BOOK
SEVEN
THE BOOK OF GRAY GOAT
Chapter One
Now in the Seven Hundred and Twenty Third Year From The Beginning Gray
Goat, a young shepherd from a village near Western, sat tending his
flocks. Below him, on the road leading to Dove, worked a group of
prisoners.
2 Gray Goat watched sadly as the men worked in the heat of the day. One
woman guard led a young man off to the side and began to beat him with
a cane. "Get up, you dog!" she screamed, "Get up and work, you useless
worm! You are like the filth that raided my village and used me, and,
my daughter, until she died. Work, you son of uselessness! "
3 "I can't" the young man pleaded. "No matter how much you beat me, I
am tired and starved, and you give me no water. The stone is too heavy.
I am too weak."
4 Suddenly, a Voice spoke to the young shepherd, and he turned to find
a Stranger beside him. "Pitiful, isn't it?" remarked the Stranger. "Our
people pray, ask The Lords to deliver them from the enemy, yet they
forget The Lords Teachings. They are cruel and abusive and they do not
understand why it is The Lords do not aid them. Do they not know that
when they forsake The Way of The Lords, The Lords forsake them?"
5 "When a person's heart is filled with pain," answered Gray Goat,
"they sometimes forget The Wisdom they are given. You, Sir, are
obviously wise in
The Lords Teachings, why do YOU not go down and speak?"
6 Gray Goat had been looking away when he spoke. When he looked back,
The Stranger was gone! He looked all about him, but he was nowhere to
be found, and Gray Goat fell to his knees. "My Lords, my Lords," he
cried , "you have spoken unto me. Your Will I do."
7 He got up and walked down the hill, stood upon