Rosa and the Graven Kings - A Spiritual Warfare Novella

Chapter 15

Rosa was heavy with thought as Courage jogged on the trail. The horse had been galloping, but it soon turned into a trot. She was hugging her mother tightly. Her body was still wet, and her hair was sticking to her face. They were leaving the gulch, but it would take a while before they reached Rahu.

"Save your strength in case we need to run from anything else," Rebecca had said.

The sky was still cloudy. The wind blew, and it thundered constantly. Rosa replayed everything in her mind from the moment she took the map to the moment she met Graven to the moment she lost Emmett. She still felt stupid. But she remembered Emmett's words: 'His power is made perfect in my weakness.' Her parents taught her that too.

Rebecca was asking all sorts of questions. "How did you get here? What made you think God doesn't love you? Are you still a Believer? Are you hurt?" Rosa told her mother the whole story. Everything. Even about the bearded man who accused her. Her mother wasn't upset, but she seemed surprised that Rosa had failed. "After all we've taught you, Rosa," she said.

"Mom, I know!" Rosa snapped. "I'll never do it again."

"You don't have to be mad with yourself."

Then Courage added, "Yeah. There's carrots when we get home. Gina promised."

Rosa smiled, the thought of Rahu making her happy. "How did you guys find me?"

"We knew where you were," Rebecca joked.

"No. No. I mean: how could you have thought to look near the gulch?"

"I saw part of the map when that strange lady gave it to you," Courage answered. "Then Rebecca woke me from a nap and said we needed to find you."

"And," Rebecca said, "I asked your friends about you, but they didn't know. They said you might be doing something with a map, but they didn't go into details-and I was in panic mode at the time, so I didn't pay attention. I figured you were hanging out with Courage recently and saddled him up just in case I needed him. Thankfully, he knew what you were probably doing."

"And I have a nap waiting for me when we go home," Courage added.

"Why the gulch?" Rosa asked. "There were tons of places to look."

"Just a guess," Courage replied. "Could have been a miracle."

After a pause, Rosa cracked, "Mom, you know Graven?"

"Yes, dear."

Rosa thought for a second. "How did you guys meet?"

Rebecca sighed. "Ever since I committed fornication, he's been accusing me, pushing me down into depression. Until I found the secret to defeat him."

"I assume you still fight him today."

"Yeah."

"I didn't know that."

"I guess I never really went into details about what was going through my mind."

Rosa paused. "Did you . . . did you ever do such a stupid . . . I mean: have you ever fallen hard before when you knew the right thing to do?"

"Me and your dad have done everything wrong despite being church kids. I thought I told you that before."

"I guess I forgot."

"I wasn't listening to what my parents taught me, but they weren't the best examples either. Me and my brother would secretly watch them get drunk every weekend night." She laughed. "They would send us away to sleepovers, but we would sneak back home to see them act crazy with their friends. Then they would take us to church the next Sunday. I had a mixed life of sin and God. Eventually, my parents tightened up their relationship with God, but I wasn't all for it. It was only when I committed fornication-something my parents told me not to do-that I really dug into the Bible and decided to change the way I lived because Graven was coming after my soul."