literature

The First Priestess: Part 13

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Fire




Standing Deer was running as fast as she could through the jungle. Branches and leaves whipped past her, and she shielded the back of Sunflower’s head. A snake hissed somewhere, and the jungle kept getting thicker. Behind her, the noises of the battle echoed between the trees until there was suddenly silence.

Standing Deer stopped and looked back. She was out of breath and needed to rest. The dark jungle looked alive as the patches of moonlight changed with the wind, and cold air seemed to be blowing in from the direction of the village.

Sunflower awoke from her painful experience and looked at her mother. “I’m okay. I can walk,” she said. Standing Deer put her down, and Sunflower looked around. “What happened? Where’s daddy? Where are we?”

Standing Deer planted the spear she took from the river, and knelt down and opened her arms. Sunflower timidly walked in to hug her, and her mother whispered into her ear, “Your dad stayed behind to help us escape, and once he’s able to—he’ll find us. We just have to keep a watch out for him.”

The angry presence that Sunflower had felt faded away as they got farther from the village, but it was replaced by a sad and worried feeling. It felt like the sensation was coming from right in front of her, and there seemed to be another presence missing from her mental horizon. It felt as though a force of great love had disappeared from the world.

Sunflower stepped away from the hug and felt for the cool breeze that was moving the trees, but she couldn’t sense it. Yet, it felt like something intangible was floating on the wind.

“The world’s meaner now,” Sunflower said.

Standing Deer was worried. “What do you mean?”

“Something nice is gone now, and it’s not coming back.”

Her mother was silent for a few seconds and then asked, “Does this have something to do with the Jaguar God’s toy?”

“I think so.” Sunflower looked at her hand and halfway expected the toy to appear, but it didn’t. “Mom, when The God Whisperer tried to take my blood it kept disappearing. And the needle pokes she made disappeared too. Also I haven’t eaten since yesterday afternoon, but I’m still not hungry! And if I try to eat I throw up. And I can’t feel the wind, or pain, or fire, and—and I think I can feel how people are like on the inside. The bad thoughts hurt. Right now mom, you’re scared and worried. I could feel how mean Jaguar Claw is too, and I could feel how daddy loved me.”

A tear rolled down Standing Deer’s face. “What’s happening to you?” she asked. Sunflower looked down at her feet, and immediately Standing Deer bit her lip and regretted asking that out loud. She wiped the tear from her face and touched her daughter’s cheek. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to say that. We’ll find out soon though, and in the end we’ll both still love you.”

Sunflower sniffled and looked for the Jaguar God’s toy again, but then she heard a long, low rumbling sound that made her jump. “Mom … are you hungry? It’s been a whole day since you ate, and … you’re not like me.”

It was like Standing Deer’s stomach suddenly deflated, and she felt a great panging of hunger that made her cringe. “You’re right, little girl,” she laughed, sighing deeply.

“If we’re going to wait for dad I’ll find something for you to eat, okay mom? I can’t get hurt,” Sunflower said, and she turned away.

“Wait!” Standing Deer called. “Take the spear, but if you see someone who isn’t your dad run back to me, quietly. Okay?”

“Yes,” Sunflower replied, and she took the spear, which was twice as tall as her, and disappeared under the leaves of a giant umbrella plant.

Standing Deer figured that they had run almost a half-mile into the jungle. If Red Spear had won or retreated he’d be in the jungle by now looking for them. She looked back toward the village, and in her dash to escape she had left behind a trail of snapped branches and footprints in the dirt. It was a trail that any reasonable hunter could follow, but that was exactly the problem. If Red Spear had lost the fight—no! she thought, because even considering the possibility felt like a massive treachery, but precautions needed to be taken.

Eventually Sunflower returned with a few sapodilla fruits and a bunch of bananas that she managed to knock down with the spear. Standing Deer had climbed halfway up the vines of a nearby tree to keep a lookout for Red Spear. When Sunflower came back, her mother neglected to tell her of the fruit, meat, and grains that she found in the woven bindle. Standing Deer wished that Red Spear would come back and help her. She couldn’t tell how disturbed Sunflower was about her supernatural condition, but she hoped that by keeping her busy it might help ease her mind.

Two hours passed, and nobody approached from the village. Standing Deer tried to eat, but she was too worried. She wanted more than anything to travel toward the village, to at least quell her mind. She wasn’t sure which could be worse, not knowing whether a loved one was safe, or finding out that they were dead.

Sunflower sat in silence between the roots of a massive tree, exploring the boundaries of what she could feel. They were like ghosts in her mind, ghosts of hot and cold, hateful and nice, floating silently on a plane of blackness. A swarm of mean thoughts gathered at the edge of the jungle. They spread out like a fan and were slowly approaching. Sunflower strained to sense beyond, searching for her father, but she could only feel the angry thoughts. The most powerful of them felt dangerous, like a wounded animal, sniffing along the ground for a trail. Then it called the others and they formed in a V-shape behind him. They were coming.

Sunflower gasped and opened her eyes, and she hurried over to the tree where her mother was hiding in and started to climb.

Standing Deer had created a massive veil of vines and leaves about twenty feet off the ground on the lowest branch, and she tied more vines around herself to hold her to the tree, and she created a second harness for her daughter to use. All told, it was an excellent place to watch the nearby jungle and not be seen from the ground.

“Mom, people are coming,” Sunflower whispered, climbing into the vines next to her mother.

Standing Deer snapped out of a drowsy state and clenched the spear in her hands. “Where are they? Did they see you?” she whispered urgently. It was now very late in the middle of the night.

“No. I saw them in my mind. They’re following us from the village,” Sunflower replied.
Standing Deer looked out at the jungle worriedly. “Did you see your father with them?” she asked, masking the desperation in her voice.

Sunflower tried again to feel into the jungle, but her mother’s worry was blocking her senses. “I didn’t feel him, but it’s always hard to feel the nice thoughts. All of the angry and sad ones are too loud.”

Standing Deer watched her daughter straining to use a strange power that she didn’t understand, and it all angered her. For such a long time since she was first captured, she thought that her days of living like a refugee were over. She allowed herself to hope for her daughter, but no eight-year-old should have to hide in a tree, afraid that her neighbors were going to kill her, or deal with the curses placed on them by childish, heartless gods. It wasn’t fair. An eight-year-old should be playing with the other children and have the chance to one day make her own family. Damn The God Whisperer and the gods of this wicked village! It wasn’t right!

Sunflower was still gazing with her mind, and without warning the mean thoughts broke through the fog. They were sprinting straight for them. “Mom! They’re almost here!” Sunflower whispered.

“Are you sure?” Standing Deer asked. She looked out at the jungle but nothing was moving. She wanted to see if Red Spear was with them, but if he wasn’t … they’d be trapped in the trees until the hunters moved on. Could I even rescue him? Standing Deer fretted. I already tried fighting Jaguar Claw once, and what would happen to Sunflower if I died?

Suddenly there was movement fifty feet away. Standing Deer saw it, and she put her hand over Sunflower’s chest. Her daughter’s heartbeat was running wild. Her eyes were shut tight as the yelling of the mean thoughts hurt her mind. Sunflower felt the angry sensation that she associated with Jaguar Claw roaring like a bonfire.

Standing Deer was torn between helplessly watching her daughter suffer and watching the jungle. Ultimately she couldn’t comfort her, and so she peeked through the vines of her nest and saw five figures pushing aside leaves and ferns as they crouched through the underbrush. She kept her hand on Sunflower’s chest and whispered, “Everything is going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay.”

Jaguar Claw emerged into a pocket of moonlight. His chest was slathered with a thick green ointment, and his skin was a pale shade of brown. It crushed Standing Deer to see him alive, and then he disappeared into the shadows, but the other hunters stepped into the light. Standing Deer recognized all of them, but Fallen Tree wasn’t with them, and neither was Red Spear.

Another spot of moonlight washed over the hunters. Jaguar Claw was moving quickly, but his body seemed stiff, and he looked to be breathing roughly. His eyes were dark and heavy lidded, and there was grease around his lips as if he had just eaten. The trail beneath him was hot, but then he noticed the footsteps landing closer together. The woman had slowed down, he thought, and then she stopped here.

Jaguar Claw stepped into the shadows again, and he held up his fist. The other hunters along the line stopped, and Jaguar Claw saw the scattering of footprints beneath the tree where Sunflower and Standing Deer were hiding. The other hunters moved into the area. “They rested here. Search for another trail leaving the clearing,” Jaguar Claw said, and he entered a pool of moonlight. Standing Deer’s eyes widened—he was carrying Red Spear’s spear.

Standing Deer felt dizzy. A lump grew in her throat, and she couldn’t breathe. The shock turned her skin ice cold, and the need to scream became unbearable. Anger and sorrow wrestled in her soul. She turned away and covered her mouth, eyes burning with tears, and her body shook as she restrained her grief. If it weren’t for the vines tied around her waist she would’ve fallen out of the tree.

Jaguar Claw was breathing heavily. Damn Red Spear, he thought, the dead bastard. His arms and legs felt like they had weights tied to them. He had lost a lot of blood, and it felt like there was a line of fire drawn across his chest. His mother told him to eat, but the hunt could not wait. He made his wife cook a few skewers of meat for him and he ate them quickly, but that was it.

Sunflower was cringing in mental anguish. The aura of Jaguar Claw’s soul was incinerating, and it felt like someone was holding her feet to a bonfire. She bit her lip, and clenched her fist and wanted to cry, but she knew they needed to stay hidden.

“The little girl’s footprints go this way!” one of the hunters called, from the direction where Sunflower had gone for fruits.

“If it’s only the brat’s then they might’ve split up. Follow the tracks and see if she came back,” Jaguar Claw ordered. The other hunters left, and he sat down with a sigh on a fallen log. Most of the color had left his face, and he felt extremely lightheaded. This will pass, he thought. He looked at the spear that he’d claimed from Red Spear and glided his hand up and down the shaft. It was stained red with insect dyes, and decorated with feathers and tufts of peccary hair. The tip was sharp, and carved into the wood were the marks of their fight. The hunters will always be mine, he thought. Red Spear is dead, and soon I’ll have his wife as a prize. Maybe by giving the brat’s head to my mother she’ll leave me alone for a while. He sniffed the green ointment that The God Whisperer had smeared across his chest and gagged. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think that his mother was trying to poison him.

The small clearing was quiet without the other hunters, and for a moment, even the sounds of all the animals disappeared too. Jaguar Claw studied the foot prints again, and this time they led him to the base of a nearby tree. He raised an eyebrow in confusion and looked up. There was an unnatural looking nest of vines and leaves, almost invisible had he not looked up, and he saw a glint of sharpened stone between the vines and panicked.

Without warning, a spear shot out of the trees, and Jaguar Claw reflexively stood up. Blood exploded from his right thigh as the spear punctured straight through it, and the tip cracked against his femur. Jaguar Claw cried, but furiously he managed to fling his spear at the nest before falling over.

Standing Deer had seconds. She saw Jaguar Claw’s body twist to throw the spear, and she struggled to free herself and Sunflower from the vines, but his aim was lucky. The spear sliced through them and impaled Standing Deer right above her heart. The impact slammed her back against the tree. She screamed, and Sunflower couldn’t hold back the pain in her mind.

“Mom!” she yelled, seeing the spear sticking out of her mother’s chest. She shrieked, and Jaguar Claw cursed, and Standing Deer cried in agony.

Sunflower’s innocence finally died, and the panther’s toy appeared in her grasp. A tongue of yellow flames coiled around the little girl’s arm, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of her mother. “Mom!” Sunflower yelled again, and the fire quickly spread across her chest and down her other arm. Golden light shined through the vines and blinded Jaguar Claw. The fire weaved through Sunflower’s fingers and consumed her. Her body glowed with a blinding yellow light. Heat radiated from her like the sun, and she erupted in a massive fireball. The nest collapsed, and Standing Deer fell to the ground among the vines. Flaming debris pelted Jaguar Claw as he stared in terror from the flat of his back.

Hovering twenty feet in the air was a girl made of fire and light. Sunflower yelled again, her voice distorted and deepened by rage. The jungle was lit up, and geysers of fire shot from her hands and set the trees ablaze.

Jaguar Claw struggled against the immense pain and searing heat, to pull the spear out of his leg. The other hunters returned and stumbled over each other. “Help me!” Jaguar Claw yelled, but concussive blasts of blistering light from Sunflower’s body drove them away. She was opening portals to energy forged from the birth of creation, and her presence filled the clearing with waves of heat that began to sweep through the jungle.

To Sunflower, it felt like finally feeling warmth for the first time. The villagers lived their lives in the dirty and mundane, but this power was godly in its limitless strength, and it terrified her. Sunflower’s vision was tinged with gold, and she struggled to see the jungle. The toy’s light surged through her like a river, but it was drowning her consciousness, like slipping into an unavoidable sleep. The images of her mother and father faded away as a great beast awakened. All she had left to hold onto was her anger for Jaguar Claw, but that fuelled the great beast inside her more until there was nothing but rage.

Jaguar Claw saw two white eyes piercing through his soul.

“My home, my family, you will burn every day for destroying them,” Sunflower said in a fearsome voice. Trees were fully engulfed in fire, and the wood hissed and cracked. Flaming palms crashed to the ground, and embers and smoke rose through the canopy. The light grew so bright that it was visible from the village, and Standing Deer opened her eyes.

“Sunflower,” she said.

The fires at once ceased as quickly as they came. The terrible light radiating from Sunflower’s body dimmed, and her head tilted down. Standing Deer was buried beneath smoldering vines and raising her arm toward Sunflower. Her hand pawed the air to try and reach her, but she hadn’t the strength to stand up. Her vision was blurry, and she wouldn’t let herself look at the spear stuck into her chest, that would make it all too real. That first moment of immense pain felt like so long ago. She was so sleepy, and breathing was so hard, but let this moment be a passing dream, she thought. Sunflower descended, outlined in golden flames and with tears in her eyes. My daughter looks so beautiful, Standing Deer thought, and for a brief second, she envisioned the future. Sunflower definitely had the power to defend herself, and she had the strength to survive.

There was a wet squelching sound, and Jaguar Claw pulled the spear out of his leg and tossed it aside. He growled and panted heavily. Blood bubbled out of his wound, and he lay on his back like a helpless baby.

“Help me…,” he moaned, wincing and breathing laboriously. “Kill the girl and help me. The gods want it.”

The hunters cowered out from behind the shadow of a large tree and looked up. The trees were still burning, and fiery debris was dropping everywhere.

“Hurry up!” Jaguar Claw yelled.

Tiny golden flames were still rippling all over Sunflower’s skin. She feared that she might burn her mother if she tried to touch her, and a few tears fell from her eyes and turned to steam as they landed on her palm. “Mom, I don’t know how to help you, and I don’t know how to stop the fire,” she sobbed.

Standing Deer looked at her golden child, and she felt the warmth on her face like standing in sunshine. “There’s no way to help me,” she whispered. “I thought the gods had cursed us, but look at you now. You’re so much more than the rest of us. I … I wish I could see what you’ll do next.”

“I have to help you. We have to find daddy,” Sunflower cried. The flames flickered out around most of her body, except for her hair and right arm, and in it she held the panther’s toy. “It’s not fair, mom. I can’t get hurt anymore, but I can’t help you.”

“You can help me by living everyday as though no one is your master,” her mother replied. “Never let anyone make you afraid, and I’ll tell daddy how beautiful and strong you’ve become.”

A tree collapsed outside of the clearing, and a cloud of ash and embers blew overhead. The hunters stood upright behind Jaguar Claw, their spears beside them, and watched the girl with flames for hair huddled over her mother.

“What are you waiting for?” Jaguar claw asked breathlessly.

The hunters heard Sunflower crying, and then she stood up. Her back was turned to them, and she wiped her eyes on the back of her hand. Sunflower turned around, her cheeks dry, and the golden flames came to life again. She had a stony gaze that no child should have, and another tree crashed in the background as Sunflower stepped forward.

“Spear her, now!” Jaguar Claw yelled.

The hunters stepped back as Sunflower approached, and Jaguar Claw closed his eyes from her radiance. The ground burned where she stepped, and embers floated around her. There seemed to be all the time in the world now.

A third tree fell to the ground, and it shook more flaming branches down from the canopy. The hunters parted as Sunflower stepped past them, her golden flames shining in their eyes. Then they began to walk in the child god’s wake.

“Don’t leave me here!” Jaguar Claw pleaded.

Fire cascaded into the clearing as more branches fell, and the jungle had turned bright red. Jaguar Claw tried to roll over and crawl away, but his leg screamed with pain, and he had lost so much blood that he could feel himself lying in it.

“Come back!” Jaguar Claw cried, but the hunters were gone.

Suddenly there was a loud cracking sound, and the tree that Sunflower and Standing Deer were hiding in shook violently. Fire consumed the entire top three-quarters, and splinters shot out of the weakened trunk. The tree began to fall, and Jaguar Claw screamed as a crown of flaming, twisted branches crashed over him.
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