Summary

It is in the 640s BCE in Nineveh, “the world’s largest and wealthiest city” near the Tigris River (3). Clouds approach the city, and a single drop hangs from a storm cloud. There is one cloud more ominous than the others. Nineveh has a king, Ashurbanipal, who rules over “the land and its people, but also the streams and their tributaries” (4). He is highly educated and is immensely proud of his library. He does not see the storm that is beginning to brew. The raindrop “feels so free and weightless” as it nears Earth (6). It does not yet know where it will fall. The king feels something wet fall on his head, and he is oblivious to it as he walks through his palace. Ashurbanipal walks into his library where the tablets have been...