Chapter 1 - Falling Prey

WARNING: The following content contains Soft Vore, Rape, Belly Expansion, Monstergirls (Specifically a Drider), Biting, Light Bondage?

So yeah, you've been warned.

______________________________________________


	The drider stood slowly, easing into the fading light of the sunset.  Her legs stretched silently, despite what could only be described as joints popping.  Tonight was a night like any other – she was going to check her traps, find what food she could, and return to her burrow for a hefty meal.  Thus was the cycle she’d gotten into.

	Not a bad cycle by many standards – rinse, lather, repeat; right?  Sure, save for the part where she was left hungrier and hungrier each night.  The crimson streaks down her abdomen glistened ever so gently in the moon light as her large frame emerged completely.  She knew exactly what was happening, but she had no intention of stopping it until it was absolutely necessary.

	The forest was running out of food for the drider – her last catch was nothing but a few large squirrels, and they didn’t even have the curtsey to squirm all that long!  Of course, eating an entire ecosystem hadn’t gone unnoticed by her ravenous body.  Her chest was more than ample – enough to smother another drider should she ever encounter one.  Her silk had become the strongest she’d ever known, but took its toll to produce.

	Her size was the biggest difference though.  When she first nested in this forest, she was maybe as tall as a fully grown man.  Now?  Well, to be honest, she didn’t have much to compare to, but climbing the trees here had certainly become a far easier – not to mention quicker – task than she remembered.

	The not-so-subtle growls of her stomach whisked her back to reality though.  A hungry drider is an unpleasant drider, moreso than usual.  While she was rather devious, the emptiness in her belly was getting the best of her.  She’d even managed to throw in some fruits that she found with one meal – in some vain hopes to increase its longevity in her stomach; maybe make her feel fuller longer.

	She only tried once.  Puking is something drider are unfamiliar with, and likely the only thing that they despise more than being hungry.

	Quietly, she climbed up a large oak tree that she had made her hub.  The lack of predators or competition had left her lazy, so her network of webbing was clearly visible if one were to simply look up.  Yet, the animals here were stupid enough to keep getting caught and feeding her, so her stealth continued its nosedive.

	Tonight felt… different though.  Something about it held in the air, telling her this was the end.  The end of something, she could feel it.  Superstitious thoughts nagged at her, seeded by her elders.  The kinds of thoughts poorer hunters often occupied themselves with.  Hunters that couldn’t catch or provide for themselves.

	Not tonight though.  No, this was not the end to her silk.  She’d caught something big – big and upset.  A few of the smaller trees in her network were thrashing about violently, close to the edges of her webbing.  Intrigued and fueled by hunger, she nimbly jumped from treetop to treetop, almost gliding over them towards the source of the disturbances.

______________________________________________

	Mila struggled franticly against the horrifyingly thick webbing, sweat now coating her once lovely dress.  Whatever she’d gotten herself into, knowing there was something out there big enough to make it was making the brothel seem like a not so bad place after all.

	It was her third night at the institution, and it was apparently too much.  She’d run away as fast as she could, tears dried on her cheeks as she tossed aside her shoes to run even faster.  Being pretty and working at a brothel was a combination that wasn’t so ideal for a girl who’d just come of age.  Everyone wanted a piece of her, and they weren’t too keen on the condition of said piece.

	Naturally, she ran towards something she’d been taught to fear as a child – the forest that bordered the town.  Even the lumberjacks didn’t venture far into this twisted dementia of foliage.  The last time someone did, they didn’t come back.

	Be it fortune or some sick twist of fate though, a search party had been formed and was hot on her heels.  Being the prettiest in the brothel meant that she made at least someone quite a bit of money, so if she was lost, money wouldn’t be the only reward for the person that found her and brought her back.

	“Help!  Help, please!” she yelled, her voice cracking with a fear she hadn’t encountered before.  “Over here!” the pleas continued, drawing the warming light of torches towards her.

	Amongst other things.

______________________________________________

	Akara was already in place, ready to reach down and snatch her prey up like she normally would.  This wasn’t the first time she’d seen a human, but it would be the first time she had the pleasure of savoring one.  The events unfolding below her had piqued her interest though.  Could she get away with more than one meal tonight?  Had a full moon blessed her luck?

	The gathering of more humans around her pit trap had her hopes raised for just that occasion.

“Marr, over here!  I’ve found her!”

	A human moved forward in the group, one that looked particularly larger than the rest.  A bit lean, but still not a bad meal.  He knelt down at the edge of Akara’s pit, looking at the girl that had stumbled into it.

	“Well well well, look what we have here.  Mila, what did you go and get yourself into this time?”  He shook his head, cutting away at one of the nearby signal threads, loosening the web.  “If only you’d stayed at the brothel like a good little slut, we’d be having a grand time in front of a roaring fire.  Why would you choose the cold forest over company and a roof over your head?”

	The one that this ‘Marr’ character had called Mila, started to sob.  She should hurry up and grab as many humans as she could carry, but the events below kept her attention more than Akara anticipated.

	“I’m sorry, Marr,” the tangled girl wept.  “I was scared.”

	“Aww, there there,” Marr said, cutting a path down to Mila.  “We’ll get you back into town, all cleaned up and taken care of.”  Like hell he was about to make off with her first real meal in days.  Akara’s legs tensed in preparation to ambush the stupid human, but again, he surprised her.  “But first, we’ll have to teach you a lesson.”  As those words left his lips, he began to remove his lower garments.

	Now, Akara hadn’t mated before, but she knew enough about the act to figure out that corner A goes into slot B.  When the Marr human started to pull his member out, Akara quietly lowered herself.  Still hidden by the canopy, she crept forward, around the pit.  The other humans had apparently not seen a drider before.  Some were stunned, others fascinated; but one emotion ruled them all – fear.

	Even the weakest drider had one thing that could end most attacks – intimidation.  Akara rose to her full height, nearly three times taller than the humans that were now backing away.  Her legs accounted for a good portion of her height, but it counted dammit.  Bearing her fangs in a snarl, she started towards the group of humans.

	After literally sinking her teeth into one, she shoved him into the group to further frighten them.  This worked, with the humans that the now paralyzed one landed on dragging him away hurriedly.  As the group scattered, Akara turned round to collect her meal.  She would not have a meal spoiled by such quarrels between savory specimens.

	When her nude torso loomed over the edge of the burrow, it must’ve looked odd to Mila.  She stopped crying long enough for Marr to start talking himself up once more.

	“See?  You’re learning.  It won’t be so bad,” he cooed, lower garments now around his ankles.

	Mila only watched over his shoulder as Akara approached the scene.  When her spider legs appeared and began to carry her down into the pit, Mila’s fear returned tenfold.

	“No!” she screamed, thrashing against the webbing; indirectly thrashing against Marr.  “No no no!” she continued, tears flowing freely now.

	Marr slapped her, stunning her momentarily as he tried to remove her dress from the web.  “Stop struggling!” he hissed, still fighting with the webbing.

	Akara took the opportunity to approach and eventually come up inches behind Marr.  She rose to a decent height, one that put the humans head squarely with her armored crotch.  She let out a long, very audible hiss that ceased all movement in her trap.

	Ever so slowly, Marr turned around, now face to face with an incredibly large Drider.  She had to be the first he’d ever seen, because he screamed.  Not only screamed, but screamed like a baby larva that had been denied its first meal.  Rolling her eyes at the display of fear, Akara struck quickly – a venom laced bite directly into his left shoulder.

	Given his elevated heart rate, it didn’t take long for the drider’s venom to take hold, the human now fumbling backwards onto the web.  With a two for one deal like this, Akara was already licking her lips.  She leaned down, her ample chest between the two humans.  Looking from the now petrified Marr to Mila, she finally spoke.

	“Shall I bite you too?”

______________________________________________

	Mila, having a decent amount of common sense – she shook her head ‘no’ violently.  Why, in any existence, would she want to be bitten?  She could see out of the corner of her eye that Marr was still breathing, but she didn’t know what this venom did, or how long it would take to do whatever it was going to do.

	“Good,” the drider said, raising her torso back to a more level state.  She crawled over Marr, picking him up with her spider legs.  She was doing something to him, but Mila couldn’t quite tell in the darkness.  The sheer lack of sound was eerie, to say the least.  Again though, Marr’s state of being was no longer at the forefront of her mind.

	The thought that now permeated her very being, was ‘how am I going to die?’  There was no way out of this mess, and she knew it.  The drider was stealthy, and at least intimidating enough to scare off a group of horny townsmen.

	But, seeing as Marr had been taken down by the creature, she sincerely doubted the rest of the town would rush to their aid.  Her would be rapist was doomed, and so was she, to whatever fate this monster of the night had bestowed upon them.

	Before she could reminisce on just how bad her current situation was compared to the one she was running from, the drider was looming over her body.  The only sounds she seemed capable of making in the presence of this creature were little squeaks and gasps.  The drider picked her up, just as she had Marr.  Maybe the poison will be quick and she’ll liquefy?  Maybe the beast would just snap her neck and get it over with?

	Being rolled wasn’t was she was expecting.  Up, down, up, down… all while feeling something creep up her legs.  The tossing and turning of her insides distracted her mind from whatever the fates had in store for her – until she realized just what was happening.

	Intense claustrophobia set in as soon as the silk reached her neck.  She was being cocooned, but there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.  Her head was wrapped up agonizingly slowly, the bottom of the drider’s abdomen being what she thought would be the last image of this world for her.  She cringed, fully expecting to be bitten.  Her body shaking, quivering in anticipation.

	But the bite never came.  The adrenaline pumped through her system, allowing her to twitch and thrash about in her prison.  Why?  Why wouldn’t she just get it over with?

	Her thoughts were once again cut short as gravity shifted for what seemed like the umpteenth time.  Through the silk she felt something hard beneath her, and something warm on both sides of her.  After a few more moments of wondering what was going on and gravity shifting a few more times, she put two and two together: herself and Marr were being moved.

______________________________________________

Akara grunted, her two meals secured on her back.  This was her biggest catch since she’d moved into this forest, and she was already salivating trying to decide which to eat first.  Moving to the top of the trees, the silken captives reflected brightly in the moonlight.  Should anything be stupid enough to try and get the drop on a drider, it wouldn’t have a hard time spotting her right now.

Still, as she walked, not all of her thoughts were of her meal – a strange happenstance for the young drider.  Her entire being was focused around eating, consuming – it was a sexual event for her.  The soothing thrashing of the creatures when her venom wore off, the feeling of being full of silk and milk the next morning… She could nearly ovulate at the thought.

But… why was she so focused on one of her snacks?  The girl in the white dress had something about her, a certain… acceptance.  This was something she’d never seen in her meals before.  Didn’t change anything though, Akara would still feast tonight.  Maybe she’ll play with the female a bit, try and figure out what’s on her mind before she’s in her belly…

A few silent minutes later, and Akara was descending her home tree into her burrow.  Just in time too, the moon was late in the sky, preparing to set.  Climbing the twisting tunnel down into her den, the powerful drider let out a sigh of relief when the dim light of the surface was replaced by the even dimmer light of the glow root.

Shifting her weight a bit, Akara lazily deposited the cocoons in a pile.  The corner of her den worked just as well as any other place, and she wanted room to enjoy this.  The venom would be wearing off soon… That thought in mind, she cut the tops of the silken pods to allow her prey the chance to breathe for a moment.  While they tried to figure out what to do with their temporary freedom, she moved to another area of her dwelling to check for any scars or wounds.

______________________________________________

	Mila was almost asleep when the top of her cocoon was ripped away – not that it really helped.  She was still having immense claustrophobia, and being in cave this dark didn’t help her at all.  As her eyes adjusted, she looked from one side to the other, finding Marr on top of her.  He was still cocooned, tossed at an odd angle so that his back was surely hurting.

	Doing her best to wiggle out from under him, she eventually rolled a few feet away.  Marr remained silent though – for all she knew he was dead by now.  Maybe the venom finally took its toll.  With no sign of the monster though, Mila took the opportunity to try and look around.  The incredibly dim glow of the glow root in the ceiling was just enough for her to adjust to.

	There was a big cluster of the strange root near what she presumed to be the entrance to this tomb.  A hole had been dug that came in at almost straight down – even if she could escape her cocoon, she wasn’t getting out of here without help.  Webbing was everywhere from what she could tell, giving the dirt an almost alien feel buried under the tough silk.

	“Enjoying the view?”

	Mila jumped at the sudden sound – once more taken aback by her captor’s incredible stealth.  She had no response though, and merely looked blindly in the direction the voice came from.  She managed to catch the outline of a human female, suspended on the wall.  Focusing, she was able to make out the spider abdomen that was attached to the torso.

	“Are all humans this quiet?” she inquired, staring Mila down.  When she didn’t respond to the second question, the creature let out a groan and descended towards Marr.  “I guess so,” she said, picking Marr’s still cocooned body up with her human hands.

	It was at this point, even in the incredible darkness, that Mila was given the chance to awe at the drider’s size.  She’d heard stories, sure, but nothing would have prepared her for this.  The creature was easily twice – probably closer to three times the size of Marr.  Holding him in place, Mila could see that one of her breasts was as big as Marr’s head, easily.  With that kind of physique, she could make a fortune at the brothel…

	Rolling over to get a better view of what she presumed to be her fate soon enough, Mila watched the scene unfold before her.  The drider licked her lips, bringing Marr in close.  It looked like it was going to be a kiss at first, but quickly turned into something a bit more extreme.  The creature had fit Marr’s head into her mouth – completely.

	Marr’s shoulders were the next bit to disappear into the creature’s gullet, her human arms pulling him towards her with a now very obvious hunger.  The darkness didn’t seem to matter so much anymore – Mila could easily see the bulge that was one human disappearing into a much larger human form.

	Another grunt from the creature, and Marr’s waist was now in her mouth.  She was apparently taking care not to bite or chew – at least, from what she could tell.  Once Marr’s waist was in her throat, the creature looked straight up, no longer supporting Marr with her hands.  Instead, gravity seemed to seal the deal as Marr’s cocooned feet disappeared into the drider’s lips.

	Mila couldn’t look away even if she wanted to – it was all too fascinating and horrifying.  Marr was gone – now completely consumed by the monster.  She licked her lips, swallowing to push her massive meal down, a decent sized bulge now visible in her human stomach.  It slowly grew in size, presumably as her internal muscles pushed Marr further into her.

	To the passerby, this creature would appear pregnant, but in the early stages.  The bump was visible, but not so much that one could tell from a distance.  The creature started rubbing her distended belly with both hands – followed by what Mila could just barely discern as a quick moan or a gasp.

	“Now maybe you’ll get a little more lively,” the drider said, suddenly breaking the silence.  She held her hands away from her belly, admiring her handiwork.  Mila was confused at first, until she saw what she thought was movement.  In the dim light, it was hard to tell, but there was something big moving, and the drider seemed to be enjoying it.

	“Yes, squirm for me,” she cooed, almost drunkenly walking over to sit down next to Mila.  “Would you like to feel him?” she asked, pushing her massive belly onto Mila’s face.  If she was unsure before, she was certain now, that was a human hand that had pushed against her – and it didn’t belong to the drider.

______________________________________________

	Resting her belly on her next meal, Akara looked down at the girl.  Her head was snugly pressed against the squirming mass that was her belly, and the venom was starting to wear off.  Her first meal was proving to be quite active indeed – just how she liked it.

	Akara leaned back, posturing her belly like a trophy to her next meal.  Returning from her stretch, the previous human’s struggles ever increasing, she decided to torment the girl a bit.  Might as well have a bit of fun with her food, now that she’s got something in her belly.

	“Tell me human, do you have names?” she inquired, rubbing her belly.  The still cocooned human was timid to respond, but did apparently find her voice.

	“Mila”

	“Mila,” Akara repeated, listening to the name.  Had the girl been any quieter, she might not have heard her speak – which was saying something considering how profound her species hearing was.  “What was this one called?” she asked, patting her stomach.

	This seemed to strike a nerve with ‘Mila’ – she didn’t respond as quickly as before.  After staring at the squirming belly flesh for a while, she spoke up once more.

	After making a disgusted face, Mila eventually did manage to spit out “Marr” as the name of Akara’s current source of nutrients.

	“Was he your lover?” she inquired, eager to build some emotion in her next victim.  Mila’s response turned out to be almost opposite what she had been expecting though.

	“No,” Mila responded, her expression turning as cold as the subterranean den.

	“Strange.  You were in a lover’s embrace, were you-“

	“No!” Mila yelped, the sudden noise actually taking the drider aback for a moment.  It had been a while since she’d been around anything with an intelligence level to match her own.  Sensing her own reaction to her food, she decided to rather quickly assert herself once more.

	Mila now suspended by Akara’s powerful human arms, she pressed her to the webbed wall.  Closing in quickly, she got her face right up to Mila’s, ensuring she had nowhere else to look.

	“Morsel,” she said, licking her lips before continuing. “You will not raise your voice in my home, or you will be bitten and consumed, just as boringly as your friend was.  I will not enjoy you as much, but a meal is a meal.”  Akara looked into Mila’s eyes – a mixture of arousal, hunger and raw power now emanating from the drider.

	“I’m sorry,” the girl whimpered.  If a creature this large and powerful had someone cocooned and held against a wall, she couldn’t think of too many things to do other than obey it.

	“Good.”

	“But he is NOT my lover,” Mila continued.  She had a feeling that she would be disciplined again, but she didn’t care.  If this creature was going to be the end of her, so be it – she might as well have a good conversation with her.  “I’m glad you ate him.”

	This… this caught Akara off guard.  She had had differences with her siblings before – life was not easy being the runt of the clutch.   “You would wish another of your own species to death?” she asked.  Sure, drider had been known to cannibalize their own in times of crisis, but such acts hadn’t been witnessed since before her elders were born.

	“I would wish it upon my entire village,” Mila responded.  Her voice trembled with hate and no small amount of adrenaline.  “I was sold by my own family as a whore – and not one of my ‘friends’ would help me.  Do you know what it’s like to be treated like property?”

	“I do not,” the drider replied simply.  “But I must say, even in my clutch, I have never met another creature with as much hate to damn their own species.”

	“I would damn them again and again if I could.  They have caused me nothing but suffering and shame once I was of age.”  The girl had been looking away with her thoughts, but now returned her gaze to the drider.  “If you’re going to kill me, please just get it over with.  I have nothing left of this world.”


	“Kill you?” Akara chuckled, her grip slacking enough so that Mila slid down the wall.  “Why, under all the stars in the heavens, would I kill you before eating you?”  This had a very obvious effect on Mila, her expression altering drastically.  “My species prefer living meals.  It is an insult for a drider to consume something after killing it – something reserved for punishment.”

	“You… you mean-“

	“I mean, girl, that whatever slides past my lips will squirm for a good long while before my body is done with it.”  Akara hadn’t realized just how offended she’d been by the comment.  “Only prey consume the dead.”

	Mila struggled to work her still cocooned body into a sitting position, now resting against the den wall once more.  “Does that apply to other drider as well?”

	“Yes.”

	The solemn response was all Mila needed, or wanted, to know about drider society.

	“Then please, just eat me and get it over with already.  I’ve accepted my fate to be food, and I will do nothing to fight you.”

	“To think – you would not only damn your clutch, but you would so willingly end your own life.  Have you no shame?”

	“I’ve enough shame for two lifetimes.”

	“Then you know nothing of shame.” This entire conversation was making Akara uneasy.  Her current meal had peaked in activity, and was now arousing her once more.  “Had I not had this meal, this conversation would have been much shorter.  You’re lucky this Marr is so active.”

	It was then that Mila’s idea struck her.  An idea that would change her life, no matter how long or short it was.

	“What if I helped you get more?”

	“More? More what?”

	“More meals.  More human meals.  I promise you, they all think they have something to live for.”

	“You and your ‘Marr’ will do more than enough to tide me over, I assure you.  I require no assistance from you.”

	“Is that why the forest is empty?”  Akara’s silence was enough for Mila to continue.  “’The Hollow Forest’ is its new name.  For months now hunters haven’t been able to catch anything more than the birds that fly above the trees.  All of the pigs are gone.  Bore, deer, squirrels – even the rats and mice are gone.  And I’d bet that you had something to do wi—“

	“Enough!” Akara shouted, her squirming belly now inches from Mila’s face.  “If you speak again without my permission, I will redefine the word ‘shame’ for you.” A couple of moments passed, only Akara’s now heavy breathing permeating the silence.  “Of course the stars would ‘bless’ me with such bounty…”

	Mila gulped.  “I will help you catch more prey.”  She was violating Akara’s previous insistence, but she had a feeling she could get away with this.  “I was the prize of the brothel in my village – I could easily lure another human out to you.”

	“Do you take me for a fool, girl?  Do you think I would so easily let you simply walk back to your clutch and garner help?”

	“Did you not believe me when I told you I would wish Marr’s fate on the rest of my village?”

	Akara scoffed – both at Mila and at herself – was she seriously going to consider her offer?  She was low on food, and this Marr character was squirming ever so delightfully…

	“I think we could benefit each other greatly.  I get my revenge, and you get a belly full of big, squirming humans whenever you want.”

	Akara sighed, thinking over the offer.  It made more sense than she was willing to admit, but she wasn’t entirely convinced she could trust the girl quite yet.

	“An interesting offer, I must admit,” she said, walking over to Mila.  She leaned down, resting one of her legs on the cocoon that contained Mila.  Slowly, she started pulling the leg down, tearing away the silk.  “Stand up.”

	Finally having control over her own body once more, Mila shakily did as she was told.  Akara backed away a few paces, examining Mila from head to toe now.  “Give me the silk,” she commanded, outstretching an arm in anticipation.  Surprisingly, Mila did exactly as she was told, handing the tattered remains of her cocoon to Akara.

	Without much thought to the matter, Akara stuffed the silk into her mouth.  In a manner similar to how young children would slurp noodles up, the fully grown drider slurped up a human sized silk tapestry.  Swallowing with an audible gulp, her current prey’s activity seemed to increase.

	“It would seem that ‘Marr’ has a fear of webbing,” she said, a hand idly brushing her belly.  Mila’s silence prompted her to continue though, and continue she did.  “You realize of course that I can’t trust you so easily.  I need some kind of… assurance that you would return.”

	“I will do whatever it takes to prove that I am serious,” Mila said, her heart pounding in her chest.  She was certain this drider could hear it, too.

	“Get on your knees.”  Once more, Mila did as she was instructed.  Kneeling in front of the drider, she looked up, awaiting her next command.  “Lay down on your back and spread your legs.”  Though she was certain this drider was female – mostly because of the immense breasts – she couldn’t help but get the feeling that she wasn’t going to enjoy this assurance.

	Without much warning, Akara kneeled down, her ovipositor crawling out of her armored lower region.  Mila couldn’t see it in the darkness, but she certainly felt it when it brushed her thighs.  Before she could respond though, Akara slammed forward.  Her entire girth and length burying mercilessly into Mila’s most private regions.

	“Your friend Marr has been an enjoyable meal, and I’m ready to ovulate.”  She hilted the young girl, the tip of her member throbbing in anticipation.

	“W-what are you doing?” Mila gasped, her insides shaking in fear, shame and anticipation.

	“Providing some assurance.” Before Mila could inquire, Akara forced the first egg out of her full abdomen and into her shaft.  Mila could feel the bulge as soon as it passed through her nether lips, her hands immediately going to her own abdomen.  The could trace the massive bulge as it worked its way up into her, squelching past whatever defenses her body may have had.

	Another… another… and yet another egg were deposited into the young girl before Akara finally had enough and pulled out.  Her ovipositor hadn’t seen action in some time – at least, action that didn’t involve Akara’s own labors – and was now dripping with various fluids and lubricants.

	“Now,” she panted, looking at the slight bulge in Mila’s belly.  “Now I have my assurance.  If you do not return soon, those will hatch; and I can assure you, you do not want live drider crawling inside your body.”

______________________________________________

	Akara removed herself from Mila’s thoroughly violated body with a plop, her ovipositor receding back to its armored sheath.  Climbing off of the girl, she made no effort to help her back to her feet.  While Mila shakily did just that, Akara walked over to just under her burrow’s tunnel entrance, sitting down once more.

	“We have a deal,” she said contently, folding her arms.  Mila’s trembling legs barely held her against the wall, while her equally shaky arms moved her hands to her belly.  Feeling the multiple lumps, she tried to gulp, finding only a dry mouth.

	“We do,” she said, her voice cracking.  While the idea of live spider monsters crawling around in her belly was, in fact, quite terrifying; her drive to prove herself to this creature was greater than her fears.  If some discomfort was all she needed to suffer to repay her townsfolk, then so be it.

	After a few moments of catching her breath, Mila finally had steady enough legs to walk over to Akara.  Looking up at the near drop, she found her first dilemma.  “How will I know where to lead them?”

	The drider hadn’t thought of that.  Resting her hand on her still squirming belly, she pondered the quandary, riddling her brain to find a solution that she could present quickly.  The girl would return, that much was certain.  Even if she told her kin of the eggs in her belly, they would likely not believe her.

	But how to ensure she returned to the right place…

	“Perhaps there is a magic beacon you can summon?” Mila suggested, eager to get on her way.  As much as she wanted to help the drider and ruin her town, she wanted to get out of the burrow just as badly.  Barely able to see your own hands can lead to a quite disturbing experience – not to mention the strain it was putting on her eyes.

	Akara scoffed at the idea.  “How much do you know of my people?”  Mila shook her head in response, prompting her to explain.  At least a little.  “Drider are not capable of magic.”

	“What?  Then how do you defeat naga?  Or dragons?”

	“My people are resilient to magic.  So much so that our bodies cannot naturally contain or control it.”  Before Mila could distract the drider with what were undoubtedly more trivial questions even a hatchling should know, Akara formulated a simple plan.  “I will weave a new web.  Something that will stand out enough that even a human could spot it.”

	“Where wi—“

	“Deep enough in the forest to get your people lost.  Now go, I tire of your questions.”

	Mila closed her mouth, looking up at the entrance to the burrow.  Her next challenge was now to get out of the burrow without killing herself.  The entrance was heavily webbed, enough to climb provided it wasn’t sticky.  Now she just had to get to it.

	“Well, go on,” the drider urged, annoyance obvious in her voice.

	“I,” she started, looking around for anything that might aid her.  “I can’t climb.”

	Akara groaned, walking over to the girl.  Silencing any objections before they had the chance to seed themselves, she threw Mila over her shoulder – a tight grip on her waist.  “Can your people do anything on their own?” she scoffed, climbing up the walls.  “It’s a wonder your kin even exist,” she murmured, carrying Mila up the twisting shaft.

	Mila was silent, despite her urge to answer the drider’s questions.  It was obvious to her now how irritated she was.  The silent journey was quick, ending with a still disorienting thump of Mila’s feet on solid ground.

	The sunlight was a welcome change – for Mila.  Akara hissed at the blinding light, her sensitive eyes adjusting rapidly and painfully to the glare.  “What wretched creature moves a star this close to the Earth?” the drider growled, covering her eyes with one of her pale arms.  “Be at my web at midnight,” she instructed, still rather offended at the morning sun.

	“How will I—“

	“You’ll know when you’ve found it.  If you ask any more questions, I’ll eat you here and now.”

	Mila said nothing, watching the powerful creature descend back into her burrow quickly.  Blinking in the daylight, Mila gathered her surroundings.  She didn’t know quite where she was, but she had a vague idea of where to travel.  Looking to the sun the drider had just hissed at, she started her journey through the overgrown forest towards the sun.

	The moon had risen in this direction, chased by the sun.  It was a known cycle; one she used often in her childhood.  Times were simpler then…  Had she known she was being bred a whore to be sold, she might’ve tried actually running away much sooner.  She chuckled to herself at the irony of her situation.  She was now armed with a drider that would help her enact her revenge on her townsfolk – heading back towards the town she had fled so quickly the night before.  Feeling the cool breeze of the morning winds, she began her trek through the eerily quiet forest.

	Back at her burrow, Akara made short work of the other cocoon ‘Marr’ had been in.  His struggles were dying down now, only a twitch or a spasm here and there.  If this Mila girl was wrong or didn’t return with food, she was going to pay dearly for spoiling the drider’s first big meal in a long time.  Akara hadn’t gotten any time to herself to really enjoy Marr’s struggling, and now it was over.

	Grumbling to herself as Marr passed from her human belly to her arachnid stomach, Akara sighed.  Her belly was flat once more, leaving her abdomen overstuffed.  Even after depositing some eggs into Mila, she still had quite the surplus, not to mention the largest meal she’d ever had.  Maybe she would eat Mila anyways?  No, ruining a meal like that deserved something… more.  Maybe she’d fertilize the eggs she’d laid in Mila’s belly?  The larva might just keep her squirming through both of her stomachs.

	Then again… perhaps the human would hold up after all?  It was a lofty thought, but one way or another she was going to get a good meal out of the girl.  She was still troubled when she thought about why she’d spared Mila.  Why did she act when she did?  Why not let ‘Marr’ have his way with the girl and just get two meals instead of one?  Why did she feel the need to stop him?  She’d had rabbits go at it in her stomach before, what would it have mattered?

______________________________________________

	As much as Akara wanted to simply shrug off the matter and table it for later, she had little else to do.  Her prized meal had stopped squirming, sadly, and was now being churned away into whatever paste her body could absorb.  While she needed silk, she was secretly hoping he went straight to her tits.  Funny, really, most drider looked for an abdomen in their mate rather than the human portion.

	The amusing distraction didn’t last long though, as her tired body quickly round her back to her previous conundrum – why had she cared about what Marr was doing to Mila?  Making her way over to her sleeping cavern, the drider curled up and lay her body on the specially fitted web.  Her body had much to do, and was going to drain her energy after a meal like that – which left her mind to wander.

	What had she seen in the girl that caused her to care what happened to her beyond her own belly?  She was a snack, nothing more.  A rarity even – close enough to elf to be considered a delicacy.  Rare though they were, every now and again a drider would catch an elf as a meal.  Being so rare, they were often made grand displays of before being consumed.  Her favorite had been a couple of elves – each having been fed fertilized drider eggs.  Oh how those bellies squirmed when the young awoke… It must have felt heavenly!

	So why fill Mila with unfertilized eggs?  An empty threat?  That was something most of her kin prided themselves on.  If they said they were to do something, they would do it.  Threat or not, a drider’s word was all it had.  Reputation was key in her colony.  If another drider found out that she’d done this – or even let a meal get away – she would never hear the end of it.  She wouldn’t be allowed to show her face at her home colony again.

	Not that she wanted to, but the option would be stricken nonetheless.  Eating her first forest barren – letting a succulent meal walk out of her burrow… It would be a surprise indeed if she wasn’t made a meal herself.

	If she ever went back, that is.  Drider don’t go back for family.  Or anything, really.  If they did then they were weak enough to feed the colony themselves.  A youngling she’d grown up with did this after her coming of age.  She came back almost two moons after leaving.  It was Akara’s honor to devour a coward like that – and devour she did.  What pathetic excuse for a drider couldn’t take care of themselves for two moons?

	Yet, here she was.  Out of food after naught but a moon; forced to rely on would-be prey to assist in sustaining her hunger.

	If this worked, she would be the first drider she’d ever heard of that had used a meal to lure other meals in.  If it didn’t, she would become the laughing stock of the realm – mocked even by elves.

	These thoughts stirred until Akara finally let sleep consume her – difficult though it was.  Something had to be done about Mila.  Something far more permanent.  If you start playing with your food and caring for it, it no longer becomes food.  She had to nip this in the bud before it became something she couldn’t stop.

______________________________________________

	Mila ran through the town, towards the rising moon.  She was being chased by a group of rather aroused men, and one very upset brothel owner.  The eggs Akara had laid added a heavy thump to her run, but they certainly didn’t stop her.  These bastards had no idea what was in store for them in this forest.

	Hopefully.

She had no idea what she was looking for.  Akara had said she would know where to go, but the cryptic predator failed to give any more information than that.  Making decent distance with fear for her life burning behind her, she ducked behind a thick oak tree to catch her breath.

Mila had to find this trap of Akara’s.  If she couldn’t do this on her first try, she wouldn’t earn the drider’s trust and would likely wind up a meal herself.  Not such a bad ending to a string of miserable life events, but she had hopes for more to happen before then.

The magics of the forest seemed to hear her pleas for guidance, when she caught the faintest shimmer of moonlight seemingly hanging in midair.  There.  That was the web Akara had laid, she was sure of it.  Not really, but it was the best chance she had.  Turning her head around the tree proved a mistake, as her face was cast in the torchlight by her pursuers.

After one yell, Mila was on the run once more.  Sprinting as fast as the technically pregnant girl could run, she barreled towards where the glimmer of moonlight had been.  The closer it got, the more her heart sank.  It was definitely drider silk, but it looked weak and alone.  Nothing here would stop her pursuers.

In fact, it seemed to have the opposite effect she was hoping for – it had led her straight into a dead end.  This particular area of the forest was densely populated by trees and brush, essentially sealing her into a bottle of greenery.  Turning around, she started backing up to the trees, now lost as to what she could do.

There were too many to fight, and she was too weak to do so.  Her legs burned, her belly ached for food, and her mind was all but ready to let her slip into a sleep riddled coma.  As the men closed in on her position, her hope spiked.  Something else was moving in the forest.  It was big, it was silent, and it was fast.

When the first victim yelped in pain, the other two stopped to investigate.  She couldn’t see much in the moonlight, but she did see their bodies fall to the ground limply.  Marr had been tangled in a web when he had been bitten, so she could only assume this was what would happen to someone should they be bitten by Akara and have no support.

The large figure she hoped was Akara was doing something with the paralyzed bodies, likely cocooning them as she had herself and Marr.  Sliding down the tree to a sitting position, Mila’s mind took the opportunity to hit her with everything it had to try and get her to sleep.  Her eyelids became weighted, her thoughts scattered, her hunger ignored.

All too quickly she was on her side, hands under her head in some hope of making a pillow.  Her consciousness quickly fading, the last thing she saw was the bodies being hoisted up; the last thing on her mind though, was what she could swear was movement not her own in her abdomen…

______________________________________________

Humming a tune even she wasn’t aware she knew, Akara lazily plopped the cocoons down on the ground in her burrow.  A neat pile, the four of them didn’t even twitch after being dropped.  Her venom was lasting longer and taking hold faster.  It was doing her body good to have a real meal again.

Shuffling the pile around, she eventually sorted out Mila from the rest.  It was easier to carry these humans when they were cocooned and unconscious, rather than simply unconscious like she had found her.  With the grace of an elder dragon, Akara sliced the webbing around Mila’s neck, pulling the top off like a hat.

She was still very much alive, breathing deeply as she slept.  The sight was making Akara’s mouth water, but she owed the girl now.  A haul this big would at least last her three days – one for each of her meals.  Not to mention she had promised to not consume her should she provide a decent meal.  A drider is nothing if not their word…

While she rested, Akara took this opportunity to examine her new pet.  Sacs under her eyes, different shades of dirt and mud smeared across her cheeks, hair more akin to a used mop than anything.  She looked… used.  Used and tossed aside like some rag.  If she looked like this and still managed to lure three fully grown humans into her trap, what could she pull of if she was properly cleaned up?

Akara pondered the idea, deciding that her energy would best be put to use after the girl woke.  It hadn’t occurred to her until now that humans weren’t nocturnal as drider were.  She would have to ask Mila when she managed to work sleep in while out and about on her task.  Plucking Mila up, she carried her still cocooned body down to her lower bed chamber.  Attaching her to the wall near her own web bed, the drider returned up to the now stirring meals.

They had all been conscious, but had been completely paralyzed until now.  The venom wearing off, they started to squirm – at least one started to panic.  Must not have liked webs very much.  Bearing that in mind, she plucked said squirmy cocoon up, proceeding to consume it as is.  She knew he could feel something happening, because he started to squirm more as his body became even more constricted.

The clothing would take a while to digest, but Akara didn’t care, she was happy to indulge herself with a meal like this.  She should’ve taken the head of the cocoon off first though; she did enjoy the whimpers and other various sounds her prey made while being consumed.  Getting an idea, she maneuvered one of the cocoons over to under her abdomen, picking it up with her two pairs of innermost legs.

Gently, she sliced the neck of the cocoon open, pulling the top back like a hood, and returned the cocooned meal to its original resting place.  Now with half a human in her mouth, she sat down in front of the two remaining cocoons, working her current meal down further.  The human she’d de-hooded was face down and working desperately to flip himself over.  After he figured out how to roll, he managed to wind up on his back.

The view must not have been what he was expecting.  A gorgeous woman’s body, with breasts easily twice as big as his head, the body of a massive spider, and a human sized lump that led to the woman’s belly.  He of course screamed as loud as he could.

Akara had webbed her caves a great deal – to make maneuvering easier on herself and harder on any stubborn prey; this served a dual purpose though.  The webbing acted like sound proofing, ensuring no matter how… indulged Akara managed to get with her meals, her audible excitement wouldn’t be heard above ground unless someone was listing excruciatingly carefully for it.

Hearing the man scream as high pitched as a youngling being taken away from the breast though, it sent a rush of impulses to her brain.  Her immediate response was irritation.  She wanted moans and whimpering, not wailing like a child.  The second response that struck her was anxiety – not for any part of her own though.

Quickly, she put one of her legs into the screaming man’s mouth – not far enough to do damage, but hard enough to drive her point home.  Now hurrying her meal down – which was now squirming much harder than before – she formulated a plan in her head.  Spinning up some silk as she swallowed down the last of her meal, she didn’t even bother to lick her lips as she passed the silk up to her human hands.

Gulping the bulge down to her belly, she walked over to the now muffled crybaby, removing her leg from his mouth.  The screaming resumed quickly, stopping only when she hissed and bore her teeth.  Even in this darkness, her venomous eye teeth gleamed with intent to match her eyes.  Once the human stopped screaming, she placed the silk gag in his mouth and tied it behind his head.

Leaning in close to his head, she could hear his heartbeat.  Her cool composure greatly contrasted his ragged breathing, despite her previous hiss.  The icy words she spoke next betrayed her true feelings though.

“If you woke her,” she said, gesturing towards her bed chamber – a moot point in the inky blackness.  “The wastelands themselves will pity you when I am done.”

Hearing him gulp made her sure that the point had indeed hit home.  Standing back up, she walked back down to her bed chambers, eager to find out if Mila had been woken.  When she arrived, she did in fact find Mila conscious.  Cursing the loud mouthed meal under her breath, she approached the girl.

“W-what happened?” she asked, panic obvious in her tired voice.

“Hush girl,” Akara cooed, getting a good look at Mila as her eyes blindly groped the darkness for the drider.  “Rest now; we have much to discuss.”

“But-“

“Are you always so stubborn?” the drider interrupted.  “If you are, tell me now so I can consume you and be done with this mess.”  Mila stopped speaking, shaking her head in hopes that the drider could see it.  “Good.  Now rest, we will discuss what needs to be discussed when you have recovered.”

“Where are you going?” Mila blurted out, immediately cringing at having violating the drider’s insistence for the umpteenth time.

“I have a promise to keep,” she said simply, heading back up the short tunnel towards the main den.