From: "nikolai kingsley" <nikolai@warehouse.net>
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre
Subject: FTSD: Ash and Eve
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 00:49:38 +1100
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It's not as if it was a fixed relationship, She said to Herself, sliding
down the trunk of the Tree of Knowledge. They'd had an eternity's worth of
arguments about that. Several eternities, no exaggeration. From the
mysterious (even He wouldn't talk about this) point at which they had both
been "begotten, not made" up to the point where they'd given themselves
physical forms and created the universe (together, and it hadn't taken seven
days, for when they were creating it there was as yet no time), they had
experienced an eternity (eternities) of endless discussion over all kinds of
minor things. Like duality, for instance. She'd argued vehemently for a
system based on threes: three genders, three states of existence, et cetera.
But since this was their first attempt at creation, He'd argued for a binary
simplicity. Reduce the chances of somehting going wrong. So Male and Female
created He them. She smiled to Herself at this point; there was also
bisexuality to consider. In addition to plus and minus, there was a zero set
squarely between them. She'd managed to sneak a kind of three-ness into
creation after all.

Yeah. Monogamy was all His idea, one of them. He'd even gone to the trouble
of codifying his ideas in something He called His Ten Commandments ("ten
fingers.. ten commandments. you can't expect them to remember any more than
that"). She'd seen Him gleefully rubbing his hands, anticipating the books
that His creations would write some day, setting down the laws that He
intended to give them. She shook Her head slowly, wondering how someone with
such rigid thought patterns had come by so much power.

She reached the base of the Tree and reared Her head up to look around at
the garden. It was set against the side of a mountain, nestled in a ravine
between two steep hills. The vegetation had grown up and had met overhead,
forming a cosy little tunnel through which the sunlight was filtered to a
pleasant blue-green. He didn't like it, of course; sitting up there, He had
trouble seeing through all the plant life. He spent a lot of time floating
around just above the trees, trying to see if His creations were playing by
the rules. A kind of wry twist appeared on Her thin lips. Oh, yeah. Adam was
too dumb to lie. Disobedience wasn't in him; that was the way it had been
planned. He'd envisaged generations upon generations of happily compliant
drones, multiplying and exercising dominion over all the things that
crawled, et cetera. He'd had things all his way so far. Time to set the cat
among the pigeons, so to speak. She glanced over at a small group of pigeons
playing about near a sleeping cat; a leopard. She pursed Her lips and shook
her head.

This is what He gets for not listening to my ideas on how things should be
run, She thought, sliding the rest of Her body down from the Tree. She
coiled it about Her, raising Her head up higher, bidding Her body thicken
and grow shorter, arms sprouting from Her sides, Her tail dividing to become
legs. She considered keeping a tail, even if it was only vestigal but
decided that fashion-wise, that sort of thing wouldn't be popular for at
least another four thousand and four years. Let Debbie Harry be the pioneer
in that field.

She paused for a moment, leaning against the Tree of Knowledge, running Her
hands over Her breasts and down Her sides, the scales slipping against each
other with tiny clicking sounds. Coming down the tree, the scales had been
glittering silver; now, they were a dark mahogany brown. She didn't want to
spook them too much. Hopefully they'd take Her for another angel. She picked
an apple from a branch, swollen rounded red bounty, as yet uncontaminated by
insects, took a bite of it, wrinkled her nose and tossed it into the
undergrowth. It didn't taste of anything.

And this is what he gets for restricting things to such a static scenario,
She thought. If I don't break things now, it'll break later on and none of
it will be salvageable.

She lifted her head and scented the wind. Adam's sweaty pungency wasn't
present; he must be somewhere downwind, presumably naming things. Eve was
bathing in the river after Adam's latest attempts at being fruitful and
multiplying. Carefully threading her way through the fern fronds, She made
her way to the as-yet unnamed river.
Adam's consort was sitting on a flat stone that raised out of the water, her
feet dangling in the slow current. Occasional stupid fish would nudge up to
her, nibble her toes and then swim off. She turned at the sound of movement
through the shrubbery and her eyes widened.

Eve saw another being. Not an animal, because it stood like Adam did. Like
she did. But it was beautiful, its skin detailed in scales that swept over
her body in intricate patterns. Much more interesting than bare skin. Around
the forehead and temples, the scales elongated into flexible spines, almost
like hair. The spines lay back along the being's head and down her back,
almost like hair. It was female; it had breasts like hers. It lacked a
penis. Who could this be?

The being stepped closer, smiling in a reassuring way. Eve stood up and
faced it. It held out its hands, the scales on the palms incredibly small,
paler than the rest of its covering. Eve reached out and took its hands, and
it spoke to her.

'Hi! My name is Asherah. I'm His consort,' nodding upwards, 'in the same way
that you are Adam's.'

'Oh! I was wondering about that. I mean... I'm here to keep Adam company,
and Adam was made in His image, so it stands to reason that I was made in
someone else's image.'

Asherah's smile grew a little forced. 'Actually, you weren't made in my
image, exactly.' She glanced off down the valley and wondered how Lilith was
doing. Probably a lot better off. Asherah drew Eve closer and whispered,
'Listen: there are some things that a consort needs to know.'

Eve appeared excited. 'I have to admit, I've been feeling a little lost down
here. Adam doesn't know any more than I do, and He - Him Above - He hasn't
told us exactly why we're here. I'm glad that we have this opportunity to
talk.'

Asherah smiled, her expression filled with forbidden knowledge. 'Talk is
cheap.' With ophidian grace She drew Eve closer, wrapped one arm around her
shoulders, leaned forward and brushed her scaled lips against Eve's. 'Allow
me to show you some things that no-one else knows.' Asherah knew that He was
probably hovering directly overhead, but He was too wrapped up in the idea
of two women doing that which he had reserved for husband and wife. She knew
Him well enough to know that He wouldn't interfere until it was too late. He
was too much of a guy.

Asherah considered giving Him the finger but decided against it. He had a
wicked temper. Instead, She slid her hand down to Eve's lower back, pressed
the woman against her belly and kissed her again.


nikolai
---
hi, goss.