Chapter Twenty-Two

 Please note that this is the SECOND chapter posted this week. 

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Taming the Beasts

© Jeannie St. John Taylor 

“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together,

and a little child shall lead them.” Isaiah 11:6

With whips in one hand and torches in the other, the brothers swept the middle deck securing every room in turn. Hours later, the tired brothers crept shoulder to shoulder down the hallway on the bottom floor where Shem had last seen the lions. Even though he wasn’t worried about the cats sneaking up on them since he’d cleared the rooms in that area earlier, the brothers lit every torch they passed. Tension grew as they silently tiptoed past room after room. Shem checked each door. Closed and locked. The cats seemed to have disappeared.

“Maybe we should go single file again,” Ham whispered. 

“Only if you take the lead,” Shem retorted. He couldn’t understand why he felt so anxious, but he could tell by his brothers’ faces they felt the same. The air around them sizzled with danger.

Things moved along uneventfully until, halfway to the large central livestock room, something nudged Shem’s calf and slid down to his foot. He stiffened, and his gaze dropped downward. The lion with the black mane crouched in an open doorway beside Shem, his mate by his side, his massive paw resting atop Shem’s sandaled foot. Claws open.

Fear paralyzed Shem. His muscles congealed. His heart fibrillated ineffectively. He couldn’t expel the air from his lungs. Frantically, his brain flipped through options. They were too close for the whip to function effectively. Should he thrust his torch in the lions’ faces and hope to drive them back into the room? Would the lion swat him into eternity if he tried? Should he run? Acutely aware of the warm weight of the lion’s foot on his, he understood all too well he had to wait for the lion to make the first move.

It would be impossible to run. Impossible to move. And if his brothers even twitched the movement might propel the lions to action.

Shem blew out his breath as quietly as possible and looked sideways at his siblings, questioning his brothers with his eyes. Two white faces and four wide eyes stared back at him.

After a few beats, the male lion retracted his claws, eased his foot from Shem’s, elongated into a lazy stretch and pulled to his feet. He briefly nuzzled his mate before lumbering down the hallway with the smaller female at his heels. They faded into the darkness before they reached the door leading to the corridor that ran around the outside of the large central space.

“Is the door to the big area open?” whispered Japheth.

Shem’s mind blanked. Had he left the door open? He remembered thinking that crocodiles and bears had wandered into the space on their own and other animals might do the same. He also recalled thinking he should close the door and keep the bears and crocs somewhat confined. But had he?

The problem was, Paseah had screamed about then and the events immediately before and following his outburst had been blotted from Shem’s memory. He didn’t know if he had closed up the room or not. But something told him the big cats would want to get in there just as the other animals had. Some extra sense seemed to be guiding them.

He took off after the lions with Japheth right beside him. They dashed past three  doors in one of the two long corridors that ran the length of the ark on the bottom deck. The large central room with the pool cut off the corridors, but they commenced again on the other side.

A smaller hallway cutting a perpendicular path across the long corridor, crossed just ahead of the brothers. Shem pointed Japheth that direction, “Turn there. Go toward the big space and open the far door.”

At the moment Shem didn’t know if he was grateful for or hated the dizzying number of doors guarding every room and hallway on the ark.

Japheth disappeared down the hallway.

“See them yet?” Ham asked. From so close behind, the unexpected sound scared Shem, causing him to stumble and nearly fall.

“Forgot about me, huh?” Ham asked.

“Yep.” Shem laughed nervously. For the first time he realized he was shaking. “I’m not sure why we’re running.” Apparently he didn’t always think logically in emergencies. “We need to give Japheth a little longer. He has to go further than we do.” They slowed down.

The partially-open door leading to the hallway looping around the outside perimeter of the big livestock area loomed ahead. Shem knew the lions had pushed the door open because he would have either closed or opened it completely. He took a deep breath before thrusting his torch into the hallway.

 Just opposite him, the partially-open door to the big central area told him the lions had passed through. He quickly closed the door. They’d deal with the lions after they secured the whole ark.

Japheth’s torch appeared at the far end of the hall where he waved his light. Shem returned the wave. At that distance Japheth’s features were indistinct. “Make sure the door to the big space is closed. Then you head that direction down the hall and we’ll go this way,” Shem called to Japheth. Shem knew that though the brothers had found the lions, they had no idea what other beasts might be lurking in the dark. “Meet you on the far side.”

“Got it,” Japheth called back.

**********

After circling the central space and finding no stray animals, the brothers returned to finish the job they’d started earlier. Shem opened doors, peering into rooms with floor to ceiling cages. Nothing moved inside.

Barely able to lift his torch, Shem noticed suddenly how tired he was. He leaned against the hall wall gathering strength. Ham and Japheth joined him.

“Were you guys praying back there?” Shem asked. He tipped back his head and closed his eyes briefly. If he sat down he’d never be able to rise.

“Not me,” Ham chuckled. “My mind was a total blank.”

“I was too scared to pray,” Japheth admitted.

Shem agreed. “I couldn’t think of anything other than how to keep from getting eaten.” Strange the way he almost never prayed in the midst of a crisis. Survival occupied every corner of his mind.

 “Baaaaa.” A lamb trotted out of the room recently vacated by the lions and sauntered over to them.

Shem exchanged a look with his brothers.  

Ham opened one eye and quipped, “Looks like the lion brought his own lunch.”

Shem stifled a chuckle while Japheth returned to the room to check for the lamb’s family. Sheep needed the company of other sheep, so locating this one isolated from the herd presented an anomaly. If they found the bloody remains of a few other sheep he might understand why this one was alone and unharmed. A fresh kill would also explain why he was still alive -- the lions had gorged and had no appetite to eat more.

“Clean and empty,” Japheth called from the room. The lamb trailed after him.

“How’d you get out of there alive, little guy?” he asked as he stroked the lamb’s snowy coat. The animal fixed liquid brown eyes on him. ”Aww. Look how cute he is.”

“I’m looking,” Ham said. “But I’m too tired to care.”

 “Maybe the lions weren’t hungry,” Shem said. Noting the lamb’s crimped dense wool which would prove perfect for spinning into fine tapestry yarn, and addressed the lamb. “Nice to have you aboard.” Mother would love that wool.

“Or maybe,” Japheth offered, “God is temporarily suspending the new laws of nature for our voyage.”

 “What ‘new’ laws?” Shem asked.

Ham groaned. “Don’t get the preacher started.” He pushed away from the wall and opened a couple of doors. “Here I’ve been worrying a tiger might jump out and eat me or a buffalo would thunder in and stomp me to death, and now you two are trying to save them the trouble by boring the life out of me.”

Shem rolled his eyes.

Japheth ignored Ham and responded to Shem’s question about “new” laws.

“They’re new since the Fall. There were no carnivores back in the Garden of Eden.”

“Here we go,” Ham muttered. “Anyone see where the lamb went?”

Shem looked around, but saw nothing. “Looks like he just vanished.”

“That was fast,” Japheth said.

“He’ll turn up.” Right now Shem refused to concern himself with a missing lamb that offered no threat. He wanted to get back on topic. “I know animals eating other animals resulted from the curse,” Shem told Japheth. “I just never thought of the curse as initiating a set of ‘new’ laws.”

            “Semamtics.” Japheth shrugged. “I called the laws ‘new’ to make a point. God changed things then and he can change them now if he wants. And reverse them once again after the Flood.”

            “Point taken.” Shem had to admit Japheth had made him think differently. He also knew that at the end of time animals would no longer be carnivores, but he had never thought that phenomenon could relate to his family and their time. Could it be Japheth was right about God suspending the laws of nature during the Flood, too? At least on the ark? That would make everything a lot easier.

            Shem’s torch spluttered and he lifted a fresh one from a wall pocket with a sigh. Ham hurried ahead of them along the opposite wall banging doors impatiently.

            “Man-sized temper tantrum,” Japheth muttered under his breath.

“I heard that.” Ham banged another door shut and dropped the bar into place. “You should know we can’t count on the beasts being harmless if we hope to stay alive.” He spoke louder than necessary.

“If you can hear us speaking in conversational tones, we can hear you,” Japheph

intoned.

“Pardon me for wanting to be careful.” Ham’s voice dripped sarcasm and Shem understood why they rarely worked as a threesome. “If we let our guard down a tiger will suddenly appear and maul one of us. Count on it. I don’t see anyone we can spare, do you?”

“We’re all tired.” Shem stretched and cracked his knuckles over his head thinking he understood the reason for Ham’s nastiness. “Let’s get this done so you can go home to your future wife.”

Ham’s eyes flashed momentary gratitude. “Thanks.” It shocked Shem to realize again that the two of them might almost be friends.

Japheth yawned. “We’re not as alert when we’re tired.”

            The three men drifted wearily toward the big central space. Shem thought his brothers looked as though they dreaded the task ahead as much as he did. He had just lifted the door-bar when a strident roar sent Adrenaline pumping through him. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of the stripes and thick fur of a tiger’s massive head.