I don't know how long I slept. It's gotten really hard to keep track of time. When I woke, it was still dark outside. Not dark like it had been in the cave, I mean you could see. It's just that the sun was not up yet. I guess Utu had not started his day. It was really peaceful there by the water. You could hear the sound of the water going by, not waves crashing like on the Gulf of Mexico, but lapping along the edge of the shore. When I first saw the woman, I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me. Except for lions and giant scorpion creatures, we hadn't seen anyone since we left Uruk. I wasn't sure what she was doing at first then I decided she was bathing. I didn't mean to interrupt her or embarrass her, so I didn't wake any of the guys. I quietly started walking toward the river, but I guess King Gilgamesh is a light sleeper. He called after me, which got her attention. When he saw her, he got up and started toward her. I can only imagine what she thought when she saw us. Here I was this dirty and smelly little white girl, being followed by a giant in lion skins. I would have run too.
She took off running inland. I called after her, telling her it was okay. We wouldn't hurt her, but she didn't stop. She ran until she came to a cabin just a little way in from the shore line. Since he's a giant and much longer legs than I do, the king got to her first. She had already gotten inside and locked the door. Now he was pounding on the door for her to let us in, and she was screaming at the door for us to go away. I knew that the more Gilgamesh pounded on the door, the less likely she was to open it, so I finally got him to stop threatening to break it down and just talk.
"Why did you run from us?" he asked her.
"You look insane. You have hate, anger and blood in your face," she called out to us.
"We've been traveling through the forests and over mountains," he told her, "What do you expect us to look like. If this child is not afraid, why are you?"
"How do I know that you have not killed her family and taken her hostage," the woman replied.
"He hasn't, I swear," I told her. "King Gilgamesh of Uruk…"
"You are Gilgamesh of Uruk?" she asked interrupting.
"Yes, son of King Lugalbanda and Lady Ninsun," he answered. There was silence for many seconds then I heard the sound of the latch being thrown on the inside. She cracked the door just a little and peaked out.
"Please," I told her, "He's telling you the truth. We won't hurt you." She opened the door.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"What is your name?" he asked her.
"Siduri," she answered.
"That's a pretty name," I said. "I'm Dani and of course we already told you he's Gilgamesh."
"We seek Utnapishtim," Gilgamesh told her.
"It is foolish to seek such a thing for no one can cross the Waters," she told us.
"Surely there must be a way. All will be lost if I do not find a way to speak with the one who is immortal," he told her.
"Why can't anyone cross the waters?" I asked innocently. "It's just a river isn't it?"
Siduri looked at me like I was a simple idiot. "The Waters of Death, child, stand between you and what you seek."
"Oh," I said thinking great, Waters of Death. The first thing that popped into my head was the River Styx from Greek mythology. "Is there a ferryman?" I asked.
"Only Urshanabi can travel those waters safely, but mighty king please you must not seek this. Especially not with a child," she insisted.
"Where is this Urshanabi?" he asked ignoring her plea.
"He is in the wood," she said looking at me like it was up to me to talk him out of this.
"Thank you," he told her then we started back to where Tommy and Nicky were still sleeping. "After breakfast we shall find this Urshanabi," he told me.
"Do you really believe the water kills people?" I asked him.
"If you are frightened…"
"No, it's not that. I was just wondering what was wrong with it," I said not wanting him to think I was backing out after we'd come this far.
"I suppose we will see," he told me with a smile.
We woke Tommy and Nicky when we got back to our campsite. It was pretty much daylight now and we needed to eat and get going. Who knew how long it would take us to find this Urshanabi guy we needed to find. As we ate, the king and I told the boys about the woman. Tommy wanted to know why we didn't invite her to breakfast, and Nicky wanted to know if she was hot. I told them her husband woke up and that ended both questions.
We headed into the woods and it didn't really take us long to run into more trouble. I'm really surprised that, as large as these things were, we didn't see or hear them before one got Nicky. I'm not really sure how to describe them. There were two of them and if they had stood still you would think they were just statues because they were made out of stone. They reminded me of that huge statue of Jesus in Brazil. Their arms were stretched out and now Nicky was dangling from one of them.
"Help me!" he screamed.
"Put the boy down!" the king demanded. Even though he was a giant, King Gilgamesh didn't really compare to these two things, but that didn't stop him from doing whatever it took to get Nicky back. I don't know if these things had brains, but I was sure they didn't have vocal chords because neither of them made a sound. When the king slammed his knife into the foot of one statue, it started hobbling around on one foot holding the other in its hand. It would have been funny, if I hadn't been so worried about Nicky getting hurt. Tommy and I were both screaming for Nicky. He was screaming for us, when Gilgamesh took a running leap at the other statue. He was half way up the thing's knee before we knew it. Nicky was still gangling from its hand.
Tommy picked up a rock and threw it at the thing yelling, "Give him back!"
The statue swatted at the rock and missed, but managed to hit its buddy in the head. The statue with the bad foot was knocked off balance and fell to the ground where it broke into about ten pieces. Gilgamesh shoved the knife into the second statue's midsection. I guess it knew when it was beat, because it bent forward and put Nicky back on the ground. Gilgamesh jumped down onto the ground as well. The stone statue then sat down hard taking three trees out with it. It split in two from the force of the blow. It was about that time a man came running towards us.
"What have you done?" he screamed looking at the two broken stone statues.
"They started it," Tommy said still worked up.
"Who are you? What do you want?" the man asked looking at Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh then explained.
"It is impossible," the man told him when he finished his story about Enkidu and wanting to see Utnapishtim.
"We've been hearing that a lot lately," Nicky said starting to recover from his ordeal with the statue.
"We were told Urshanabi could take us over the Waters of Death," I told the man.
"Waters of Death?" Tommy repeated like is that really what they're called.
"I am Urshanabi and you have just destroyed to only creatures that could safely cross those waters. I'm sure you can see how it is impossible now," the man told us looking really sad, like he's just lost his two best friends in the whole world. I guess maybe he had.
"Is there no boat?" the king asked.
"No, the creatures would carry…" the man stopped and looked back at the broken creatures on the ground.
"Then I shall build a raft," Gilgamesh states boldly like it's no big deal.
"It must be very thick and very wide. Water must not reach you. Not even a drop," Urshanabi says.
"I must get busy then," the king says and starts taking down trees.