#askorpheusthecavespider | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

asknlarchivist · 7 years ago

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Dear Miraka,

Remember how you told me I should be hanging out with friends more? I finally took your advice to heart and decided to convince Orpheus to come out with me on this trip. I’m sorry you got sick and couldn’t come along this time, I know how much you were really looking forward to it and all, but thank you for taking care of the children again while I’m away - you know how I always appreciate that. At the very least we got some decent photos to show you all when I get back. Oh, but you’ll never guess what happened on the way there, I don’t think I’ll ever let Orph live this one down!

So we managed to get to the site by around noon and...

I love rain. Truly I am blessed to have respawned as an enderman who can touch water. I love the way it sounds, the way it smells, the chill it gives me when it hits my scales and trickles down my body... ever since I was little I’ve always been utterly fascinated by the magic water that falls from the sky. Of course, I could still do without the lightning and loud thunder that sometimes accompanies a good storm. Like all sudden loud noises thunder has the unfortunate tendency to set off my PTSD from time to time.

Luckily it wasn’t a big stormy rain today, so I felt safe enough. Standing there on the hillside I took a deep inhale: wet soil and pine. Nothing compares to that rainy forest smell. It was an addictive, arousing fragrance, heavy with earthy scent and humidity that threatened to lure me back down into the shadow of the woods I just came from. I was born and raised in these parts, the Extreme Hills biome; this was my country, and I knew the terrain well. As such I was in high spirits right now and felt like nothing could faze me. Didn’t even mind the rain staining my poncho. Now to see if the forecast for this area would hold true...

A deep grumble at my side reminded me that for once I wasn’t trekking solo. Ah yes. My dear friend Orpheus the cave spider. A recluse like myself with far less thirst for adventure. And on top of that, much less love of the current weather. Could you blame him? All that fur was keeping him dry for now, sure, but at the same time his salvation was proving his doom because the water was sticking to him and collecting and probably already starting to seep deeper into rapidly drenching fluff. Needless to say he was pretty miserable.

“At the risk of sounding cliché, are we there yet?” he asked me without turning my way. Too busy glaring at the sky.

“I guess,” I answered casually as I pretended not to take heed of his discomfort. “This seems like a pretty good spot. Not a lot of treeline blocking the view - no shade too close nearby for aggressive mobs to spawn in... yeah, this’ll do nicely.”

“Great, can we please find some shelter already then? It’s cold and I’m getting soaked.”

I snickered at him. Walking sponge out here he was. “Alright, let’s find us a cave or something. I could do with lunch too. You?”

The mention of food perked him up somewhat and I had my answer. We’d been walking at least two days now. After half a century at this I could handle the journey easily, but Orpheus was a man... er... a spider... a being who had lived alone underground for literally as long as he could remember, ever since a series of events drove him from his original homeland and he suffered amnesia not too long after. As much as I was amused by his complaints and maybe a bit annoyed at the numerous rest stops we had to make along the way, I had to take pity on the guy; the brightness of daylight was surely causing him constant headaches if nothing else. And he wasn’t used to walking this far, let alone over the various types of terrain one encounters in this part of Overworld. When we hit snow passing through an Ice Plains biome I had to all but drag his big spider backside through it once the initial novelty wore off. Not because of the cold - well, not only because of it... more because he kept sinking hip-deep into the stuff the whole way.

But somehow he endured this long. And at this point in time we had finally reached journey’s end. Tonight he would be rewarded for his efforts... I silently prayed he’d like the surprise I set up for him. More than once he had asked me where we were going and why and when we’d be headed back home. All I told him was that it was something special Mira and I had planned months ahead of time on going to see. Poppy and Faith were still too young to make the trip this year so we were going to leave them behind with their godmother Wily and her mod Coati. But then the winter air got to Miraka and she was bedridden a scant few days before we were set to head out. It would be disastrous for her to go now when she needed so badly to keep indoors and recover. I honestly wanted to stay home with her - if she was gonna’ miss out then I would too, I would not have minded in the least. But my stubborn mod, she insisted I go anyway.

It wouldn’t be any fun without her, I told her. Then she asked me why not bring somebody else along? But who? It wasn’t like I had many really close friends who could spare the time last-minute. Well... except for one. He was perhaps closest of all my friends, maybe even my best friend. He almost always spared the time for me...

And that was how, days later, I found myself like this... In this hole in the rock with a griping cave spider morph. Boy was I gonna’ milk this for all it was worth.

“Lookin’ a little wet there, huh Orph old boy? I’m really loving this whole grunge thing you got going on, so edgy.”

“Shut up. You know this is all your fault. You were taking your time on purpose weren’t you.”

I shrugged without bothering to deny it. “Hey, one should always take the time to savor their surroundings while traveling, no?”

“Not while they’re getting rained on. Come on, it’s Winter. That’s just asking for flu to set in.”

“Why Orpheus, I had no idea you were so conscientious about personal health!”

“Yeah well, I’m also having to rely on you to take us back when this is all over. And we both know you can’t teleport when you’re too sick to even stand.”

“Thanks for doing the laundry, by the way.”

“Hmph.”

He did have a point. We walked here on foot because we were both worried as to how well Orpheus would be able to handle ender-blinking. And if he was going to get nauseous I wasn’t about to subject him to that sort of suffering more than absolutely necessary. That would’ve been cruel. No, the plan from the start had been decided on unanimously: walk to our destination, then teleport on the way back so we could return home as quickly and safely as possible before the frost week arrived. I would’ve preferred walking back if I could help it, however. Savor the scenery, savor the journey. Perhaps my comrade would be willing to discuss the matter later?

“How long do you think it’ll keep raining?” He seemed more at ease being in the safety of our little hollow but still looked at the sky in annoyance like it was mocking him. Knowing his luck it probably was.

“Hate to break it to you but I’m afraid we’re stuck here the rest of the day. It’s not supposed to stop until this evening, but should at least clear up enough tonight to see the stars. You... you like stars, right?”

Orpheus glanced out of the corner of all eight of his eyes at me. He looked suspicious almost, and for a moment I was afraid I had given too much away about the surprise. But he huffed and cleared his throat, then settled down against the cave wall opposite me. “I suppose. Yes. I like stars...”

“When was the last time you went stargazing?”

“Last time I went hunting. I hunt at night you know, so I see the stars all the time.”

I looked out at the rain again as silence set in between us. It wasn’t all that uncomfortable, though, not for me. I felt at ease even with my clothes soaked through (though I would’ve probably gotten hypothermia had it not been for the fire). Some days Orpheus was more conversational than others but it was fine. As far as I knew I was his only friend besides his own mod Seffiron. I understood; he wasn’t used to having somebody to talk to. At least I had my children, my family - Orpheus had had nobody for who knows how long... well, until now. He sort of needed to... ease into the whole interacting-with-other-people thing.

“Are you cold?” I asked him.

He actually snarled softly. “I’m freezing.”

“Sit by the fire then, you dingus, didn’t you just say you were worried about catching death of pneumonia?”

“That was the flu, and I am sitting by it.”

“You’re three whole feet further away from it than I am.”

“It’s plenty warm over here.”

“Says Mr. Freezing. Come on, come sit by me, huh? ... Or is it really that you’re just afraid of catching fire?” That got me a ruby-tinged eyeroll. Four pairs of it. I snickered at him. “Dear sweet arachnid companion, mine, you must be so mad at me right now for dragging you out in the middle of nowhere like this.”

His face suddenly softened as he turned to look at me. “I’m not mad at you.” I tilted my head at him curiously and didn’t have to wait long for him to elaborate on that for me. “I could never be mad at you. Not really. You’ve never been malicious towards me. Sure, you bug me with your constant teasing but you’re not really trying to be mean about it.”

“Ehh, you say it’s kindness when really it’s only pity - you’re just too easy a target.” That earned me a wet slap in the face by my own poncho. Even while my ears were at the moment filled with the sound of my indignant sputtering I could still hear that jerk smirking.

“Target that,” he quipped smugly. Aha. Once again I had managed to unearth the playful side of him. Success! It would get his mind off of being grumpy over the rain at least.

---

For the rest of the day we killed time however we could. We chatted, ate a few tidbits here and there, even scratched a few rounds of Hangman on the cave walls when the boredom got to be too much. At one point Orpheus tried to take a nap but his fur was still cold and damp, preventing him from getting any real rest. So, he eventually gave up on sleep altogether to dry off by the fire. If I thought the rain made his fur stick out more than usual, I was genuinely shocked by how ragged it got after the water fully evaporated.

“My GOD, you are fluffy.” It was all I could do to keep from bursting out laughing. He reminded me of a poofy kitten. A very startled poofy kitten. With big fangs. He was... so adorable. Ohhh, but he would kill me in a heartbeat if I had said that out loud to his face.

The thing about Orpheus is that while he’s got twice as many arms as I do, his fingers just aren’t that great at combing and brushing. More often than not his sad attempts would leave patches of fur spiky when it dried. Now, while I obviously didn’t own a brush, my fingers were just the right size (and number of digits of course) for such a task... What kind of friend wouldn’t offer to lend a hand? I admit I had my ulterior motives for doing so, too; I had on more than one occasion confessed to Seffiron about my guilty pleasure of feeling all that plushness in my hands. When it’s groomed correctly Orpheus’ fur is nothing short of luxurious - think polyester blanket, one of those thick silky-textured ones. It’s great.

“You’re pouting,” I observed. To be fair it hadn’t taken much convincing at all to let me do this for him; he indulged me this sort of thing all the time, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary where I was concerned. He had long since gotten used to my brand of friendliness. So why was he still upset? “Is this bothering you? We can stop if you want.” It was a full minute of stubborn silence where he refused to answer me on that. Maybe he was having trouble deciding.

“... Spider sourpuuuusss~”

“I’m itchy, be quiet.” Weak excuse. He was sore about my calling him fluffy. Like I called it earlier, he was far too easy.

“Then here, lemme’ scratch that itch for you,” I said, raking my claws in lightly. I still believed him on being itchy. I had seen firsthand how murderous the urges made him in the heat of Summer. “Anything you want, I am yours to command.”

“You’re just like your mod, always babying me.”

“Aw you like it. Besides, somebody’s gotta’ help you untangle your pelt now and then, that’s what friends are for.” With no more objections from him I continued without another word. We went on like this for a good while longer until it was so dark out we could no longer see the landscape (the rain had stopped by now but it was still overcast) and all was eerily quiet save for the crackling fire. Nothing but the two of us, removed from all manner of civilization for hundreds of miles in every direction, spending a peaceful evening in each other’s company. I was dragging it out, savoring the contact of fur between my fingers as much as I could, for as long as I could... One of these days Orpheus was gonna’ accuse me of being touch-starved. But it wasn’t like he wasn’t enjoying himself, either. He even started purring on me once I worked my way up to his jawline and around his mandibles... big puppy. I’m glad he’s come to trust me enough to where he can feel safe around me. Emotionally safe... if we were to ever find ourselves caught in a fight against a bunch of undead mobs, I could always rely on Orph to get us out of that scrape no problem. Scaling rock walls all day and hunting large prey all night has given him a terrifying amount of physical strength - pray you never end up on the receiving end of it. But when it comes to being able to talk to someone, to come to the point where several times he’s confided in me his deepest fears and told me about his most terrifying nightmares that have plagued him for years on end... Bits and pieces of his memory began to come back some time ago. I was amazed to find out how similar his past was to mine. He wasn’t always a cave spider, he was once a human. Furthermore he was a highly-respected figurehead in his village. He was also a father with a wonderful family, and beautiful children that adored him. His life was absolutely storybook perfect. And then...

The details he gave me were still fuzzy but the gist of it was that things went south faster than anyone could blink. Family dead. Home destroyed, the entire village was rendered to blazing shambles. Orpheus was both cursed and injured and whichever person helped him escape died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances. And then he was left alone. When the mutation completely took hold that was when the amnesia set in. Given what had just happened to him I think that was the greatest mercy fate could ever give him.

Recalling this part always made me a little sullen; I was never so lucky in that I was spared from remembering what had happened to me. Or what I did... But I would never hold that against Orpheus. Before we met, every night he was tormented by the same thing, over and over again. Now the burden on his conscience was easier for him to bear - he had somebody to help him shoulder the weight. These days the nightmares are rarer, and I can’t help but feel a sense of personal pride over being the one to help him reach that point. Perhaps one day I would afford him the same courtesy and tell him my story too. Until then...

“Why did you stop?”

Hearing Orpheus’ voice jolted me back to reality. “Sorry, I was thinking.”

“You tend to do that a lot.” He chuckled and settled his head back against my chest.

“But of course,” I stated matter-of-factly. “It’s just what I do.”

“You were frowning like you were worried about something. Or angry. It’s hard to tell when you’re upside-down.”

“Fff, yeah yeah.” I looked away then, still too wrapped up in my thoughts to resume combing his fur out. Not that it needed it anymore, it was nice and soft now without a trace of clumped spikiness. Well and truly silky. Anything after this point was purely for the sake of touch between us.

One of his hands from his lower set brushed my leg, tickling me out of my thoughts again. “Hey, Overworld to Nameless... What’s wrong.”

More silence from me. For all my intelligence coming up with what to say in the moment was hard sometimes.

“I’ll tickle your feet next if you don’t talk to me.”

“Do that and I’ll freaking kick you,” I retorted with laughter. Orpheus knew all too well how sensitive my pads were. “I just... I’m really glad you’re my friend.”

At this he treated me to a gentle smile and rubbed his head against me where he lay. “I’m glad you’re my friend too.” And then after a few beats he added “Even if you and your mod are both weirdly touchy-feely.”

“Gk~ you mean especially because we are you great big spider-turd, you! And as if you’re one to talk! Hypocrite!” I crossed my arms in mock indignation and covered his eyes with them. I expected him to flail about in disorientation but he only huffed a laugh and grabbed my legs with two hands firmly and lifted - the other two hands took position poised beneath my raised feet, fingers wiggling menacingly. Clearly I was playing a dangerous game far out of my league but I wasn’t about to submit so easily. Instead I leaned down close to his face and hissed “Do it and I will teleport you face-first into the nearest bog and leave you there.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

We sat there at an impasse for what felt like ages, both frozen, both deathly afraid to make the first move. And then I felt a jab right into my armpit (the scheming devil, he sneak-attacked my other ticklish spot while I was distracted!), making me squawk and lightly slap at him wherever I could reach like the fussy child I was. He only laughed at me, very loudly to boot, until I couldn’t help but start laughing too. It went on until we were both spent and wheezing and oh Notch my middle hurt so bad but I couldn’t care less.

Eventually we both calmed down and I announced that we needed to get some rest, for which he had no complaints. He soon fell asleep practically in my lap. Unfortunately for me, I had my square head braced up against hard rock for a pillow. That was guaranteed neck pain later on for sure, but I didn’t care; Orpheus was keeping us both warm and I couldn’t ask for a better blanket in these temperatures. Sleep overtook me quickly.

---

I managed to wake myself up again some time later. It was close to time for that surprise I promised. The forecast proved right, miraculously so. From our little burrow hiding spot I could see the ethereal glowing blue of the sky outside, clear and speckled with stars that cast their soft light over the world. The moon was nowhere to be seen, but all the better to see what lie out in the vastness of space above. Absolutely 100% no light pollution in this place to hinder our ability to see what was to come. Good. This was exactly what I had counted on. I checked my clock to find that it was late, almost midnight in fact. Excellent. It was almost time...

This time of night the nocturnal world was quietly active. An owl here and there, the slight sway of branches as a cool breeze blew through the pines below us. The grass outside had long since dried (the rain wasn’t all that heavy today we were just out in it too long) and it was almost like there hadn’t been a storm at all. Except for the temperature. It was still plenty chilly but rainy days tended to be warmer in Winter than cloudless ones. Right now the atmosphere hadn’t yet dropped in too many degrees. I would need to sit by the fire again before too long but for now the cold was bearable. As for my partner, he needn’t worry about such trifles whatsoever. Perfect... Fate dealt me a great hand tonight. Orpheus was gonna’ love this!

Speaking of which, I was still trapped under him in his sleep. I tried to nudge him awake while still yawning myself.

“Hey... wake up... Orpheus... Or... Orpheus... Wa-... Oh my god Notch give me strength. HNNNNGGG~” Spider was a lot of fur but, again, he was also a quarter-ton of muscle and dense carapace. My stringy bean self didn’t have a chance against this kind of weight. Thankfully all my struggling at long last woke him up so I could revive both my dead legs.

“Sometimes I wonder how you can move so fast along walls when you’re this FAT.”

“I’m not fat??”

“Tell that to your butt.”

“That’s not my butt, that’s my abdomen, you know that.”

“Still fat.”

“Yeah, well, what would you know of it, you’re just a twig with scales.”

“And fabulous legs... Which I can NOT feel because YOUR FAT SPIDER BUTT was laying on top of both of them! Gaaahhh~”

He sighed at me. “In that case you could’ve just had me sleep somewhere else.”

“Heh... nah. You looked so peaceful. And you make a great blanket.”

“Gee, in that case, so happy I can provide you with warmth so you could wake me up ungodly early and verbally abuse me for it later.” He pouted dramatically my way for emphasis.

“Come on don’t be like that. I’m about to make it up to you.” Finally. Sensation in my legs again. Orpheus held out his hand to me so I could take it and haul myself up, and I most gratefully did so.

“Really? Make it up to me how?”

“Think about it. You don’t honestly believe I hauled you three days into the mountains just to look at a bunch of wet trees, do you?”

“So if not for that, then what?”

“Hurry up and I’ll show you! Don’t wanna’ miss it!”

---

“Did you know, Orpheus, that while most of the time I travel with the intent of finding something new and unknown, this week I’ve brought you out here to see one very specific thing in particular?”

“And what might that b- are you alright? What’s wrong?”

I had walked out into the clearing with him with my eyes covered. I was so focused on what I was doing I failed to realize he was even talking to me at first.

“... Nameless?”

“I’m alright. I’m just letting my night vision take hold.”

“Your night vision?”

“I told you before about my third eyelid, right? The thing that makes me able to function in daylight and avoid aggro mode when talking to people?”

I heard him shuffle a few steps away from me - presumably in worry. “Yeah?”

“Tch, don’t be so nervous, you’re not a human anymore. You’re not gonna’ set me off. Anyways, I have to let my eyes adjust to the new light when I retract my ‘shades’. I can’t see squat in the dark otherwise, but I always have to be c-careful.” My voice was beginning to lose strength without warning. Was my resolve failing? I guess I was just excited... or afraid. My hands were off my face now but I was gathering the courage to look at my friend - come to think of it I couldn’t even remember the last time I had shown this part of myself to anybody else, save for my family of course.

“I... I have to t-take it slow. Even dim light might hurt my eyes if I switch too fast.”

“There... Ah, oh yeah that’s much better. Wow, it’s really sparkly tonight, isn’t it? It’s fantastic!”

Orpheus... didn’t say anything. In fact, I dare say he went uncharacteristically mute on me.

“... Orpheus? Oh! That’s right, my eyes glow in the dark too, I forgot! I am so sorry! Did I startle you??”

After moving his jaw numbly in what was certainly no small amount of shock at my little deformity (poor thing) I finally heard him swallow and watched him smooth his fur back down from where it had fluffed up in fright.

“I... y-yyyou’re...” Curse it all to the Nether, he was scared witless just like that. Before I could explain myself and assure him that he was in no danger, his gaze flicked up to somewhere behind me, just as a thin streak of white crossed my peripheral. Soon more like it lit across the sky. Fast, bright needles of starlight, one after the other... celestial rain.

“The Angel’s Tears,” I breathed.

“Wha’~” It was so funny seeing Orpheus stunned into silence at what was happening over our heads.

“The Angel’s Tears,” I repeated in a murmur hardly above a whisper. It felt like if I spoke any louder the spell being cast over the world would be broken - positively sacrilegious. “Before she died, my grandmother told me long ago about them. We all know that Overworld is a realm of constant change, but it’s a balanced change. And it’s not just the land but the creatures living in it too. For every life born another life has its ending. Grandmother said that many years ago there was a terrible Winter that took far more life than was created, and in the upset of the balance Overworld was left barren even after Spring arrived. Nothing would grow and nothing would respawn except for undead mobs. Now, there was a servant of Notch - a guardian among the many thousands tasked with overseeing the endless worlds in the multiverse we live in, and this particular guardian was charged with governing this world - upon seeing Overworld so afflicted by death and decay, they wept in sadness, and their tears fell to Overworld as seeds that would create new life to replace what was lost. Trees, flowers, even baby birds and other animals. And it was then that the guardian promised the surviving people of the world that they (the guardian) would always ensure that the land would flourish again after the Spring thaw, that no matter how hard the snow fell, when it melted again we would never be want for food and sunlight and plentiful green pastures. Now, same time every year, these falling stars signal the end of Winter and the happy arrival of Spring.”

As I finished my little tale I glanced over at Orpheus. I caught him staring back at me. I thought his gaze would’ve been glued to the sky the whole time. Then again, he always was a polite listener during even the most long-winded of my anecdotes. He quickly turned back to the meteor shower and I followed suit, and it was silent again as we drank in the magical sight.

“... It’s amazing,” I heard Orpheus whisper next to me.

“... Yeah,” was all I could say.

I could feel him shivering uncontrollably and I only smiled and hummed to myself in sympathy; the first time I saw this starfall my body wasn’t sure how to react either. When you’re that moved by something like this, so much raw, unfiltered emotion gets piled on at once that you simply can’t handle or contain it. I remember how much I cried back then. I remember how safe and loved I felt in my father’s lap, with his and my mother’s arms around me. I remember how nothing was said but so much thought was running through my head at the time it was deafening. Papa told me he had felt me quaking so much on top of him that he was worried I was cold, but when he asked me such and I didn’t respond because I didn’t even hear the question, he figured out otherwise. That was what it meant to be starstruck, he said to me.

I don’t know how or when it happened but the next thing I knew my fingers had curled around Orpheus’. He made no attempts to pull away from it, and even squeezed back lightly - a comforting gesture. It became our shared anchor, keeping us from floating off into that beautiful, horizonless frontier.

“My f-” The words stuck in my throat, so I cleared it awkwardly, louder than I meant to but at least it made us both remember to breathe. “Th-these stars... have a lot of sentimental value to me.”

“How so?”

“My father proposed to my mom under this sky. This exact spot.”

“Really?” Orpheus sat up at that to direct his interest towards me.

“Yeah! Actually this place isn’t all that far from where I was born! That ridge yonder? That’s where my village used to be!”

“’Used’ to be?”

“Landslide,” I admitted with a tinge of disappointment. “Really bad rain came along some years after I left home, knocked out a lot of the trees on the cliffside above the settlement and so all that dirt and rock and stuff came loose with no roots to hold it in place. Thankfully it wasn’t all at once and nobody lost their house or anything, but I learned everybody decided to move elsewhere right after that and avoid the worst.”

“Where did they go?”

“I heard they moved north, closer to the sea.” North was at our backs and I looked over my shoulder at the rest of the mountain we were perched on that was over that way. “But that was a whole lifetime ago, before I respawned. After my respawn I felt it best not to go looking for my people and instead start anew. They wouldn’t recognize me anyway.”

Orpheus could sense the despair creeping into my voice and shifted closer to me. I never even talked with Miraka about the fate of my community. All this time I decided it best to leave it be, let bygones be bygones, and not let the past weigh me down because it’s not like I could go back and change things anyway. However... as much as it hurt, I felt better talking about it. When it came to emotional support it would seem Orpheus was good at providing that just as much as me. He didn’t say anything, only put his two leftmost arms around me in his version of a half hug.

“You don’t have to be alone anymore,” he murmured.

“I’m not alone.”

“No... you’re not.” I saw him smile a little out of the corner of my eye when I read the truth in those words. I couldn’t help but smile too.

“Thank you for coming here with me to see this.”

“Thank you for inviting me. Although I’m still confused as to why you were so insistent on someone coming with you.”

“First of all, you are not just ‘someone’.” I said this with a firm tone and a matching expression, and I said this directly facing him so that there was no mistaking it nor room for argument otherwise. “You are one of my best, closest friends I’ve ever had if not my absolute best friend period. Secondly, I... I see stuff like this all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I live life to the fullest with every new marvel I come across. I’ve seen things beyond your wildest imaginations, in realms other than this one no less! But for all of that... The most memorable moments, in my opinion, are the ones that are shared with those you care about.”

I looked back at the meteor shower and nestled myself against Orpheus’ fluffy shoulder. “I’m beyond happy right now, because I was able to share this with you. So thank you for coming out here and putting up with me and putting up with all sorts of other crap like getting soaked to the exoskeleton because as long as I live by Notch I will never forget this moment purely because you were right here with me.”

Don’t cry, Nameless. Don’t you dare cry in front of him. He doesn’t deserve that.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget this either,” Orpheus stated simply. “Any of it. Thank you.”

My hands balled into fists in my lap. I was annoyed with myself for not being able to say what I really intended to say to him... No matter. There would be other meteor showers and celestial wonders. I had all the time in the world to tell him... For now, I settled for continuing to watch Winter’s swan song with my spider companion, well through the night until the pale hues of sunrise came.

We would decide later whether we would teleport back home the short way or not. Orpheus actually agreed to doing the trek back on foot.

Just so long as we would steer clear of any more rain this time.