The box

THE BOX
Legend has it that there was a box somewhere on Bodmin moor that contained a great wealth of happiness. It was rumoured to have once belonged to a great Celtic king and it was hidden in plain sight, but only the gifted could see it. Some say that it is protected by magic.
Many sought out the box. Some visiting ancient sites of stone circles, others randomly digging holes here and there. Some of the diggers did indeed find wealth, but it was in the form of tin, mines soon sprung up throughout the region, but none found the box.
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That was until the year 1587 when a handsome young farmer was courting his beloved and sought out a place to be alone; this was not on the moor but in a small fishing village near a long ruined castle. Beneath the castle the crashing waves had scoured out a tunnel through the rock to the other side and at low tide you could walk and maybe hide with your betrothed.
Bryan had his mind on other things whilst in there, snuggled up on the rocks with Mary. Time goes quickly when you are having fun and they didn’t notice that the tide had come in, they were trapped. This didn’t concern him too much as he guessed by the tide marks that it would not fill the cavern completely and he would have more time with her, but it did Mary, she would have to suffer the wrath of her father and she would be the subject of yet more gossip in the village.
As they both settled down in the gloom, something did not seem right to him, the waves were coursing through the opening but seemed to be avoiding a rock in the middle of the floor. A strange luminescence emanated from the area, this could only be the work of witchcraft or maybe it was a sea monster and he began to feel uneasy and decided not to tell Mary as he did not want her more hysterical than she was already.
Mary was indeed feeling uneasy but the fear of her father had been replaced by an uneasy prickling at the back of her neck, this always happened when something strange was about to happen. She had noticed the glowing rock.
The first time the prickling appeared was when her mother was taken from her and burnt at the stake, all she did was call a woman an old toad. The fact she turned into one was a coincidence or so her father tried to explain to the witch hunter. After that incident they were forced to move to a new area and she changed her name from Morose to Mary in an effort to blend in.
She was not the prettiest of girls, Her buck teeth and warts on the end of her nose saw to that, in fact most of the people in the village called her that ugly hovel dweller or worse. Still she showed them by going out with the best looking guy around, Bryan.
It had helped her cause that she had taken some of his hair whilst he slept during the sermon in church and she put it on a corn doll that she had made. He became infatuated with her and here she was with her Beau.
As she watched the water flowing around the rock and the glow from the area, the warts on the tip of her nose glowed as well, she knew then this was not a good sign. Through the gloom she could make out a small wooden box which was being guarded by all sorts of crustaceans, crabs and lobsters down to shrimps there was also the occasional shark circling the box before going on to patrol the entry and exit of the cave, it was obvious to her they were all doing there best to protect the box. She looked at Bryan but he did not seem to recognise what was going on. She wished there was a way out.
The small rowing boat slipped its moorings whilst its owner Bill was preparing his pots for crabbing, to take them out to his moored sail boat, he did not know why he bothered as there never seemed to be many crabs about these days but it was his job, the rowing boat drifted against the tide and bumped its way into the cave. Bryan saw it first as it “drifted” towards them and couldn’t believe their good fortune, grabbing Mary they scrambled into the boat and it reversed its course and drifted back to the beach. Its startled owner Bill then accused them of joy rowing with his boat.
Away from the harbour and separate from each other Bryan decided not to tell anyone for fear of being ridiculed, but the incident intrigued Mary She managed to get away from the love struck Bryan and she went back to the cave at the first opportunity. At low tide it was difficult at first to find the area of the rock, but she cleared her mind and concentrated, with her warts glowing it re -appeared she went over to it and stroked the box, she could felt the power emanating from it. This was obviously a thing of magic and she thrived on it, after all it was her family tradition. She tried to move it but it did not move, pulling with all her might it was still stuck. She concluded that it was either very heavy (full of gold maybe) or else it was held in place by magic. Mumbling with all her magical background and conjuring up spell after spell it still did not move. With the tide coming in She retreated back to the Hovel that she shared with her father to think things over.
Zackory knew something was troubling his daughter as soon as she came in. She was happy almost effervescent which was not her usual mood, there was only one thing that would bring that much happiness to her, she had been “practicing” he had seen this in his wife. He knew his wife had put him under a spell to make him love her but she needn’t have for he loved her anyway even if she was a witch. But as he had seen her suffer at the stake, he did not want this to happen to his daughter. So he asked her forthrightly what the problem was. She knew not to lie to him so told him everything (except the fact she was with Bryan).
The next low tide Mary and Zackory made their way to the cave. When Mary located the box her father still could not see anything but he could at least feel the rock and box, if the box would not come off then the rock needed to be moved. He worked feverishly digging around the base of the rock. Trying to move it with levers, he was winning until the tide started to come in and washed the sand back into the hole and they had to give up until the next time. The crustacean guard returned to their duty.
Zack knew it would need more effort than he could muster to move the rock in the time they had available between tides. The next low tide he was surprised when Bryan turned up with his Ass Jack in tow; he guessed Mary had something to do with it, seeing that he found the corn doll when he went to change the hay on her bed.
Bryan had no idea why he was here one minute he was milking a cow and the next he had the urge to grab his Ass and get over to Marys.
Soon they were at the cave, the Jack had been its usual stubborn self and brayed all the way there, that was until it entered the cave when it trotted up to the rock and bowed making low murmuring noises to the box.
Bryan and Zackory looked on amazed but Mary carried on as if it was an everyday occurrence. Stroking Bryan’s Ass she whispered ‘ya know tha’s magic in the box, dun ya’ seeing that the animal was not afraid she knew that it must be good and not bad magic.
Bryan and Zackory edged forward and began quietly digging around the base of the rock. Bryan kept looking around nervously he was sure they were being watched. They were by several hundred pairs of stalked eyes as the crustacean guard watched their life’s work being removed. Mary re -assured them all was well and eventually the rock began to move from its sandy home. That was until the tide returned to reclaim its prize. Bryan put a rope around the rock in a last ditch attempt to free it and encouraged Jack to pull, with Bryan pulling on Jacks halter, Zackory straining on levers and Mary murmuring any shifting spell she could think of the rock still needed a bit more encouragement to release itself from its position, Help came in a strange way. With the water lapping around Jacks hocks one of the crustacean guards decided it was time to lend a claw, and nipped jack on the hind leg. He recoiled and struck out at its assailant; with both hooves flying they struck the rock.
An ear shattering boom echoed around the cavern the sound of rock splitting had them looking around anxiously. They needn’t have worried; the rock had split in half making it easier to move. With the tide fast returning they needed a way to float the rock out.
Bill was hauling a small sail boat up the beach, so that he could do his other job and scrape off the barnacles on its bottom. Much to his annoyance the ropes gave way and it slipped back into the water and against the tide went out of the harbour and around the headland as if it was under sail, except there was no mast as he had removed it earlier for maintenance. He watched with his mouth open as it made its way round to the now flooding cave, turned and backed into the opening. He had seen enough and called the village together and sent for the local lord of the manor to alert them of magic being carried out.
Mary did not seem surprised by the appearance of the boat as it squeezed into the cave, Bryan was and as for Zackory, he just stared at the glowing nose of his daughter knowing that she had the gift of her mother.
With much effort they loaded the rock and box into the boat. Jack scrambled in so as not to be nipped again, all aboard the boat edged out of the cave and back to the harbour, with Jack sitting with front hooves on the bow he gently brayed to a job well done he had surely earned his oats today.
As for the guard they no longer had to have their minds on defending the box and a mass exodus took place to make their way to their breeding grounds. In future it would lead to a bumper crop as a thank you to Bill for the loan of his boat.
In the light of day it was possible to see an outline of the box it was almost as if it was transparent but even Bryan could see it now and he tentatively reached out a hand to touch it. He had heard the rumours that such a thing was hidden but thought as others did that it was on the moor.
Zackory was also pleased to be out in the open again, especially as the daylight had diminished the glow from his daughter’s warts. As the boat neared the dock he became more concerned, a small gathering including the local lord of the manor were waiting for them, he picked up an oar and pretended to row in an effort to make it look normal.
Lord Tremaine Danzel Elpus was not best pleased to be brought out from the comfort of his imposing hall, it was a grand affair with four bed rooms and an en- suite gardrobe, Still the opportunity to catch a witch was too good a chance to miss. The locals loved a good stake burning, plus he would have the opportunity to torture them, his favourite hobby, under close guard of course, well he didn’t want to turn into a frog, that was reserved for princes.
Much pointing was going on from the quayside, the gathering mumbled to each other, some as to the ability of Zackory to row a boat so well with just one oar, some at the way Jack the Ass was sitting at the Bow looking pleased with himself. Others wondered why the trio had gone to such trouble to get a piece of rock when it lay about at the edge of the cliffs. It was the Lord Elpus who through squinted eyes first saw the outline of the box. He immediately realised what it might be, having spent a few years of his life chasing it on the moors and deemed that he would be the one to have the great wealth of happiness, or should it be wealth and happiness that sounded better, which considering his miserable lonely unhappy life he considered it due to him. How he missed his mother the fact he sold her to a travelling showman for a few groats was not the point, it was the fact she wanted some of his money for food to feed the poor. He kept the money he got from her sale in a small bag around his neck as a reminder of how selfish she was. I mean all of the peasants around had only one duty, To serve him and make him richer.
Anyway whatever was in the box, it could not in any way belong to the ugly hovel dweller, her loser of a father and a farmer. The box deserved better.
Bryan became worried by the amount of people on the quayside, He was sure that he would be ridiculed for being with Mary, he could have the pick of the local spinsters as he was a man of wealth, well he did own a cow, a pig ,a few sheep and they all liked his Ass. But here he was with the girl not known for her beauty, but she was beguiling all the same but what would people think.
Gradually as the boat neared the dock more people began to notice the outline, some knew what it was, planning immediately to make it theirs. Others ran away hysterically screaming, not really knowing why, but it seemed like a good thing to do when you are not sure about something. The gathering fell silent as it docked next to the winch normally used to haul loads of fish, crabs or other goods brought in by sea.
The crowd surged forward, well the people at the front didn’t but the ones at the rear did and the inevitable happened. Soon the already heavily leaden boat was overloaded and it toppled over sending the rock into the depths of the harbour. Zackory and Mary hung onto the hull of the boat with others but Bryan was to busy trying to save his own Ass which was thrashing about trying to donkey paddle, ropes were thrown and at last his Ass was secure and hauled unceremoniously onto the beach where it shook itself down and trotted off indignantly back to the safety of the farm.
All of the others were rescued with Zackory and Mary last, Mary had made a couple of attempts to swim down to the box but as she could not swim this proved more difficult than she thought, at one time coming up under the over turned boat for some of the trapped air, this gave her an idea. The locals retrieved them last as they thought they might contaminate the rope, and then in case they had, the rope was thrown to the depths.
With the rock and box on the bottom the local crustaceans had something to guard again