He had waited until full night before venturing forth, knowing that his familiarity with the forest would enable him to remain undetected. He crouched in a clump of bushes between two trees, watching in disgust as two of Tubal-cain’s soldiers, arguing drunkenly, set animal traps in the undergrowth. As soon as they had moved on, he slipped out of hiding, used sticks to set off the traps, and then crept silently away, his cloak wrapped around the lower half of his face so that only his eyes were showing. The camp was not difficult to find. Noah merely followed the combination of distant firelight glimmering through the trees, and the faint clamor of raised and raucous voices. As he drew closer to his destination he encountered refugees, tramping wearily through the forest, all converging on the camp like moths attracted to a flame. It was unlikely that any of them would have raised the alarm—or indeed recognized him—even if they had spotted him, but Noah, wary of his fellow men, nevertheless remained out of sight.
