The Resurrection

An entry to the Writing For Comics Contest by [itoe]

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Panel 1
A forest clearing, viewed from above, lit by bright morning sun. A figure can be seen emerging from the trees. A question: "Are you sure this is where you buried it?” A reply: “Yes.”

Panel 2
Inside the clearing. The figure is a man, graying, perhaps a little flabby. He’s wearing motley armor, mostly padded cloths and cracked leathers. We’re looking at him from below. The sun is behind his head. He’s digging with a spade, and he looks nervous. A disembodied voice: “Dig it up.”

Panel 3
We’re looking over the man’s shoulder into the growing hole. A severed human head, female with chin length blonde hair, has been uncovered. It’s dirty, but otherwise normal looking, not rotten or damaged in any way. The voice: “Now find my body.”

Panel 4
We’re across the hole from the man. He’s uncovered a headless female body, dirty, and battered, but otherwise in similar condition to the head. The head is sitting on the ground by the man. He looks uncertain. The voice: “Good. Now finish your task.”

Panel 5
A close up of the head, now resting on the shoulders of the body in the hole. The man’s hand is seen placing an irregular, glowing, violet-colored gem into the head’s open mouth.

Panel 6
We’re looking up at the man from the hole. In the foreground, the body is wreathed in purple light, darkening the rest of the clearing. The man stares into the hole, his horrified expression locked on what’s happening below him.

Panel 7
The light is normal again. We’re looking over the man’s shoulder. Standing in the hole is the woman, whole and alive. She is young-looking, perhaps late teens, and wearing tattered rags. Her lips are parted in a wry grin, and there is a mad gleam in her eye. “Now dig up my friends,” she says.

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Author's note: This is one of my favorite scenes from the middle of a story I've been kicking around.
The setting is a temperate forest, mainly hardwoods, sandwiched between a rolling plain/prairie, and farming communities. The feudal lord of the surrounding area is harsh and greedy. However, both locals and mercenaries in service to the lord are frustrated by bandits in the area. The digger in the script is a mercenary, a minor character really. The woman he's digging up is our heroine.