Unusual

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

"..." Speach
'...' Thought


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“You’re very lucky to be alive right now. Not everyone who gets attacked by a feral lives through it.”

“I know mom, but I’m fine.”

“You aren’t invulnerable; you should never take such stupid risks.”

“It’s fine mom, really. I-“

“Never again Aine. The world does not tolerate carelessness.”

“Yes mom,” Aine bowed her head in submission. She knew there was no point in arguing. She would be experiencing the world for herself soon, and her recent trip to the woods had not given her mother any sense of confidence that her little child would be safe.

Sitting at the kitchen table, surrounded by warmth and all the everyday things she had grown up with, it was hard for Aine to believe everything that had happened earlier in the day was real. On the wooden table in front of her was a blue bowl full of hot potato soup, a bread roll beside it. Both were familiar and precious smells, undoubtedly made by her grandfather for supper, kept warm in the oven for her. The simple action of dipping the roll in her soup, taking a bite and savoring the flavor was uncommonly moving for Aine.

Blinking hard, Aine fought back the sudden burst of tears. 'I didn’t think I was that wound up. God, I was really scared…'

Aine kept her eyes moving the whole time she ate. Her encounter with the massive feral had imparted a new sense of appreciation for the life she led, or rather, life in general. Any life was better than no life. The red tiled kitchen floors, the antique cupboards with the good dishes, the handmade spice rack by the old stove, everything seemed extra beautiful. Even the crack in the side door doorjamb was a welcome familiar sight.

“Here, eat the last roll. Don’t let it go to waste,” Aine’s mother commanded.

Mouth full, she wordlessly took the piece of bread from the baking pan her mother held. As she quickly used it to mop up the last of the soup, Aine studied her mother who was briskly scrubbing away at the dishes.

Terrwyn was a tall pokewoman, not so tall as Aine, but easily on eye level with most men. While Aine’s hair was a deep brown-red color, Terrwyn’s hair was like copper. Faintly glowing runes sparsely covered her arms, revealed by the rolled up sleeves of her blouse. Like the runes, her eyes glowed green, the identifying traits of her breed. As a Tatmon, she was always very reserved in both speech and manners, which led people to forget just how vehement she could be when something upset her, especially when it involved her only child.

Aine smiled faintly at the unseeing back of her mother. When she had arrived home some uncounted time ago, there had been fire in Terrwyn’s eye. She had refused Aine entry through the front door and had sent her around back to the mud room where she had practically stripped her of her sodden clothes and violently rubbed the warmth back into Aine with a cotton towel, treating her like an errant child that had disobediently played outside in the rain. The whole time she had asked no questions, keeping an angry silence. It was not until Aine was warm, dry and freshly clothed that Terrwyn had dragged Aine into the kitchen and sat her down at the table, where her father had been waiting.

The conversation had been simple and direct, with her mother asking most of the questions. Aine had told them the story of her day in an abbreviated fashion, explaining how she had stumbled across the damaged strip of woods, and her subsequent run in with a feral. The exact nature of the feral she had left out, hoping to put off opening that can of worms until later. Fortunately neither of her parents had asked, being far more concerned with her announcement that she had decided that it was time for her to set out on her taming journey.

Their reaction had not been exactly what she had expected. Her mother had expressed immediate and predictable opposition to the idea. “You can’t make a decision like that after such a traumatic event!” She had said, “You have to think about this longer!”

Her father, Samuel, on the other hand, had gotten up from his seat and rounded the table, pulling Aine up from her own seat and embracing her in a fierce hug. His pronouncement had been simple. “I’m glad you’re alright Aine. We’ll get you set up tomorrow for your journey.”

Aine hadn’t known what to say, nor had Terrwyn. The discussion was ended at that point, and her father had retired to the living room. Now her she was, eating dinner alone with her less than pleased mother.

Still, Aine was happy just to be near her, and her mother’s simmering temper was not going to ruin her own glad-to-be-alive mood.

“Are you finished?” Terrwyn asked, putting the last of the plates she had been washing on a rack to dry.

“Yes,” she responded. Silently she picked up her bowl and brought it to the sink.

“I’m sorry I worried you mom,” Aine spoke quietly, standing next to Terrwyn. “I wasn’t expecting today to go like this either.”

The older woman took the bowl out of Aine’s hands and started scrubbing. Aine knew her mother’s ways, and waited patiently while the pokewoman cleaned the bowl and placed it next to the other bowls already mostly dried on the rack.

“Do you know where you’re going?”

The question sounded so accepting it caught Aine by surprise. She thought for a moment, and then slowly sounded her thoughts out.

“Well, I um, I always wanted to see a castle…”

“A castle”

Aine watched her mother’s hands scrub the bread pan. The answer did not seem to impress Terrwyn.

“Well, you know, searching for a castle would put me out in the wilds, so I’d probably run into lots of ferals, and I might even find some interesting, um, things, in the castle. That is, if I find one.”

Terrwyn cut her off before she could babble on anymore. “You don’t need to justify it to me. I’d just like to know what direction you’re going in.”

Aine looked at her mother with confusion. “Ah. South, I suppose.”

Her mother nodded once, then pulled the plug in the drain. As the water emptied from the sink, she calmly wiped her hands with towel, then wiped the counter. Aine stood next to her the whole time, waiting for some sign of dismissal or continuation of the conversation.

Finally her mother turned to her and spoke. “If you want to go I won’t stop you. But you’re not leaving this home on a nights notice with no preparation. You will stay at least another three days so we can send you off properly.”

Smiling lightly, she responded, “I can live with that.”

Aine had no problem agreeing to the terms laid out to her. She almost thanked her mother for her good sense, but before she could say anything her mother walked away and out of the kitchen, stopping briefly at the door to say in her normal quiet tones, “Put your clothes in the washer before you come to the living room.”

Aine stared at the empty door for only a moment before heading back into the mudroom she had dried off in earlier. Her old clothes lay on the floor, wet and soggy, muddy shoes next to them. She picked the sodden items up and threw the shoes into the metal sink next to the washer and dryer. The jeans went into the washer next, but the shirt she held up to the light and examined. The small blood stains from the scratches were barely noticeable thanks to the dark color, but she knew they were never going to come out. Sighing, she threw the shirt in anyway along with some of her father’s dirty laundry that sat in a pile on the floor.

Turning the washer on, she made silent thanks to whichever long dead ancestor had provided her with the one pokegirl trait that she found useful. Having the fast healing blood gift had made life much easier for Aine than it could have been. In fact, she had not had to wear a band-aid in years. It was no real defense against a pokegirl, a fact that her mother had personally demonstrated for her on the few occasions that she had been particularly disobedient in her youth. Yet it was still a great asset for her continued survival.

'Well,' she thought, 'better than just looking like a pokegirl and having No powers at all.'

That thought led her eyes to drift to the belt hanging off a peg by the door. On the belt were two pokeballs, one of which was as empty as when she had received if from the pokecenter in the neighboring town. The other was occupied by the pokegirl that had so recently assaulted her.

That she still had no idea what species the pokegirl was bothered Aine somewhat. She did not normally carry her pokedex with her when she went to town and had not done so that morning either. It was still in her desk upstairs. Taking the ball out of the belt holster, she headed back through the kitchen and to the back stairwell. Before she could take more than a few steps up, two perfectly synchronized voices called out behind her.

“Aine! What are you doing that’s taking so long? Don’t you have something important to say to us?”

Standing at the bottom of the stairs were two nearly identically pokewomen. Light green skin, big black eyes and literal flowers growing out of their heads marked them unmistakably as dryads.

“Iris, Clover, I was just going to go and get-“

“You’re not going anywhere until you get your butt in the living room and tell us what in heaven’s name is going on!” The twins spoke again in unison, something they always did whenever they wanted to make a point.

Inwardly, Aine sighed in exasperation. Iris and Clover were also her father’s pokewomen, and had been just as long as Terrwyn, stretching back to his taming days. They were just as much mother’s to her as Terrwyn, and Aine loved them dearly. The problem that had her quietly groaning as they dragged her back down the stairs and into the living room was their habit of dragging every little detail out of any and every situation they could. They were known as notorious gossip mongers in the village. Being family, they never actually gossiped to others about private matters, but Aine knew they would still want to know every smidgen of information to satisfy their own obsessive curiosity.

'This is going to be a long night…'


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Early morning sunlight filtered through the wooden shutters of the old brown barn, highlighting the golden color of the straw strewn across the dirt floor. Farming tools were hung on the front area’s walls, while heavier equipment was placed in stalls that had at one time long ago housed livestock. A small wooden wagon partially blocked the back half of the aisle leading between the stalls, empty and dusty from disuse. The upper floor of the barn was used more actively, loaded with straw bales that were regularly sold to the many other farms across the countryside.

Aine sat on a bench pushed up against the left foremost stall, staring intently at the small red device in her hands. The data scrolling across the screen was proving to be very enlightening for her. The identity and nature of the pokegirl resting inside of the pokeball on her lap being as least somewhat explained.

'Dryder, the Widow Evolution. Only possible during the second phase of a widow’s lifespan, when they gain intelligence and forcibly rid themselves of all their poisons. Far less aggressive and violent than a widow…'

That the dreaded widow could evolve seemed like an incredibly important bit of information to Aine, yet none of her study books on pokegirls had ever mentioned anything other than their destructive, murderous behavior. Nothing on any potential for evolution, or even capture. Scrolling to the bottom of the entry, she looked up the date the article had been added to the pokedex database.

'This was added less than six months before I got the damn thing! Why wasn’t there some kind of warning put out, or something?'

Reflecting on that thought, Aine realized that there may well have been one put out in the more densely populated cities, or at least an update in text books. However, in Oaklyn, most of the text books in the school were as old as the teachers; the pokegirl texts only slightly more recent. Surprise at the lack of general knowledge that such a creature could exist suddenly seemed less reasonable.

Having read her fill, Aine put the pokedex away and stood up, walking with the pokeball in hand to the open center of the barn floor. Aine had chosen the old barn for the specific reason of its large, clear floor. The other barn was much newer, and mostly filled with hay. Originally, she had thought to release the pokegirl outside in the open where if anything went wrong, at least the pokegirl would have the option of simply running away back into the distant woods. But the way last night’s conversation had gone had convinced Aine it would be far better if none of her family could see her new pokegirl, at least until she was sure she could control her.

Predictably, the twins had asked for every single detail concerning the attack. Aine had done her best to explain what had happen in a way that would satisfy their imaginations without giving away an actual description of the pokegirl, which more involved highlighting the mystery of what caused the clearing than what the pokegirl had done to her. As far as Aine knew, they were still unrelated. A huge coincidence if they had nothing to do with one another, but the answer to that question she was hoping to find out straight from the source. In the end, she had evaded the question of what breed the pokegirl was by stating that it was some kind of bug type, and she still needed to check her ‘dex to see what kind. An excuse her parents had readily bought, though it came with a promise to introduce her to the family in the morning.

'I don’t see how this is going to end in any kind of a good way,' Aine thought with trepidation as she released the pokegirl.

In a flash of red light the enormous pokegirl materialized in front of Aine, huge and imposing. The massive, fence post thick legs spread out half the distance of the barn floor. The pokegirl’s human half towered over Aine, lean and grey.

A look of confusion passed over the pokegirl’s face as she took in her surroundings, taking in the change with an air of wonder. After a few moments of examining the man made walls, the dryder noticed Aine’s presence. Once again their eyes met, gold meeting azure, and Aine saw some emotion pass through those intense eyes. Then, to Aine’s surprise, she turned away, spider legs shifting her around to her right, seemingly intent on studying the rakes and shovels hung on that wall. Aine did not know if this casual dismissal signified acceptance of her presence or lack of interest in her, but she took it to be a relatively good sign.

While the dryder studied the farming tools, Aine studied the dryder. The centaur-like nature of the pokegirl was a somewhat normal sight to her with all the ponytaurs in the area, but the way the spider half looked was completely different from the little arachnids she often found hanging in the windows. The legs were the most noticeable difference to Aine, long but far from spindly, dark grey and seemingly armored in the thickness of the chitinous shell. Counting them, she came up with a confusing number.

'Ten? Spiders only have eight legs I thought.'

Looking more closely at the pair closest to the human half, Aine could see they were different from all the others. Instead of having tapered ends, the tips were actually slightly stubby claws. Undoubtedly to Aine’s mind the same ones that had been holding onto her legs during their first encounter. She blushed at the thought, then resolutely pushed the image out of her head and continued her inspection.

The back end of the dryder also looked different from any other spider she had seen before. Most of the little arachnids she had swatted in the past had large, bulbous abdomens that had always disgusted her far more than the multitude of legs. The pokegirl in front of her looked far more symmetrical in that regard, and far less bulbous. The dark grey of the spider’s shell was traced in squared black lines, almost as though someone had painted them. They vaguely reminded Aine of her mother’s rune tattoos, only far more numerous and less delicate in design.

Seeing all their was to see of the lower body, Aine moved her eyes upward, taking in the lighter grey of the dryder’s human half. The beautiful curves and lines of the pokegirl’s body once again brought a blush to Aine’s face. The smooth skin showed a perfect balance between fat and muscle; soft enough looking to compare to a newborn’s, yet with each deep intake of breath the abdominal muscles stood out in all their glory. Only slightly above that pleasing sight was the very enticing visage of the pokegirl’s breasts. Their size was the largest Aine had seen on anyone other than the bovine pokegirls living on some of the other farms.

'Yet, I bet if she were normal size they wouldn’t be that much bigger than mine. C cups at most. If she were normal.'

Pausing mid thought to admire the swell of a particularly deep breath, her finishing reflection was less than coherent.

'I didn’t think breasts that big could be so perky…'

A sudden realization came to Aine in her consideration of the dryder’s assets. The way her chest seemed to hold a puffed out position, arms held in just the right way to accent the breasts, angled just the right way…

'I think she’s posing for me!'

Jerking her eyes up to the pokegirl’s face, it was hard for her to tell exactly where the pokegirl was looking. Her solid yellow eyes had no pupils, so it was impossible to tell where they were focused. Still, the way the feather white hair seemed to be purposefully obscuring those amazing eyes gave Aine the distinct impression the dryder was giving her sidelong glances.

Aine’s suspicions seemed to be confirmed when the pokegirl turned toward her and slowly ambled forward. Despite the lack of hips the dryder still managed to sway in a particularly enticing manner, drawing full attention to the apex of where the legs and torso met. Aine could not help swallowing reflexively as her throat went dry. She quickly shot her eyes back up as the pokegirl continued to near.

In only a few surprisingly silent steps the spider had moved within an arm’s reach of Aine. Forced to crane her neck backwards to keep eye contact, Aine almost did not notice when the two pincer tipped legs reached out gently clasped around her waist. With a yelp of surprise she was hoisted into the air and onto eye level with pokegirl.

Aine had no chance to react to the new situation before the dryder’s lips were upon hers. Almost instantly the same unnaturally large tongue from the last time she had been in this position sought admittance to her mouth, forcing its way in with superior strength. Aine groaned at the feeling, unintentionally reacting with arousal to the amorous actions of the beast. The kiss could have lasted for hours for all Aine could tell, completely oblivious to her surroundings as she passionately dueled with giant pokegirl. That changed, however, when she felt two very large hands begin to group at her chest.

Breaking the kiss with some regret, Aine boldly tried to assert some dominance over the dryder that was supposed to obey her commands.

“Stop! Put me down right-“

Her sentence was cut short as the pokegirl reinserted her tongue into her open mouth, continuing the deep kiss. Frustrated this time, Aine refused to succumb to her arousal and once more broke the kiss, this time with an angry growl.

“Put me down. Right. Now.” She demanded with the most serious face she could muster.

The dryder seemed to finally take the hint that the kissing was over, though confusion clearly showed in her eyes. Realizing that it was very possible the only recently tamed feral had no comprehension of the human language yet, she used the tone of her voice coupled with action to get her message across.

“Not now. This is not the place for taming.” Aine spoke slowly, grabbing hold of the pokegirl’s hands that were still cupping her breasts. That she was able to pull them off showed promise in her opinion; clearly the dryder could have kept her hands right where they were, seeing as the strength in them was infinitely greater than anything Aine could ever muster. Letting go of the soft fingers, she made simple motions that she hoped conveyed her desire to be put back on the ground.

“Down. Do you understand? Put me down.”

Still looking confused, the dryder started to lower Aine towards the floor. Sighing in relief, Aine felt her feet graze the solid dirt floor when a graveled old voice called out from somewhere behind her.

“So this is the ‘bug-type’ eh?”

The dryder’s reaction was almost comical. Like lightning she had Aine back in her arms several feet off the floor, pincers poised outward toward the originator of the voice in a defensive stance.

Aine twisted herself halfway around trying to face her grandfather while being fairly well squashed against the pokegirl’s cleavage.

“Granddad! This isn’t what you think!” Struggling against the pokegirls arms for a moment, she amended the statement. “Well, yes, it is what you think, but I can explain.”

Leaning with one hand against the door frame, Sean O’Brennan, the patriarch of the family, stared at his grandchild with disappointment in his face.

“This is a bit more than a bug, girl.” The grizzled old man stated in a tone that would abide no argument. He strolled up to the pair, heedless of the dryder’s threatening posture, putting himself right between the two formidable upraised pincers. “You get down here right now. We need to talk, and I will not be looking at your shins the whole time.”

The dryder for her part seemed torn between running and fighting, tensed and confused. Her legs constantly shifted around, rising up off the floor only to drop back down to the same spot. Her brow was furrowed in displeasure, yet still she refrained from taking any more action, uncertain of what was going on.

Aine knew her grandfather, and took the command as the unspoken threat that it was. “It’s okay, put me back down,” she patted the pokegirls shoulder reassuringly. “He won’t hurt me. You can let go.”

Aine almost thought the pokegirl was going to ignore her, when after a minuet she finally felt herself being lowered down. Cautiously the spider beast bent her legs, lowering both herself and Aine in a single smooth motion. The strong, sculpted arms released her, and Aine was free to turn and face her elder.

Before Aine could speak, Sean raised his hand to cut her off.

“I’ll tell you this first. I’m very upset you tried to hide something like this from your family.”

Aine made a move to protest, but was once again cutoff.

“However, seeing this,” he paused to glance up at the pokegirl hovering over Aine’s shoulder, “I can certainly understand why you did. Your mother is going to chain you to the wall when she sees this. Come on back to the house now.”

Aine almost laughed at her grandfather’s remark, but thought better of it. The look on his face was definitely not humorous. Instead she followed after him as her walked away, back towards the barn door. She knew the discussion was not over, just put on pause for the moment.

Reaching the door, she turned around to tell the dryder to wait where she was and nearly jumped out of her skin.

“Damn it! How did you do that?” She swore out loud in surprise at finding the pokegirl directly behind her, having moved without making a sound. Aine’s hearing had always been fairly good, and the fact that the giant spider had managed to walk so near her without her hearing a thing unnerved her. The dryder just stared at her with big yellow eyes.

“Well,” her grandfather spoke in a more surprised tone than before, “She can come too. You did say you were going to introduce her. Yes?”

The old man did not wait for an answer. Instead, he threw open the large doors and walked out into the now bright daylight.

Aine looked at his retreating back for a few seconds and then at her pokegirl. The pokegirl looked back at her with an expectant expression.

“I think you’d better have a name before we head up there, hmm?” The dryder made no objection. Aine thought for a moment longer, than looked back into the dryder’s eyes.

“How about Aeronwen? That was my grandmother’s name. She looked a little like you. The human part, anyway.”

To Aine’s surprise, the dryder opened her mouth and sounded the name out.

“Aer…on…wen.”

Her voice was soft and low, deep yet feminine, pleasing to the ear.

“Aeronwen…” She repeated.

“Yes, I think so.” Aine spoke softly to the giant beast. “Aeronwen.”

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Author's Notes

And so goes the second chapter. As you can probably tell, this chapter is really more of a filler than anything. Still, important information for later.

To my sole reviewer Pokeprof: I did actually have this story posted on the old pokegirl website, and I am currently reposting it on the new one. Just look for the username Phanes. Don't know why I didn't use that here, guess I just like to mix things up. Also, sorry to disappoint you, but the mysterious pokegirl is not an Arachnae. I just have a slightly different view of how a dryder looks. You're right though. Not nearly enough spider pokegirls around in the fiction.

Anyways. See you all soon, third chapter should be posted tomorrow.