"AUNTIE! I FOUND A SNAKE!!" Helena raised the small squirming creature over her head and ran across the shifting sand of the dig sight. "LOOK!" She poked her head into one of the indents only to find it empty. "AUNTIE!!!" She began running to the next pit.
"Calm down Helena," A young woman climbed from the side of the pit. "Remember no ruining by the... HEL, is that a rattlesnake?"
"He was sleeping," She grinned, her overlarge adult teeth comedic next to the slim baby ones. "I'm just like you! I'm the Snake Queen!" The woman knelt on the ground and pulled up her khaki sleeve. A glittering golden snake rested against her skin.
"Helena put the snake down gently on the ground,"
"But Auntie,"
"NOW!" Helena placed the snake gently next to the golden snake. the snake snapped towards the girls hand. Her aunt whistled sharply and the snake stopped and turned towards her. Helena tried to whistle to no avail. She watched as the her Aunt began to chant in a language she didn't know. The snake watched her, its head swaying back and forth. Her eyes looked like slits. Her skin glittered. Then she stopped chanting. The snake rested its head on the ground. Her eyes looked human again. She snapped her fingers. The snake slithered off across the sand.
"What did you do to it?" Helena watched it go as her Aunt drew her sleeve back over her arm.
"I told it to go home and not to come here anymore," The young woman reached around her neck. "Helena you can't just go around picking up animals. You have to respect them, like people. So no more taking snakes from their homes, she had a clutch of eggs and she was not pleased to be disturbed,"
"Yes Auntie," Helena hung her head.
"If your playing in the desert you could use this," Her Aunt held out a small gold chain with a small medallion with a coiled serpent on it. "Wear this and no snakes will bite you, or reptile disturb you,"
"So it will make me the Snake Queen like you?" Helena held the small disk in her hand.
"The Snake Princess," Her Aunt smiled. "Here let me help you put it on,"
YOU ARE READING
Fragments on the Road to Death
FantasyA child, long ago, played in the sand And fell into a world once lost Help came not And in the dark she found the Ring of Ancient, The Fallen Child then rose again and brought misfortune to all her friends
