Precocious Ponies campfire, early Saturday morning

[vkandis_son]

Karal was minus his menagerie this morning. Evey and Altra were off in the preserve, Trenor was in the stable where he belonged, and Vashti was sleeping inside

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[socksofcool]

Seely would rather have been in bed at this hour, but Aravis had been insistent in her leopard-y way, so they were walking over to visit Karal.

Seely came to a stop as he saw the spider. "Uh, Karal..."

[vkandis_son]

It took a moment for Seely's voice to penetrate Karal's concentration, but when it did, he lifted his head and smiled in the direction the voice had come from. "Good morning, Seely."

He also shifted his feet, and the spider skittered backwards, two huge horrible hairy OMG YUCK legs raised in defiance.

[socksofcool]

"Morning," Seely said, hopefully looking around for a giant shoe. "Uh, you might want to keep still there buddy."

Aravis, meanwhile, hissed at the spider, tail lashing.

[vkandis_son]

Karal startled at the noise, sitting up straighter and making the spider jump. "Seely, what was that?" It had seemed too loud to have come from an ordinary cat. "Are you all right?"

[socksofcool]

Aravis crouched, preparing to pounce on the spider, only to yowl when Seely pounced on her instead, lifting her out of reach.

"That was Aravis," Seely replied, eyes on the spider. "Tell me, have you ever seen Irrational Overwhelming Fear of Spiders?"

[vkandis_son]

"That's Aravis?" He pulled his feet up underneath him, turning towards the sound of the yowl. The spider, possibly believeing Karal's feet were some sort of spider haven, started crawling towards the log he was sitting on.

"What has she turned into? And no, I have no idea what that is. Why are spiders important?" He paused. "Glory, she's not some sort of spider creature is she?!"

[socksofcool]

"No, she's a leopard cub," Seely said, doing his best to hold onto a squirming and hissing Aravis. "A fairly cranky one right now."

[vkandis_son]

"Why is she cranky?" he asked, having no idea there a giant spider getting closer. "And what does that have to do with spiders?"

[socksofcool]

"Well, you know how cats are about pouncing on things," Seely said. "Like toys, stray beams of light, giant hairy spiders of doom."

[vkandis_son]

Karal froze, mind working, and he pulled his legs even closer, really, really wishing he could see. "Spiders of doom?" he squeaked as said spider reached the log and started crawling up it.

Towards Karal.

[socksofcool]

"Uh huh," Seely said, debating whether letting Aravis loose on the spider mightn't be such a bad idea after all. "On the log."

[vkandis_son]

He hadn't know he could move so fast, all of Kerowyn's lessons flooding back as he leapt up and whirled around, backing rapidly away from the log until he hit something, he didn't know what. "Glory!"

The spider hunkered down in a ball, legs drawn under itself. It almost appeared to be sulking.

[socksofcool]

Now that Karal was away from the spider, Aravis calmed down somewhat, sulkily mouthing at Seely's fingers until he put her back down.

"It doesn't seem to be following you," Seely said, as Aravis padded over to Karal.

[vkandis_son]

"Good!" He didn't exactly know what a spider of doom was, but he knew it couldn't be anything good. "I think I might just stay over here until Altra returns."

[socksofcool]

"That might be an idea," Seely said. "Any idea how long he'll be?"

Aravis made a happy purring sound, and went to rub against Karal's leg.

[vkandis_son]

Karal jumped a little, then crouched down, holding out a hand, not sure if it was all right to pet her. "Hello, Aravis. I'm sorry I was ignoring you," he said to her, then to Seely, "And I'm not sure. Aravis isn't the only one who's experiencing Fandom oddness. Evey is currently a deer. I was worried about her going into the woods alone, so Altra went with her."