Legend of Ransera

12 Frost 120
As she looked about her rooms, Nnerka was beginning to wonder when the last time she'd redone her webs was. It couldn't have been that long ago...could it? Tendrils of silk frayed away from the main mass of it lining the door, and the webbing she'd used to sleep was sagging pitifully. At the rate it was going, it might very well begin to touch the floor. She grimaced. Maybe it was time for a touch of remodeling.

Web building, however, was not the thing she excelled at most. Nnerka was more accustomed to the lining of the door and her memory was spotty at best on how to redo her hammock web. She squinted up at the thing, before mounting the wall. She was careful to avoid light fixtures on the wall, scuttling closer to the hammock. The fine thread of silk that held it to one of the walls was soon snipped, and the hammock webbing came fluttering down. Her bottom arms snatched them up as she went, rolling them up to be discarded later with ease. She plucked the other end of the thread from the wall as it was finally spun into a ball. That was only the easier part of cleaning up. Nnerka glanced to the door, and the walls beyond it.

Had she really needed to line that? Probably not, but it had made her feel safe the first time she'd entered the room and had become habit more than anything else. Still - as tedious as it was to clean up, it would prove to be a useful thing, she was sure. Maybe.

She shrugged to herself, claws cutting through the silk lining on the walls with ease. Just an angle's difference, and she shredded the threads. If anyone else were to take a knife through this, it would only serve to tangle them. The threads would wrap around the knife as they were cut and become an obstacle even as they were felled. Also, they kept dirt out of her room well enough. She couldn't imagine having to clean up her own silk and the dirt of the outside world in her cultivated space.

Even when living among the trees, her mother had taught her an appreciation for cleanliness. Far be it from her to let such a thing go simply because she lives in a building. A nice building, but a building all the same.

Nnerka shuddered at the thought of what her family would think if they could see her now.

12 Frost 120

General upkeep of her webs had simple: keep dirt out. All it really meant was to do things pre-emptively. Any guest of hers was made to brush off their feet or leave their boots behind entirely. But that didn't keep everything out. In her cleaning, she spotted the smaller webbing in the corner of the room. Her eyes narrowed. She wasn't so much offended by the idea of a spider taking up residence with her than she was disappointed with herself in having missed the creature.

She searched the room for the visitor, gaze sweeping over the room. She rocked slightly from side to side, arms crossed and brows furrowed. And then - one eye landed on the faint wink of silver. It came from a small creature, not very large. Easily missed. But still - the coloring would have made it easy to see if the light hit it right. She frowned, mostly at herself, as she crossed back to the entrance.

"Well, hello, little one." If such things existed, one would think she were a magical princess accustomed to speaking to forest creatures. The actuality of it was simply that: she was used to speaking to forest creatures as if they would respond. Now was no different. "Now, when did you get here?"

12 Frost 120

The little creature scurried away from her, a frown pulling at her lips as she watched it go. She didn't think she was particularly scary to her own kind, but - it was a rather small spider. Small enough that she could scoop it up and swallow it if she so desired. But she didn't so she wouldn't, and thus, she felt a touch disappointed it had fled from her. However, that was far from the truth of the matter. The creature returned to her, presenting a stone that shone in the light and she knew it for what it was at once.

Sometimes, her clients would find themselves to be...loose-lipped. They'd say things that normally would never be discussed with someone who was practically a stranger, but fear made people talk. Fear, and the desire to stay alive at whatever cost. Among those words had been offers of the very thing that spider had offered her. Dragonshards were valuable, precious things. Some easy to come by, and others not so much. At least, this was what she knew. Her gaze lingered on the shard for a moment, then spider. A smart little bug, indeed.

"For me? How sweet." She wouldn't have asked for such a thing, but now she wondered where the creature would have come by such a thing. Taking the shard gingerly between two fingers, she held it up to examine it further. And the little thing just had it. Hidden away. Perhaps waiting for this moment. "However did you get this, I wonder."

While she had not the slightest clue of where the creature had come from — how it had managed to slip in under her nose — perhaps she was glad for it. The dragonshard sat in her hands as she stared down at it, the small spider’s pleased antics missed entirely by her. She was sure they were endearing all the same, but her attention was captured. The glow cast upon her skin was silver, from the shard and the thread wrapped around it. Like the spider that had given it to her. She wondered if the shard had something to do with the creature’s colors. Did being exposed to it do that? She glanced down at the sandy brown of her skin. Would it change if she held the shard for too long?

Limited knowledge was an interesting thing to deal with. The city presented things that Nnerka had never considered, and things that she wanted nothing to do with. She licked her lips, watched the little spider scurry back into its spot. Her fingers closed around the shard, the object pressing against the flesh of the digits.

Would this count as magic?

More than the magic that flowed through her veins. She tipped her head to the side, considered it. She hummed. She didn’t have to think of it for the moment. Maybe she would have some used for the shard further down the line. For now, it pretty and a cute little spider had given it to her. That was enough to satisfy her curiosities for now. She swept hair from her shoulders; probably would have been better to tie it up before she’d started cleaning. Strands of her silk had already begun to weave into her hair. Not that she minded. She licked her lips, moving about the room to get to her chest. She wrapped the shard up in one of her robes, deciding that should do in keeping it safe.

Now. Nnerka placed her hands on her hips as she looked back to the remainder of the work she needed to do.

Back to cleaning.