Homeward Tension

It had been some time since Slovaine and Kaloren, four years in fact. Nathan had been moving up the ranks in the nest he was working at in Iodide since then, Rowan as well. Both had started to take on their specialties as they worked, fitting their strengths. Nathan had taken on psychiatry. Rowan, meanwhile, was taking on primary care; it's routine, more fitting for him than the chaos and unpredictability of triage.

The others had grown in their own ways as that time passed: Sylypith graduated; Elias started to win victories for the wyvern skyball team that were pipe dreams years ago; Kael grew into his hybrid body, now as trivial as any; Marty increasingly grew close to the group; they were his anchor, despite not having a permanent family of his own. Everyone grew well together.

Then there was Oswald, the boy with a scale loss condition and a brain that literally knew no subconscious fear. He had managed it well, kept watch constantly for infections even as he rooted through scraps for Sylypith. But now that his anchor moved away, he grew distant, even among those he knew for years. He kept looking for a new anchor, though, one that was close to him.

Needless to say, that anchor, or anchors, found him.

The first were the Silkins, large snakes with 8 spider- like limbs on their upper body, a spinneret on their tail end, spider-like eyes and large enough to swallow anthros whole. One found Oswald while he was in Lilac Park, scaring many of the locals off while Oswald's parents simply watched. They knew enough to know that there was no threat; it became very apparent if you watched how a silkin chose their prey.

Though the silkin took note of Oswald's despondent nature, they had to ask.

"Why the long face?" the silkin asked Oswald. Its words were clear as day to everyone watching.

Oswald didn't bother looking over at the silkin, but he could tell it was there. "Well, when you have a long-time anchor and friend move away to bigger things, it kinda does that to you..." He was matter-of-fact, no tension in his tone, no stutter from the fear many would have from a Silkin.

"You do have other friends, correct?" the Silkin asked him, weaving its silk as they chatted.

"Yeah, but... Not as close as my anchor was."

The Silkin listened intently as it picked Oswald up and began weaving silk around him. Although it did it more slowly than it would with its usual, uncooperative prey. Between the two of them, Oswald seemed very cooperative, even letting the Silkin pin his arms with the silk as it wrapped down his back wings.

"Need a meal?" Oswald finally said. "I know what creatures like you need from me."

The Silkin smiled as it thickened the layers around him. "You know I need mana, not flesh."

"My parents taught me well on these things." By then, Oswald was coming out muffled as the Silkin had wrapped him head to tail in silk, and in enough layers that Oswald simply relaxed into its warmth. "Well, enjoy the mana; I've got two tails' worth, so not a lot to need to recover after." The Silkin then swallowed Oswald, letting him settle so it could drain the mana it needed from him.

Inside, Oswald simply felt the emptying feeling as he let himself doze off inside. The mana Siphoning wasn't painful or jarring, but it would easily make someone tired even if they were wide awake. The weight of the Silkin's body was around him as this was occurring. Tight against his body, but at the same time not crushing.

The Silkin looked over at Oswald's parents as they simply kept a smile on their faces. "My guess is you're not locals here..." The Silkin said to them.

"We are, but we've had our fair share of Silkin encounters," one of them said to it.

"I can remember being Oswald's age and encountering one of you by my caretaker's home after they transformed me. I slept in silk every night I was with them," the other one added.

The silkin chuckled at the story. "Well, he looks like he needs someone close to him; maybe something will work out between us."

Oswald was only 7 when this encounter occurred, and it was by sheer chance that he found the most unlikely of anchors. The Silkin had a source of mana and a place in their backyard; Oswald had someone he was close to every night. The Silkin reused the cocoon it made around him, adjusting it as he grew in size.

His friends could smell the Silkin's insides on him most days they met. Despite him returning to his old self, he never said anything about the Silkin till Nathan said something to him. "Why am I not surprised you always smell like Silkin fluids now..." It was matter of fact to Oswald. His new anchor stayed by him, came to him during school recess, and made sure he was well kept.

Though a Silkin always had more than one food source in mind. It looked for those with high enough mana, but at the same time, overwhelmed by day-to-day life. Nathan seemed like one at times, but it could hardly get close unless it had somehow hurt itself or brought someone who was hurt to him. Rowan was even worse, mostly keeping distance, but at the same time it could tell Rowan was easily overwhelmed by a major change in day-to-day life.

Then there was Mira, someone whose senses could get overwhelmed in the right environments. The silkin noticed her stepping away from the playground one day, trying to get some quiet. It came over and shielded her with its body, much to the concern of Nathan. But Mira began to settle into its coils, settle into its body heat.

Then she spoke, something she seldom ever did. "You're warm..." She told the Silkin. It was enough to calm Nathan's nerves as he saw her snuggle up to the Silkin.

"Comfortable, child?" The Silkin asked her, with no verbal response in return. She simply let her body relax in the Silkin's grasp. The Silkin then tested her fear; he spun some silk out of his tail and wove it into something small before laying it on the back of her neck. She didn't respond with fear; if anything, she grabbed it and held it against the side of her face.

But the bell was getting close, and the Silkin knew it. So he simply asked her, "Need somewhere quiet after school?" Mira looked it directly in the eyes and nodded yes to it. "I'll find you and bring you after. Keep that silk with you, so you'll know how my home can feel."

Nathan watched Mira closely from the roof of the school after the final bell, mostly out of caution and Halden's pleading. Mira was on the nearby bench waiting, silk still in her grasp, unaware that she was being watched from above. Within 5 minutes, though, the Silkin arrived, comfortably hugging her with its spider arms once it arrived. "Told you I'd find you," the Silkin said to Mira. "Now let's get you comfy for your relief." The Silkin worked its silk with ease around Mira. Loose at first, giving her chances to change her mind, but Mira simply relaxed into the silk cocoon forming around her. It wasn't until the Silkin started to tighten the cocoon around her that Nathan's concern ebbed back up. The last thing the Silkin asked her before bringing her to its nest in Oswald's backyard was if she wanted her head covered in the cocoon; she agreed.

Nathan was conflicted as he looked on. Mira wasn't one who socialized with but a handful of people. But she was as calm as can be around the Silkin. Though the Silkin's next move prompted Nathan to follow the Silkin to Oswald's home from a distance, it bit her.

Its venom evolved to nourish rather than kill, and to keep those stashed in its hold comfortable and healthy. Nathan knew that well; he had used Silkin venom on some patients before. He wasn't one for fetching the venom, though. Silkins often wanted the courier stashed for days on end after giving ample amounts of venom to infested nests, and that was if they didn't live by the nest.

Nathan followed the Silkin to Oswald's backyard, unbeknownst to it or Mira, who was practically asleep in the Silkin's grasp. The Silkin settled her in the shade of the trees it had set up by. It had no intention of feeding off of her, but a more personal feeling had blossomed inside of it, and it wasn't sure how to explain it to Oswald and his family.

Though Nathan's stealth skills could use work. He landed in his feral form in the backyard with enough sound to alert the Silkin. And it recognized Nathan's feral form.

"You're very bold to be following a Silkin with a catch healer," it sternly said to Nathan. "Get up on your hinds so I know it's you." Nathan shifted to his biped form before thinking about that action. "So, it is you... All the fame and persistence of an activist, and yet local behavior would suggest you're foolhardy for following me here."

Nathan's suit was giving signals to shift and fly off. "Move your wings," the suit said into his head. But Nathan could hardly get his legs to move. Out of flight or fight, this encounter had his mind pick a 3rd option seldom said.

freeze.