Chapter 3

Song and Laughter munched the sweet grasses growing at the shoreline of the lake’s blue water. Flowery plants nearby wooed my nostrils as their sweet essence wafted along on the gentle breeze. Lazy frogs floated in the shallows as Naelta continued to fire questions at me.

“How do you know everything about all the animals?”

“I’m not sure anybody knows everything, but my father and mother told me some things when I was younger. However, after I was old enough to explore the garden, the animals taught me more.”

“They taught you? That’s weird--you mean you don’t just command animals, you hear the animals talk?”

“Sure, can’t you? They’re talking to you now.” Naelta’s mouth popped open. She moved her head from side to side, trying to focus her hearing, hoping to hear voices in the air. I did my best to help Naelta understand, but I was so young. I didn’t understand how the gift worked--nobody had told me. I just knew I felt the thoughts of animals. Thoughts looked like little trails of barely recognizable vapor dots.

“I want to be like you.” Naelta stared at the frogs, but they ignored her. With her exaggerated breathing, each new frown on Naelta’s face made me bite my tongue to keep from laughing.

“I want to talk to you.” She gritted her teeth and squinted her eyes. “Listen to me frog. Jump. Jump. I command you to JUMP!”

The tranquility and humor of the moment shattered with a startling burst of water shooting up from the middle of the lake. My horses fretted, jerking back and forth. Naelta gawked open-mouthed as a huge sea beast raised its scaly head, which was larger than our chariot. It opened its mouth, revealing several rows of large pointed teeth. A long flame shot out of its yawning maw, which then closed with a thundering snap as ribbons of smoke twirled out its nostrils. It’s thoughts entered my head, “Surprised? Who’s your little friend, Susah?”

Then she was gone. The water boiled all around where the beast had submerged. Song reared up, kicking her front legs. Naelta’s mouth hung open. She fixated to where the creature disappeared. I whispered soothing words to calm down both horses and put my hand on Naelta’s shoulder. I knew we were in no danger.

“Did I do that?” Naelta whispered.

“Nobody could pull Levi out of the water. She is the mistress of Leviathan Lake.” True, nobody could pull her out, but I had many times in the past been able to think her into my presence. I thought I could do it again.

“She’s Naelta, my cousin. Come back to the surface. Naelta would be pleased to meet you.”

“I’m not an object of entertainment.” Levi’s rebuke echoed in my head. I had overestimated our relationship. Silently I fretted I would someday pay a price for my mistake.

“Oh,” Naelta said. “A leviathan--the sea serpent.” She was relieved but at the same time a little disappointed she had not caused the commotion. Even if born with the gift, Naelta was much too young for it to have any power. Maybe the only real power she had was the ability to ask me questions. “How’d she get to this lake? It’s not a sea, is it? Don’t sea serpents live in the sea?”

“She used to live in the Far Sea many years ago,” I said. “That’s a place way on the western side of Eden. She and Lorus, her hatchling, left there to explore the world. First, they swam against the current of the Pison River for about a thousand leagues--having many adventures--until they came to Eden. After crossing Eden, they came to the beginning of the four great rivers.”

“They had to choose one, right?”

“Before they could, giants attacked them. The great war between the humans and the giants raged, and maybe the giants thought they were on the side of the humans, or maybe they just weren’t thinking at all. The fighting was chaotic, and in the confusion--they separated. Lorus went south, down the steep falls of the Gihon River. Levi pressed to the east, down the Great River.”

“And then what happened?”

“Levi realized Lorus wasn’t with her and must have gone south. So she decided to go that way also--a near-fatal mistake. Leviathans don’t do well on the land.”

“Of course not,” Naelta said. “They don’t have feet.”

“She struggled through the marsh until coming to the river of the tigers, which we saw earlier. Much too shallow, it wasn’t much better for her than the marsh. Levi became so tired she thought she might die”

“Did she die?”

“Of course not. We just saw her.”

“Oh, that’s right. How did she survive?”

“Before her strength completely faded, she made it to this lake, which feeds the tigers’ river and then flows into the marshes, eventually into the Great River. This lake looks big on top, but it’s even bigger than you know because it’s deep.”

“Oh, that explains it. But what does Levi eat?”

“There are many fish here. Levi will never go hungry. But sometimes she misses Lorus.”

A sympathetic tear rolled down Naelta’s cheek. “That’s sad. But how do you know this?” She frowned. “Did you make it up?”

“Oh no, it’s the truth. Leviathans are the easiest animals to talk to.”

“Why is that?”

“I don’t know. Levi is the only leviathan I’ve ever met. I assume others are pretty much the same.”

“What else do you know about leviathans?”

“They have slow digestive systems, it takes almost five days for their food to digest. If they don’t kill their fish, they swim around inside of them until they slowly die.”

Naelta pondered the story for a moment and then said, “That’s scary. Do they breathe air or water?”

“Leviathans breathe underwater, so in a way they’re a fish. But they can breathe air also. It is a strange creature, there’s nothing else much like it.”

“Other than fish, what does she eat?”

“Just about anything in the water. She could eat a crocodile without any trouble. Could swallow one whole, I’m sure. She’s certainly big enough.”

“Oh. Is she dangerous to people? Would she eat us?”

“She could but she probably wouldn’t,” I said. “She’s always been nice to me. I know she doesn’t like giants--she blames them for losing Lorus. She worries about him. Maybe someday I’ll go visit him. I promised Levi if I did, I would tell him she’s okay.”

“That would be nice, but how could you find him?”

“The Gihon River leads to the South Sea. He has to be there somewhere. Climbing back up the steep falls would be impossible.”

Naelta frowned and said, “If you do find him--like that could happen--how will he believe you?”

“Levi taught me a song they used to sing to each other. It might work.” Then I shrugged. Back then I couldn’t imagine I’d ever have a chance to go to the South Sea. I pushed Naelta’s black hair back out of her face, and we continued down the path.

“I saw fire come out of Levi’s mouth,” said Naelta.

“Yes, that was impressive, wasn’t it? Some people call them dragons because they breathe fire. Leviathan’s are like a dragon-fish of sorts. But as I said before, they are different from dragons. Different from everything.”

“You’ve seen dragons?”

“Yes.”

“Do they breathe fire, like the leviathan?”

“Yes, some can even breathe ice. Or at least I’ve heard they can. Up this hill off to our right, near the almond groves is where the dragons like to gather.”

“Good,” she said. “Let’s go up there.”

“No. We’re not going up there today. It’s too far for us to make it there and around the garden before suppertime. We’ll visit it some other day. It’s a trip of it’s own, the last time I was up there, a flying dragon talked to me.”

Naelta stared at the sinister shadows of the huge rock above us. When she finally pulled her eyes off it, she said, “What did it say?”

“Dragons don’t talk with words, like a leviathan does. It just let me know about its feelings, the way the horses and other animals do.”

“Oh. So what did it feel?”

“At first the dragon was anxious, but then when I started talking, it relaxed and was almost happy. It flew around me a few times then went into a thick cluster of almond trees.”

"Are there any others? Or just one, like the leviathan?”

“There are a lot of dragons, but mostly all of them are in the military nowadays. Just a few live in the wild.”

“How do dragons breathe fire? Oh, Susah, you’ve got to know how they make fire come out of their mouths. Will you tell me?”

“Sure, it’s not complicated. The fuel for the fire is a gas, which is a by-product of food digestion. Dragons, leviathans, and some other animals have special bladders that collect the gas so they can breathe it out.”

"What about the animals that don’t have the special bladders?”

“Well, they get rid of the gas in other ways.” Naelta made a quizzical face then sniffed. We both giggled.

“How does the gas catch on fire?”

“They have another organ that makes a spark in the back of their throats, which ignites the gas. A flame can last as long as there is enough oxygen around them. So it doesn’t work under water. At least that’s what Levi said.”

“Wow, I didn’t know that. But how do dragons breathe ice?”

“It works in a similar way. A thick-walled bladder compresses one of the gases in the air they breathe. When they allow it to escape from their mouths, icy cold air comes out--cold enough to freeze water.”

“I’ve never seen that! Have you?”

“No, but my father talked about it.”

“He must be super smart. But he never talks to me. Mom and Dad say he’s a busy man.”

“He’s busy working on his ark. Don’t feel too bad, he doesn’t talk to me much either. He talks to my brothers more. They’re always helping him with the building.”

“Why don’t you help build it?”

“I don’t like the idea of building anything. It’s all business and work, never any talking. If it wasn’t for my mother, there’d be nobody for me to talk to at home.”

“You can always come over to our house and talk to me. And you can bring Aunt Emzara with you. I like her. But I think if you asked him questions, he would talk to you.”

“Asked who a question?”

“Your father,” she said. “You should ask questions, and then he will talk. I ask you questions. You talk. You’re a lot like him.”

“I am not. He’s always busy building and I--”

“Am always busy exploring the garden.” She smiled after finishing my statement. I couldn’t help but to laugh.

“What would I ask him?” I said with a shrug.

“You could ask him how all these animals got here.”

“I already know--God made them.”

“I know that too,” she said. “Who doesn’t? But what I’m asking is how did all the animals get into this particular forest you call a garden? Why are they in your father’s garden?”

“I asked him once. He said they just started showing up before I was born. He protects them from hunters and trophy seekers.”

“Do hunters and trophy seekers eat animals? Like crocodiles eat animals to live?”

“No,” I said. “Some people eat animals the way we eat herbs. They don’t see a problem with eating meat. Those kinds of people keep herds of easy to control animals. There are even businesses that sell the flesh of those animals to other people for food. But the ones I’m talking about are people who want to use animal skins for clothing or to make trophies to show to their friends.” I pointed at a deer sporting a large rack of antlers. “See him? Some people would kill him so they could display those antlers as a trophy.”

“Maybe if they just asked him for his antlers--”

“Oh Naelta, it doesn’t work like that.”

“I thought maybe ... oh well. Some animals kill other animals. Doesn’t that mean it’s okay for people to do it too? Wolves would even kill people. That is, if tigers didn’t kill them first.”

“Animals usually kill for food or to protect themselves. Even the wolves don’t do it for trophies. They’re not evil, just hungry.”

“Are some people evil?”

“My father says nowadays most people are behaving in evil ways. He’s convinced so many people are doing evil God is going to punish the entire world.”

“What’s God going to do? Maybe unmake the world?”

“I don’t know. I guess he can do anything he wants—he’s God. Who could stop him?”

“If you eat animals, do you turn into a crocodile or a bear? Will your teeth grow sharp like their teeth? Will you grow hair or thick scales if you behave like them?”

“No,” I said. “We can’t turn into something we’re not. The only way your teeth would become pointed is if you took a rasp to them.” I pretended to use an invisible file on my teeth, mocking pain. We laughed till we cried.

“This has been the best day of my life.” Naelta swatted at a bee that flew too close.

“Don’t do that. You’ll provoke them.”

“They need to stay on the flowers and away from me.”

“You’re so sweet, they must have thought you were a flower.” We laughed some and I said, “This is a good day for me too. I’m glad you came along. Happy birthday.”

“Thanks. I like being six. I’m glad Aunt Emzara said I could come.”

“She would never have agreed without Aunt Edna’s argument.”

“That was cool. How did you know if I cried, she would stand up to Emzara?

“Tears have power on people who care about you. My mother sounds harsh sometimes, but she’s just trying to look out for us. She doesn’t want you to turn out like me.” I looked up at the tall flowering plants, covered with clusters of small white and yellow blossoms that obscured our view on both sides of the path. So sweet, I could almost taste them.

“I wish I was like you. You’re a hero!” I’d never been called a hero. I didn’t think I was one, but secretly, I aspired to someday be worthy of such a title.

“I’m not sure about that,” I said.

“Well, I am. You saved me from the wolves today. And you showed me the Leviathan. And I’ve finally figured it out.”

“Figured what out?”

“You made Levi jump out of the lake. If you can control the leviathan then you must have controlled the tiger too.”

“Naelta, I don’t have power like that--”

“Right, if you say so. But I’ve seen it.”

“You’re overestimating what I can do.”

“If you say so, remember little girls have great powers too.” A humming bird shot past us. We watched it drink from the flowers.

“Especially when you cry,” I added as we came to an opening in the flowery hedge along the trail. I pointed toward the animals in the broad clearing.

Naelta’s mouth fell open as she looked beyond the fragrant plants and saw the animals there. Just a short distance from the chariot grazed a family of hairy mammoths. The largest one had long curved tusks. It pulled some tall grasses out of the ground with its powerful trunk and placed them in its mouth, paying no attention to us.

“I’ve never seen an animal that big.”

“Them?” I said. “The leviathan is bigger than mammoths.

“No.” Naelta pointed beyond the mammoths. “Them!”

Four-legged behemoths boldly stood in the open field. Their tails as thick and as long as a cedar tree. Even from a distance the long-necked beasts dwarfed the mammoths. The tallest one ate leaves from the top branches of the ancient trees surrounding the clearing. Beyond the clearing, another beast munched some reeds it pulled from the water at its feet. “I’ve never seen behemoths before.”

“Fortunately for all of us,” I said. “They like to eat leaves and grass instead of animals and people.” I laughed. Naelta joined in with a nervous chuckle. “You see that tallest one? That’s a female. A girl. She’s in charge of the behemoths.

“She is?”

“Yes, she’s the momma behemoth. More powerful than any king crocodile, bear, or even a mammoth.” We laughed together, but not so loud as to attract attention from the behemoths as they grazed at the base of the colossal stone pylons, which supported the highway filled with traffic headed to Sethopolis.