The Tale of Aella Darin Bell

Artwork by5ibrina.Raims

The Tale of Aella

By: Darin Bell

Long ago in a distant land, a young maiden by the name of Aella had taken a moonlit stroll by the river on the outskirts of town, when she caught her husband caressing another woman she knew all too well.

“Agatha! Disclose thy meaning of such treachery!”

“Treachery?” Agatha scoffed, “This man has simply been enlightened unto the difference between patricians and plebes.”

Heartbroken, Aella turned towards her husband, “Is this true my love? Have you allowed this swindler to make way with your heart?” There was no reply.

“I’ve grown tired of you Aella,” Agatha rested a hand upon the man’s breast, “Would you care to cast the wretch aside for me, my sweet?” The man obeyed and hurled his wife into the river without question nor hesitation.

And so she was left there on her knees, head hung low, wet from both the mud and her own tears. “Oh gods,” she cried, “Why have thou forsaken me?”

glistening in the moonlight, and its scarlet eyes that pierced through the darkness and bore into the helpless maiden’s very soul. The beast lurched forward, with unimaginable speed, and stopped just inches before reaching the young girl’s face and whispered, “Fear not, young Aella.”

How could it know my name? She thought to herself.

“Are you…a god?” Aella asked the snake.

“Yes, for I am Apophis, a benevolent god of whom only wishes prosperity and good graces upon all the lesser beings I call my children,” hissed the snake and it gradually made its way, coiling itself around her. “Now…what troubles you, young one?”

“Tis that slovenly skellum Agatha. She has stolen my love yet again. She is a cold-hearted temptress…”

“Yes, I see,” the snake lowed itself down to Aella and opened its massive jaws to reveal a small chest. “In this box lies the garments of gods, imbued with the power to control the hearts of men.”

Eyes shining with greed, Aella snatched the chest from the snake’s jaws and with that the snake vanished.

The next day Aella strode into town concealing herself with a hooded cloak.

Agatha, hooked around the arm of Aella’s former lover, laughed upon seeing her, “So the widowed old roach has returned to the shadows?”

Suddenly, Aella threw off her robes revealing her true form. Her bare shoulders shone with sensuous splendor, exposed midriff radiated ripe with risqué, and upper thighs pulsed a provocative energy. Her body’s brilliant terrible aura beckoned men towards her feet as she basked in her newfound power. “Do you see now, Agatha! I have been blessed by the good god Apophis! It is I who has the power over the hearts of men!” Aella cackled, “Now destroy her, you plebes! Destroy all in my path!”

The men took up arms, but Agatha remained undaunted. “Foolish girl, where do you think my power stems from?”

Tearing off her robes she revealed her own otherworldly garments, enrapturing her own army to her side.

The two deities ordered their armies to charge, and the ensuing battle continued for forty days and forty nights til nothing was left but Apophis’s two elegant morsels.

To this day shoulders and mid-sections of the body must be covered in public schools, and all skirts and shorts must be kept no shorter than fingertip length for fear of the restoration of Apophis.

Artwork by Karli Jahnigen

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