Creature feature #1 - A Guardian at the gates

She walks towards the gates of Nippur. Within it live gods, not men. "Not men," she thinks to herself.

"Not the men."

Before her stood Nuska twice over. It guarded the great city. It appeared to be all genders and none. It appeared once and then once again.

"Not the men," she repeated, her voice barely above a whisper as if she could disappear if she made herself small enough.

Nuska asked in two voices, three voices, all the voices. "Why should I let you enter the utopian city of the gods?"

"They have torn me to pieces. I seek shelter in your gardens. I seek rest, and I seek relief."

Nuska was laughing.

"There can be no relief where still there lies anger."

She was infuriated by this mention of anger.

“Look at my body! What can I do but be angry? I do not deserve what has happened to me. 

I deserve to rest! I deserve relief!”

"The sooner you accept that all things are arbitrary, the sooner you will find relief."

She could not believe what she had been told. All her strength left her.

She turned her back on Nippur to face the world with all its broken pieces more evident than ever before.

NO. There would not be relief.