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"Look what followed me home, Pa! Can I keep him?"
Vorstag looked up from the table where he was chopping vegetables for dinner and nearly cut his fingers off. His son Alesan stood in the kitchen door holding a small frostbite spider.
"Wha...how..."
"It's okay, Pa, he doesn't even have any fangs yet. He's real friendly. He let me pet him for an hour. Please, can I keep him? Please?" he begged. "I'll take care of him. And he'll be real useful around the house catching bugs and skeevers." He put the spider down. It skittered over to a nearby table. "See? It's already hunting."
"No! Absolutely not! Get that thing out of here before your mother..."
"Before I what?" Penthesilea asked, coming down the stairs. "Alesan, make sure you wash your hands before...EEEEYAAAAAAAA!"
When he heard the familiar crackle of a flame spell being summoned, Vorstag dropped his knife and ran out of the kitchen. He caught her wrists before she had a chance to throw the fire she held in her hands. "Pen, NO! Do not burn the house down!"
The spider, startled by all the noise, scurried into the nearest open doorway. "It's going in our bedroom, Vors!" Penthesilea shrieked. "Let me kill it!"
"No, Mama! He's my pet! He won't hurt you!" Alesan yelled.
The fire spell winked out of sight as Penthesilea turned to glare at her son. "Your. What?" she asked in a dangerous tone.
"He...he followed me home. I was gonna keep him...." Alesan winced under Penthesilea's piercing gaze. He was going to get it later, he just knew it.
"No spiders in the house!" she declared. "Don't bring any more wild animals in the house. Vors, get that thing out of the bedroom and kill it." The spider ran out from under the bed towards the door. Penthesilea yelped and ran upstairs to her alchemy room.
Vorstag sighed. "Come on, Alesan, let's catch the spider and put it outside. Far away from the house."
"Okay," Alesan said glumly.
He snatched up his former pet as it came out of the bedroom. He and Vorstag took the spider out to the lake and let it go. As they watched it scamper down the road, Alesan said, "Pa, how come Ma's afraid of spiders? She's an Altmer. And she's Dovahkiin. She's not supposed to be scared of anything."
Vorstag shrugged. "Dunno. She said something once about them having more legs than they need, maybe that's it. She doesn't like chaurus either so don't be bringing one of those home."
"I won't." Alesan sighed. "Can I have any pets? I really want one. I'll take care of it, I promise."
"How about a dog? Pen doesn't mind those."
Alesan brightened. "A dog would be great! And I know where we can get one! The blacksmith at Falkreath said he saw one hanging around on the road south of town. It doesn't belong to anybody. Can I have that one?"
"Sure," Vorstag said, ruffling his son's hair. "We'll go down there tomorrow and take a look at it."