Robert Bruce & the Spider

Robert Bruce & the Spider

- Story Writing

It was just past noon in a deep forest on the Scottish border. It was pitch dark all around. Somewhere on the back, a ferocious hyena growled coarsely. Crushing the dry stalks a mysterious animal ran to the forest. There was a vexed noise of beetle worm. Moreover, there was no sound anywhere else. There was no sign of a man in ten or twelve miles. All around was just a huge forest and pitch black darkness. All around the forest prevailed trembling fear of death at every moment.

In this desolate and terrible forest, a middle-aged man lied alone in the deepest darkness of a small cave to a nearby hill. The man seemed to a soldier with his apparels. The soldier’s clothes have been torn in the several parts. There are thousands of holes in his armor. There are signs of numerous injuries on his hands, feet and face. There is blood dripping from their corners. There is still a thin stream of blood flowing down the corner. The man named Robert Bruce was exhausted from the constant bleeding. He was lying on the damp floor with his head resting on his left arm and his eyes closed. His chest is bursting with impossible thirst. But the hope of water in a completely empty human space is nothing but misery. So without looking for water, he lied down and quietly waited for death.

One by one he started to think about the glorious 18 years of his past life. King Edward II of England conspired to overthrow him. Then day after day, year after year, he has gathered troops by roaming the forest. Then with a lot of hope and enthusiasm he ran to the state to regain his state honor, but every time he failed miserably. The villagers, the peasants, had kindly sent him food. That was why he had saved his life by eating. He had no news of his family. Where were his wife and son? – He knew nothing about it. Tears welled up in his eyes whenever he thought of the youngest girl child. He had been leaving her with his relatives since she was born. They might have fled to another state to escape the humiliation. “God knows if we will ever meet again in life!” he pondered over it with a heavy heart.

Thinking about the past, he fell asleep with unbearable hunger and fatigue. Suddenly one day he woke up with a sharp sting of a wild ant and by that time he was surrounded by thousands of ants. He was being bitten indiscriminately. But his body did not have the strength to repel the ants. Tears came to his eyes in intense pain. After all this time, he thought, there was no point in living like this. In this way, it was better to die than to run away to the forest and endure inhuman suffering. When he had not been able to do so, it would not be possible for him to regain the throne of Scotland in that life. But by surrendering to the enemy, he was not willing to live in the opinion of a coward by silently digesting the intense ridicule, humiliation and insult of the countrymen. Therefore, suicide was the only way for him to get rid of all the pain.

Robert Bruce & the Spider - Story Writing

Robert Bruce was thinking deeply and looking absentmindedly at the cave wall. Meanwhile, with the broken cracks in the wall of the cave, the dim light of the parting day came into the cave. In that dim light, Robert Bruce saw a spider trying to make a web on the wall. The spider was repeatedly failing to weave webs on the slippery stone walls of the cave. After making quite a bit of the web, then all of a sudden it hanged all together. The spider did not stop at all and starts again. Trying to do the same again and again, it did not give up any expectation. Its arduous work started again with a new initiative, there was no break, and there was no deception in its work.

Robert Bruce stared intently. When inattentive, hunger, thirst and wound irritation decreased at least somewhat, he stretched his weary gaze as far as he could to see the spider's web. The whole afternoon passed. The spider had failed at least a hundred times, but had not given up. Seeing its perseverance, he got a smile even with so much sorrow. He thought that in my opinion the poor spider was running after false hopes, he was a little sad to understand.

He fell asleep in a daze; it was evening when he woke up. A huge moon had risen in the sky of the forest. A handful of moon lights have fallen through the narrow cracks in the cave wall. In the corner, Robert Bruce saw a huge spider's web attached to the wall of the cave and in the middle of it sat silently the tiny spider.

“Strange! A very small worm, almost cannot be seen, how much force of mind it has. How many times throughout the day it failed, but it didn’t give up any expectation! In the end, the web was weaved completely. How happy it is now, how satisfied!” muttered Bruce.

“No, if I have to die, I will die on the battlefield. In this way, according to the coward, I will not die hiding in the corner of the dark cave.” he determined firmly. With the rest of his energy, Robert Bruce rose gradually. The he said to himself, “You have to win, don't lose to a tiny spider. When the tiny insect can, you will be able to continue trying also, defying failure and despair - until you regain your kingdom.” If necessary, thus, he had to continue to fight unto the death. The next day Robert Bruce came out of the cave early in the morning, remembering his new energy, new strength in his body. Slowly but firmly Bruce moved forward to the forest. He determined, “we have to live for future, we have to gather troops, we have to fight.”

Finally, Robert Bruce the Great won that battle. Hence, he did not forget the real teaching given by that tiny spider for a single day in his whole life.

Moral: Constant attempts lead a person to the pinnacle of success.

*****

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