Tobyas motioned to the two men of Bereth to stand and come forward.
They rose and carried a heavy wooden box between them. They sat the box upon a table at the front of the gathered villagers. The two men opened it and spilled its contents upon the table. Out tumbled some clothing filled with the bones of a human, but the clothing looked almost new. It definitely had not been long enough for the body in the clothing to have turned to dust, for the clothing would have in that length of time become rags.
"This is how we found Macob. We know this is Macob because of this.” One of the men raised the skeletal hand and showed a ring upon the finger bone. “Macob was my brother. He was only one year older than me."
One of the elders stood and asked, “So why do you dress his bones in new clothing and bring him to us."
"No.” Macob's brother said, “You do not understand. These were the clothes he was wearing last week when he disappeared."
There was a gasp from the group and then another elder stood and said, “Are you telling us that those bones are the bones of a man that was alive last week?"
"Yes,” the other man said. A cacophony of whispers arose amongst the elders as they tried to ponder the possibility of such an event.
"I am his father, Coboth is my name,” the man continued. “Macob broke his leg when he was but six summers old. It was not set properly and he hath walked with a limp since. The leg bone of this here skeleton was broken and not set properly.” The man held the bone up to show how the bone was misaligned and then added, “I know this is the thigh bone of my son. This is all the proof I need."
One of the elders asked, “How is this possible?"
Again a cacophony of whispers erupted and it spread from the elders to the villagers that were gathered to witness the meeting. The volume rose as each struggled to be heard above the other whisperers. Soon shouts were being thrown as one would say that it was not possible that only God could cause such a thing to happen and another would say he had heard of legends. Finally, Tobyas had to strike the floor with his staff to get the group to settle.
When the crowd had silenced he addressed them, “We have come here to let these men present their case. They have come here to warn us of a potential danger. Now let them finish.” He turned and nodded to the older man to continue.
Coboth said, “There are legends of a monster of long ago, that can kill a man and steal his soul. That monster can then walk about as if it is that man. Yacob here thought he spied Macob in Saldoth at a fair, he tried to chase him down yet when he caught him and turned him about it was someone else. Yacob swears that it was Macob only a moment before, that even the color of the hair changed.
"I think the monster doth exist. What else is there that could turn a man to bones except a judgment from God himself? Macob was a good man. He followed the law."
Tobyas stood and said, “Coboth, I am not disagreeing with you, but who can say we know the mind of God?"
Coboth huffed, and began to put the bones back into the box, “When it is one of your own whose bones you find then maybe you too will believe."
"Coboth, I said I was not disagreeing with you. It could be a monster. Or it could be someone is playing some hoax on you and your family for some reason. If Macob has been missing for two weeks then I think he has met foul play or an accident, but I have a difficult time believing these bones are his.” Tobyas looked about the elders, “Has anyone here heard of the legend that Coboth mentioned?"
One lone hand rose. Slowly the man stood. His spine would not straighten as age had bent him to where he had lost nearly a foot of his height. He shook a he held onto his cane and another man helped to steady him on his feet. He was Zapeth, the oldest man of the village and when he stood everyone else was quiet with respect.
His voice sounded as if it was filled with gravel yet it was firm, “I have heard of the legend, but it was told to me by my parents to keep me out of the woods at night when I was a young child and prone to wandering. It was said that any man that gave into his lust and sought a woman that he should not have could fall prey to the Wampyr."
"Wampyr? I have not even heard that word,” Tobyas pondered aloud, “but why would it be told you to scare you as a child? It seems a tale to scare men to make them control their lust."
"They also said that the Wampyr would steal children to suckle them as her own because she was barren. It is an old legend,” the old man added. “I believe my father's father told me that it was from even before the flood and that he had not heard of any stories of Wampyr since."
Tobyas turned to Coboth, “If there was such a monster before the flood, surely it died during the flood. Only Noah and his family survived."
Coboth nodded. “Maybe, or maybe it found a way to survive and stay hidden until now.
"I swear these are the bones of my son, and I will find the monster that slew my son if it takes my entire life to do so.” Then Coboth and Yacob lifted the chest and left the building. They had come for assistance in their hunt for a monster and had found only disbelief. Something inside Zachariah told him that they were not wrong, but how he knew he had no idea, and he was a lone voice within his village.
Tobyas waited until the two men had left and then stood again before the elders. “I want us to put those thoughts from our minds. Whether true or not, they are thoughts we can dwell on at another time.
"We have one in our village that deserves our attention and all of our thoughts should be directed toward him.
"Zachariah approach and address the elders,” commanded Tobyas motioning Zachariah forward. From the day he could first walk and until now Zachariah could not remember his knees ever feeling so wobbly, neither could he remember his stomach feeling so tied in knots. As he began the walk he felt more like he was walking toward his death than to a new life with the woman he loved. Each step felt like his legs had gained another twenty pounds and it was harder to make that next step and yet somehow he found himself on the platform and turned facing the elders and the villagers.
He opened his mouth and at first nothing came out. His voice had gone, then suddenly the words miraculously came into the air, “As many of you know three months ago I found a woman on the road who I had thought was injured or harmed in an attack.
"I brought her to my parent's house for my mother is the one whom all of you seek when you are ill or hurt and it was the best place to take her if indeed she was hurt.
"When she recovered she was healthy, but remembered nothing of her past. There are no signs that she was married before. There were no marks, no jewelry.
"She has none of the signs she was ever married. She has none of the piercings that some do as part of the wedding ceremony, nor does she show the marks where she has worn a ring. In the three months she has been with us no one has come to the village looking for her.
"For three months she has stayed with my family and has become a part of our household. I do not know if she is of the twelve tribes. Her characteristics look like she could be, but I could not swear to it. Yet in my heart it does not matter.
"Last night I asked her to be my wife.” The room filled with yells and cheers. Zachariah could not continue talking as several of the men, elders and villagers alike jumped up and began to congratulate him. They hugged him and kissed his cheeks, several said that it was well past the time he should have been married and they were very happy for him.
Tobyas finally got them to quiet down and said, “That is not the reason the boy is here. He is not here just to announce his engagement. Please sit and listen."
It took a few more minutes but everyone returned to their seats and Zachariah was able to continue, “As you know, normally a man marries when he is eighteen. On my next birthday I will be twenty one. We have no idea of Lilith's age; my mother says that from her health and body she guesses she is between seventeen and twenty which means she too is beyond the normal marrying age.
"Lilith and I wish to be married as soon as the elders will allow
us to be. Custom dictates a minimum of a year engagement, but I know that custom has been overruled by the elders in the past for special reasons. I ask the elders to consider my condition and allow Lilith and me to marry sooner than that one year's time.” Zachariah lowered his head and added, “If it pleases you."
Then Zakarias stood and added, “I know this boy is my son, but on the day the girl entered our home I could see in his eyes that he loved her. My wife and I feel he was betrothed to her from that very moment. So I feel that the elders should consider that."
Tobyas stood, “I also want each of you to consider how much this young man has done for this village and for you.
"Zachariah once mended a portion of the village fence without being asked and with no assistance. He also fixed my sheep pen and rounded up the stray sheep, also without being asked and without recompense. In all the work he has done for us he has not once asked anything for himself.
"This is the first time he has come to any of us either singularly or as a group and asked anything. Even during that competition my son forced him into three months ago he refused to accept my awarding him the win because my son had cheated. This boy is a good man and deserves the best we can offer to him.” Tobyas then took his seat.
Judyas stood and said, “I am normally one to stick to the customs but this is a time that I agree that the custom can be altered. I say we cut the time in half and we count it backwards to the day Lilith entered into their home.
"Does anyone disagree with me?"
Zachariah could not believe his ears. What Judyas had just proposed meant Lilith and he could be married in three months. He waited and all he heard was one voice after another say “Not I."
Then Tobyas stood and said, “So a vote of the elders goes, three months from today, we will allow Zachariah to marry Lilith. All those in favor say, Ye!"
It was unanimous, every elder and the village men even though they technically could not vote all stood and said, “Ye!” Even Tobiah joined in with his vote.
That night the entire village turned out for an engagement celebration. It lasted for three days. No one got any of their work done during that time, but no one cared. It was rare that such respect was found for one young man as was found for Zachariah, and the whole village joined in celebration to show how much they loved him and how happy they were for him.
The next three months went by very quickly as Rachel and Lilith were lost in the preparations for the wedding and Zachariah and Zakarias along with several other men built another house upon Zakarias’ land for the soon to be married couple. Zakarias gave all his land to his son and just asked that he and his wife be allowed to live out their days there. Zachariah looked at him and hugged his father and said, “That was something you should have known you needed not to ask permission for. This is your land as well as mine and we will share it. It will only become mine when you and mother have gone to meet God."
They built a new shop between the two houses and made it quite a bit larger so that Lilith could work with them for her talent was amazing. With the three of them together they had already begun to sell quite a few pieces to outside villages and were beginning to become one of the wealthiest families in the village.
During that three months there would occasionally come news from one of the outside villages that another pile of bones had been found. Yet the village of Tobith paid little attention to it because no one from their village was directly affected by it. Not even one of the many cousins of the villagers had been harmed. So instead the village continued to prepare for the biggest wedding celebration in its history.
Part Three
The ‘Z'
Chapter Ten
The day of the wedding arrived and for Zachariah it felt surreal, almost as if he was in a dream and nothing that was happening was real. The first thing that was different that day was that he was not allowed to see Lilith when he got up and ate his meal. During the night she and Rachel had been secreted away to some other house in the village and he was not allowed to even know which house it was.
He and his father served themselves their meal and to his surprise his father could cook. He had never had a meal that his mother did not prepare but his father did the meal justice. He wanted to question him about it but let it go. He was too anxious about the rest of the day.
No sooner had they finished their meal than the door flap lifted and Tobyas entered and sat down on the mats beside Zachariah. He put his hand on the young man's shoulder and said, “Well today the boy is about to become a man. Are you ready to begin, Zachariah?"
Zach turned and looked at him, his heart thundered in his chest. This was the day he had been waiting three months for but it felt like he had been waiting for it his entire life, “Yes, Elder Tobyas, I could not be more ready were it already done."
Tobyas and Zakarias laughed merrily and both stood and pulled Zachariah to his feet and guided him out the door where all the men of the village had gathered awaiting the groom. Sudden apprehension filled Zachariah. He had not been allowed to participate in this ritual before because he was not a married man and only those who were married were a part of it. From the looks on their faces he was not certain he wanted to participate, yet he would go through anything for Lilith.
Then two of the larger men snaked their arms around his and slid a yoke under his forearms and behind his back. They tied his wrist to a rope that wrapped around his waist making it impossible for him to move his arms at all. The two men then held the yoke and he heard Tobyas call for the Priest.
Soon a man from the tribe of Levi came forward. He walked up and nodded to two other men standing near Zachariah. Without any hesitancy the two men grabbed Zachariah's loincloth and breech and removed them so that from the waist down he was naked before the congregation of men. Then the Priest began to say, “It is a custom of the Tobith village that since a woman who is a virgin must shed her blood upon her wedding day so must a man. As you are already circumcised, we do a ceremonial circumcision to mark this occasion."
Zachariah's jaw dropped. He felt a man pull his manhood forward and place it upon a cutting block. He watched as the priest took a rather large and wicked looking cutting instrument from a bag he had set upon the cutting block. Then Zachariah saw only black as his knees went limp.
Cold water splashed in his face and all the men gathered about were laughing, even the Priest was on his knees he was laughing so hard. Zakarias knelt down beside his son and said, “My boy, it was a joke. No one is going to cut you."
Zachariah jumped to his feet. His arms were unbound and he was glad to see that his garments were back on but his face was red with both embarrassment and anger. He looked at his father and asked, “Does every male go through the same joke?"
"Sometimes they do not make it as far as you did before they pass out. They hear the word circumcision and down they go.” The laughter started again, then his father added, “However one time one stood there long enough that the Priest was caught off guard. The man was ready to actually receive the second circumcision. So the Priest actually did knick his manhood, rather than tell him it was a joke."
He looked at his father and asked, “Who might that have been?"
Zakarias laughed, “Son, I would like to say it was me, but I did not make it as far as you did, almost, but not quite. However he was of your blood line. Your mother's father was the man. A braver man I have never met."
"What did he do when he found out it was a joke?"
"Well, the story has it that no one told him until it was the next young lad's turn to get married. After the kid passed out, your grandfather picked him up and held his manhood upon the block for the Priest and waited. That was when they remembered that he did not know it was a joke so the Priest informed him.
"Your grandfather let go of the lad's manhood and then dropped him. In silence he went to the river with a bar of lye and washed his hands until the bar of lye was gone. He never mentioned it again to anyone, nor did anyone ev
er mention it to anyone else. From that day on he also never went to any of the pre-marriage jokes but sat them out and waited until the groom was ready for the wedding."
Zachariah looked about and said, “I think I will follow my grandfather's example. Let's finish what needs to be done but I do not think I will join in these in the future."
"Ah son,” Zakarias said, “it is just in good fun and has been done for over a hundred years."
"Maybe so, but father you know me well, and of all people you should know that this is not the kind of thing I would enjoy."
Zakarias nodded, “You are right, and perhaps I should join you as well."
Zach shook his head, “No father, this is something you enjoy and have done for many years. If you enjoy it, continue."
His father put his arms around his son and hugged him tight, “No, my boy, there are times that the elder can learn from the younger. I think it is time I stop."
Then he turned to the others that had been too busy laughing to hear the two talking softly between themselves and said loudly enough, “Let's get on with this wedding, I have a son that is eager to meet his bride."
All the men cheered and the four largest ran forward and lifted Zachariah off the ground and onto their shoulders then carried him toward the center of the village where a large platform had been erected so that all the village could witness the marriage. They sat Zachariah on the lowest step then he climbed four more and looked out across the villagers. From his view he could see the entire village and was amazed that everyone was there except for a handful of the women.
He knew they must be helping Lilith get ready for her part of the wedding.
Then the waiting began. To Zachariah it seemed like each moment lasted an hour. Every time he looked up at the sun he would have sworn it should have moved a lot further than it had and yet the shadows showed him that not even a half an hour had passed, but it felt like an entire day.
The Crimson Z Page 52