I'd ask 'shouldn't you be going to bed about now?' but you're old enough to make your own decisions, aren't you?
All right. Settle in, I suppose.
In the old days, when the land was still green and fairly new, and the only people I knew of were my mother and father, we lived somewhat happily, if a little uneasily. I knew my parents had done something to offend God, but I did not know at the time. My parents were still somewhat like children - all they had known was the Garden of Eden, and the little they'd learned once they were cast out.
My mother had a baby boy, named Abel, and we grew up as close as you can imagine. I learned to take over the work of the fields, and Abel learned how to tend to the sheep. I sometimes saw what he did with the old sheep, how he culled them, and I knew that the plants I harvested no longer lived, but I did not connect that to the idea that the same could happen to people. How could I? I had never even heard of such a thing, and neither had my parents.
One day, God told both myself and Abel to prepare a tribute to Him. I selected my finest crops, carefully washed them so they would look their best, and placed them on the offering altar. Abel had killed one of his finest sheep and dressed it, but it was still bloody. This, evidently, was what He wanted. He had asked both of us for a sacrifice, but what He really wanted was blood. Blood does not run in crops, so He set me up to fail intentionally. He even had the nerve to ask me why I seemed upset, which as you probably know is never the way to make someone less upset.
... I had never felt anger like that before. It was all-consuming, and I was unable to calm it no matter what I did. So I invited my brother to walk through the fields with me, and I made a decision, fueled by that unnatural anger inside of me - anger that I came to realize later really was unnatural, stoked there by Him. I picked up a rock and killed my brother, there in the field. God could take my offering, because there was nothing else I could offer that was more precious to me than my own brother.
The fire died out after that, and I realized what I had done. I was ashamed, ashamed that I would let even anger manipulate me into something like that, and afraid, because I had never seen a dead person in my life. I hid him, and later God came to speak to me and asked me where my brother was. I lied, and said that I didn't know. Why was I supposed to keep track of everything he did? And God said that He could hear Abel's blood crying from the ground, and cursed me.
First, I was cursed to never be able to grow anything again. (And now you know why I don't have any grass-type Pokemon.) Then, He cursed me to be a wanderer forever. I said that anyone who found me would definitely kill me, so He said that he'd put a mark on me so that people knew they'd be cursed if they killed me.
I left home, and I eventually did find more people. I had a son named Enoch, and then I built the first city, also called Enoch. And I died when my house collapsed on me, and I learned that 'wanderer' didn't just mean that I was going to wander from place to place until I died. I woke up and I was born again, and when I was a few years old I started remembering my last life.
1/2
I'd ask 'shouldn't you be going to bed about now?' but you're old enough to make your own decisions, aren't you?
All right. Settle in, I suppose.
In the old days, when the land was still green and fairly new, and the only people I knew of were my mother and father, we lived somewhat happily, if a little uneasily. I knew my parents had done something to offend God, but I did not know at the time. My parents were still somewhat like children - all they had known was the Garden of Eden, and the little they'd learned once they were cast out.
My mother had a baby boy, named Abel, and we grew up as close as you can imagine. I learned to take over the work of the fields, and Abel learned how to tend to the sheep. I sometimes saw what he did with the old sheep, how he culled them, and I knew that the plants I harvested no longer lived, but I did not connect that to the idea that the same could happen to people. How could I? I had never even heard of such a thing, and neither had my parents.
One day, God told both myself and Abel to prepare a tribute to Him. I selected my finest crops, carefully washed them so they would look their best, and placed them on the offering altar. Abel had killed one of his finest sheep and dressed it, but it was still bloody. This, evidently, was what He wanted. He had asked both of us for a sacrifice, but what He really wanted was blood. Blood does not run in crops, so He set me up to fail intentionally. He even had the nerve to ask me why I seemed upset, which as you probably know is never the way to make someone less upset.
... I had never felt anger like that before. It was all-consuming, and I was unable to calm it no matter what I did. So I invited my brother to walk through the fields with me, and I made a decision, fueled by that unnatural anger inside of me - anger that I came to realize later really was unnatural, stoked there by Him. I picked up a rock and killed my brother, there in the field. God could take my offering, because there was nothing else I could offer that was more precious to me than my own brother.
The fire died out after that, and I realized what I had done. I was ashamed, ashamed that I would let even anger manipulate me into something like that, and afraid, because I had never seen a dead person in my life. I hid him, and later God came to speak to me and asked me where my brother was. I lied, and said that I didn't know. Why was I supposed to keep track of everything he did? And God said that He could hear Abel's blood crying from the ground, and cursed me.
First, I was cursed to never be able to grow anything again. (And now you know why I don't have any grass-type Pokemon.) Then, He cursed me to be a wanderer forever. I said that anyone who found me would definitely kill me, so He said that he'd put a mark on me so that people knew they'd be cursed if they killed me.
I left home, and I eventually did find more people. I had a son named Enoch, and then I built the first city, also called Enoch. And I died when my house collapsed on me, and I learned that 'wanderer' didn't just mean that I was going to wander from place to place until I died. I woke up and I was born again, and when I was a few years old I started remembering my last life.