“The queen will be wanting her dress for the ball soon, little spider. We are going to have to work fast to make this dress prefect,“ the little tailor said as his eyebrows pulled together in concentration. “It took forever for those silk worms to weave the cloth. I am quite surprised that the queen isn’t here now, wanting to know what is taking so long.”

The spider didn’t say anything to the little man; she just kept spinning her thread slowly. It would be so easy to bite him and wrap him up in her web for later, but he had rescued her from a bird, in the spring, and she couldn’t bring herself to repay his kindness that way. Though as a spider, what did she know of kindness?

The small man began to hum as he worked, weaving for himself a magical spell that seemed to slow down time and speed up his movements, until finally he was finished. Reaching up toward his head, he lifted the spider down sitting her back in her web in the corner. “Thank you for your help today. You make an amazing spindle.”

The spider lifted up her front leg in a gesture of welcome then returned to her hunt for more flies. After all, all that spinning made her hungry. If only the little man would go to sleep…