The Dark Web

By Sam Bretti and Jean Packer

This is the unfolding story of a naive little creature who lived in ladybird village. Liz the ladybird loved her people, but the villagers experienced pain and disease. Saddened by the effects of witnessing distress her people endured, she sought to alleviate the suffering. Liz sets out on a solo journey to find in the world the cure to illness. Totally immersed in her magical unique journey, she discovers the dark Tasmanian caves where she meets a host of spiders that hold a conviction as she perceives to heal the world from disease.
But it is not as it seems and Liz falls into the deceit cast by the woven dark web, unable to perceive the dark spider’s true intentions. Horatio is truly cunning and holds no mercy for naivety; he exploits her vulnerability to further his own ends. As Liz falls prey to his cunning ways, will she have enough insight and skills to save herself, or will some other story unfold revealing to her her own vulnerability and naivety that has led her to trust without question?
I wonder what will resonate with you as you read about the plight of Liz, a kind-hearted, compassionate soul that does not see reality as it is but rather through the lens of her own distorted perception. Will she come to her senses so that she is able to perceive the truth from the lies in the evolutionary process of the dark web, and what will be revealed to her by all the characters she meets along the way?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Feb 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781528991315

Sam Bretti

The writer of this book is a sensitive and reflective individual who is deeply curious about the nature of the human condition and how working with others from a very early age has enriched this curiosity to find meaning in our existence. Writing to uncover the deep despair of loss, the search to find a cure for devastating illness and all that stands in the way of such a discovery takes the reader on an adventure of what dwells within the self where the author believes all answers lie.

Book preview

The Dark Web

Sam Bretti

Illustrated by Jean Packer

Austin Macauley Publishers

The Dark Web

About the Author

Dedication

Copyright Information ©

Acknowledgement

About the Author

The writer of this book is a sensitive and reflective individual who is deeply curious about the nature of the human condition and how working with others from a very early age has enriched this curiosity to find meaning in our existence. Writing to uncover the deep despair of loss, the search to find a cure for devastating illness and all that stands in the way of such a discovery takes the reader on an adventure of what dwells within the self where the author believes all answers lie.

Dedication

To my family and the friends that have become my family,

and those I have yet to meet.

Copyright Information ©

Sam Bretti (2021)

Illustrated by Jean Packer

The right of Sam Bretti and Jean Packer to be identified as author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528991308 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781528991315 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2021)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd

25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5LQ

Acknowledgement

Thanks to my parents, who have always been my greatest teachers. To my husband, who has been my greatest friend, and to my children, my greatest gifts. To my friends for being my greatest allies and to my niece and nephew, Jordan Hyde and Kally Church, who both inspired me to write this book. Thank you, my love to all of you! I thank god for the gifts he has bestowed upon me.

Deep in the dark crystal-clad caves of Tasmania Island, located 240 kilometres to the south of the Australian continent, is the known habitat of the Hickmania troglodytes, meaning cave-dwellers or better known as the Tasmanian cave spider. It is reported that over 10,000 years ago, the rising sea level cut off Tasmania from mainland Australia, information both factual and truthful according to actual data. It is in these caves that the story unfolds of a tiny little ladybird with a vision for her community to help them recover from diseases, after being persuaded by the dark spider Haratio. Through her adventures and meeting of the mysterious cave-dwelling spiders she learns that not all is as it seems.

This tale however could be a fantasy, a fictional spinning of a yarn, however undeniably true, is the capability of the Tasmanian cave spider to perform an artistic task, reliant on its anatomical cribellum, a silk spinning organ, enabling the cave spider to produce an intricate silky, yet woollen textured web, simultaneously purposeful in creating entrapment. That entrapment is how naïve creatures have been caught in the cave-dwellers’ webs of secrets and lies.

This unfolding dialogue depending on individual perception maybe factual laced with fiction, or fiction imbued with fact. Regardless of the conclusion, the journey begins with a very naïve ladybird, known only as Liz, who lives in a community of love, care and compassion, yet there is illness amongst her folk, she has been protected all her life by the ladybirds of her community who love her and wish to protect her from harm, but as she leaves the safety of the Ladybird Village, life unfolds before her, and it is within the events and individual species that she meets along her journey, that Liz learns more about the whole world she inhabits, in not so faraway places on her first-ever solo flight away from home, that leads her into