We entered the city staying as close of King Gilgamesh, as we could. We got plenty of stares from the villagers on the streets and the men in the canals controlling the boats. Since we were with the King, no one said anything to us, but we heard murmurs behind cupped hands as we passed. "What has he brought back now?" one old woman said loud enough for us to hear, though I doubt the king heard her. He led us to the palace then gave orders for someone to bring us food. I hadn't thought of food in a couple of hours, which was strange since none of us had eaten since breakfast. I guess we were running on fear and excitement. King Gilgamesh left us alone to eat, and while it was not food I would want to eat, if I had a menu of choices in front of me, I ate it all. When you don't know when, where, or if your next meal is going to come, you're less picky. Nicky and Tommy ate everything, as well, while Tommy filled us in on more of what he had read in the book.
After we finished eating, the guard, at least we assumed he was a guard, led us to another room. There were a few people around. Everyone was looking very sad and it didn't take us long to figure out why. In the center of the room, a bed sat on a raised pedestal with an unusual looking man, I use that terms loosely, lying on it. He was dressed more like a king than the king himself, but he also looked like what I would expect a caveman to look like. Not Fred Flintstone but Conan the Barbarian with a lot more hair. It was clear that the man on the bed was dead. "Enkidu," Tommy whispered to me and Nicky.
From what Tommy told us, after it got too dark to keep reading and then as we were eating, Enkidu was not from Uruk. He was a wild man that had been sent, by the gods, to become a companion, BFFs if you will, with Gilgamesh, so the king would stop being mean to his people. Tommy told us the king was sleeping will all the women, especially brides on their wedding night, and forcing the men to work all day seven days a week. Over dinner I decided that maybe I'd better take over reading the book. The book seemed tame, but now I was beginning to wonder. Anyway, he told us that the gods' plan worked. The two of them got into a fight and beat the crap out of each other, but when it ended in a stalemate, Enkidu and Gilgamesh became closer then brothers. Tommy told us a little about their adventures and how the people of the city came to think of Enkidu as a hero. We decided that we should show our respects to the dead.
The only funeral I had ever been to was my Grandfather's and I was really little, like kindergarten. I wondered if Tommy would be scared, since he was too little to remember even that one. I guess from what he had read already, he was sad Enkidu was dead. I saw tears streaming down his cheeks, as we knelt beside the bed. I said a prayer to God, and whatever other gods Enkidu believed in, that King Gilgamesh was wrong and Enkidu would get to go to Heaven. After a couple of minutes, we stood, went to a corner of the room and waited for the king to do something else with us.
Eventually everyone else in the room left. We were alone with King Gilgamesh and Enkidu's dead body. The king came to our corner and sat down on a window ledge. When the king didn't speak for some time, Nicky asked, "Lord Gilgamesh may we hear what happened?" I didn't think he was going to tell us, but eventually he started to speak softly.
"Enkidu came into my life at a time when my people were starting to turn against me," he started. "I must admit now that some of my actions were not very royal. On the other hand," he said with a slight smile, "Maybe they were a little to royal." My being a girl, I thought the king was cuter than any Hollywood actor when he smiled. I suddenly wondered why he had to stoop to sleeping with girls on their wedding nights. He was so cute that I would have thought a lot of girls would want to be with him. "Enkidu made me see the error of some of my ways. He made me want to be a better king, a better man. We decided that we would go on a quest. We would do something no other men had ever done. We would do something that would make us legends and live forever. We decided to go to the Cedar Forest and slay Humbaba."
"The beast that guarded the place?" Tommy asks curiously.
"That would be the one," the king said.
"What is Cedar Forest?" I asked. I could tell the king was actually feeling a little less sad, as he relived his adventure with his great friend.
"That is where our gods live here on Earth," he explained. "For thousands of years Humbaba lived in the ancient forest keeping man out. It is a most beautiful place. We had a little help from the gods in our effort to slay the beast, but still it was not easy. Once we completed the task, however, we did something that angered those very same gods. We cut down some of the trees in the ancient forest."
"What happened then," Nicky asked.
"We returned here to Uruk. Oh, my people were happy. They welcomed us as returning heroes. We had slain the feared Humbaba and brought his head back with us. Then I was offered a reward I did not wish to have. The goddess Ishtar offered to bed me, to become my wife."
"You turned down a goddess?" Nicky asked, and I could tell by the look on his face that he was wishing he could get an offer like that. Of course Nicky would probably settle for any girl's offer to take his virginity, even me, but that was just gross.
"Ishtar is the goddess of love, war and sex," he told us.
"So she should be really good at it," Nicky said with a grin.
"I would assume so, little man," the king told him grinning back. "I'll be the first to admit that I enjoy sex, a lot of sex."
Maybe the king could read the look on my face, as I looked at my little brother, because he didn't go any farther with that thought.
"Why she took up in my city I may never understand, but she is here, and so are her prostitutes. That temple over there," he continued and pointed out of the window to the one atop a huge ziggurat we noticed walking through the city on our way into the palace, "that is hers. She offers her hookers there to anyone who can pay, but being with the goddess herself carries a much heavier price. Good fortune has never come to any man that has bedded her. Most soon meet a terrible fate."
"I guess she wasn't too happy that you turned her down," I said thinking of that expression my mom told me. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
"That would be an apt statement my fair maiden," the king said to me. "Anyway, Ishtar is a spoiled rotten child. It is regretful that her father, the great god Anu, has yet to tell her no. He allowed her to unleash the Bull of Heaven on my city. The destruction you noticed when you entered was caused by the creature. It was killing my people, drinking all of our water, eating all of the beasts in the forest. I had brought this on my people. I prayed to the gods to return the beast to its rightful place, away from Uruk, but they did not honor my cries."
"Were they upset about the trees?" Tommy asked, and I was surprised at how closely he was following every word the king spoke. He was sitting cross-legged with his elbows on his knees and his chin on his hands waiting to hear more.
"I am sure they did not explain to me why, but that would be a wise assumption."
Tommy got a huge grin on his face then looked at Nicky as if to say, call me stupid.
"I had to do something to save my city, my people. Enkidu and I had to slay the Bull. I was dreadfully sorry for that. Of course, this only made Ishtar more irate. She walked the wall day and night screaming and cursing. She cursed Enkidu, the people, me. Enkidu could ignore her hatefulness toward himself and the people, but my dearest friend took offense to the vile rhetoric she hurled at me. He threw a hindquarter of the Bull at her. She was nearly knocked off her perch. He was an incredible shot," the king said with a smile of remembrance. "That is when his dreams started. I had dreams during our quest. Dreams that my dear friend assured me were good omens, but now Enkidu was the one having dreams. They were of his death. Not so much in how he would die, only that he would very soon. I sought council with the gods. Only Shamash, the god of the sun, would explain. I assume he did this as a favor to my mother, she being one of his followers. It was he that assisted Enkidu and me in our defeat of Humbaba. He spoke on our behalf when Ishtar used her hate to turn the gods against us. Despite his best efforts, there was nothing he could do. He was not alone in standing for us, but Ishtar had turned more against. The gods decided that we were to be punished for invading the Cedar Forest, killing Humbaba, cutting down trees from the virgin forest, killing the Bull of Heaven."
"But you didn't have a choice. I mean with the Bull," Tommy cried.
"We set the wheel in motion, son," King Gilgamesh said sadly.
"The gods decided that Ishtar's sister Ereshkigal, the goddess of the Underworld, would take Enkidu and punish him for what we had done. I prayed they take me instead, but they would not hear of it. I was more god than man, and I was a king. I believe they knew that inside they were killing me as well for I cannot find the will to carry on without my friend."
"But you have to, King Gilgamesh," I told him suddenly afraid he was going to kill himself.
"Tomorrow I will bury my friend then we shall see. The hour is late. We shall all retire," he told us, and with that story time was over, at least for tonight.
We were taken to a sleeping quarter with two large beds. Tommy and I climbed into one and Nicky took the other. I was laying there thinking about how sad it was that all of this had happened to King Gilgamesh. I wished we could have gotten here before Enkidu had died. I would have liked to have met him. I had started feeling a little bad for not wanting to do a report on Gilgamesh, when Nicky called over from the other bed.
"Dani," he said softly.
"Yeah," I answered.
"I'm really glad we came here."
"Me too," I told him honestly. "I'm glad we got King Gilgamesh for our project."
"Goodnight Dani, Tommy," he told us.
"Goodnight Nicky," Tommy replied for both of us then we all fell asleep.