“There’s that silly Princess Slug,” the spider said.  “When will
    she learn that a slug can never be beautiful.”
            Princess Slug ignored the spider.  She continued to tuck one
    petal, one perfect blue forget-me-not petal, behind the soft moist
    skin of her cowl.  
            The spider hung above her, between the iris and the day lily.
    Princess Slug wished that the spider, who made such wonderful
    webs, had a kinder personality.       
            From the top of the forget-me-not, Princess could see the first
    pink lights of dawn in the sky.  She could also see all the slugs
    making trails across the paving stones.  When she reached a safe
    place she would wait and watch as the morning light lit up the trails
    and made them glisten.
            Then Princess had an idea.  She shivered with her idea and
    felt the  forget-me-not shake.  She slimed over its leaves and down
    to the paving stones.  She followed the slime trail of one of her
    friends.  She turned off the trail and turned again.   She looked
    back.  She had made a loop.  She made another and another.
            “What are you doing you wacky slug?” the spider shouted from
    his web.  “You’re going to fry in the sun!”
            Princess looked up.  The spider was right.  The sky was much
    lighter.  She slimed a path to the edge of the patio and waited under
    a nice cool mint.  She did not have long to wait.  The morning
    sunlight touched the spider’s web.  The drops of dew lit like tiny
    diamonds.  
            “Beautiful,” Princess told the spider.  
            “Of course it’s beautiful,” he said.  “I’m a spider.”
            Then the light touched the paving stones.  Princess heard the
    spider gasp.  “Beautiful,” he whispered.  
            “Thank you,” Princess replied.  She looked with pleasure at
    the patio.  She had used her friends’ trails as stems, and at the top
    of each she had slimed the petals of a flower.  Her slime flowers
    shimmered silver in the early morning light.
            “Even slugs,” she said to the spider.  "Even slugs can be
    beautiful.”

                                                    The End


Copyright (c) Lois Brandt. All Rights Reserved.


*Princess Slug first appeared in the Spring 2005 issue of Sparkle Magazine.

Illustration by Kimberly Erickson.  Please click here to check out Kimberly's
web page and some wonderful examples of her artwork.  This illustration
shown by permission.  
Princess Slug*

by Lois Brandt