After a while of walking through the forest, I noticed that Cellestra’s face contorted into winces of pain. When I looked closer at what was going on, it was clear that it was because of her feet. I was reminded that she said she was uncomfortable with walking such distances. Cellestra didn’t seem to want to stop, though. I had to raise a leg in front of her to make her.

“Let’s take a break. I can see you’re in pain,” I said after the elf looked at me in confusion.

“Thanks,” she replied softly as she sat herself down next to the road and reached for a canteen on her belt. I noticed her sigh deeply as her gaze rested on her feet.

“If you want, I can carry you the rest of the way,” I suggested. Cellestra’s pain was evident, and I didn’t want to make it worse.

I lowered myself and took her feet in my hands to cast healing light. Cellestra’s eyes closed as the spell soothed her pain.

“I…” She started. “Would you be okay with that?” It was clear that she did not plan on asking, herself.

“What? Just because I’ve grown an elven torso doesn’t mean that much has changed, you know? I’ve carried you before, and as I said back then, it’s no issue for me.”

“Uhm, okay then,” She said softly as she started drinking.

At the same time, a loud gurgling sound came from my stomach. Cellestra noticed and smiled. “I knew you were hungry but you didn’t tell me it was bad enough for your second stomach to make itself heard.”

I looked down at my belly. “I didn’t even know I had a second stomach. Seems kind of redundant, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, well, I guess your anatomy is quite the exception as it is." Cellestra stood up and extended an arm, offering me her canteen. "Want some?”

“Do you have enough?” I asked. I was thirsty, but I knew I wouldn’t be affected as much. I doubted what little water she had would help me much.

She nodded. “Got another. Don’t worry. I came prepared, after all.”

I couldn’t deny her kind gesture. I accepted the metal canteen and had my first drink with my new mouth. Even if it wouldn’t count for much, it still felt refreshing. I thanked the elf and handed the container back to her.

“I guess I could always get you some more by melting ice lances if it comes down to it. Wait, maybe I can just straight-up summon water? I’ve never actually tried.”

“If only you could summon food,” Cellestra said with a smile.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen. If anything, your ability to attract predators is as close as it gets,” I replied with a grin.

“Doubt it’s going to work here. I don’t think we’re in its usual range. I doubt me passing through this place has had much of an effect on the local wildlife yet.”

“Unfortunate,” I said, ironically. “How are your feet?” The purple-eyed elf seemed to be walking around with much more ease already.

“Much better. Thank you.”

She turned her head in the general direction of our destination. “Shall we get going, then? I don’t want to hold you up any longer.”

I nodded. “Yeah.” I then lowered my body so Cellestra could step on. “You better make sure to hold on tight, though. If I see something to eat, I’ll go for it.”

“That hungry, eh?” Cellestra said as she stepped on my thorax. I noticed how she looked into my rearmost eyes at the back of my head.

“I can see you,” I said in a teasing voice. “And yes, it’s that bad.”

“Guess I’ll just have to hold on tight,” Cellestra half-joked as she took a firm hold of the hair on my back.

I started skittering along the road, eager to get to the place where we first encountered the bandits. From there, I could make a beeline to her home and hopefully find something to snack on during the trip. As I picked up the pace, I could see Cellestra smile as she held my hair tight.

“Yeah, you’d better,” I replied to her statement.

This way, it didn’t take long before we reached the site of the battle. The log at the side of the road was a perfect landmark. From there, I skittered up the hill to the side and made my way through the forest, my eyes on the lookout for any movement.

A few minutes of silence followed before I managed to think of more conversation material. “Hey, Cellestra. If you don’t mind me asking, how have your nightmares been as of late?”

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“Honest answer?” She started as her eyes looked down, unintentionally looking straight at mine. “Bad. I had this one night where it was manageable, so I thought it was going to be okay, only for the next day to be ten times worse.”

“I noticed that, yeah,” I said as I recalled the time where she went back to bed during the middle of the day. She’d looked awful back then. “Don’t you have some kind of potion to make them go away?”

She shook her head. “Believe me, I’ve tried. They seem to come and go as they please, with some periods of terrible ones and sometimes very mild ones, but there’s nothing I did that helped.”

“Until my magic…” I said softly.

“Until your magic helped with it…” She confirmed.

“And I guess those nightmares are part of the reason you’re looking for a cure?”

Cellestra nodded. “The bad ones have gotten worse over time. I fear that if I don’t find a cure for my curse, it’s going to eat away at my sanity until nothing is left.”

“That sounds… horrible,” I spoke with as much compassion as I could. “Do you think learning my healing light spell might be beneficial?”

“I doubt it,” Cellestra said. “It’s not like I can cast that on myself when I’m asleep, you know?”

I sighed. “I suppose that’s true…”

“Hey, Kealyna?” Cellestra called out my name.

“Hm?”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what will you do once you find your parents?”

The question struck me like lightning. I’d been so occupied with this blessing and everything that came with it that I’d never even thought about what would happen at that time. At least, I hadn’t thought about how things would work out now that I had this far more… elven body. It was bound to make things at least a bit easier, right?

What would I do?

“I don’t actually know,” I said before pausing for a few seconds. “I don’t know how much they remember from our previous lives, if anything. I do not know if they know what I would look like as an adult, let alone a half spider. I was hoping that Elysa could answer some questions regarding that as well. As for what I want to do, I want to make sure that they are safe first and foremost. After that, I’ll have to see.”

“What are your parents like?” Cellestra asked, her eyes almost glowing. “You never even told me their names.”

“I never expected anyone to be interested, to be completely honest.”

“We’re friends, right?” Cellestra asked. “Aren’t things like these what friends talk about?”

“I wouldn’t know,” I said as I looked at the ground in front of my spider head. “I never had a friend, or even someone to talk with for that matter.”

Cellestra ran a hand through my hair, seemingly in order to soothe my mind. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. I understand.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “Since I know they are alive, I’ve felt much more comfortable thinking about them. I just… it’s been so long since I’ve last seen them. I can’t seem to recall their faces, just their most notable features.”

“It’s okay. Take it easy,” Cellestra’s soft voice managed to calm me down.

I took a deep breath as I recalled my parents as best I could, but their faces were vague, deteriorated in my mind with time. “My father’s name was… is Keelarin. His hair was… is black as a raven… goddess, this is so weird.”

“It’s okay,” Cellestra said again.

“I don’t quite remember his eyes. I believe they are brown.”

“And your mother?” Cellestra asked. “You had to get your hair from somewhere,” She said while staring at my white hair, which covered my entire elven back.

“Yeah,” I said, a small smile forming on my lips as I remembered that feature of her. “It’s hers. She has pure white hair. I’m happy I inherited hers only. Gray is such an ugly color.”

The brunette on my back giggled at my comment. “Gray hair. I’ve not actually seen that before… unless you’re talking about old people.”

“Ugh,” I let out. “I do like my white hair, thank you very much.”

My mind wandered off to my mother again. I wondered if she would make the same comment that Cellestra had made about white spider hair matching well with my own.

“Lilinia...” I let out, walking ever forward.

“Her name?”

“Yes.”