The green snake hated the men of the village.

They would stomp at him with their boots, and stab at him with their rakes and scythes. They went into his nest and crushed his brood, and skinned his mate for belt leather.

So the green snake went to the riverbed and swallowed stone after stone after stone.

It caused him great pain, but eventually his scales grew as hard as diamond.

He laughed, and slithered into the village – striking at will with venom and fang.

The boots of the men crumpled against his stone skin, their rakes and scythes shattered on his hard back.  For each shattered egg, he took one of the men’s children, and flung himself into the bosom of mother after mother, hissing revenge.

At last he grew tired, and curled up in the wheat field, still marveling at his invincibility.

And so the men of the village burned the wheat field. They burned their houses, and burned the corpses of the dead. They left in the night, leaving behind nothing but ash.

The Stone Viper awoke, and found only smoke. The men burned as they went, so as fast as the snake slithered it could never quite make it beyond the flames to the green pastures beyond.

After ten days and nights, the snake stopped moving.

He coughed up the stones one by one, and died surrounded by fire.

X.
The rain pounded onto the squire’s head. Reflexively, he pulled up his hood.

He had come home against all advice. Ignoring the words of his fellows, his knight, and his lord he had stolen away in the night. Stolen away with a stolen sword.

It was his master’s second-best sword.

Thinking, It can’t be as bad as the tales say. Gilead is my home — surely my father and sister survived the..the darkness, his path had brought him here.

And now, past rain and blood, past the grasp of the dead, and the mad words of a blind priest, he was home. Jonas peered up through the rain at the moon. He’d been in town only an hour or two. Such a short time.

It wasn’t too late to leave. Keeping his wits about him, he could easily avoid the once-men as before and make his way out of town. The green light in the keep’s windows leered at him.

No. It was too late. The shadow on Gilead has marked him, there was no turning back.

Jonas cupped his hand and caught rain water. He briskly scrubbed the blood from his cloak, face and hands. The words of the blank-faced priest were not cleansed as easily.
The squire stood, and sheathed the sword. I must find some place dry, and give it a proper cleaning, or it will rust.

The rain began to ease, as Jonas moved across the balcony towards a nearby rooftop. A short jump, and he was across. His answers were in the keep, and he intended to have them.

End Chapter