Finding the wandering spider was annoying. I could see what he could see, but I wasn't familiar with this forest, so nothing I saw meant anything. Laina was busy tending to wounds, and so I just got everyone's attention and got them to stay in the area, as defensively as they could be. Circle formation! I guess I'd have to start thinking about additional military tactics when I had more time. It wasn't long until I found Malas, which luckily was wandering around more or less in a circle, just wandering around the webbing left by the other spiders.

I sent him in first, since he couldn't get hurt. Watching through Malas' eyes, I could tell how far in we could go safely, but there also wasn't a reason to have him continue on. Now that my psychic ability was annoyingly nerfed, it wasn't like I could stop him even if I tried. As he continued wandering farther, I saw through him that there were big bulbous shapes stuck to various parts of a wider area of the cave, as well as quite a few tunnels. The only thing that set them apart was the height they were at, or maybe angle.

I couldn't tell Malas what to do anymore, or even suggest it, so going in after him and attacking whatever tried and failed to hurt him would be the best bet, probably. Splitting up the rest of my family, I needed offense and guards to defend who wasn't going in. Dulcet was always with Lyre, who was now too injured to do anything, so I just left them together. Bander I really wanted to take with me, but he'd have to stay back and act as heavy tank to help protect his injured siblings. Cletus, Shore, and Sun had to be healed by Laina, and hopefully she could make better use out of the webs we could produce and already had around from the enemy. Sting was hurt, but only his tail, and those huge dangerous claws of his would be really useful, so he had to come. I gave Djraine a big hug, and whispered 'be careful', hoping she wouldn't be hurt as well when we went into the cave. Aneis and Mels could come back with us, letting me, Djraine, and Sting be in the front.

Once our raiding party got halfway to the wide part, I could see from the inside of another tunnel, thanks to my hive mind, that the webbed tunnels were in fact giant funnel-web spider nests! A spider came at Malas, which passed through him as if he wasn't there. He continued on, and we did as well. Once the light from my lantern was able to reach those bulbous things, I now saw with my own eyes what they were.

Snail shells. Both the garden and sea variety, and other shells made of, what? Calcite I guess? But there didn't seem to be any spiders in them. Rocks! I needed rocks. There... didn't seem to be any loose rocks around on the ground here, and I certainly wasn't going to throw my arrowheads. Wait, where did I have those? I think I left them at home, didn't I? I should go back there as soon as I could- but it wasn't like I wasn't heading back there right after we were done here anyway, especially for the sake of all my injured children.

I did see something on the ground, through, not stuck in the spiderweb covering the ground, probably for the sake of the funnel-webs. Why weren't they attacking? They had to know we were here. Anyway, there were pieces of equipment and tools here. I guess the spiders had either lured in people, or killed them and dragged them in, or maybe they were some of the conscripts that came and lost. I threw a small piece of what looked like it used to be a handle at one of the shells, and it didn't even go far enough to hit, but it did provide temporary light since it lit itself. Thanks, Enfire!

I was able to see, not very well, but I could see, the stick fragment when it hit the ground. The fire didn't burn up the stick. Then again, Enfire told me... anyway, it was time to force these things out and kill them.

"Djraine, would you help me lead the song?"

She smiled. "Of course! Which one do you want to sing?"

"A song I came up with myself, around the time we first met. I might have even sung it with you listening."

"I didn't have a sense of hearing at the time... I could only understand things from the vibrations in the ground."

"Right, right. Well, here's how the song goes: Oh, I'm just sitting here all BY MYSELF AND I'M NOT BOTHERING ANYONE!" I whispered the next bit. "I'm just quietly sitting down." I began screaming again. "OH, I'm just sitting here all by myself NOT BOTHERING ANYONE!" I continued singing as annoyingly as I could. "Oh I'm just SITTING HERE ALL by myself and I'M NOT bothering anyone". I thought I should explain. "The words don't even matter, and you don't actually need to be consistent. Whisper some parts, scream other parts, other parts should be sung normally. Just do whatever you think would make other people angry if they heard it."

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"What a funny song! How did you come up with this?"

"Well, I was working at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Corona, California, in the Antares guild, working as a custodian for the park itself one year, and I had to wait a lot of hours for someone to pick me up and bring me home after I was done for the day. In my boredom, I came up with the most annoying song I could, because I had nothing else to do and no one was around for miles, so it didn't matter how obnoxious I was. Since then, I used it as a threat against my little sister. All I had to do was sing the first word, and she'd stop punching me for no reason and run away because she didn't want to hear 'the quietly sitting down song'. As long as the lyrics have to do with being quiet, sitting down, and or not bothering anyone, it's the same song. You can sing about not being bored, and being patient. If your emotions make the words lies, and you sing as annoyingly as possible, it's the same song then, too."

I heard a ding in my head. I already knew what it was.

Magical Song Created: Quietly Sitting Down Song

Information: Quietly Sitting Down Song. An extremely obnoxious song that antagonizes anyone within earshot into violence against the singer. Recognized positive relationships with singer cancels effect on valid individuals.

We began to sing, and the rest of the group began to sing along, though not the exact same words, or volume levels. It was even more irritating and less melodic, meaning it was better. The movement happened rather quickly, but luckily it wasn't all at once like it was above ground. Spiders appeared from various holes, more or less one or two at a time.

Malas had found a dead end, and was coming back. There were quite a few spiders that had now crowded against each other coming at him, but nothing could do anything to him. He wasn't a threat to them either, at least not directly. But we were a threat! One of the spiders I had killed in the main area, assuming that's what it was, had caught on fire, and that was really helping our vision and defense at the same time.

However, it also made it harder to see. Being inside darkness and looking into the light gave excellent surveillance, but being near light and looking into the dark, that made you nearly blind. We had fire to attack with, and lots of creatures were afraid of it, so it was defensive not from a practical standpoint, but an emotional standpoint against possible threats. If something doesn't want to attack you, it's even better than armor would be.

 These spiders, however, weren't avoiding the fire. They burned in it, and the fire got pretty big, and we had to split up since we couldn't be that close to each other anymore. I sent Mels and Aneis back to the outside, and when I did, I saw Mels had injured herself all over, but I'm not sure from what. I asked Aneis, who was much, much smarter, but she said besides one of the spiders jumping on top of her sister and she stabbing it to death to get it off her, she didn't see anything hurt her.

Mels was built for daylight and outside, where Aneis was built for stealth at night in a place that was dark anyway, so I figured them pairing would be a good idea, but I guess not.

I couldn't bring fire with me, on my sword, at least. We also didn't have anything else we could use as a flame weapon, not even anything we found that I could just light, so we had to go forward with me swinging like a crazy person just to keep Enfire active. I heard a ding in my head, but I was going to ignore that for now. We got up to the tunnel with the last of the clamoring spiders that now started coming out backwards, making killing them easy. They couldn't turn around very well in the tunnel, so going forward would trap them, and coming backward would get them killed by us. Malas came out before the enemies did, which was odd to see since he walked through them.

It was almost too easy to deal with all this, but well, I wasn't complaining. We did need to get back home quickly, and also someone would have to report that the mission was complete. I'm not sure if this forest worked the same as mine, but I hoped it didn't. We had more home construction to do!

First up was still figuring out how to make a box of some kind that the Yuck wouldn't invade, so seeds and things could be stored safely. Then there were those yellow birds and finding more and helping people learn a better way of caring for them, and then farming, and getting some worthwhile tools, and hopefully even paper! Time enough for all that later.

I helped organize everyone in marching patterns so we could get back quickly, and made sure to bring as much body parts from the defeated spiders as I could, and not just for a softer bedding for Shore, Sun, and Cletus. Cletus absolutely had to be on the wagon, but the other two should be on there too. If they were though, not all of them would fit, or would be smooshing each other. They'd have to walk as best they could, taking turns on who rode and who didn't. If we didn't get some food out of this adventure, then the only point would be indirect benefits. I was more interested right now in making sure we could survive, because we couldn't help the jumi if we just simply died of starvation, and it wasn't as if we could figure out if we had stockpiles of food or not since it was all related to Yuck.