landlost | ONC 2024

eight.

"SO ELOHIM CAN grant you all your heart's desires if you pray enough to him, right?" I asked Ada, as she resurfaced from the water. She'd been humouring me the past few days as the only woman in camp who was willing to answer my questions, and for that, I was grateful.

"Well, no," she said, slicking back her wavy russet hair. My mouth pursed in frustration. Trying to figure out their god was like taking a walk through a sandstorm ——unproductive, painful to the skin, and you got a mouth filled with dirt for your efforts. Only instead of sand, it was like my tongue was heavy with always saying the wrong thing.

"He doesn't give us our heart's desires," Ada explained, probably sensing my disappointment. I slowly bobbed in the river, letting my eyes close as my face took in the warmth of the early morning sun. "He gives us what is necessary."

"What's the difference?" I asked, with a shrug that made the water ripple. My mother's gods hadn't responded to either wants or needs.

Ada stood and wrung her hair out, water cascading down her goose-pimpled dark skin. Her mouth twitched to the side with thoughtfulness. "Let me explain it a bit simpler. When I was a girl, I didn't want to get married. I wanted to travel, and see the world."

She caught my eye and released a snort, even though I tried to keep my face as impassive as possible. "Foolish, right? But then I met Japheth. And although I didn't want —— or daresay, need him —— I did need his God. And I met Elohim through him."

She took a seat on the bank, facing away from where the camp was, and looked in the direction of the Ark. Her amber eyes twinkled even more with the reflection of the water in their depths. I listened with bated breath, although I wasn't wholly certain why I was so engrossed.

"I realised what I'd been missing before, and what led me to believe I had to try and travel to find it, was actually just ... Right here." Ada shook her head. "But not before I tried to run away," she added drily.

"You tried to run away?" I gasped, and that gasp turned into a laugh. Because it was just so Adataneses. And if Japheth and all his teasing had been my betrothed, I probably would have run away as well.

Her head-shaking turned more vehement, although her smile grew in its playfulness. "Oh yes. Why do you think Noah has no camels around camp? It took three days for he and Japheth to catch up to me!"

"And then Noah got rid of the camels," a quiet third voice added.

I looked over Ada's shoulder and grinned. A fist that had been wrapped around my heart eased. "Sedeqet! You're up!"

She returned my smile, and then shrieked as Ada tried to give her a hug. "Don't get my kēthanoth wet, Ada!"

Once she, too, had joined us in the water, we all bobbed in a circle in the center of the river. "But now I wouldn't dream of running away," Ada said, her eyes shut in contentment. "And once the Ark is completed, and our duties are over, Japheth promised he'd take me to see a whole new world over the horizon." She flexed her fingers, as if she could already see it.

"Not looking forward to anything else, Ada?" I quirked an eyebrow at her, trying to elicit a flushed giggle. I succeeded, and she splashed water right into my face.

"You shouldn't be talking about such things, Na'el! You aren't even married yet!"

Sedeqet rolled her eyes, which was surprising coming from her. "With all that you and Japheth do in plain sight, it's no wonder the poor girl has had her innocence tainted."

Ada released an indignant shriek, but her mouth curled in good humour. "Would both of you please stop? Anyway, Na'el," I let her harried way of changing the subject slide, "that's how Elohim gave me what I needed, not what I wanted. If I had succeeded in running away, I don't know where I would've gone. I would probably have been dead by now, killed by thieves or thirst."