1.09 – Goodbye

No content warning needed, probably.

"Ara~ I can't believe you're leaving already. Just how will I spend my nights now?"

"Heh, yeah. We're going to miss you too."

Maple was referring to herself and Emma, who was coming along as a matter of course. It hadn't even been much of a conversation; they were inseparable, and the Slime had looked slightly offended when Maple asked. Rachel was leaving too, but the older Arachnid looked much more torn up about Maple and Emma's departure than her own daughter's.

They were leaving tomorrow, to be exact, and were enjoying one last night with all of them together. Rachel had her kit out, another mix of herbs being pleasantly vaporized for the four of them while the sun hadn't quite yet set.

"I wanted to show you both something before we leave."

"Something from your world?"

Maple answered Rachel with a nod and pulled her phone out, starting the boot process. The three women native to this world stared at it with fascination.

"Okay, everyone gather around me. We're going to take a picture."

Maple stretched her arm out and tried to fit the four of them, though it was difficult because of the Arachnids' height. She ended up standing on the right side, Charlotte pulling her into her bosom, with Emma between Charlotte and Rachel to the left.

"Oh, it's like a mage's portrait, but without any magic. Interesting."

All three of them flinched as the shutter sounded and the screen became a blinding white.

"Goodness. What was that—oh look, it's us. Hah! Look at my daughter's face."

"Yours isn't any better, Mother. You should have warned us it was going to be so bright, Maple."

Maple's face was the only normal one, with Emma's perhaps being the goofiest. Her head was smooshed down vertically, as if she tried blinking with her entire face.

"Sorry, sorry. Let's do another one. I'll turn the flash off."

The second photo turned out much better. Emma then demanded they take one with her next to Maple, while squeezing her in a hug. After a few more like that, it devolved into silliness as they took one of Emma riding on Charlotte's spider-half.

"How many can it do? Is there a way to get them out?"

"Ah—thousands? It's a lot. And if you run out of space you can just delete some. There's no way to take them out though, um, without some other devices from my world anyway. Ooh, I know—hang on."

Maple changed the camera setting to take super slow-mo video.

"Okay, Emma, do something that uh—makes you jiggle a lot I guess."

Maple lined up the phone, Emma with a baffled but obliging look on her face as her chest inflated.

"And...go."

The Slime girl bounced up and down, sending oscillating waves through her body. You could watch them travel all the way from one end of her to the other in a fascinating demonstration of how waves worked.

That was all well and good but—for some reason—Emma had enlarged her breasts beforehand, and they were rather stealing the show. So to speak.

Rachel choked on the vapor she was inhaling, and Charlotte put a hand to her mouth while Maple just sighed.

"Ahh, that's not what I meant by jiggle...Whatever. Here, look."

Emma's eyes went wide as she grinned. I look like that?

"Ara~ What a lewd artifact you have, dear. You should have shown us this sooner~"

Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Ugh. I can imagine many practical uses for it though. There are some Skills that happen too fast to see. I wonder if this device could capture them."

"Hm, maybe. It's low on battery though, and I don't have a way to charge it so it'll probably be completely dead after tonight. A cable would go in here, see? And then it needs electricity."

Maple even knew how much it needed. 5v and then even just half an amp would be enough. Neither Arachnid were familiar with electricity, or the terms, but suggested a mage might be. Maple doubted that.

But just in case she randomly teleported back home, she now had selfies with the impossible people here. Proof. And hey, if that didn't happen, and it took 10 years to figure out a way to charge it, she'd have pictures of her early days to look back on fondly.

They took a few more slow-mo videos, of which Emma was banned from being the subject of. Charlotte blew smoke rings. Rachel spun a dagger through the air and then caught it. They even wasted a glass bottle to see what breaking it would look like, and Maple moved them along to other things before anyone got any other dangerous ideas.

"I have some music downloaded, too."

Maple showed them everything from rock to breakcore. It was all new to them. Even a lot of the instruments themselves, and not to mention any electronic sounds...They hated a lot of it.

While they listened to the music, she showed them everything else she had on there. Mostly other pictures she'd taken, and a pang went through her as she swiped past photos of her friends. Rachel spent a lot of time playing with the calculator, of all things.

It was just about dark when the battery hit 9%.

"Alright, I'm going to turn it off. It's nearly dead."

"What an interesting device, and world you come from, dear. I really do think you should have a trustworthy [Mage] look at it sometime. I wonder if the one I know is in Syber still. Something like a [Repair] spell can be quite comprehensive when it comes to mundane objects."

"Mother..."

Rachel was giving Charlotte a look neither Maple nor Emma understood.

"Oh, relax. The past is the past. Anywho, if Maple's done showing us things, shall we get dinner started?"

It had been started long ago, technically; they'd been slow smoking one of the Vineboars since morning. All day, the smell of hardwood smoke and succulent pork had teased their senses until they were all but begging to eat.

While that had been going, they made, and then baked, buns from scratch. All that was really left to do were a couple of side dishes.

Maple helped chop vegetables for a salad while Rachel grilled some corn and Charlotte pulled the pork out of the smoker. The lettuce was from the garden, but the corn and some of the other vegetables, it turned out, was from another room in the cave dedicated for food storage.

The walls had magic runes embedded into the surface, keeping everything inside fresh and preserved. Food could stay last for years, apparently, so that was how they'd survived out here so easily; they just had an entire wagon load of food and supplies come by every so often.

Charlotte brought the meat out on several trays. The Vineboar was now in the form of fall-off-the-bone ribs, and a huge hunk of meat that Rachel was shredding and mixing with a sauce for the buns; this world's version of a pulled pork sandwich.

"It looks so good. I almost want to take a picture."

"Mm~ A very fine last meal."

Drinks were, of course, present as well. In moderation, since they were leaving early the next day. They ate outside as the sun set, enjoying the heat finally letting up. You had to guard your food from bugs, but Emma at least didn't seem to mind.

Maple blanched as she watched the Slime absorb a bug that landed on her hand. It quickly disappeared from view as she turned toward Maple and grinned.

"I can't believe I kiss you, and you're eating bugs."

She swatted one away from her own food, before taking another huge bite of the pulled pork sandwich. The food here was at least just as good as back home.

"So, Maple, do you have any idea on what kind of job you want? Maybe you should consider weaving. I could teach you that, and then you wouldn't have to leave so soon~"

"I don't know, I was going for a tech degree back home and that's useless here, so. I'd take any job if it gets me a normal class. Weaving is cool, but I don't have web like you do. And I think staying here might just uh, make my class problem worse..."

"Ara~ I know, dear. Well, send a letter if you ever think of something in particular. I still have a few connections in places."

Maple wondered what kind of connections those were exactly, while Rachel gave her mother another look.

"Wait, you can get letters here?"

"Of course. Just choose a good carrier, and they'll send someone out to me. Any of the big ones would be fine. Kantra Mail, for example. The Mage's Guild could also do it; they just choose a carrier themselves, and you can get a better deal sometimes if you're just sending a message since they can skip the majority of the distance with magic."

Maple nodded while Charlotte paused to drink. Basically, they had a bunch of private companies to choose from instead of any kind of nationalized mail system.

"Syber's the closest city to here though, so going through the Mage's Guild probably wouldn't be worth it in that case."

"Would working for a carrier like that be a good job?"

"Hmm. Depends what you mean by good. A [Courier] has a high Skill ceiling, but do you like running really far?"

Maple's eyes widened.

"They deliver it by foot?"

"Quite often. There are companies that mainly do bulk deliveries via wagon, but that's mostly for city to city deliveries. They'd just send a runner here, for example."

Maple couldn't imagine that being fun. They'd been going on longer and longer hikes to prepare Maple for the trip—and it was brutal. It was going to take three days to get to Syber. Three entire days spent walking from sun up to sun down. She wasn't sure her body was ready for it.

Emma was lucky she was so good at cleaning. She wouldn't have any problem finding a job. Maple wasn't feeling very hopeful about her own prospects. But running all day might be better than becoming a [Waitress], or [Slutty Waitress] even. If they had a Hooters here, though...

"I have a little gift for you two, before I forget."

Emma cheered silently. Woo, gifts!

Charlotte left and came back with a thick bundle of cloth made of her soft spider-silk. She handed it to Maple. There was some kind of pattern on it, but she couldn't see what it was fully without unfolding it, and Charlotte stopped her before she could.

"Ara~ Don't look at it here. It's embarrassing. Wait until you're on the road, okay? It's just a blanket I made for the both of you. May it keep you warm at night, and may you never forget about me while you're in bed~"

Rachel rolled her eyes somewhere in the background while Maple rubbed her hands along it, and then her head before handing it to Emma to feel.

"Wow it's so soft. I love it, thank you so much."

Charlotte pulled the two in for a hug, Emma melting into her chest. And then she made Rachel come over for a hug too.

The three of them all went to bed shortly after that. They were leaving at dawn, so Charlotte refrained from making one last nighttime visit, instead passing the time with work. She was asleep when they left the next day.