In a race between a vampire and an arachnid heteromorph, it was not clear who would win. Not at first, they sprinted through the rain holding their cups in their hands, the rain driving down to drench their bodies, their feet splashed through puddles. They sped over the campus grounds with such swiftness that, try as it might, the pouring rain could barely touch them, the roaring sky above and the constant splash beneath their feet were the music that carried them all the way to Entoma's private flat.
Their feet echoed on the stairs, she could see Inta out of the corner of some of her eyes, 'Vampires move oddly.' Rather than run directly behind her, he used his environment to aid in his running, pulling himself at a tree or pushing off of a stray rock to go from a run to a leap that would briefly put him ahead of her.
When they were in the building itself, he used the three hundred and sixty degree environment of walls and ceiling to give himself space to get around her, at one point running along the wall and rising slowly to the ceiling until he was running upside down over her head so that there was no competition at the stairs.
The echo of their footfalls followed them all the way to Entoma's home where their hands rushed out to grab the door handle first.
Entoma reached it first, and his own hand covered hers a half a second later.
"First!" She said excitedly, she was breathing harder than she expected, but victory was hers and so she thought nothing of it.
"Not from where I'm standing." Inta responded from upside down and standing on the ceiling. Water dripped down to pat against her and the floor for several seconds.
Entoma glanced upward a bit, his cup had been flipped over to avoid a spill, and he wore a boyishly goofy grin that appeared as a frown because of where he stood. It returned to a smile again when he righted himself, releasing his feet from the ceiling and turning his body in mid drop to land upright on the floor, his hand remaining in place the entire time.
"Hmpf, if you say so. Come in, you can dry off" Entoma shrugged off the odd comment, but as she turned the door handle and entered the room with Inta behind her, she had to wonder what he was going to say.
"Happily." He answered, taking a sip of hot tea while he followed behind her.
"So can I ask a silly question?" Entoma asked when the door closed behind them. Manaly emerged from his room as soon as the door closed, "A towel for my guest." She said, and the orc gave a half bow.
"At once, ma'am." He said and retreated.
"Silly or serious, you can ask it." Inta responded with a shrug, "Do you mind if I sit?"
"Please." Entoma gestured to a cherrywood seat with a wide curved back.
He seated himself and rested his arms on the wings of the chair. "Why the wall and ceiling running?" Entoma asked.
Inta answered by touching the designs on the wings of the chair with the tips of his fingers. There were etched patterns in the wood of what appeared to be spider webs, as he traced his hand over them again and again then asked, "Why webs and spider themes?"
"I'm an arachnid heteromorph, it's what we do, I don't really think about why." Entoma replied and took a sip of her tea.
"The same. I used to drive my sister batty with it when we were young, we weren't born vampires, we were turned against our will. But I took a liking to it quicker than she did. I embraced what was then a new life, and liked to surprise her by standing upside down then waiting for her to wake up or come around a corner to find me there." He smirked, "I got slapped a few times when I caught her by surprise, but it was worth it."
"So it's just a thing you do?" Entoma responded.
"That's about the size of it." Inta answered with a sip of his own.
Manaly returned a moment later with a pair of dark towels with white embroidered lines over the surface. He bowed and handed one first to Entoma, and then approached Inta to hand one over to him in turn.
"More spider patterns?" Inta quipped, and Entoma laughed at the way he said it with a raised brow.
"I like webs, what can I say?" She returned the quip.
"So do you sleep in them too?" He asked her.
"Are you brave enough to find out, mister war veteran vampire warrior?" Entoma taunted him, then pointed toward her bedroom door.
"Lead on." He said. His face was covered by the towel, she couldn't see what face he made, but his answer was wholly unexpected.
He rubbed the black cloth with its spider patterns, over his head and face and it dangled and bounced like webs in the breeze.
Thus challenged, Entoma briefly considered asking him to leave, she looked down at the cup of tea in her hand that they'd gotten together, and the race they'd run… 'It was fun… I had fun… I'm having fun.' The embarrassment she felt over Harold had been forgotten until the very moment she found herself challenged and the risk of… 'What? What do I even think I'm risking here?'
Without any answer or any reason to turn back but the unanswered and unanswerable, she walked over to her bedroom, opened the door, and entered.
Inta followed afterward, his cup of tea in hand being sipped with only the slightest noise, as casual as if they were taking a stroll over campus again and not the least like he was strolling into a young woman's private space. 'Is it 'supposed' to be this casual?' Entoma had to ask, and tried to imitate his seemingly indifference by strolling over to the web that hung between the two walls. The rain still came down outside and thunder rolled hard enough that the glass windows trembled from the impact. Water struck and pinged away or ran down in a silvery sheen that blurred the outside world.
Inta stood just beyond the door, still sipping his tea as he looked the room over. "I'll be honest," he said, "I wasn't sure what to expect from one of his Majesty's servants."
"If you had expected something, would this have been it?" Entoma probed a bit and sat down on the hammock web she'd made for herself.
Inta scratched his head and raised an eyebrow. "I honestly have no idea how that question even makes sense, let alone how to answer it." He chuckled a little, but answered, "But… maybe? I guess the web is not what I thought of."
"No? How so?" Entoma pushed her feet off against the floor so that the hammock began to rock back and forth.
"I don't know… I mean, it's very clearly 'webbing', but I was expecting a more usual sort of design? Like you see from other spiders." He finally replied with some confusion.
"I'm not exactly a spider, I'm an arachnoid, I have spider traits, but also human ones, true I'll snack on a raw bird caught in the web outside my office, but I'll also," she took a sip, "enjoy a cup of tea with a friend, and enjoy the swaying of a hammock after a long day."
"Alright, that's fair." Inta replied with a fangy grin, "Most people still have silly stories about vampires going about even after being able to live openly for this long. Some hotels in the big cities even," he chortled, "get this, keep coffins on hand in case they have a vampire guest because they think we 'have' to sleep in them."
He rolled his red eyes, "It's the damnedest thing, I had to spend fifteen minutes explaining myself to a hotel clerk who was trying so hard to show how accepting he was of me, that he simply wouldn't accept that I didn't actually need the coffin."
Inta finally shrugged and stopped laughing, "He meant well, I guess."
"Hmmm, how come they think that anyway?" Entoma asked, slightly shifting the subject when he saw one of his feet shuffle a little at the uncomfortable memory he'd made into a kind of joke.
"Who knows? My guess is because vampires found them to be convenient hiding spots, but if you think about it, a coffin is just a funny shaped bed with a lid, so it wouldn't make any practical sense to 'need' one. But back when vampires had to hide, where better than with the dead?"
"I was never able to wrap my head around that, 'hiding' from humans. They're such weak creatures… most of them." Entoma added when she thought of the few she knew that were outstandingly strong.
"More than one vampire, one dead vampire had the same sentiment. They don't seem like much, but they survived a great deal, they survived elven domination, fought beastmen, and most of the higher life forms have a human basis to them. They're adaptable, intelligent, and creative, making up with cunning what they lack in strength. And as you'll find when you begin to teach, they come in an endless variety." Inta said and, coming closer to her, he touched her web and gave it a little shove when its rocking slowed, adding some of his energy to it to make it rock again.
"You never know just what you'll get from them… and you'll come to enjoy it." Inta said, to which Entoma replied.
"That's not only true of humans."
Inta cleared his throat then glanced to the window, the rain had ceased at least for the moment, and as the quiet moment stretched a little too long he added, "I'd better get going, before the break in the rain is over. I'll see you at our little exhibition tomorrow."
Entoma nodded, "Of course, see you then, goodbye."
She waited for the hammock to stop swinging and her heart to stop its suddenly rapid beating, watching him walk away until he was out of view from where she sat.
When she couldn't see him anymore, she stood up, went to the door of her bedroom, poked her head out, watched him trade a brief goodbye with her orc butler, and then departed.
Leaving him behind, a little regret inside herself that didn't fade away as fast as the rocking hammock lost its momentum.