THE HIDDEN CROWN

October 22, 1412. Wintanceaster.

"Help me!"

Her loud but muffled voice rang through the dark clusters of trees as the nocturnal hood gave back to her what she said. Her light legs not light enough to carry her body in the swiftness her heart craved. Her long sleek hair floating to the rhythm of the wheezing wind crashing against her wild body. Her two years old baby clasped to her breasts with the left hand, the right aiding the race. The constant rustles and slithering and hisses kept coming behind her but she had no idea what was after her nor what she was running away from. 

She stopped running again, like she had done five minutes earlier. She could feel darkness crawling up her skin. Every movement around her got to her. She heard a sharp sound in the undergrowth beside her. She flinched and fell on her back, gentle sobs wielding. 

"Oh... by heaven!"

She muttered. Twas just a gazelle, its unusual red eyes peering at her. Creeping her out. 

"The Lord rebukes you."

She held her baby firmly. The little girl wrapped in a dirty white linen crying non stop. 

"Shush... my love. The Lord is with us."

She began to pet her, unwilling to stand up. 

"Go away in the name of the Lord."

She yelled at the creature and it turned its back and began to walk away. And suddenly, she couldn't find it anymore. She gasped. 

"Magic!"

She scrambled to her feet. Her baby yet crying. 

"Mommy is here. Shush...shush."

She looked around her. All she could see were climbers and shrubs. All she could hear, the constant caws of Ravens and crows. Her heart was pounding heavily. 

"I think the Lord took pity on us today."

She convinced herself turning away, to head down the path that led into the village. But then, came the hissing and slithering again. 

"Not again, Lord. If not for my sake, please for my daughter's. She's too innocent."

She seemed to support the reason of her crying baby as she resumed sobbing too. Her eyes red and heavy. 

"Help!!!!!"

She screamed amidst tears. That was the loudest she could go. Her stomach hurting from screams and throat sore from tears. But the worst of the feelings was the thought of losing her daughter. 

The noise became louder. She looked to the dark sky, her eyes strayed from the orange ball of moon in the sky to the writhing clouds. 

"Lord please save me!"

She cried as the movement from up ahead of her became closer, keener, creepier. She could feel eyes watching her. Twas so fiery and hot, scorching her skin. But she didn't know from what direction. 

Suddenly, there was a strong circle of wind which caught up with her, throwing fallen leaves and twigs into the gloomy atmosphere in gothic spree. 

"Oh... God... Oh God."

Her baby wouldn't stop crying neither would she. Who would console the other?

The circle of wind got closer, closing on her as she turned in 360 degrees awaiting which angle the owner of those creepy eyes would show up from. 

Suddenly, she heard a thud behind her. Fear gripped her heart. It felt like the earth would open beneath her and gobble her up. If that happened, wasn't that a better option. 

The hissing was clear enough. She didn't need a prophet to tell her that twas a snake behind her. But of what magnanimity she wasn't certain. But she could feel a great shadow on her, mocking her mortal height. 

As she held her baby tightly, she turned slowly, hoping that she would feel a warm palm trace the curve of her arm and wake her up, to tell her that twas all a dream. 

But as she turned, her worst nightmare fell on her neck in a bone-crushing embrace. She traced the scaly skin of the large blue snake from the end of her height up and up till she couldn't look anymore. She tilted her neck, pushing her face up till she caught venom slithering in and out of its large mouth. 

The snake's eyes were devilishly red, it had the wings of an eagle and its scales burned like fresh coals in fresh furnace. 

She fell on back again. Dragging herself back on her bums, her baby now wailing. 

"Please don't hurt us. Please go away."

She kept crying but the snake came down heavily upon her and knocked her out. She fell on her back as the snake retrieved the baby with its tail and took off. 

Then came hurrying footsteps from down the path. Men with torches and a priest with them. 

"Help her up!"

The Commander of the men ordered and the lady was helped. As she opened her eyes, her few words were,

"My baby, it took my baby. Save my baby please."

"Which way did it go, woman?"

The commander queried. She stood up and hurried in the direction instead. They followed her.

"Come priest."

The commander bade. After few moments of running, they all came to a cave. From inside the cave came the continuous hissing of the snake. 

"The commander and the mother should come with me."

The priest ordered and the two followed him into the dark cold cave. No sooner they entered than they saw the huge snake slithering around an elevated cliff with the child in between its coiled body. 

As the snake saw the three, it hissed in rage and charged at them. But the priest was quick to open the jar in his hand and sprinkle the sacred Ash, making a border. The snake crashed against the unseen border and made its rage known. The lady and commander flinched. 

"Please get my baby back."

The lady resumed sobbing again. The commander restrained her at the signal of the priest. 

"What are you doing?"

She asked stupefied. The priest nodded at the commander who explained,

"Please, Mira. You had a baby. We can't let this snake continue stealing our toddlers. The priest means well. He would lock the spirit of the snake in your baby and then we would bury her in sacred rite. If it were my daughter, I would had done the same too. Knowing that my baby didn't die for naught but as a hero and savior of other babies."

"Are you mad? Do not try it. That's my only child. You know how I suffered for several years before the Lord gave me this. Priest you won't agree would you?"

She looked away from the commander to the priest who shook his head gently. His flowing beards stalking the sagging wrinkles of his face. 

The lady fought to grab the priest, but the commander's hold on her was way too wrong. The commander guided her towards the mouth of the cave but the priest called,

"She must be here. Else the rite would be equal to naught."

The priest looked away from her and stretched his arms. He began to pray as the lady kept fighting,

"Carissime domine, deprecamur ut nos peccatores nequissimos pensas et ab operibus diabolica serves!"

His tempo scaled altitudes, as he kept praying in Latin,

"Finem affer huic spiritui Medusae et vires eius in calculis contere."

He began to shout,

"Ostende amorem tuum et fac duos unum, magnum parvum."

And suddenly, there was great quaking in the cave that resulted into a quick sandstorm that prevented one person from seeing the other. 

"What's happening?"

The lady trembled. And as the recent activity was tucked in, the snake was no where to be found. Only the baby was at the priest's feet. But with the red eyes of the snake. 

The lady ran to hold her baby but the commander grabbed her. 

"You want to be possessed?"

"What good does it do being alive while my only hope is dead?"

She fought, crying again but the priest chewed few words of prayer and picked up the baby,

"Spread words."

He turned to the both of them. 

"Medusa shall be buried in the field of the lost. And her grave shall be marked. No man shall dig this up again... no man would be able to. Except the pregnant or the dr--"

The cave began to quake again as its base began to crumble heavily. 

"Out out. If we don't bury her in five minutes, she would be reborn, fiercer and cunnier."

They all hurried out of the cave. 

As the mother wailed and struggled to get her baby, the priest hurried away to bury the VESSEL OF MEDUSA!