landlost | ONC 2024

seven.

"YOU SHOULD WALK around outside, Sedeqet," I told her, fiddling futilely with the cord circlet that tied the end of my one plait. It was knotted and painful to tug on, and I heaved a grateful sigh once Sedeqet lifted my hair and helped, her touch gentle.

"This tent is so stuffy and hot. How do you survive in here?"

Sedeqet faced me, but her eyes were focused on the cord I could feel she was close to wrangling free. "It's not so bad," she murmured. "You all help."

I sucked in my one cheek. She'd thwarted my efforts to try and coax her out of she and Shem's shared tent, yet again. "What about when the barley and the wheat need to be harvested? Then we'll need your help."

She presented me with the cord, only a few strands of hair clinging to it. Her round hazel eyes looked tired. "Na'el, I know you mean well, but ——"

"But nothing," I said, holding my hand up. My exasperation was a drawstring stretched taunt after days of tending to her, perhaps hastened along by the heat in the tent. "Sedeqet, you've been a friend to me since I first arrived here, so give me the courtesy of me telling you that, for a bunch of people who proclaim the powers of this 'Elohim', you sure are a fearful lot."

Her small, pert mouth popped open, aghast.

I knew I'd said her god's name in a callous way, but it was vexing to watch Sedeqet waste away in fear —— her light tan skin had become pale, a tint of constant anguish, and her copper hair was dull and matted, despite Shem's best efforts to brush it —— whilst a deity capable of summoning never-before seen elements like lightning and thunder almost literally seemed to be lurking under her nose.

"I know little about your god," I said, stating the obvious. The only gods I had ever known until entering Noah's camp had been silent and wooden in expression. They hadn't crackled or boomed with power. And I had found no idols in Noah and Emzara's tent. This Elohim seemed to not have a physical form; he was a spoken word, and yet capable of so much more than my mother's little statues.

"Yet I do know that Noah believes that Elohim will protect you —— us —— all. And," I softened my voice and reached out to clasp her hand (Adataneses's clinginess had begun to rub off on me), "Shem would sooner kill than let anybody else touch you like that again."

Sedeqet looked at her hand under mine, like she wanted to shirk me off. I was relieved that she didn't, daring myself to think that perhaps I had begun to make her ponder how her fears —— although fully realised, and obviously having left deep gouges in her psyche —— were entirely irrational in the face of those who stood to protect her.

"Na'eltama'uk?" Emzara's voice made me twist, flinging my unravelling plait across my shoulder. She drew the animal pelt covering the entrance aside slightly. "Come help me."

She left, and I gave Sedeqet's hand a final squeeze before I followed after the wiry older woman.

"Light the fire," Emzara ordered. She vanished from my sight for a moment as I took hold of the two flint stones that always remained at the edge of the firepit. I set to work hitting them together, trying to angle the leaping sparks towards the small assortment of tinder and sticks, like Japheth had first shown me.

She returned carrying a large stone, and set it down beside the pit. Finally, the sparks caught, and small licks of flame curled upwards.

"Do you need help?" Ham's low voice made my cheeks flush, and I was glad to be facing away from him. It was a good thing he had barely spoken to me ever since I'd accidentally intruded on him bathing, because I could barely stand to look at him out of embarrassment.