Chapter Text
Tav absolutely kept little pets from her parents before while growing up, but trying to smuggle a squeaking bat in a box past her mother was different to stowing a drider away in a barn.
It’s not like the camp didn’t know! They just…weren’t very happy about it. If the members of the Last Light Inn found out about him, it would be bad. Bad for them, and deadly for the drider.
Tav was coming down tonight, sketchbook tucked under her arm and plate full of just cooked food. Gale refused to use his culinary talents on the drider, but Tav was competent enough with a fire. A fat slab of pork belly dripped with grease, the resulting puddle absorbing into steaming frites and roast pumpkin pieces. It was about twice the serving she’d need for her small stature, yet still probably not enough for their captive.
A mess of spider legs and pale hair rose up as she entered the barn with the treats. Kar’niss. His hands were tied in magic, blue chains, and the same bound each leg to its opposing twin. He was in some sort of nest. Hay piled up with pillows and bedding that ‘mysteriously’ went missing from the camp kept him nice and comfortable. Tav wanted him that way.
There was nothing negative in his eyes, not a single one of them. No Malice. No fear. Only curiosity.
“You bring us a meal,” he nearly cooed with excitement, brightening like a small child with the way he perked up.
Tav placed the plate just barely in reach, then hopped backwards. He so gingerly took the dish to begin feeding. The deep gnome woman never saw a drider before Kar’niss. Heard of them, yes, supposedly she had an uncle survive a fight against one, but this…was different.
Sharp teeth tore first into the meat. The juices dripped down his chin and fingers, and he was quick to lick his hands clean once the pork belly went devoured. The whole time, he bore an eerie, satisfied grin. The rest of his dinner was eaten a little more neatly.
“Thank you, majesty…” he muttered with his mouth full, tone almost reverent.
“What does that word mean to you?” Tav asked with a tilted head. “‘Majesty’?”
Those many eyes glazed over in thought. “It means…someone who is worthy of worship. Someone who saves. You saved us.”
True, she did. When the magic-blasted and beaten down drider only proved to be unconscious over dead, it was her that convinced the others to take him prisoner. That whatever was cast on him, or whatever head injury he sustained, made him totally forgetful of who he was made it easier.
At least, apparently forgetful. Tav was supposed to assess that and whether he was still a danger.
“Okay, I’m going to tell you a few things.” She sat up straight on her knees. “Lolth is the greatest of queens. The Absolute is nothing. It means nothing. That lantern that wound up in your hands was by circumstance, not some holy gift.”
“…What lantern?” He only seemed innocently confused. For as shattered as he used to be, those words should’ve enraged him. Not even a peek at his tadpole revealed anything. Tav’s shoulders relaxed.
“What can you remember?”
“Our name. I am Kar’niss. That’s what majesty calls me.”
“You can cool it with the ‘majesty’ thing, alright? I’m Tav. I call you Kar’niss, you call me Tav.” She shuffled a little closer, to the edge of the nest.
“Majesty. Tav.” His head jerked to the side, lips pursed, like the switch in titles caused some internal conflict. “…Okay. Can Tav get rid of the restraints?”
“Not yet, buddy. It’s not up to just me, but I think we should.” She could convince the rest of the group that his memories were genuinely gone, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a threat. Granted, this could definitely be one of those times she pointed out how half her teammates were innate threats to life themselves.
“Is Tav going to leave so soon this time?”
“I don’t think so.” Her innate interest in him would be a good test of if he had any violent urges, right? She took out her sketchbook. It was full of drawings of her new fellow fighters, of the flora and fauna of the coast, spotted with doodles of specimens from her home in the Underdark. “You’re something some people think is really awful. I think you’re really neat, though. Do you want to see what you look like since I don’t have a mirror?”
He straightened up, hair falling to one side as he mimicked that earlier head tilt she did. “Yes? Yes!”
Tav smiled gently. She switched up the way she sat so she could rest the sketchbook on her thighs. “I know you can’t stand up all the way. Can you turn to the side?”
Charcoal to parchment, she’d eventually draw him in perfect detail, aided by her darkvision in the dim barn. His ears twitched with interest when the final result was shown off, then stayed perked at the sight of himself.
“See? It’s you! This is Kar’niss in all his glory! I’ve wanted to get down a reference of a drider like you for a very long time.”
“Drider…” He reached for the book, smile splitting his face when she gave it to him. “That’s what we are? What we look like?” Without the trauma, the shattering of his mind, all he could think was that a drider must be a good thing if Tav wanted to look at him.
“Yup! I think I did you justice if I do say so myself. I’ve learned a lot about your kind.” Most of it was supposed to be cautionary. Stories that get told to little deep gnomes to help keep them close to their families. However, there were also the little details. The strange anatomical facts, the knowledge that didn’t come from apocryphal tall tales, the things that were actually worse than what was described to her…Her fingers twitched inward, gesturing for him to return the book, which he did, handling it with all the care of a holy text.
Tav had seen one up close now. Fought one up close. She’d heard the unnatural quality to his voice. Still, there was one curiosity she had left to satisfy. One maybe less appropriate than a drawing, but did he know that?
“Maybe I can make a copy for you to keep…for a trade. Do you think you’d let me touch you?” She wanted to test how his chitinous exoskeleton melded with flesh.
Lack of memories or not, the glimmer of surprise and want suddenly appearing in his expression reflected a man who hadn’t known contact in a long, long time. “I…” He began. Kar’niss’s many legs curled defensively on himself. He shied back into the bedding. “…don’t want to hurt.”
“Touch doesn’t have to hurt.” Did he remember any of the fight? Any blow he took just before he lost his memories? Or maybe he just recalled the way he was handled getting the restraints on before being tossed in here. Tav didn’t know he was awake for that. “You trust me to get you your food. Can you trust me to show you?”
He stared at her for a long time, the gears in his head clicking and turning with slow consideration. “I can trust Tav. Yes. What do you want us to do?”
Excitement swelled in her chest. She tried not to show it. “I guess, uh, lay down however you can that’s comfortable.” Definitely not appropriate, but she didn’t intend it to be inappropriate!
His arthopodic legs wriggled awkwardly, the chains rattling as Kar’niss managed to get on his back. His bound wrists lifted up. What was comfortable to him made for a very attractive sight, she wouldn’t lie to herself. Her face warmed. He didn’t really have a concept of modesty or embarrassment in his current state.
Then again, did he care about modesty before? A lantern does not count as clothing.
“Okay.” She crept forward, reached out, and her fingertips grazed the line where skin met chitin.
“Oh!” The sound that escaped him made her jump back briefly, only to return when it was obvious he wasn’t in any distress. Eventually, her palm rested on him, feeling up and down. It was purely biological interest! She’s gotten to touch owlbears, intellect devourers—hells, even gnolls! What made this any different?
Maybe it was the way he didn’t know how to respond to being flustered. His shoulders tensing, fingers fluttering, lips moving like he wanted to say something or make more noise.
“You’re fascinating,” she told him with a tone not unlike one praising a pet. The words made his chest heave. A worshiper receiving his blessing.
Tav found her hand traveling up, and up his arms raised further, until they rested above his head. Regardless of his circumstances, Kar’niss was perfectly content to bask in the nest and attention. Her nails, well groomed despite all the roughness she’s endured as of late, stroked and scratched under his chin. She didn’t notice his mutated pedipalps trembling.
“I wonder how long it’s been since you’ve been offered a kind hand,” Tav openly mused.
“…Can’t remember…” His reply was lazy. Almost lost. His head tilted upward to expose more of himself to her. Somehow what started as a simple interest evolved into Tav stroking his cheeks, his pointed ears. They twitched adorably under her thumbs.
Without his earlier memories, or maybe if they came back slowly while being reintroduced to her world, could there be hope for him?
In the midst of her caressing came a sudden, sharp rumbling. Almost like a purr. A purr? Drow didn’t purr. Neither did spiders! No…
No, it wasn’t really a purr. Tav glanced back to see his pedipalps rubbing against each other mindlessly, producing a sound almost identical to a purr. Kar’niss didn’t seem to realize right away he was doing it. What he did notice was Tav pulling back.
He pouted when the petting ended. Only then did his unwitting movements reach his notice. “…What is that? What was I doing?” The drider sat up, blinked rapidly, then did this full body shudder accompanied by pink dusting his pale complexion. “Forgive the transgression! Tav is…too kind to me. You’re too kind to me.”
“Transgression? I think we both just got a little carried away, buddy.” She had to write down what she just learned! Tav fetched her sketchbook once again to jot in a note. Kar’niss still seemed mortified. He wouldn’t have any memory of what it meant to make that noise, but something instinctual within him apparently gave it away. “Here.”
Per her part of the trade, Tav drew up a flattering portrait, tore it out, and handed it over. Whatever embarrassment he felt before was quickly forgotten.
“A gift…” He was breathless. The page was hugged close to a chest, like a stuffed toy. “Thank you…Tav. Tav is wonderful.”
“I think it’ll be more wonderful once I’m able to get these chains off you. If I left now, will you be okay tonight?”
He nodded, flopping back into the bedding with his drawing. “We will be fine. I can wait for Tav to come back. You will come back, won’t you?”
“Of course I will. With more food, too.”
He smiled a toothy smile.