The Rolling Stone
The solitary poplar growing alone by the roadside possessed a lofty, dignified grace.
Looking at that tree, Inanna found her thoughts turning naturally to Sunya.
"Sunya…"
She approached the tree and leaned her back against it. The leaves clinging to its long, outstretched branches shielded her from the scorching sunlight. A soft breeze happened to blow just then, enfolding her as if it were Sunya's own touch.
Just for a moment… I'll rest here before I go.
The instant her tension eased even slightly, a crushing wave of mental exhaustion crashed over her. Having gone days without a proper meal or a full night's sleep, Inanna slipped into a deep slumber almost the moment her eyes closed.
Some time later, someone approached the poplar against which she slept.
"What do you think you're doing under someone else's tree?"
He was a middle-aged man of gaunt build, dressed in shabby clothes. His cheekbones jutted sharply from his face, and his eyes brimmed with resentment — the sort of man who seemed unlikely to get along with anyone. Despite his scrawny frame, a beer gut bulged from his midsection, the product of habitual heavy drinking.
His name was Shukaletuda. He was a gardener of some local renown — not because of any skill at cultivating plants, but because every plant he touched withered without fail. People pointed at him as an incompetent gardener, and Shukaletuda himself had grown spiteful and petty under their scorn. The fundamental problem was that he possessed no self-awareness of his own failings — only raw inferiority.
The one tree he had managed to raise well was a single poplar near his home. That poplar, which had grown taller and more beautiful than any other tree around, was Shukaletuda's greatest treasure. He forbade anyone from coming near it. Should so much as a fingertip brush its bark, he would throw a screaming fit, and so the people who lived nearby gave the poplar a wide berth.
Discovering someone daring enough to lean against his tree, Shukaletuda came storming out with a club in hand, seething as always. But the moment he saw Inanna, even his rage evaporated, and he stopped dead in his tracks.
She was simply too beautiful.
"Ahh…"
Then the faint divinity she radiated brought him instinctively to his knees. Realizing she was asleep, however, he cautiously raised his head.
"G-Goddess…?"
The goddess gave no response to the gardener's call. He edged closer and studied her more carefully than before. Never in his life had he seen a woman so beautiful. If he kept looking, he felt his soul might slip free of his body.
It was only possible because the divinity emanating from Inanna was so faint — dulled by sleep and exhaustion. Even gods, when worn down, did not die, but they could become remarkably defenseless.
Shukaletuda was ugly of face and unappealing of manner. His personality was foul, and he had no sense of humor whatsoever; romantic charm was nowhere to be found in him. He had satisfied his urges with prostitutes before, but he had never once known love. Unless fortune smiled on him exactly as it was smiling now, the odds of ever again laying eyes on a woman so fair and lovely were vanishingly small.
"…You really are asleep, aren't you?"
Looking upon the deeply sleeping goddess, lust stirred in the gardener. Any ordinary person, no matter how breathtaking the beauty before them, would have fled for their life at the thought of the divine retribution that would surely follow. But Shukaletuda was a fool who valued a moment's craving over his own safety.
"Coming to sleep under a tree I tend — that means I'm free to do whatever I want with you, doesn't it, Goddess?"
With that absurd rationalization, Shukaletuda took hold of the hem of Inanna's dress. Carefully lifting it, he revealed her smooth thighs and the plump folds of her sex.
"Ohh!"
His withered, unsightly hand stroked Inanna's firm thigh. The feel of her skin was utterly intoxicating. Even as his initially hesitant touch grew bolder, Inanna only flushed and let out soft, faint moans, never waking. Not content with that, Shukaletuda parted the soft valley between her legs. The sight of her pink inner flesh made his mouth water of its own accord. He brought his lips close, ready to taste her.
"Want to die?"
Someone seized Shukaletuda by the head and yanked him backward.
"Gyaaaah!!"
"I don't care for NTR, you see. I'm not the type who enjoys sharing his woman with other men."
"N-N-N… NTR…?"
Shukaletuda rolled his eyes back to look behind him. A silver-haired young man was glaring down at him with piercing eyes.
"A-ah, I-I'm so sorry! I d-didn't know—"
"Whether you knew or not, raping someone in their sleep is still wrong, wouldn't you say?"
Crunch!
His skull began to buckle under the pressure, blood streaming down. For the first time, Shukaletuda felt death close enough to touch.
"P-please, have mercy…"
Shukaletuda rubbed his hands together so frantically they nearly caught fire. Watching him, Sunya nodded.
"True enough. Even for attempted rape, killing you might be going a bit far."
Sunya released his grip on the man's head.
I'm saved!
Just as Shukaletuda was about to sag with relief, Sunya continued.
"I'll settle for your testicles instead."
Sunya flicked his fingers in the air as if delivering a sharp rap of the knuckles — and an agonizing pain exploded between Shukaletuda's legs.
"Urk! Urrrk!!"
The pain was so total he could not even scream. He lay crumpled on the ground for a long while, utterly helpless, until Sunya spoke again.
"You'd do well to start moving. If you keep lying there, I might change my mind."
His voice remained gentle throughout — but the words themselves were chilling. Terror and the instinct to survive forced the gardener's unmoving legs into motion. Clutching his blood-soaked groin with both hands, Shukaletuda staggered away in a desperate, lurching scramble.
Sunya turned his gaze from the would-be rapist to Inanna, who was still asleep. After ascending from the underworld, he had gone straight to the palace where she was said to be staying. There he had asked a startled Ninshubur for Inanna's whereabouts, and so he had found her just in time. He did not even want to imagine what might have happened had he been even a little later.
"You really shouldn't sleep out in the open by the roadside like this. It's dangerous."
As he lowered Inanna's dress, his eyes strayed briefly to her thighs and the space between them.
"Ahem."
He gave his head a light shake, banishing the distraction, and sat down beside her. As chance would have it, Inanna's head tipped sideways and came to rest against his shoulder.
"Still not waking up even like this… You must have been truly exhausted."
Concern clouded Sunya's eyes. And so he remained there at her side, unmoving, until she finally awoke.
A proper night's sleep after so long left her feeling wonderfully refreshed. Stretching as she started to rise, Inanna realized someone was sitting to her left.
"Sunya?"
"Did you sleep well?"
Seeing Sunya — who should have been in the underworld — sitting casually beside her, she wondered for a moment if she was dreaming.
"Is this a dream?"
Inanna reached out and pulled Sunya's cheeks in opposite directions.
"Whuh are you doig thad?"
His words came out mangled. From the sound of it, he was asking, Why are you doing that?
"Does it hurt?"
"Id hurds a lidde…"
"Then it's not a dream."
Inanna let go of his cheeks.
"Usually people check by pinching their own cheek, don't they?"
Instead of answering, Inanna pulled the man still rubbing his face into her arms. She held him with every ounce of her strength — so tightly that, had he not been Sunya, his bones and organs might well have been crushed. That was how completely the goddess had lost control of her emotions.
"…I thought I'd never see you again."
"It hasn't even been a month."
"It was an eternity for me! Do you have any idea how slowly time crawls when you're not around?"
Inanna's voice cracked, thick with tears. In truth, she had spent that time in a living hell, forced to confront her own powerlessness at every turn. Sensing the depth of what she felt, Sunya gave a soft laugh and held her in return.
"I missed you terribly as well."
"That widow bitch didn't try anything, did she?"
"Try anything… meaning?"
"I'm asking if you slept with her. If you coupled."
"Absolutely not. With you here, Inanna, how could I possibly do such a thing?"
"Good. That's a relief, then."
Sunya told her of everything he had experienced in the underworld — though he carefully omitted any mention of Ereshkigal's interest in him. After that first question, Inanna did not press the subject further either.
"Come to think of it, I should have asked this sooner…"
Sunya scratched his cheek.
"Why did you go down to the underworld in the first place, Inanna?"