The Spider and the Butterfly

Chapter Eighteen

Two of those tales frightened Daisy the most. One was about a greedy old spider that pretended to run a hotel for flies, and he would have continued this reign of terror over the bugs if it hadn't been for the bravery of a fly couple. The another tale involved a spider and a fly. It was that age old story every bug knew at heart, but common knowledge of the tale didn't make it any less terrifying and sad.

Fang always comforted Daisy, though. When he saw how freaked out she got over some of the stories, he stopped and whispered promises of protection to her. "I'd never let anything like that happen to you," he'd say. "You're my best friend, my life, my everything. I'll never let hurt come to you. I swear it, Daisy."

The other stories weren't nearly as harrowing as those two tales were, but most of them involved spiders kidnapping insect women. "Figures, huh?" Fang commented. "Spiders are always bad guys in these stories."

"Well, you're not a bad guy..." Daisy replied.

Fang grinned. "I found a reason not to be."

The spider went on to say that many of these stories were either pieces of history in Ridpath, or tales that the bugs had heard from other parts of the world. How accurate each of these stories were remained to be seen, but one thing was for sure: the villains were either weavers or wolf spiders. And there was always a girl that got in trouble that everyone in the town had to save.

"I'm glad it didn't go that way with us," Fang said. "You melted my heart, I guess."

The butterfly answered, "And you won mine." They kissed even more. "Did Mayor Phillip tell you all of this?"

The spider nodded. "Indeed he did. Or rather, he showed me. Not only were there books in his possession about these stories, but there were projector reels with footage and everything. In fact, he gave me some...if you're interested."

Daisy genuinely was, and so, they sat down and watched a few. One thing Daisy did notice right off the bat was that these spiders didn't have the same countenance Fang had. In Fang's eyes, she could see wisdom, sadness, and a placid, gentle look. In the others, even other wolf spiders, there was a kind of half-crazed, depraved, and desperate look to them.

Come to think of it, even in his aggressive state, Fang never had a look quite like the spiders in the reels. She wasn't just thinking these thoughts because she loved him; it was true. Fang was just a really smart, really laid-back wolf spider. One that didn't mess around or enjoy terrorizing things. When he hunted, he singled out individual bugs that were typically loners and made their deaths a swift and painless one.

As big and intimidating as he was, Fang made his living and kept to himself, while the other spiders seemed to go out of their way just to brutally attack insects. He had a choice to be this way, and he stuck to it. Daisy respected him even more for this. She was even happier over the fact that Fang kept his promise about not eating any of her friends. Since they first met, she had already pulled his heartstrings.