To Slay a Dragon IV: The Aftermath

The dragon turned violently, staring at Adam with hollow, burning eyes. The threat from this beast emanated from it like nothing Adam had ever sensed before. Adam trembled violently as the beast bared his teeth at him. Saliva dripped from those teeth, killing the plants beneath it.

"Yes, Adam," hissed the dragon, "do as Eve says, or I will destroy you both. I will rip the very flesh from your bodies causing you more pain than you can even begin to imagine." The dragon stepped closer to Eve. A bird flew down and snatched a chipmunk into the sky. The chipmunk’s squeals of terror were completely foreign to Adam and Eve’s ears, yet the dragon’s commanding voice held Adam’s mind so completely that he never noticed the plight of the chipmunk.

Eve could not hear what the dragon had said to Adam because she was still being deceived by the image of Lucifer he was maintaining for her. She did not feel the change that was taking place in her soul and throughout the garden. She did not feel the Grace leave it. She did not feel the blackness, the emptiness that was taking its place. She said, "Come on Adam! We can be like God!"

Adam walked over to Eve, his fear overpowering everything else. He took the fruit from Eve’s hand and ate the fruit, too.

Laughter filled the garden and perhaps the entire world. The image of Lucifer disappeared, leaving only the dragon, the serpent of death. Death spread all around him, everywhere his body had touched. He lumbered away, knowing he had won. He had defeated God through these stupid creations of his! He laughed maniacally. Adam and Eve heard his laughter for a long while as they stood there looking at the fruit they had eaten.

"Ouch!" Eve yelped as fire ants crawled all over her feet, biting her. "Why are they doing that?"

Adam looked at her feet. "I don’t know," he said. Suddenly, a small deer burst frantically from the underbrush and continued on. A lion, with its huge paws and monstrous muscles, burst through not far behind. Everything had changed. Everything was still changing.

Guilt filled Adam and Eve’s minds as the spell of the dragon evaporated with his leaving. They had both disobeyed God! They dropped the fruit and ran. Insects bit them as they ran. Sometimes they stumbled. Sometimes they fell. But they kept running as if they could leave what they had done far behind them. Suddenly, they both stopped short as if they had hit some transparent brick wall. A snake had reared up, hissing and spreading its hood directly in the center of their path. They stopped for a moment, not knowing what to do. It kept swaying and trying to make them look into its eyes. Then, Adam grabbed Eve’s hand and pulled her in the opposite direction. They ran as fast as they could back to their cave. When they got there and caught their breath, they suddenly felt very uncomfortable with their bodies. They felt embarrassed and wanted to hide from each other. They crouched behind the large rocks that were plentiful throughout the cave.

Adam said, "Woman, go make something to cover our bodies with. This is ridiculous." Adam had never spoken to Eve like that. He had always treated her with love and respect.

"No!" she shouted. "You go do it!" Eve had never shouted at Adam before. She had always been eager to help him.

Adam got up and Eve turned her face away in embarrassment. "Now, you go make us something or I’m going to hit you until you do, stupid woman. You got us into this mess. You did what that dragon told you to do."

"You did, too! And you were there the whole time, too. You didn’t lift one finger to help me."

"How could I? Am I God?" He crouched back down behind the rock as he realized God would be coming soon. Eve realized it too, because she fell silent. "All right," he said, "let’s go get some of those great big fig leaves. If we use your hair, we can sew them together to make coverings for us."

"Oh, no," Eve cried. "You are not going to use MY hair. Use your own or pull some out of the horse's tail."

"I don't know. I'm afraid the way all the animals are acting that the horse might try to hurt us or something. Come on, just let's use your hair. My hair is too short."

Eve thought for a minute or two. Then she said, "OK, then, but you owe me one."

They walked out of the cave not looking at each other. They found the leaves, sewed them together and made coverings for themselves. Neither of them felt like eating. They listened to animals hurting and killing each other in the distance. None of the little animals that used to come up to them while they ate dinner came to visit. Everything felt strange and uninviting. What would God say? They walked back to the cave looking at the ground. Not long after, they heard God coming into the Garden for his nightly stroll with them. Instead of running to Him like they always did, they hid amongst the rocks.

"Adam! Eve!" God called, "Where are you?"

At first neither of them answered.

"Are you playing a new game?" asked God. God longed for them to ask his forgiveness for what they had done. It would have been such a simple thing. "Come out, come out wherever you are!"

"We can’t," Adam yelled from behind his rock. "We don’t want you to see our nakedness. We are embarrassed and afraid."

"Who told you that you were naked?" asked God. "Have you been eating of the tree in the midst of the garden, the tree I forbade you to touch?"

Adam answered, still hiding behind his rock, "That woman you gave me for a companion gave me some of the fruit, and I ate it. I can’t believe she did it. Maybe you should have given me someone who is more intelligent." God sighed at the new sins that Adam was committing. He saw someone who was trying to push the blame of his own sin on someone else. He saw a man abandoning the beloved wife, treating her like so much trash. No, Adam was not going to be contrite. He was not going to ask forgiveness.

"Eve," said God, "Why have you done this?" He hoped with all his heart that she would admit her own fault and beg his forgiveness.

"The serpent deceived me! He tricked me! What else could I do? I feared for my life, and I ate the fruit." She did not say how he had tempted her so much with the stories of riches and beautiful things and having the power of God in her own hands.

God stretched out his hand, and suddenly the serpent, the dragon, Satan himself, stood before God. Every living thing Satan had touched on the way died instantly. "Because you have done this, you are cursed among all the cattle and beasts of the earth. All creatures that look like you will crawl on their bellies and be considered the lowest of the low. I will put enmities between you and the woman, her seed and your seed. She will crush your head, and you will lie in wait for her heel. I will do this so that all people will remember this original sin. Even people who are removed from learning about me will know of the curse I have placed on mankind. And those who listen to the story of Adam and Eve will learn of my promise of a redeemer. If I simply destroy you as I would have if Eve or Adam had called me, mankind will forget this paradise, and they will forget the terrible consequences of sin."

He struck out his hand, and the power of his gesture flung Satan far out of the garden. He healed the living things that had died by flinging tears from his eyes across the path of destruction. He next turned to Eve.

"Eve, I will multiply your sorrows. Your childbearing will bring you much pain, and your husband will have dominion over you."
Eve cried out in protest, "How could you do . . ."
God silenced her with one look.

"Eve, you have shown foolishness. In you, most strongly, are the blessings feelings and nurturing. You, of course, have intelligence and can do many, many things both on your own and with your husband, but in times of disagreement, you must acquiesce to your husband, you and all the women who follow you. In Adam most strongly are the blessings of strength of mind, body, and will. He also has feelings, but he can easily set them aside. Yes, this is the way of a holy family, one without discord. You and Adam are one and should work as one. You should love one another as you love your own bodies, and, yes, you should love your own bodies very much."

Eve bowed her head and looked at her feet, pondering all God had said. She noticed the ugly welts that had appeared after the ants had bitten her. They itched terribly. They weren’t healing the way her cuts and scrapes used to heal.

"Adam, because you listened to your wife’s voice and gave in to fear rather than protecting her and yourself and doing your duty, I curse the earth in your work. Thorns and thistles will spring up in your fields and rocks will cut your feet as you labor in the sun. If you want to eat, you will have to toil to get food all the days of your life. I do this to remind you that I formed you from dust and to dust you will return."

Then God stretched out his hand, and skins of animals came to him. He fashioned them into garments and clothed Adam and Eve.

Suddenly, the entire heavenly host stood all about them in the garden of paradise. "Behold!" said God, "Adam and Eve have become as one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, before they reach out their hands and eat also of the tree of life, I will cast them out of the paradise of pleasure forever to till the earth from which they were taken. I will not abandon you, however. I will give you the promise of my lifetime: be ever watchful, for one day, I will send your savior." God looked at the pair, whom he loved with all his heart, one last time. Then he stretched out his hand once more. Adam and Eve were flung from the garden with a force unlike anything they had ever known. As God watched them go, His heart ached. He loved them like a son and a daughter.

God placed Cherubim with flaming swords all around the Garden of Eden to forever protect paradise and the tree of life.