Short Stories by Me

Spider Queen

Somewhere else, some other time, there goes a marvelous chase.

On a large spider web, zooming through the air at the speed of a rushing river, crouches a woman. Her dark hair darted behind her in the wind, and under it you could see a birthmark on her neck in the shape of a maple leaf. Her long, royal gown was so soft and light, it looked as though it was made of black silk of a spider's web. Her crown was missing a jewel in the middle, and in its place nestled a spider. The web that the woman stood on was breathing heavily, and wouldn't turn to look behind her for her life. She was the Spider Queen, known as Queen Donna to her few friends.

Now, the Queen may have the title, but she doesn't have a kingdom. She is a queen of her own castle, filled with her subjects. The most important detail that you have to know about the Queen is that she is more commonly known as a witch than a queen. Yet she was not a witch, but a fairy. She could perform magic, but that was not a witch.

Witches don't exist. Obviously.

What kind of a fairy? Well, if you didn't observe, she certainly isn't a bright and happy unicorns and flowers fairy. No, she is the queen of the arachnids. Spiders especially bow to her will, but if she tried hard enough, the scorpions would listen too. Due to her grim area of specialty, not many of the other fairy liked her very much. Yes, they knew of her. Yes, they let her come to fairy meetings. But outside of that, they barely talked to the Queen at all.

The neighboring village hunted her down any time she left her castle, and this was one of those times.

The thing, or things, chasing her were going just barely faster than the Queen. They rode lightning fast on their horses, racing through the woods and jumping over roots and bushed without trouble.

"We've almost got her!" Cried one of the men to the other. "The witch is within reach!"

And yes, the Spider Queen was now very close in front of the witch-hunters. One of them aimed their crossbow, and Donna knew it was over.

Taking the spider out of her crown, she whispered something so quiet that even I do not know what secret the spider and the queen share. But the spider must have understood. He jumped, taking a blur of black with him. What was that?

The Queen didn't see where the spider landed when the crossbow was fired, and Donna felt something pierce her heart.

Lean in closely and let me tell you a secret. Fairies don't die. You can beat them to a pulp, or burn them to a crisp, or shoot an arrow through their heart. But a fairy will not fall dead. Yes, their body will be no more, but the soul relocates and re-creates a new body, a new memory, a new life. No, these new lives are not the same at all. They might look remotely similar to their past bodies, but they will not be a fairy anymore. Who knows? Maybe you were a fairy once, you just don't remember.

Now, Queen Donna's soul was being relocated at that moment. Off in the woods, some other area, a woman now lay on the ground. She wears regular peasant clothes, and her dark hair is up in a tight bun, exposing the maple-leaf birthmark on the back of her neck.

Sitting up, she looked very confused. Why wasn't she in her flower shop, back at town? Wait a minute- flower shop? What had made her make that decision?

If you couldn't tell, the woman was Donna, but now she was no longer a fairy. Just barely, she could see some men in the distance. Two of them, both on horses. Between them they held what looked like, horrifically, a body.

"Oh my!" Donna gasped, rushing up to the men. "What happened here?"

One of the men thrust out his chest. "Why, we only saved the entire village, madam. This here is a deceased witch."