THE LEGEND

THE LEGEND

"Yes, our great leader is dead," said the younger of the two old men, "and by a member of his body guard no less, doubtless paid by his political enemies."  The two men were quiet for a while, then the older one said, "The leader's son dragged the assassin out and threw him to the guards, to be dealt with immediately.  The killer looked petrified."

  

“Wouldn’t you, if you were caught in the act?” said the younger man.

“Yes … but … I don’t know … he looked confused.  I was present at the leader’s birth long ago, and have served as his aide ever since.  And the night before the birth of his son, there was a tremendous lightning storm.  Some believed the son was sired by the gods.  The leader himself was drunk on his wedding night and says he can’t remember the details of his marriage bed.  So …”  The older man shrugged

.

“The son has certainly shown himself inspired to greatness, always wanting to go farther into battle and rise faster in the ranks than his father would allow.”  The younger man seemed lost in thought. 

 

The older aide asked, “You have other thoughts?”

“The son looked absolutely triumphant, even smiling at his mother as he dragged the assassin out.  She seemed to turn her head to hide her own smile. And I remember …”

“Remember what?” asked the old aide.

“There was another story about the wedding night, you remember?”

The old aide looked slightly disgusted.  “You  mean the story about the huge snake slithering away from the bedroom?  An old wives tale, no snake was found anywhere in the vicinity.”

“But several people said they saw the animal. How could such a huge snake just disappear?”

The old aide turned away.  “We just move on from here.  King Philip is dead, his son Alexander is King.  He will earn his nickname ‘Alexander The Great’ ”.

Macedonia, 336 B.C.

328 Words

Word Count: 1141
Hours Spent: 5
Software Used: Google docs, Carrara