Chapter 1723 Save Me From These Crazy Children!

--- Kat ---

Kat had no idea how it had happened. They’d barely been walking for ten minutes but Penny was not happy… and for good reasons if she was being honest. "How do people find such places enjoyable?" hissed Penny the angriest both Kat and Sylvie had seen the girl… ever.

Penny had somehow managed to collect every stray scrap of debris in the forest. She’d slipped in the mud and now had her pants completely covered in the stuff. A bunch of small twigs had gotten caught in the poor girl’s hair. That wasn’t even getting into the fact that she’d somehow picked up a spider that was just sitting on her cheek for some reason. That hadn’t been there last time Kat had looked… but the spiderweb around her face and neck probably answered that question. At least she didn’t have any cuts or bruises.@@novelbin@@

"How?!" asked Kat before she could think better of it. It was a good question though. Kat herself didn’t have anything attached to her, and neither did Sylvie or Alice who were all walking in front of Penny.

"I do not know, I simply followed along as I was meant to and yet I seem to be the only one with things on me…" answered Penny with a frown.

"Um… well I can hear a stream a little bit ahead and we can clean off a lot of stuff there… do you want me to remove the spider now?" asked Kat.

"Hmm… no I think I like him. He seems to be rather calm and hasn’t attacked me yet so I’ll keep him for now," stated Penny.

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Kat frowned at the statement and glanced back through her mind to try and find the spider in question in case it was too dangerous to leave on a small child. Well, perhaps not that small but certainly much more fragile then Kat herself. Then she realised she could just ask Lily. [I think it’s a huntsman?]

Is that going to be a problem?

[Um… I certainly wouldn’t want one on MY FACE but as long as it isn’t a brown recluse she should be fine… and if it was likely to bite her it would’ve done so when it ended up on her face.]

How am I meant to know if it’s a brown recluse or not?

[Um… brown recluses are shinier? I think? I’ve only got a few pictures to look at on my computer but I think it’s too big and hairy to be a brown recluse.]

Not sure I’d call it all that hairy.

[Well then just take the spider off if you’re that worried!]

Kat glanced over at Sylvie who shrugged. Not really sure what I expected to get from that look… but if the weird maths girl wants to keep the spider she can keep the spider.

[Ok now I’m concerned. Why are you letting her keep the spider?]

I wouldn’t want to be rude. Plus, if I reach out and startle it and it bites her I’d feel awful.

[You know what? I’m glad I’m not around to deal with this nonsense. Good luck Kat.]

Kat nodded to herself. "Right let’s speed up a little bit to get to the river, and just be careful Penny but you can keep the spider if you want…" Kat started to move… a little faster after that, and took a new angle through the forests. It was slightly off the path but cleaning up Penny a bit took priority. Kat did make sure to push aside the branches low enough to cause issues though, and keep them there long enough for the little ones to pass.

"So are you going to take the spider home?" asked Alice. "I’m not really sure if they make good pets or not…"

"A lot of spiders don’t," said Sylvie. Who apparently DID know about pet spiders. "Well… technically people keep all sorts of spiders but you really want a tarantula if you’re going to bother. Those guys are super fluffy, they live for a long time compared to other spiders and they are quite docile.

"Huntsmen, like the one I think you have on your face can be a lot more skittish and require more active care, plus they are more likely to bite you. Tarantulas can get used to you pretty quickly, are happy to sit around… and they can get HUGE so you’re not going to have an accident with them."

Kat felt like slapping herself on the face. She could use her calming aura to keep the spider from panicking! *Wait a moment… can I really use my aura, just on the spider? It’s not that large and it’s not Penny’s face. I… I really don’t think I can be quite that accurate.*

"Some people do keep little spiders, but they only live for like… two years tops and there are also jumping spiders that have been gaining in popularity," continued Sylvie. "They’re more… like show pets though? Like you get them to keep in an enclosed tank because they look cool in close up photographs not really to have as like… a pet pet the way you would a lot of others,"

Penny nodded a long… and this didn’t seem to bother the spider at all. "While it may be nice to have one to keep at home I am quite certain my… family would disagree and perhaps somewhat… violently so towards the spider in question considering how they’ve reacted to other spiders around the house.

"Hmm… I wonder if I could convince Vivian to keep it for you…" hummed Sylvie.

Kat didn’t know what questions she wanted to ask first but luckily they were at the small river. It wasn’t much water, barely knee deep for the girls, and less then that for Kat herself, but it was relatively fast flowing and Kat knew she could get a lot of the mud off Penny. "So, do you want to leave the spider on while I try to clean you? Or perhaps let someone else hold it for a bit?"

Penny considered it for a moment before turning to Sylvie who shrugged and reached out a hand. The spider, to Kat’s surprise seemed to tank the invitation well and moved over to Sylvie’s hand without issue and just… continued to hang out there.

Kat… was pretty sure something weird was going on here. *Perhaps my calming aura is helping even if I’m not actively using it? Or perhaps Sylvie is just that cute.* "Alright let’s get you cleaned up a bit," said Kat as she gestured for Penny to come over.

Kat stood in the river herself, bent down and quickly used the water to wipe away the mud, even making sure to scrub a bit for the particularly tough patches. Once that was done Kat waited until the girl’s were all look away and quickly flash froze the water on Penny’s legs and brushed it all off. Penny glanced down the instant Kat was done and looked at her legs oddly but Kat didn’t let any reaction show.

Instead she just started to pick all the twigs off of Penny as well as the spider web. That didn’t take too long and soon the younger girl was pretty clean. She still had wet shoes on account of standing in the river when Kat froze off a lot of the extra water but that was fine and helped distract from what Kat had done. "Come on, off we go," said Kat as she gently led Penny out of the water.

Sylvie, upon seeing this moved the spider up to Penny’s shoulder and it calmly walked back over. Kat was certain weird things were going on now… but very unsure on how to… well do anything about it or if she even should. Then again… what did she know about spiders? "Alright, off we go!" As soon as they were moving again, Sylvie asked. "So Kat how do you think we can convince Vivian to let us keep a spider?"

Kat sighed quietly, not really sure if she wanted to answer that question. "Well, I’m not sure that spider you have there would like being inside all that much… but if you just mean a spider in general? If you can convince Callisto it’s a good idea and you both team up on her I’m quite sure she’ll agree even if she doesn’t like spiders… which… I don’t think it’s ever come up?"

Sylvie nodded, "I don’t think it has. Callisto keeps everything too clean to really attract bugs but I have seen her carry a spider outside… once. Not sure if she was just doing that because she knew I was around though, or if she does that to every spider she sees,"

"Well it sounds like you’re already part of the way there," said Kat while trying to inject a bunch of cheer she didn’t feel into the statement. She wasn’t afraid of spiders, never really had been. The orphanage picked up quite a few over time and it was almost always Kat’s job to move them away from scared kids. So she just got used to it.

Which of course was part of the problem. She associated spiders with scared kids so keeping one as a pet had never even crossed her mind. Hopefully they wouldn’t be keeping this one… especially without knowing how safe it was.

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