WEEK 5 Story: Other Half

Isis stood alone, head towards the heavens, arms outstretched. Tears fell from her eyes freely. The darkness she was faced with and the stillness of the night sky only seemed to mock her cries. She was normally one to wear a brave face in the midst of disorder, but this feeling transcended anything she had felt in her life. Though she was no stranger to despair or grief, she had never expected to lose her beloved, her Osiris, to an usurper no less. There were many emotions and thoughts spiraling around in her mind, but most of all, she wanted to see him again. That was all. Pain can be that simple. She wept for him, but she also wept for her own heart as well.

            The details surrounding her husband’s death were burned into her memory. Though she hadn’t been there, she may as well have been. She almost wished that she hadn't been told everything. Being nailed into a coffin and left to rot in the sea was a particularly gruesome way to pass. He needed her now more than ever. Isis knew that she needed to reach in and bring out some of the strength that was left in the reserves of her soul.

            She wiped away her tears with the backs of her palms and exhaled deeply through her nose, hoping to regain some composure. She had other worries stirring within as well. What was going to happen to her now that Set had taken the throne? She wasn’t safe here and needed to leave. It was time to do something.

            Isis, despite all of the uncertainty surrounding her at the moment, was consumed with the desire to do one thing. She walked back inside to her empty chamber. It was normally filled with doting and adoring servants. She had sent them away, refusing the joy of company. Isis took a strand of hair into her hand and cut a chunk of it out with the nearest sharp object that she could find. She whispered secret words, a vow to Osiris, that only she knew. Isis held the piece of hair close to her chest, tightly. It was time to start looking for the other half of her heart.

Source:  The Death of Osiris from Egyptian Myth & Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie

Author's Note: This week, I chose to read the section of Egypt. I was particularly taken with Osiris and Isis and found their journey to be sad/interesting. In the source, it details Osiris returning home from his journey to a celebration. The evil bad Set shows up with a coffin the size of Osiris and basically throws a contest to see who can fit the ""box"" and they'll get to keep it. Obviously it's a huge trap and when Osiris gets into it, the lid is shut and nailed and he's sent to the sea to die. Isis, his wife, takes this horribly. That's the section I chose to rewrite. There's a line in there that's like "she refused to be comforted" or something and I loved that. I felt very bad for her and wanted to expand on her grief and mourning. Isis then sets out on her own journey to look for Osiris, which is where mine ends. I just think she's neat and wanted to give her some love.

Osiris, Horus, and Isis (Wikimedia Commons)

WEEK 2 Story- Mary and the Basilisk

Mary stood before the basilisk in the garden of roses, both parties eyeing each other in quiet curiosity. The basilisk held a brilliant, gleaming sword between its beak and dropped it at Mary’s feet. She looked down at it, confused. For someone who had just gotten handed over to a treacherous monster, things hadn’t been so bad for her. The palace was beautiful, full of many rooms to explore and sprawling grounds to roam. The basilisk wasn’t so bad himself. He was kind of hard to talk to, which made conversations difficult, but it wasn’t entirely all unpleasant. All new things take getting used to—she figured he would get used to her presence eventually. She was beginning to think this arrangement wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

            “You have to cut off my head.”

            “I’d rather not do that,” Mary whispered back, timidly. “This is really not ideal for either of us.”

            “What do you mean?” The basilisk blinked back at Mary, confused by her words. Mary wasn’t sure what was confusing about what she said, but that was fine. She could be patient.

            “Don’t you, um, need your head to live and do things?”

            “I actually don’t need my head at the moment. So, if you would be so kind,” the basilisk paused briefly and edged the sword closer to Mary with its talons. “You have to cut off my head now,” he said with a growl filled with a deep sense of urgency. It wasn’t explicitly scary, however.

            Mary picked up the sword and turned it around in her hands. She could see a distorted reflection of herself in it. The sword itself felt comfortable in her hands, not too heavy, not too light. She didn’t know much about swords, but it was long and slender. “I’m really not comfortable doing this for you, but I will if I absolutely must.”

            The basilisk nodded his head. “If you don’t do this I will rip you apart.”

            “Okay, yeah, I’ll do it.” Mary stepped forward and swung the sword swiftly, landing a clean cut on the basilisk. His head was no more. Then another less than ideal thing happened. The head of a serpent came forth and it was awfully angry at the current moment.

            “Cut my head off again,” the basilisk demanded once more. Mary was completely fine with it this time. She didn’t like snakes much. She swung again. 

            A pair of golden keys fell from its mouth and landed softly onto the grass. A flash of light enveloped the basilisk and he was transformed into a handsome man, around Mary’s age. “You have lifted the curse! Because you have set me free, everything here now belongs to you!” The man bent down and picked up the keys. He tossed them to Mary. “I’ve never seen someone so agreeable in my whole life,” he laughed.

            “You threatened to kill me so I didn’t have much choice,” Mary said, not sure if she wanted to laugh back or not. None of this had been her choice, but she had to admit it had worked out in her favor. She was lucky.

            “So, about that whole marriage thing…” the man said, trailing off. Right. That. Her mom had promised that she would marry him in exchange for the roses, but he began rambling on about how she didn’t have to stay if she didn’t want to or even marry him. She did want to stay. She liked the roses here. Mary would have to get to know him a little bit better, but it was definitely better than anything she had ever had in her life.

            Mary smiled softly at the man and grasped the keys firmly in her hands. “Give it some time, okay?" She was going to like it here. 

Source: The Three Roses from The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis  

Author’s Note: I didn't want to retell the entire story, so I chose the part that was most interesting to me. I didn't want to include the marketplace or how her mother accidentally gave her to the basilisk for roses. I thought the original was fun, but I wanted to add more dialogue between the basilisk and Mary, so that's the route I went down. I also excluded that part where she nursed the basilisk. I'm not sure if it was important, I just did not understand it in terms of its relevance, so it cut it for mine. I'm not super big on the fairy tale thing where the girl and boy marry immediately, so I didn't do that either. 

Basilisk (Wikipedia)