Then Came the Flood

By Daniel Louis Crumpton

The rule of the Watchers is coming to a close. As the vise grip of their global empire begins to shatter, humanity and its Earth have been caught in the wake of its fall. Murders, thefts, and endless bloodshed have brought the world to the brink of utter desolation. Chema, the aging bringer of wrath, stands at the summit of Mount Hermon, where the Watchers footstool of power is placed on the Earth. Having spent a lifetime hunting down and slaughtering the nephilim, the hybrid offspring of the twelve heavenly ones, Chema has come here now to face the ones responsible for spawning them. Expecting to walk into the full power of their might Chema is dismayed to find the palaces left ruined and the Watchers having fled from the mount.

Following whispers of an impending judgment soon to come and signs in the heavens above the high waters, Chema will have to journey across the unimaginable antediluvian world to discover what is soon to befall the last of mankind. But will the actions he takes in order to finally stand in the court of the Watchers be the catalyst for an impending doom meant to wash away the blight of man?

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781449778729

Daniel Louis Crumpton

Daniel Louis Crumpton has been a researcher of ancient mythologies, esoteric symbolism, spirituality, science, philosophy, and comparative religions for more than twenty years. He is a novelist, social commentator, and political blogger for Zeninthecar.com. Daniel lives and writes from Warner Robins, Georgia.

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THEN CAME

THE FLOOD

DANIEL LOUIS CRUMPTON

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Copyright © 2013 Daniel Louis Crumpton.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-7871-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-7873-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-7872-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012923705

WestBow Press rev. date: 1/8/2013

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

CHAPTER FOURTY

CHAPTER FOURTY ONE

CHAPTER FOURTY TWO

CHAPTER FOURTY THREE

CHAPTER FOURTY FOUR

CHAPTER FOURTY FIVE

CHAPTER FOURTY SIX

CHAPTER FOURTY SEVEN

CHAPTER FOURTY EIGHT

For my Mom who nurtures me, my Wife who believes in me and my Dad who inspires me

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PROLOGUE

I t would have been terribly dull for her staying in this room all week had it not been for the glowing white walls that also soothed her with sound. Sometimes they hummed softly which relaxed her all over, and she would lie flat on her, back just listening. It made her feel like her mind was being tickled, and she could lie there for hours without realizing it. Other times, the walls sounded like chimes being tossed about by the wind, and sometimes, if she listened very closely she could almost make out the sound of a million childlike voices very, very far away singing a chorus. But no matter what strange noises came from the walls they all put her in a calm and lethargic mindset that soothed her to sleep.

Occasionally, a portion of the wall would gently slide away into nothingness, and two or three of her caretakers would come in to monitor her progress by waving a smooth, rounded object a few inches above her belly and then over the rest of her body. Then they would place a small tablet on the tip of her tongue, which she would swallow. She could feel it as it went all the way down her throat, and once it was in her stomach, she had the sensation that she had just eaten the most delicious meal and was completely full.

Once they had seen to that, her caretakers went through the doorway, which sealed itself back into the wall, leaving no trace of having ever been there at all. Where once she could see down the corridor, it was now the white, glowing wall. Now though, she was horrified as the blood which streamed down her leg and onto the floor seemed to light up the room. A hot flash of fear covered her from toe to crown and she stumbled back against the wall and slid down and onto the floor. Her moans bounced around the room with nowhere else to go until the doorway in the wall gently opened.

In came her caretakers with what appeared to her to be a small bed of some kind. It was suspended in mid air a few feet off the ground with no legs or support of any kind. As they came in she saw that none of them pushed it or carried it along. It simply moved along with them by itself as if it were alive.

They carefully picked her up and placed her on the bed which then changed its shape to fit the contours of her body and moved her in the appropriate position to deliver. She wrapped her fingers around the sides and dug deep into it as the pressure increased on the small of her back. It was subtle at first, but as it expanded around on both sides into her hips, the pressure became so forceful and overwhelming that she thought the bones inside of her were going to explode and splinter into a thousand tiny pieces.

One of the caretakers waved the small rounded object over her stomach while the other two waved similar, but slightly different ones over the rest of her body. She couldn’t see any of their lips moving but she could hear them speaking to one another with strange yet beautiful words. The exchange went on for only a few seconds before her attention was drawn to her wrists being constrained to the bed as it changed shape once again to hold her in place.

Her caretakers quickly left the room and began walking down a long corridor. As before none of them were touching the bed, yet it still kept its pace with them on its own. She began to look around in the corridor which was more oblong than it was round. It too was white, though not as bright as the room had been, and as her eyes scanned around, she saw smaller shapes of colors affixed a few inches from the wall. Some red, some blue, and some colors she couldn’t put a name to and they were in all sorts of shapes no bigger than ones fingertips. As they rushed past a connecting corridor, she could see someone like her caretakers facing the small lights and bouncing his fingers off and over them, causing small chirps and beeps in response to him. It was all very strange but an extreme stabbing in her gut snatched her attention away from all of that and back to her current situation.

The force of pressure on her spine and hips remained constant but violent waves and jolts of pain jerked her from side to side. Her insides felt like they were being ripped apart, like something was desperately clawing its way out of her. Beads of sweat rolled down her face stinging her eyes, and when she shut them all she could think was ‘I want to die, I want this to be over, I can’t take anymore, why I can’t just die’.

They finally stopped in some larger room. Her sight was impaired by the sweat and her blurring vision shifting in and out. So, She couldn’t make out the faces of those around her; all she could see was a blur. One of the caretakers pressed something firmly to her neck and she felt it instantly shoot into her skin. Then the pain stopped. Every muscle in her body relaxed and she sank into the bed calmly. Though she could still feel a little pressure in her abdomen, it wasn’t causing her discomfort.

She watched on as the bottom half of the bed formed small constraints over her ankles and then separated her legs enough to deliver the child. A slender tube device was then held above her, aiming a little lower than her navel. A beam of light shot out of it and onto her skin burning an incision in a straight line all the way down. After that was done she felt every bit of pressure that had been tearing her apart rush out of her. She had never before felt so alleviated from something as she did when the child was pulled out of her.

The caretakers had turned away from her with the child in one of their arms before she could see it. With their backs to her they slapped it on its back and it began to cry. She thought for a moment that she had delivered twins or triplets because its high pitched scream was with more than one voice. No, she had seen only one child delivered.

After they had taken a hose of sorts and showered the excess fluid that covered it, they wrapped it in a blanket and happily carried it back to her and placed it in her arms. With tears of joy slowly rolling down her cheeks she looked down at what she had been carrying for three months and ran her fingers over the bony protrusions poking out of the skin on its forehead. She opened the blanket a little to let its little hair covered legs kick about, its hooves with barely a cleft in them. As it opened its mouth to cry she could see that it had its entire first row of teeth, along with tiny stubs behind those where the second row would soon be.

Such a beautiful boy you are, she said, and then she gently kissed its head.

The tree of fable is rooted in fact

Based on actual events

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CHAPTER ONE

S etonosh was a thin and wiry man who couldn’t have weighed more than eighty pounds when carrying a basket of food. But he wasn’t doing that though. There wasn’t any food for him to put in a basket which was the very reason he was a thin and wiry man. Another reason for his skeletal visage was due to the absolute necessity of his running 90 percent of the time as if his life depended on it, and in truth, it did indeed. And running was exactly what he was doing now.

The leaves of the plentiful plants and trees cut at his face like razors as he darted in between them as fast as his stickish legs could carry him. He had no time to stop and check how much blood was streaking down his face or limbs, as doing so might result in even more blood escaping him. He was told to run towards the sound of rushing water, and that’s exactly what he was doing in order to save his own neck. It took skill to determine the direction the sound was coming from while running at full speed, lungs panging like drums. One slight miscalculation and he could spend the next twenty minutes recovering his trajectory. He had to make sure that each and every step he slammed into the ground counted for something because the thing that was close behind him could afford to lose one hundred steps to his one.

For so long, all Setonosh saw were flashes of green in all its variations whizzing by his head until the ground beneath him vanished and he found himself sailing through the air, his head tilting forward and down towards a pool of swirling water. After he hit it with all his light weight and popped back up to the surface, he saw before him a wall of water thundering down, and replenishing the pool he was in. The jagged rocks that decorated the water here and there were retaining their secrets carefully as he waited in violent silence. Now that he was in between the proverbial rock and hard place he realized that that very saying was an understatement when in between water and a hard place. From behind him he could hear the thundering of footsteps drawing closer and closer. He didn’t know what to do after that which he had been told to do, which was make it to the waterfall and wait. The waiting part is what gave him the most trouble.

He looked back and up at where he had shot out from and saw the trees move aside like grass as the likeness of a man came through them slightly slower than he would have. At first he saw the fingers exposed and wrap around the trees, slowly moving them apart, then he saw the head of a man seven times the size of his own peer out, and then down to where he was. Once he was spotted a grin of satisfaction was clearly seen on his pursuer. His head hovered upward several feet as the rest of his body became exposed. Once his pursuer had stood the entirety of his stature, Setonosh could see that he was a clean thirty feet taller than himself and an inestimable amount of pounds heavier. He had not realized this was the case when he provoked the giant. In his life he had come across many of them, but made it his practice to run before he could size them up. He lived a life much like a squirrel that runs down timidly for a scrap of food then flees with lightening speed at the first sign of any movement. He never took the time to see what the movement was, he simply ran.

This time though, Setonosh was forced to come face to face with one of these creatures, and it nearly paralyzed him with fear. The water he was in wasn’t deep enough to disappear beneath, and if he tried to hide knee deep he would run out of air long before the giant one would lose interest in the place. Setonosh tried to remember what he was told to do step by step and even though he was nervous beyond belief, so far he managed to do everything according to plan.

The giant man brought his foot out and stepped down into what was surely to him a puddle, but to Setonosh a pond. Before the other foot could land Setonosh furiously swam towards the waterfall that had made the sound he had followed through the trees. He kicked his little legs and flung his little arms as hard as one fighting for their life, because he was. The giant man thought it was amusing to watch this little thing attempt escape from him. He made himself comfortable in the pond and laughed enough to shake the hillside and the waterfall his prey had hidden behind. It wouldn’t be much of a dinner but as of late there hadn’t been much meat to choose from, even if he had to make do with meat saturated with adrenaline.

Once Setonosh had disappeared behind the wall of water replenishing the pond the giant one began to count in his head until three minutes would expire. This was something he found himself in habit of doing regardless of how hungry he was, or how likely it was for his prey to escape. It was instinctive and compulsive. He felt that he had to do this before he could continue his toying with the prey. To pass the time he tapped the water with his finger tips and hummed to himself. Each slap of the fingertip flew water up several feet but not enough to reach the giant man’s face. After the three minutes passed he quickly stood up, and eyed the waterfall with eager intent.

Time no more left for you little one. Too skinny to stay in there long. Starving to death is very painful way to end life…very painful…and very long. Stomach will eat at itself until what’s inside you become poison and burst. I seen the faces on many that went that way and you listen now ‘cuz I seen the faces twisted with pain inside. he said.

He stopped for a moment to see if his coercion was causing a reaction behind the water. He was beginning to wonder if Setonosh was even worth the wait seeing as how he was so withered and thin anyway. He briefly considered abandoning this little catch and spending his time looking for something that he knew would be more satisfying. Then again, it had been some time since an opportunity like this had presented itself, and he couldn’t risk waiting too awful much longer to eat for the simple reason of being picky.

Out of waterfall without me coming in and I give an oath to end your life very quickly…it happen so fast…so easy you never feel pain again. No matter to me little man, either way it is no more for you. Your choosing.

He was patient enough to give him a few more minutes to think it over until his own stomach gave a tumble, and quenched that patience. Tired of waiting any longer he crouched down a little and slowly pierced through the waterfall with his hand. He gave a few light grasps, felt around a little, and then sent his arm in after his hand. His fingers fumbled around groping the walls, and as far as he could reach he couldn’t feel Setonosh inside. He supposed that his meal must have escaped deep into some cave behind the water, and now there was no hope or point to staying here. Frustrated, he withdrew his arm and shook his head softly in disappointment, much like a child that didn’t get its way. He started back up into the forest. The climb up was no major task for him since his size let him clear the distance in two, simple steps.

He hadn’t disappeared too far into the trees before his keen ears heard something snap from behind him, back at the waterfall. He quickly became excited and couldn’t help but to grin from ear to ear as he stopped dead in his tracks and waited for another. The second time though he heard a cry of pain which swiftly became muffled. The giant one switched the direction of his feet and darted back without missing a beat. He had cleared the drop off again and landed in the pool causing a crater of water for just a second before gravity pulled it back down around his ankles. He hadn’t seen the skinny little man on his way down so he flung his hand and arm back into the waterfall reaching for all he was worth. The socket of his arm felt as if it were going to pop out of joint, but he could feel breath blowing across his skin, and if only he could reach just a little further.

Then without warning, the giant one let out an enormous cry of pain even before he had realized that the pain was a piercing wound in his hand, just between the bones in the middle. His hand instinctively snapped out of the cave and back towards his ear like a reverse strike from a serpent. Just as his hand shot out of the water, and into his view the sight of what was on it startled him enough to double step backwards.

It wasn’t the man that had went into the cave, not the skinny little man whose fear he could almost smell through the trees. No, this man was altogether different. Much larger, much older, more hair which was grey instead of black, and as the momentum of the giant one’s hand had propelled this man to come flying towards him he just barely saw the fury carved into his face. His left hand was holding on tight to the handle of a harpy, a harpy whose blade was dug deep into his hand. The man’s right hand threw one end of a very large rope towards his neck. On the end of the rope a large stone was entwined, and the thrust it was given was enough to clear the giant ones neck, snap short, and sling around and around. Just before the giant ones hand had completed its backward snap past his own ear, the man coming at him let go of the hook, and with the hand which was now free he secured his grip on the end of the rope he still held. It was too late for the giant one to prepare for what was coming as his assailant whizzed right by his ear, and with all of his size, strength, and of course with the momentum the giant one had supplied him, the rope snapped taut right at his Adams apple.

The giant one gagged as the rope tightened, and the man on the end of it landed behind him, and quickly pulled back with every fiber of strength he had. It was enough to bring him down on his back. He brought his hands up towards his neck to fight with the rope in hopes of relief and air. His assailant would not allow him to get one second worth of a chance. He dashed by his head, reached up, and snatched the hook from the hand leaving an opening and burst of blood. Once his weapon was back in his own possession he reached for its twin from its sheath on the small of his back. Both of them were long bones of some sort, and on the end of both was another jackknifed bone which was very much different than the first. Instead of doubled rounded at the end, these were long talons with serrations on the side facing downward. With a quick movement of the wrist he could snap them out of a locked position, and into another on a whim.

He snapped both of them into a downward slant, and planted one into the giant ones side abdomen. Once it was dug in deep and secure enough to hold his weight he used it to hoist himself up, and plant the second one into the flesh of the giant, who now was wailing with sharp pain. As the assailant secured his position on top of the giant one his blades were plucked free, and he began sprinting towards the large head.

The giant was just beginning to acknowledge what exactly was going on. Once his slow mind had gathered itself he knew that for the first time in his entire existence he had come face to face, as it were, with a human that did not run, but instead chose to fight. Not simply chose to fight, no this was something different altogether. This was a human unleashing a full fledged attack, something completely alien to the giant one. Not knowing what to expect he collected himself and began to rise up from his lying position. His assailant was no longer afforded the luxury of running flat and straight, but now had to contend with running up a moving giant at impossible angles.

As the giant one leaned up supporting itself with its elbows the sudden stabbing pains returned, this time though not in the hand but on the stomach, then the chest, and then the neck. He glanced down to see his assailant using his blades to dig into his flesh, hoist up, slam the other blade into his flesh, hoist up and on and on until he had reached the face. The giant one established his footing once he had made it all the way up and was now prepared to pry this man off of him and fling him miles away if he had to. This opportunity would not come so easily though. His assailant was very agile, very aware of his surroundings, and was more than capable of using them to get the edge on the situation no matter how large in mass he was, and for a human he was very large in mass. Each time the giant one attempted to slam him with his hands the assailant had already gained ground upward towards the face. Each slap of the giant ones hand against his very chest was for naught.

His assailant had clung onto his face with all of his strength and pulled his arm back like a catapult, the bone harpy in his hand snapped into a stabbing position, and the assailants strike came fiercely into the giant ones eye. As the blade pierced the surface, and was forced in deeper, the assailant ripped, and slashed until the eye was obliterated and could never be used again. He knew that within seconds of his destructive act a very large hand would instinctively come up towards him to clasp the wound, and crush him in the process. He wasted no time in maneuvering out of the way and onto this giant’s shoulder, then snapping his bone blades into position again, slightly stepping outward, and catching the tips of the bones into the giants back he slid down towards the ground as the blades opened up the flesh of the brute.

Screams. Painful, loud, forceful screams. The giant one had never felt the amount of pain that he was feeling now. He never in his life had encountered something that could inflict this upon him by either choice or instinct. He had always been accustomed to being the one bringing the fear, the shadow of death, and the sound of domination. Each and every time he had done this to a weak and small thing of a prey he could smell the fear, the weakness, and then the acceptance. This was different though. He couldn’t smell any of that. As he tried to assess all the places he was gushing blood from, the only thing he could smell from this man was the scent of fury, the scent of rage, the scent of recompense. He couldn’t understand it, he couldn’t explain it, but as he caught glimpses of this man moving all about him, tearing away at him, bringing him to a vulnerable position, he knew that somehow this man deserved the blood he was exacting. This wouldn’t stop his instinctual reactions of self preservation though. Each and every time this hulk of a man brought an onslaught of violence to him, he fought against it with all he had, even though each attempt was apparently useless.

For a moment the assailant had ceased from causing damage. This gave the giant one enough time to take a few steps back towards the waterfall, spin around, and look at the situation as best he could. The eye that had been mutilated wasn’t helping him in any way, and the one that was left was struggling to compensate for the other. Once he had gotten his bearings he fixed his gaze a few feet before him and, saw the assailant standing in a prone position with both of his bone harpys ready. He held himself as if he could tackle the giant all on his own with his shear brute strength. This was enough of a mistake for the giant one to charge him with all his own strength. Once he began executing this, it was too late to realize that his plan was poorly thought out, and a slight dodge was all it took for his assailant to watch the giant one slam his head into one of the stones of the earth. It wasn’t enough to put him out, but it was enough to stun and disorient him.

The assailant leapt back on him and scurried up, and around; towards the giant one’s face. Once there he looked down to his accomplice and shouted for assistance.

Setonosh, now! the assailant shouted.

The skinny little Setonosh had exposed himself some time ago, and was enjoying himself as a spectator. He had watched his friend whittle his pursuer with an enormous amount of pleasure. Now though it was time for him to assist, so as the shout came down he ran to the side of the pond and retrieved the bundle of cloth that had been placed there long before any of this had begun. Once it was in his fist he ran towards the two in combat and whipped it round twice, slinging it upward. The assailant caught it sure enough and didn’t hesitate at slamming the bundle down the giant ones throat.

This caused the entire ordeal to slow down. The giant one was caught off guard as the thing awkwardly slithered down his esophagus and opened up inside his stomach. The reaction was almost instantaneous. His assailant could see that the chemicals bubbling inside of him were taking effect so he took his cue and got as far away as possible. As hoped the giant one gave in to the bundle inside his stomach, the chemical that had swiftly rushed through his system causing him to become overwhelmingly sleepy. He took a few steps in odd directions, and began to fall on his side, completely unaware of anything. He had become a victim of a powerful root which took days to dig up and grind into a fine powder until it could be administered to something of his size.

Neither Setonosh, nor the assailant moved for several moments after the thundering collapse of the giant one. Both of them wanted to be absolutely positive that it was out for the count. Once those moments passed, the assailant snapped the bone harpys into a safe position and placed them securely in the sheaths on the small of his back. He relaxed his posture once he was sure that the creature wasn’t going to suddenly shoot out of its slumber. He found the nearest stone and sat down on it to rest from the skirmish. He paid no mind to Setonosh who scrambled towards the waterfall, and disappeared behind it. He was saying something, a lot of somethings as a matter of fact, all of which the assailant ignored. He was more concerned with the possibility that he had been injured without realizing it. In silence he closed his eyes and let all the sensations throughout his body return to his brain. Was there pain anywhere? Was there the warm flow of blood from any extremity? Anything broken, anything dislodged? One couldn’t be too cautious at his age, a slight injury to a young man could be the undoing of someone as seasoned as he. Perhaps a few decades ago he would have done this and kept going, but now he was reasonable enough to know that he had more days behind him than he did ahead.

Setonosh sprang out from the waterfall with a bundle in his hand and waved it back and forth as if he had discovered something that neither of them had previously known about.

Chema…Chema! he shouted.

Once Chema looked up at him, Setonosh was satisfied that he had gotten enough attention and thus clumsily made his way down the wet stones. Chema shook his head softly and only mumbled a remark of frivolity loud enough for his own ears. He didn’t want to take any glory away from Setonosh seeing as how the only glory he could have at this point was retrieving and delivering his clothes to him. Before any planned engagement Chema shed himself of anything that served no purpose or could hinder him in an onslaught or attack. Most of the time he wrapped himself in enough clothe to cover the entirety of his body and protect him from the rigors of travel; and the chance of being immodest. However when the time came for him to draw blood, and every ounce of his primal instinct rose up inside of him, everything came off with the exception of his armored girdle.

Sorry about getting them wet, I can spread them out on the rocks to dry if you want. he said handing Chema his garment.

He took it, shook it out to rid it of all the excess water and threw it around his body, then pinning it in place in what almost looked like a single motion. The perfect placement of the thing mattered very little to him so long as it served its purpose. No need to inform Setonosh that there simply wasn’t enough time, he was sure that the idea had gotten across by simply ignoring the offer.

Very soon that thing isn’t going to be laying there as peaceful as it is now so if you don’t want to be the first thing it sees when it wakes up I think you should stop talking and help me with it. Chema said.

The two of them went to work with little to no words being spoken between them after that. Setonosh didn’t speak because he in fact didn’t want to be the first thing the giant one would see and Chema didn’t because speaking was one of the things he saw as optional rather than required while around others. What is the appropriate thing to say to another when a man, if that could describe it, that was at least forty feet taller than either of them had just tried to rip them limb from limb and could very well come to at any moment? How’s the weather?

Even at the hurried pace the two of them were working, attaching a makeshift harness to this thing’s back took nearly an hour. The most difficult part was getting the straps of the thing underneath the giant ones side so they could be attached to the chest piece. While Setonosh executed this, Chema was busy packing the socket which once housed an eye so the thing wouldn’t bleed to death before it could serve its purpose. Once he was satisfied that that was no longer an imminent danger he began work on the other eye. When the work was done the great light in the sky had faded away, the details of the world were replaced with shadows and shades and the smaller light made its way above them. Now that his mind was freed from the burden of the task they had completed the aching in his knee began to creep back up from overuse and agitate him. He reached down to give it a good rub and looked around for a nice spot to sit for a while. Chema was going to take the time to relax and gather his thoughts in silence while working over the pain while he waited for the creature to stir itself but Setonosh would have no part of that.

He stood in front of him with an expectant look on his face and an impatient posture to match it.

What? Chema asked.

I did what you asked didn’t I?

Yes. Yes you did.

It’s been days you know, I know I’m always on the steps of starvation but by now even you have to be hungry. Setonosh said.

It had been days, and if Setonosh hadn’t said anything Chema probably wouldn’t have realized that he too was indeed hungry. He stood up and slapped a little dust off giving the skinny man a slight nod. It had been days since they had eaten because it had been days since Chema had found anything to eat. The closer and closer the two of them came to where he was heading the more scarce food became. How could people like them go into the forest or by the lakes and hunt or fish when things like the giant one on the ground were devouring everything they could see? The deeper in their territory Chema went the more wasted the land would become, it was no wonder that there were nearly no humans left for miles and miles in all directions of the base of Mount Hermon. When he had ran into Setonosh it was because the poor man was terribly lost and had certainly found himself in a place that, had he known where, he would not have wanted to be.

Chema looked up and could make out the circling of vultures overhead doing their best to find food as well. It seemed all of them were in the same dire predicament. With a broken branch left over from the scuffle he walked over and smeared the top of it in the semi dried blood of the giant ones hand. He waved it around and around in the air until one of the starving vultures caught a good scent of it and slowly wafted downward. He sat the stick down and patiently waited for the bird to finally touch ground, too desperately hungry to be frightened, and begin pecking at the stick. It was only allowed one peck before Chema snatched it by its head and gave it one swift thrust on the rocks killing it instantly. Tossing the vulture at Setonosh’s feet, he went back to where he had been sitting before and resumed his position.

Start a fire. he said.

I thought you said that thing could wake up at any moment? You expect to have time for us to make camp and cook this thing?

You work better when you’re hungry. Now start a fire.

After the vulture had been thoroughly picked clean and its smallest bones were now being used as toothpicks, Setonosh couldn’t help but notice and admire the irony of eating a vulture. Seemed like poetic justice to him even though the thing tasted absolutely horrendous and would more than likely exact its vengeance on him later. He was thankful though, if it hadn’t been for Chema there was no doubt in his mind that he would have starved by now.

You should head south. Follow the waters of the streams and travel in the water as much as possible. Some of them can smell us like a lupine or better, so you want to mask your scent as best you can. If you have to cross over plains or fields wait until night to do it and even then be very cautious. Sooner or later you should find others probably banded together for safety. Chema said.

Setonosh tossed a small bone into the fire and listened to it crackle as he shook his head in rejection of the idea.

I’m not heading south. I’m not heading anywhere. We have an arrangement, how am I supposed to hold up my end if I’m gone?

You aren’t.

Then a better question is how are you going to hold up yours? I bait these things into your traps, you kill ‘em, and then I get to eat. Everyone’s happy, except for the big ones anyway. Setonosh protested.

"You can’t come with me Set. I shouldn’t have let you come this