The Legend of Lookfar - KA Short

Once upon a time there was a spider named Lookfar, famed for her wonderful eyesight. Lookfar was very proud of her eyes, and very proud her children would grow up to have such powerful eyes, but she sometimes doubted her ability.

One fine summer day while Lookfar hunted, she didn’t catch a single bite of food. She started to worry she was losing her skill.

The next day, she only caught one old, sick fly.

It was then that Lookfar decided she was no longer such a great huntress.

As she pondered how she would feed herself, her distress drew close a daughter of the Silk Mother.

“Why do you fret, dear spider?” the daughter asked.

“I can’t hunt anymore, I’m sure my eyes are failing me,” Lookfar said, “How will I feed myself?”

“Fret not! You are in luck, for I have just woven a pair of eyes that will let you see extremely far,” the daughter said, “If you put them on, you will be able to see prey before it appears.”

“How will that work?” Lookfar asked.

“Try them on and see,” the daughter replied, “If my gift does not help you, then you may do with them what you wish.” She held out eight shimmering, silken eye caps and gave them to Lookfar, then disappeared.

Lookfar was skeptical, but placed the caps on her eyes anyway. Then, she went out to hunt.

To her shock, the caps did just what the daughter said they would. When she focused, she could see the future. She tried her power out on a fly first. She saw the fly land a second before it landed, and then leaped before it could even tell she was there.

Lookfar was overjoyed.

Each day, she tried out her abilities more and more. She caught flies, crickets, grasshoppers, and other spiders with ease, and for a while, she was quite happy with that.

But then, a week later, Lookfar decided she wasn’t quite satisfied yet. She wanted to see what else her new eyes could do. So, she began to concentrate harder. Soon, she found she could look further into the future than ever before.

Lookfar was really living up to her name now. She could see where birds would make their nests, where grasshoppers would lay their eggs, where rival spiders would try to ambush her. For a week, she gleefully peeked into the future.

And then, she grew dissatisfied again. Maybe, Lookfar thought, if I look even further ahead, I can make sure nothing bad ever happens to me.

And so, Lookfar set her gaze ahead and concentrated as hard as she could. She stared so hard and for so long the future began to reveal itself to her. But the longer she looked, the more unstable her vision became. She saw many futures at once, a million rival spiders resting in a million different potential nests, a thousand birds in the trees, and too many possible grasshopper eggs to count.

As poor Lookfar tried to make sense of what she was seeing, she was paralyzed in place, and a bird came and gobbled her up with one snap of its beak.