Dis is awesome #copied# NIMROD. The original order was to find the baby Jesus and kill him. Now it was destroy all male babies under the age of two. That shouldnt be my problem, but I have a son and he is two years old, and I am the chief of King Herods soldiers. My wife and I have been married sixteen years and she has never conceived. For sixteen years I begged the gods of my fathers while she prayed to the God of her Jewish people. And maybe my Grandmother was right, our union was cursed; what business does a Greek have with a Jewish girl? So what if my father was a Greek and my mother a Jew? Did I have to go and perpetuate his madness? But I love Leah, she is a good woman, very meek and hard-working. She is not like the Greek women I used to go out with. Tomboys, flirtatious and very confrontational species of beings. With Leah, I am promised the peace I need to come home to after hours on the streets, carrying out King Herods orders and having to deal with resentment from Roman and Jewish soldiers who felt the leadership of an outsider is an affront to them. But I am not afraid. I am the best soldier in Herods private troop. It was I who single-handedly quelled the last rebellion led by that madman Syrus. I had twisted his spear from his hand and smashed his head against the cobblestoned pavement outside the gate. The sight of how easily I handled their hulking leader had turned the roar of his followers into whimpers. I know the things they say behind my back, they call me Ithaca the Ogre. I pretend I dont hear. It was Leah who said, husband, so long as they never disrespect you to your face, let them be the cowards they want to be behind your back. These stupid short men started it, those Magis with their funny dresses and dry accents like the desert they passed on their way here. We seek the new born king, they had said. We have been observing his star. We are come to worship him. And Herod, that cold-hearted barbarian king had panicked. Herod who had ordered the execution of his own sons and his wifes father who was a rabbi. Herod, the power drunk savage had lost sleep over it. Over some religious nonsense prophecy. He had gave the Magis gifts and told them to find the baby and return to give him word so he could also come worship the baby king. As if... But the Magis hadnt returned. And that was two years ago. Ithaca! He had bellowed one night. I will wait no longer. Take half the soldiers under you to Bethlehem and kill every male child from two years and under! Okay, my lord, I will do so first thing tomorrow... No! I want it done NOW! his bellow was so loud, it startled a gecko in the ceiling above him, as the reptile fell down, Herods boots thudded twice, he stamped with such force that when he raised his leg, the gecko was nothing but a blood smear on the floor. They would need a shovel to scrap that poor thing out, I had thought. Are you still there? But I was already moving, my own boots thudding noisily on the marble floors of the corridor to the Kings chambers. I stood outside the quarters where the soldiers had already retired for the night and barked a command. Everybody out! The boom of my own voice never ceased to surprise me. Leah said I am a walking box of thunder. As I shouted, the night seemed to explode and come to life with the hurried movements of soldiers. It was as we were halfway towards Bethlehem that it hit me that I have a son too. His name was Nimrod. He had Leahs round face and my chin and bass. I tried to picture Leahs face as the soldiers stormed in and cut the light from his eyes. I tried to picture a Nimrod-less life. No! I tried not to think of other parents that were about to suffer a bloody and agonizing loss. Did they have to wait so hard and long like me? Tatum was walking behind me. He was my second in command. A big brute of a man with huge arms and the build of a rhinoceros. I have seen him deliberately get in fights with men at the local bar, he used his elbows the way other men used their fists and he had a bottle half-full of teeth back in his sleeping quarters. A sick trophy and to me, a memento of a mans bloodlust. Where do we start? He asked me. I pretended not to hear but he was insistent. By Jove, this man is an animal. He wanted us to split, to approach the village from all sides and cut off any escape route. I looked at him and in the gleam of the moonlight that shone in his eyes, I understood suddenly the kind of soldiers Herods bodyguards would become when I am gone. Which was soon. Okay, I forced myself to say. You take thirty men and move in from the South side, by the temple gates, I will take thirty and approach from the North. Rami and Nava will lead from the East and West. He grinned. I felt sick. I watched him move away, tapping sleepy-eyed soldiers on the shoulders, getting them to follow. I cant do this. I cant save the whole of Bethlehem from Herods madness, but I have a duty to Leah and Nimrod. May the gods of my fathers and the God of my father forgive me. I have got to slip away from the soldiers under my command and reach Leah before they do. I have to take my child away. I am taking my family from this madness. For good. The first house the soldiers knocked on, it was the cry of a child that brought us there. I recognized the woman, her name was Rachel. She weaved and sold beautifully patterned baskets at the market. Leah had four of her baskets back home. Her son was born five months ago. What is it? She asked, her eyes and throat bulging with the panic her chest couldnt keep down anymore. I couldnt watch. But I did. Titus tore her baby from her grasp and before I could react, he smashed the child against the wall. The sound of breaking bones would haunt my dreams everyday for the next forty years. Rachel stood frozen, her expression balanced between shock and horror. Then she fell to the ground and began to weep. I stood there, staring at Titus, dangling the dead baby by his feet, staring at blood smears on the wall that flowed slowly downwards, breaking off before they reached the floor. And I knew I would have to kill him before I go. * My heart thundered like Zeus was trapped within my chest but I didnt stop running. My clenched fists felt damp. With sweat? With blood? Little babies blood. Children who would have been Nimrods playmates and best friends but for a deranged king. Tituss blood too. I had dispersed the other soldiers to the surrounding houses then slit his throat behind his back. I had slit so hard, I almost beheaded him. Anyone who kills babies the way he did doesnt deserve to foul the air with his breath one more second. I thought of Tatum and ran faster. If Titus was that cold, heavens help the children that would fall within Tatums grips. I snaked past house after house as I ran. From far away, I could hear the screaming. They fed my feet with fuel. I was thirty yards from my house when I saw him. Tatums back was on me. He was alone. And he was running too, towards my house. Suddenly I understood the grin as I had directed him up North. He knew about Nimrod. He knew what I was trying to do. He hadnt gone up North, he had detoured to come here and kill my son. Tatum! I bellowed. He turned sharply. Then the moon shone on a glint in his face, he was grinning. He stood ramrod straight, the most fearsome man I have ever seen in my thirty-seven years on earth. Come on, you Greek dog! He roared at me. I didnt stop running. I bulled into him, but like the avid grappler he was, he leaned his girth backwards and shoved. My body became weightless, flying over the giants head. I crashed heavily on the grass, my shoulder taking the brunt of my fall. He came around. He was not grinning anymore, I didnt need the dim light of the moon to see the hate and madness in his eyes. I had to end this quickly, before the other soldiers closed in on us. I felt for my dagger but I had dropped it after slaughtering Titus. I ran towards him, swinging weakly towards his left them centering all my strength into a right punch across the face that would have fallen lesser men but only staggered him. He came at me, body bent, hands down, I have seen this stance too many times to keep my face away. But for a man of his size, he was very fast. The elbow struck me on the cheekbone and the next punch carried me five paces backwards. Give me my moneys worth! He hissed. Lets see how good your Greek training is against me. A face appeared on the window. Leah! He followed my gaze and I saw the grin appear again. This time, when I bulled into him, he wasnt fast enough. We tumbled on the grass, him trying to choke me, me trying to stay alive. But sometimes size and strength wins it, soon, his huge fingers were on my neck,cutting my air, somewhere in my subconscious, I prayed it didnt register to him to just snap my neck as he easily could. He didnt. Instead my flailing hands clasped on the hilt of his dagger he had forgotten on his belt. In his quest to best me one on one. Man to man. I slipped the dagger out of his holster and struck with all my strength at his face. I felt it go through bone. His hands trembled on my neck as a geyser of blood suddenly sprouted from his face. Then he fell sideways on the grass. Dead. They..ing to..ki..ll...Nimrod. We sshh...ould go. I stuttered to Leah. Bless her heart, she moved fast. * Agyra, my stallion tore into the air as if he understood the emergency more than we did. His black fur seemed to shimmer in the moonlight as he galloped away from the lights of Bethlehem. I rode in front, baby Nimrod strapped on my chest, one hand holding to he bundle to keep the horses motions from upsetting him too much, he cried anyway. Leah rode beside me, her hands wrapped tightly round my waist giving me a measure of comfort. Again and again, I looked back but were not being followed. Even after were so far off and well away from danger, I kept going. I am going to give my son a new name, I realized. Somehow, his old name had formed a bloody tie to Bethlehem; a curse I didnt want him to carry into wherever were going now. Ithaca. Leahs voice brought me back. She was pointing ahead of me, I looked and saw two figures ahead of us. I slowed down as we approached them. I recognized the man. It was Joseph and his wife, Mary. Joseph was the one who made our bed and the table I wrote letters on some nights. We exchanged greetings. I could see the shape of a child in Marys arms as she rode in front of her husband. I wanted to wonder how they had came so far with a donkey as their transport, but I was too tired to. Nimrod started to cry again, Leah asked for him, I passed him over to her three minutes later, he was quiet. We rode slowly, keeping up with the Josephs and talking about anything and everything but why we were running and where we were going. I asked Joseph for his childs name. Immanuel, he said. Whats yours? On the spot I named him after the first man I could remember, my favourite uncle as a child. His name is Judas. Judas Iscariot.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 20:03:47 +0000
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