TC5

The Kuwapi people  were more  significant than  a mere  band of nomads scratching  out their  existence on  the Great  Plains of North America, yet  they did not have the numbers  nor the blood ties to mark them  as a  tribe or  even a  clan. They began as outcasts from among  the Oglala Sioux. In Lakhota, kuwapi means "they follow". To the north they were beset by  the Dakotas who held the entire  Black Hills  and the  plains around  them. The Kuwapi named them  the  northern raiders  and  if the  mainline Oglalas helped fend them off from  time to time it  was more to ensure their own food supply than to do the Kuwapi any favors.

In the richer grasslands eastward there were the fierce Pawnees to contend with. To the south along the Oregon Trail the Kuwapi were buffeted  by  the  Arapahoes  and also  ran  the  risk  of encountering white settlers  moving west and the  US Army troops who protected them. In the scrubby furrowed lands westward they had the Cheyennes to fear. The whole northwest was put  out of their  minds by  dread of  the Crow  and Blackfeet. But in the ever-moving sliver of meager grasslands left in the wake of the Oglala the Kuwapi wandered,  and here  their hunters  rode. The best among them was named Wanica.

Wanica led the other men downwind  of a herd of  bison drinking water at a  ford in  a  large creek  named Squaw  River by  the whites. When he signaled a halt, they tied their  horses off to the roots of sun-bleached stumps  and crept unseen through brush to approach the herd. Some of the animals grew  nervous though they could not  sense any  of the  men by  sight nor  sound nor smell.

Still, inexplicably,  the  bull  stopped  drinking  and  stared downstream, somehow sensing  danger. Judging the moment  to be right Wanica stood from behind a  shrub and loosed an arrow. The bolt struck a cow in a flank but it was not  a lethal shot. All the bison heard the  cry of  the victim  and panicked. A rapid series of shots were  made by  other hunters  but all  of their arrows either missed outright or made non-lethal wounds.

The herd of bison  fled to a  slope on the  north and  west and reached the cover of the low cloud bank, although they were too stupid to have planned such a move. Wanica led the hunters back to their horses so  they could  follow the  herd away  from the river. As they rose in  elevation the cloud bank  enveloped the hunters as a  thick fog. They kept their bows  at the  ready, turning left and right, but none  of the bison were  visible to the men  in the  complete whiteout. But further uphill  the fog cleared and patches of blue sky  were seen. Three of the bison were isolated and exposed. Arrows were loosed and struck home, dropping one of the animals. The two surviving bison ran back down off the hill into the fog, seeking the safety of numbers.

Wanica ordered his youngest braves to carve up the  body of the fallen animal. Meat was loaded on skids made of  wooden staves and animal skin to be  dragged away. Nothing of the bison was wasted. Satisfied with the  progress of  the young  men, Wanica turned away with the older hunters. They rode up the slope until they could go no higher.

The summit of the high  hill stood alone  over a sea  of clouds that reached the horizon. It was a rare and  beautiful moment. Wanica was deeply moved  by the  sight. He said, "I  name this place the Island in the Sky."

The herd of bison slowly wandered back out of  the fog, grazing warily on the mountaintop even with the hunters  close at hand. The animals sensed  that the  humans had  done their  worst and would leave the rest of them alone. But what followed scattered even the humans.

Something taller than a tree emerged from the sea  of clouds on six  pillars  of  flame. Only Wanica and  his  fearless  steed remained to watch it touch down  on the summit of  the hill. At first he thought it was  just white  men doing one  better than their smoking horse of iron. But the object grew much smaller in size and changed shape  to resemble a  faceless white  man. Not like a European, but  white as  snow, with  no eyes,  ears, nor mouth. It shifted postion on  the hilltop, and the  very ground thundered and shook under its feet.

Wanica nudged his horse a bit closer as the white man-shape sat on the ground. Its head opened in six petals to  reveal a gold object that rose as though it were being offered to Wanica.

He dismounted to  take  a closer  look,  approaching the  shape cautiously on foot. Tentatively, respectfully, he withdrew the golden object from  the splayed  head  while the  limbs of  the man-shape remained motionless at its side. The object fit neatly in Wanica's palm like the hilt of a knife. The head of the white man closed.

Wanica squeezed the gift to produce a hissing opaque black beam. When he swept the beam around  it carved trenches in  the stony ground of the hilltop entirely  without effort. He watched the white man change again to become  a dome on the  summit, like a smooth igloo.

Wanica discovered  that when  he  no  longer actively  squeezed the Golden  Gift  the  immaterial  black  shaft  retracted  and disappeared.

The curiosity of Wanica's companions overcame  their fear. They slowly returned to the summit, together with some of the bison. There the hunters saw the white dome on the  very summit of the hill, and they also  saw Wanica  standing next  to it  with his horse. Wanica lifted a  large stone  and set  it down  near the artifact. The companions of  Wanica joined him  stacking stones around the egg as though they were building a second dome out of rock. When the men finished they stood back to  look. The shape was concealed by a cairn.

By the time the People were feasting on bison the animal's horns had been fastened  to leather  thongs. One of Chief  Tatanka's women pinned the horns to his shoulder as though he had actually departed the tipi where he roiled in womanflesh  and killed the animal himself. Briefly Tatanka and Wanica eyed each other, but there was with no mutual respect whatsoever.

The chief said, "There are five tales how this single animal was taken."

Wanica looked away and blew a ring of smoke.

"About the hunt, then. What say you, Squaw Who Hunts?"

Wanica's gaze returned to  the Chief sharply  as though  he had been slapped, but  he  controlled his  rage  and answered. "We followed the herd into a low  cloud. I could not  see the other hunters. Each man ascended alone. When the clouds parted we took the animal."

"And the Great Spirit appeared  out of  the cloud to  bless our hunt!" blurted Plenty Lice out of turn.

"You have taught  your  hunters  to lie  so  easily, Woman  Who Hunts," said Tatanka. "I should give you another name."

Even Wanica was annoyed by the outburst of Plenty  Lice, but he said, "Wakan Tanka was white like snow. He sat on the top of the mountain. His head  and arms and legs shrank until  he became an egg.

The hunters who had  been with Wanica  nodded their  assent and grunted. Chief Tatanka refused to believe the  tale his hunters were telling. Staring at Wanica with  his perpetual  sneer, he demanded to know what they did after they saw the 'egg'.

"We built a lodge of stones  for the Great Spirit  to honor him for his blessing."

Tatanka pulled out his knife and drew near to Wanica. "You built a lodge of lies. There is no white egg!" He flicked just the tip of his blade across Wanica's face. Tatanka was satisfied to draw only a little blood. Maiming his best hunter wouldn't  do. He said, "I name you Hole In Cheek!"

Wanica put his hand  to his  face to  staunch the  bleeding and walked with dignity out of the range of the fire's light. Chief Tatanka laughed but nobody else did.

Wanica's wife Yuha left the circle of light as well and followed her man to their tipi.

While she dressed Wanica's wound his son Shy Bear said, "Father, did you truly see  the Great  Spirit, or did  you just  want to annoy Bad Heart Bull?"

Wanica shifted his eyes to the boy and appraised his son but did not answer until Yuha finished staunching the cut. At length he said, "Yuha, what we spoke about before, now it is time."

Yuha nodded that she understood and retrieved  a leather pouch. The pouch contained many pigments  and the implements  to apply them. Using what she  had stored  in the  pouch, Yuha  began to paint the face of Shy Bear.

For his part Wanica retrieved a ceremonial dress  made of bison skins and feathers and many beads.

Shy Bear turned his head to look at what his father held, which smeared some of the paint caused his mother to grow annoyed. She said, "Stand and be still, son."

Wanica laid the ceremonial dress on Shy Bear and fastened it as his wife  continued to work. he aid, "You will get  no answers from me." He put the boy's own bow in  his hands and  said, "I will give you no morsel of food."

Yuha finished painting her son's face and stood apart from him. His father said,  "To this  day I  only lent  you the  name Shy Bear." Wanica opened the  flap door. "Go now, into  the night, nameless  one. Kill  your  own  food, if  you  can.  And if  you cannot?" Wanica shrugged. "Perhaps in your hunger  Wakan Tanka will give you a vision."

Astonishment marked Shy  Bear's face  at all  these words. His glance traced along  his father's  arm to  the finger  pointing outdoors and he nodded, understanding at last.

Shy Bear also saw that his  mother did not understand  what was happening, not really. She was doing this under duress. This was a ritual, with a strict form. As was required of her, she said, "The boy will go out  from us. The  man will return." Shy Bear sincerely hoped the worry on his mother's face was not rooted in another one of her well-known premonitions.

He obeyed his father  and stepped  out into  the night. In the moonless dark Shy Bear  stumbled across  the prairie  until the fires of the Kuwapi people were like flickering orange stars far behind him. By midnight he  reached  the first  slopes of  the Island in the Sky and ascended slowly, reaching the summit just before sunrise. In the light of  dawn the boy  sat to  let his shadow fall  upon his  father's  stone  cairn. He watched  all morning until his shadow no longer touched the rocky mound.

By dusk he had  not received  a vision  from the  Great Spirit. There was a strong breeze. When the sun sank below the horizon the boy grew cold. He gathered brush growing on the summit and cut it with the edge of a flint scraper, which  he also used to spark a fire to burn them. But the flame and smoke kept changing direction. The boy took the changing winds to  be an invitation to spend the night with Wakan  Tanka within the lodge  that his father built. He removed stones from one side to create a door.

When he crawled inside he saw  the white egg that  Wanica spoke about to Bad Heart Bull. The boy was hungry but it was too dark to try to kill a hare. No heat came from his  fire outside but least he was shielded from the  wind. There was no room to lie down straight, but  he could  sleep on  his side  if he  curled around the white egg.

In the middle of the night Shy Bear was awakened by the smell of smoke. The boy stood up and went outside. Shy Bear saw that his fire had become glowing coals,  but that earlier the  wind must have carried embers halfway down the slope and  kindled a brush fire that threatened  to form  a  ring around  the whole  small mountain. He knew that if he stayed on the  summit he was dead. Small game was running up and over the summit  to flee the fire and the boy could  have shot  his dinner  then, but  with every wasted moment he risked being roasted himself.

Shy Bear moved toward the fire to have enough light to see, then moved west to get around the flames. But he could not go far. A chasm of the  Squaw  River lay  before him. He could hear  it flowing  over  rocks far  below  as  wrapped around  the  entire southern half of the mountain. He needed light to try to cross it. The fire spread to cut off any escape north.

Shy Bear looked down into the canyon of the Squaw River and saw a tiny light of purest  white, like  the brightest star  he had ever seen, bobbing  along  the  west slope  as  though it  were walking. Sometimes it would move north, then at times south, but it always rose higher. At length the light reached the rim on a level with the boy  and he saw it was actually  worn on the head of a human figure even taller than he. The prairie fire behind it outlined the figure's hourglass shape.

A female voice spoke words  to him in  a tongue unknown  to Shy Bear, and they seemed to be urgent. She turned and went back the way she came. The boy followed her,  if anything to  reach the creek where he he knew he could stand a chance of surviving when the wildfire reached the canyon.

The path was free  of obstructions,  but the  female frequently checked the progress of the  boy. When sha resumed walking the boy admired the patterned skintight  leather sha wore,  even in the dim light of the fire, which made har ass look to him like a big  ripe plum. But the sound of  the water  grew quieter  the closer they approached, which was strange.

By the time they reached the creek the water  wasn't flowing at all. It had become a wet staircase of puddles that  led up to a low cave entrance in a wall  of dark shale. The femaler crouched to splash har way inside the cave with har  tall boots, and the boy followed.

Inside the cave the boy saw a pool of water with a narrow stone ledge all around  it. The light from  the stranger's  headband filled the space and he saw that that she looked very much like a young Kuwapi woman but much taller, and sha was not very much older than  he. Sha laid  har  hand  on  har chest  and  said, "Leliel."

Sha expected him to give his own name and he did not want har to think him addled, so he said, "My father once named me Shy Bear, but now he has cast me out of his tipi with no name." He clearly saw that she did not understand his words so he laid his hand on his own chest and said, simply, "Shy Bear."

The sound of that name  seemed to  please har. She removed her headband light and dropped it  into the  water. It faded as it sank. Shy Bear saw  the water  began to glow  with a  dim green light.

Leliel tried  to  make  the boy  understand  with  simple  hand gestures to follow her. She tried to make this imperative. She knew there was danger if he did not follow. Then she jumped into the cistern, turned turtle, and disappeared from  view. The boy waited for her to come back up for air as he knew she must, but she did not. The water began to stir and overflow  its bounds. Shy Bear took a leap into the unknown and followed her.

When Shy Bear reached air again there was much  more light than the alcove at the source of the Squaw River. Many hands reached down offering to pull him from the water. His ceremonial dress was soaked and it weighted him  down greatly. Two of the hands were those of Leliel.

Shy Bear saw that he was standing next to a large pool of water surrounded by a surface of polished planks of  wood, and beyond this there was a circle  of small huts. Behind the huts was a lush  forest. Shy Bear could  see the  sky through  branches in these trees, and it was purple. But it was also rather cool, and Shy Bear, being soaked, began  to shudder with a  chill. Leliel was just as wet as he was. She took his hand and led him into one of the huts on the perimeter of the pool.

Shutting the door, she disrobed both Shy Bear and harself. This sha did one garment at a time, first his,  then har own. Leliel opened the door once  to pass through  his ceremonial  dress to waiting hands. Shy Bear saw that her legs were sculpted far more than he would expect a woman's legs to be. She was obviously a runner.

Leliel in turn took in  the sight  of Jashen as  she thoroughly dried both harself and him with linens. She held a ribbon with strange markings against  Jashen's body,  here and  there, then opened the door  to  speak  some words  to  those were  waiting outside. There were dry clothes  folded neatly inside  the hut, specked with green and dark purple which Leliel donned.

By the time she was fully dressed, the  servants outside passed another set of identical clothing through the door  of the hut, but they  were cut  smaller,  somehow  selected to  fit  Jashen perfectly. Taking mute encouragement from  Leliel, he  slipped into the new clothing. And Shy Bear saw there was wisdom in the color and pattern of the clothing. With face and hands painted, a warrior would be almost invisible in the  forest. He wondered if women in this strange place were accepted as warriors.

Outside of the hut, seated near the water, a man said to hym in the  tongue of  his  people,  "Welcome, Shy  Bear.  I am  called Teacher by some.  Everything you see around you is  the lodge of my parent, who is known to your people as Wakan Tanka."

The man fell silent and Shy Bear felt he  was invited to speak. He said, "Teacher, why am I come to this place?"

"I would ask you to teach Leliel to speak Lakota. You will find that she can  learn very quickly. Later I will  bring a man here to teach both of  you the tongue of the whites,  and by then you will be able  to learn as quickly as Leliel.  You will both come to know  that man's  tongue as  though you were  born as  one of them, and you  will make copy marks Leliel has  made that record the history of  this place. Then you will return  home and teach all the Kuwapi to speak this tongue.."

Shy Bear said, "But when  I return  speaking the tongue  of the Whites the People  will grow afraid, and flog me,  or try to put me to death, thinking I am Coyote come in a human shape."

Teacher replied, "Do  not  fear those  things,  Shy Bear.  Your father will protect  you. After you return he  will become chief of the People.  A group of Whites will meet  the People in three years. They will be led by the same man who will soon be brought here even  as you were.  Wakan Tanka  has said that  these white settlers and your people should live together in peace."

Already Shy Bear  had seen  wondrous things  beyond any  of his dreams, and he longed to stay in that place and experience even more wonders, and here he stole  a quick glance at  Leliel. But his desire to see his father Wanica and mother Yuha again proved the greater. Hy said, "I will return,  Teacher, and  teach the People the tongue of the Whites as you bid."

"I am very pleased," said Teacher with a smile. "No more shall you be called Shy Bear. Jashen  shall be your name  of manhood. Yet do not  think I will send  you home very soon.  It will take perhaps ten or twelve moons here  in the Lodge of Wakan Tanka to complete your tasks."

"But soon my father and mother will think me to be dead."

"Take no thought of that, Jashen," said Yeshua. "No matter how long you remain here, when you return to the land of your people it will seem to your mother and father that  you have been gone for less than a  single moon. One day you will  know how this is not even magic."

"Such a thing would always be strong magic to me, Teacher."

Teacher said, "When  I teach,  great magic  becomes small,  and small magic becomes a known thing, not even magic at all."

Yet later, as Teacher promised, Jashen was witness to something that would always seem to him to be great magic. A great pile of fallen timber had materialized next to the pool. Teacher and one of his other students named Anael  came to stand near  the wood pile. Teacher said in  a loud  voice, "Do  not be  afraid, Mark Lange. A  large splinter  of wood has  pierced your  kidney. You also  have  a broken  leg  you  cannot  feel because  timber  is pinching  it. But  we  must lift  the beam,  and  you will  most certainly feel that."

Mark could only manage to gasp for help. Teacher told Anael to lift the  beam, which che  could easily do. To Mark, everything seemed to turn red. His face was frozen in astonishment at the pain, greater than any he had ever felt, and he fainted from the overbrimming flow of it.

After he was  healed  Mark Lange  lay  in a  bed  cared for  by attendants who bade  him to remain in repose long  after he felt sufficiently revived to stand once  more. But at length Jashen came to  him. Using the  English he  had  come  to  know,  he introduced himself and invited Mark to meet the Healer.

Mark thought Jashen had  the appearance of  the people  who had preceded the Europeans to North America. And Mark was glad to be permitted to move about at last, When again he saw the short man who helped him when he was injured the man  was seated outdoors near a pool of water. Sitting nearby also was Leliel, who even taller than Anael had been and more obviously female.

As he drew near Mark felt only a very small  residue of pain in his back and  his leg, but he was entirely  able to walk without aid. The short man invited both  Mark and Jashen to  be seated. Jashen sat next to the tall woman and took her hand in his.

Mark sat close to the  Healer, who  greeted Mark and  told him, “This is Leliel, who was once sent to Earth to bring Jashen to us here. But Mark Lange, whom say ye that I am?"

Lange recognized the question from sacred scripture and he said in reply, "You are the Christ, the son of  the living God." And he stood up because it  didn't seem  fitting to recline  in the presence of his Lord.

Teacher gestured for Mark to be seated once more. He looked over at Jashen and Leliel, and  Jashen assured Teacher,  in English, that he never identified him to Lange.

Yeshua turned back to look at Mark and said, "You do well to say so, Mark, on so few cues. There was a bishop of Rome who foisted upon the faithful the face of his bastard son  as a likeness of me,  and ever  since then  most people  expect to  see a  taller Italian fellow with a beard and long hair."

Mark said in reply, "Lord, your Father emphatically told us not to create such images, but we never seem to obey, though we dare to call him our God."

Teacher said, "Some do still obey God, Mark. A small remnant are faithful, both here in Kemen and  on Earth. It will  be enough. You spoke truth in your prayer when you understood I wanted your flock to go west. Indeed, to go as far as you can go by river or rail, and then even farther on foot."

Mark followed the Lord's finger as he traced out  a course on a map down  the Ohio River  to lands in the  west. The map had no political boundaries,  only cities  and rivers and  uplands. His finger stopped at one mountain. Mark saw that the feature was marked with words he could read: Green Dome.

The Lord said, "Here is  the home  of Jashen's people.  I would have you  travel to  this place,  Mark, with  your wife  and any others from your congregation who would freely choose to go. You will take this  map and also a book you  will copy yourself from Leliel’s White Scroll. But the three of you must toil together to make  it come to be.  Jashen has come to  understand Leliel's speech but he  cannot read her letters, and neither  of them yet know your speech nor your letters.  Yet it will not take so long as you imagine. And when you return some of the families in your flock will think you to be  apostate by reason of this book, and they will have  nothing further to do with you.  But others will believe. I  cast you  in the  role of  Yohanan the  baptizer who prepared my way,  though he himself did not live  to see it come to pass."

"I beg my Lord to choose servants more willing  and worthy make his will come to pass!"

"Not so, Mark, for I deem  the German Brethren to  be most like those who first  loved and followed me when I  was in the world. Have no  fear! At  the place  where the rail  ends I  have other students  who shall  prepare  your flock  to  continue, as  your journey will then be only half complete."

When Jashen translated  for Mark  the passage  of the  refugees trodding west from Rumbek he asked Leliel,  with some annoyance and unbelief, “Were you really this running girl?”

Begging pardon from Mark, she told  Jashen to fetch his  bow in one hand,  took him by his  other hand, and led  him through the woods to a large flat clearing. The place served as a kind of parade ground  in Nyduly. There Leliel stood twenty  paces from Jashen.

“Fire an arrow at me,” she said, and when  Jashen howled in dismay that she was wasting his  time she said, “I am serious. Do your very best to try to kill me.”

He released the dart. Leliel’s muscles exploded into motion. She ran backwards across the grass of the  clearing faster than the arrow could follow, until  the arrow itself dropped  to the ground.

She ran forward again to retrieve  it and fitted it  to her own bow. Now it was her own turn to do her very best to kill Jashen, who stared at her with open mouth, because she was quite capable of doing just that. But just when the arrow in its deadly flight drew close to Jashen its forward momentum  seemed to disippate. It fell harmlessly at his  feet. Leliel turned and disappeared into the thick wall of trees at the far side of the open space.

In short order she came to The Teacher sitting alone on a fallen log by woodland paths well known to her. When he saw Leliel he made a gesture of welcome and bade her to sit also.

She said, “Teacher, you have said you have put Jashen in close proximity to me  that nature  will  take its  course, and  this nature has done. Now he is Made among the B'nei  Elohim. But I have already recited  the White  Scroll up  to the  war of  the dragon and Jashen now seems to be cooler toward me."

Yeshua asked Leliel, “Do you find young Jashen to be pleasing to your eye ?

“He is a  vision  to  drink in,”  sha  replied. “I could imagine spending more than a  lifetime with  him. Yet I do not think he feels the same way about me.”

Yeshua replied, “Jashen  feels as  though he  is swimming  in water over his  head. He’s felt that way ever since he jumped in after you in the other world. I’ve given him a new name to acknowledge his manhood, but he still lacks the full confidence of a man. Jashen was whisked  from the land  he knows  to this place, which is surpassingly strange to him, just  as I imagine Earth would seem strange to you were you to see more of it than you did. Worse, he is translating stories about things  he has not yet done, and he is wondering if he has  any agency at all. But what are your own feelings in this matter, Leliel."

Leliel sighed "Teacher, to be honest, my own feelings are mostly that I just miss my mother."

Yeshua nodded, and embraced Leliel, but he had  nothing more to say. He had already told Leliel and her  brother Ithuriel, more than once, that Lilith would return to them before the end.

In her tipi Yuha had been sobbing quietly for days. Wanica tried his best to comfort her, but there was really  nothing he could do. She said, "Nearly a full moon has passed since we have seen our son. Has the Vision Quest ever taken this long?"

Wanica replied, "I will not lie to my own  wife. Ten nights the test was  for me, and no  more."Hearing this, Yuha let  the full force of her grief wash over  her, and all Wanica  could do was hope she didn't blame him personally for going through with the ritual.

Yet there had been no  choice, really. The Kuwapi were already the outcast dregs of the Oglala Sioux. If Wanica had denied the boy his test  of manhood,  he would  be outcast  even from  the Kuwapi, forever a  boy. And he would  have never  forgiven his father.

When she recovered a bit she said, "Shy Bear's last memory of us was that  even  his  mother had  a  stony  heart."Wanica  said, "A heart of  stone  is  part of  the  ceremony.  There must  be a...cutting off. There is no way  around it. This as always been the way of our People."

He remembered how  Shy Bear  always  called the  leader of  the People "Bad Heart Bull" and how  even he had to  agree. Tatanka piled upon Wanica daily indignities, until even his great inborn patience had been tested nearly to the breaking point. This day was no exception.

Chief Tatanka barged into  the tipi  unannounced and  pointed a finger at Wanica. "You have brought no food into this camp for a moon, Hole in Cheek!""It is  the fire," Wanica said. "It still burns the grasslands to the south. The animals are on the other side of it."

"Then take your hunters and go  around the fire or  you will be Hole in Neck.""It will take two days' ride to find the animals," Wanica replied. "Then a day to kill and  field-dress them, then two days' ride to bring the carcass back. The meat will go bad."

"The nights are cold now. The  meat will keep. I  grow tired of eating jerky. Go!"Before the Chief left the tipi he let his eyes wander over Yuha's legs. She saw his gaze and tucked  her legs under a  bison-hair  blanket. When Tatanka  departed,  Wanica retrieved the Golden Gift from the  place he had hidden  it. He had shown no one the weapon  he received from Wakan  Tanka, not even his wife Yuha. He knew that while he was hunting, nothing might restrain Tatanka from pillaging his tipi.

Leliel felt no great  urgency to rush  her recital. Yeshua had told her when she was finished  she would be sent  to Earth and leave all that she had known far behind.

For his part Jashen, too, did not feel rushed, though he longed to return home. He believed the Teacher spoke truly, and would return him to his parents after  only a single moon  passed for them, no matter how long he tarried here in this place he called Kemen.

So it  fell to  Mark  to  drive them  along  in  their task  of translating the  scroll, as  he wished to  be reunited  with his wife, and he was filled with rue for every day that she thought him to be missing or dead. And at times the labor grew tedious. But the blank pages of the Green Book were steadily filled with words from Leliel's scroll even as Leliel steadily improved her ability to speak and understand English.

So there came a day in Kemen when Leliel  opened her oven-fired clay pot and  returned to  it  her cylinder  of parchment  that seemed to be bleached white. And Mark placed his fat codex into a leather satchel. They were all quite finished with  the task set out for them, and this they told the Teacher.

And when the Teacher spoke of the pilgrimage to come Mark said, "Lord, my flock has already been uprooted once  before and most of us are worse than destitute.  We've gone into debt to pay for homes we built  on land we don't  even own. None of  us have the means to leave once again."

Yeshua said, "Mark, do you think that I, intending to build this tower, have not first counted the cost?"

"Far be it from my thoughts, Lord!"

Mark watched Jashen fill the satchel with much money. Greenbacks lined the interior and formed a cushion for the green book.

The Teacher said, "Be a good steward of this currency, Mark, for there are some among the Brethren who would only feign to follow you for the love of this money. Others will  turn their back on you when you  read from the Green Book. You  already know how it argues against the  Bible on many points, and few  of your flock will care to  accept it, as the Brethren take  the New Testament to be the  sole rule of their  faith, or at least  they say they do. But  neither I nor  Bat-El never  asked anyone to  write the works that are  collected in Bible in the first  place, so there let matters unfold as they will."