Fall

By Eldon Crowe

Something Bad lurks in the fields and amongst the trees of the Garden where Hadah-Muh and Ahah-Wah have lived in harmony with all the Animals and tended the fruits and the vegetables something not Good. Habbah-Ah, He Who dwells in the Beyond above and Who sometimes comes to walk with them in the Garden has warned them of it. But they have forgotten. And now everything that is Good in this new, young, beautiful World is threatened. For Anah-Hashah, their Nemesis who has so patiently stalked them and plotted his revenge against them is, at last, about to strike. He has fed and nurtured but one goal in his spiteful heart through all of the passing Days in this Garden of Life: to open the way toward Death; to cause the Man and the Woman to Fall.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512758511

Eldon Crowe

Eldon Crowe is a Canadian author of different genres including Biblical fiction. His stories have appeared in Canadian short fiction anthologies such as the Canadian Authors Association Ten Stories High and he is the author of Fall, published in 2016 by Westbow Press, Bloomington, Indiana. He resides in Ontario, Canada, with his wife and two children.

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Copyright © 2016 Eldon Crowe.

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 author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-5852-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-5851-1 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/25/2016

CONTENTS

BOOK ONE

BOOK TWO

BOOK THREE

BOOK FOUR

EPILOGUE

BOOK ONE

S he went to the stream as she always did now before the start of each new Day, gliding through the tall grass wet with the damp-dew. The slender stalks, pale and luminous with the nearing wonder of the Amah-Horuh, the Great Light, were yet enfolded in the shadowy mystery of the Night and she found that this still filled her, at once, with both excitement and uncertainty. There were faint scurryings and scatterings throughout the high grass as she ran, fanning out before her in all directions, but these she was not interested in. At this moment, now, she thought only of the pale stalks. With each stride, her excitement grew. She kept low as she ran, half-crouching, letting her hands move through the soft fronds, touching their gentle heads, feeling their texture and damp coolness.

Ah ayah, she whispered, breathlessly. There was no doubt that these too were alive. Oh, yes. Yet it was in a different way from the animals; a way she did not know.

In her mind, the Word for them came: ‘Habilah.’

Ah! she gasped, "A-yah!" The Words were coming more quickly to her now and this pleased her also - almost as much as it pleased her to run! She smiled and raised her arms up to the Beyond, the abode of Habbah-Ah, as she ran. Habilah, she gasped again, this time to the slowly-lightening sky. There was a definite paleness to it in the East now, far from the Grove and over the distant reaches of Hedeh-Nuh.

It occurred to her as she looked up at the fading lights in the sky that He, Habbah-Ah, might hear her and be pleased as well. She trembled with excitement at the thought. He might, mightn’t He? Yes! And so louder she cried it:

Habilah!

Her high clear voice seemed to pierce the air above the field and the Scurriers and Scatterers positively fled before her! She laughed with joy.

She ran on, swiftly, across the field, her lithe body moving sinuously, effortlessly.

The Trees stood before the stream and when she came amongst them she stopped. Panting, she held her hands tight to her body - in eagerness, yes - but mostly in awe. It was there as it always was, over and beside her left breast. She stood, breathlessly, for a long while, feeling it there beneath her finger-tips. Khayyimah, she whispered. Life. Given of The Breath. When it was strong, she remembered He for The Breath was given of Him. "Habbah-Ah," she breathed raggedly. This she had learned and this she now knew. She had felt the khayyimah also within the Man as he had held her hand over his body, when first they had lain together in the Grove, in the Night, and many times since, when she had wanted to feel his presence and to know that he was near. She flushed as she remembered how she had foolishly thought that khayyimah had come from the Man, from Hadah-Muh - for he had Awoken first - and that he had given it to her as well as to himself and to all the Animals. She shook her head beneath the trees. No, it was not so. No! This was what she had since learned. Hadah-Muh had grasped her fervently by her shoulders there in the Grove in the Night when she had said it and had whispered to her urgently that it was He. He only. Habbah-Ah.

She stood, listening, tilting her head and hearing the rushing water beyond the trees. She could hear nothing else. The Trees did not stir or speak for there was no Breath. She knew that The Breath, given of Habbah-Ah, inhabited all the living in Hedeh-Nuh but could not be seen with the eyes. It could stir all the land, however, even that which was not alive. This she had also learned with great trembling and awe after she had first Awoken and had stepped carefully amongst the trees and through the grass and even over the loose earth itself. It had filled her with such Uncertainty that Hadah-Muh had had to explain to her that The Breath moved whither It willed throughout Hedeh-Nuh but that its will was one with Habbah-Ah’s. And Habbah-Ah, he had told her, was warmth and love only. There could thus be no uncertainty for them when it came to The Breath or with its comings and goings. This, the Man had told her and this she had learned also for herself.

And yet, what of its silence? Of what meaning was it and what did it signify? Of these things, she knew nothing.

For here on the edge of the Forest across the fields everything apart from the water of the stream was indeed quiet - the trees and the animals. The Animals were not even showing themselves to her as many of them still did although they could hardly be unaware of her coming and of her presence here. Where were the Deer? Or the Foxes? Even the Monkeys, who always swung in the trees, chattering excitedly and filling her with happiness when she heard them and saw them, were nowhere to be seen. It was a situation altogether