The Spider And The Web

A Story by Phi Coulthard

My Take on the Rob the Bruce and the spider legend of Scottish origin

War is a terrible thing to behold. The taking of life in the name of your country is still murder even if you get to free the people you love from tyrants and crazy men. I’ve been in many battles and spilt much blood for my country. Despite the amount of lives I’ve finished over my year I can still remember every face like ghost who haunt my dreams. The ghosts that plague my waking hours. We don’t want to be in war and we don’t want to end lives but it’s what I had to do.

I’ve become a weary man with the things I’ve seen, some may say a hollow man. I’m the man who is worn out. I was the hero that never wanted to go to war but I had the honour thrown on by my family, my friends and the people that I call my own. I am the man who was born an innocent child and thrown in to the fires of the battle and was self taught to defend myself.

One battle saw my kind loose in a blaze of glory, a blaze of disappointment. We fought for days as the sun raised and the sun set. Friends and enemies died but there was no need for tears and no need for love. We were the people who had to do the job who had to save the kingdom, save my people. There was no choice there was only honour and there was the valiant triumph that never came.

With defeat came humiliation so I hid from the world. I was going to be a hated man if I walked through the streets of my home land. I know that it was the cowards way out but it was the only thing that I could do, the only thing I could think of doing.

I walked for days across field avoiding the villages, never making eye contact with people as they walked past me. I could never make eye contact with them, The shame of what had happened to me bared down on my soul like a stone that dragged people down under the surface of the a river. A punishment that was fitting for me.

At the end of the walk I reached my warmth of my mother’s arms. Not the real life arms of my mother but a cave. A place that me and her spent time in days I was innocent playing games like children always do. It seemed like the perfect place to hide from the worries that I had created in the world.

I spent days in the cave. I saw the edge of sun light and the puddles made from heavy rain falls. As I spent time in my self inflicted banishment I prayed for the world to forget my name, to forget the person who legends had been based on.

When time seemed dark and the pain didn’t leave I saw a spider in the corner of the entrance of the my prison. He seemed so determined to complete his task of creating a web for him to live in. I couldn’t have him success so I walked over and destroyed his work but the spider started again.

I watched the spider do a type of dance for many days. I tried to build his home but failed so he tried again and failed. This small creature intrigued me. His effort was something to be admired. I was nothing compared to this small creature I had observed for many days.

When he had finished I felt proud for my little friend who lived in the entrance of my home. I knew what I had to do, I knew what the spider had taught me. I needed to carry on and make myself a strong again.

I left the cave and walked back to the battle lands where I had fought my enemy for4 many years. I rallied my troops in every village I passed and recruited new soldiers from the weak and the needy making them strong like the spider I had watched.

My rally cry can still be heard through out history ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again