Eyes, Harper whispers and gapes. 

. 

        Brilliant observation,  

        as always, 

the cynical Arachnid states.  

. 

But... but... where, what...  

. 

        I think it is time you  

        met your audience. 

. 

Harper moves forward as if sleepwalking. 

The comets obliging follow 

tag-along, balloon-like. 

By their light she surveys 

the multitudinous assembly. 

The eyes  

        belong 

to centipede and snail 

to spider and snake 

to cat and mouse and bird and frog, 

to wild dog and tame  

and every indigenous 

and introduced species you could name 

but there are more besides. 

Bunyip* and Binbeal* and Wambeen* 

Nargun* and Tiddalik* 

and Bunjil* and all his mob 

and the old Old Ones too 

the dark protectors and the initiators 

and all those of the Dreamtime 

still dreaming, still here 

and all those that came before 

and the ghosts, apparitions and emanations, 

those that were brought and those 

that originated  

here. 

        All 

stand silent, expectant.

What are they waiting for? Harper queries.

        For you, child. Imbecile,  

she mutters under her breath.  

Rolls all eight eyes and pushes Harper forward. 

        Now, play.

I c-can't, Harper stutters.  

The Arachnid rudely raspberries, impatiently shuffles.

I mean 

not like this. 

Harper continues 

and she gestures at projecting strings, dismayed.

And before you interrupt - 

rudely, she stresses, 

I know that I asked for a harp 

but not one that - and she gestures suggestive - 

streams out of my chest.

        Humans are so pernickety, 

the inhuman interloper interposes, 

        so sticky-fingered finicky. 

. 

I WILL play, Harper affirms, testy 

but first  

I wish to try something.

        Humans,  

the uncannily inaccurate generaliser retorts, 

        will insatiably experiment - 

        usually to their detriment. 

. 

Hmmph, Harper snorts. 

Nevertheless...

She then proceeds to gingerly reel in 

one of the heart-strung-comets. 

She raises the light-sound-c/hord 

t        to lips 

then begins to incisor-bite. 

. 

        What are you...  

The Arachnid begins, then gasps. 

        Stop that, this instant!  

        Stop it, at once! 

. 

But Harper does not. 

She begins to tear, to sunder the umbilical-

                                            Mother-cat-like.

.

*Binbeal, Kulin rainbow deity and son of Bunjil 

*Bunjil, Kulin creator deity and ancestral being, represented as an eagle 

*Bunyip, mythical creature said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds, and waterholes 

*Nargun, fierce half-human, half-stone female creature of Gunai legend 

*Tiddalik, frog of southeast Australian legend who drank all the water in the land, and had to be made to laugh to regurgitate it 

*Wambeen, evil lightning-hurling figure who targets travellers