Echoes Beneath The Ruins

Little Riri stumbled and fell. Quickly standing up, she ran the last few steps towards me. She clung to my legs for dear life, her lips quivering in fear. I stayed rooted where I was as the thunderous noise from the top of Atemok’s Mountain came rumbling down to our land. It reverberated through our valley and my body. After a few seconds it finally stopped, Riri was still scared and did not let me go.

“It's alright Riri” I said, picking her up and placing her on top of my shoulders, she did not answer me. Riri grabbed onto me, pulling on to the small river pebbles that I had woven in intricate patterns throughout my hair instead.

“Atemok is just saying hello to us, as he always does” I winced as Riri’s little fingers dug deeper into my scalp.

We all knew about Atemok's Whistle and how from time to time he would make that roaring sound for us. It was to remind us that even though he slumbered in his mountain he was still with us. Always watching from the clouds that kissed the Atemok mountain top. Atemok protected and provided the land where we lived. He saved us when the First Death happened, leaving only us as the sole survivors in this world.

I made my way over to Riri’s mother and placed her into her arms. “Scared again my little tepiltzin?” Lena consoled, reaching up and disentangling Riri from me.

“Weren’t we all at one point?” I ruffled Riri’s hair trying not to look at the thin ribs that were starting to protrude from her thin shirt. We all were losing weight, but seeing the effects on a child broke me.

Over the past year our food supply has dwindled. At first it had started slow, our crops were plagued by an unknown sickness. The leaves of the green bean plants curled into themselves, the potatoes were stunted and refused to grow further. The squash only made it as far as producing a small stem before dying off. Something was wrong. You could feel it as you worked with the dirt, it felt like dust, dry and with a very strong odor that was not pleasant. We called the smell The Rot.

I made my way to Tzarek river like I did every morning, checking my fish weir traps. I'm not sure why I even bothered at this point, maybe because it was part of my routine that I had been doing every day for years. Maybe I had hope. Maybe because I wanted to be away from watching my people suffer.

I entered the river up to my knees, letting the feel of the cold shifting water calm and steady me. Every passing day the Tzarek river was providing less fish, less crabs, and less of everything. It had been nearly five days of not catching anything in my traps. And I had plenty of them throughout the river.

My gaze drifted to a small shrine that was made recently. A corn husk doll, some dry seeds, bird feathers, and beautiful river stones were being offered. I looked away annoyed that people actually believed in such trivial things.

We had many folk tales that we grew up with. Vatoplan, the spirit of fire who needed to be fed every time you lit a fire. Yoklazun, the deity who played tricks on you if you traveled alone through the woods unless you carried quartz stone with you. Mishkator who hunted you if you misbehaved. But out of all the legends Xokulma was the most popular. The story goes that she was once a beautiful woman who decided to sacrifice her humanity to protect the Tzarek river. The Tzarek river in return gifted her with eternal life and mythical powers.

When I was a child I used to believe such tales. That changed when a big mud slide came crashing down the Tzarek River. It swallowed half of the village within minutes, taking my family with it. Xokulma was supposed to be the protector of nature, we had done nothing to upset her or the balance of nature. My family and friends had done nothing to hurt the Tzarek River. Having faith in the unseen ended for me that day.

Some people must have been desperate enough to start turning to a mythical legend for salvation. They were frantic enough to believe in such foolish tales, believing we would find a solution to our slow death. But I knew that truth, the land was dying and we did not know how to stop it.

As the sun moved across the sky alerting me half the day was upon us I sighed, finishing checking my last weir trap. It was empty, like all the others. Wiping the sweat from my tattooed cheeks, I placed my last trap back in the water.

A few feet from me the water of the river shifted. It appeared to be boiling at the surface. Something was swirling chaotically about to break to the surface. Instantly multitudes of fish started leaping out of the water. A sound of joy escaped my chapped lips as I ran closer, jumping towards a large stone to watch the miracle unfold in front of me.

We would not starve with the number of fish I was looking at. We would be able to make it another month for everyone in the village. I smiled thinking of Riri finally turning into the restless energetic toddler I remembered. The elders would give me the honored spot at the feast. We would all finally have our bellies full tonight after days of eating the scarce servings of berries, plants and roots.

But something started feeling wrong, something was off.

The fish kept leaping out of the river, appearing as if they were trying to swim away from something. I looked further up the river thinking maybe there was a predator. Something that had startled them, causing them to behave this way. I saw nothing, only a cold presence lingering just beyond. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. More and more fish continued leaping out of the water, into the riverbed and sand. Something twisted in my gut as I watched the fish leap into the dry land. The way they behaved, it was almost as if the water itself was hurting them.

A fish landed right in front of me, making me startle. I crouched on my feet to get a closer look and hesitantly lifted it by its tail. The fish was gruesome. Its scales were made of a gray substance, not allowing much mobility. Some of its innards were outside instead of inside like it should be. It has no eyes. It was terrifying. It made a strange wheezing sound which caused me to drop it . It fell with a splat and instantly stopped moving, rot oozing out of it.

I felt the cold presence looming closer, someone or something was stalking me. There in the corner of my eye I saw her. There was no mistake who it was. She stood proudly, wearing the skull of a deer for her crown. Vines and flowers decorated throughout holding pieces of bones together. Her long glossy hair reached past her hips. Luminous light penetrated through her brown skin giving her an eerie glow. Her thin blue lips stared at me solemnly. It was Xokulma.

Barefoot, she took one step into the river and lifted her tattooed colored hands. By touching the tip of her finger into the water, all the fish that were leaping ceased to move. One by one the fish bopped afloat. All dead, no more pain.

Xokulma motioned me to follow her without speaking and some primal instinct in me followed her. She turned only looking back from time to time to see if I was still following her. She did not need to, I was terrified of one wrong move and her wrath would end up with me dead, and my people following.

I followed her deep into the dense foliage of the rain forest. Beams of sunlight poured through the thick canopy, leaving fragmented light in its wake. Everything seemed painted in shades of jade and emerald. Moss covered branches and trunks were all around me. Thick roots and vines covered the dense forest floor. The humid air felt stuck in my lungs as I started to follow behind silently. I felt as if I was in a trance, all I could focus on was the need to follow her.

I should have known where she was leading me before I saw it. She had brought me to Atemok’s Cord of Life. Atemok's Cord of Life was a long strong rope that ran across acres upon acres of land. You stayed inside Atemok’s Cord of Life, if you wanted to live. there was no going past it. No one dared pass Atemok’s Cord of Life; it was something you did not do. Seeing Atemok’s Cord in front of me, snapped the hypnotic state I was in. I took a step back horrified as Xokulma went to the other side waiting.

Why would she bring me here when she could have just drowned me instead? All because I did not believe in her, leave her offerings?

“I cannot go further, you know if I go over I will die.” My voice cracked, my heart sinking into my chest. “Atemok will not forgive me and I will not be laid to rest with my ancestors and family.” The red cord clanked loudly, making it sound like a rattle of death. “I will not do this. I can not do this”

Xokulma glared at me, irritable before dispersing into mist. The forest was quiet as I breathed a sigh of relief that I had not known I was holding. Maybe she was done hounding me and figured I learned my lesson. A chilling growl came from behind me. The legends had one thing right, Xokulma's real form was terrifying.

Her jaw had distended, unlocking to make way for teeth. The teeth expanded like a jaguar’s as she roared. I raised my hands up to protect myself, the tattoos on my palms that were supposed to ward off ill will seemed like a joke at this moment. I felt a fang scrape my cheek as she almost bit into my face. Trying to get away from her I took a step back. Atemok’s Cord caught behind my knees and I tripped backwards. I closed my eyes waiting for my demise. This was it. I was dead.

When nothing came to annihilate me, I slowly opened my eyes to find standing in front of me. Her face was solemn as ever, almost impatient with me.

As I stood up I stepped on something. It was something made from a hard and cold material. I wiped the dirt and moss as nature took back what was theirs. A bold black drawing of a human skull with two bones crossing over each other was in the middle. Feeling like it was a bad omen, I recoiled standing up. There were many more scattered throughout Atemok’s Cord of Life. Xokulma's dark eyes burned into me, warning me to follow her. This time I trailed after her, not in fear like before but with curiosity and concern.

We went further up Atemok mountain as the scenery started to change before me. Everything looked barren up here, there was no sign of birds singing or insects buzzing. No sound of life. My sandals started snapping into dry branches or leaves instead of soft velvety moss. We came across pieces of tree trunks with jagged edges, as if some terrible creature had gnawed on them. Xokulma continued walking restless and impatient. The higher I climbed the bare mountain, the more the fog clung to my skin. Soon my shirt was soaking and I didn't know if I was drenched in sweat or the mist.

Finally, Xokulma stopped allowing me to catch my breath from climbing so high up. Through the mist a colossal stone sphere appeared, encapsulating most of the top of the mountain. The sphere was so large I could not see where it ended. A tower was attached to it, disappearing even further into the clouds, looking celestial. The remaining sun rays shone over it, leaving it in its own cold, dark shadow.

Atemok lived here?

That’s when the first loud rumbling of Atemok’s Whistle vibrated across the land and sky. I fell landing on my knees as the noise vibrated, instantly covering my ears and crouching low. The ground shook, pebbles rattled by my feet and my teeth chattered. The ear-splitting grinding sound up close was even more terrifying than what I could have ever imagined. I looked back at the sphere and realized a portion was being opened on its side. Two strange figures came out, their heads and feet all covered by some strange outfit. They appeared to be human but I could not be too sure. I squinted again trying to see through the sunset drenched light. The two figures walked right through Xokulma who had appeared next to them. They walked right through her, not seeing her as if she did not exist. Xokulma paid no mind to them as her onyx eyes stayed focused on me, trying to convey something. I turned back to the two gray figures and noticed they were pouring something out, releasing something into the land. The substance was streaming out in slow thick clumps. Tears filled Xokulma's onyx eyes, screaming silently, begging for help. She slowly dissolved into the mist as if it was a part of her all along. My stomach filled with dread as the smell hit me, tears stung my eyes as well as realization struck me.

The strangers were releasing the Rot.