Gilgamesh Immortal (Chronicles of the Nephilim) by Brian Godawa

much as a speedy scribe could engrave into it. Shamhat spent every day with him teaching him the ways of civilization: Language, reading, tools, eating meat, etiquette, social customs. And at night, he would be rewarded with wild lovemaking, which he had perfected the best of all.
    One of the first things she did was to bathe him and shave his hair and beard from his body, then anoint his body with oil. He felt like he was being born for the first time. He felt completely naked and vulnerable until she put clothes on him, and then he felt bound and limited. The belt was tight, the tunic cumbersome and the sandals clumsy. But as he became more like the humans around him, he became more co mfortable with their ways. He felt like he had been on a long and wearisome journey and had finally come home. It was all so strange and new, but he was finally home. He embraced his new world with passion and gusto.
    Learning language and a bit about the city of Uruk and the world of ma nkind filled him with wonder. Shamhat took great care that he understood the civilized ways of mankind with justice and law and art and education and family.
    “What is marriage?” Enkidu asked Shamhat one day when she was teaching him in the tent. He had learned the basics of language and was digging deeper into the meaning of being human. She had been explaining to him what a family was and why it was important to civilization.
    Shamhat sighed. She was a harlot so she had never thought much about it since it would never be her lot in life. She knew what it should be. But she also knew that she was an instrument of the dark side of men that worked against what marriage could be.
    “Well,” said Shamhat. “Marriage is when a man and woman love one another, they share a union...”
    “Union?” he interrupted. “What is ‘union’?”
    “When two become one flesh,” she answered.
    “Like Shamhat and Enkidu?” he said with wide eyes.
    She could tell just talking about her in such a way aroused him. She smiled.
    “Well, it includes that, but that is not all.”
    “What else does it include?” said Enkidu.
    “A special promise that we call a ‘covenant’. It means a man and woman are devoted to one another for the rest of their lives. And they do it before their society in a special ceremony that seals their promise. And they have a large party with all their loved ones to celebrate.” She was unable to keep her eyes from tearing up with sadness and pain for her own loneliness, a loneliness that she only now realized she had forgotten in his presence.
    “Why do you cry?” he asked her.
    “Because it is beautiful,” she said.
    He sat there contemplating this new and beautiful thing that he had never he ard of before.
    He finally spoke like a king pronouncing a decree. “Enkidu and Shamhat should share this beauty. Enkidu and Shamhat should get married. Enkidu will go back to Uruk with Shamhat and we will be married properly and have a celebration to be devoted to one another for the rest of our lives.” He was all smiles.
    She however, was all tears now as she broke down weeping into his arms. He was having a difficult time understanding how this was happiness about the beauty of marriage.
    “I am not worthy,” said Shamhat. “You do not understand my shame.”
    “Nonsense, silly rabbit,” he said. He called her by affectionate animal names to express her different character traits. “Enkidu knows Shamhat’s shame and I love you. Shamhat knows Enkidu’s shame and you love me, do you not?” He was getting better at using the first person in his conversation.
    Her tears turned to a strange combination of crying and laughing. “Yes, yes, I do,” she said between her hiccups of laughing tears. Enkidu was displaying that simple male rationality that did not understand emotions and yet, could cut through the confusion that emotions would too easily cause with a clarity she could not deny. She had heard proclamations of “love” from