Disclaimer: McLeach, Joanna, and Jake belong to Disney. This is just a little fanfic.
Imagine one's fear of arachnids, snakes, lizards, rodents, bats…. more than ninety percent of the population of the world does indeed have such a fear…and it may be just a little loss of breath upon seeing a eight-legged "critter" crawling across your kitchen floor, or perhaps your blood running cold when you think you hear the distinguishable "squeak" of a mouse, or worse yet, a rat running through your walls at home. There are a very small percentage of people in this world that do not even have the tiniest amount of fear of at least some type of creature, be it big or small….
Now imagine the creature that you fear the most, and imagine its size increased by, say fifty percent…. one who has arachnophobia may feel uncomfortable when seeing a tiny brown house spider, and may even get sick at the sight of a tarantula, but what if one was to see a arachnid that's body was, say the size of a van?
In several areas of Australia, there where stories buzzing of such a spider…the stories where going around so much that Australia's most famous cryptids, the Yowie, and the Bunyip, almost seemed to be forgotten momentarily. There seemed to be many caves, and areas this large arachnid had been seen…but expeditions for the creature always turned up nothing.
Some men have claimed to have caught just a glimpse of it; others said they could hear something very large rustling about in a certain cave, others actually said they truly saw the beast, and some described it as being the size of an everyday car, others said the body alone was the size of a large van, while others claimed it was midnight black in color, with yellow markings along it's furry body, and at least one man said it was simply a dull gray color.
With so many variations of the story, it did not take too long for interest in it to wane…
Until one man found one of the creature's legs.
This man was none other that Percival C. McLeach, an American man that had moved to Australia for the sole purpose of poaching. He had found the shocking rarity about ten miles down from the Rumbling Canyons; and figured an animal of sorts, perhaps a vulture had found the severed leg, picked it up, and dropped it, where as luck would have it, he had come across it. A nice little hideaway far out in the Australian desert, in the middle of a field of old mines that nobody would dare go through…a nice little existence for a poacher, with his customized truck and slithery pet goanna by his side.
"Look, Joanna."
The green reptile watched her master intently; not just because he told her to "look", but also because she was genuinely interested in what he was holding above her…was that a snack for Joanna, or a whip of sorts? The poor lizard did not know if to cower, or sit up and beg; and those confused feelings where nothing new. She relaxed a little as he tilted it towards her, but held it gingerly with both of his hands…she knew he would not hold a weapon like that…
"Do you know what this is?" McLeach asked almost gleefully.
The lizard shook her head, and then followed her master's gaze to the make-shift shelf in their "home" where jars of pickled and preserved creatures where. In the middle jar there was a large, fat tarantula, seemingly suspended in time…
Joanna looked back at McLeach, not understanding.
"That's right, Joanna," he turned away from her and to the mantel above the jars, where he had cleared a space, and began to mount the large item…
"It's the leg of that giant spider everybody's gotten themselves so worked up about…and I found it!"
Joanna tilted her head to take a better look at the so-called "spiders" leg hanging on the wall…she was not the smartest of her species, but she did know that spider leg's did not get that big…she ate spiders for goodness sakes…and if spiders did get that big, they could actually eat her. She shuddered at the thought.
WHACK!
Joanna jumped…McLeach had picked up a fly swatter, and had slammed it down in front of her. He laughed, holding his belly.
"Now this particular spider, Johanna, is not like anything you've ever seen around here…this spider is HUGE. About as big as my truck out there. Nothing you could take care of with a little ol' fly swatter here," he chuckled as he proceeded to go to the wall opposite of the spider leg, and retrieved his rifle from it.
Joanna gulped.
The poacher then held his rifle up over the spider's leg, to show that the leg was even longer than his rifle. He then turned to look at Johanna.
"Come on Joanna, we're going to squash us a very big bug!" He laughed again, as he turned towards the door.
Joanna gulped again, and shook her head…she was not at all interested in going after something with eight legs (or seven now, considering the circumstances.) that was large enough to eat her…especially after all the insects and spiders she had had for snacks.
"Oh, what's the matter? You don't want to go? Are you afraid?" He spoke gently, but Joanna knew better. She was right: his gentle manner changed in an instant, and his foot targeted her side with a kick. She quickly dodged it, and looked up to him pitifully.
"You need to toughen up, Joanna…one of these days I may just trade you in for a croc." McLeach remarked under his breath.
Joanna sighed, as only a reptile like her could, and proceeded to follow her master out the door, to where the hot Australian sun met them.