Raven Tales

Episode 1

Spiders and Dreams

Winadzi is having nightmares. He doesn't want to sleep at night and Abas is worried. She asks Raven for advice and Raven tells her she will find help in the most unlikely place. The next morning Abas sees a spider quietly spinning his web in his own space near Winadzi's bed. She starts to wipe away the web then stops. The spider gives her a little nod then continues. Each day, Abas watches the spider at work, quietly spinning away. One day as she is watching him, Widi comes in. He gets ready to smash the spider but Abas stops him. Widi is puzzled, but Abas tells him to wait, she wants to see the spider finish. When Widi leaves, the spider thanks Abas for saving her life. It says to her, "For many days you have watched me spin and weave my web. You have admired my work. In return for saving my life, I will give you a gift." She smiles her special spider smile and moves away, spinning as she goes. Soon, the moon glistens on a magical silvery web moving gently in the breeze. "See how I spin?" she says. "See and learn, for each web will snare bad dreams. Only good dreams will go through the small hole. This is my gift to you. Use it so that only good dreams will be remembered. The bad dreams will become hopelessly entangled in the web." Abas starts creating her own web the next day out of leather twine and hangs it over Winadzi's bed. That night he sleeps without a nightmare, and they decide to call their new gift a Dream Catcher.