Chapter 2 - Acquired Taste

Chapter 2 – Acquired Taste

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	Akara slowly walked back into her bed chambers.  She hadn’t the faintest idea how long she’d been up, but her limbs screamed that it was longer than had ever been conceived to be necessary.  Sprawling out onto her bed webbing, the drider took some satisfaction in just how tired she was.  An enraged drider is truly a terrifying scene; ones that she’d only heard about before.

	Turning to her side, her full abdomen strained behind her weakened muscles.  Before she could finally lay to rest however, she had to deal with the pair of eyes boring back into her own.

	She groaned quietly to herself, shutting her eyes as the rather soft words left her lips, “Yes, human?”

	“I’m hungry,” came the hushed reply.

	“Of course you’re hungry,” Akara said, rising back to her aching limbs.  Taking the few steps necessary, she swiftly sliced open Mila’s cocoon and let her fall to the floor.  “Come on then, let’s get this over with.  What do humans eat?”

	“Well, anything that won’t kill us really.”

	“That narrows the list,” the drider scoffed.  “I think I have a snack that will suit you.  Follow me.”

	Groggily, Akara led Mila up and back to the main den.  She must have been too fast in the darkness though.  When she’d arrived in her stockpile catacomb, Mila was nowhere to be seen.  A mixture of annoyance and exasperation washed over her face as she backtracked to find the girl.

	Standing in the middle of the den, she found Mila groping around in the darkness.  There was barely enough light for a human to see two feet in front of them, and even then they had to focus.  Walking over to a rather thick root behind her human catch, Akara took a leg and scratched it – hard.

	The light stung as her eyes re-adjusted, momentary blindness taking hold.  Shaking it off, Akara returned her leg to the floor a bit harsher than she normally would.  The resounding thud had its effect though, and Mila quickly spun on her heels to find the drider.

	“Thank you,” she mumbled, looking down to avoid eye contact.

	Akara said nothing, too tired for witty rebuttal.  Instead, she headed back down to her storage cut out; her impeccable hearing informing her that Mila was hot on her heels this time.  Scanning the room, she eventually found a cut out in the wall and retrieved a couple of small cocoons.

	“Here,” she said, thrusting the barely hand sized silk embodiments to Mila.  “These are some of my emergency stores.  Seeing as I have you now, I suppose I won’t need them.  If you don’t bring back a good haul, I can always eat you instead.”

	Mila gulped, looking down at the two ‘meals’ she’d been given.

	“What are they?”

	“Food.”

	Mila rubbed one of the cocoons experimentally, feeling it jump at the contact.

	“I… Is it still alive?”

	“Of course,” Akara replied, dumbfounded at the question.  “I would eat my own silk for three months before I ate something that had passed.”

	“Can… Can I cook them?”

	Aching, drowsy and rather unforgiving; Akara added disgust to her growing list of grievances with Mila.  In one fluid motion, she plucked one of the meals from Mila, backed her into a corner, and had another hand on her cheek.

	“Open.”

	“I can’t,” Mila whimpered.

	“Open, or I do.”

	Tears began to stream down Mila’s face, obviously terrified of what she was now going to have to do.  Slowly she opened her quivering lips, but only barely.  Akara took the opportunity and shoved the cocoon into her mouth, forcing it open.

	Mila immediately fought back, squirming against Akara’s grip.  There wasn’t much she could do though, the driders raw power bending her body to another will.  The silky thing filled her mouth and tickled the back of her throat, but Akara kept pushing.

	Quickly it was bending down into her throat, and Mila knew she felt something kick.  Her gag reflex kicked in, trying desperately to fight the intrusion, but Akara kept pushing.  With little effort on the drider’s part, the cocoon was now completely inside the humans mouth.  She could see the beginnings of the bulge in her throat, and moved her hand that had been cradling Mila’s cheek to her lips.

	“Swallow.”

	Mila cried openly now, gagging on the silky smooth intrusion.  Eventually her gag reflex tired, relaxing her throat and allowing the large lump to pass.  Tears streaming down her cheeks, her throat instinctively spasmed, pulling the rest of the thing down.  Another spasm, and the lump was now completely in her throat.

	Her body no longer knew how to react, torn between gagging on the sheer size of whatever she’d just been fed, and trying to clear her airways.  Her throat opened preparing to try and push the thing back up, only to wind up allowing it to slip past her neck bone.  With a sufficiently slimy plop, she could feel the thing slide down into her belly.  Satisfied with seeing the bulge go down, Akara moved her hand back to Mila’s now wet cheek.

	“Now, open again,” she said, taking the next silken meal from Mila.

	“Wait!” Mila croaked, her throat notoriously dry – the silk having absorbed all of her saliva on the way down.  The rabid dry throat caused a fit of coughing, to which Akara took a few paces back.  Falling to her knees, Mila rested one hand on her now heavily bloated stomach – the other on her mouth to muffle her coughing.  A few minutes of coughing and sniffling passed, before Mila could finally speak again, albeit raspy.

	“I’m full,” she wheezed, moving both hands to pull up what remained of her dress.  Showing her nearly pregnant looking stomach, she continued to plea with the drider.  “Please, no more,” she begged, eyes watering again.

	“Fine, fine,” Akara said, taking the remaining meal for herself.  It was a simple matter of slurping up the morsel like a noodle for the drider, as if nothing more than a candy.  “We will have to work on your eating,” she said in a rather matter of fact tone.

	Mila cursed her luck in her head, wondering just how bad digestion must be.  Surely the act she was just forced to commit would not treat her body well.

	“Don’t worry, the silk will dissolve evenly.  It’ll have plenty of time to become lively, I promise,” she said cynically.

	The human fell to her hands and knees this time, retching at the thought.  It held no effect though, her throat was too dry and too unwilling to pass that sized object again.  Instead, she coughed heavily at the ground, little bits of spittle landing here and there.

	Akara shrugged, returning to the main den and heading for her bed chambers once more.  Mila was quick to follow, despite her queasiness.  Whatever else was alive and squirming in that storage room, she wanted no part of it.  Arriving in the now lit main den, she saw clearly, for the first time, the fruits of her labors.  Two fully grown men wrapped up tighter than any lingerie she knew of.

	One was fully cocooned, the other had just the head of the cocoon removed; a gag placed in his mouth.  This one looked terrified beyond his wildest dreams, refusing to take his eyes off of Akara as she began her descent.

	“What did you do to him?”

	“Have you ever seen an upset drider before?” Akara asked, pausing to turn back and face Mila.

	“You’re the first drider I’ve ever seen,” she said, still looking at the almost hyperventilating man.

	“To put it simply, I ovulated.”

	Mila’s hands went to her own belly, remembering what insurances the drider had put in place before she’d sent her on her way.

	“Oh don’t worry, yours aren’t fertilized,” Akara said, noticing Mila’s reaction.  “He fertilized his own though.”

	So many thoughts rushed Mila’s head, she wasn’t sure how to process them.  The eggs she was carrying in her body hadn’t been fertilized?  How had he fertilized eggs and then swallowed them?  What did he do to deserve such a harsh punishment from the drider?  Why weren’t her eggs fertilized?

	“How long does he have?” she asked, looking to Akara now.

	“Who knows,” she shrugged, resuming her descent.  “He seemed happy enough to fertilize them for me though.”

	Mila followed Akara back down to her bedchambers, mind now bogged with questions that she desperately wanted answers to.

	“Why didn’t you fertilize the eggs you put in me?” she asked, hand idly rubbing the distinct bumps that she was referring to.

	“I wanted to ovulate, not foster a clutch.  Besides, the young in his belly won’t make it out.  They’ll hatch for certain, but not until he’s tucked away in my belly first.” The drider sighed at the thought, dreamily rubbing her belly as she worked herself back up on her bedding.

	The answer didn’t satisfy Mila’s curiosity, but she had other questions.  “Is eating him not enough?”

	“Why do you care?” Akara snapped back.  “You wanted to lead meals to me, remember?”

	Mila flinched at the outburst, but regained her composure enough to continue questioning Akara.

	“What did he do to warrant such a cruel fate?”

	“Are you going to question my feeding habits now?”

	“You haven’t done that to any of your other meals.”

	“That you’ve witnessed,” the drider corrected.  “To answer your insufferable curiosity though – I did it because I felt like it.”

	Mila still wasn’t convinced; something seemed not quite right about the answers the drider was giving.  Still, she paused her assault to process everything.  She’d learned so much in the last five minutes – it was a bit intimidating.

	“What’s your name?” she asked finally, realizing she didn’t know what to call her… partner?

	“Akara,” the drider said flatly, laying her head down with a thump.  “Now may I sleep?”

	Mila said nothing, turning away from Akara to stew on her thoughts.  “Akara,” she thought to herself, heading back up to the den.  Finding the terrified man, she sat down a short distance away from him.  His eyes were pleading, but he could say nothing because of the silken gag.

	“How did you manage to find a worse fate than a drider?” she openly pondered.  “Why would she ovulate into a meal before eating it…?” Looking down at his bloated belly, she could clearly see the defined lumps that were Akara’s eggs.  “It doesn’t make any sense.”

	The man must have mistook her curiosity for sympathy, because he nodded in agreement.  “I have no pity for you one way or the other,” she said, staring into his eyes coldly.  “You were part of the brothel just like Marr was.”  The man shook his head ‘no’ desperately, tears streaming down his cheeks.

	“Then why did you chase me into the forest?” Mila quietly snapped, leaning in to make her point.  Realizing he couldn’t respond, she crawled over to the helpless man, reaching for the gag.  “If you wake the drider, I won’t stop her.”  He nodded vigorously, eager for the gag to be removed.

	Pulling the tight binding down, the man panted out a “thank you.”

	“Now.  Why did you chase me if not to return me to the brothel?”

	“I was paid to by your father!” he insisted, eyes scouring Mila’s face for any signs of sympathy.  “He wanted you back, not the brothel!”

	“Lies,” Mila spat, moving to pull the gag back up.

	“I swear it!  I swear it on my life!”

	His pleas fell on deaf ears though, as Mila returned the gag to its previous position.  Just in time too, it would seem, as she had to fall back on her own rear and belch.  Something she’d been taught to never do in public, but it caught her off guard.

	“What in the Isles of Gias,” she mumbled, moving her hand to cover her mouth.  She felt a shift in pressure in her stomach before she realized what it was.  Looking down, both hands immediately slapped to the bulge in her belly that was apparently waking up.

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	“No,” she whispered, “Nooo, no no no.”  Her hands were scouring the lump in her stomach, poking and prodding it.  “Please,” she begged, holding her middle, “Please don’t squirm.”

	Her pleas were fruitless though, serving only as a cruel twist of fates.  She could easily see something moving beneath her dress, not to mention feel it.  Gently at first, as though waking from a slumber, her stomach started to make movements that weren’t her own.

	Carefully, she lifted her dress, exposing her tattered undergarments to the meal that sat across from her.  Looking at her smooth, rounded belly, she could see and feel the squirming start to increase.  It was an alien feeling, to have something living moving about in her body like that.  She scooted to a nearby wall, bracing herself against it.

	The undulations of her body around the now active meal caused her to cover her mouth.  Her body wanted whatever was still moving back out, and she knew she wasn’t going to be able to do that.  Her stomach cramped hard, the thing squirming even more within her.

	Tears started to form in her eyes as she moved both hands to her now wildly active belly.  “Please,” she begged, looking up at the ceiling.  “Please, stop squirming.”  Again, her vocalizations fell on deaf ears.  In fact, the meal that she was sharing the room with seemed to be rather exacerbated by the whole experience.

	Mila paid him no mind though, looking back down at her own stomach.  How long would this last?  What had she been fed?  Questions like this flooded her mind, making her think about the entire ordeal more than she cared to.  	Both her and her meal had been thrust into a situation neither wanted to participate in.

	Her body continued to fight the creature, causing her to dry heave painfully as she thought about what might be inside her right now.  A small pig perhaps?  A large rat?  A fox maybe?  None of these helped settle her stomach though – the lump of flesh squirming away to its own concerns.

	Whatever it was, she wanted it out, and her body was trying to assist her with that desire – desperately.  She clutched her eyes shut, bearing through the squirming and writhing of the creature, breathing deeply.  Whilst she tried to force herself to calm down, the creature squirmed more vigorously, searching for a way out.  She thanked whatever gods were watching over her that the creature hadn’t figured out to use its claws.

	While her eyes were closed and her mind focused on regulating her breathing, her ears picked up something else – whimpering.  Not of the meal she’d been fed though, no; the whimpering belonged to Akara’s next meal.  Cracking one eye open, she glanced over at him, a grin creeping onto her face.

	The deep breaths had helped her body calm down, the moving and lurching of her stomach now starting to feel a bit… pleasant.  It was still alien, and she still desperately wished it would stop all together, but at least her body wasn’t trying to violently regurgitate her meal now.

	She took a few minutes to herself, catching her breath and rubbing her stomach.  Maybe she could lull the creature to sleep?  Seeing as how her options were so wildly available, she did just that.  While rubbing the squirming lump, she began to hum a tune she’d heard when she was younger.  A song of happiness and rest, straight from the Dwarves in the Cerray Mountains.

	Now that she wasn’t tied down to a brothel, maybe she could visit the Mountains some time?  Provided she survived Akara.  And the journey.  The idea of actually meeting a dwarf instead of just hearing about one in song put a bit more emotion into her humming, which was apparently having an effect.

	When the squirming finally settled to an occasional spasm or rolling, Mila opened her eyes again.  She looked over to the scum she’d caught for Akara, her grin now a satisfied smile.  Regardless of how she had been fed, the meal was immensely large, and she probably wouldn’t need to eat again for a while.

	“You feel that?” she whispered, speaking directly to the still whimpering human.  “How delightfully full you are?”  Slowly, she stood, one hand on her stomach, the other on the wall.  “Don’t you think it was generous of Akara to give you such a hearty last meal?”  She gently patted her own stomach, not wanting to stir the creature back up.

	The man shook his head ‘no’ in desperation, tears running down his face and into his gag.  Mila walked over to him again, sliding down to sit next to him.  Pulling her dress up, she exposed her large, occasionally squirming lump to him.  Rubbing her stomach, she looked over to his own bulging stomach.  Leaning over, she began rubbing his stomach through the silk, feeling how terrified he was.

	“Maybe she should feed you a meal like mine?” she suggested, looking up to his face.  Rolling over, she sat on top of his taut, full stomach, resting her own on his chin.  “I bet we could fit three or four meals in there.  Maybe then you wouldn’t be so ungrateful that you’re being fed.”

	Pulling her dress up, she leaned forward so that her belly smothered his face, disturbing the meal within.  It started to squirm heartily again, mashing his face through her belly.  She could feel his terror beneath her stomach, a bit of excitement dampening what remained of her panties.  While she might not have enjoyed the meal directly, she could certainly find a way to enjoy Akara’s next meal.

	“I was so lucky to receive a clutch of my own,” she cooed, pulling her stomach back off of the man so he could breath.  “I suppose that makes her my lover,” she openly pondered, one hand moving to her inner thigh.  “Of course, my clutch won’t hatch for a good long while, unlike yours.”  Knowing that this man would’ve taken her back to the brothel, further fueled her enjoyment of his torment.

	“I don’t know what you did to deserve a clutch,” she continued, rolling back off of him to her previous sitting position.  “But I suggest you count your blessings.  There are far worse fates than fostering young.”  Satisfied that he’d had enough, at least for now, Mila rose to her feet.  Maybe having a drider cohort wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.

	Provided she could stay out of her belly.

	Just how secure was her position with Akara?  So far all she had managed to do was provide two or three meals to her, and annoy her to no end.  She knew that she had offended the drider when asking to cook her meal first; knew that she was more than simply annoyed when she spoke of her hunger.  She was going to have to learn Akara’s quirks and tendencies quickly if she was to last more than a week.

	A more pressing matter came forth though – her own body.  Could she survive on meals like the one Akara just gave her?  Could her stomach handle such abuse?  What of the eggs in her nethers?  She needed to get those out, lest a rapist get lucky and inadvertently fertilize them.  What of her dress?  Or her clothing?

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	Wandering around Akara’s den, Mila let her mind do its own wondering.  She didn’t know of many places beyond her own home town.  There was a larger city that the men would go to for supplies and to trade, but she’d never been there herself.  She did know a bit about the immediate area though.

	Her village had a thick forest to border itself from the drider sprawl that was about a week’s worth of travel away.  It was apparently one of the most remote human settlements, the nearest human city the same distance in the opposite direction.  She could see Mount Emkel from the city tower, but no known human settlements lay beyond her own as far as her people knew.

	To get to the nearest human city that wasn’t her village, she would have to travel to the city.  Or try her luck with the drider sprawl.  While she managed to convince Akara that she could provide meals, she probably couldn’t guarantee the same with an entire colony of ravenous spider-folk.  Who’s to say there wasn’t a more powerful drider than Akara out there?

	Maybe she could convince Akara to help her reach a more distant place to live?  Or maybe she could find a way to the fabled Gias Isles?  Nestled between the three major landmasses of Utay, Coul and Aldr; the isles were part of many a legend.  Perhaps, instead of aiming for something so far away, she could try her luck with the Elves?  Xenophobic though they may be, it was worth a shot.

	Or the dwarves even?  Anything was better than her current arrangement.  Realizing just what she was thinking about, Mila chuckled to herself.  Not but a day ago, she had accepted her fate as drider food and was ready to end it all.  Now that she’d been given a rather rough second chance, a familiar kind of childhood hope had returned.

	So many creatures in the world; so many places to visit… Maybe she would be the first human to visit the Gias Isles?  Or see an elven city-forest?  Meet a dragon?  Visit the wastelands of Aldr or explore Sertin’s Hell Hills… Thinking of all that she could accomplish left her giddy with excitement.  Thinking of what she could do with a drider as an ally…

	Maybe Akara had similar interests or desires to see the world?

	Sighing, Mila rested a hand on her stomach, rubbing it gently.  She hadn’t been paying attention to the squirming, now curious as to the lack thereof.  Probing with one hand, her full belly groaned in protest as the contents shifted.  Apparently her meal had tuckered itself out and had fallen asleep.  Maybe she could work on her eating, like Akara suggested…

	She was going to have to spend some quality time with Akara – find out what she likes and doesn’t like.  What she does for fun, her life goals… If she plans on making her a meal.  Should probably start with that.  It occurred to the girl though, that their sleep schedules weren’t exactly in sync.  Drider are apparently nocturnal, where as humans aren’t.  At least, not commonly.

	Another surprise burp escaped Mila’s lips, this one lasting a bit longer than the last.  Hopefully her stomach would settle and end this nightmare of who knows what that was going on inside her body.  Rubbing her stomach through her dress, she realized just how dirty she must be.  Having been up for nearly two days, spending the latter half of both of those days running through the forest; she must look something awful.  Perhaps Akara had a facility or means to clean herself and her clothing?


	Several sleepless hours had passed, the hefty meal that Mila had been given finally starting to process.  Her body was hard at work sucking any and all nutrients it could from the meal, which was leaving her physically drained.

	Exhausted though she was, Mila couldn’t manage to sleep.  Laying on her back in the den, she stared up at the glowing root that now served as a hearth in the cool dampness of Akara’s burrow.  Her thoughts had previously been occupied with trying to sort her life out, now that she’d been given a second chance.

	That, and trying to figure out how to avoid winding up as a meal herself.

	Drider had always been a sort of myth to her village.  They were far enough away to be mysterious and fascinating – to the point that most people would believe the tales spun about them regardless of who was weaving them – so long as they had traveled in the right direction.  But, they were just close enough to be a somewhat real threat.  Something that loomed just over the horizon – something that no one wanted to be a part of.  No one wanted to find a drider, but everyone and their mother wanted to know about them.  Fact is, drider had never once set foot in her village.  The closest anyone had ever gotten to a real threat was when a drider wandered close enough to be spotted by the village guards.

	Some called them crazy, some wanted to know more, and others still up and simply left the village.  Who would live in a place where a monster as relentless as a drider was so close?  To actually meet a drider though… It was akin to meeting a warrior you had heard stories about.  You don’t really know what to expect until all the cards are on the table.

	Akara was certainly an interesting view into the world of drider.  From what Mila had observed, she was probably the only human alive that knew as much as she did about Akara’s species and was still alive to talk about it.  In her few days with the drider, Mila had near completely disassembled many of the myths and legends her village had whipped up regarding the creatures.

	Most of them were proving to be true.  Drider did in fact have ravenous appetites, and a love for consumption.  The venom wasn’t acidic or abrasive; rather a short term paralytic.  The one thing she wasn’t expecting to be so different was the size though.  Akara was massive; her human portion nearly twice all of Mila.  It was no wonder she could so easily fit an entire human into her stomach.  Akara’s arachnid portion was just as large; capable of completely hiding Mila and at least one more human under it – stars only know how many it could actually contain.

	“How many humans live in your village, girl?”  Akara’s sudden presence startled Mila to the point that she physically leapt backwards, landing on her still distended belly.  Moaning slightly at the soreness, she rolled over to face the direction Akara’s voice had come from.  Looking around wildly, she found no trace of the drider – a disturbing sensation given she knew who the voice belonged to.

	“Up here girl,” came Akara’s irritated voice.  Mila looked up, finding Akara on the ceiling of the den, looking down at her.  The sight bewildered her, her brain twisting in knots to figure out how a creature so large could remain suspended like that – let alone get there without being heard.

	“W-why are you up there?” she croaked, craning her neck.

	“Am I going to have to explain my every action to you?”

	“S-sorry,” Mila quietly replied, silently cursing her own curiosity.  “I don’t know the exact number.  Eighty perhaps?” she continued, looking back up at Akara.

	“Eighty humans?” Akara repeated.  “In the same village?”

	“There about, I think.”

	Akara climbed down, mumbling something just quiet enough that Mila couldn’t hear it.  When she was on the floor again, the drider approached Mila, still mumbling under her breath.

	“How many humans could go missing before the village elders took action?”

	“Elders?”

	“Your villages have leaders, do they not?”

	“Well, yes—“

	“Are they not your elders?”

	“Not always, no.”

	“Humans will allow humans with less experience to lead their villages?” Akara asked, dumbfounded once more by the strange life styles that humans seemed to adopt.

	“Leaders don’t have to be wise, they just have to be powerful,” Mila responded, reflecting back to her village’s current leader.  Marr’s father, Vesn, was the leader last she knew.  He had the brothel built when she was young.  The more she thought about what he did, the more connections she made that upset her.  There was a reason he was so nice to her when she was younger – he wanted a good product.

	One that wouldn’t offer much resistance, which was easier to mold.

	“You humans confound me,”Akara finally said, rubbing her temples.  “We can discuss your species’ organization later.  How many can go missing before action is taken?”

	“I don’t know,” Mila said, shaking her thoughts away from Vesn so that she could give Akara a number.  “Five - seven, at most, I would say.”

	“Then I would be able to get two more meals out of you at most, before something happened.”  Akara pondered how to handle her situation.  The meals had been filling and her work severely cut down due to Mila’s involvement; but all good things must apparently come to an end.  No matter how powerful she was, even Akara knew that she couldn’t fight off an entire horde of 80+ humans.

	At least, not yet.  Given proper time to prepare, she could easily capture them without fail and make each and every one a meal.  The problem she kept coming back to however, was time.  By the time she’d set everything up and planned everything out, all of her food stores would’ve been depleted – including Mila.  If she was going to sack this village and make meals out of the occupants, she needed time.  For more time, she needed a larger stock pile of food – something she couldn’t achieve here if the humans started to retaliate.  How long would it take for the humans to realize that numbers were in their favor?

	No, she needed new hunting grounds, and at least one more meal for the journey.  That way she had something to tide herself over until she was able to get more established.  A game of chance lay before her, one with the decay of urgency that had been the downfall of so many drider before her.

	“I must make preparations to leave,” she said, breaking her gaze and looking to Mila.  “Go, catch one last meal.”

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	Mila’s heart sank.  One last meal?  Surely, she was to be disposed of.  All of those plans and dreams she’d just conjured up turned to ash in her mouth.  She could do nothing without Akara, but the drider had little need for a human.  Her now weak legs were in no shape to even attempt getting her out of the nest; never mind the fact that she’d never left on her own before.

	“Will you help me up to the surface?”

	Akara sighed, hoisting the human up with her arms.  “How you humans get around is beyond me.”  Quickly Mila was carried up the shaft and deposited onto the surface, the afternoon sun casting a rich orange color across the sky as it set.  “I hadn’t realized just how early it was,” Akara said, more to herself than to Mila.

	“When you take me as a meal, if you do not bite me, I will not fight you.”

	The drider paused, blinking the confusion from her eyes.  “When I eat you?” she repeated, still trying to process what Mila had said.  How had she made that connection?  “Girl, do you think I intend to end your services so soon?”

	“But, you said ‘one last meal.’”

	“That I did.  Was I not clear?” Mila’s scrunched eyes told the drider all she needed to know.  Sighing, she prepared to explain herself once more to the human.  “Are there other human settlements nearby?”

	“Yes.”

	“Do they have humans that would pursue you to a trap laid by myself?”

	Mila paused, her heart rate quickening.  “I presume so.”

	“Then why would I put an end to your services so early?  I am in my prime as a drider, and I will require more than just two or three filling meals.”  Seeing the human’s sigh of relief, Akara re-asserted herself.  "This does not mean that you are not an option,” she continued, looking her over.  “If food runs too low or you stop bringing me meals, you will become one just the same.”

	Having heard that, Mila smiled.  She reached out, hugging the drider briefly before sprinting off towards her village.  Akara blinked away yet more confusion, eventually shaking her head at such strange activity.  Descending back down to her den, she thought out loud to herself about Mila and her plans.

	“This girl will have to be trained,” she mumbled, wondering back down to her bed chambers.  “And she’ll need some kind of mark.  I could keep filling her with eggs, but…” Akara looked down to her abdomen, running a hand along it.  “I think something more visible would be appropriate.”  Then, an idea struck her.  Almost giggling to herself, Akara began spinning up some fine silk, setting out to make something that would ward off other predators but not give way her true nature to other humans.

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	Mila, on her journey back to her village, skipped with joy.  Something she hadn’t done since she was a child.  The air rushing by her face; the grass beneath her feet; her blood pumping through her veins… It was something she was certainly going to have to do more of in the future.  Approaching the village, she paused to consider her strategy.

	Last time she had simply lured some foolish, horny men out into the woods.  This time, she wanted to try something a bit different.  Provide a good haul for Akara before they moved on to wherever they were off to.  They… It felt good to be appreciated, even if it was by something that could consume her without much effort.

	Perhaps she’d try something a bit bolder?  A damsel in distress scenario?  When her fiendish scheme came to her, the only thing stopping her from carrying it out then and there was the thought of just how many humans Akara could take down at one time.  She’d seen at least three go down at once; could she take a party of five though?  Straightening what was left of her dress, wiping her face of mud, Mila decided that she would find the answers to those questions tonight.

	Wandering into her village, Mila chose the most direct route – one that directly led to town hall.  The dim orange of the evening lanterns danced across the dirt road, the light feeling alien to what she had experienced the past few nights.  Somehow the dim green glow of Akara’s den felt more inviting than her birthplace.  The light must have provided enough illumination though, as she soon found herself confronted by one of the many familiar faces in this village.

	“Keal?” Mila said softly, turning to fully face her friend.  Somehow, in all that had transpired, she had nearly forgotten that not everyone in this wretched village had been involved in the brothel.

	“Mila?”

	“Keal, what are you doing out this late?  You should be inside.”

	“You’re kidding, right?” Keal replied, his hair falling just above his eyes.  “Do you know how long your father has been looking for you?  Where have you been?”

	“I can’t tell you,” she said, looking around for further spectators.  “Please, don’t tell my father I’m here.  Not yet.”

	“Mila, what’s going on?”

	“You’re not supposed to be here, Keal.  Please, just go home, and forget you ever saw me tonight.”

	“You can’t seriously expect me to—“

	“Keal, please.  I don’t want what happened to Marr to happen to you.”

	“What happened to Marr?”

	“That’s not important right now, what’s important is—“

	“It better be important, we’re going to look for him at daybreak tomorrow.”

	Mila’s heart sank, ever so slightly.  Why did Keal of all people have to find her?  Why couldn’t it have been her father, or one of his lackeys?

“You won’t find him,” she finally whispered, looking down.

“Mila, what happened out there?  You’re a mess, and there are rumors of a giant spider-woman that’s been eating the forest dry.”

“Her name is Akara,” she replied, looking back up at Keal.  “You would do well to remember that.  She has no prejudice to whoever wanders into her forest – you’re all meals to her.”

“What about you?  How’d you get away?”

“We have to go somewhere safe, where I won’t be spotted.”

“Follow me,” Keal said, leading Mila down the familiar path to the central guard tower.  Climbing up the stairs to the roost proved to be a slow and quiet journey – much to Mila’s relief.  She wasn’t sure what she would do if someone else caught them.  The last thing she wanted was for Keal to get hurt.

“We can talk here,” Keal said, sitting down in the roost of the tower, watching Mila carefully do the same.  No lanterns were lit in the tower, instead the two were illuminated only by moonlight.  Probably for the best, lest any light alert the other towers.

“I’ve been in the forest.”

“I can see that,” Keal said, pointing to her dress.  “You haven’t been taking good care of your father’s dress either.  So what happened out there?  Why don’t you want anyone to find you?”

“I want people to find me,” she corrected, mulling over how to approach her current situation.  “Just not you.”

“Me?  What did I do?”

“Nothing, thankfully.”  Seeing the confusion on Keal’s face, Mila sighed before continuing on with her story.  “I’ve been in Akara’s den, helping her capture meals.”

“Who?”

“Akara.  She’s a drider.”

“Drider?”

“Spider-woman?” Mila offered, smiling at Keal’s innocence.

“Oh.  So how did you convince her to not eat you?  Are you getting meals to her so that she won’t eat you?”

“Hardly,” Mila said, pulling up her tattered dress.  Her round belly reflected the moonlight easily as she rubbed it.

“What did she do to you?”

“I’m going to be a mother if I don’t get these eggs out of me soon,” she said, putting her dress back down.  “And from what I understand about drider young, I won’t exactly be a mother for long.”

“So, what does this have to do with bringing people to Akara?”

“I convinced her to not eat me in return for providing her easy meals.”

“Why?”

“Have you visited the brothel?”

“No!  Of course not!”

“Then you wouldn’t understand.  I was sold to it, Keal.  Sold to it without any say in the matter, and I will have no part of that.  I would rather die than be some trophy slut.”  Mila ground her teeth, still understandably bitter about the whole situation.  “She had her terms when we struck the agreement.  I would carry her young so that she had some form of insurance that I would return.”

“That at least explains the eggs,” Keal said, mulling over his own thoughts.  “I have a solution for you,” he offered, working out ideas to help his friend.  “A man came by the other day, trading special goods.  I bought a few of them, and I think one of them might be just what you need to get those eggs out without that monster’s help.”  He reached into his pocket, taking out a small, green vial, offering it to Mila.

“What, you just happen to be carrying this on you all day?”

“I’ve been trying to find a use for it, but I think it’ll suit you best.”

“What is it, anyways?”

“Slime.  This one, specifically, is named ‘Ir.’”

“And just how can this ‘Ir’ help me?”

“Just trust me.  If anything can get those eggs out, it’s that slime.  Now,” he said, standing up, “since we have your motherly situation sorted out, what are you going to do now?”

“I’m not going back to the brothel,” she said flatly, standing up as well.  “Whatever I do, it’ll be away from this place.”  Casually, she popped the top of the vial off, letting it plop to the floor.  “What do I do with this?”

“Mila no!” Keal hissed, but he was too late.  The green slime had already slurped up out of the vial and onto her hand.

“It tickles,” she said, stifling a giggle as it worked quickly up her arm, leaving damp trail behind it.

“Put it back in the vial, quickly!” he hissed again, searching for the stopper on the floor.

“What’s the big hurry?” Mila asked, gasping slightly as the slime made its way onto her left breast.  “Oooh,” she cooed, looking down at her shirt just in time to see the slime dart downwards.

Keal, having finally found the stopper, stood back up.  He yanked the vial from Mila, looking her over.  “Alright, where is it?”  Mila only barely moaned in response, the slime finding her nether regions.  “Oh no.”

Mila bit her lower lip, fighting every urge in her body to moan.  The slime plunged deep into her being, her nethers fully inviting the creature into her body.  Judging by the amount of dampness on her belly, she got the idea that there was yet more to go.

Leaping into action, Keal yanked the torn dress up, finding the slime in action.  He grabbed what he could, but it slipped through his fingers like water, disappearing further into Mila’s panties.  Following its course, he pulled those down as well, exposing Mila’s most private regions, a large blob of slime clinging to it.  He grabbed it with both hands, pulling on it as hard as he could.

The slime reacted accordingly, retreating into Mila’s body hastily; a decent swell began to form just above her vagina, more and more of this ‘Ir’ slipping into her.  She slipped back down onto the floor of the roost, squirming in delight as the slime pleasured her in ways she’d never even dreamed of.  The creature slipped completely into her, filling her completely – leaving Keal merely groping at Mila’s crotch, fruitlessly.

Mila panted for a few moments, the lump that was the slime moving ever deeper into her, filling the deepest, darkest of places.  She could feel what she could only guess to be her womb fill with the cool substance, filling her even more on top of the eggs.  Both hands moved to her now pregnant looking belly, rubbing it as sensually as she could.

Ir made itself at home in Mila, taking up as much surface area as it could, enjoying the bounty of juices Mila was providing.  More and more juices were produced, only to be consumed by the slime, increasing its mass.  Soon it would grow out of this host, but for now, it would do just fine.

Mila looked at her belly, feeling it increase in weight ever so slightly as time passed.  Reaching down, she massaged her clit, eager to ride the feeling to fruition.  When Keal’s hand pulled hers away from this most important task, she finally opened her eyes to glare at him.

“Don’t do that,” he said, eyeing her belly cautiously.  “It feeds on fluids.”  Mila barely registered the warning, rocking her hips to try and find something to grind on.  “The more you pleasure yourself, the bigger it gets.  Eventually, it’ll consume you.  Literally.”  Mila stopped dry humping the air long enough to form a coherent sentence, giving Keal a look that could easily scar a small child.

“Why did you have this on you again?” she hissed.

“It was meant for the spider-woman.”

“Akara?” she corrected, trying to figure out why.

“I wasn’t sure the rumors were true, but I figured Ir was the best chance we had at defeating her.”

Mila looked down at her even rounder belly, rubbing it.  “Ir was meant to attack Akara?”

______________________________________________

“Of course it was, Mila.  The beast has captured and, apparently, eaten at least three villagers!  Not to mention the forest.”

“It’s not her fault!” Mila snapped back, raising her voice slightly.  “She’s doing what she must to survive, as we have.”

“By devouring an entire forest of life?  Eating whole people?”

Mila slapped Keal, her brow furrowed in anger.  She had no retort though.  Akara wasn’t merely surviving, her physique and size were evidence enough of that.  Still, she didn’t like the drider being attacked like that.  Surely there was a reason for her appetite.

“What?” Keal spat, his own expression turning sour.  “Do you defend it?”  Mila’s dejected look was enough to give him the answer that would twist his stomach.  “Mila, you can’t be serious.  You said it yourself, she almost ate you!”

“But she didn’t!”

Keal was silent for a few moments, a realization dawning on him.

“You’re going back to her, aren’t you?”  Adrenaline started pumping, his heart rate increasing to a steady thump in his ears.  “After the chance I gave you to start a new life, you’re going to go back to this beast and help her kill more of your own kin!”

“My kin died when they sold me,” she coldly countered.  “I’m leaving now,” she said, starting back down the ladder.  “There’s nothing here worth her time anyway.”

Keal lunged after Mila, grabbing her wrist.  A startled scream escaped her lips as she openly punched her former friend square in the jaw.  All too late she realized her mistake, multiple doors creaking open in the night.  Before Keal had another chance to grab at her, she reached up, slamming the trap door down on his hand.

He of course yelped, causing more alarm in the village, but she paid it little mind.  All she had to do was make it to the forest and Akara would protect her.   Seeing as her cover was now blown, she slid down ladders, jumping short distances when possible, eventually reaching the ground.

“She’s here!  At the central tower!”

Mila instinctively looked up, silently cursing Keal’s namesake as she made a run for it.  Her heart began pounding in her chest, the added weight of Ir in her belly putting even more strain on her fragile frame.  Of course, she hadn’t made it far when said added weight threw another snake into the mix.  Her inner folds began burning with that desire she was all too familiar with, her legs threatening to give out.

Ducking into a nearby alley, she slinked into the darkness as more light flooded the village.  Voices here and there, clamoring about as her thoughts clouded.  Right now she needed two things – to pleasure herself to orgasm, and to get out of this village.  At the moment, her judgment was clouding in favor of the building desire to orgasm, in no part helped by the now very active slime in her abdomen.

Idly she started fingering herself, her juices dampening her panties as she toyed with her clit.  Hitting her first small orgasm was simple enough, though the lack of juices and slight increase in tightness of her dress informed her that that decision would come back to haunt her later.  Still, it cleared her mind just enough to where she could focus.

Sprinting back to the alley entrance proved a mistake, as the jostling increased the slime’s activity within her, bringing her back to a near orgasmic state once more.  This creature was going to be the end of her, and she only wanted to feed it more of her juices.  The pleasure along was likely feeding Ir at any rate, but stopping to orgasm wasn’t going to slow it down.

Biting her lip, she broke into a hard sprint, her belly jiggling wildly as she ran.  Her pleasure built and built, but never enough to reach orgasm.  Still she ran, her legs threatening to give out and force her to pleasure herself; but she persisted.  The adrenaline was proving to help clear her mind; the extra dose when she heard a ‘there she is!’ helped tremendously though.  Running now as fast as she could, the village around her became a blur, people’s faces nothing more than clouds.

Her body was aching for release, and the increasing slime’s activity wasn’t helping.  She wanted to leap onto the first male she found and fuck him relentlessly at this point.  Something – anything to give her sweet release.  Making it to the forest relatively uncontested, she ducked behind a tree to take a brief rest, and tend to her now tantalizing itch.

It didn’t take long for her to reach a rather powerful orgasm; but her fingers didn’t come back wet.  In fact, no juices managed to slip out at all.  First she heard, then she felt, a loud gurgling as Ir absorbed her liquid sexual desire; her belly rippling as it grew to what she thought was a tremendous size.  Surely she must look three months with child by now.

“There you are.”

Mila immediately punched at whatever had spoken, knocking her surely soon to be aggressor to his seat.  Squinting, she was able to distinguish a familiar face – despite the substantial amount of blood that was pouring from her victim’s nose.

“Vesn?”

He only groaned in response, but the affirmation was enough to shock her back to reality.  Quickly, she started running deeper into the forest, small moans escaping her lips as her belly was pleasured from within.  Tears began forming in her eyes as she tried desperately to focus on putting as much distance between her and Vesn as possible.

She didn’t know how far she’d made it, but it wasn’t deep enough.  There was no sign of Akara or her webbing, and she was exhausted.  Ir had given her at least three more inches of belly girth from her pleasures, and at this point she didn’t care.  The only thing she wanted was to lie down and rest, maybe even see just how much pleasure she could achieve before this creature consumed her.

Laying down on her back, she yanked her dress up and attempted to reach down to her crotch.  Frustration bubbled into her mind as she realized that her stomach was now too large for her to reach her crotch.  Now she was in a living hell – the pleasure kept building, her belly ever so slowly increasing in size, but she had no way to achieve that mystical orgasm.  What she would give to have Akara fill her womanhood with eggs right now…

“Mila,” Akara hissed, climbing out of her burrow.  Her keen senses combined with sensory web strands had alerted her that Mila was back, but she hadn’t made it all the way into her burrow.  When she climbed out, the first thing she saw was a rather large pink blob topped by a relatively small slit, jiggling around wildly.

Of course it was Mila, and of course she’d managed to get herself into yet more trouble.  Walking over, she found the girl only barely aware of what was going on, eyes half lidded in a lustful daze.  Reaching down, she pulled the girl to her feet, a bit more effort involved than she had expected.

“Girl, what happened?” she barked, looking over the small human’s form.  Putting a hand to her belly, she found it much cooler than expected, a few ideas now running through her mind.  Pulling her close, Akara pried Mila’s mouth open, looking down her throat.  A quick smell of her breath confirmed that whatever was in her belly hadn’t gotten there through her throat.

Being left with only two options, she started with her personal favorite, inserting a finger into Mila’s swollen nether lips.  The girl’s sharp, elongated moan was all the conformation she needed.  Pushing further in, Akara eventually found a cool substance buried deep in Mila.  Pulling her finger out, she gave it a quick lick, grumbling to her misfortunes.

Of course Mila had gone and fucked a slime.

Her ears picked up a more pressing matter though: a cluster of voices and noises unlike any wildlife she’d encountered thus far.  It sounded vaguely like the humans she’d encountered previously, but there was a distinct… tone, about them.  Something… aggressive.

Hoisting Mila onto her back, Akara quickly descended into her burrow.  Reaching the bottom, she slid the girl off onto the floor, letting her lie down.  Briefly she considered covering her den entrance; but decided that food was just as important as bait.  Rolling around near Akara’s next meal, Mila finally had gained some form of sentience once more, groaning as her belly protested being filled to such extremes.

“A-akara?” she asked, closing her eyes to try and focus.  “What happened?”

“You fucked a slime, stupid girl,” Akara snapped, turning her attention from the burrow entrance back to Mila.  “You fucked a slime, and led a human horde to my burrow.”

Leaning down, Akara found Mila’s slit with her hands, delving into it.  Mila of course moaned in pleasure, her belly rumbling with growth as her juices attempted to flow.  Laying down, Akara eyed Mila’s belly, considering her plan of attack.  Apparently, her pose must’ve been rather predatory.

“Wait!  A-akara please!  I can still help you!”

The drider chuckled to herself, paying little mind to Mila’s outburst, instead kissing her nether lips.  It was no small kiss either; her tongue diving deep into Mila, earning several loud moans – each accompanied by equally impressive gurgles from her slime occupant.  Akara sucked and licked, trying to find the slime that was quite literally weighing Mila down.

Giving Mila’s clit a quick nibble proved to be just what she needed, an impressively long, large orgasm hitting her after the electrifying experience had struck.  Her belly groaned louder still, slime now running out of room.  Akara anticipated this though, retracting her tongue and grabbing Mila’s thighs.  She held the girl to her face, sucking hard once the slime made contact with her mouth.

Mila squeaked out a high pitched moan as the slime was slowly pulled from her.  It struck every nerve, filled her passage to a width no alone time could ever accomplish.  She panted, trying to grind against Akara’s face, but was held firmly in place.  Once the slime was in Akara’s mouth, she began to gulp.  A very audible, wet slurping filled the den; Mila’s belly rapidly decreasing in size.

Akara was getting a bit carried away with herself, enjoying tormenting the slime as she swallowed it.  More and more it tried to fight her muscles, but she was simply too powerful for the not yet fully matured creature.  Ir panicked, thrashing about in both women as it attempted to re-secure itself to Mila – to little effect.

Once Ir had been completely dislodged, Akara stood up, pulling the slime completely out of Mila.  Standing to her full height, she backed away from the still panting human, gulping down the rest of the slime.  Several powerful gulps later, and Ir was finally tucked away in Akara’s belly – barely a bulge on the toned drider.

Mila scooted to her elbows, legs still splayed wide as she looked at Akara.  She seemed to be having some kind of trouble, as she kept swallowing.  Apparently a slime is not an easy meal to keep down.

“Akara?  What’s wrong?” she panted, working herself to a full sitting position.

“Slime only –,“ she paused, gulping again.  “Only desire to live in sexual organs,” she continued, hiccupping to keep the green mass down.  “My stomach is, in fact, no sexual organ; despite what my people will tell you.  I will have to keep – “ she swallowed again, irritation muddying her expression.  “I will have to keep it down to end it, lest it find another sexual host.”

“Another host?” Mila repeated, a fiendish idea striking her.  Akara followed Mila’s gaze, eyes landing on the last meal she’d cocooned.

“Yes,” she repeated, gulping again.  “Another host.”