Arachnide

Noon

It hadn't been long after the boys finally had their breakfast, after that commotion with the neighboring old peasant. While Francis and Arthur were in Anais' garden making flower crowns, Anais continued to work on cleaning her run-down home. Within every sweep of her broom, a cloud of dirt and dust rose up about and dissipated after another. Her petite lavender feet left footprints on the dirt coated stone ground, mild to every touch and step. The wooden bucket used for collecting dust laid beside the doorway, it had been piling up spider webs and cobwebs after another. On the stone walls came the fuzzy brown tarantula from before, it watched Anais continuously sweep the floor that was still dirty in the end. It crawled to a nearby window, where the afternoon sun beamed through. A soft smile had cut through her violet cheeks as her baby blue spheres met with the fuzzy arachnid. "Hello there, back so soon?" Anais spoke to it, staring into the tarantula's many eyes. She let out a hand, her fingertips met with the hairy legs, the tarantula sensed her presence and began to crawl on her hand and up on her arm. The feeling of more than 2 pairs of arms being felt all over your body was heavily ticklish, it went around her shoulders and neck and back down to her hand. Anais let the arachnid crawl back onto the window before she came back outside. The blistering heat had hit her suddenly, she didn't mind it at all.

At the corner of the small little garden was Francis and Arthur, nearly using up all the plants and nearby shrubs for their flower crowns. Their innocent and cheerful faces were now soaked with sweat and flustered with red tones. "Non Arthur, that's not how you tie it up." Francis told Arthur, assisting him with tying up the green stem into a proper knot. Anais slowly approached the boys, observing all her herbs and flowers being used from the dirt all the way up to their fingertips. She looked around before she began, "Boys.. what are you doing with all my herbs?". Francis looked up at her, with his bright face and big smile. His pastel blue pupils were gleaming in the sun light. "Nana, we are making flower crowns! I'm teaching eyebrows here how to do it." He teased the little English boy, as Arthur pouted and glared at him. Instead of throwing a fit and spewing like he normally did, He simply crossed his arms and continued to glare at him until the French boy noticed him. Anais, however, noticed the annoyance for Francis in those small, asymmetrical eyes of his. She tilted her head, examining his posture as she glanced back at Francis, who went back to making his final flower crown.

"Why the up-tight attitude mon petit?" Anais knelt down and laid a hand on his warm, pale shoulder. Arthur grumbled, whatever he had answered was inaudible to the lavender woman's ears. "..Repeat that..?"

There was a long delay, Arthur faced Anais and took a deep breath. There was another long delay, and a gentle breeze was among them. The young and fair serf waited for a response, but it seems Arthur changed his main and decided not wait. She could feel his tensed up shoulders and arms begin to ease down, he still didn't want to answer. All he did was mumbled something. To Francis' surprise, he heard him. "Stupid little girl.."

"I can hear you Arthur, it isn't polite to be that way." Anais smiled at the two and had turned away, heading back inside the old and run-down cottage. Little sparrows hopped around the garden, chirping at one another, they all flew away when Anais had approached close to them. They all flew around her overhead, one by one landed on the roof of the cottage, others retreated to the tree tops. Chirping continued, the little sparrows in the trees began hopping around the big branches in search for twigs and food.

Suddenly, something caught the lavender lady's eye when she made to the dusty doorstep. It was a wooden bowl, she knelt down and examined what was in it. Inside the wooden bowl was porridge, it was still warm and mushy to the touch, as if had just been made and put here to cool off. Steam rose from it gracefully before dissipating mid-air. The strangest thing that stood out however, was the mysterious green hue to the porridge. Anais decided it was time for a little lunch break, picking up the bowl of porridge and taking with her inside the cottage.

"Francis, there are no more herbs.. haven't we made enough flower crowns?" Arthur groaned.

"Over forty of them is never enough, we can make more and get more herbs!" Francis exclaimed as he ran out of the garden, he stopped himself before he left out of their sister's home. "I just figured something out..", he held all the flower crowns in his arms. Arthur stood behind him and waited for and answer from the feminine looking French boy. He raised an eyebrow, "Come on now, fess up." Francis turned around and faced Arthur, he then suddenly picked him up and the two spun around together. Arthur let out a cry of "GET OFF OF ME!" as he was lifted in the air. "We should make a whole dress made from herbs and flowers!" His tone was upbeat, but loud enough for nearby neighbors to hear. "Then we can give it to Nana so she can wear it!"

A loud thud interrupted their joyful moment, that's when Francis finally set Arthur back down. "What was that?!" Francis was startled by the sudden noise, his eyes began draw their attention to the cottage. The thud came from inside Anais' home, Arthur and Francis went inside to investigate might had occurred. Arthur peered around the room, he didn't seem to find Anais at first glance, he then followed Francis; who was too, looking for their sister. "Anais! Anais, where are you? Are you okay?" Arthur called out, looking in all opposite directions of the room. There had been no answer, and after a brief moment of silence, Arthur called out again. "Anais, you're starting to worry us.. where are you?" He went back around to Francis, who was now frozen in the doorway. His had a traumatized expression face, he must had found Anais. Arthur first caught his eye on Francis' face, then on Anais' bedroom.

Their bedroom, now reduced to overturned beds and chunks of hay, used as mattresses, were scattered everywhere. In a dark corner, a tall mysterious figure was moving around under one of the blankets, the figure appeared to be struggling. The two little children watched in fright, frozen in place and not knowing what to do. They continued to watch the blanket figure struggle and fall over. After some time, the figure managed to finally get back on it's feet. Standing tall before Francis and Arthur, both began to feel very intimidated. Out of the blankets were six lavender arms, the first two cling onto the blanket, and out was Anais herself. Her pupils were now gone, leaving behind her baby blue iris. She opened her mouth to speak, but she had revealed vampire like fangs.

Francis screamed and was about to run away, but Arthur had soon stopped him and tried to calm him down. Anais herself, was just as frightened by the mysterious creature she had become. "Boys please.. I don't wanna hurt you..! I ate something I wasn't supposed to eat.." Francis and Arthur finally eased down, and began to examine Anais' tall and freakishly horrid body. On the other side of one of the overturned beds was her clothes, all partial ripped at the seams. It was creepy to stare into her innocent lavender face and not see any pupils, the sharp edges of her fangs can still be seen even if her mouth was shut. Francis and Arthur now have a new problem, extra sets of limbs and a set of sharp teeth; as well as how freakishly tall Anais has gotten. Francis got a glimpse of her thigh, it faded from her typical lavender skin to a blueish-grey color; and also appeared to be swollen.

"I think.. I have become an arachnid..."