Jesus nodded toward the ewe. “You do not like watching it, do you?” he asked.

Peter screwed up his face. “It turns my stomach,” he said. He poked a stick into the fire. The truth was, the mess and intimacy of birth aroused visceral memories of the things in his past he wished to forget. “I find everything about the female animal repulsive,” he confessed. “The stench, the stickiness …” He shivered at the thought.

Jesus looked up in surprise. He was about to dispute his friend’s attitude when Peter swatted the fire violently with his stick. Flames skittered across the ground until they were extinguished. “We have waited long enough. The others must be at least an hour ahead by now,” he grumbled. “Let us join our flocks and drive them to camp.”

“But what about the ewe?”

Peter shook his head. “Leave her. She cannot be helped,” he said. “Soon it will be dark,” he added, a slight wheeze clipping his words.

Jesus rose to his feet. “I cannot leave her,” he said.

“What?”

“She will die without our help.”

A wolf howled in the distance.

Peter gestured toward the sound. “No matter what we do, she will not survive. Nor will we!”

Jesus held his ground. “That is a chance I am willing to take.”

“Do not be an idiot!” Peter blurted, angered by his friend’s tenacity. “Let us move on!”

When Jesus shook his head, Peter reached out and grabbed him by the collar.

Jesus recoiled. Being larger and stronger, he easily freed himself.

Peter lunged again and, in a flash, Jesus drew back and loaded his sling. He cocked his arm and took aim at his friend. “I am not going,” he said, his voice steady. His heart pounding.

Peter froze in shock. “This is insane,” he cried. “Solomon will be furious!”

“Lend me your water,” Jesus said.

Peter made again to protest but the ewe bawled between them. He looked down at the sweating animal, then up at the loaded sling. He groaned in frustration and tossed Jesus his skin of water. He then spun and snapped his olive branch at the sheep. As he drove them down the slope, he glared over his shoulder. “Get it done quickly!” he shouted.

Hearing the clop-clop of departing hooves, the ewe struggled to retake her feet. Jesus laid his staff between her legs to immobilize her. “Easy now,” he whispered. “I am here.”

The sheep, like Peter, relented.

Darkness came. Stars glittered with ancient colors overhead. Cypress trees transformed into shadowy creatures. Crickets trilled at the moon, pausing only at the crunch of paws on dry grass. A wolf howled in the distance, beckoning others to join her.