Tale 5 - A Bit More

  "And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there." 

Genesis 11:31

Behold, an unfamiliar spirit appeared to Terah in a dream, announced that Emtelai is great with child, and that which is conceived in of an holy ghost. Behold, an old lady shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Abram, which being interpreted is that he shall be father of a nation. 

Now when Nimrod the King heard tell of new nations and holy spirits, he was troubled, and all of Sumer with him. And when he gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where the Abe of nations should be born.

The priests and scribes were without postulation but one scribe, hailing from far north, who realized perhaps it was Ur of the Chaldees, for the word 'Ur' meant 'first' in his native country. And when they were departed, behold, the unfamiliar spirit appeareth to Terah in a dream, saying, Arise, take the young child and his mother and flee to the Shanidar Cave. And be thou there until I bring thee word: for Nimrod will seek the young child to destroy him. 

When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed to the cave. And then Nimrod, when he saw he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Ur of the Chaldees, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. 

In the beginning was the Land, and the Gods were with Land, and the Lands were Gods. The same was the beginning with Land. All things were made by Land, and without Land was not anything made that was made. In it was work; and work was the life of men.

But idleness was the life of Terah and Abram in the Shanidar Cave. For lo, there was no land to work, nor were there men nor Gods. There were only caves, and sand, and rock, and a small wadi from which to drink.

It was in this cave that Abraham discovered the ancient bones of a monstrous lizard.

Terah knew not what the lizard was for all he saw of it was a skull, a crown of neither man nor cattle nor dog nor familiar beast - a skull of an elephantine goose, a mountainous bird head of pure bone leaving space for eyes the size of cooking pots and a beak resembling fowl except for its mouth of forty teeth, each the size of his toddler hand. Every night, Abram and his parents dined as the skull of this avian leviathan gazed upon them - they knew not for good or ill, but never was their presence revealed. 

Long after Abram and his parents returned to lodge in Ur, Abram did remember the skull, and regaled his  older brothers with tell of its splendor. 

Now Terah was a stonemason and chief constructor of idols for his city, and his older sons Nahor and Haran made idols of their great seven gods: An, Enlil, Enki, Ninhursag, Nana, Utu, and Inanna. When Abram reached manhood, his task was the delivery of the idols upon order completion to receipted address.