Pallas took them to another room. In it were several spinning wheels.
"My crafts room."
"Do you make hagoromo?"asked Ceres eagerly. "I've made dozens."
"Not that I know of."said Pallas. "But just look at this."
She held out an unfinished tapestry. Everyone exclaimed at it. It looked almost as expensive as cloth of gold or silver.
"Made from my own-"
"Silk worms."said Vesta.
"No. My very own spiderwebs."
Pallas gestured around the room. Ceres had never noticed, but around the room were several spiderwebs in china cabinets.
"You mean we're surrounded by spiders?"exclaimed Small Lady.
"Ah!"
Ceres ran to Juno, who had fainted.
"You know she said she was afraid of them!"
"But I never imagined she would faint at them! She hasn't before. You see, instead of using wool, we mostly use the cobwebs. It's one of the things that makes Pallanian textiles unique."
Ceres understood why Juno had fainted now.
"You mean…some of my finest dresses have come from…?"
"Perhaps. You might have."
Pallas nodded.
"It would only be logical."she added.
"I think I'm going to start wearing more common attire. I don't want to wear a fine dress again! I can't stand it one minute more!"said Small Lady.
Small Lady turned around so quickly, that she lost her balance, stepping on the hem of her skirt, and fell on one the china cabinets containing the spiders.
"She's dying!"screamed Juno, after Ceres had used her smelling salts.
"They're not toxic!"shouted Pallas over the screaming, as she helped the others with their fans, trying to get the spiders off their mistress.
Upon hearing the commotion, several of the servants arrived. Not that it did much good in some cases. Seeing Small Lady covered in the spiders, and the broken china cabinets, some screamed, ran, or followed Juno's example and fainted.
Ceres had opted for just pulling the spiders off. Thank goodness for the writing the day before. It had left her fingers ink-stained, and so she had worn her gloves. Which were going in the trash as soon as she took them off, she thought to herself.
While pulling them off some must have squished between her fingers. She tried not to about that. She simply pulled and threw. Some landed on other people, which only caused more commotion, as people shrieked when they found even more spiders in their clothes or hair.
Finally, there were no spiders left. Or rather, they had run away from the spiders. There might still be plenty in the room. Right now, they all sat in one of the water gardens.
Looking around at the others, Ceres felt glad that out of all four of them, she was the only one who hadn't run. Juno had fainted, Vesta had had half a mind to set Small Lady and the entire room on fire, which thankfully she didn't, and Pallas was used to the spiders, she supposed. She admitted that she hadn't remained exactly calm, but still.
"I think spiders should be banned in the entire galaxy."said Juno.
"How would your fine clothes be woven, then?"Pallas pointed out.
Juno glared at her.
Minako and Kunzite greeted Ceres at the spaceport. As always with her parents, she forgot all ceremony, running to them and hugging.
"Did you enjoy your trip?"asked Minako.
"Yes."said Ceres. "But I'm so glad to be home."
On my next story, I'll be going back to writing about their parents. I might write about quartet again in the future, however.