(Page 1 of 2) Spiders Learn Physics by Steve Jones -B5SUMMARY: Another entry in the vs flash fiction contest. "Santo Galusha," The council sat glaring at him as an unseen voice read their decision. "You are guilty of teaching the forbidden art of natural science to the children of this and other villages. By law you are subject to banishment. Santo Galusha, do you have any final words?"
The teacher gulped, but spoke up.
"Physics," he said.
"Excuse me?" Daqualis, the head of the council, asked.
"I taught them Physics," Santo said. "Math, Engineering. Things they might need when ... "
The council had Santo's voice vexed for the remainder of the proceedings. There would be no discussion about how natural science might be replacing the magical arts. It was by decree a non-subject.
Because Daqualis was in charge, banishment was not simply being taken out town and told to leave. First the prisoner was transformed into some sort of creature. Daqualis expertly transformed Santo into a spider. Then she made a show of sweeping him down the street with a broom.
The council had resolved the problem away, everything returned to normal. After a few weeks no one gave it a second thought.
Daqualis walked into her house, feeling the slight tug of a spider's web at the doorframe. She brushed it out of her hair with her fingers. Why the spiders thought her door was a good place to trap insects she would never know. They also seemed intent on building webs around the lanterns on her walls. The groundsman would have to learn insecticide spells.
Of course there were more important things to consider. One of the cows belonging to Pepika Sherone had gone insane. After running and jumping around its pen for a midmorning, it died. Its body covered with little red welts. No one seemed to be able to divine what sort of curse had killed it, much less who had sent it. Pepika was quite concerned.
There was a stinging in her leg. Daqualis brushed her hand across it absentmindedly. As she continued to write she found blood on her fingertip. Down on her leg was a small gash, like she had cut herself with a fingernail.
"Strange," She said.
There was a stinging sensation on her lower lip. She brushed her hand over it, feeling a small bump.
Daqualis looked around, then produced a glowing red crystal and pronounced a counter curse. Someone might be trying to test her reputation for having the strongest counter curses in the county, she reasoned. They would find how adequate she was when the next curse turned itself back on them tenfold.
When she returned to her writing there was a small black spider on the page. She smashed it without thinking, then realized she would have to start over with a fresh sheet of parchment. As she moved aside the ruined sheet, she stopped, and looked closer.
Daqualis avoided using her magnifying lense to read, but no one was about. She took it out of the drawer and looked at the ruined spider body on the page. Her eyes opened wider and she gasped. Beside the dead spider was the most exquisite little recurve bow, and a little quiver full of tiny little arrows.
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