The Ahuehuete is a huge tree, large enough to hold the chiefs’ family including their 6 children and the parents, Quetzalcoatl and Jacob. Just like their parents every child is the reincarnation of a god or goddess, they weren’t born from humans but trusted to them by nature. The oldest daughter, Chuychú or how everyone called her: Chu, came in a sunny day from the ocean as her basket touched the sand, rainbows appeared everywhere, she grew up to be a gorgeous young lady not only loved by her tribe but also by many other people in other regions, with her brown skin and eyes, and her perfect smile, a rainbow appeared everywhere she went.
The oldest son, Camaxtli, came two years after, hunters found him as the trees lowered him with their branches, always an extroverted child with a passion of hunting but respecting the cycles of life, in his 17 birthday he asked his fathers to send him to the southern part of Tlali to lead the army that was protecting their land.
Five years after Camaxtli was born people were no longer expecting any more reincarnations until Somé came, from the mountains in the north, the rock people brought her to the Ahuehuete where her family and tribe was already waiting for her, everyone always knew that Somé was going to be the brightest of them all, she developed faster and started to have complex conversations with adults since a really young age, which amazed everyone, she always gave better ideas to make farming and hunting more efficient; but she wasn’t the most patient person ever, and she always became frustrated with her parents when they refused to make the central village where they lived a large city like the other regions had, she wanted more, to have more, reign more, be more.
Just six months after Somé came from the northern mountains, another signal was given to the chiefs. The sign of another child, they waited for the promised day and when it came, they were expecting their child in the tree, like always. They waited and waited, but the only thing that came was a huge storm like none other before, thunders, fog, and darkness came over Tlali, killing a lot of people. Even when it went away the tribe thought they had done something wrong to anger the gods, so every year that same day they made offerings to the gods in all the villages throughout Tlali to prevent another storm like that to ever happen again. Five years full of fear passed until one year that day came around again and as everyone was making their offerings, the people of the central village noticed a light in the Ahuehuete. Everyone feared that the gods sent another calamity their way, but as the chiefs approached they noticed a baby being lowered in between the leaves of the tree, they all heard her name in the wind, Ronin.
As Jacob held their new baby the village knew everything was going to be alright, they knew they were once more in the good side of the gods, and thus Ronin’s birthday became the most celebrated day of the year. As she grew older everyone noticed how she loved being at the river and how the fish and sea creatures favored her in a special way, because of the good omen her birth gave she was always loved by her tribe and she grew surrounded with love.
Seven years after Ronin’s birth, the last son, Curupira, better know as Curu, was brought by the giant flying squirrels from the west forest. Even as a baby you could see his bright red hair and pointy ears which was really rare, Curu was always in the jungle climbing up trees and pointing the importance of nature to his tribe members, growing up he would always argue with Somé because he couldn’t stand the idea of pushing nature aside to make a city.
But before that, two years after Ronin’s birth something unusual happened in one of the most secluded villages in Tlali, the people in this particular village lived up in the trees and rarely came down because dangerous animals lived there. Once every three months they went down to hunt, with fear of being hurt, but it had to be done, the village needed it. The usual group of hunters came down, but this time a new recruit was with them, the son of one of the hunters who was already old enough to accompany his father. It was a clear and quiet day, great for hunting because they could see and hear if anything came their way. As the crew walked in their usual path they were able to catch some small animals, luckily no big animal knew they were there. They went deeper into the jungle, the visibility was decreasing, with more trees and leaves covering their view, they say an Ocelot, he was young so it wasn’t big enough to attack all of them.
The hunters started to spread through the terrain around the animal to attack it from all sides at the same time. The newcomer was excited and decided to spread farther from his father and attack the ocelot from another side, as the head of the hunters gave the signal all jumped out and attacked the animal. After a short struggle the crew came victorious, celebrating knowing that they were going to have a feast. But the joy didn’t last long, the father started to call for his son and no one answered, everyone started looking around but nothing could be seen. The father was desperate with tears in his eyes until he heard from the jungle “Papa! Papa!” He immediately ran to the jungle calling for his son, “Over here papa! Come fast!” The hunters followed the boy’s calling and found him with his knee on the ground, the father ran to him and gave him a hug with a sigh of relief “What the hell are you doing?!” the father asked both angry and concerned “I just…” “I told you to stay close!” the father interrupted him before he could say anything the son tried to point at something “I heard…” “Do you know how worried I was?!” he interrupted the boy again, but before he could say anything else one of the other hunters taped the man’s shoulder. He turned his head a bit annoyed, but he saw the man pointing the same way his son was, and he finally saw the reason his son got separated. Just against a tree behind a big leaf there was a girl.
Pale as the moon when it’s full, with long black hair, which surprised everyone, you see. Because all the people in Tlali posses some level of magic they say the gods gave them adaptations to survive in the dense nature, hard skin that they don’t even use shoes. They are able to see in the dark, runes all around their bodies that glow as they make a ritual or are using any form of magic. And the most important of all, they all shave their heads because their hair also adapted and became so strong that it could even cut blades, so they created magical blades just to cut their hair. That was the reason they were surprised to see a child that old with long hair. The girl looked frightened and was crawling back, but she couldn’t because the tree was there, the men started to hear noises of branched cracking and with fear of a beast coming out.
They carried the girl and left to their village, as they arrived everyone was happy until they saw the girl in the arms of a hunter. As he put her down she started running and almost jumped down, but people caught her just before she could do it, but everyone was getting hurt by her hair. She was crouched down and growling to the people, the runes in her body were glowing just like her hair and eyes, the villagers grabbed anything they could to push her back, surrounding her from all sides “Enough!” a voice came from the back of the crowd, an old lady was walking their way, she was the shaman of the village and everyone respected her. Everyone backed up and made way as she walked right in front of the girl, she crouched down, and the girl just looked at her with fear. The lady stretched out her hand a little glow appeared from her palm which made the girl back up a bit but out of curiosity she approached the old lady again and she took her hand.
The shaman took her to the shed where she lived and gave her food, the girl immediately took it and started eating it on the floor even there was a table besides her. “I know you understand” the old lady broke the silence “will you tell me your name?” the girl just looked at her but continued eating “You might think that we’re different, but we're more alike than you think, more alike than the animals that raised you” the girl looked at the woman surprised “of course you were raised by them, but that doesn’t mean you belong with them” “We all come from the same place, I believe we belong where we want to” the girl finally spoke “You’re right, we all coexist in this world, but you know you don’t truly belong with them, I’m sure they told you that” the girl just looked back down to her plate of food and nodded “then don’t you think is time to find where you belong?” the girl nodded again “what’s your name? I will help you find your kin”
The girl stood up and walked beside the woman and sat beside her “Are you sure there is a place for me?” she asked “There’s a place for everyone, if not the gods wouldn’t have sent you here” the woman replied holding her small hand, the girl looked up and locked eyes with the shaman “My name is Mictlantecuhtli” the woman let go of her hand and stood up at an incredible speed making the little girl get startled, “What?” the girl asked, scared.
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