[A tale of karma.]

Once there were two best friends. Neither were related by blood, but everyone called them the Silk Sisters.

Their names were Athena and Arachne.

Both were the prettiest in their village, equally boasting supreme skills of weaving that put the oldest tailor to shame by the age of 13. Despite their clash of talents, they promised each other to always stick together, sisters by heart from cradle to grave. And so, when they were old enough, they decided to start their own business that quickly became well-known throughout the kingdom.

Everyday, their quaint little shop was a myriad of customers going in and out. Orders after orders flooded their schedules, but their profound love for weaving never once diminished.

Of course, life was never kind.

One day, they received a message from a dove that had the purest white of feathers they had ever seen. It was the acknowledgement of the King for their unrivalled gift, and an offer to make the robes the king would wear to the sacred ceremony to worship the Guardians who protected the peace of the kingdom since time immemorial. The reward will be to sew the vesture worn by the High Priests to meet the Guardians.

Although it was a position for only an individual, both sisters agreed to take on the task together, and would cross the bridge once they succeeded.

Little did they know, that very night, their dreams were encroached on by the demons of their heart, and they awoke with newfound selfishness and ambition.

They set off to collect the materials the next morning. The items required to spin the silk of the robe were all from the Mountain of Garganta, where they needed to find wood to carve the spindle wheel, wax from the leaves of a hundred-year-old-tree, silk itself from the caterpillars that lived in caves and webs from the spiders that ate those very caterpillars.

Their journey began fairly smooth. After a few days, they had managed to gather the wood and wax, but quickly met an obstacle when the cave that resided the caterpillars was above a steep surface, and the fissure that split the entrance and the path they travelled was a deep chasm, where the spiders, size of a palm, dwelled.

Athena proposed to leave the webs for the last, to which Arachne agreed without much reluctance. They began to weave a strong, sturdy net that served as the bridge to cross the chasm. The net was left as it was as they swiftly collected all the silk they needed. The time to collect the final material- the web- arrived quicker than they thought. With heavy hearts, they left the cave, both knowing what was it they had to do to achieve victory, but neither actually aware of the fact they both had the same thoughts.

What was left was the battle of cruel determination.

The net was used to keep their bodies above while they harvested the webs. From the bottom of the dark abyss echoed the hisses and slithers of spiders that made their skin crawl. A fall down there was inevitable death.

When they once again climbed up to safety, Arachne acted first. She scaled across the net to safe grounds, before unsheathing a knife and sliced the rope with one quick swipe.

But Athena was more cunning. When the net snapped and fell, she grabbed onto the silk that she had tied around Arachne's leg. She had wished to never use it, but in a spur of panic and anger at Arachne's unhesitating betrayal, she yanked.

Arachne slipped and tumbled down into the chasm, her enraged screeches reverberating throughout the mountain.

♧[23/5/2020]♧

I feel like i have a talent of turning awesome prompt ideas into really lame writing but well. (Neither is this reallt relating to the theme oof)

Yes i know i'm not proud of this either aksjdfhkspqeifu but please bear with me :") (8 more im-)

If you have ideas on this prompt (or any in general) feel free to leave em in the comments.

!Disclaimer: this is just my own made-up story just using Athena and Arachne as my characters and no other intentions.¡

:)