GLENDORA THE SPIDER MONSTER: A FOREST FABLE

Glendora was a spider monster who lived in a forest cave. Glendora was the only spider monster in the forest and that made Glendora very unhappy. She saw that all the other creatures in the forest had creatures like themselves to hang out with. Glendora felt alone and friendless. This made Glendora become jealous of the other animals that had friends and were happy.

Glendora was a spider over six feet tall and a lot of the forest creatures were intimidated by the large bulky spider. Glendora would always scowl at the other animals that approached her so it was soon common knowledge that Glendora wanted nothing to do with her fellow forest creatures.

One day Glendora decided to make the other animals in the forest feel some of her unhappiness. Glendora decided she would sneak up behind the smaller creatures and scare them. The first animals Glendora decided to scare were the chipmunks. Glendora quietly worked her way up behind a pair of chipmunks that were busily filling their cheeks with acorns. Just as Glendora came within a few feet of the chipmunks Glendora suddenly let out a fierce roar. The roar startled the little chipmunks so much that the acorns they were carrying in their cheeks popped out of their mouths.

Although the chipmunks had received quite a scare they did not stay frightened for long. Once they realized that the monster that had roared at them was Glendora the spider their fear turned to disgust. The chipmunks realized that spiders don’t eat chipmunks but live primarily on flies and other insects. “Glendora, why did you scare us like that?” The chipmunks asked angrily.

Glendora made no reply but just turned away from the chipmunks laughing heartily as she walked away. It seems that scaring the little chipmunks did make Glendora feel better. But, the good feeling Glendora had because of the fright she had given the chipmunks passed quickly. As Glendora walked along and realized that she was still alone. So then she felt just as bad as she did before she scared the chipmunks.

As Glendora walked through the forest she continued to feel bad but suddenly, Glendora spotted a pair of rabbits so she crept up on them and let out a great roar just a few feet from the little bunnies. The rabbits were surprised and jumped several feet in the air. Then, the rabbits saw that it was Glendora the spider monster that made the great roar and the bunnies were now much more angry than frightened. “Glendora, why did you roar and try to frighten us?” asked the rabbits.

Glendora felt really good once again and just turned away from the rabbits while laughing uncontrollably. It wasn’t long however, before Glendora started to feel bad again. This bad feeling lasted until Glendora came upon a pair of otters. Once again Glendora scared the small animals and laughed after scaring the creatures. Glendora decided to continue to scare the animals of the forest everyday that way she would at least feel good for a while. Glendora soon became a real pariah in the forest and no one wanted her around. All the animals disliked how she was always trying to scare them.

Glendora kept up her reign of scaring the forest animals for several months. But, one day Glendora woke up and felt very ill. It seemed that she had comve down with a terrible virus that made here very sick. Glendora was so sick she could not even leave her cave to catch flies to eat let alone go off through the forest scaring her animal neighbors.

After Glendora had been hold up in her caves for several days all the forest creatures that she had been harassing by sneaking up on them and roaring, began to wonder what had happened to her. After a while they became concerned that something had happened to Glendora and since Glendora was all alone maybe someone should go and check up on her. Finally, all the forest animals made their way to Glendora’s cave. Several of them brought along some flies and some fruit in case Glendora needed food and something to drink. None of the animals knew what they would find when they arrived at Glendora’s cave.

When the animals entered Glendora’s cave they found the once powerful spider monster down in bed. Glendora was very ill and had not been able to get food or anything to drink for several days. “What are you doing here?” Glendora asked.

“We haven’t seen you for days and we were concerned,” chirped a tiny chipmunk. “We thought we had better check on you to make sure that you’re all right.”

Glendora could not believe what she was hearing. “But I’m not one of you,” Glendora said. “I’m not like any of you.”

“But you are one of us,” said the little chipmunk. “You live in the forest with the rest of us. Your one of our neighbors. We are all like one big family that looks out for each other.”

Glendora suddenly felt a lot better. She realized that she had friends and neighbors and although she had been acting badly her friends and neighbors came to help her out. Glendora was not alone anymore. Soon, Glendora was over her illness and she became close friends with the other forest creatures. Glendora realized you didn’t have to associate with just those who look like you to have close friends. Friends can look very different and act very different than you.