'You look a little worried.' Guy said as he handed Tesha a cup of tea.
She nodded.
'Something I can help with?'
'We, can help with?' Feli corrected and nudged him.
He grinned a little. 'Of course.'
'Well,' Tesha started. 'from the moment we started communicating with other species more have come in contact with us. A couple of different species we could handle but more than that we're still not used to.'
'Too much new experiences?' Guy asked.
Tesha nodded. 'It's not a bad thing, but it takes more effort. Like our newest exchange request.'
'Who's that?' Cani asked.
'It's, a species difficult to host here. Species like you three are familiar and are generally liked. But this..'
'You're making me curious.' Guy said.
Tesha sighed. 'You already have three guests here, otherwise I would've asked you to think it over.'
'Why me?'
'Because you seem to have something that makes these girls feel comfortable in our society. Or at least with you around.'
Guy saw the girls feel a little awkward. 'So what's the problem exactly? Even if it's temporary, we'd like to help.'
'She's not really attractive in conventional terms.'
'So? Does she have to be pretty to be a guest here?'
Tesha leaned forward. 'Do you want to have a shot at this?'
'If you thought I had a chance of making it work wouldn't you have asked?'
'I'm sure we three are proof that everything's possible.' Feli said. 'Let's welcome her.'
Tesha smiled softly. 'This is why I could only think of this place.' She stood up. 'All right. I'll suggest it to the minister.'
Guy and the girls said goodbye to Tesha and went on with the plans for the day, visiting the city centre combining shopping, interviews and promoting the program.
When they got home late in the evening Cani stopped them from entering the apartment.
'Something's here.' she said and growled a little.
'What do you sense?' Guy asked.
'Not sure. A new scent.'
'Let me check.' he said and opened the door.
'Wait, I'll go first.' Cani said.
He held her back. 'What kind of man would I be to let a girl go first?'
'But I.'
He gently touched her muzzle. 'I know, but I still can't let you go first.'
She looked away. 'Don't blame me if you get hurt.'
'If I get hurt but you can save the situation I'll gladly do it.' he said and went inside.
'Baka.' she said softly but felt more feminine than ever.
'I agree.' Feli said and took her shoulder. 'We'll take on whatever threatens him.'
He turned on the lights in the room and looked around. 'Nothing here.'
Then he too felt something in a dark corner staring at him and backed away.
'Someone here?'
'Gomen.' a voice said from the unlit room. 'Miss Tesha let me in while you were away.'
'Are you the one she mentioned today?' Feli asked holding Guy close.
'I probably am. Someone from a difficult species.'
He nodded. 'She was worried about wether we could give you the warm welcome you deserve.'
'No need to make it sound better. I know you'd be repulsed by our appearance.'
'Actually, we have no idea what you look like.' he said and prepared the table. 'Miss Tesha hasn't told us anything about you.'
'I understand. She didn't want to make you reject me right away.'
'I think she wanted us to start to get to know you without any bias.' Feli said. 'So why not start to introduce ourselves? I'm Feli from the feline species.'
'Cani, canine species.'
'Avia.' she said shyly.
'I'm Guy, proud host to these three girls, and hoping to be one to you as well.' he said and bowed.
She stayed silent for a moment.
'Ara, from the arachnide family.' she said.
'We welcome you to human society, may your stay here simply be fun.' Guy said.
Again she stayed silent for a while. 'Thank you.' she said eventually.
'Now, since it's your first night here, would you like to do something?'
'I'd like to rest for the night. Today has been a busy day.'
'No problem. To be honest today has been quite tiresome so we could use the rest ourselves.' Guy said. 'Is there anything you need?'
'Thank you, I'm fine.'
'Okay. Just one thing, do you have a preference for breakfast?'
'We mostly eat meat.'
He nodded. 'Then I'll get extra from the butcher in the morning.'
They prepared for the night and Cani crawled extra close to Guy.
'I still have a bad feeling.' she whispered.
'Don't worry, if there was any danger Tesha wouldn't have sent her here.' Guy said.
Cani nodded and they all snuggled close to sleep.
Ara watched them for a while. 'You talk friendly now, but will you when you get to know me?' she whispered, then retired into her cocoon.
Guy yawned and stretched when he woke up, kissed the sleeping girls and slipped out from their embrace with a little regret. He quickly freshened up and started to make tea. Since the girls had to work hard yesterday he got ready to go shopping alone. He heard a noise from the corner where Ara stayed and knocked softly on the wall.
'Ara? Did you wake up already?'
'Hmm.'
'I'm stepping out to get breakfast. Do you prefer something from the butcher?'
'Just make sure it's bloody.'
'I'll ask for it.' he said and went out the door.
"No questions or comments?" she thought, then tried to get a bit more sleep.
When he came back the girls had already set the table. He kissed all of them for a while before starting to prepare breakfast.
When he finished with preparing the usual he went to Ara'a corner.
'Ara?' he said knocking on the wall again. 'I guess you like your breakfast raw?'
'Yeah.'
'Will you join us?'
'Do you think you can handle it?'
He pondered for a moment. 'I have no idea. We have never met your kind before, but there are those amongst us who like raw meat.'
'You think that's the issue?'
'Is there another?'
She chuckled. 'I guess I just have to show for you to understand.'
She crawled out of her cocoon and Guy saw her appearing out of the shadow. At first her head appeared and he saw nothing strange until he saw an extra smaller pair of eyes in her forehead partially hidden by her long red hair. Her upper body appeared human except for being black and then her legs came out.
He watched six hairy red spider legs come out with a black spider body.
She stretched and stood in front of him.
'Bet you never expected this.' she said grinning with her fangs exposed.
He shook his head. 'No. I never thought someone like you existed.'
'Disgusting, isn't it?'
He watched her for a moment, then looked up at her. 'What? No! I'm rather impressed.'
'You what!?'
'Humans always had fantasy stories with spider people in it, but this is the first time I see one for real.'
'Doesn't it scare you!? Disgust you!?'
'Gomen. I'm just weird. I think you're interesting.'
She watched his dumb face, then burst out in laughter.
Cani came to see what kept him, saw Ara, then moved inbetween them growling at Ara.
'Looks like we got a feisty one here.' Ara said.
Guy wrapped his arms around Cani. 'Relax, nothing bad's going on here.'
She looked back at him.
'I just did something that made her laugh.' he said. 'Meet Ara.'
She watched the spider girl nod.
'Ara, meet Cani, a very protective girlfriend.' he said.
Ara nodded back. 'I saw.'
'You're..?' Cani asked.
'Yeah. The one miss Tesha told about.' Ara said. 'Or rather, warned about.'
'Gomen.' Cani said. 'I was very rude.'
'Don't feel bad, I get that more often.'
'That's not good.' Guy said and held out his hand to her. 'You shouldn't have to experience that.'
She looked surprised at him.
'Let us get to know each other.'
She smiled a little and took his hand. 'I will hold you responsible.'
'I will gladly take it.' he said and smiled, taking both girls to the living room.
'Feli, Avia, let me introduce Ara from the arachnid species.' he said and escorted her into the room.
The two girls looked at her for a moment, then looked at Guy. 'Another girl?' they said.
He felt surprised by their reaction and looked at Ara. 'I'd guess so..'
Cani snickered. 'Looks like there's a whole different issue than what you thought it would be.' she said to Ara.
Ara just looked at the girls and began to wonder what she got herself into.
During breakfast the girls made their introductions and their relationship with Guy.
'So that's why you reacted like that.' Ara said.
Feli nodded. 'We know he doesn't care about species.'
'It's not my fault you're all cute girls..' he muttered.
'Good thing I'm not cute then.' Ara said.
The other girls looked at him.
'What!? I didn't say anything! I think her black eyes are attractive and being wrapped up in her legs would be nice!'
Ara looked away shyly and the other girls sighed.
'And this is why we fell for him in the first place.' Feli said.
Ara chuckled. 'I can see why miss Tesha brought me here. You're a real weird bunch.'
'I'm not..' Ara started.
Cani sighed and pushed her out the door. 'Just go will you! You have to go out sometime and the people in this street are the nicest to get to know.'
'...'
'You're just lucky we have to write reports today so you can go alone with Guy.' she said and held him tight.
He felt great and kissed her gently. 'You make me feel so lucky.'
She stroked his cheek. 'Just come back.'
'I'll always come back.' he said and caressed her ear before walking down to the street with Ara.
'They really love you.' Ara said.
'Yeah, I can't imagine a luckier guy than me. And now I feel lucky to escort the first arachnid girl.'
Downstairs she hesitated going out onto the street. She became shy and looked quickly around the corner.
Guy held out his hand. 'Would this help?'
She took his hand and smiled softly. 'Thanks.'
'Ready? You don't have to if you really don't want to.'
She shook her head. 'I'll be okay. I'll have to some day anyway.' she said, took a deep breath and stepped forward.
Guy noticed she didn't really dare to look around when the few other people on the street saw her.
'Looks like you made an even bigger impact than the others.' he said.
'I scare them.'
'No, they're curious about you.'
'Guy?' he heard someone say, then looked back to see the daughters of the baker.
'Hey there.'
He looked at Ara. 'These are the daughters of the baker down the street, Anna and Michelle. Girls, meet Ara. She came here yesterday.'
'Nice to meet you.' Anna said.
'My pleasure.' Ara said.
'So, you want to ask something?' he said.
Michelle fiddled with her phone. 'We wanted to ask if we could take a picture.'
'You want a picture of me?' Ara said.
Michelle nodded. 'We've shown the pictures of Feli, Cani and Avia at school. They would love to see you too.'
Ara looked at Guy who nodded. 'How about I take one with the three of you?'
'Okay, smile.' he said as he took pictures with both phones of the girls cheerily linking arms together.
'Thank you.' they said as they looked at the pictures.
'You're welcome.' Ara said feeling a little happy.
The girls waved goodbye as they hurried to school.
'See? Nothing to worry about.' Guy said. 'Let's go shop.'
Ara nodded and took his hand again as they continued down the street.
'Ah. I did say nothing to worry about,' Guy said when they arrived at his family's store. 'but you haven't met my aunt and uncle yet.'
'Are they strange?'
'Not really. Just a little, enthusiastic whenever I come around with one of the girls.' he said, took a deep breath and went into the store with Ara.
'Yo! Harem king!' came the greeting from his uncle and Guy sighed. 'See?'
Ara chuckled and his uncle came over to meet the new girl.
'Welcome to our humble-e-e-eee..' he said as he finally saw Ara's body.
He stared at it and Ara felt embarrassed.
'I'm sorry if I scare you.' she said, looking down.
His uncle waved his hand. 'No no. I'm just wondering how to accomodate you here. The aisles might be rather tight for you to walk in. I wouldn't want you to have to worry about bumoing into things when you're here.'
Ara looked at Guy who smiled. 'That's the sort of worry when they see you.'
'Anyways,' his uncle said and poked Guy. 'did he lure you too into his harem of beautiful creatures?'
'Uncle!'
Ara laughed. 'Not quite yet.'
'Ohh.' his aunt said who came over as well. 'So there is a chance for more little ones in the future?'
'Auntie!' said Guy blushing hard.
'You protest now, but you're not letting her go either.' she said with a smirk.
Then he realised he hadn't let go of Ara's hand all this time. 'Ah! Gomen! I.'
Ara grinned. 'Maybe I lured him into my web.'
Guy sighed. 'I can never win.'
'Then you're the luckiest loser in the world.' his uncle said and nudged him. 'And you came at a good time. We have a favour to ask.'
***
'So they'd like our help with a festival?' Feli said as she read the draft of a flyer.
Guy nodded. 'They hold a small festival once in a while with food, drinks, music, entertainment for kids and so on. It's a day of fun and promotion for the neighbourhood and they'd like to create a theme based on you girls.'
'Then what do we do?' Avia asked.
'Basically go around with small snacks promoting the baker, butcher, coffee shop. The clothes shop asked to have you wear some of their new fashion line. The book shop asked if you'd like to participate in photo shoots with visitors.'
'Sounds fun.' Cani said. 'Let's do this.'
The other girls agreed and Guy phoned Tesha to make sure it wouldn't be a problem. She liked the idea and he phoned his uncle with the good news.
During the next days they were busy making preparations. The girls had their sizes measured for clothing, they helped create snacks and small meals that were a mix of their own and local culture.
'You can do that too?' Guy said when he saw Ara create a thread to use for flags and lights on the street.
'It's normal for us.'
He picked up a strand and felt it. 'Smooth and light. Will it be strong enough?'
'I could tie you up if you want to.' she said stroking his chest. 'Then you can see for yourself how strong it is.'
'I believe you.' he said blushing and she snickered.
'I'll also place some webbing for them to hang lights in.'
He nodded. 'I'm looking forward to seeing it.' he said, then went to his uncle to help set up the stands.
'Sweetie!' Cani called out to Guy to the amusement of the people around him.
He blushed a little as she walked up to him with a plate of pastries from the baker.
'Lookie! We made cakes with our images.' she said and showed him. 'There's Feli's head with mint flavour and a white chocolat tail, Avia's wings are vanilla and pastiche, Ara's blueberry spider body with strawberry legs, and this is my chocolat head and tail.'
'It looks really good.' he said and stroked her head, making her wag her tail.
'I'm glad.' she said and pushed her cake in his mouth. 'I want you to eat me first.' she said with a wink, then went back to the baker leaving him unable to speak and blushing hard while others around him whistled.
In the afternoon he was taken to the clothes shop by Avia and told to sit down at the back. The owner of the shop came to him with mister Cocoda, the barber.
'The girls asked to let you see their outfits for tomorrow first.' she said.
'Really?'
She nodded. 'It's essential for girls to have their outfits approved. Especially by their lovers.'
He snorted. 'We haven't really yet..'
She giggled. 'It's pretty obvious. I was a young girl once too.'
He blushed and cleared his throat. 'What are you saying? Aren't you still young miss Willamee?'
Now she blushed a little and smiled. 'I can see how it all started.' she said, then dimmed the main lights and turned on the spotlights. 'And now for the show.'
Cani came out first.
'She's wearing a casual psychedelic shirt with short jeans and flat sneakers, complimenting her playful nature.'
Guy saw her turn around once to show her hair tied into a tail by a blue bow and the same one around her tail.
'Cute.' he said softly.
Then Feli stepped out.
'Feli is wearing a simple short dress with a diagonal blend of soft yellow to soft green to accentuate her white fur together with the same colours as highlights in her hair and tail.'
'Beautiful.' he said after seeing her long tail and hair wave as she turned around.
'And then we have Avia.' miss Willamee said as Avia came out. 'For her we chose a chinese dress with mostly red design to match her own yellow feathers.'
Guy nodded. 'Very pretty.'
'But that's not all.' she said smiling and Avia slowly spread her wings revealing a pattern of red feathers.
'Wow..' Guy said as she turned around showing lines of red on her tail.
'And now for the last one.' she said.
Ara peeked around the corner. 'Not a word!' she said.
'But, I haven't..' he said.
'Not, a, word.'
He nodded and she slowly walked out.
'Ara's perfect for one fashion style.' miss Willamee said. 'Gothic.'
Guy watched Ara come out wearing a black shirt with red frills accentuating her chest, a black bow around each part of her legs and a large red bow around the upper half of her spider body with the tails hanging down almost to the ground. In her hair were several small black bows.
She blushed holding her hands in front of her mouth.
'Absolutely adorable.' Guy said, then got hit by several clothes hangers.
'I said not a word!' shouted Ara blushing hard and looking away.
He grinned and nodded. 'You girls look absolutely fantastic. Great work miss Willamee, mister Cocoda.'
They smiled while he went to the girls to have a good look at them. Ara pouted but she did let him see everything.
That evening after dinner they sat down relaxing with drinks.
'I wonder how the festival will be.' Avia said.
'I bet it'll be extra busy now that you're here.' Guy said. 'You'll get a lot of attention, even more so when you look extra beautiful in those outfits.'
'Heh, I'll bet Ara gets most.' Cani said.
'Yeah yeah, I know it looks weird.' Ara said sipping her drink feeling embarrassed.
'No, Guy was right.' Feli said. 'You look absolutely stunning in gothic.'
'Sh-shut up.'
Guy smiled. 'I'm afraid you'll have to get used to getting compliments. You do look very good and I can see plenty of guys chasing after you.'
'So what keeps you?' Ara muttered.
'Eh?' he said and the girls looked at her.
She looked up. 'Ah! Forget what I said!'
Cani pounced her. 'So that's it.'
Ara tried to wriggle free of Cani's embrace. 'What is!? I didn't say anything!'
Cani grinned. 'Oh no, we heard all right. You'd like to have Guy chase after you.'
Feli leaned closer to Ara's face. 'I started to get the same idea. You've been trying to get his attention more often lately.'
Ara looked away blushing. 'What are you talking about?'
'Having him check your thread often. Conveniently having water handy when he gets thirsty. Asking questions about simple things.'
'Look, girls.' Guy said. 'I'm sure it's all coïncidence. I'm sure she had better things to do than watch me all the time, right Ara?'
He saw her look at him, then look away staying silent.
'Looks like we have a winner here.' Cani said, hugging Ara. 'Is it so bad to come out with it?'
'You don't understand, at least you look cute so guys fall for you easily.'
Feli nudged Guy. 'I think you'll have to convince her.'
He looked at her.
'Go for four.'
He smiled at Feli stroking her arm, then leaned closer to Ara who blushed harder.
'I hope this'll bring proof.' he said and kissed her gently.
She felt a shock at first, then relaxed and gave in to his kiss. He stroked down her back and onto her spider body for a while, then pulled back.
He watched her touch her lips, then hit his chest without any strength. 'Meanie.. Next time let me prepare myself first.'
'So it's okay to kiss you again?' he asked.
She nodded a little.
'Looks like we'll be sleeping with the five of us together from now on.' Feli said. 'Unless you don't want to?'
Ara shook her head once.
'We'll have to get bigger futons.' Avia said.
'And we'll have to let miss Tesha build a bigger bath for us. We won't have much room with all of us in it.' Cani said.
Guy yawned and stretched. 'We'll see to it after the festival. For now let's get some sleep. Tomorrow's a busy day.'
They got into the futons and Ara crawled onto Guy. He looked into her eyes for a moment, caressed her cheek and she kissed him. After a while she pulled back.
'This time I was prepared.' she said blushing a little.
'Yeah, I could tell.' he said smiling.
'Mine!' Cani said and kissed him before he could say more.
After kissing Avia and Feli he sighed happily while the girls cuddled up to him. 'Life is good.'
***
The next day they got up early, Guy helpded firing up the food stalls and the girls went to get dressed. When everything was set up all the people got together in front of the convenience store for a bit of breakfast. Guy's uncle and aunt prepared rice and eggs while the baker provided bread and the butcher meat. They were eating merrily when his aunt suddenly stared at the middle of the street.
'Oh my..' she said.
The others looked at her, turned to see what she was looking at and fell silent.
The girls started to fidget feeling embarrassed.
'Yep, now that's the effect of real beauty.' Guy said, smiled, then got hit hard against his shoulder.
'Guy, you damned lucky bastard.' his uncle said staring at the girls.
'Ouch, yeah.' Guy said and rubbed the painful spot.
He walked up to them and smiled. 'I'm still overwhelmed by this beautiful sight.'
The girls smiled back at him. He held out his hands to them and they took them in theirs.
'Hey! No hogging the girls!' one of the men shouted. 'Today you have to share their charming presence!'
The others laughed and shouted in agreement.
Guy grinned. 'Well, you heard them. Let's eat first.'
They sat down with the rest and the butcher offered Cani and Feli a good piece of meat and an extra bloody piece to Ara while the baker offered a new sort of bread with extra grains to Avia.
It didn't take long before the first visitors arrived and they got the festival started.
A little later Guy brought a couple of soda crates to his uncle's stand.
'It's already busier than ever before.' his uncle said. 'Having the girls as our theme sure worked.'
Guy watched the groups of visitors around each of the girls.
'Yeah. And it'll only get busier.' he said and checked local news on his phone. 'Word and pictures have spread around.'
Guy checked with the girls during the day to see if they needed anything and helped out others while they took a break.
It started to get dark when the butcher came up to Guy just as he brought Ara something to drink. 'It's time.'
'For the lights to come on?' Guy asked.
'Not just any lights, my boy. You haven't yet seen what an artist Ara is.'
The music died down and the voice of mister Backster, the coffee shop owner came on.
'Dear guests and neighbours, thank you for coming to this festival and share the fun with us. And a special thanks to our new friends who came from abroad and graciously helped us make it an extra special festival today. Feli, Cani, Avia, Ara, you have the gratitude of us all.'
A few people started clapping and soon the whole street applauded making the girls blush.
'Now, I have one more thing to announce, please.' said mister Backster and waited for the applause to die down. 'As is usual at these festivals to have fireworks, we won't be having any today.'
Guy heard the disappointment in the crowd and looked at the butcher. 'Is that true?'
He nodded and grinned. 'We have something much better tonight.'
'To make up for it though mister Hornbach, our hardware store owner, and Ara have made a little something for us.' mister Backster said and Guy felt Ara clinging to him.
She looked a little nervous and he wondered what was going on.
One by one the lights at the stores went off, then the streetlights and it became much darker than it seemed at first. Soft orchestral music started playing.
'Ladies and gentlemen,' spoke mister Backster in a hushed tone. 'I'm proud to present you, Ara's Night Sky.'
Faint light came on at the side streets and slowly illuminated patterns of webbing high up between the streetlights and the buildings. Sparks of light flashed along the threads moved by the breeze.
Guy sensed the awe spreading through the crowd and couldn't take his eyes off the dancing light.
Then the lights dimmed again and at the end of the street another light came on slowly, this time illuminating webbing between the top of the buildings and creating a rainbow of colours. The music started building up and more lights came on creating more sparks of all colours along the street and everyone stared at them until all of a sudden the music exploded and a wave of light flowed over the street in all colours accompanied by surprised sounds. Guy felt his heart beat faster at the spectacle and looked all over the street at the star-like patterns Ara had created.
People all over started applauding as the side street illumination came on again.
Guy was still looking up when he felt a tug on his arm. He saw Ara looking a little troubled at him.
'Do you like it?' she asked.
'Ara,' he said and kissed her hand. 'It's the most beautiful starry sky I've ever seen.'
She smiled and they watched it together for a while until the crowds started moving again.
'Time to get back to work.' the butcher said. 'You can enjoy it for the rest of the night because we keep the main lights off.'
Guy went back to his uncle while Ara received congratulations from people coming up to her and asking her how she did it. He passed Cani who walked around promoting the baker and the coffee shop.
'Did you know she could do that?' she asked.
'I had no idea. I'm really impressed.'
'Now I have to find something to impress you too.'
He ruffled her hair a little and smiled. 'Take your time.' he said and she wagged her tail.
He saw Feli at the barbershop where she modeled while the barber demonstrated how he did her hair to a group of female students. She saw him and smiled and waved. He waved back and gave her a thumbs up. Avia took her turn at the bookshop for a chance for people to take her picture. She even flew up a bit with little kids to have their pictures taken.
'Best festival ever.' his uncle said as Guy manned his stand.
'Yeah.' Guy said as he looked one more time at the colours flashing overhead.
When the festival finally ended everyone helped clearing the street. Afterwards they all sat down together at a candle lit, long table in front of the bar where the owner served drinks and snacks.
When everyone was fed and the beers and wines started to take effect he stood holding up his glass. Then all the other men did the same. The girls looked up at Guy who stood between them raising his glass.
'Girls young and old, foreign and domestic, may their light never fade on us men.' the owner said.
'Kanpai!' shouted the men, finished their drinks, slammed down their glasses and cheered.
***
The girls and Guy laid down on a couple of blankets in the middle of the street looking up at the patterns above.
'It really is beautiful.' Feli said.
'There are a couple of places in my country where they creat a lot of these webbings between trees over water.' Ara said. 'It becomes magical at night.'
'I heard someone say if a couple kissed under this light they'd be together forever.' Cani said.
'Sounds like you created a new romantic myth.' Guy said. 'You'll have to do this more often then.'
'Only if I get kissed underneath each one.' Ara said and smiled softly.
'I think that means you, loverboy.' Feli said and giggled.
He pondered for a moment. 'So, you wanted to start tomorrow?'
The girls snickered and Ara turned over. 'How about right now?' she whispered and kissed him.
'Then us too.' Feli said and kissed him next followed by Cani.
'Are we missing one?' Ara said and looked at Avia.
Feli stroked Avia's cheek. 'She's fast asleep.'
'Well, she had been flying low a lot with kids today.' Cani said.
'Let's put her to bed then.' said Guy and picked her up carefully in his arms.
They took the blankets with them and retired for the night.
