Chapter Three
Song in the Night
My eyes opened only to see that it was still night, but there was enough light given off by the moon to see. We were camped on the flatness of the plain!
The reality of that fact had me coming to full awareness in short order. I looked around and in the faint moonlight I saw Kuri standing there. Then I heard the howl, which was soon followed by many more.
My heart had frozen at the first howl and it all but shattered at the sound of the voices of many. They had found us and we were without ability to take cover from them out here on the plain.
“Slip beneath the sand as you did before, Benaiah, and leave this to me,” Kuri said softly.
“I can help.”
His gaze turned to me and somehow I felt pressed back into the sand by the authority that he seemed to manifest at times, but even though his gaze was overwhelming his words remained calm, “I have not yet taught you how to fight Benaiah. To let you attempt to help me now, in your inexperience, would be to put your life at peril. Do as I say and trust in my protection until you are able to handle more.”
I said nothing more and began to start scooping sand overtop my legs and then my torso. The frenzy of crazed yips had gathered in force out on the plain. Submerged under the sand I waited to see Kuri torn to pieces by the mob of glaring eyes that I could now see all around us.
There was no sense to these dogs. They were always starving and yet killing many. Why did they run in packs of 40 or more, when they ruled the night uncontested?
Their eyes glowed blue and their howls made me long for the sound of a wolf’s howl instead.
“Remember to stay down, Benaiah, and do not speak.” Kuri said. He stood alone in the dark as the snarling horde drew closer and closer.
What was holding them back? Why did they hold back from a man alone?
I heard the grate of steel leaving its sheath and my eyes opened to see Kuri pulling his sword free to hold it up before him. The moonlight glinted off the blade lending a sheen to the night as blue-eyed glares closed in for the kill.
Kuri did something then that I would never have expected. He began to sing. At first it was only a deep hum and then it rose into a wordless song. It's pitched resonance seemed to impact the sand around me, as if the sand wanted to join in with the rhythm of the song.
The singing did not dissuade the horde, who seemed to become incensed by the lack of fear of the opponent that they had singled out in the night. Evanik dogs leaped forward with huge canines bared for Kuri, who suddenly wasn’t where he had just been.
His feet seemed to slide along the sand in a whisper of sound, as the sword flashed left and right seemingly everywhere at once. Unholy howls rent the night, for it was said that every one of the horde had a demon in it.
Demon power or not, I watched from beneath the sand as a man unlike any warrior I’d ever seen stood his own against a howling storm of viciousness. Although I heard the sound of the dogs, what I heard most of all throughout the fight was the deep resonance of Kuri’s voice continuing in soul stirring song that seemed to bring life into the dark of the night.
As I watched the fight I noticed that there was a rhythm even to it. Even as I had run today faster than ever before, I now watched a sight unlike any I had ever encountered. Evanik dogs fell and shrieks rang out and yet the bloody flashes of the sword by moonlight never stopped as they carved up every attacker that came near.
There could be no warrior such as Kuri in all the seven Kingdomer Nations or beyond for that matter.
There were too many slain bodies to count laying upon the ground as dark shadows in the night. I heard the last of the pack give up the fight and run away across the desert.
Kuri stood there alone in the dark in the stillness that followed. Never had I heard of a pack of Evanik dogs giving up a fight. There was something about Kuri that had gotten to them where other men had failed.
Kuri turned and walked to where I lay beneath the sand. I watched by moonlight as blood continued to drip off the blade hanging at his side.
He squatted down beside me, but his eyes remained focused on the flat expanse of moonlit desert that stretched out all around us. His face showed little of the exertion of battle and I marveled all over again.
“Tell me, Benaiah, do you fear me now?”
I swallowed, as his gaze left the distant plain to gleam probingly down into mine.
“Not even if you taught me all that you know could I ever fight so well as you. There can be no man alive who is your equal!”
Kuri said nothing for a moment and then he broke his silence by re-asking his question, “Do you fear me Benaiah?”
Why did he want to know this?
“Yes…….and…….no,” I said in a stutter, not overly sure of my answer.
Kuri cocked his head to the side and regarded me with a questioning smile that somehow relaxed me enough to let me form my own thoughts and explain, “If I was ever to desert you and become your enemy I could never win. If I’m to remain by your side as a friend then why should I fear you?”
Kuri nodded before extending a hand to me and saying, “Well, let us pray then that you are forever my friend.”
I took his hand and he pulled me up to my feet, “Come, let us move off a ways from the smell of waste that lies around us,” he said, as he grabbed up his pack and started to move off.
“Kuri?”
He stopped and glanced back and I said, “I always want to be your friend Kuri.”
“And so you shall be!”
I broke free of my stance and hurried to catch up with him. As I fell in alongside of him my mind replayed over all that I had seen. After we’d gone several hundred yards Kuri stopped by some dry brush and made a fire.
I looked around, a little surprised that he would welcome more confrontation by making a fire. Then, I heard something in the distance from where we had just come.
“The survivors have come back to eat their own. Fallen creatures are ever opposed to the ways of creation’s foundations. We’re safe here for they have plenty to eat.”
I turned away from the sound of gory carnage and sat down next to the welcoming heat of the fire. I was staring into it reflectively when Kuri asked, “What are your thoughts?”
Surely he must know what they were as I seemed to be nothing but an open scroll before him? Out of respect I responded anyway, “I was imagining what it would be like to be able to do something like what you did back there.” I ducked my head down, slightly embarrassed at the admonition, because I knew I would never be Kuri.
“No, you will never be me, but I’m going to teach you to be like me. With my help and provision from the Most High, there is the likelihood that not only will you do things you have seen me do, but even greater things.”
I looked at him as if he were crazy and asked, “How is that even possible? I know I can never be as good as you.”
“I’m going to help you Benaiah, which means a part of me will be in you and from there, what can man tell in regards to what El Elyon may purpose to come to be? Now go to sleep and dream of the battles to come.”
Obediently I lay down on my side, still watching the flames flicker as they consumed the dry wood.
“I heard you singing and yet it was as if you weren’t. It was like the sound was inside of me like some ancient rhythm, but not confined to me. It was beautiful. It took all my fear away.”
“Go to sleep, Benaiah.”
I closed my eyes and at once I heard the resonance of a melody that had the power of life behind it, which lulled me into a deep sleep almost instantly.
*****
Walking. It was all we did it would seem, but that was not true. Kuri talked. It seemed as if his words never stopped and I did not wish for them to. I was learning so much.
Never had I had so much one on one communication with another individual before. I had grown up largely alone, with little outside exposure to the world around me. It was like I’d been held in the dark for 15 years before experiencing the light of the sun.
Kuri talked of everything from ancient historical events to matters of science and the understanding of the signs of nature all around us. He talked of past battles and even of the former realm of the old kingdom and his people, the Yesathurim.
“Does it bother you Kuri, that your people have fallen on such hard times?”
“More than you can know Benaiah.”
I studied on it a bit before asking, “I know I asked before, but I didn’t understand so I’m asking again. Why, if the Yesathurim are the chosen people, of which you are one, are you having anything to do with me, a stranger?”
“The blessing that was imparted to my people is still one that resounds today. We have a custom that if a stranger wishes to be of our family and observes our ways then we are to adopt him.”
“That’s what you’re doing with me, right?”
“No.”
“No?” I asked puzzled.
“You have no need of adoption as you are already an heir to the promises of Shamayim, because the door was opened long ago by one man’s sacrifice for all, to come and be known of El Elyon as heirs of the Kingdom of Shamayim. If you do that which has been recorded down in the Holy Scrolls and preserved to this day with a faithful heart then you too will see the Kingdom of Shamayim one day. My people, the Yesathurim, are in error, because they have rejected the belief that redemption is available for all and in turn they have rejected El Elyon; for they have rejected the message of the one He sent to sacrifice for all. They now hold to old traditions that are of no effect, as they daily turn their backs on the truth freely given and recorded down for them to read and yet I tell you that they are still El Elyon’s people. The seven Kingdomer nations once bravely put themselves forth in the faith of the new covenant at their birth in the Ruach, which is the Holy Spirit of El Elyon, but now they have largely fallen away from the truths that were entrusted to them. What do you think their position is in the reality of the eternity to come, if El Elyon did not spare the Yesathurim, His chosen people, for their lack of belief, but instead cast them out from His presence?”
“A precarious one,” I said softly.
“It is. Look around you, Benaiah, and see the devastation of this former kingdom dedicated from its foundation to the Most High. Even as it was not spared, neither will the Kingdomer Nations who choose not to believe the truth that they were given be spared.”
An involuntary shiver coursed through me at the thought of that and I asked, “The seven kingdoms…… it’s as I’ve heard then? They have all fallen away?”
“Many have, some Kingdomer Nations more so than others, but there are still those who remain who believe. This is what I have heard.”
“Haven’t you recently been in the seven kingdoms or at least near them?” I asked, surprised.
“No, I’ve been away.”
“Away?”
“Yes, to the East beyond the wilderness and the forests of Darkor.”
My jaw fell open in astonishment, “I’ve never heard tell of a land beyond the forest of Darkor, much less of any man to have made such a journey!”
“And you won’t, for I am the only such man to have done so.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will. Benaiah you must listen to me when I tell you that the time has grown short. Ayenathurim will not go on much longer as it always has up until now.”
“You’re saying that our world of Ayenathurim is going to be destroyed?” I asked incredulously.
“Not yet, but an era of its history is coming to an end and after this present era is over there are but two more before eternity begins and one of those two eras of time has been shortened. The time is short and there is much work to be done before the Ruach is gone from the world.”
We walked on in silence for a while, which Kuri broke by pointing off to the East saying, “In that direction there lies a way of gaining access to the Kingdom of Shamayim, a kingdom that shall never fall. The way is open to all who believe the truth written within the holy scrolls and trust in it. Many have gone already who believed and died in the faith, but one day many shall walk into it who have never died. The prophecies of the holy scrolls are being fulfilled as we speak and I tell you plainly Benaiah, that the generation of your father will not pass before all these things are accomplished.”
“You’re telling me that I will live to see that day, when the Kingdom becomes open to those who believe and yet live here on Ayenathurim?”
“Yes.”
There was silence for a while, which Kuri broke, “Tell me Benaiah, do you doubt what I have told you?”
Incredible as it sounded I said, “No.”
Kuri nodded, “That is good. There is much work to be done and I would have you as my helper to see that the lost are reached, the weak defended, and those who are poor cared for. It is a heavy responsibility that I ask of you, to join me in such work, but the rewards are eternal and far outweigh any praise or treasure that is to be gained in this present world. Are you with me to that end?”
I nodded without hesitation.
Kuri nodded and pointed to the south, “Our work together begins there. To the south of us are the Holy Mountains. When we get to the mountains I will begin to teach you, over a course of three years, all that you will need to know to do the work that will be assigned to you. At some point we will journey out from the mountains and go into Nicationer and Kingdomer nations alike in order to complete your training.”
Beyond humbled, I simply nodded in astonishment at the honor bestowed upon me by this great man, who was equipping me to be his helper in reaching the lost people of Ayenathurim and bringing them back into the fortress of El Elyon’s love.
“When will we reach the mountains?” I asked.
Kuri stopped and regarded me speculatively before asking, “Are you ready for more?”
“I think so,” I said hesitantly.
He smiled and said, “Take my hand.”
I obeyed instantly and my eyes closed as I felt the song of life course into me from the contact of his hand with mine. Within the corridors of my soul I heard a voice say, “Even now and forever more the Spirit of El Elyon will reside in you. Take heed, for the Ruach will instruct you of all My ways and be your comfort in peace and in war.”
I opened my eyes, which were wet with tears, only to see that I was not where I had been before. I was high up on the side of a mountain, almost within the clouds that obscured the summits of what must be the Holy Mountains.
In astonishment I looked at Kuri and he smiled as he said, “Your training starts now.”