Chapter 2: Creatures of the Earth
In which kindness is witnessed.
It was a pity, Enkidu thought, that they needed to postpone another trip for some time. They hadn't seen Gil excited this much about an adventure since Huwawa.
Still, Siduri rarely was this uncompromising with forcing Gilgamesh to actually manage the affairs of the kingdom, so it must have been something serious. Since both of their friends would be busy for few days, and Enkidu could not help them in any way, they searched for another source of entertainment. They spent some time in the gardens, then helped a bit in the temple district, but eventually ended up observing the daily life on the streets.
Walking slowly towards the northern gate, Enkidu looked around. They could feel a strange presence nearby, a bit similar to that of Gil, but somehow more ghostly and foreign. It was that abandoned weapon, Enkidu realized, when they saw a flash of white in the distance. So it stayed in Uruk for some reason? They almost forgot about its existence.
The Servant seemed to merge into the crowd pretty well, unlike Enkidu, who still struggled to understand humans. But, what they noticed with a dose of surprise, had also an extraordinary talent for sticking its nose into other people's troubles.
Enkidu did not understand the context of the situation they were witnessing right now, but it looked... unusual, to put it mildly. A group of people, most likely a family, surrounded Rider and kept explaining something to him in raised, excited voices. A very old woman clung to the Servant, begging him for help. From the scraps of conversation, Enkidu guessed that the woman's grandson had been taken into the wastes by some giant beast while guarding sheep.
Arjuna seemed overwhelmed by the despair of an old lady and eventually accepted her request to search for the shepherd. With her quiet blessing, he headed towards the city gate almost immediately. Having nothing better to do anyway, devoured by curiosity, Enkidu followed their fellow human-shaped weapon into the wilderness.
As soon as Rider was out of sight of the soldiers guarding the walls, he stopped and gathered magical energy on his palm.
"Come, Balahaka!" - he called out and the most curious creature answered, materializing from the cloud of blue magical dust. "Good to see you again, friend."
Enkidu had never seen such beast before - white, four-legged, tall and powerful, with long neck and beautiful, big eyes. Its mane and tail were made of creamy hair, long and soft, like those of a woman. The strange animal looked similar to the domesticated kungas or wild donkeys from the steppes, but surpassed them in every possible way.
The creature made a weird, surprisingly high-pitched sound, shaking its head and nibbling Arjuna's arm.
"Ah, there's no need to call for all four of you yet," Rider answered with a gentle smile, caressing the soft nose of his companion. Enkidu wondered, if the Servant understood animal speech or just talked for the sake of talking. "Lend me your speed, Thundercloud."
With those words, the weapon mounted the summoned creature and ran north. Enkidu was watching them for a while and even considered shapeshifting, to match the the admirable speed of the animal, but eventually decided to follow it in their usual form. They did not want to miss anything important.
They were traveling like this for some time, before Rider slowed down, alarmed by nervousness of his mount. Enkidu, with their natural ability to detect creatures of the earth, could already tell that they'd just entered the territory of beasts called ugallu.
Arjuna calmed down his mount and proceeded slowly through the labyrinth of small rocks. The lion-like predators looked out of their burrows, when he passed them by, sniffing and baring their fangs, but only a few decided to follow the intruder. Enkidu knew that most of them were females, staying with their young, while males went out to hunt on the plains.
Rider reached the narrow, rocky path to the mountains, when a particularly big ugallu blocked his way, roaring and nervously waving its tail. The beast stood unsteadily on three legs, with the fourth pressed to its chest, and looked more frightened than aggressive. Arjuna instinctively prepared his bow...
Enkidu almost boiled up in a sudden rush of anger. They felt more attached to beasts than humans, and couldn't stand such unnecessary cruelty. This Servant thing must have been a really mindless weapon, to not see that this injured female only tried to protect her pups!
But no arrow had been shot. Arjuna was observing the creature for a while, then dismounted the beast called Balahaka and let it dissolve into thin air, along with all his weapons.
Enkidu watched in amazement how, unarmed and unprotected, Rider slowly approached the ugallu. Keeping eye contact with the female, he suddenly rushed forward, reached for something stuck in her wounded leg, and swiftly jumped back, right in time to avoid a snap of the toothed maw. The beast roared in pain, but now was standing on all four legs again. After a moment of confusion, the creature retreated to its lair.
Enkidu could not believe their own eyes. What had just happened?
They had no time to think about, if they did not want to lose sight of Rider, who now proceeded on foot up the mountain path.
It wasn't very wise, in Enkidu's opinion. A slow march on open ground would only encourage more beasts, expecting easy prey, to follow the Servant. They were already gathering around Arjuna. Even vultures circled above him now, smelling fresh corpse.
The weapon seemed unmoved by the danger, just stopped and looked around with a flat expression. So it enjoyed slaughter, after all, just lured more of these poor creatures to one place, to slay them all at once... Enkidu winced, somehow disappointed by this discovery.
But Rider did not reach for its bow - he materialized a big, strange looking conch shell instead.
"Sing for me, Devadatta," he said and blew it with all might.
The sound was so great and frightening, that Enkidu instinctively covered their ears. For their sharp senses it was a torture. No wonder that the beasts scattered in fear, letting Rider pass without shedding a single drop of blood.
Enkidu was at a loss. What kind of weapon does not slay, but shows kindness and compassion to its enemies? Maybe Gil was right, saying that this Servant had no value - it was defective from the start?
Rider's actions made no sense so far. That's why Enkidu wanted to witness the ending of this strange mission... and get the answers for questions they hadn't even realized they had.