Jeshua walked into the cave of ice, and came upon the presence of the Lord. The ice was alive, as if moving like a fire, dancing in the wind.
“Remove your tusk covers, Jeshua, for you are on holy ground,” said the Lord.
Jeshua reached up with his prehensile snouts and removed the covers from his four tusks, revealing the broken and notched second on his right side, as his progenitors did, and his parent-pairs before him. Jeshua was devout and loved the Lord, and the Lord looked upon him with favor.
“You may speak, Jeshua. You are my child, as your mothers and your fathers were,” the Lord breathed from the living ice that was of like fire.
“What do you ask of me my Lord God?” Jeshua bowed until his snouts brushed the ground in penitence. He held all four hands behind his back, keeping his single toed feet still and pointed towards the Lord in humility.
“My people suffer at the hands of the Obisd. You are to go upon the land of their Emperor and demand their freedom, my son.”
Jeshua rose his head in confusion to the living ice. “My Lord, I am not the right man.”
The ice flared outwards, shifting upwards with immense energies, laces of lightning arcing across the reflective surfaces. “Am I not the creator of the seas and the land? Am I not the creator of the heavens and the earth? Am I not the creator of the energies that fuel your suns, and the bodies of the sky that govern your seasons and your harvests? I can discern all things.”
Jeshua quailed in the ferocity of the Lord. Lowering his head once again in humility, he covered his shorn ears with each of his snouts, opening his four palms in obedience. “I hear you, oh my Lord.”
“You will go to the land of the Obisd. You will gain access to the Emperor and you will stand proudly before him to demand of him to set my people free.”
“Lord, my Lord, I am but a simple Irru seeking peace as commanded by your teachings to my progenitors, so how will I do such a thing?” Jeshua dared to raise his eyes, raising all four palms upwards, placating. “This seeks violence in the eyes of the Lord.”
“I will be with you in this. Take this staff and with it work my wonders.” The ice split and shifted, yet did not shatter, and from it a staff of pure absolith was formed. It was pure and unblemished. “You will not be an instrument for my people’s enemies to be destroyed, but instead learn of the future by which they will come to know me.”
“Can you see the future, oh my Lord?” Jeshua the Favored asked with fear, his hand holding the absolith staff, unblemished in his grip. Jeshua felt certain that he was to be immolated in his insolence.
A snout of ice caressed his cheek, calming him as his mothers had in his youth. “Young Jeshua, this is story that has been seen across all my peoples, across all my creations. You are not the first, nor will you be the last. In this knowledge, I know how this story ends. You must do your part, for your Lord has commanded it.”
“I am afraid,” Jeshua admitted.
“I will not send you alone. You shall be accompanied by your brother.”
Jeshua felt deep confusion. “My Lord, I weep in this, as I have no brother.”
The ice split again, the edges and faces unbroken, flaring and rearing outwards like a flower. From the ice, another Irru emerged. His eyes were closed, and his arms were crossing his chest as if he was newly born. Jeshua helped lower the unconscious Irru to the ground, careful to not allow his snouts to be crushed under his own shoulders.
“He will know how to help you in your tasks that are before you. He is blessed and of my heart,” the Lord declared. “He will awaken when I leave this place. He will know you, Jeshua my Favored, Irru most kind, of the Estian People so blessed. You will go to your people, and they shall be set free.”
“What shall I call him? My brother?” Jeshua asked, looking over the Irru made by God’s own hand, his lower right tusk was broken and notched as Jeshua’s own.
“His name is Moses, a prince of Egypt. A place long gone and long forgotten. He shall not remember. But he will still know what to do in his heart, for he is faithful, and he is your brother.”
Jeshua bowed, caressing the face of his brother with his snouts, memorizing the detail of the young Irru’s face, for he was holy. The cave fell silent and the ice was still, once again frozen without light.
The eyes of Moses opened and he looked upon his brother Jeshua with kindness. “Did he give you a staff?”
Jeshua held his staff proudly in one hand, showing Moses the glimmering end of its unblemished metal. Moses smiled widely, his snouts moving uncertainly as if being used for the first time.