hair, and blue eyes, the most frail and thin of the three. While Shem and Ham did not tire as they
helped their father load animals, satchels of food, and jars of water, Japheth worked slowly. Shem
and Ham and Japheth had been long married, and between them Noah had many grandchildren.
“Semjaza’s daughter saw that Japheth’s appearance was close to their own and decided that this
was the brother her companion should take. The Nephilim waited for many days, watching, until Noah
had loaded the final animals onto the Ark. The son of Azazel stole to the great boat. Its massive
shadow fell upon him, blanketing him in shadow as he called for Japheth.
“Noah’s youngest leaned over the edge of the Ark, his blond curls falling into his eyes. Azazel’s
son summoned Japheth to accompany him away from the seashore, along a footpath that led deep into
a forest. The archangels, who stood guard at the boat’s prow and hull, inspecting every object that
entered and exited the Ark so that it fit God’s dictate, paid no attention to Japheth as he left the ship
and trailed the luminous stranger into the woods.
“As Japheth followed Azazel’s son deeper and deeper into the forest, the rain began to fall,
pounding the canopy of leaves above his head and echoing loud as thunder. Japheth was out of breath
when he caught up to the majestic stranger. Hardly able to speak, he asked, ‘What do you want of
me?’
“Azazel’s son did not reply but wrapped his fingers around the neck of Noah’s son and squeezed
until he felt the brittle bones of the throat collapse. In that moment, even before the Flood wiped out
the wicked creatures of the earth, God’s plan of a purified world faltered. The future of the Nephilim
race solidified, and the new world came into being.
“Semjaza’s daughter stepped from the forest and placed her hands over the face of Azazel’s son.
She had memorized the spells her father had taught her. As she touched Azazel’s son, his appearance
changed: His lustrous beauty dimmed, and his angelic features faded. She whispered words into his
ear, and he transformed into the image of Japheth. Weakened by the transformation, he stumbled away
from Semjaza’s daughter, making his way through the forest to the Ark.
“Noah’s wife took one look at her son and knew in an instant that he had changed. His face was the
same and his bearing the same, but something about his manner was strange, and so she asked him
where he had been and what had happened to him. He could not speak in human language, and so
Azazel’s son remained quiet, further terrifying his mother. She sent for Japheth’s wife, a lovely
woman who had known Japheth from his childhood. She, too, discerned the corruption of her Japheth,
but as his physical characteristics were identical to those of the man she had married, she could not
say what had changed. Japheth’s brothers recoiled, fearful of Japheth’s presence. Nevertheless,
Japheth remained on board the Ark as the water began to sweep the ground from below. It was the
seventeenth day of the second month. The Flood had begun.
“The rain poured over the Ark, filling the valleys and the cities. Water rose to the base of the
mountains and then to the peaks. The Nephilim watched as the water lifted higher and higher, until
they could not see land any longer. Terrified cheetahs and leopards clung to trees; the terrible
howling of dying wolves echoed through the air. A giraffe stood on a lone hilltop, water gushing over
its body as it angled its nose up and up and up until the water overwhelmed it. The bodies of humans
and animals and Nephilim floated like dragonflies over the surface of the world, undulating with the
tides, rotting and sinking to the ocean floor. Tangles of hair and limbs sloshed against the prow of
Noah’s boat, rising and sinking in the soup of water. The air became sweet with the smell of sun-
baked flesh.
“The Ark floated adrift over the earth until the twenty-seventh day of the second month of the
following year, a total of three hundred seventy days. Noah and his family encountered nothing but
endless death and endless water, an ever-moving gray sheet of rain, a wave-tossed horizon for as far
as one could see, water and more water, a shoreless world bereft of solidity. They floated upon the
surface of the sea for so long that they exhausted their store of wine and grain and lived on chicken
eggs and water.
“When the Ark grounded and the waters receded, Noah and his family released the animals from
the belly of the boat, took their bags of seed, and planted them. Before long the sons of Noah began to
repopulate the world. The archangels, acting out the will of God, came to their aid, bestowing great