Turn of the Kaleidoscope

Goliath

Warning Contains Sexual Themes

The sun began to set behind the horizon. Orange, yellow, and purple hues streaked across the desert azure. Warm stinging winds ran along the shifting sands. The firmament in all it's splendid majesty brimmed with all the GODS gazing down upon Goliath, who knelt prostrated and defeated.

Blood flowed from his wounds onto the hot sands with a hiss. His strength spent, his will broken, and his revenge unfulfilled. Beads of sweat poured down his face and dripped off the hairs of his chin. His heart was pounding like the hooves of horses. Clutching a fist full of sand he watched as the granules slipped through his fingers like the sands of an hourglass. He knew his time had come and his thoughts were of her.

A boy not even half his size stood over him. His face hidden in shadow but Goliath knew there was malice in the youth's eyes.

Tears began to form. He felt the perspiration at as his finger tips and dropping his head in despair thought back to when it all began and how it could have come to this.

15 years earlier.

Shemolith rubbed her bulbus belly as she felt a kick. She cringed a little then mumbled, "are you a child or a goat?" She chuckled and continued rubbing.

"Shemolith you've gotten so big. Your child will surely be a giant sent from Astarte herself," said a women who entered the hut rather noisily.

Shemolith put her finger to her lips, "shhhh, he slumbers. Be soft your voice I wish him not to kick."

"So it is to be a boy?"

She nodded her head, "yes, yes it will certainly be a boy. I want to call him... Goliath."

Maachah let the name permeate then replied, "one who casts a great shadow. That seems fitting."

"Maachah please hush."

Maachah sighed then sat down and put her hands on her knees staring at Shemolith's belly. Her thoughts turned to the giant who rested within his mother's womb. She wondered what he would look like. Handsome like the shepard Eeliph's sons, with their dark thick curls and olive skin, their bodies toned from their daily labor. She admitted she fancied them but her curiosity for Goliath grew as she pondered.

Months passed and the child Goliath breathed his first breath. He was indeed unusually large and intimidating. He was raised gently and with a tender love only a mother could provide. Her husband had died months before. He did not survive the raging sands. Alone she raised him until soon the gentle giant grew into a man he stood over two heads above his peers. But His mother in her old age fell ill, Maachah and Goliath had to care for her.

In his time of grief, his mothers failing health, Goliath met Aphrah, a goat herder's daughter. Her beauty and strong spirit captivated him. They were soon wed and their love grew as years passed. Shemolith died and Goliath mourned her passing. Aphrah bore children and his grief was forgotten. His children were born and each night he told them tales of their deceased grandmother and the gods. All was well for Goliath and his dear family until one fateful day.

"Run! The mercenary tribes are coming. Run or die!" Screamed a man who ran passed Goliath's hut.

Aphrah came flying out the door looking for her children who were playing in a field a good distance from them.

Then Goliath came out of the stable. Aphrah ran up to him and embraced him.

A horde of men and horses were riding straight for their village. They came with a cloud of dust in their wake.

"Grab Ephram and Zebora. Go to the far end of the valley where the red grass grows. I will meet you there..." he was about to finish when Aphrah interrupted.