Apparently spiders do not sit down. But they can sort of park in one place and watch you, and given this spider's sort of knee-high, that might be a reasonable conversational height.

"Lots of things here scare me. The caves scare me. They're so dark and cold and different from my home."

What's your home like?

"It's very bright and airy. Lots of big windows to see outside. Not dark and close like these caves.

It's also quiet and empty and I'm not supposed to touch anything by myself."

"... Wasn't supposed to."

Touch the tree a bit. Touch, touch. Isn't that fun? Nobody worrying you'll knock something over and break it.

That sounds cool! But pretty scary, too. If it's wide open, how do you stay safe from big birds and big toads? Can you even see them coming in all that bright?

"I don't think there are any big birds or big toads on the surface. They sound terrifying and I never want to see one.

Maybe there were some before and the Empire's eradication program is good for something."

Eradication? What do they eradicate?

"Dragons. Beastmen. All kinds of monsters. Criminals. Badly behaved animals.

Disabled kids."

Oh.

Do you have a disabled friend? Are you worried about her?

"It's me, okay? I'm disabled. That's why they put me in this stupid cave."

Throwing rocks at the ground.

Oh, they put the disabled humans down here! That makes so much sense. That's why most of the humans we see don't talk!

You talk, though. Are you sure you're disabled? Maybe the other humans got confused.

"I'm half. I have two arms and two legs and two eyes and one body. Humans are supposed to have four and four and four and two."

Oh, and that's why you only have four limbs on each body! Your eight are split across two bodies. I'm learning so much!

"I don't think that's quite right."

(Somewhat later)