The Table of Kalila Nag

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished.

Every member of our fiefdom knows the Queen rises in the west at eventide or in the east before Utu begins his journey lighting the canopy of day.

I remember watching for her anxiously from evening till the dawning with my aba on that night long ago.

Resting together at the village gate, Nanna rose as the celestial heavens sparkled with a thousand Anunnaki till Utu took Nanna's place in the bright firmament of morning. But we did not witness the rising nor the setting of the Queen of Heaven.

At the break of the following day, we broke the night's fast and packed for the trek to the mother of waters.

Everyone carried something, even us kids, baskets of food, pots for cooking, wood for the cooking fires we would set when we arrived at its banks. The men carried spears, bows and quivers filled with arrows.

When we departed one of the yearlings barked excitedly, thinking we were leaving for a hunt, my ada whistling sharply twice and the lead dog bit the excited pup's neck till it lowered its head submissively and did not bark again.

Aba walked slowly ahead of our train, pausing often to lean heavily upon his staff before continuing again.

My elder brother whispered, how can an old blind man lead us? but ada angrily shushed him, and we continued for a long time without speaking in the early morning stillness, the peaceful morning gently disrupted by the slapping of our sandals on the dusty path and the lowing of the cattle in the surrounding fields.

Utu sailing high into the canopy, the other children's heads began to droop from boredom and the oppression of the heat.

But not me. Inwardly trembling with dread, I alone of all my siblings and cousins knew why we journeyed to the great waters. I wondered if ada and his brothers did.

But no one spoke. Aba continued to slowly plod, the day growing steadily hotter. We all perspired. All save for aba, even though he wore heavy ceremonial garments and a golden circlet on his brow.

My elder brother would soon reach the age where he could hunt with the men and I saw his envious gaze watching ada and his brothers as they held their spears firmly in their hands and carried bows and quivers on their broad shoulders.

If we had not journeyed that day from the village, the other children would have played games or caught grasshoppers and trapped them in a little basket with a scorpion to watch it raise its deadly tail and strike for the kill.

And yet the day grew hotter, many of them beginning to complain and scuffle, Aba pausing more and more often.

When Utu began to glide downward toward the western horizon, I feared we would not reach the waters before he passed through the gates of the underworld and night started to fall.

But once Utu slipped out of sight, we finally reached the great water's banks and enough of His dimmed light still remained to set camp and fires alight for our dinner.

That night I did not sleep at all. While the rest of our families rested, I kept a weary and nervous vigil waiting for the Queen of Heaven to rise. But her throne in the celestial canopy remained dark.

I never knew if aba did the same or rested through the long dark hours to refresh himself for what awaited him on the opposite bank of the waters.

Waiting for day, I remembered his words at the village gate the night before and trembled.

The queen of heaven has vanished, he said with raw emotion, the river will soon begin to move backwards. If I do not journey to the mother of waters to battle the great water dragon our lives will begin moving backwards till our peoples are no more.

But you are old and blind, I answered fearfully back.

I carry the story of our ancestors in my throat. No one knows all of it save for me, so I must face the dragon alone.

I looked at him with tears in my eyes and said - But you have told me the stories and surely ada too.

Do not cry Didi, I have not taught you everything yet for you are young. You do not know the secret words and now there is no time. You will have to listen closely for the quiet voices of the Anunnaki. They will whisper to you their secrets when it is time. Did I not hold you aloft as a newborn for Nin-anna, the Queen of Heaven's blessing?

In the morning, aba rose early and stood at the banks of the mother of waters now hidden by heavy morning mists and I sleepily joined him. Gazing blankly at the veiled waters, he remained silent and still, his face craggy as an unpolished stone, his skin darkened by a thousand journeys of Utu.

I did not speak for fear that I would weep aloud at the thought of losing him to the great dragon. I knew in my throat that if he did not return that what he could not do would be left to me, the smallest of us all!

Finally, he turned to me, his eyes moist with emotion. The dragon awaits, Didi, but you cannot follow.

Then he stood erect and seemed to gaze across to the opposite banks, his chest expanding when he drew a long breath, his great hand coming to a rest on my small shoulder.

Hear me my didila ur-sag and listen to my voice. I have told you many times of the first war of the gods. Now you shall see how men fight. In our blood the mighty races of old sleep.

It is time to awaken them.

Nin-anna shall rise again, he suddenly roared, I, la-ha-ma ur-sag have sworn it!

After aba yelled, the mists were blown off the waters by a sudden blast of In-mar-tu, and I saw for the first time many dragons lounging on her opposite banks and was sore afraid.

But when the earth trembled at the approach of the great dragon, the others quickly slid down the banks and swam down stream at its dread approach.

Hearing the commotion, all of aba's sons approached him with spears held at the ready above their heads. But the story in grandfather's throat had changed him.

Though his hair still shown whitely in the sun, he no longer stooped like an old man. Pulling off his cloak and plucking from his brow the golden circlet, he strode into the waters like an ur-sag of old and I followed till my ada roughly grasped my arm.

Upon the opposite bank the tall grass parted when the great dragon approached, his wide mouth opening to show his terrible and numberless teeth. Lumbering to the bank he slid into the water with a terrible splash.

The base of the brute's neck was a wide as a man's arm is long. He dwarfed the dragons that fled at his approach.

Heavy clouds driven by In-mar-tu began to darken the sky as thunder rumbled behind them.

When they met in the river's center the brute lunged at aba with his jaws gaping so wide I thought surely he would bite him in half. But aba sidestepped the monster's attack and suddenly dove for the beast's wide neck.

The dragon thrashed mightily to loose aba’s grip but he hung fiercely on till it closed its jaws with a resounding snap and aba lunged forward and wrapped his arms tightly around the brute's huge snout.

The dragon began to violently roll in the water, aba disappearing again and again beneath its white and turbulent waves. Lightening began to flash above us, the terrifying roar of its thunder causing me to drop to the ground with my arms covering my head.

A great blast hit the water where they fought, but aba did not let go, the canopy of day growing so dark we could no longer see aba or the great dragon.

But the sound of the furious thrashing and rolling of the monster continued between the crashing flashes of lightning above us.

Something stirring in my fearful throat, I got to my trembling feet, my little voice suddenly yelling - la-ha-ma ur-sag, la-ha-ma ur-sag!

That's when a bolt of lightning hit me and sent me flying through the air. For a long time I knew no more.

When I awakened in my ama's arms, the storm had long since passed, the mother of waters calmed and still. The great dragon was gone. Even the smaller dragons did not appear on the opposite bank.

My ama shouted in relief when she saw my eyes were opened and ada and his brothers and sisters rushed to my side.

Where is aba? I whispered hoarsely.