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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Maerdwyn" data-source="post: 1661574" data-attributes="member: 835">As the three people speak, Amin comes back into view, carrying several amulets and folowed by more than a score of his family. He seems to be headed toward the corwd the center of camp, but make a turn out of his way to pass by Asenath's tent, calling out, "My apologies, friends, you were right -we should not turn to Ra - he was a god of Egypt and pathetic when compared to the God of Abraham! No, Let us follow a god who is purely our own! Who exists solely for us! Come! Watch as Aaron welcomes Baal-El to us!" The man moves away, into the crowd before anyone can react to the man's speech again. ********************The man grabs most of his gold up and makes a fast retreat from the priest, and as Caleb watches him go, he is suddenly aware that the sound of the crowd behind him has intensified dramatically in the past few minutes. Normally, the thunder and imminent cloudbursts would have sent everyone back to their tents, but by the time Caleb makes his way over to Aaron, the crowd watching him has clearly grown to several hundred. Caleb has trouble pushing his way through their ranks to reach his grandfather, and when he finally does, the old man shoots him a look of quiet, but withering, rage. "Go! Get away! This is not your work!" A few seconds later, others, those who have broght gold to the growing pile by Aaron's feet try to help place wood onto the pyre "Enough! Back! All of you! Are you all so impatient for this god that would would spoil the cermony to get him here faster?" His tone turns slightly mocking, but seems lost on the multitude: "What if you anger him, and he turns from you for your behavior? Am I not Ha Gadol? Do I not know of these things? The pyre must be built by me and me alone. If it takes longer than you like, at least it will be done properly!" He loks up at the dark clouds and continues slowly piling the still dry wood.********** On the other side of the crowd, Asenath, Avram, and Tsedeq see many of the people who had made up Amin's audience now moving towards the very center of camp where Aaron had been working. Now, the three of them cannot see the High Priest for the sea of people surrounding him. Dozens more seem to be joining the crowd, while others sprint form the mass back to their tents, only to emerge a few moments later carrying jewelry of all types in their hands, wearing gleeful, almost rabid smiles on their faces.  ********* Soon the rain begins, but it fails to halt the growth of the crowd. Sundown approaches, and the darkness of night only adds to that of the clouds. Rain drenches the people, but they seem to pay it no mind. Music can be heard coming from a few sources in the crowd, which soon must number more than two thousand. **************This is the scene that Melech finds as he enters the camp just after dusk. He, as well as Caleb, Avram, Tsedeq, and Asenath, suddenly hear groans of disappointment issuing from the center of the crowd, and then Aaron's voice, ringing out with vigor, almost cheerfully through the dim light of torches and  the murmurings of the massive gathering. "We must all go home," he says, There will be no fire tonight, and no god will be born from the union of your gold and rain!" Shouts, some angry, others merely disappointed. "Be glad, oh people for---" Aaron's words are suddenly cut off as a great bolt of lightning crashes down and strikes the wet firewood within the stone circle at the crowd's center. Instantly a blazing bonfire reaches up, bathing all in a red glow that is reflected off the bottoms of the storm clouds." The crowd erupts in joy. (the face of that man, the one from his dream, leaps to Melech's mind - scarred, light skinned, with a beard precisely trimmed in the style of the Hik Shasu. The vision is as clear as it had been in his dream, but no more. While he can see the man, and feel the dread, there is no context, no explanation ofwho he is or what he signifies. It is over in an instant.) As the crowd celebrates, everyone hears Aaron's voice once again; this time it is less vibrant, and not at all cheerful. "Very well, Oh People. Bring me you gold - but it must be your most precious, and your most dear, for no god will answer an unworthy sacrifice!" The crowd cheers again, and the sound of clinking metal is almost constant for the next several minutes.   At last, another voice echoes across the crowd, this one frightened, angry: it is Hur, standing atop a small wooden frame, glaring down on the crowd. "What are we doing? Are we so quick to abandon Hashem? Are we so unfaithful? Have we forgotten already what has been done for us. Are we so eager to prove ourselves unworthy of his blessings? Turn away! Denounce this blasphe--" A stone strikes him in the arm. Then another, in the chest. He coughs but remains standing, and looks like he is about to speak again when a third stone strikes him on the leg, and two more miss him, striking members of the crowd instead. Dark murmurings in the crowd quickly build to murderous shouts. The wooden frame upn which he stand begins to rock, as people attempt to pull it down. Unaided, Hur clearly has only a few seconds to live.</blockquote>

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