The Spider Tunnels
Many moons ago in the early days of the land Nightmist there lived a simple village girl named Elshira. Elshira wasn’t the hardest worker and always had her head stuck in the clouds. She loved spending most of her time in the darker parts of the forest near her village, observing the wildlife. She had a particular affinity for the insect world and especially (see if you can guess) spiders. She was fascinated by the eight legged little creatures and would watch them all the time. She often captured them and brought them home as pets. Her parents were a little worried, but they didn’t take too much notice of it.
When Elshira grew older she made friends with a rather reclusive member of the village that nobody really knew much about. Some days she had caught glimpses of him in the forest and tried to follow him but ended up losing him. One day she finally came across what the man in the forest and saw what he was doing. He had his hands raised up high in the air and they were glowing with light. He brought them down and a hole appeared in the air which he stepped through and disappeared. Elshira stood fixed to the ground, staring in disbelief. He had been doing magic.
Elshira was fascinated also by the concept of magic and made her mind up that she would get the old man to teach her. She managed to get the man to let her into his house and there she coerced him to teach her his arts. Her parents grew more worried at their daughter’s new friendship but there seemed to be no harm so they let it continue until one night they discovered something. A year or so later her father was walking outside their hut when he noticed a faint red glow from behind it. He slowly crept up and looked around the corner to see his daughter huddled over a spider which was rapidly growing bigger and bigger. He shook his head in disbelief and snuck away back inside. A meeting of the village council was held and a decision was made. Elshira was to be executed for witchcraft. The old man was present at the meeting and ran to warn Elshira before the villagers could capture her to take her to her death. Elshira grabbed up all she could and ran. The villagers managed to spot her fleeing the village and took chase. As Elshira ran through the meadow close to her village she noticed a small crack in the ground. She took a deep breath and dived in. Moments later she heard the feet of the villagers thunder past.
She mumbled a word and her hand lit up with a dim light. She looked around at her surroundings to see she was in a great network of tunnels. She noticed a trail of spiders leading off deeper into the tunnels so she followed. They came to a great room full of spider nests and crawling with the little arachnids. She spent many days in that cavern, hatred slowly welling up inside her as she planned her vengeance. Yes, she thought to herself. This would do very nicely to take her revenge out on those who had wronged her. She had learned much from her friend the hermit, great things. They would all regret the day they wronged Elshira, Queen of the Spiders.
The end?
Thank you, David of Draco
Edited by The Unholy Newt, 10 February 2005 - 12:25 AM.
