FEAR THREATENED TO choke me as I ran behind the men, my qualms about tripping on my kēthanoth and falling flat on my face forgotten.

The screams had come from the crop fields beyond the lazy curve of the river. Stepping stones had been put in place to cross over the banks, but Shem, Japheth and Ham plunged straight through the water. Noah hung back and offered his hand to help me cross, his strong, rough fingers pulling me across the slippery stones.

His eyes were narrowed and expression severe as he caught hold of my bicep. "You should stay back," he said. His face, weathered by the sun and manual labour, was creased with worry. I broke out of his grasp, my breaths coming in short, sharp heaves.

"I will," I said, to reassure him, but I still followed him closely as he twisted and we emerged from the brackish woods. The small, square fields of barley and wheat had been trampled underfoot, and I felt my chest freeze as I saw Ada and Sedeqet in the grasps of strange men, more circling even as Emzara chucked stones their way, begging them to let the other women go.

Shem moved faster than I thought was possible for a man his size. In a moment, he threw a punch at the man who was holding Sedeqet, and the stranger's head snapped back, red spraying through the air.

Sedeqet broke free from her captor's grasp and ran from the fields, and I rushed to catch her just as her feet slipped and she collapsed in a heap at the treeline. I scrambled to her aid, only barely hearing Emzara hysterically shouting above the sound of my heartbeat in my ears and Sedeqet's terrified sobs.

"Let them go," Noah ordered. It was the first time I'd heard him raise his voice, and my head whipped towards him as he outstretched his arms towards the strangers. Ada was still writhing in another man's grip, but Ham was holding Japheth back, speaking furiously into his ear.

"What is it that you want?" Noah asked them. "Do you want our crop? Our valuables? Or just to make trouble?"

Some of the men snickered. There were about a half-dozen of them, and I wrapped my arms tighter around Sedeqet's back as I realised their dark eyes, lit by the torches a few were holding, weren't just dancing with drink. They looked malevolent.

Evil.

"Try and talk your way out of this one, old-timer," the man holding Ada jeered. He clutched hold of her face. "What if I want this?"

"Father!" Japheth snarled. The tall man shoved Ham away, tightening his grip on the mule's whip he held. "Father, do something!"

Noah was silent. Shem took took hold of Emzara, before any of the men could approach her, too. No-one could see Sedeqet and I under the shadows of the trees, and I was relieved for that. The air pulsed with tension that made my skin prickle and my hair stand on end.

Noah stretched out his hand, motioning for Japheth to wait. "You're going to give her to me," Noah said measuredly to the man, "and then you are going to leave my home and never return."

"Hear that, boys?" Another man, closest to Ham, crooned. "That's insanity talking."

"You're not going to be telling us anything that we will or will not do," the man holding Ada replied with a leer. "Otherwise, what we can do is set fire to your fields, or even," he paused as if to think for a moment, "ah, set alight your big glorified woodshed!"

The Ark. My blood felt hot in my veins. My eyes darted to the flames leaping from the torch of the stranger closest to me.

Noah clenched his fists. My hair prickled even more, and then ——

The sky cleaved into two. A white-hot flash cracked across the ground, and a roaring boom followed the whip of light, shaking every bone in my body.

"It's a curse," I heard one of the strangers wail, "I knew coming here was a curse!" And then Ada was thrown to the ground as the dark-eyed men fled, smoke from where the flash had hit the ground following them.

Ham was the first to move; tossing dirt over an abandoned torch to snuff out the flames, then going to comfort his mother, who had crouched down with her head in her hands. Japheth scooped up Ada and cradled her into his chest. Noah stood frozen, as still as the statues my mother used to pray to.

"I've got her," Shem said, gently lifting Sedeqet from my lap. I hadn't even seen him approach, my eyes were so glassy with the after-image of the flash stained into my vision.

I let him carry Sedeqet away, knowing he would probably do a better job at comforting her than I. I stood up shakily, and looked at the sky.

Blue. Calm once more.

"Japheth, I'm alright," I heard Ada say as they approached me. "You can let me walk."

"I'm never letting you out of my sight again," Japheth's face was still locked into a snarl, only easing as he kissed her russet-coloured hair. He didn't even acknowledge me as he passed, and I felt myself shrink into the shadows.

What had I done to try and help them? These people who treated me like family already? Ada and Sedeqet could've been killed, or .... A lump lodged in my throat. And I had just stood by and watched.

Ham held Emzara steady as they, too, passed me, heading back to the camp. "Are you alright?" I asked him.

If he responded, I didn't hear it.

I turned back to look at Noah, whose head had lowered to examine the burn mark that had been left in the soil. The only evidence remaining behind that anything bad had happened here, besides some trampled grain.

I walked forward to stand beside him. The silence between us didn't feel awkward like between me and Shem, or disdainful like me and Emzara, or scrutinising like Ham and I. I rubbed my arm, trying to relieve the sensation of prickling.

"Who were those men?" I asked. My voice sounded small and child-like, my vocal cords frayed by fear.

Noah stirred himself out of his stupor and straightened his back. He was taller than me, but not by a considerable amount, like with Japheth and Shem. "They must have come from the nearest town. Sometimes people's curiosity gets the best of them. But it's better if they just contend themselves with their imaginations."

My cheeks burned. "But why did they seem so ... So ...?" Evil, just for the sake of it?

I knew from my father's business deals —— as feather-brained and as false as they were —— that everyone operated with a goal in mind, no matter how stupid it was. But what goal had those men had in mind? To terrify? To mock? Was there nothing else?

"It's the way of things, Na'el," Noah murmured resignedly. "People have become tormented. And tormented men always, always, try to snuff out any goodness they can see, but can't attain."

He turned to face me. "It's why Elohim will always protect us. Because we protect the good things." He nodded to the camp. "Shem, Japheth, Emzara, all of them. They're the good things." All of a sudden, in the waning afternoon light, he looked incredibly old. "It's my duty to look after you all, and Elohim will ensure that I do."

My forehead tensed. I looked at the hole in the ground again. "Was that Elohim?"

"Yes." Noah looked at the sky, his frown easing a little. "Lightning, and thunder, for the first time in history."

He began to walk back to the camp, but I felt locked into the soil, feeling deeply, deeply aware that, if lightning were to strike again, I could be struck down.

"And wasn't it beautiful?" he called over his shoulder at me.

|||

My dreams that night were wracked with booming roars and twin moons that shot lightning bolts down to set the forest alight with blue fire.

I even reckoned I could smell that mixture of sweat and wood chips.

Light was streaming in between the gaps of the pelts when I woke up. Noah and Emzara had already left the tent, and I rolled over and threw my arm over my face. My neck touched something hard and cold.

I twisted, and cradled the figurine in my hands, breathing in the scent of dirty clay. I was sure I could even smell the dried plums that were Naamah's favourite snack.

She'd created a figurine of me. I marvelled at her work. She had twisted twin plaits together to run over the tiny person's chest. I had a child's drawing of a smile engraved onto my face. At the base of the figurine's feet, where I could stand her upright —— although she leaned dangerously —— was small lettering.

N and N

My eyes felt hot in my skull, and for the first time since I'd arrived at Noah's camp, I finally let myself cry.