By Miriam
At the bottom of a rock lived a cave. the cave was large enough to swallow the dull grey rock whole, but chose not to, since it kept it so nicely sealed and hidden. so out of hunger, the cave ate itself, gnawing away at its walls and skin making itself bigger and bigger into a bloodless womb. eventually the womb felt that she'd grown enough, and felt lonely in her emptiness. the taut skin across her walls echoed in whispered sobs, and icy tears grew solid inside her. the rock door heard her cry, and one day offered to help. he offered to find her a seed to grow and shield inside her walls. the womb laughed and shook with joy, and her walls crumbled in anticipation.
So the rock rolled away across the dusty soil outside, and looked for a seed. he found a small smooth brown apple seed and tried to lift it on. it rolled around it and under it, but slipped and crushed it. saddened, he rolled away and tried to find some more. but he found none, and feeling afraid, he decided it was time to return to the cave. but as he rolled back a small silver clump stuck to his skin, and returned to the cave with him. when he came to the womb at last, the silver clump fell off onto the dust floor of the womb, and she cried overjoyed with thanks. confused but relieved, the rock sat back in his familiar home and slept, while the cave mother grew fatter with the silver seeds growing inside her.
One day one of
the seeds burst. out of the seed's skin crept a frail black thread. the thread
grew longer and thicker, and turned into a leg. the leg drew itself out of its
silvery skin, and hauled out its small black body behind it. the body uncurled
seven other legs around itself, and its glittering eyes flickered around the
womb's walls. they rested on the fat pile of silver beside it, and the legs
scattered across onto it to feed. the cave mother proudly watched her spider
daughter grow fat as she fed. her walls stood unnoticed in silent protection
around the spider as she she grew fat herself. one day the spider crept into
the furthest corner of her mother's womb, and secreted her own silver children.
The spider's children grew to be so many and her grandchildren grew to be so
many more, that she decided to christen herself their queen. so the children
and their children stumbled around the old cave mother's womb, to fulfil each
wish of their new queen. the queen grew large and glistening black, while her
sons and daughters turned grey from hunger.the cave mother looked down in sorrow
at her daughter, but her walls had started to crumble and she had become too
weak to help. she only whispered her tears to the sleeping rock outside, but
he was lost too deep in sleep for her weak cries to awaken. so the queen grew
fatter and more powerful, and feasted on the limbs of her dead princes and princesses.
One moment, for it could only be a moment because there was no day or night as there was no sun or moon, one of the smallest princesses crept too far into the crumbling dust of the cave womb, in search of food for her queen. she slipped into a pool of tears, and cried out in fear. she scratched the walls around her to save herself but the old dead womb walls only crumbled faster and the cave mother only wept bigger tears as she herself slipped nearer her death. but the spider princess clawed harder and harder around her, and hooked a foot into the rock wall behind. she pulled harder and harder, and as she pulled, the rockbehind trembled out of his sleep. he turned and saw the tiny princess struggle in the dusty tear pool, and drank the tears away from around her. dried and relieved, the princess climbed onto the rock, but slipped and fell out of the womb while the rock moved away back into his sleep.
Bewildered, she trembled across the sleeping rock skin, and felt a warm glow across her back. she saw herself shine in yellow, and the cracks of vivid black across her surface. her eyes glittered in the newfound sunlight. she stretched out each leg and gasped at the shimmering tiny hairs that waved across it.
The princess, proud of her new beauty, grew large and strong in the new land she'd found. at first she wondered alone, but then she found a prince to wonder with her, and grew large and strong with him. he took her home, and she became a queen. he took her home, and she grew fat with her own princesses. the days and nights passed, and the old queen vanished from the new queen's mind. she forgot the mother that had eaten her brother and sisters. instead her land grew rich and powerful, her spider children were admired and her king was strong and feared. her spiders were wealthy and happy, and carried the story of their rulers wherever they went.
The old queen, now weak and tired, still hid in the dying cave. her children and their chilren's children fed her with themselves as they had always done. but their home was growing weak, and her spiders were dying. the walls of the old dead womb were cracked and soil trickled in, then flooded in, drowning the smallest.
The queen grew afraid. she felt her weakness grow deeper into her. she saw her old mother dying around her, and her children dying too.with every moment, there were fewer and fewer for her to feed upon, and like her children, she started to grow dull and grey with hunger. she felt her powerlessness, as her small princesses and princes drowned in the food of the outside world.
But with the flood of soil, a foreign spider was washed in too. she had come from the land of the old queen's child, and she was beautiful like her queen. even in the stagnant darkness, her yellow shone out against the dullness around her.
The old queen found
this traveller spider, and looked at her greedily. her legs were long and thick
and strong, and the old dying queen could smell the strengh of the young blood.
but the foreigner was quick, and hid before the queen could take her.
Disappointed
and hungry, the old queen turned on her nearest child, and ate her weak body.
the foreigner crept hidden, and watched in horror. she truned and crawled out
as quick as she could, and found her way home, eager to tell her queen of the
terror she'd seen.
When the new queen and king had heard what the traveller had to say, the king laughed and mocked her. but the queen was caught in silence. she felt her memory whisper to her, and so she hid in her silver nest to listen to what it had to say.
One night she emerged from her silver nest, and crept to her king. he looked at her in shocked surprise, for the queen's beauty had almost faded away. her yellow had paled into a dull grey, and her legs trembled weakly. the queen collapsed before him, and told him of the horror of her memory's words. at first he shook in disbelief, but then he too started to fade away into a dullness as he accepted the truth of his queen.
Stories ran across the kingdom of the queen and king. the spiders grew afraid that their rulers were to die, and the stories grew thicker. one day the story ran back to the old traveller, and she understood. she took the story into her body and moulded it into a picture of the horror she'd seen, that had faded her queen and king in the first place. she sent the new story across the land, and the spiders grew angry as the picture passed through them. the fear for their queen and king grew strong into hate, and they moved across to the old queen's land, hungry to destroy her.
The old queen had
shrunk and shrivelled. the children had died, and she was alone with her dying
cave mother. the rock that guarded them had crumbled and died in his own sleep,
and she was afraid in her weakness. the cave mother was herself too weak to
protect her child, and instead crumbled in sorrow.
One night the cave mother saw the flood of glittering spiders approach her.
their yellow backs glittered in the starlight. at the front of the wave, the
queen and king led, glittering too, but in a sad pale vagueness. she felt their
anger pass through the air, and grew afraid.
The spider flood marched angry and strong towards the crumbling mother and her sshrunken daughter. they creeped out to them, and surrounded them, slowly moving in in suffocation.
At first the cave mother cried silently in fear. but as she collapsed faster and faster towards death, her fear had finally changed to hate for her daughter. in a final gasp she collapsed and revealed the cowering queen amongst the dust and corpses.
The spider flood quickly engulfed her, drowning her in their rich strong blood. it was too late for her to feed now, instead she collapsed and sunk in the sea of richness. her corpse sank into the soil, and she crumbled into the dust like her mother.