The Unending Epic Written to Appease a Friend, Tell a Tale, an...

16

          Asher looks at May. His heart hammers in his chest, and his nerves feel strung with lighting as the cold water rushes around them. "What was that?"

          Mayhem answers calmly. "The god of this river. I prayed to him for protection."

          Asher stares at her in disbelief. "And he answered?" May nods. "But... but how? Why?"

          "His river feeds the mother of my people," she answers. "The river Nintu. He is her servant."

          Asher looks down at the river swirling around him. A chill shakes his body. "So we're... sitting in a god?"

          "The gods always surround us."

          Asher's mother had told him something similar, some years ago. She had been devout, lighting the candle in their small shrine to the sun-god Alash each morning.

          "But," Asher continues, "that man, he said he was a servant of Ninbaba. Won't this anger him?"

          May scoffs. "Your grain god has no sway over the rivers and the trees. Nintu and her attendants care nothing for him.

          Asher frowns. "My mother always told me that the rivers were the wives of Ninbaba. She said Ninbaba gave them his seed and they granted the land fertility to produce his offspring."

          "Nintu is wife to no one," May snaps.

          Asher holds up his hands. "I believe you." He pushes himself up and looks around, suddenly conscious of the stones and trees and water all around them. "We should probably keep moving. But first, I need to wring out my clothes."