NEVER NEVER NEVER

Exiting To The Land Of Darkness

  I smile back at the Crocodile man.

"You are alive," I scream.

"I am not a ghost," he smiles back.

"How did you find us here?" The princess questions.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I didn't mean to," he is also puzzled.

"What do you mean by that?" His words confuse me.

"After running away from the city of Uruk, I just kept on going north as the old man told us in the dungeon. I knew that the only way for me to survive is to join the rebels," he holds his breath for a moment and continues.

"I knew this valley was the only path to reach Mount Ararat."

"How did you survive leaving Uruk?" asks Meretseger.

"That was tough! Kojiro, your escape created chaos among Demi-God guards.  All their attention went to you. So I saw a slight chance opening up for me. I decided to take that slim chance because it was better to get killed there than to be sent to Siberia." the Crocodile man continues while looking at Meretseger.

"I saw you sneaking out toward the south gate. Then one of the guards noticed you and warned the rest of the troops about your escape. The guards were split into two, one to chase after Kojiro and another to capture you. So I decided to run for the west gate. Everything was going well until the last minute. Right before running under the gate, a guard on top of the gate shot at me, and the voltage struck my left ribcage." the Crocodile man exposes his n***d torso by taking off his armor.

"It knocked me off and burned me like hell, but I knew I had to keep running. So I stood up and kept running to the forest. Luckily the guard had to stay put into protecting the gate." He uttered a sigh of relief. 

"So you mean to tell me, you saved us by chance?" I look at him owe struck.

"You are right. I just arrived here not knowing you are here with that monster," the croc man shrugs his shoulder.

"That's something. I guess we are darn lucky," Meretseger exclaims.

"Wow, you just got here at the perfect timing," I still can't believe what he told us.

"How about Minotaur?" I ask.

"He didn't make it." the Croc man sighs regretfully.

"He ran after me, but the guard struck him down before the gate." the Croc man closes his eyes.

"I am sorry," I respond with sorrow.

"Me too," Meretseger follows right after.

"At least, three of us survived so far," exclaims the Croc man.

"You are right about that," I agree.

"I still don't know your name, the Croc man," I ask.

"My name is Sobek, but I prefer the Croc man. It suits me better." He grins.

"What are we going to do from here on?" questions Meretseger.

"We are going to cross this golden temple, and, from here on, we are in no man's land." My voice becomes slightly uncertain.

"At least, we know where we are going, and we can see it right in front of our eyes," Meretseger's words ease my uncertainty.

"Then, let's get going!" The Croc man yanks out two bows from Agrabuamelu's lifeless pupil.

We stop on the edge of the golden temple and look at the forest behind us. We step forward into the barren land, looking at Mount Ararat far in the distance. The double soaring mountains are our destination. There is no way back from here on. I have two fearless warriors with me, and I feel three of us can overcome any obstacles that might arise in front of us.

We keep walking northward, and the altitude gradually gets higher by the day. The more we walk, the more Mount Ararat becomes visible to our n***d eyes.  The two summits stick out like a devil's horns. We can almost see the large rectangular box-like structure closer to the top of the taller summit. That must be Noah's Ark, the resistance base. Our feeling soars high with hope.

We finally arrive at the foot of the soaring mountain in the late afternoon. The color of the snow-capped peak changes to crimson red as if the summit is on fire.  We make a last campfire for the night. By tomorrow afternoon, we should reach Noah's Ark. Each of us is immersed in our thoughts while having our last meal surrounding the flame. The roasted rabbit is on the flame. Meretseger spills out her concern first.

"How are we going to approach them? Us being Demi-Gods, we are unwelcome to them." the princess stops.

"I know. But I don't know how to convince them that we will fight for humans." The Croc man looks at me for an answer.

"I have no idea at this moment. But I know we have some serious convincing to do." I respond without any valid plan.

"How about telling the truth. If we don't join them, Gods will m******e us. We are not normal Demi-Gods who rule Mesopotamia. We are genetically modified to work in the mine to dig gold in Siberia." Meretseger looks at both of us attentively.

"Do you think humans will believe that?" The Croc man doubts.

"What else can we tell them?" Meretseger responds.

Both of them look at me for an answer.

"Creating a fictitious story doesn't help. I agree with Meretseger that telling the truth is more convincing."

"If they don't buy it and try to assault us, what are we going to do then?" The Croc man isn't convinced.

"We don't raise our weapons. We surrender." I affirm.

"What? Are you out of your mind?" The Croc man raises his voice.

"We don't fight back. That is the best solution. We need to earn their trust by not raising arms against humans." I repeat.

"What if they try to kill us all?" 

"Then be it! We failed to convince them."

"You are mad, Kojiro." The Croc man shakes his head with disbelief.

I am convinced that this is the best way, maybe the only way.

The next morning, we get up at sunrise. We begin to walk, aiming at an immense black structure. The inclination gets steeper by the hour. There is hardly a road to follow by. Once in a while, one of us falls by misstepping the rock beneath our feet. By noon, we arrive at the midpoint where the narrow road along the cliff begins. When I look at the bottom of the cliff, the gorge opens up at least 500 feet below us and is ready to swallow us all. There is no way to survive if one of us falls off the cliff.

I begin first by clutching onto the protruding rock ahead of me. Then Meretseger follows behind me. At last, the Croc man slowly finds his way.  

"Don't look down! Keep looking at the front where your right hand is." I warn them.

"I know, if we fall, we are dead." The Croc man responds.

"Don't worry. We will make it fine." Meretseger is always encouraging.

The more we advance, the more wind gets stronger. My body vibrates against the wind. Suddenly, a strong gust blows upon us, and I hear Meretseger scream for help. I look back to see what happened to her. The stone where she was standing gave in, and she fell from the narrow trail. Her cobras are holding onto the rock where she fell. The Croc man maintains his body with his left arm and extends his bow in his right hand toward Meretseger. He screams to her.

"Stay calm, Meretseger! Hold on to the bow, and I will lift you." The cobras twirl around the bow and hold it tight. The Croc man slowly lifts Meretseger back to the trail.

"Thank you so much for saving me," The princess breezes out a sigh of relief.

"Don't even mention it. We are here to help one another. That is the only way we can stay alive." The Croc man smiles.

All of us cross the razor-thin trail and rest for a moment.

"Wow, that was close," utters Meretseger.

"It is nice to be with someone whom I can count on," the princess looks at both of us.

"This is like a new family to me," the Croc man replies.

"We can overcome anything if we look after each other." I continue.

"We came this far. This is what we have been waiting for." I point at Noah's Ark in a short distance. The black immense structure appears to be hanging on top of the cliff.

"That is huge," utters Meretseger.

"That legend really existed. I didn't know," continues the Croc man.

"It looks more like an enormous coffin than the ship," I mumble with disbelief.

"You can see the trail extends all the way to the Ark. That must be the entrance to the ship." I point at the corner of the black structure.

"I can see some humans walking around on top of the ship. Look!" Meretseger points at them.

"Now, it's showtime!" The Croc man lifts his body and begins to walk toward the ship.

Three of us advance in silence. We must be completely visible from the top of the ship. I see some humans gathering around and pointing at us. We continue to advance by holding our hands up in the air. 

Some of them scream and shoot some arrows at us. We duck the arrows, not fighting back. More arrows are shot, and I cut it in half with my sword. Meretseger's dagger knocks it off.

The arrows continue to assault us like rain. I keep cutting them with my battle sword, Meretseger's cobras knocking them off, and the Croc man crouching around. I see the Croc man lose his patience and aim his double arrows toward the humans.

"Don't shoot them!" I yell and divert his bow with my hand.

"If we don't counterattack, they will kill us all." The Croc man is frustrated.

When the humans saw my reaction, they finally see that we didn't come here to fight like other Demi-Gods. The rain of arrows suddenly stops, and one of them screams at us from the top of the deck.

"Who are you?"

We stop, and I announce our reasons to come here.

"We run away from the dungeon in the city of Uruk. Some Sumers told us that there is Noah's Ark where resistances hide to fight with Gods. We came to join you to combat against the Gods." My voice echoes.

"But you are Demi-Gods to serve for the Gods."

"The Gods created us to dig gold in Siberia. We are not the Demi-Gods to rule the cities. We are on your side."

The silence permeates the area for a while. They must be talking to each other to see if they trust what I declared. The three of us patiently wait for the answer from the humans.

Large gate crackles open, and several warriors walk out from the bottom of the ship. When they come close to us, one of them begins to talk to us. We are still holding our hands in the air.

"I still don't trust you, Demi-Gods. If you came here to work with us, you have to obey my order. I am the captain Moser who is in charge of the resistance army." His voice is hard-nosed with authority.

"No problem, captain. We are here to fight with you." I confirm his order.

"OK, then tie them up!" He orders other soldiers.

The Croc man tries to fight back.

"Sobek, don't resist!" I command.

Sobek becomes calm again as if nothing happened. They tie us all with the rigid rope and bring us into Ark. We still need some convincing to do, but at least they trust us enough to let us into their military base.