Its round glowing orb reflected off the surface of the water rushing through the small wadi that wound its way through the countryside. The silence of the night was broken only by crickets chirping their cadences in sporadic communication. A young woman knelt beside the flowing stream and plunged her shaking hands into its cool water, noting her distorted image reflected in its rippling surface. Blood was still seeping from the cuts on her face, purpling bruises marring what had never been beautiful features. She shivered at the face staring back at her. One eye was already swelling shut, her lips swollen and bruised. The blood from her cuts and scrapes would draw more than one predator, and she trembled at the moving brush around her. Lions were known to roam through this region of Judea. Gathering her torn robe tightly around her, she curled up next to a large rock, trying not to imagine what might be lurking beneath its stony bottom. She shivered as the cool night air blew gently across her wet skin.
