Prompt: A fable
Once there were three spiders that lived in a tree. Of all the hundreds of their siblings, only these three brothers we left.
Together, they spun a beautiful web. It was very strong, so that even the largest flies would not break strands when they were caught. It was very wide as well, stretching between the two largest branches in the whole tree. And it was also very beautiful. The web was silvery in the light in the afternoon, beaded with dew like diamonds in the morning and evening, and at night it was totally invisible.
The three spiders were very happy.
The three spiders were crouched in the center of their web, pleased that they had not been eaten by their mother and proud of the web that they had built. As one they felt a tremor in their web. Something was caught and thrashing around attempting to escape.
“Our first catch!” Said one of the brothers happily.
“Which one of us shall eat it?” Said the second brother.
The third brother looked at the other spiders. He pointed one of his long legs at his youngest brother. “You are the smallest of us. You should eat the fly.”
The other two spiders agreed. The third brother was the largest of them all. The first brother thanked him profusely and scuttled along the web towards the vibrations. In time they quieted and the spider returned, well-fed and happy.
Before long, the spiders felt another insect land in the web. Its struggles shook the web mightily. “It must be a very large fly!” exclaimed the youngest.
“Or maybe even a bee!” said the second brother. “Which one of us shall eat it?”
Again, the third brother looked at his last siblings. “I am still the largest spider in the web.” He pointed his leg at his middle brother. “You should eat this catch; you are very small.”
“You are right! Thank you, brother!” The second brother clamored over the web to eat the juicy meal. The younger brother remained with his eldest sibling, beaming at him. He was very proud of his older brother who was very generous and kind.
When the middle brother returned to the center of the web, the oldest was cleaning his mandibles. Wound in the center was an eight-legged husk.
“What happened to our brother?” The second spider asked.
“I could not eat him when he was so small. It would hardly be worth it.” The largest spider said. “Tell me, brother, was the catch very juicy? You look much bigger..."
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4 comments:
And the moral of the story is:
Sometimes generosity is a guise for the desire to fuck you over.
Nice!
Loved it. It was almost sickly sweet until the end. :)
"When the middle brother returned to the center of the web, the oldest was cleaning his mandibles. Wound in the center was an eight-legged husk."
Would a spider wrapped in webbing really appear to have eight legs?
The second paragraph is right out of a fairy tale book. It was exciting to read because it put me back in my Brother's Grim childhood days. Also exciting because spiders other than Ananse are usually not main characters in fables.
I didn't have a clear moral in mind when I wrote this except maybe "I'm glad I'm not a spider." Though I think you could draw a couple of different lessons from this. Don't know how or why spiders came to me, but I thought it was neat and it made a nice little story, I think.
I liked the amoral fable. It felt like something someone would tell in a novel to say "a tiger can't change its stripes."
I made my corrections in the first draft ;)
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