Some notes:

-This story originally was named 'Ilanit, the wife of Japheth', but after some research I decided to change the name of the characters and the plot line a bit.

-All the character names are posted as a separate chapter at the end of the story, so if you're confused you can look the names up.

-Read your bible pray everyday people~ -highfives random people-

"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth."

Genesis 6: 5-13 - King James Version

Chapter 1

A deep voice was carried by the wind, straight to my ears. I closed my eyes and listened carefully. Who was it that was singing this song about an Adonai?

I couldn't believe that there were still people who believed in God. I was always told that the foolish generations before us believed in something like a God, but that we knew better. On my thirtieth birthday, I thought the last believer of Adonai died. It was our grandfather Methuselah. We always thought that ancient man to be senile and no one ever took him seriously anymore. So when he told stories of the old times when a powerful being had walked with humans in a paradise, nobody believed him. If such a being existed, then why didn't he show himself?

But here, somebody still appeared to sing about him. What faith! But even though I applauded his perseverance, I immediately thought him to be rather foolish. Curious as to who this unfortunate soul was, I tiptoed towards the source of the voice.

After some careful sneaking and guessing in general directions, I spotted him. It was a young man, probably just about eighty years old. I stopped and tried to pay more attention to the words of his song.

The words, however, suddenly stopped and he fell silent. I cautiously looked in his direction from behind one of the giant trees I had hid myself behind, but he stared directly at me.

"O-Oh, excuse me if I disturbed you..." I managed to get out. Even though I had just scoffed at his belief, now I was somehow nervous to be around a believer.

"Don't worry, you didn't." he replied with a warm smile. "May I ask your name?"

"Adataneses, Adataneses bint Eliakim." I said hesitantly, trying to take a step back to create more distance between us.

"'Bint Eliakim?'" He repeated surprised. "You're a daughter of Eliakim?"

"Uh, yes." I studied his face and saw a dozen of emotions flow over it. Surprise, anger, fear, and finally his smile returned, albeit a bit smaller and colder than before.

"A daughter of Eliakim, huh." he mused. "Well then, I better be going. My father," he stressed, "must be looking for me. I need to get back to work."

"Your father." I echoed, trying to mimic the emphasis on the word. "Should I know him?" I asked unsure, not understanding the sudden cold shoulder. Okay, I was practically hiding from him, that may have not been the right approach for a friendly conversation, but it didn't seem to have bothered him before.

He was already standing up while he barked out a laugh. "Yeah, I think you should know him. Doesn't your whole family knows us?" he asked bitterly.

Before I could ask anything else, he quickly walked away and disappeared through the forest.

I huffed angry. Never had someone treated me that way only because of my family name. What an arrogant person that had been. I kicked a stray pebble and turned around.
I shouldn't let myself in with those weird believers anyway.

When I got home from my trek through the forest, I was greeted by one of my many brothers.

"There you are, they were looking for you, dumb ass." he scolded, already pushing me not to gently towards the cooking tent.

"Can't I even take one walk in the forest?" I sighed.

"Quit whining." he countered, now trying to shove me inside the tent making me collide with the tent flap.

"Hi guys." I muttered, pushing the tent flap aside and entering. Immediately one of my sisters was pulling me away, through all the busy women preparing the evening meal. She began recounting what was done and what had to be done without much of a thought and I listened obediently. I guess I couldn't escape cooking today and I joined all the women with the preparing.

Soon somebody pulled out Gesh. It was a juice of berries that made you feel more happy if you drank a lot of it , so we did. It didn't do more as bring light happiness, so some men were experiencing with tougher stuff. The women were already content with the current liquid. Some of the girls immediately drank with eager. Consequently, there was more laughing heard instead of the orders that were yelled in the beginning. The older sisters finally discovered the Gesh, but didn't even think about taking it away and took greedy gulps also.

When somebody offered me a jug of the substance, I too readily accepted and began drinking. It was something that made this duty more bearable and I joined in the laughing group of girls.

"Oh, not again!" A man yelled at the entrance of the tent. The women all laughed and called out to him. He let the flap slide close again, yelling at the other men that 'those girls were at it again.'

A howler of laughter was heard and after some time someone took a peek inside and urged the most giddy of the group outside, so that the others could prepare the rest of the meal in relative peace.

I was luckily one of those who was asked to come outside, with a bit of acting overly happy on my part and being mistaken to have drunk too much, even though the effect of the drink was very small, no matter how much you drunk.

I stretched contently when I came outside and slowly made my way to the campfire. Another night of 'fun and more fun' it was. It wasn't like I really cared one way or another, life didn't have much more meaning for our clan anyway.

"Adataneses!" I heard somebody yell. Soon a pair of arms were draped over my shoulders, and I laughed excitedly.

"Sedeqetelebab!" I yelled, turning around and hugging her.

"My, I haven't seen you for way too long. " She exclaimed when we released each other. We walked the rest of the way to the campfire together and took our place behind some of our brothers and sisters.

"But you know, from today on, father has decided to stay here to collect the grain. So we'll be together every day for a whole moon, because our shifts are always together." she explained and I laughed happily.

The work on the land was tiring, but to be with my favorite sister again was an opportunity that didn't come all too often.

"After this moon, we could always go work on the land of the Addot family. They always harvest later than us." I whispered. Sedeqetelebab made a face and I slapped her lightly on her hand. "Come on, I know it means more work but it also means more products. Our family will be happy with us and it isn't like we can see each other often anywhere else."

Sedeqetelebab sighed. "I'm sorry Adataneses, but father would never agree to that. He hates the Addot family. You do remember that daughter of them, don't you?"

I nodded vaguely, indeed remembering something about one of those daughters.

Sedeqetelebab continued. "They accepted their daughter's wish to marry with Shem ben Noah!"

I gasped, enjoying acting out such thing as a scandal.

"That lunatic Noah? That's building some wooden structure?" I asked.

"Yeah, exactly, that Noah. Not only is he building that weird thing, they also say..." before Sedeqetelebab continued she took the time to look around her as if checking if somebody was listening in to our conversation. After she was done she leaned in to finish her sentence. "They also say he still believes."

"A believer?" I asked surprised. "But grandfather-"

"Yeah, yeah." she interrupted exited. "I thought so too, that grandfather was the last one, but there are actually more! Can you believe it?"

I thought for some time about the believers while listening to the music that had begun playing and accepting another jug of Gesh to share with Sedeqetelebab. Then I suddenly remembered my encounter. I elbowed her and when I got her attention I began to tell about that man singing about Adonai.

"So I think he was a believer too." I finished.

"Another one?" Sedeqetelebab asked surprised. "But aside from Noah and his family there aren't- Oh but that is it!" she suddenly exclaimed, taking my hands and squeezing them. "You must have met one of his sons!"

"No way." I said. "Do his sons believe too?"

"Uh-uh." she nodded. "That's why father was so mad at the Addot for giving their daughter away to one of Noah's sons. Maybe you met her husband. Or maybe you met..."

I looked at her questioningly, noticing the sudden sadness in her eyes, but before I could ask her about it she quickly began asking me tons of questions.

"What did you think of him? Was he nice? Peaceful? They are- I mean they say that they are very gentle men, contrary to our clansmen."

I shook my head. "I don't know, it was very brief and he seemed distant. Why, you're interested in him?" I asked half jokingly, but I stopped smiling when her face suddenly looked tense.

"What's wrong Sedeqetelebab?" I asked.

"Well it's just that-" she began but she didn't dare to finish and looked around her nervously. I understood that this was a real secret so I stood up, beckoned her over and took her back toward the cooking tent, that now was desolated.

"Tell me." I urged her when we arrived.

"Okay, but promise me not to tell anyone else?" she said, biting her fingernails.

"I promise." I said without hesitating. She studied me for some time before giving in and spilling her secret.

"Actually, I've been meeting with one of the sons of Noah." she then said.

My eyes became wide but now that she had begun with her story, she didn't let that stop her.

"He's called Ham. I was curious, because of our heritage you know. That our family used to believe in that God that he believes in. I talked to him and we decided to meet up a couple of times. He told me about the God he believes in. He also told me the structure that his father was building was a boat, because his father had received a message from God that as punishment for the sins of the world, he would let it rain till the highest mountain would not be seen anymore."

I couldn't believe my ears, but she still wasn't finished.

"When I told this to father, he became furious. He forbid me to talk to him ever again." There was a hint of regret on her face. "But I couldn't forget about him."

Finally having done her story she sat down on the ground and hid her face in her hands. I noticed her shoulders were shaking lightly.

"But Sedeqetelebab-" I started.

"I know, I know. It's impossible and it's stupid, but he was so sweet." she cried.

"Sedeqetelebab no. Stop that." I knelt down and hugged her. "He must have bewitched you. When was the last time you saw him?"

"L-last week." she stuttered.

I let her go and slapped her across the face. She just took it and held her cheek, still crying.

"Father would kill you if he knew that!" I hissed, scared with the sudden graveness of this secret. "Sedeqetelebab, you could have died, that man is dangerous. That whole family is dangerous! And even more so now I know that they are believers. Believers are wicked people, Sedeqetelebab, you mustn't let yourself in with them. You have to forget about him."

She continued crying and I held her again, shushing her.

The evening progressed around us, but we stayed there on the ground beside the tent, speaking in hushed tones.

I tried and tried, but Sedeqetelebab kept talking about how sweet he was and how she had finally felt at peace with him.

"Sedeqetelebab." I told her at last. "If you continue to speak so highly of him, you'll be murdered. As will I if they notice I knew about it."

When I talked about my own life being in danger, her head snapped up. She wiped away a tear and stared at me. "You're right." she spoke slowly. "I've brought you in danger. There is no going back now."

"No going back?" I asked bewildered, but she suddenly sprang up and ran away.

"Sedeqetelebab? Sedeqetelebab!" I yelled after her, but she disappeared into the crowd and it was already to dark to have a chance of finding her.

That evening I went to bed with a heavy heart.

And I stood up with a even heavier one, when the news came to me that Sedeqetelebab had ran away to join the family of Noah.

Our family was furious, but when they went to find Noah and his family to murder Sedeqetelebab and maybe Noah's family itself, they were nowhere to be found.

No one had actually seen the wooden structure before and whispers were they must have relocated their old living quarters to where the structure itself was, deep inside the forest with the giant trees.

They disappeared from the surface and it became a taboo subject to talk about.

People forgot about it.

But even after years went by, I couldn't forget.