Spider wranglin'

Job Details:

With the snows of false spring finally fading away from the mountains the cooler breeze and rainy days returned and with them came the Azure Amazon herself. Ani had been out in the plains, east and west, along with Kou completing mercenary work for the sake of her people. Like she had for most of her career since the Kou war the woman returned from her weeks of working with gold and glory aplenty. With this, there would be plenty of money and potential settlers coming to the areas soon enough, however, there was still more that she had to do to finish establishing her settlement. In order to find other ways to develop her settlement by attracting people and furthering their quality of life, she looked for other uses for her Shadowglass. With it being her luxury resource the woman wished to get as much use out of it as plausible.

With the discovery of a new beast in the same mountains they had lived in an opportunity had soon presented itself. A species of spider that considered one important substance as a major part of its diet, obsidian, and these glass-eating spiders would prove to be a goldmine.  With her skills as a tamer, she was going to capture and tame them in an effort to feed them shadow glass to make silk lined with it, this idea being that she could make Shadowglass silk as another luxury good of her people.

There were a few caves around the region that they had appeared in, the ones in the north and south were large, but not only was the one in the east closer there were fewer there. Normally one would want more, but Ani knew that she would be able to breed them and a larger colony was likely to defend itself harder. With this, she could capture a barely developed population and put them towards a path that she found most useful. It wouldn't be the first time beasts were kept and bred for the sake of her lands and it likely wouldn't be the last time either.

As she stood at the mouth of a cave she felt like the cool, damp air rose out and rushed past her face like the cold, empty breath of death itself. Even without seeing what lay beyond the threshold into the earth, she could tell that it was rough and jagged as the sounds echoed and carried into the deep crevices. When the sound returned the image of the underworld itself filled her head as she decided to make her descent.  Ani was alone as she delved fearing that the presence of her wyverns would intimidate or scare the creatures that she sought to obtain. With each step she listened and probed her surroundings with her senses, her hands running across the smooth walls, feeling as patches of obsidian started to dot along it.

"The sweet embrace of death can often be found in life." She pulled her hand back from the obsidian walls, licking away the small cut she obtained. "It's through embracing this beauty we find love in life and peace beyond death."

It might've been how she spent time alone, or it might've been from the introspection she had been forced with as of late, but it sounded like she spoke poems to herself in order to find peace. It was an odd new habit, but it wasn't unpleasant as it helped it relay her feelings to herself when at times it might've been hard. The woman was glad she wasn't reliant on sight anymore as she felt all hints of warmth from the light drag away from her. With the cave perfectly echoing her steps back at her she felt, she heard, and she could see the cave in her mind around her.

While it was a bit rough she knew she was going the right way as soon enough as some of the sound got muffled and she felt her boot stick for a moment, but she picked it up and felt that it was webbing. Soon enough a soft smirk crept upon her lips as she spoke to herself again. "Ahh, there we go, now this wasn't so hard was it."

In just a matter of moments, her suspicions were confirmed as she heard scuttling and then clicking. After a brief moment of silence then came the crunching of obsidian. With the familiar sounds of spider mandible clicks and her knowledge of their diet she was sure it was them.  She slowed her steps and kept along the walls as she listened and felt out their shapes with her ears, it was always odd but it helped as she could tell out the rough shape of a spider.

However, she wasn't sure how many there were exactly at the moment but she knew that she would figure out soon enough as more skittering and clicks came from further caves. Knowing it was better to hide at first she hid behind a large rock she felt out and held herself there firmly listening and feeling the vibrations. It was then that she finally was able to count, one, two, three, four, four spiders in total.

The fact that they were feeding on obsidian at the moment was good, it was better to catch a beast when it was starving if it was strong enough to kill and eat you. However, with the little nutrients, the rocks offered she was also under the assumption that they ate something beyond obsidian. With the hope that they'd be full, but looking for something tasty the woman would try to use that as her leverage. As she eased herself up slowly from the wall she would scoot along it until she knew that she was behind the entire group not wanting to let any of them know that she was coming at first. There she felt sturdy rock which she soon enough pulled herself up on as she climbed up the cave wall.

There she kept herself firm and sturdy using her balance, her senses, and her strength to keep herself against it as she climbed slowly. Her pace soon got a bit quicker although following a rhythm to keep herself going but never sacrificing herself to the rocks that wouldn't be able to support her weight. It was then as she reached the top that she would finally stop as she felt the weight of the world pulling down on her trying to force her back down, that's when she knew it was time to act.

As Ani let go of the obsidian she had been gripping onto her the force of the world would pull her down, but she was not falling to her death, but instead right above one of the spiders. In a sudden crash that made everyone panic the woman landed on the abdomen of one of the spiders. The Azure Amazon always quick to act had already had her balance and was running along its back until she was suddenly sitting around its neck. With the arachnid freaking out suddenly she didn't waste any time in grabbing the creature by the neck and craning it up. With her hand reaching around into her bag she pulled out a large strawberry, nearly the size of her head.

"EAT THIS!" The woman yelled as she shoved it into its mouth and slowly it stopped reacting, and then as it began to eat the berry she would pull out more and scatter them amongst the four spiders. "C'mon get your fill!"

While the woman's words might've sounded like a threat it was anything less as she soon enough jumped off the back of the spiders and backed away for a moment, and she listened to them feeding and when they were close to being finished. With this, she would suddenly bolt towards the exit dropping strawberries along the way. As she moved through the caverns she would hear as skittering was following behind her. With her speed picking up she felt her body begin to skip through space almost as she started to run up along the walls using her speed to defy the gravity of the world around her. As she rose up from the floor to the ceiling she flipped backward twirling through the air before landing on the back of one of the spiders once again. Immediately feeding them another strawberry to gain their favour, and at that moment she threw another forward outside the cave to guide them forward.

For those who were standing outside the cave waiting for their leader, they were surprised when a large strawberry suddenly rolled out onto the ground before them. However, they were even more surprised when they saw three large spiders come charging out the mouth and surrounding the strawberry before suddenly Ani would come out riding atop the largest one. As she pulled out three more she threw it at the others as she smirked.

"Well that's a mine and obsidian silk gained all with a bag full of strawberries." Her laugh carried through the mountains as she pat the spider who contently ate his strawberry. "Now, it's time to get to some food."

Stamina: 395/395
Magoi: 240/240

Post details: Tamed the spiders like job requirement