gossiping. They liked going to the jumi village, and brought some of the maize seed we grew with them once or twice, but I didn't ask why. Maybe just a snack while they were gone? I didn't bother looking through their eyes while they were out there, I trusted them and wasn't afraid for their safety.
I hadn't gone out there for awhile though myself, so maybe I should soon. But tonight it was already starting to get dark now, so it probably wasn't the best idea. Sure we didn't need much sleep, but the jumi did. Maybe tomorrow.