Origin of the 12th

Chapter 4: News of Terror

The Jordan was a blessing to the city of Jericho. It provided a source of life for livestock and agriculture. It was a natural barrier that served as a preliminary shield before the wall. It had never produced anything that would harm Jericho. It was a centerpiece to build the prosperity of the city.

None of that mattered now as the council meeting went on. The topic of discussion was relations with the Philistines, who constantly raided our supply carts. The Philistines would never dared mount an attack against Jericho itself, but they were quite annoying to our trade.

"Your Majesty, we must heavily arm our supply convoys if we were to ever hope to repel Philistine piracies." stated Doash, Jericho's chief general.

"In this time of peace, I would rather not stir the tides of large scale conflict." King Nacaan replied, eyes seemingly out of focus. "We have sent another envoy of diplomacy to the land of Philistia to request safe passage. Besides, we are but one city. Our army is not nearly powerful enough to wage war with a nation."

"What say you Katrina?" Doash asked curiously.

I sat there thinking of a solution. It had been a mere week since I joined the council, and already they seemed to rely on me for everything. The Philistines were the most powerful nation that Jericho came in contact with. Outside of its wall, Jericho would be defenseless against them.

"I say that we should limit our trade routes through the Amorite nations. They are our allies, so they should offer us protection." I suggested, focusing more on a temporary solution. "Our messengers should return from Egypt soon. We can decide on a longer term action once we have that information."

"An excellent proposition!" King Nacaan exclaimed happily. "Very well, so be it. This meeting is dismissed." The council stood up and bowed. Then we all went our separate ways except for Jonathan, who followed me.

"Why do you always follow me?" I asked somewhat jokingly as I already knew the answer.

"Because why not?" he responded, skipping every other step. We had almost reached the opening in the wall when I noticed something. It was a person, running towards Jericho as fast as he could. Jonathan also seemed to notice. "Who is that?" he asked.

"It's a messenger from Og. An Amorite from the other side of the Jordan." I said, having managed to identify the messenger. "But we are the ones that are supposed to be sending a message to them. Why are they doing this n..."

I stopped because at that moment, the 12 on my neck exploded in pain. It ripped through my nerves and flooded throughout the rest of my body. My skin burned as I collapsed onto the ground, struggling to stay conscious. It was more painful than any other time it had done this before as I clutched it helplessly.

"Katrina! Are you alright?" Jonathan asked, looking very concerned. "Come on, I'll get you to the doctors."

"No." I said, managing to coherently speak through the waves of agony. "I need to know what is causing this."

"Katrina. I don't know what that mark on your neck does or how you got it, but what I do know is that you are in pain and it is causing it." Jonathan said firmly. "So I need to get you to the doctors."

"It is fine Jonathan." King Nacaan said, appearing from behind us accompanied by two guards and two doctors. His face was hard, harder than I'd seen from him. "We can tend to her here."

"Thank you Your Majesty." I said weakly. King Nacaan turned towards me, his expression softening just a little.

"Rest dear child. Your burden is heavier than it should be." he said before turning back towards the oncoming Amorite. "I fear that it will become even heavier." I followed his gaze as the doctors applied herbs that were completely useless, but I didn't tell them that the herbs were useless because that was all they knew.

I watched as the Amorite from Og stopped in front of our little bunch. "Long live the King!" he shouted earnestly, visibly exhausted. A crowd of people began to gather behind us as if drawn to this messenger.

"State your purpose." King Nacaan ordered. I felt a feeling of apprehension grow amongst the crowd as we waited for the news. The Amorite took a deep breath, then spoke.

"I have come from Og as a survivor to tell you that Og and Sihon have been completely destroyed by a nation unrivaled throughout all of history. This nation has come from the slaves of Egypt. This nation has the worst sense of direction imaginable, wandering the wilderness for forty years. This nation is known as the Israelites." The messenger said, his eyes full of fear.

"How could a nation born of Egyptian slaves have wiped out Og and Sihon? Why did Egypt not tell anyone about these Israelites for forty years?" King Nacaan asked. I heard many among the crowd begin to shift anxiously.

"The Egyptians gave no warning for fear of international shame." the messenger replied. "For the Israelites have a God. And that God demonstrates His power through the Israelites. Their God humiliated and destroyed the gods of Egypt. Their God parted the Red Sea and drowned the Egyptian armies. Their God sustained them for forty years in a desert. Their God has handed their enemies over to them including Og and Sihon." At that moment, the messenger collapsed, dead.

Jericho was silent for a moment, then it erupted into wails of despair. The people were panicking, scrambling around, and even passing out. The mark on my neck had stopped hurting suddenly and I could think clearly again. Eventually King Nacaan raised a hand and the crowd fell silent.

"Today, we must grieve the deaths of our allies. Og and Sihon, may they rest in peace." There was a moment of silence before King Nacaan continued speaking. "But although our allies may have fallen to these Israelites, Jericho shall endure. For as surely as I live, Jericho shall not meet its end at the hands of any nation nor its God."

People cheered, but many were still muttering. The fear on the faces of the people was still very evident. Most of the crowd began to run home, some solemnly, some screaming. Jonathan motioned to me and I went to him. "So what do you think?" he whispered.

"Based on the Amorite's demeanor and his descriptions, I would estimate the enemy to be roughly 40 thousand soldiers in addition to their God." I responded unenthusiastically. "Jericho has a standing army of 8 thousand in addition to our wall. Now I don't know how much of a factor the Israelite God plays in their military conflicts, but the numbers are not optimistic." I concluded with a frown.

"If they managed to defeat Egypt, then all of their soldiers must be giants." Jonathan said, his eyes widening.

"I don't think so. If they were, the Amorite would have mentioned that. Our soldiers are probably bigger than the ones of the Israelites. But none of that will matter as long as our wall stands." I replied with an air of false confidence. In reality, I was just as frightened as would be expected, but I couldn't let it be shown. I was most likely going to be put in charge of organizing a defense against the impending attack, and the atmosphere in the city was still filled with fear.

King Nacaan walked over to the two of us. "It pains me that peril has befallen Jericho and I must ask this of the two of you. Please do whatever you can to raise morale. In a couple of hours, I will call another council meeting." With that, he left us.

I split up with Jonathan to cover more people. But when I looked around the great city, panic had evidently taken hold of the people. Doors and windows were being shut, and the streets were void of their usual bustling activity. Jericho had seemingly transformed from a lively, prosperous city to a lifeless, abandoned settlement. Through cracks and creases, I saw many people trying to hide in their homes, paralyzed by fear.

"Anything?" Jonathan asked, reappearing behind me. I shook my head in response. He groaned unhappily. "I didn't get anything either. Even the brothels are empty and that never happens. People must be really scared. Well I guess we should tell Father about this." He began walking towards the council chamber.

"To think that this could happen because of news about some group of people and their God." I muttered to myself as I walked back towards the council chamber as well, having been deprived of any opportunity to raise anyone's morale by news of terror.