Tijghspind

The Tijghspind is a spider, that lives in Fanigawi, it is there known as L’yirakon. In Ildritz it is a rather popular pet among the daring: the Tijghspind has a poison that is said to be deadly, especially in combination with the consumption of alcohol.

The eight-legged creature has a head, a chest, a body and a long tail. From head to tail it can be as long as a handspan. The legs are attached to the chest. The upper side of the chest contains small wings, but the Tijghspind can’t fly. Scientists suggest that the Tijghspind could have flown in either another time (when the wings were supposed to be much larger) or on another world (where the earth doesn’t pull the objects to the surface). The wings are used in the mating procedure.
The head has four pairs of eyes, a large mouth with strong, impressing yaws (especially the females), and large ears. The spider has no nose.
The body is the largest part of the spider. The skin of the body is furry, but the upper side is covered with a tough shell to protect the spider from being eaten by birds. The male Tijghspind has a kind of small bag that get filled with sperm during its life - when the bag is full the male has to mate or dies (which is actually the same). The female has no visible sex organs.
The tail is long and flexible, and contains the poison.

The Tijghspind is known for his strange web. The web contains always more or less parallel threads of the same length, that are spun between two rocks, walls and other hard objects like strings. The threads are strong enough for the spider to walk upon, and to catch small animals as mice.
The spider hides near the web, not on it. He will spin a cocoon to live in, usually somewhat under the rock, out of sight. When the Tijghspind gets hungry, he walks to the web and starts picking the strings. When the sound is different than expected, there must be food stuck on the thread. Then he walks the thread, and poisons the caught animal. When the food starts to decay, the spider sucks the skin empty. The skin of the prey is then removed from the web.

The mating procedure is complex. In order to find a partner, the female spider picks the strings on her web, the melody attracts the male Tijghspind. The male starts dancing, moving the legs and flapping the wings. Eventually they both might end up in the web, if the dancing is to the liking of the female. The male takes sperm from his bag with his tail by penetrating and thus destroying it and stings the female in the belly where her eggs are. At the same time the female stings the male and poisons him. When the mating is over, the female eats the poisoned male. She used the hard shell of his body to protect the underside of her own body. The shell is attached to her own body with a web. When the eggs hatch, the female Tijghspind dies. The young -several dozen- are protected by the shells of their parents until they are large enough to survive on their own.

Listen to the mating dance

The poison is deadly to insects and influences the control of small animals. They get sleepy and dizzy, and will be unconscious when they are eaten. Some people have experimented with the poison, they said a few doses makes them dizzy and they can’t feel pain. When they fall asleep, they feel as if they are taken to another world, where the light is brighter and everything more intense. When they wake, they usually end in a sad mood, grieved that the other world is gone. However, the poison is used in hospitals to linger the pain of patients.
In combination with Tuijon and some other drinks with high percentages of alcohol the poison turned out to be lethal. The fashion in Ildritzer salons to carry Tijghspinds as an accessory that could give a boost to another world was soon over when several of the salon-goers had died an awful death. The few survivors of the slaughter told the scientists that the alcohol reversed the effects of the poison, the patients had pain everywhere and when they fell asleep, they were taken to a world that was so horrible it was their wish to die as soon as possible. Some victims might have died from a heart attack. A few have committed suicide while they where sleeping by stabbing their selves to death. People were found, trying to strangle themselves.

The Tijghspind makes a nice pet, as long as you don’t drink alcohol. There are special cages on sale in Ildritz that gives the spider a perfect place to make a web. The sides of the cages are attached to large wooden boxes that amplify the sounds of the spider on the web. The music the Tijghspinds make, especially in the mating ritual, is supposed to be very artistic. There are known cases from people who claim that the effects of the poison are even better when they listen to the music of the Tijghspind, they claim it has a positive effect on their sex drive. However, their non-drugged sex partners say that they possibly dream the positive effects, because they lay dizzy on their back without moving while in trance. Due to this effect, the Tijghspind is an illegal pet in Overveer.