The Descent of the Gods

Peak

(I always imagined these scenes to this music ^^^)

Tubal threw back the hood of the man he just stabbed.

At first, he could not process what he saw. He stumbled back. This man bore the Cainite mark.  

It was not the man he had pursued through the streets the night before. It was one of his own soliders. 

Tubal whirled and one by one checked each and every one of the other dead and dying men in the cave. Each was a gagged Cainite soldier, feet and hands securely bound underneath their tattered garments. All of them had Cain's mark outlined on their foreheads in some kind of brown dye.

Then Tubal remembered that these men had been with him in the pursuit the night before. They had been ambushed at the wall by the escaped slaves. After he had regained consciousness, he had not seen them again. Their quarry had taken them along with them across the river and marched them all the way up here... as bait!

Tubal had taken the bait. So where were the slaves?

Several soldiers were still alive. Tubal yanked out their gags, and demanded them to tell him what had happened.

"Where are they?"

"Home," One finally gasped.

"They went home?"

The man shook his head through his pain.

"What then?"

"They went home," and by the way he almost wept the word, Tubal realized his meaning.

Dread choking him, Tubal rushed out of the cave and looked towards Nod. Through the trees, he could make out only one landmark - the triangular peak of Nod's mountain. 

Hidden in a alcove just below the now precisely angular peak of Nod's mountain, Caleb tossed aside his tattered slave's garment. It was time. His men had left him only moments earlier - each one knew what he must do.

Caleb was no longer dressed as a slave. He wore a suit of light leather armor, studded with polished metal plates.  It had obviously been crafted with skill and pride by a master. Every seam of leather lay just right, tailored to Caleb's muscular form.

Weeks earlier, he and his companions had hidden much of their travel baggage just outside Enoch's small village - including their weapons and armor. Their mission required stealth - the Cainites bore no love of anything from Eden. They had masqueraded as best they could as common men from the region. The Cainites had their hands full, and even when Caleb and his men allowed themselves to be captured and taken to Nod in a prison wagon, no one suspected they were anything but hapless villagers who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It was time that Nod know their true identity. As they had deposited his Cainite captives in the remote cave in the forest early that morning, he had sent two of his men upriver to recover their proper garb. It felt good to be appropriately arrayed again. 

Holding a ram's horn in one hand, and his other draped over the sword sheathed at his side, Caleb strode out of the shadow and onto a newly-cut stone, jutting out near the summit.

He looked splendid. Never before had any Cainite seen warlike garments such as his.

He gazed over the city. It was quiet, except for the shouts being raised in the arena nearby. After so many weeks of inaction and playing the part of placid slaves, Caleb relished what he was able to do. That he could do nothing to save Enoch was his only regret. Enoch's death was making something else possible. He wished Enoch could know.

He lifted the horn to his lips and Eden's sound echoed across the city of Nod. 

Even Enoch, lying at death's door on the altar in the arena, heard. 

The slaves and taskmasters all over the mountain below him craned their necks up at him in bewilderment. They stared at the man on the rock as he lowered the horn. 

"I send tidings to the people of Nod. If angels wish to make slaves of the earth, they'll have to contend with EDEN."

He unsheathed his long sword. It had not been forged in Nod - Eden had discovered the art of iron-working long ago. He raised the blade above his head.

"Lift up your hands downtrodden and oppressed. Heaven's messenger is fallen. No longer do you owe Cain your sweat and blood. Today is your chance for freedom! Eden awaits us!" 

The guards remaining on the mountain drew their swords, daring the scattered slaves to make a move, while other guards rushed toward Caleb.

Caleb leapt into their midst and attacked first. Moments later, they were overcome. The slaves around stared at him in shock - they had never seen anyone fight as he did.

"Follow me," He said, descending the mountain without a glance backward to see if they were behind him. Wide-eyed, nearby slaves left their work, picking up chisels and digging instruments as they began down the mountain - anything that could be used as a weapon.

The guards, seeing them approaching and more and more slaves joining Caleb's descent, gathered hastily at the bottom of the mountain's slope. There they were attacked from behind by a score of fierce warriors dressed as Caleb was.

As his men attacked from behind, Caleb began running, jumping from stone to stone, until he plummeted into the thick of the battle.

The slaves were right behind him. This was their chance!

Jehuda did not get to join his brothers in their revolution. Much earlier in the morning, as they had emerged from the Euphrates river after swimming its width back on Nod's soil, Caleb had spoken to him and given him specific instructions.

"Enoch shouldn't have to die alone. Witness his sacrifice! He deserves that much honor!"

Jehuda had been quite disappointed he would not be joining the fight. But as he had watched in the crowd of Cainites as Enoch battled the dragon, his feeling had changed.