Story 2 - Zide the spider sees the world

Zide was a tiny spider that lived in the corner of the garden. He was a very shy spider; and he had never been out of his home. He lived little hole in the soil and made a trapdoor on it with silk. This door would cover his home and even help him trap little insects. Zide is was we humans call a ‘trap-door’ spider.

One day a little fly came to look into Zide’s home. It was caught on the trap door and whoosh the little spider grabbed the fly, read to bite it with its fangs. The fly was smart, he said, “Hey Zide if you let me go I’ll tell you about the world!’

Now Zide had never seen anything more than his house before, so he had no idea how big the world was. He always thought that the world ended just a little bit away from home. He was curious, so he asked the fly about the world. “Tell me,” he said, “What’s there in the world?” Now, the fly as I have said, was clever, and so he said, “I’ll tell you about the world if you promise not to kill me!” Zide promised the fly that he would be safe.

The fly told him about the little garden that Zide lived in. As the little spider had never gone away from his home, he had no idea about it. It all sounded rather interesting.

The fly told him about the flowers, the bees, and the lawnmower that was noisy and seemed like a huge beast. He told him about rats, dangerous frogs, the fort ant’s nest and stones and the rain that fell all over. Zide has always thought that the water from the sky fell only in his little burrow, it all seemed very new to him. Finally, after a long chat the fly went away leaving Zide in deep thought. “There is so much to see around,” he thought. He imagined the flowers all around, the frogs and dragonflies; the pond and the rain that fell all over.

Zide wanted to see the world. “What is life without a little adventure!” he thought.
Then one day he made up his mind, “I’ll go see the world.” So, the next morning he caught himself some bugs to have a very heavy breakfast and set out to see the world. Our tiny hero walked out of his burrow onto the earth and was taken aback by what he saw. The garden was huge, magnificent and colorful, with many creatures around. “Hello world,” he yelled, “I’m coming to see you.”

Quickly he ran across on his eight tiny legs, when he suddenly saw a big green thing, with dark green patches. This thing was jumping all over, and it had long tongue coming in and out of its mouth. The spider got onto a log of wood and cried in its tiny voice, “Hi, who are you?” The green giant was taken aback to see the spider, “I’m the big bullfrog. What’s a tiny spider like you doing out here?” he asked. The spider said, “I’m out to see the world!” The bullfrog laughed loudly, “Oh you’ll get eaten up. Go back to the web you came from!”

Zide the spider was offended, “Humph!” he said, “I am not like other trap-door spiders, happy to sit in my burrow! I want to see the world!” The bullfrog just laughed and let Zide go.

So he moved ahead, he found a pretty little ladybird sitting under the flowers. Zide and the ladybird were friends. Long long ago he had tried to eat her. But the ladybird told him a funny story, so he had let her go. Today she was most surprised to Zide so far away from home, “What are doing here, Zide?” she asked, “You never leave you burrow!” Zide told her about the fly, who had tempted him to see the big world, the garden.
The ladybird was very kind. She wanted to throw Zide a party. She called all the insects and the arachnids to the party. Only the scorpions were left out, as all the insects and spiders were scared of those. (Now arachnids, I must tell you are eight legged creatures like spiders. They are proud to be different from insects)

The ladybird made Zide promise that he would not eat any of the insects here. Zide was too happy to have a party, so he promised the ladybird every single insect would be safe with him. You should have seen the bugs and insects in the party. How they danced, even Zide flung his eight legs around and danced. He had so much fun.

A little scorpion heard all the noise. He came and watched for a while, and then he saw Zide. “Mmm,” he thought, “A nice fat spider, he’ll make a good meal!” The scorpion called out to Zide, “Hey what are you doing here?” Zide was so happy dancing that he forgot his fear of scorpions.
“I’m out to see the world,” he shouted back.
The scorpion said, “Come with me I’ll show you the world.” The scorpion and Zide the trap-door spider ran on, both had eight feet, so they were quick.

They stopped at the edge of the garden and Zide for the first time in his life saw the fence and the world beyond. It looked strange to him. There were huge vehicles, which he thought were giant bug rushing all over. He was quite scared. If you were a little spider, you too would get scared.

The scorpion thought to himself, "Hee, hee! Now I can eat him!” and so he raised his shard pincers towards Zide. Seeing these our hero said, “Oops gotta run!” and off he was like a shot! The scorpion followed him shouting, “I’ll catch you!”

At last finding his way, Zide ran as fast as he could, the bugs and insects saw him run, “Go Zide go!’ they yelled. The ladybird shouted, “Run kiddo, run!” The bullfrog yelled, “Go back to your burrow fast!

Zide ran and ran. The scorpion was fast. At last Zide’s saw the safety of his house. He rushed in quickly and spun a stronger door, stuck with mud and shut himself in. The scorpion tried his best to get in, but Zide was safe! Finally, he gave up and went away. Zide, sighed with relief.

“That was an adventure!” he said, before he tucked him self to sleep that night. His dreams were about the big-huge world he had seen. Sweet Dreams Zide, the trap-door spider!