Storytelling | The Hebrew Desert
The desert motif occurring throughout The Leper Messiah is a veil of mystery that holds adventure and religious fervor in its’ great sands.
It calls out and demands great strength of courage and a spirit of adventure.
But who answers the call? What kind of individual risks their life by walking into the unknown?
Are they men of substance? Do they hold sway over the public? Are they men of great wealth?
In The Leper Messiah, these men are on the fringes of society and have little use for a fat purse unless it can purchase supplies for them on their strange and wonderful journeys.
Excerpt from The Leper Messiah:
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The slight man, his Keffiyeh, blown by the wind, guided his horse and two camels back toward the town of Aleppo to begin the grueling 12 day ride to Damascus. Omar and Ali, his servants packed the two camels with a half load of supplies, 250 pounds.
“Ta-aal,” he motioned to his companions as they started on their trek.
Arlemay, laughed as he moved on towards the great sands spread before them.
Omar carefully counted out the 300 dinars that they would need for safe passage from the Bedouins, and tucked into his purse under his long camel-hair robe.
The men moved on deeper into the Bkadiyat As sham, which stretched from the fertile bank of the Mediterranean in the west and the Euphrates river in the east.
For this small company of men and for the reader, the trip represents a journey into the unknown.
No matter how often these men take this trip, danger awaits at every stretch. Water holes could be dry, bandits could rob them, and the sun alone could kill them with heat.
Many modern readers have never experienced the desert so, for them, each page is full of the unknown. What is it like to ride a camel for days and with little water? How do these men do that and what awaits them?
While in the Negev desert, I witnessed the power of the sands.
Sandstorms blew up out of nowhere. The desert was quiet and serene one moment and a swirling pocket of sand hurtling towards us the next. We would drop to our knees and close our eyes against the onslaught and wait until it was gone.
The desert can also be a place full of religious fervor, where faith burns hotter than the noonday sun.
Excerpt from the Leper Messiah:
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Arlemay traveled with renewed spirit and purpose as he pushed along the great trade routes to the whispered destination:
“the land of Canaan”
He fell prostrate in front of the burning bush, his head buried in his hands, not daring to look up.
“And go down to Jebus and there meet the one they call David and heed his call…”
Arlemay wandered for days and weeks, dad y the sun and blinded by the light of the Rose.
For those who heed the call of the great sands, take care!
Robert