Mella is a young African girl who lives in a village with her family. Her father falls gravely ill, so Mella embarks on a dangerous journey through the jungle to seek help from the legendary Python Healer. After four difficult days of travel, Mella finds the python's cave and convinces the serpent to come heal her father. With the python's magic, her father recovers. Mella then escorts the python back to its home, and is rewarded for her courage and kindness.

1. MELLA’S SLITHERY QUEST
By: Andrei Carianopol

2. Mella is an African girl that lives
in a hut and sleeps on straw
mattresses with her father, and
brothers. Her father is very sick
in need of help.

3. Mella loves her father a lot, like most us. Therefore she is trying to seek as
much help as she can for his well-being.

4. The Nganga Healers could not
rouse him from his weakness
and dying. But she could not
dwell, she had to act fast.

5. Mella walked into a forest one night, and touched her amulet that hung from her
neck. She called upon the great Bomu Rambi, the one that gave her the idea. The
idea to seek the ‘Python Healer’ for help and gratefulness for her father.

6. There was one problem
though, Mella had a fear of snakes.
Her older brothers tried to get the
help of the Python Healer before
but in the end they fled in terror
from the entrance of the python’s
cave.

7. The next morning she set on the
quest. She gathered some roots
and grains for the long, un-
forgettable experience she was
going to have. The Serpents
cave was in the deepest, and
thickest part of the jungle. It took
Mella four days to get there. She
had to walk through ferns as high
as her head, up and down rocky
hills, through the wooded
mountainsides and cross
streams and rivers that even
her, who had great balance, was
having trouble getting across. All
for her father.

8. Her attention was suddenly
brought to a spiral carved in a
rock at the entrance of a cave.
Right then she knew, she had
arrived. She entered the cave and
looked for the python, but she
could not see anything but the
pythons eyes. After a few
moments of silence, the serpent
suddenly spoke, and asked Mella
what the problem was, if she was
scared, and if love and caring was
more powerful than the fear of the
serpent. Mella told the serpent
that her father was laying in their
hut on a straw mat dying. The
serpent slithered its way across to
Mella and wrapped around her
body to be carried back to the
village to help her father.

9. Again, it took Mella 4 days to get
back to the village. It was a burden
to walk back with the heavy python
through the many
mountains, forests, rivers and plains
she had walked through. When they
arrived at the village, the people ran
to get their arrows as they thought
the serpent was an intruder, but
Mella spoke and told them that it
was her, with the Serpent Healer.

10. When they entered the hut, the
Python uncoiled itself and began to
chant words of the Buhera Ba Rowzi.
Shortly after, her father got up and
started walking. Something he hadn’t
done for days. He fed Mella and the
Python, but now the Python was
silent. The python once again coiled
itself around Mella, and there she
knew she must return it to the cave.

11. After many days, they arrived
back at the cave. This time, the
Python invited Mella into the
cave. All the animals screamed in
warning. But once again she
followed the Python inside the
cave. She saw a light glimmer in
the distance, as she got closer
she could tell that it was treasure.
The Python told her to take
whatever she’d like, for her
courage and love. She insisted
that the Python should do the
choosing for her, so the Python
gave her a golden chain, much
like hers with a sacred image of
the Buhera Ba Rowzi. She knew
the Python was a true friend.

12. Mella shared the story about
the treasures in the caves with
her family, and one day she
overheard her brothers. They
were going to kill the serpent.
Quickly, Mella ranto warn her
friend, the Python, and to
protect it from her brothers.
When the brothers got
there, the Python made
loud, thunderous noises that
made the brothers once again
flee back to the village. But
when the people from the
village found out about what
the brothers tried to do, they
got kicked out to live in the
jungle forever.

13. In later years Mella’s father
died. The villagers chose Mella
as their leader, noticing her
courage, her honesty and her
love. Mella was the proud
leader of the Buhera Ba Rowzi
for many long years, visiting
the Python Healer as often as
she could. Mella arranged for a
wooden carving that stood in
the village, a perfect carving of
the trusted Python Healer.