was no closer to understanding him than he had been before. What can we see, using the TruSite II? Only what is visible
We may be able to range through time, to see the most intimate, the most terrible, the most horrifying, the most inspiring moments of human history, but we only see them, we only hear them, we are witnesses but we know nothing of the thing that matters most: motive
Why didn't you stay with your new tribe, Naog? They heeded your warning, and camped always on higher ground during the monsoon season. They lived through the flood, all of them. And when you went home and no one listened to your warnings, why did you stay? What was it that made you remain among them, enduring their ridicule as you built your watertight seedboat? You could have left at any time--there were others who cut themselves loose from their birth tribe and wandered through the world until they found a new home
The Nile was waiting for you. The grasslands of Arabia. They were already there, calling to you, even as your own homeland became poisonous to you. Yet you remained among the Engu, and by doing so, you not only gave the world an unforgettable story, you also changed the course of history. What kind of being is it who can change the course of history, just because he follows his own unbending will
***It was on his third morning that Naog realized that he was not alone on his return journey. He awoke in his tree because he heard shuffling footsteps through the grass nearby. Or perhaps it was something else that woke him--some unhearable yearning that he nevertheless heard. He looked, and saw in the faint light of the thinnest crescent moon that a lone baboon was shambling along, lazy, staggering. No doubt an old male, thought Naog, who will soon be meat for some predator
Then his eyes adjusted and he realized that this lone baboon was not as close as he had thought, that in fact it was much bigger, much TALLER than he had thought. It was not male, either, but female, and far from being a baboon, it was a human, a pregnant woman, and he knew her now and shuddered at his own thought of her becoming the meal for some cat, some crocodile, some pack of dogs
Silently he unfastened himself from his sleeping tree and dropped to the ground. In moments he was beside her
"Zawada," he said
She didn't turn to look at him
"Zawada, what are you doing?
Now she stopped. "Walking," she said
"You're asleep," he said. "You're in a dream.
"No, YOU'RE asleep," she said, giggling madly in her weariness
"Why have you come? I left you.
"I know," she said
"I'm returning to my own people. You have to stay with yours." But he knew even as he said it that she could not go back there, not unless he went with her. Physically she was unable to go on by herself--clearly she had eaten nothing and slept little in three days. Why she had not died already, taken by some beast, he could not guess. But if she was to return to her people, he would have to take her, and he did not want to go back there. It made him very angry, and so his voice burned when he spoke to her
"I wanted to," she said. "I wanted to weep for a year and then make an image of you out of sticks and burn it.
"You should have," he said
"Your son wouldn't let me." As she spoke, she touched her belly
"Son? Has some god told you who he is?
"He came to me himself in a dream, and he said, 'Don't let my father go without me.' So I brought him to you.
"I don't want him, son OR daughter." But he knew even as he said it that it wasn't true
She didn't know it, though. Her eyes welled with tears and she sank down into the grass. "Good, then," she said. "Go on with your journey. I'm sorry the god led me near you, so you had to be bothered." She sank back in the grass. Seeing the faint gleam of light reflected from her skin awoke feelings that Naog was now ashamed of, memories of how she had taught him the easing of a man's passion
"I can't walk off and leave you.
"You already did," she said. "So do it again. I need to sleep now.
"You'll be torn by animals and eaten.
"Let them," she said.