Free Seventh Dimension - The King - Book 2, A Young Adult Fantasy by Lorilyn Roberts Page B

the house, sniffing in the corners and checking out the
new herb garden I’d planted. I shooed her away before she destroyed
the plants.
    She ran over to
the gate and started digging. A little mound of dirt gathered
behind her legs and she stuck her nose in the hole. The four-legged
animal emerged with a large bone. I laughed. When had she buried
that thing?
    After digging out the bone, she brought it to me and
laid it at my feet. I knelt down and scratched her behind the ear.
She barked and ran over to the entrance to the cave.
    When Judd came
out, she scurried inside.
    “Do you know
that dog?” I asked. I was concerned about what havoc she might
cause and followed her into the cave.
    “Much-Afraid,
did she come back?”
    I pointed to
where she had left her bone. “Yeah, I guess. I mean, she just
arrived and dug up her bone.”
    I added, “What
a strange name for a dog.”
    Judd shrugged.
“Much-Afraid ran away after Brutus loaned his friend the donkey. I
heard she showed up at the friend’s farm and stayed. Now that
Baruch is coming back, I guess she decided to return.”
    Judd stepped
back inside the cave and walked over to the water bin to wash his
hands. His sudden obsession with hand washing seemed odd. He had
also taken to mumbling.
    What did you say?” I asked.
    His eyes darted back and forth. “Nothing
important.”
    Whatever was
bothering him, he didn’t want to talk about it. I wandered outside
and retrieved Much-Afraid’s bone and then went back inside the
cave. I’d give it to her later.
    The dog
appeared to visit all the animals but hung around one pig in
particular. The canine dug herself a bed in the cool dirt beside
the stall. As the dog crouched in front of the pig’s gate, the
squealing hog lumbered over to the entrance. If I didn’t know any
better, I’d say they were old friends getting
reacquainted.
    Her resemblance to the dog that followed me around
in the old city of Jerusalem was remarkable. Was it a
coincidence?
    That evening I
lay in the grassy field staring up at the beet red sky. I had been
here five months, but it didn’t feel as if so much time had
passed.
    Much-Afraid
approached, wagging her tail. She licked my hand and curled up
beside me. I remembered her bone and pulled it out of my bag. She
chewed contentedly as I scratched her head.
    My thoughts returned to Brutus’s daughter. I liked
the sound of the name, Shale, but I had a feeling someone else did
too—even if he refused to talk about it.
     
     

CHAPTER 17 HOUSE GUEST

     
    Evening turned
into night. What secrets hid among the stars? The wings of light
covered the blackness creating unbelievable beauty. I sighed. How
could I admire God’s handiwork and still refuse to worship
him?
    I relented. “I
know you are the God of Isaac, Jacob and Abraham, but when are you
going to be mindful of me?” Clouds covered the moon creating
make-believe shadows.
    Did God make
deals with man? I didn’t know. I wanted to believe he still
cared.
    The next
morning I rose early and finished my chores. Homeschooling Nathan
took up a good portion of the day. I’d read to him in Greek and
Latin. The chance to expand his mind would help him in other ways
even if he never said a word, and I enjoyed the chance to hone my
Greek skills.
    Brutus had
scrolls in languages from all over the world, including Egyptian
and Arabic. We spoke Aramaic most of the time. I was fortunate that
my father spoke Aramaic having grown up in Malula, Syria, where
Aramaic was common. How else could I have spoken the language of
the people in the first century?
    When I returned
the Greek and Latin scrolls following our language studies, I saw a
Hebrew scroll I had never noticed before. Curious, I pulled it
out.
    It was from the
book of Isaiah. I glanced at a passage where someone had made some
illegible notes.
     
    “He had no form or beauty, that we should look at
him:
    No charm, that we should find him pleasing.
    He was despised, shunned by men
    A man of