Lily’s arrival the previous night had been greeted with enthusiasm, and the many years she had studied Hebrew in college seemed to finally be paying off. The Chief of the tribe of Benjamin had greeted her with a bow while reciting a prophecy about her arrival. She felt humbled by their immediate acceptance of her.
She stared into the bright sunlight glinting off the swirling gusts of snow, having found solitude with Tiamat on an ice shelf in the outskirts of the village. Though her hosts had been accommodating, she needed some time to process everything. As she reached out and touched Tiamat’s scaly chest, her eyes blurred again. She gasped for breath as the frozen tundra transformed into an underwater ocean floor.
“Take me…” she sucked in another breath as she mounted Tiamat’s saddle, “…to the surface.”
Tiamat kicked off and flew into the frozen air. To Lily’s view, it appeared that Tiamat was swimming in the depths of the ocean. After several minutes they breached the surface.
Didst I not say unto thee that thou cannot drown in a vision?
“Yes, you did.” She took another deep breath to calm herself. She wondered if she’d ever get used to that. “But I almost drowned as a child, so sometimes it’s difficult to overcome my phobia of it. I can’t even let my face or ears get wet while I’m in the shower without freaking out.”
Lily looked around as Tiamat gained altitude. Below her, water stretched as far as the eye could see. There appeared to be no signs of life until, in a flash of brilliant light, a large wooden vessel appeared out of nowhere.
“Where did that come from?!”
The boat was massive, resembling an enclosed canoe. Only this was slightly larger than a football stadium. A man with a white beard stood on a platform near the center of the vessel. As she watched, he released a white dove into the air.
Verily, ‘tis Noah. Yea, Noah was the second Seraph. The Ark thou dost see here ‘twas his Amulet. With the Ark, he was able to transport thousands of species of animals and righteous people from Earth to Zion for preservation from the flood.
Lily was stunned. She had always imagined that the story of Noah and the Ark was a fictional story for children.
The vision faded. The water disappeared to reveal a barren wasteland far below them. As Tiamat descended, Lily recognized that the mud-covered ground bore very little vegetation. They flew northward, and Lily spotted the remains of a city buried in the mud. A small group of people were digging out the buried homes and looting them of whatever they could find.
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“Who are these people?”
This is the family of Cush. Verily, Cush was the grandson of Noah. They were exiled to the barren wastelands of Earth after rebelling against God.
“But why? What did they do?”
Together they had taken up arms against Atlantis in an attempt to overthrow Noah. Cush was jealous of his grandfather’s powers, and thought he could take them for himself by conquering the throne. They failed, and were cast out of Zion.
“So, these are the only people left on Earth?”
Verily, the family of Cush didst begin to repopulate the Earth. The rest of the descendants of Noah chose to remain in the fertile lands of Zion for a time.
Lily’s eyes blurred again, and the wasteland had transformed to reveal a lush green undergrowth and small tree saplings had sprung up intermittently across the land. Below them, a wide dirt road extended in a northwest direction.
“Where does this road lead?”
Alas, ‘tis the road to Babylon and the second great machine.
Lily’s heart skipped a beat. “There’s another machine? Like the one underneath Atlantis?”
Verily, there is.
“Take me there.” She paused. “...please.”
As thou dost command.
Lily felt a surge of momentum as Tiamat stretched her wings, and they rose higher into the sky. Lily’s red hair billowed in the wind, and she gasped in exhilaration.
***
Eight hours had passed as they followed the road to Babylon from high above. In the distance loomed what had first appeared to be a lone mountain in the middle of nowhere. As they neared it, however, she determined that it was not a mountain but a building. An overpopulated city surrounded the giant building and the huts extended as far as her eyes could see.
Yonder lies the Great City of Babylon.
“What is that giant building in the middle?”
Yea, ‘tis the Great Tower of Babel.
“Wait... the Tower of Babel?!” she stammered. “As in the story in the Bible?”
I know not what thou dost mean by ‘Bible’. I am not familiar with the customs of Earth. What, pray tell, is a Bible?
“It’s an ancient historical record of the Earth written and compiled by the Jews.”
Ah, yes. The ten tribes doth have many scrolls containing their records that hath been passed down from generation to generation. These ‘Jews’ you mention, could they be the Lost Tribe of Judah? Yea, perchance the Lost Tribe of Benjamin mayest be interspersed among them?
“Yes,” Lily said.. “But they’ve never been lost. The Ten Tribes are the ones who have been lost.”
Verily, I suspect this error of judgment ‘tis caused by perspective. Yea, thou art from Earth. It wouldst appear to thee that the Ten Tribes art those who wouldst be lost. Alas, the perceptions of those in Zion hast been that the Two Tribes were regrettably left behind to be slaughtered by the Assyrians. ‘Tis pleasing to learn that they hath survived.
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