Chapter 6

A frustrated growl left Ida's mouth as she looked up and down the fridge to figure out how to open it. Her left carapace finger began to pop as she held back her anger from trying to rip the door open. She took a step back before folding her arms tapping her right foot to the ground angrily.

"First I had that dog wake me up early with her constant moving, then those none blinking eyes followed me every where I went." Ida frustratedly told herself as she began to recap her day in hell so far.

"Then I have that bitch constantly in my mind no matter where I go." She continued turning her head slightly behind her to see Elizabeth, her guard/host, sipping on a cup of coffee while looking at her phone. Her eyes then looked up with a tent of yellow as she stared right back at Ida with a small smile. This small smile caused Ida to turn her head back forward as she sharply inhale then exhaled.

"And now. And now I can't even get in the fucking fridge to get a decent meal for myself." She angerly grumbled as she continued to restrain herself from ripping the haddle off. Her mouth slightly slip open as she became even more agitated.

Taking a step forward, she went to try the tall metal block again. She placed her hand on the handle before pressing the barely visible button in to activate the handle. And yet the fridge still refused to let her inside.

"How the hell do you open this piece of shit!?" She roared as her mouth opened to reveal her two hidden fangs.

"Would you like a hand with it?" Elizabeth asked taking a break from her coffee.

"And let you control when I can and can't eat, I will pass. Thank you very much," She sharply snapped at Elizabeth.

A low growl came from Martha as she sat up from the table and was going to punish her for the disrespectful comment. However, she stopped when Elizabeth held her hand up.

"Very well." Elizabeth said with a slight chuckle. "Sometimes the best way to figure things out is on your own."

She finished before going back to her coffee, while Martha sat back down to watch Ida continue her struggle.

Ida just took another sharp inhale before exhaling as she rolled her eyes. "Whatever the hell does that mean."

She took another step back as she examined the fridge again with all four of her eyes. A low exhale came from her mouth as she took a second to recompose herself.

"It's not even 10 and things couldn't possibly get any worse then it already is." She told herself as she tried to figure out the device in front of her.

"Why are you naked?" Lucas voice spoke out as he looked at Ida.

A low chuckle left Ida's mouth as felt her last nerve snap at his idoitic comment towards her.

"Because I thought, since the princess hasn't forced herself on you yet. Maybe I would give you a show and let you see what a real woman looks like." Ida sarcastically answered while posing herself to show off her figure and curves to him. "Careful, you might jizz your pants if I show you a little more."

She knew very well that she might get punished severely for what she said. But would gladly take her punishment for him asking such a stupid question when she was wearing something already.

Ida was wearing a nearly pure white bodysuit. The sides and back were open along with a window to her cleavage that revealed part of her tattoo. She also had cut off sleeves on her forearms and knees to help with the chill air of the morning.

She braced herself for the punishment from to come, but nothing happened. However, she heard Lucas speak again.

"What. No! I meant why are you not in more clothing?" Lucas asked realizing what he said and ignoring a good chunk of what she told him. "I thought mom would have bought or lended you clothes by now."

His question caught her off guard for a second. The sudden realization that nothing had happened to her set in harder as she turned her head towards Elizabeth and Martha at the table. Martha sat there looking at her while Elizabeth sat there unbothered with her coffee.

"Don't look at me." Elizabeth said well taking the mug to her lips for a sip. "He asked You a question."

Ida paused for a moment shocked and didn't expect this to happen. She then looked back towards Lucas and Amay. With a confused and defeated sigh, she just rolled her eyes.

"Fuck it." She whispered to herself before looking straight towards him. "If you so badly want to know, I don't need to "borrow" clothes when I can make my own."

Her hand then grabbed the edge of her bodysuit and gave it a slight pull to show him the fabric.

"The clothing is made from the silk of my webbing. It's skin tight, stretchy, insulated and quite comfortable, if I must say so myself." Ida told him while taking a little pride in herself for the elegant look.

"Oh." Lucas let out. He was more surprised she gave him an actual answer then anything else. "But why a bodysuit and not actually clothing? It's kinda chilly this morning."

A low giggle left her mouth, followed by an annoyed sigh. "Well that was kinda the plan, but I ran out of webbing."

"Wait. How do you run out of webbing?"

She paused for a moment before looking towards Elizabeth. Her attention then went back to him with a tilted head. She couldn't tell if he was genuinely serious with not knowing or if he was messing with her.

"I'm an Arachne..?" Ida told him trying to gauge his reaction a bit. But to her surprise, he still looked even more confused. "Jorogumo? Or what was the word you humans used to call us...a Spiderkin."

Ida then watched as the wires connect in his head. She just shook her head in disbelief at having to clarify what she was with the child of Elizabeth.

"Anyway. I can't produce more web because I'm low and hungry. Usually I would eat from my reserves but that got destroyed when I died." She said while placing a hand on her hip. "And now I'm trying to get some food, but your stupid fucking fridge won't open!" She angerly said remembering why she was in front of it for. She even tried to pull on the fridge and yet it still wouldn't open.

Lucas and Amay watched as Ida struggled to open the fridge. While he wanted to not deal with her, Lucas felt his feet move forward on their own before Amay grabbed his hand. He looked back to see a worried look in Amay's eyes as she shook her head and mouthed no to him. While he felt it in his gut to agree with her, Lucas gave her a smile.

"It's okay. Besides mom and Martha won't let anything happen to me." He reassured her with a soft smile. He then gently removed her hand and walked towards the struggling Ida. With each step towards her, he felt his body shake and every fiber tell him to turn around and go sit next to Amay but he didn't.

"I-if I may." He spoke up. To his surprise, he saw a just as surprised Ida look at him bewilderedly. He watched as she look back at Elizabeth and Martha who all watched as well.

"Oh...okay." She spoke up and took a few steps back from him. She didn't know what to make of this and kept looking back to her guard and the warden who sat silently by.

"It...it's a little weird, b-but all you have to do is this." Lucas told Ida with fear in his voice. His hands shaked as he moved them towards the fridge.

Lucas grabbed the handle and pressed the small button on the door. Then with his other hand, he placed it on the side of the fridge door and pushed another button inwards. There was a small click before he opened the fridge door fully for both him and Ida to look inside. To him he saw a regular fridge layout with a carton of eggs and open bacon ready to cook.

"See? It's weird at first, but you just have to make sure you press both buttons. I had to learn that multiple times." Lucas said with a nervous chuckle as he looked back to see Ida's shocked face.

"What the fuck?" She muttered to herself as she was looking past him into the fridge. Her head then turned around to look at Elizabeth once again as she was at a lost for words.

"I guess she never seen a fridge like this before," Lucas thought to himself. He then looked back down in the fridge at the multiple options before an idea came to mind. His stomach twisted and turned as he felt the words hesitant to come out. But faded as he took a deep breath to control himself.

"Hey, Ida." Lucas spoke up turning to look at her. "Why...don't you go sit down and I will cook everyone breakfast?"

"What? Why?" She snapped her attention back to him. She tilted her head again as she wasn't sure what to make of this.

"Well..You're hungry, I'm hungry, and I'm pretty everyone else is as well. So instead of we all making different things and making a bigger mess, why don't I just cook everyone a nice hot breakfast?" He said standing fully up and looking up at her. He never realized how tall she was compared to himself.

"Hmm." She let out as she looked down as her wide eyes looked at him before blinking. "Very well then. But please do hurry before I end up eating you instead." She said giving him a slight smile before turning to go take a seat at the table.

"That was a joke by the way." She added noticing the color fade from him for a split second.

"Oh. Okay cool." Lucas said as he felt his heart start back up. He paused for a moment to calm himself from doing something so risky like that. He wondered why he was even trying to be nice to her after everything, but realized it was just how he was. He couldn't stop himself from feel so anxious and scared next to her. "Cool. Cool. Let's do this."

As Lucas prepared to cook the food, Ida sat across from Amay at the table. With Elizabeth at the head and Martha to her left, she felt trapped in place. A low sigh left her mouth as she reached into her right side of her bodysuit next to her chest and pulled out the box of cigarettes Elizabeth gave her. She then looked towards Elizabeth once again to see if it was okay.

Elizabeth placed her mug on the table, before allowing her left hand to hover and create a glass ashtray for the girl. With a slight push she slid the tray over to Ida to put the butt and ashes within it. "Not when we are eating."

"Roger that." Ida said as she placed the butt of the cigarette in her mouth before lighting the end of it. As the mixed flavor filled her lungs she blew upwards trying to avoid the smoke from hitting anyone to start any arguments.

Amay didn't say anything as she tried her best to avoid making eye contact with Ida as she quickly looked up and away from her every few seconds. Martha rested her head on one arm as she closed her eyes to take in the wonderful smell of bacon filling the air. Elizabeth continued to slowly sip on her coffee as a ring formed on the lip of the mug from her lipstick. She turned down the volume on her phone to not break away from the tension in the room. While Ida sat back in her seat pondering everything that happened and what Elizabeth had planned for her after they ate. Yet her mind couldn't shake how overwhelming, yet subtle everything felt. The tense felt thick as everyone at the table didn't utter a word to each other as they were contempt in their own littler worlds. The only sound they came from them was only Elizabeth's phone and her slight giggle from her video and sips.

No more then 15 or so minutes had passed, until Lucas was fully done and brought everyone their own plates.

"Well breakfast is ready. And I made bacon how you like it Martha. Plus a few extra strips for being my favorite sister," Lucas said taking a seat across from her.

"Aww. You care about me," Martha said in a playful tone to him. "It's almost like you're trying to butter me up for some reason."

"Whaaa. No. You just need the extra protein to build your muscles." Lucas chuckle before grabbing his fork to dig in.

"Yeah. Yeah. You dork," Martha chuckled at her brother for messing with him. She took one of the strips and started to eat on it. A small hum came to her mouth as she felt the flavors melt on her tongue.

As they all ate, Lucas couldn't help but look up at Ida a few times as he felt more questions began to build inside of himself. Although he wanted to leave it alone and not talk to her, he couldn't help but put his fork down and ask.

"Okay, but how does it work exactly? Your webbing I mean. How do your kind produce it and....how do yall work in general?" Lucas finally asked looking at Ida fully.

The table went silent as everyone's eyes look at both Lucas and Ida in anticipation and curiosity. A small giggled came from Ida as she placed her fork down. She knew this was coming from him constant looking over at her. Her eyes then went to Elizabeth before she scooted her chair back along with her plate.

"I don't know the exact means for how the inside work, but I produce webbing through glains in my fingertips." She answered before pulling her left sleeve off her arm and placed it gently on the table.

Holding out her left arm, another arm seemly peeled away from the bottom of her main left arm. Taking both her right and the second left, she carefully and strategically began to move both of them back and forth along her left hand.

In the lighting of the sun and the kitchen light above, Lucas watched in awe as barely visible strings of webbing began to weave and form along the black carapace of her left hand as a cloth began to form and cover it. Until what was left was a nearly perfectly laced white glove.

"Depending on the object or what we want to create, it depends on the webbing we want to use or produce to create what we deserve." Ida told him as she slowly rotated the new glove on her hand for him. "We are not that far off from the spiders in your world. Just...well..different. We just need the idea and have enough substance to do so."

She then leaned in closer on the table as her bottom arm reconnected to the top, recreating a fully left arm.

"As for how I work specifically, well," She silently giggling. "I don't think your mother, the dog, or little miss princess right here, would let me get any closer for a more personal look."

Ida smugly said as she felt all their eyes on her. She heard Amay let out a growl while she bared her teeth at her.

"Whoa. What. No! No. No." Lucas said realizing what she fully said at the end. His body visible shook with disgust while chills ran down his back. "You can stay right over there."

Ida pouted a little as she let out a small whine. "Aww."

"Wait. Wait. Dial it the back." Lucas said as the realization she had another arm kicked in. "You had another arm. What the fuck?! How did you get another arm?"

"Language!" Elizabeth spoke up to her son.

"Right. Sorry mom. I just didn't expect that."

Ida stiffled her laughter at Elizabeth correcting her child. She shook her head before removing her other sleeve. Holding her arms out, Ida split both of them open to reveal she had four arms instead of two.

"Yes. I have four arms. Technically six but that takes a lot more energy to do." She said before moving each hand to show him that they are real and can work. Before putting them back together to form the two arms again.

"So you're more spider then human? Lucas asked as he watched her put back on her sleeves. "I mean with how you look, I would have thought you would be more human....well outside of your arms legs and face. Wait. Do you have a spider butt? I would have thought from the pictures I seen on fantasy that you would have one or so.

"Dial it back, Lucy." Elizabeth spoke up again. She knew his curiosity and how far it would go.

"No. No. He's fine." Ida held up a hand at Elizabeth as she placed her last sleeve on. "This is actually getting really interesting."

"Now, Lucas. Why would you assume I was human to began with? This is just for looks and how most of my race evolved. Most races have been around just or even longer then you humans. My race is no different. We just evolved to be..." Ida paused for a moment to find the right wording to describe her species with humanity.

"More Appling on the human eyes. Males, like yourself, more specifically. The human male feels more at ease with a beautiful woman, like myself, then a creepy spider trying to seduce him." She playfully said while moving her fingers in launching position towards him. A soft chuckle came from her mouth as she watched his face think about about it then agree with her.

"But I must clarify. I look this way because I am comfortable and accept who I am. My other kin might think differently about how they appear and may do what I'm guessing you would assume, be half woman ontop of a spider body, extra limps visible, more eyes, etc, etc. It really all depends. Just like how you humans change your hair, skin, your body and all. We just do the same."

"Oh. I...think I gotcha." Lucas said taking in her words. "So how you all look depends on how you all feel?"

"Correct. " Ida said with a nod. "Again you might run into some that look more spider, or have more spider features. It all depends. As for the..."

Her voice trailed off as she couldn't help but chuckle at how he originally said it.

"I have to give it to you, Lucas. That is the funniest question any human has ever asked. "Spider butt"" Ida couldn't help but still get a chuckle out of it. Each time she wanted to speak she couldn't help but get a kick out of it. "To answer that elephant, yes and no. Some of my kind will exhibit one in human form or not. Others, in their human form, will just have it just accent their natural curves. So to those that truly don't know, they will look like a rather well endowed woman."

"Ooh. Okay." Lucas said as he let his mine wondered for a moment. "So wait does that explain why you changed forms back in the..." His thoughts trailed off as part of the memories of the assualt of that day came back. He felt his hands clench up as he felt his throat close up a bit. Take a long deep breath he exhaled, before trying to finish.

"You..changed back in the woods. Why was that?" Lucas finally asked feeling most of the tension loosen up on him.

"Oh that." Ida answered a little unbothered by the question. "Princess here had stabbed me in the back. Cheap shot but fair. And then proceeded to smash my face in...also fair. So I was forced to consume that hair creatures crystal and used that energy to push myself towards a my more..."spider" side. It allows use to sense and use our natural abilities more precisely and unlock other benefits we wouldn't normally use. Granted it was a rushed processed and....not my best moment."

"So wait do you have a more human look and a more spidery look as well?" Lucas asked more intrigued.

"I mean yeah..." Ida answered. Within that second her mouth fully segmented to show her bottom jaw as mandibles, while a pair of fangs extendent out from the roof of her mouth. Her bigger eyes shifted out and pulled apart as her another pair rested in between her eyes and forehead just right above her brows. Then another pair of eyes seemly opened right next to her smaller dotted one. All together creating a total of 8 eyes on her face.

"Ssseeee." Ida spoke as her mandibles and fangs moved in tandem of her mouth.

"Whoa." The only words to leave Lucas mouth as he was blown away by her look. She was horrifying but part of him was intrigued by how fast she changed before his eyes. He also noticed that she she spoke it was almost garglely with a bit of an echo to it.

Just as quickly as she had changed, Ida's face reverted back to normal. With her being back in her regular self and picking up a paper towel for the bit of drool that fail, she couldn't help but feel a since of at ease and pride in answering his questions. It's not that often she gets a human that generally curious about her face, and let alone she be the one answering them.

"If only big Sis Nobi could see me doing what she do." Ida told herself as a gentle smile rested on her face.

"So yeah. That's my more spider look. Granted it's not the full look since I'm in my more natural look. Think of it like an in-between, but I'm fully comfortable with." She added as she rested her head on her hand as she focused her eyes on him with a soft smile.

"Okay. So you have a spider look, which is horrifying, but very cool. How about a more human look. Also do you know magic like mom does. Also what about power and strength, would it be like the spider people in comics? Can you leap from walls and swing like them? Do you have that weird sense they do? Also what about..."

"Lucas!" Elizabeth spoke up again to her son. "You need to calm down and breath before trying to overwhelm her with questions. She may not be human but treat her with respect."

"Oh. My bad. Sorry about that, Ida. I didn't mean to overwhelm you like that." Lucas said catching on to what his mom was telling him about. To his surprise he just heard a soft giggle feel the air as Ida couldn't help but shake her head as a big smile came across her face.

"Are you kidding me? I'm actually enjoying our talk. It's not often I get to be the one explaining stuff to humans like you." Ida spoke up, she then made direct eye contact with Elizabeth. "He's really genuine about this. Most would have said something far worse then what he's been asking me."

"I know but still." Elizabeth said letting out a sigh at her son. "He needs to be mindful of what he ask you. He can be a little much with questions."

As Lucas was about to say something he moved his head in agreement with her. "Yeah. Mom's not wrong, once I find out about something I go crazy with questions."

"Agreed," Amay spoke up as her face narrowed at Lucas at the weird question he asked her when she tagged along to work with him a few times.

"In my defense, it was a pretty solid question when I thought about in my head." Lucas responded raising up both hands.

"Huh." Ida let out as she looked at everyone at the table before back to Lucas himself. With a sudden move of her head she then let out a sigh as she leaned onto the table. "Very well. I'll let you ask me three more questions. And since you peaked my interest, if you still have questions and your mother or the dog is around, I'll gladly answer any more questions you have. How does that sound?"

"Really?" Lucas asked as a sparkle filled his eyes. When she nodded in agreement, he felt a bit of gitty with the possibility of more questions about her species filled his mind. "Okay. Okay. Let me think for a moment. I have to make these count."

"I agree." Ida smiled as she felt as watched his brain go to work with the questions. For once since she got here, she could actually feel her guard drop. With him asking such innocent yet curious questions, she felt like she was with her older sister when she was explaining to the younger spiderkins learning about human society and norms.

A soft smile rested on her face as she patiently waited for him to ask her these three questions. She couldn't help but wonder what kind of question he would come up with. Yet her mind drifted off to thinking about how even in this hell, she felt a ease with this simple interaction.

"Okay I got it," Lucas finally spoke up. Going back to my previous question about the spider people in comics. Are your powers close to or similar to there's? And if so do you have that sense they do."

"Ha. Hahaha."

Ida's laughter caught Lucas off guard as for a moment he thought he asked a bad question to her.

"There it is. A human asking if our powers are similar to those in the stories you make. While I won't say typical, it is something I have heard before." Ida said quiting her laughter to take his question a little more serious. "While it not too accurate, there is a big difference between them and us."

"The first obvious thing is that they are humans given the abilities of spiders. So while they have the proportion to that of a spider and their abilities, we, for the better lack of putting it, are spiders. So what they had for as long as they been in comics we have had it since our beginning. Our strength, speed, powers and etc. were natural born, trained and honed, at least longer then them. There's no funky experiments or accidents that made us what we are. So while it's flattering, you can't beat the real thing at times."

Ida spoke but stopped to get a sip of her juice. Before stopping Lucas from speaking up. "But...even I have to admit their sense is a lot better for a comic. That "spider sense" is something strictly to comics and most of us try to achieve something close to it. For the most part most of us can feel, well sense the vibrations or shift of the air around us."

She paused for a moment as her black carapace finger rested on her lips. Her eyes moved around for a moment as she thinking of how to best explain it.

"Okay. I think I got a good example for you. Say you were behind me and you decided to try and sneak attack me. If I aware of my surroundings and felt the shift in the air, I could tell exactly what arm you were using, how close you are, and to a degree what were you attacking me with due to the shift in the air. For the most part if you moved your left arm, I can tell you that you moved your left arm and the same for the right. Does that make sense?"

"Huh." Lucas let out as he pondered on what she said. He visualized the idea and got the image of what she told him. "So while not a danger sense, it can be used as one. But it's more so like a field to let you know what's around since most spiders can sense vibrations around them. That's very interesting."

"Exactly. You're very smart for thinking of it like that." Ida complimented. "Not most would think of it like that. Good on you for that. But again it does depend on the type of spiderkin. Mine is good enough but it's not an end all be all and I have to be wary of my surroundings to a degree. One wrong step and it could be the end of me if I'm not careful."

A soft chuckle escaped Amay a small smirk crossed her face as she looked away.

"Oh. Do you have something to add, princess?" Ida quickly turned her attention to Amay.

"Oh nothing. Just thinking about something," Amay added as she picked up her fork to take another bite.

"Well let me put your thoughts at ease then. You did cheap shot me with that attack from behind when my focus was away," Ida admit with a hiss as she felt her blood began to boil with the girl in front of her. "As much as it pains me to say, we are even in that regards but it won't happen again, you piece of-"

"So Ida," Lucas said trying to bring Ida back to his attention to stop a fight from happening.

"What!" Ida snapped back before remaining focus back on him. She held up her hand stopping him from telling her. "Right. Right. Second question." She said taking a deep breath before focusing fully on him.

Her reaction caused Lucas to gulp as he tried to remember what he was going to ask her. He hesitanted for a moment before asking her. "Since you and Amay have some history together and grew up in the same place, how old are both of you?"

Ida's eyes went wide as this wasn't what she expected him to ask. Her larger eyes blinked twice for a second as she didn't know what to say. "Wow that's a really good question especially since it's not a easy one. It's tricky to say the very least."

"Okay to clarify. Your mom and princess both told you that human aging and our aging are different, correct?"

"Yeah. But," Lucas sighed as he felt more confused with it. "It's really confusing."

"Well they are. You can't look at our ages from a human's point of view. We all age differently. Especially since humans age doesn't last that long compared to other species. And to clear up one thing before we touch on that, Princess and I are from the same nation, but we are from two different clans. We lived in one area together, yes but she's an oni and I'm a jorogumo. We both have different ruling outside of whole nations itself."

"Okay. I think I got that." Lucas said trying to grasp it more.

"Think of it how we have different states, but inside each state there's different towns, but in those towns they can be broken into different districts," Elizabeth spoke up again to better clarify.

"That! It's exactly like that." Ida turned to look at Elizabeth before turning back to Lucas. We grow up in the same state, but are in different districts that came together."

"Oooh okay. I got it now." Lucas said finally understanding what they were saying.

"Great," Ida let out as she continued. "Now this should make it easier to explain. Since we are different species our aging is very different as well. For us, we age by the amount we molt. In human years, I am roughly 75 give or take. But in my species I am roughly seven."

"Before you say anything. Let me clarify a little more," Ida spoke up realizing how Lucas would take it. "Because my species don't really age, we just shed our skins when we outgrow it. That being said I look your age maybe a few years older. Princess here is actually closer to you in age because she is an oni and they age vastly different then both of us. I would say 35 to 40 year old give or take in human years, but roughly 4 in oni. I honestly can't say much."

"Uuuuh," Lucas let out trying to wrap her mind around it. "Yeah. That is confusing as hell."

"Very." Ida nodded. "To put your mind at ease, yes we can both sleep with you and you won't get in trouble."

Ida smirked as she felt all eyes on her as Elizabeth wanted to say something, but stopped herself. She just rubbed her temple with a sigh.

"Don't push it," Elizabeth said with a sigh.

"What? It's true even though it was a joke." Ida quickly added with both her hands up. Because look how red he's blushing. "Is it wrong for me to get a kick out of this?"

"You're on thin ice." Elizabeth said as she shook her head. She watched as Ida rolled her eyes at her as she thought it was funny to herself.

"Now Lucas. What is your final question?"

"Give me a sec." Lucas said trying to gather his thoughts from fear and embarrassment of what she just said. While he felt at ease for sleeping with Amay and getting some comfort that it was okay. Ida didn't make the situation any better.

"Okay last question." Lucas thought to him as he tried to think of something even with his mind cluttered from embarrassment and dirty thoughts. Then he stopped when he realized something Ida kept saying.

"Okay. I know you used the word as an insult, but why do you keep calling Amay a princess. Specifically why do you keep using it in that way?" Lucas asked feeling the words leave his lips before he could catch himself.

"Oh. That's because she is a princess," Ida casually answered. A puzzled looked crossed her face as she looked at a shocked look came across his. "Why do you look confused about that? Wait. Wait. You didn't know? By the serpents, you didn't."

A shocked expression painted Lucas face, while all the color in Amay's face left her body as she stared blankly at Ida's. All the while Ida couldn't help but giggle at her discovery and the looks on both their faces.

"Amay. You're a princess."