By the time Lauren had finished repairing her robe, her little travel sewing kit was almost out of red thread; she wondered if that was something you could get in this world, but given the clothes Sheegoka wore thought that such thread must exist, even if it was only available in silk.  Of course, they were a long way from Sheegoka’s tailor, and headed the wrong direction.

And they kept heading that direction, deeper and deeper into the earth (it occurred to her that this probably was not the Earth, but it was the dirt, and much about it was very earth-like).  They camped in cramped spaces, kept fires minimal, and were constantly watchful, even wary.

Then entering a larger space they were brought to a halt.  From the rear she could not see much, but the lamp light ahead lit gray-white curtains on the walls and ceiling and elsewhere in the room.  Lauren struggled to identify it, to decide that it was not what she feared, but unless the underdark had giant silkworms there was only one explanation.

They were encountering the home of a spider, probably several spiders, and rather large ones.

There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with five other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #370:  Characters Confront.  Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter.  It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.

As to the old stories that have long been here:

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