****
Clyde was not sure how he was able to come back to the land of Marcella nor what was he exactly doing at that place at that moment.
It was as though he was teleported back in the past. Some time within the old days, where there was no technology yet. Where mobile phones, TVs, and the internet were not yet part of necessity and people could still function just fine even with the absence of electricity.
Everything was exactly how he remembered it.
From afar, he saw the flocks of seagulls as they migrated and flew towards the other side of the horizon. The squawking sound that they made was slowly being swallowed by the sound of waves.
Clyde took his time to clearly observed how the sun that was as big as an orange plate started to dive in the sea; somewhere along the line where the sea and the sky met.
After a short while, the sun had gone to completely made its way down to the western horizon. Its bright vermillion color was now painting the entire body of water with the same hue.
Clyde's serene nature viewing was rudely interrupted when two young men dressed in tattered clothes came into his view
They were pulling an improvised wooden cart in their back and this made a disturbing noise as they dragged the cart on the rocky and unsteady old pavement.
The cart squeaked in protest as it carried the weight of a heavily battered woman over it. When Clyde had a proper look at who was the woman in the cart was, he was petrified.
Then realization dawned on him
"So this was just another of my lucid dream again, as expected. No wonder, everything feels so familiar and it was like Deja Vu to me."
He said flatly as though he was disappointed to find out that everything was not for real and he was just dreaming. But based on his reaction, it was not that hard to infer that it was the first time that it happened to him, if anything, it even looked like he was already somehow used to it.
Clyde was already used to having real-like dreams. In fact, he was always tormented with that same kind of dream every now and then.
But unlike other usual lucid dreamers, Clyde was not capable of waking himself up even if he wanted to.
Knowing that he could not just simply escaped his lucid dream at will, Clyde decided to just let the scene unfold before him and see if there would be any changes in the detail
He observed how the villagers watched with horror in their eyes as the cart paraded in the old road.
"Hmph! Bunch of fools!"
Clyde sneered because whenever the cart carrying the emaciated woman passed by their houses, the villagers would sprinkle them with salt.
At the same time, the people would also start making incoherent mutterings as though they were reciting some sort of prayer.
But contrary to their horror-stricken face, the face of the woman that was being carried away by the cart looked serene. It was as though she was not bothered by the commotion around her at all.
The parade concluded at the very center of the village which served as the town plaza. A platform that seemed to be a huge scale bone fire was set up in the middle of the crowd and as soon as the cart arrived, three soldiers wearing metal armor forcefully dragged the woman out from the cart. Then they tied her up on the platform.
"We fear women for they tempt, they seduced! We fear women who do not obey, who rise up... Who question...."
A man wearing a black soutane said with his deep raspy voice.
"This woman you see hear, Miyara is a friend of the devil!"
He added as he pointed at the helpless woman.
"BOOOHHHHHHH!!!!"
The crowd taunted.
Some even threw stones at the direction of the woman who was tied up at the stake while some spat towards her direction.
"She had bewitched animals and has used plants and herbs to enchant people, and make her masters ill!!!!"
The man in soutane said with much conviction on his voice as though he was a hundred percent certain that what he said was true.
His litany did not just end with that as he continued to speak to what he believed to be the truth of the matter.
"She had seduced a poor, innocent man with her charms. With an arrogance thinking that she is equal to her master!"
"Burn her to stake!"
"Burn her alive!!!!"
"Insolent witch!!!"
The aggravated crowd shouted at the top of their lungs, as though they wanted to tear the poor woman with their own bare hands if only they were allowed to do so.
If one would not have known better, they might even believe it if the crowd claimed that the woman had done them wrong at one point in their lives.
When the man in soutane took a piece of parchment from inside his robe and rolled it out in the open, everyone fell silent. The man smiled and went on reading the written order bestowed to him.
"Therefore, by virtue of the encyclical Summis Deciderantes Affectibus, I condemned you to burn here and in hell!!!!"
As he said that, the few servant men under his command started lightning their sticks and threw the fire-lighted sticks in the dry wood that was arranged around the poor young lady.
THEY INTEND TO BURN HER ALIVE!
She was sentenced to die and burn at stake!