THE REALM

Chapter Nine

  I swallowed, as his gaze left the distant plain to gleam probingly down into mine.

  "Not even if you taught me all that you know could I ever fight so well as you. There can be no man alive who is your equal!"

Kuri said nothing for a moment and then he broke his silence by re-asking his question, "Do you fear me Benaiah?"

  Why did he want to know this?

  "Yes…….and…….no," I said in a stutter, not overly sure of my answer.

  Kuri cocked his head to the side and regarded me with a questioning smile that somehow relaxed me enough to let me form my own thoughts and explain, "If I was ever to desert you and become your enemy I could never win. If I'm to remain by your side as a friend then why should I fear you?"

  Kuri nodded before extending a hand to me and saying, "Well, let us pray then that you are forever my friend."

  I took his hand and he pulled me up to my feet, "Come, let us move off a ways from the smell of waste that lies around us," he said, as he grabbed up his pack and started to move off.

  "Kuri?"

  He stopped and glanced back and I said, "I always want to be your friend Kuri."

  "And so you shall be!"

  I broke free of my stance and hurried to catch up with him. As I fell in alongside of him my mind replayed over all that I had seen. After we'd gone several hundred yards Kuri stopped by some dry brush and made a fire.

  I looked around, a little surprised that he would welcome more confrontation by making a fire. Then, I heard something in the distance from where we had just come.

  "The survivors have come back to eat their own. Fallen creatures are ever opposed to the ways of creation's foundations. We're safe here for they have plenty to eat."

  I turned away from the sound of gory carnage and sat down next to the welcoming heat of the fire. I was staring into it reflectively when Kuri asked, "What are your thoughts?"

  Surely he must know what they were as I seemed to be nothing but an open scroll before him? Out of respect I responded anyway, "I was imagining what it would be like to be able to do something like what you did back there." I ducked my head down, slightly embarrassed at the admonition, because I knew I would never be Kuri.

  "No, you will never be me, but I'm going to teach you to be like me. With my help and provision from the Most High, there is the likelihood that not only will you do things you have seen me do, but even greater things."

  I looked at him as if he were crazy and asked, "How is that even possible? I know I can never be as good as you."

  "I'm going to help you Benaiah, which means a part of me will be in you and from there, what can man tell in regards to what El Elyon may purpose to come to be? Now go to sleep and dream of the battles to come."

  Obediently I lay down on my side, still watching the flames flicker as they consumed the dry wood.

  "I heard you singing and yet it was as if you weren't. It was like the sound was inside of me like some ancient rhythm, but not confined to me. It was beautiful. It took all my fear away."

  "Go to sleep, Benaiah."

  I closed my eyes and at once I heard the resonance of a melody that had the power of life behind it, which lulled me into a deep sleep almost instantly.

  *****

  Walking. It was all we did it would seem, but that was not true. Kuri talked. It seemed as if his words never stopped and I did not wish for them to. I was learning so much.

  Never had I had so much one on one communication with another individual before. I had grown up largely alone, with little outside exposure to the world around me. It was like I'd been held in the dark for 15 years before experiencing the light of the sun.

  Kuri talked of everything from ancient historical events to matters of science and the understanding of the signs of nature all around us. He talked of past battles and even of the former realm of the old kingdom and his people, the Yesathurim.

  "Does it bother you Kuri, that your people have fallen on such hard times?"

  "More than you can know Benaiah."

  I studied on it a bit before asking, "I know I asked before, but I didn't understand so I'm asking again. Why, if the Yesathurim are the chosen people, of which you are one, are you having anything to do with me, a stranger?"

  "The blessing that was imparted to my people is still one that resounds today. We have a custom that if a stranger wishes to be of our family and observes our ways then we are to adopt him."

  "That's what you're doing with me, right?"

  "No."

  "No?" I asked puzzled.

  "You have no need of adoption as you are already an heir to the promises of Shamayim, because the door was opened long ago by one man's sacrifice for all, to come and be known of El Elyon as heirs of the Kingdom of Shamayim. If you do that which has been recorded down in the Holy Scrolls and preserved to this day with a faithful heart then you too will see the Kingdom of Shamayim one day.

  My people, the Yesathurim, are in error, because they have rejected the belief that redemption is available for all and in turn they have rejected El Elyon; for they have rejected the message of the one He sent to sacrifice for all. They now hold to old traditions that are of no effect, as they daily turn their backs on the truth freely given and recorded down for them to read and yet I tell you that they are still El Elyon's people.

  The seven Kingdomer nations once bravely put themselves forth in the faith of the new covenant at their birth in the Ruach, which is the Holy Spirit of El Elyon, but now they have largely fallen away from the truths that were entrusted to them. What do you think their position is in the reality of the eternity to come, if El Elyon did not spare the Yesathurim, His chosen people, for their lack of belief, but instead cast them out from His presence?"