Petey padded along the rocky tunnel happily, checking back to make sure that the people were still following him every now and then. He really wanted them to follow him because then they would happier later and they could pet him now and later too. He couldn't imagine what they would want him to do aside from that.

The golden light coming from his fur was still illuminating the darkness around them, and while he did like the light it was a bit weird to realize that he was the source of it.

As for the tunnel, he'd found one that gently sloped upward and didn't have very many sharp rocks. At one point there had been a bunch of rocks blocking the tunnel, but he'd always liked Digging and it turned out that stone was a lot softer for some reason, so it hadn't held them up very much.

For the umpteenth time, Petey briefly ran back to the hoomans to see how they were doing and to maybe give them a few extra licks. Like always, they gave him lots of pats, which he happily received. Someone started scratching him behind the ears, and he let his tongue loll out of the side of his mouth in bliss.

The pleasant feeling was disrupted by an odd smell coming from behind them, and an even stranger smell coming from in front. Petey decided to check out the behind-smell first, and he padded past the raggedy previously-sad hoomans. Poking his head around the corner, he found himself face-to-face with one of the curtain-wearing not-people. The not-person yelped and jumped backward, stumbling away.

Drawn by the sound, the raggedy hoomans came to investigate and began yelling at the not-human. Petey sat down to watch them, panting lightly. He wasn't tired or anything - he just felt like having his tongue outside of his mouth for a few minutes.

The peoples shouted at the not-person in that one language that he didn't understand, and the not-person responded in turn, cowering back and holding his hands in the air defensively. The peoples didn't seem to like that very much and started yelling again. Kind of tired of the shouting and yelling and whatnot, Petey ambled forward and gave everyone present a good lick on the face, and then turned around to keep going.

A few moments later, he checked back to see everyone more or less getting along, the not-person tentatively following a good distance behind. That was good - now he could see what the other smell was!

Padding along, Petey noticed that the caves were somehow getting even darker. Without any warning, a thick stringy white thing tangled up in his tongue, and he yelped in surprise, jumping back and pawing at his mouth to get rid of it.

Raising his head, he realized that there were shiny black eyes in the darkness. A lot of them. And much closer to each other than made sense to his doggy mind. Tilting his head curiously, he yipped into the darkness, "Eyes?"

A nearly silent sliding noise followed his polite question, and then a sneaky voice snuck into his mind. Too muchhh light... pleassse dim.

Petey blinked. These creatures thought his light was painful! That was bad - he didn't want to hurt anyone.

So he turned the light off. It was easier than he'd thought.

In only a few seconds, he was suddenly being hugged by pretty much everyone in the group, including the not-person, and he licked whoever had their arm around his neck happily. Once his eyes adjusted, he found a lot of many-legged creatures with fuzzy backs and giant butts walking on thick threads a short distance away from them, face-arms wiggling strangely. Thank you.

One of the hoomans whispered something to Petey in a very quiet voice, but he still couldn't understand what they were saying. Oh well - he could figure it out later. He was very smart, after all.

Licking at his nose for a few seconds, Petey woofed into the darkness, "Is many friends?"

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The giant animals looked at each other for a moment, and then back to Petey. One of them walked forward slowly, one of the bigger ones. It had a really cool shiny thing sitting on its head with a lot of points, and the other animals made sure to stay out of its way. Petey was impressed by how good they were at not tangling their legs up. He only had four legs and he still sometimes tripped on his feet sometimes, and they had eight legs!

Another thought came into his mind, a not-boy one. You are not a normal dog.

Petey beamed happily, a dim glow spreading through his fur in spite of his efforts to not bother the nice animals. "No! I am a Good Boy and also a dog!"

It - no, she - hissed in amusement. Or at least Petey thought it was in amusement. I am curious, Good Boy, what sort of power do you possess that banishes our lovely shadows so well?

Petey wasn't sure how to answer that, so he just made the big blue board appear, and everyone stared at it for a long, long time. Finally, the big animal responded, Well. Your abilities are truly terrifying, Petey. May I request, as a monarch to a champion, that you avoid annihilating our species?

Woofing quietly, Petey told her with his happiness wagging, "I won't annul - anni - the word you said! Do you want to be friends?" He bent down with his front paws stretched out and his butt high in the air. "I want to be friends!"

The animal huffed in surprise. Good surprise, Petey thought. Truly, I wish for nothing less than your friendship, and for a good meal. I must ask, most excellent Petey, may I entrust one of our children to your care? It would be most interesting to hear of your exploits in the Brighter Lands.

Petey's tongue lolled as he barked, "Yes yes yes! Also, what are you? I am a Good Boy."

The animal shook silently, and Petey realized it was laughing. We are spiders, most powerful of all Good Boys. Our race is one with an ill-earned reputation, one that we would enjoy seeing dispelled. This is Leula, one of our most clever children. Do take care of her.

Petey's eyes widened. They were spooders? They were a whole lot bigger than the ones he was used to. They'd probably had to eat a lot to get to that size.

His thoughts were disrupted as a much smaller spooder was unwillingly pushed forward. This one was maybe the size of Petey's head, with very pretty green and blue stripes and a nice big red hourglass-shape on its large butt. Petey was okay with big butts. The bigger they were, the easier they were to sniff, after all.

Sniffing at the little spooder, Petey watched it shrink back in fear, and he whined quietly, "Hello Leula! I'm Petey! Do you want to be friends?"

Glancing back at its many, many, MANY siblings, the spooder quietly clicked at him, You are scary, Petey. What if you accidentally hurt me?

Leula! The giantest spooder with the cool shiny spiky hat scolded the much smaller spooder, and Petey raised his head, startled. "It's ok to be scared sometimes! Scared can be fun, but it's more fun with friends!" Once again, he leaned down and sniffed the tiny spooder, finally giving her a confident lick. "Do you want to be my friend? I'll be yours forever!"

The lick seemed to help a lot since the spooder was kind of glowing a bit. Once the glow died down and the spooder stopped vibrating, it shyly whispered, That felt nice. Maybe... I will try to be friends.

Petey barked in his extreme happiness, and the whole cave shook from the sound. Startled, Petey lowered his head, the spooders nearly falling off of their webs in shock, and he woofed again, much quieter. "Okay! We're going above the caves to look for a chew toy that belongs to a hooman. Do you want to come?"

Leula considered the offer for a moment, and was promptly pushed forward by one of the very long legs of the giantest spooder. Glancing back uncertainly, she spoke in a mind-voice so quiet Petey had to strain his ears, even though he wasn't using them. Can I... Can I ride on your head?

Petey tilted his head, and she buried her face in her front two legs. Sorry.

Carefully, Petey put his head down next to her, feeling the hoomans and the not-hooman hug him tighter as he did. "Sure you can! Why do you want to?"

Leula cautiously stepped on his head and snuggled into the short fur behind his forehead. It just looks really soft.

Petey stepped back, tongue lolling, and the giantest spooder dipped into a fancy bow. Farewell, most excellent of dogs. I do hope we meet each other again, hopefully under less unexpected circumstances. I will attempt to have a satisfying meal ready when that happens.

With a serene nod, Petey turned around, and then back around. Apologetically, he asked, "Can I glow now? I think my peoples can't see very well."

The spooder sighed. My opinion is frankly worth quite little in the face of power such as yours, Petey. I will, however, request with the utmost respect that you not blind us all - our eyes are quite sensitive to changes in light as bright as yours.

It was a reasonable question, and Petey promptly started up a nice, cozy glow. He felt Leula wiggle in discomfort on his head for a second, but she seemed okay after a moment. Maybe his lick helped? It'd made the hoomans feel better and it'd fixed the mean not-hoomans arm, so maybe it helped spooders see better.

Either way, he had a chew toy to find.