Enoch Primordial (Chronicles of the Nephilim) (13 page)

“How is it possible to crossbreed such manifold creatures?” asked Methuselah.

A pall of darkness came over Ohyah’s face. “It is not natural,” he said. “It is part of an experiment of occultic secrets by the gods.”

“But why?” asked Enoch. “For what purpose?”

“I do not know,” said Ohyah. “But I suspect you will find the answer in Bashan.”

“Well, let us get our rest,” said Enoch. “We begin our crossing of
the Great Desert in the morning.”

They set out to cross the
Great Desert, heading into a stretch of one hundred and seventeen leagues of the most severe desert, with the harshest weather Enoch and his band of warriors had ever experienced. He wondered where such severity came from. He had heard that in early days, the region had been rich in vegetation, animal life and bodies of water. Something had happened that changed it all, that brought a curse upon this infernal land.

Riding onagers, they followed a trade route
marked by wells along the way. The watering spots gave them relief for their blistered and dehydrated bodies. They crossed paths with caravans returning from Egypt by way of the Levantine coastal lands. Within days they adjusted to the harsh environment. As nomads, they had learned to survive in any habitat, from rigid cold mountain to hot humid jungle to barren dry tundra.

Methuselah, who longed to experience all the extremes that his body could endure in this world, found it exhilarating. He
felt that if Elohim gave him physical senses to experience, he would indulge them to the fullest — within moral boundaries of course. And one of those moral boundaries included holy union with his beloved Edna.

He fantasized about making love to her alone and naked in this wide open arid expanse, surrounded by nothing but leagues of sand and rock, with only Elohim as their audience. Even after all these years, he was
more grateful for Elohim’s creation of oneness with his wife than anything else, be it feasting on a roasted boar or killing a giant. Well, roasted boar ran a pretty close second.

Edna glanced at Methuselah, lost in thought as they plodded along on their pack animals. She knew exactly what he was thinking. She felt a little sorry for him, because she knew they would not have the opportunity to ditch their fellow travelers to make love in the vast
open terrain as he no doubt was fantasizing. She would tease him in their tent later that night.

Enoch had not
adapted to this miserable climate as well as the others. He used the long hours of travel to pray to Elohim. But he could not stand the relentless heat. He longed to leave his body and once again swim in the crystalline waters above the heavens. He dreamed of being in the heavenly temple and the glorious light of ten thousand times ten thousand of Elohim’s holy ones. Instead, he suffered the burning rays of a red hot sun scorching him to the bone.

Lamech and Betenos
lagged further behind. Their non-stop talk drove everyone up a rock cliff. What is your favorite animal to kill and skin? Do you prefer lean-to shelters or sleeping under starlight? Do you ever want to settle down in a city someday? It was amazing how long they could talk without taking a break to breathe or drink water from their goat skins.

Edna smiled and said a prayer of thanks when she heard them spend hours debating the
greatness of Elohim versus the Great Goddess. She could hear Betenos breaking down in her protestations. She knew it was only a matter of time before Betenos rejected her pagan upbringing and embraced Elohim. Who knows? She might even become a giant killer. In the meantime, she cooked a mean lizard stew and kept them from heat exhaustion with her herbal remedies.

The one area that gave
Edna grave concern was Betenos’ vow against marriage. The young woman was dead set against having children and refused to talk about it. Edna made a mental note to talk to Betenos about it when they were alone.

Ohyah
brought up the rear. They all found it difficult to accept a giant walking amongst them. He did not want to make them any more uncomfortable. Besides, Nephilim were reclusive creatures and treasured their solitude. They were bred to kill, not socialize.

The group made astonishing time at almost eight leagues a day for nearly a week. They were just past half way to their destination. The midafternoon sun penetrated everything.

A
gush of warm air washed over them.

A shiver went through Ohyah’s spine. He yelled out in his deep resounding voice
,. “Shaitan! Shaitan!” It carried all the way to Enoch at the front of their line.

It was the Naphil word for sandstorm, a very vicious sandstorm. Enoch
searched the horizon. He did not see it. No one did. The Nephilim had a sixth sense the humans did not share.

Ohyah sprinted to the front. “It is coming from the north! We must get to shelter!”

They had seen no shelter for days.

Enoch yelled, “RUN!”
They all kicked their rides and galloped westward as fast as they could.

The storm did not take long to become visible. A huge billowing wall of sand in the distance charged toward them like a tsunami. Before they could get to safety, it swept over them. A cyclone of whirling dust and sand and rocks enveloped them.

A large rock hit Ohyah in the back. It would have killed any of the humans, but it
merely knocked him dizzy. He tried to cover the women with his bulky figure.

They
did not know how long they could last. Such storms could be short gusts or stretch for distances of leagues.

They covered their mouths with their cloaks as filters. They could barely breathe.

The onagers collapsed. They had no filters for their lungs
.

The company could not move. Their beasts of burden were dead. They huddled together.

They prepared to die.

A
s suddenly as it began, the storm stopped. It passed over them. They coughed and sputtered and shook out the sand from their clothes.

They looked around
. The storm had not actually passed them by. It was now all around them. They stood within a swirling wall of sand circling around them like a huge corral.

“The eye of the storm,” blurted Lamech.

They had heard of such a thing, but had never experienced it. As if they were at sea, this hurricane of sand had a center of complete calmness and they had entered it. All around them rushed the impenetrable curtain of cyclonic wind and earth. They huddled in a circle of complete calmness.

Betenos looked up behind them all with astonishment. “Oh my gods, it is true. It is really true.”

Everyone turned to see an incredible wonder. Not too far from them stood a tree, a very large tree, a tremendous tree that extended into the heavens, thousands of cubits high.

“The World Tree,”
murmured Betenos. “See, Lamech?” she cried, “I told you it was true. The Great Goddess Earth Mother.”

She fell to her knees and worshipped.

Enoch looked upwards. He could not see where the tree ended. It just disappeared into the clouds. How could this be? They should have seen it from leagues away. But there had been nothing but empty desert for many leagues in every direction. It was not only thousands of cubits high, it was at least a couple hundred cubits around. Its tangled mass of roots were no doubt anchored deep into the earth. It could not move with the shifting storm, so how could it be in the center of it?

Enoch rubbed his eyes. Was this a vision? It could not be. The others
saw it as well. Were they under some kind of spell? It must be magic.

Skepticism filled
Enoch. He felt they were nestling within the coils of a huge serpent. It might be dark magic.

Ohyah recalled the story from his youth about Inanna and the Huluppu Tree. Could this be the one? The very origin of the Sacred Marriage rite. It came rushing back to him.
In the very first days and the very first nights when Anu and Enlil had separated the heavens and the earth, and Ereshkigal was given the underworld, there was a single Huluppu Tree.
The wood from the tree was used to make the bed of Inanna where her lover Dumuzi would unite with her. Then he remembered,
the great thunderbird, Anzu left its young up in the branches
. Ohyah stared up into the sky, transfixed, looking for some sign of the mythical eagle-like creature.

W
ithout warning, he ran toward the tree.

Enoch yelled after him, “Ohyah! What are you doing?”

Ohyah did not respond. He ran like the wind all the way to the mighty trunk and jumped onto it a dozen cubits in the air.

He climbed.

The others stood wondering what had gotten into his head to do such a thing.

Methuselah said, “I knew we could not trust the giant.”

“We must take cover before the storm shifts," Enoch said, starting toward the tree. They approached its base, a tangle of gnarled roots plunging into the earth like grappling hooks. The wood of the tree was weather-beaten and leathery. The roots writhed and folded around each other creating crevices and hideaways.

High above them, Ohyah climbed rapidly.
White clouds shrouded the top of the tree. As they watched the spectacle of the tree-climbing giant, he vanished into the mist.

Enoch
brought his gaze back down. He started.

T
hree beautiful young maidens stood before them like phantasms. They reminded him of the cave dwellers of Sahand who suddenly appeared as if rising from the ground itself. But these beings probably materialized from the large fissures of the tree. And they were not so earthy as the cave dwellers.

They were actually quite heavenly.

Surprise silenced the travelers.

The women were barefoot, adorned in silky flowing dress, with flower-laden hair. One had jet black hair and the others had wavy locks as golden as the sand.
Their pale milky skin looked as if it had never been in the sun. And when they spoke, it gave the impression of singing.

The women spoke as if in unison, “Welcome to our abode. You must be exhausted to have weathered such a storm.”

Enoch could swear he did not see their mouths move. “Who are you?” he asked.

“I am Lilith,” said the raven-haired beauty. “And these are my daughters Lili and Lilu.”

“Are you angels?” blurted Lamech.

Lilith smiled. “We are the keepers of this most sacred space.”

“Where are we? What is this?” asked Enoch.

“This is the Great Goddess Earth Mother, the Tree of Life,”
answered Lilith. “She is the link between heaven and earth.”

“What?” said Enoch. He looked at Methuselah and Edna.
They knew of only one Tree of Life and that was unapproachably secluded in the Garden of Eden.

Lilith and the girls giggled. “All will be made clear. But first you must rest, re
-gather your strength,” said Lilith.

She led them to a campsite nestled in the encircling roots of the tree. It seemed a comfortable safe encampment with a firepit, locations for sleeping and protection from any sandy winds or scorching sunrays that might try to find them.

But the feature that
caught their attention was the flowing fountain of sparkling fresh water that poured from a hole in the tree into a small pool with well walls built around it.

Lamech plopped down exhausted in a bed-like nook of soft bark.

Lilith stepped over to the pouring water and took a handcupped sip. “You must be weary and thirsty from your journey. Please allow Lili and Lilu to serve you refreshment.”

Enoch, Methuselah and Edna were not merely weary but wary. Betenos was transfixed in wonder.

Lamech started to snore. He had fallen asleep from fatigue.

Lili and Lilu brought ladles of the water to them
. Enoch surmised that this strange angelic woman could not be offering them poisoned water since she indulged from the fountain herself. He nodded to the others and they drank deeply.

But Enoch also noticed
something about Lilu that made him curious. Up close, it became apparent to him that Lilu was in fact a slender feminine young boy who had been dressed and groomed as a girl. But the promise of water distracted him.

The liquid felt like balm in their parched throats. It brought almost instant healing to their chapped lips and revived them from within. Their blurry sight became unclouded. Their foggy heads dissipated and they could think more clearly. They must have been dangerously dehydrated and had not realized it.

Lilith said to them, “It is the living waters.”

Edna felt a pain in her stomach. Nausea swept over her. She looked at the others. They seemed all right. It
was not the water.

Lilith noticed Edna
’s grimace with a look of concern, a display of preternatural sensitivity to others’ feelings. To Edna, she seemed the very embodiment of compassion. She was elegant and fair, like a hidden queen of this desert oasis paradise.

Methuselah, who sometimes had a wandering eye for beautiful women, was no doubt allured by her comeliness. He deeply loved his wife and poured all his passionate lust out upon her along with his tender love.
She knew he worked hard at keeping his eyes focused on his beloved Edna. But she also knew her husband’s tastes. She suspected that he was trying very hard at that moment to not display an attraction to this exotic woman and her daughters.

She was right
. Methuselah found Lilith sublimely beauteous. He tried very hard to listen without looking. He wondered if Havah had looked like this when she was first created in the Garden so long ago, the essence of woman.

Enoch
felt surprised at himself. He had never been one to pursue the lusts of the flesh, and had trained his senses to be austere. But he truly had never seen such transcendent and feminine loveliness in all his wanderings. It stirred him in a way he had not been stirred for years. He wondered if he had become too mental and disembodied in his spirit. Perhaps Methuselah’s accusation of him was correct: he was missing out on the appreciation and worship of Elohim in his sensual creation. The beauty was awakening him to his own humanity.

Lamech had stopped snoring
. In his dreams, he began to experience erotic thoughts he had not had before. His desire for Betenos was rising within his soul. He wanted to marry her. But she did not worship Elohim, and that was a problem. He had no desire to unite his body, a temple of Elohim, to a temple of other gods. She had listened and asked questions for a while. But she was unwilling to reject the gods she had known all her life and worship his god. But even if she did, she still did not want to marry and raise a family.

Yet, in
the dream, Betenos came to Lamech as he slept. She whispered in his ears, “I will follow your god, but you must first know me.”

By
knowledge she meant carnal knowledge. She writhed before him with the throbbing enticement of a seductress, bringing all his senses alive with desire. Her body began to sway and undulate with an inhuman flexibility, almost like that of a snake.

She brushed
against his body and he was about to grab her and have his way, when her tongue flicked out and licked his chest. It was a split tongue.

It shocked him awake. His heart
raced. He tried not to display his fear as he looked at Betenos sitting attentively listening to Lilith, completely unaware of Lamech behind her.

Edna thought she felt the sand move beneath them. It was a dizzy spell. She shook it off. She was feeling better.

Enoch said to Lilith, “Tell us about this Tree of Life you call the Great Goddess Earth Mother.” Enoch refused to be a pushover. Just because they had been rescued by these maidens, that did not mean he trusted that they had altruistic motives. The others knew he was testing Lilith. He did not mention that they had sojourned with the very first inhabitants of the Garden, the only humans to see the Tree of Life. It was not an insignificant omission.

Her daughters sat dutifully beside Lilith as she told her amazing story.