Misu was the first one to reach the kitchen and she immediately ran to her water bowl, lapping up the iced water, not caring how the water spilled over and made a mess. Alvalar hurriedly began to clean up the mess, knowing that his mother would complain again if he didn’t, and took in the intoxicatingly delicious smell of the ajiaco that was brewing in the large calor-piedra pot on the floor while large earthenware jars filled with grains of rice, seasonings, fermented vegetables and beans lined the walls. The beef, the chicken, even the little cuts of carrots and corn and yucca boiling away, getting coated in that light bone-flavored broth… Oh, how he wanted to eat it all, but he mustn’t. He must have self-control it!

  And so, with a great breath, Alvalar made his way to the calor-piedra pot where he laid the now damp cloth nearby to dry, but the journey was more like hell than he would like to admit. As he made his way over, he continually found his eyes being pulled over to the incandescent red fragments that endowed the pot, allowing it to provide heat all on its own, and could hear the bubbling stew begin to call out to him, trying to seduce him into taking a sip. Just a little sip, they whispered. Come on, a little sip wouldn’t hurt, now would it? You know you want to, so relax, take a sip or even better, fill a bowl with yucca, chicken, beef, carrots, a small cob of corn and have them all swimming in an ocean of broth! Each second seemed longer and more torturous than the last but he must endure it unless he wanted to purge the contents of his stomach for the third time today. Wait… was it the third time? Or was it the fifth? Now he wasn’t sure anymore.

  However, once he noticed Ezra’s effigy and the aquamanile of Wuotan, Ezra’s one-eyed snake-wolf companion and beloved mentor, on an isolated lot in the corner, Alvalar could feel his anxiety and the tempting voices leave him for a short while. He knew that they’ll surely come back but right now, they were gone and that was truly liberating.

  Despite being one of the Patron Ancestors, tutelary deities of the Navasarian people, Ezra’s effigy was rather plain, or that’s what Alvalar recalled people saying as they criticized her appearance, calling for the clay statue of a woman with her arms out, revealing the cuts of deep red garnet that decorated her palms, to be more glamorous, but anything more than this would get him on her bad side. Ezra hated vanity above all else.

  Taking a seat in front of the holy pair, Alvalar picked up the aquamanile that was carved in Wuotan’s likeness, each strand of fur carefully created one stroke after another, covering his large body in its velvety embrace, except for his elegant snake tail, and began to pour the water that laid inside over Ezra’s statue.

  Scriptures say that Ezra and Wuotan got separated during an unusually horrid rainstorm that brought about disastrous landslides but that didn’t stop them searching for one another. Nights were spent calling out the other’s name while the days would be spent asking around; Wuotan would ask any animals he came across and Ezra would ask any nearby villagers while she was out collecting medicinal herbs for patients. Unfortunately, they never reunited, but once Alvalar set Wuotan down beside his most studious pupil, it was as though the pair finally found each other again.

  While the water was still streaming down the effigy like rain slowly tumbling down a windowsill, Alvalar began to pray for good health. With Ezra’s garnet-colored beads wrapped around his wrist, serving as both a bridge and communication tool between the two worlds – the realm of the Patron Ancestors and the humans who worshipped them – he knew his prayer will be received without any problem.

  When he was finished praying, he called Misu. It took until he was near the backyard door for her to finally come, and when she did, her chin was dripping water across the floor. Alvalar laughed and hurried out of the house with his trusty caliber in toe.

  The clangs of cowbells against the feverish drumming of conga and bonga drums were at first like a distant whisper but the closer he and Misu got to the cluster of stalls near the woods, the drumming and clanging became much more vibrant and louder that it was though the music was screaming. Atop their levitación-piedra powered platform, hovering them high in the air, it was as though the musicians were more concerned with not having their music be drowned out by the crowd’s chatter than falling off, and boy was there a crowd! The size of the throng was like a horde of starling-bats in the height of spring passing through the night, nearly blotting out the moon from view and lighting up the night with their maddening chatter!

  As he traversed through the chaos, he began to wonder how if he was ever going to be able to find Smoke’s stall in this mess… however as he watched adults clutter around the food stalls, enjoying plates of freshly made congri con picadillo y malanga, heard the shouts of vendors, advertising their goods and locally-grown produce in Athaese, and moved out of the way as the local gangs of rambunctious children ran with their dog-otters and bear-dogs through the dense crowd with their giggling and laughter in the air, practically beaming with excitement about today’s fête, Alvalar felt his worries fade away amidst all the buzz. This day was truly once and a lifetime!

  “Hey, Alvalar,” a familiar voice called. “Hey Misu.” It might’ve been muffled by all the cheering and laughter by the crowd, but to Alvalar, it was as clear as the sense of heat in the air.

  Alvalar stopped right in his tracks and turned his head towards the voice so quickly that when he caught a glimpse of Karollus up ahead, he saw that his former lover was in the middle of trying to stifle back the cutest laugh while waving hello to them at his parent’s stall. Wasting no time, Misu dashed right over to Karollus like she hadn’t seen him in years. When she wrapped her giant paws around his neck and licked his face, Karollus couldn’t stifle back the laughter any longer and ran his fingers through her short fur. As he caught glimpses of his former lover’s laughter from afar, Alvalar’s heart went aflutter.

  Maybe what mamá said about talking to him is true… he thought with much hope. With a clench of his fist and the roaring flames of determination burning in his chest, Alvalar started to make his way over. Each step he took, inching ever so closer, also blossomed a feeling of nervousness. His stomach became a battle ground of pain. I have this one chance to restrike life into what we once had… I better not mess up this up.