As ofttimes would have it, I'm presented with a picture prompt that I have to scratch my head for an idea to make a story of it. Animals and nature are ripe for conflict. I came up for the idea when I thought back on a time when I was out 4-wheeling and came across a hoard of Ladybugs much like I depict the ticks in this story. Ladybugs are cute and colorful but when found in the forest in numbers like I have in this story is a bit disconcerting. I wasn't afraid, yet, I felt a high degree of uneasiness.
Another component of this story is the teapot. To incorporate that I had to elevate the spider's intelligence with a tad bit of personification. It gives the story a slight fantasy feel to it, or maybe a lot. You'll note there is no dialogue as we know it because that isn't the way spiders communicate.
Rose Tursi at www.tursiart.com
Another component of this story is the teapot. To incorporate that I had to elevate the spider's intelligence with a tad bit of personification. It gives the story a slight fantasy feel to it, or maybe a lot. You'll note there is no dialogue as we know it because that isn't the way spiders communicate.
Rose Tursi at www.tursiart.com
SANDRA THE VANGUARD
Martha saw them
first. A massive swarm of ticks moving along
the forest bed like lava, slow and invasive.
The ticks moved up the sides of trees, covering boulders, turning bushes
black with their bodies. They were smart
also, swarming over a downed log to cross a creek. Martha estimated their
numbers to be that of a large deer, thousands, tens of thousands of the ticks.
The little black
dots were terrifying and yet succulent looking. Martha swung on her thread and
scampered over the bushes and trees until she reached the Great Tree, the home of
her and her kind. Sandra had to be told.
If left undealt with the ticks would consume them all.
#
Sandra was
found in the center of her high web. She
had a favorite spot to catch fliers.
Fliers were her favorite meal. As the leader of Great Tree, no one
impinged upon her place.
Martha
reached the bottom of Sandra’s web and strummed a pair of silken threads. Sandra whirled around at the first vibration
and fixed her eyes on Martha. Their language
was in vibrations and imperviable tones.
Sandra
understood the gravity and opportunity at the same time. She instructed Martha
to string a thread through all the webs around Great Tree and find her at the
base where the mesquite nearly touched. Sandra would take the end of Martha’s thread
there.
By the time
Martha had finished her task, it was dark. All the spiders had retired for the
night, but she did as she was told and found Sandra weaving a massive web at
the base of Great Tree.
Sandra tied
off the end of the thread and asked Martha to help complete the work of the web
and retire for the night. Sandra would
transmit instructions in the morning to all their kind.
As the
first rays of light rose in the East, spiders were taking their places in their
webs. Sandra waited until they had all settled in and played her message on the
strand of silken thread that touched all the webs.
#
Martha had gone to check on the
progress of the ticks. They were
close. In an hour, they would be at Great
Tree. A sense of impending doom washed
over her as she scurried back to report to Sandra.
Sandra didn’t appear to be the least
bit perplexed over the invasion coming.
She instructed Martha to fix a pot of tea and bring it to her as she
dangled near the bottom of her web that fully encompassed Great Tree.
The swarm
of ticks approached. A fat bulging tick
lead the horde. He leaped from a bush
and landed on the web below Sandra.
Would you
care for some tea? Sandra strummed.
The tick
bared his fishhook like barbs in his hypostome.
From Martha’s
assigned place, her heart nearly stopped at the site of the tick’s show of ferocity
and the horde behind him lining up to leap upon Sandra. Martha could practically feel the chelicerae
cutting into her flesh, the barbs hooking on, and the life essence being sucked
from her body. Only her trust in Sandra
kept her from fleeing.
Sandra took
a sip of her tea. Very well, bring it
on! She plucked a tune on her web and
scurried to the top of it.
Martha
waited as instructed until the ticks had saturated the web all around Great Tree. The base of the tree was a black writhing
mess as the ticks tangled up in the webbing.
Stuck to
the sticky strand, the fat tick was buried in the horde. Too bad, Sandra had her heart set on that
one. But the nearest would do.
Sandra
struck with lightning speed. Injecting the nearest tick to approach her with
her venom. It instantly paralyzed. Martha and the rest of the spiders took the
cue and dropped from the limbs above onto the ticks rendering them immobile one
after another.
The ticks
were frustrated with spiders all over their backsides, and although they
outnumbered the spiders three to one the ticks quickly succumbed to the spider’s poison. Not a spider was lost to the hoard.
After wrapping the hideous little tick
creatures in sticky silk, the spiders carried them off and deposited them in
their webs surrounding Great Tree.
Sandra
called for a holiday. Tonight, they
would all drink tea and feast together.
Creepy crawlies do lend themselves well to military fiction, don't they? I love the bit about the leader of the tree offering the enemy tea before killing them all. Very civilized of her.
ReplyDeleteNice use of the point of view!
ReplyDelete