This captures the aftermath of the Fall from eden. We quickly have builders and cities imagined and a history to hold.
Yet all this arose around 45,000 years ago.
The country described reflects our expectations of wide expansive coastal plains. We hear of the cradle land likely upon another world and we also see Eden.
CHAPTER SIX
DAD AM AND LEWID
Maeva fled for her life
and many kinfolk went with her. But Dadam was unable to follow, being laid low
with the sickness. This loosened his tongue so it became uncontrollable, making
him babble like a child, and the sickness covered his body with red sores from
which came an issue. Lewid also departed for a place far out in the wilderness.
Those with Dadam, who
looked back towards the place of the garden, saw bright tongues of light
licking the sky above it, the whole being interwoven with flickering flames in
many hues. Those who sought to return were repulsed with a tingling ache over
their bodies which increased into severe pain as they approached, so they were
driven away.
When Dadam recovered so
he could stand, only a few remained with him and they all moved further into
the wilderness to a place where there was water and pasture. There Dadam left
Herthew, his son, and the boy's mother, with Habaris the Learned, and set out
to find Lewid.
After many days Dadam
and those with him came upon Lewid and his Yoslings who were full of sickness,
and slew many, but Lewid was not slain though mortally wounded, and he lay
against a great rock. When Dadam came near, Lewid raised an arm heavily and
said, "Hail to the victor and benefactor who was come to terminate our
wretchedness". While Dadam stood sternly contemplating him, Lewid said,
"To kill me now is your prerogative, for even we lesser being who are far
removed from godmen have the law of husbandly pride. What I did has been done
before and will be done again, but I erred by crossing an unknown barrier which
could not be discemed, for we, within ourselves, are no more contagious to each
other than are your people.
If then I must die, let
it be for my part in spawning the cankerworms of disease which have stricken
both our peoples".
"Back in the
dreamingtime, when the Great Gods strove among themselves for dominion of the
skyspaces, and the wide expanse of Earth was rent apart by unearthly wildfire,
Bemotha was cut apart by the bright arrows of Shemas. Then this land was given
to my people as their dominion, while yours was in another unearthly place far
distant. Our domain was a pleasant place and though you teach that because of
this we remained as we are, yet we were content. We know of no great design,
nor of any barely attainable objectives to which men must aspire. Such striving
as you know is to us no more than purposeless vexation".
"I have my God and
you have yours, and as they strove one against the other beforetimes, so will
it always be; but now there is a new battleground with new battlechiefs. I will
go to my appointed place and you will go to yours, and from thence, as leaders
of the fray, we shall wage a never ceasing war. Such is fated and must be, but who
will win the fair prize of Earth for their king? We shall not strive with clubs
and lances, the hurling stone and flying dart, but with more subtle weaponry.
This thing is not our choice, we are but playthings of fate. That you and I
should head the fray is not because of our qualities but because we were where
we were, when we were. Now we are but two precarious points of life in a hostile
wilderness, but what might we be in a hundred generations?"
Dadam said, "These
things I know too, for my eyes have always been opened. I too have looked out
into an endless plain without any horizon, but I shall lead those who have
grown strong through seeking and striving, while those in your ranks will be
weakened through indulgence in the fleshpots and pleasure places of Earth. We are
the disinherited but not the disowned, we have the seeds of victory within us.
You and yours were never more than you are, sons of the easy path, followers of
the downhill road".
Then, when these things
had been spoken, Lewid died and Dadam and those with him burnt his body. Dadam and
those with him wandered the wasteland for many days, then turned southward
towards the mountain. Then it happened that one day Dadam was seated apart, in
solitude among rocks, with chin on chest, and a hunter of the Ubalites came
upon him from behind. The hunter slung a smooth stone as the man turned, and it
struck out his eye. Then the Ubalite slew him by smashing in his head with a
stone.
The hunter was the son
of Ankadur, son of Enanari, king of the Ubalites, by Urkelah, daughter of the
Chaisites.
This is known because
those who were with Dadam came out of the barren places and learned the ways of
builders, becoming great among the Ubalites and raising cities along the
rivers. Among them was Enkilgal who built Keridor, which stands between the two
great rivers, and Netar and Baletsheramam who taught men the ways of writing,
setting the letters upon a pillar in Herak.
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