Mictlan couldn’t really remember how she came out of her trance or how she reached Tlali so fast, she only remembered waking up in her room with a tingling sensation on her cheek and wanting to cry. Everyone asked a lot of questions, but she couldn’t answer any, thus the business was forever forgotten and Mictlan never left Tlali again. The chiefs also decided not to take their children to the regions meeting until they reach a certain age, because of the fear that something might happen to them. 

The young girl was remembering all those memories sitting in the branch outside her window, her oldest sister Chu came out with her, “I always liked it here” she said walking towards Mictlan. “Yeah, it’s a good spot” she agreed not looking away from the horizon “Mictlan can I ask you for a favor?” Chu continued “Sure, anything for the next chief of Tlali” she answered smiling “Could you create the first blooming tree at the festival?” Mictlan looked at her shocked. 

The first blooming tree was the culmination of the ritual, it was gorgeous, but it required a huge amount of magic, an amount that she wouldn’t want to use with fear of not controlling it. “I’m not as powerful as you, I realized today I don’t think I can do it” Chu looked tired and defeated, she never showed this side to anyone. Mictlan had seen it before she was always surprised to see her reliable oldest sister like this “I… don’t…” Mictlan mumbled a bit squeezing her hands.

“Honestly, our dads don’t want to admit it, but they are getting older and have less stamina to make the first blooming tree. Somé, she’s good but magic it’s not really her thing, Ronin and Curu are too young and Camaxtli is not here, you’re the only one that can do it” Chu held her sisters hand looking at her eyes with desperation waiting for an answer. Mictlan just sighed, nodding “Fine I’ll do it” Chu let out a little cry of excitement and gave her sister a big hug “Thank you so much, really!”.

The blooming festival day was getting closer the tribe practiced longer periods of time. Mictlan didn’t actually use any magic she only remembered the steps, because using that kind of power many times could be bad not only for her body but also for the ground surrounding the ritual, it would get overstimulated. But she was still scared and feared not being able to control it, so every night she went to the unreachable jungle to practice blooming and growing small sprouts. The jaguar was there with her every single night giving her tips and teaching her all he could. 

It was finally the night before departing to the Liaoning region and like every other night Mictlan was in the unreachable jungle. She walked up to the cliff where she could see everything. The leaves moving slowly and gracefully with the soft blow of the night wind, the giant quetzal flying through the sky with their glowing feathers, the small animals getting into their sleeping positions on the ground or a hollow tree, and the moon. The big smiling moon that has a gorgeous light just bright enough to light the top of the trees and mountains. 

“You should be resting” the recognizable voice of the jaguar sounded coming from the jungle in between the big leaves, without turning her head away from the horizon Mictlan answered. “Do you think there would be a spot like this on Liaoning?” “I don’t know, each region has their mythical creatures, and we don’t talk to each other” he stated trying to make the girl smile. She showed no reaction, so he continued “but I do know there’s beauty everywhere you go, if you see with the right eyes” “I don’t think I have the right eyes, all I see is death and suffering” she said with tears filling her eyes. The jaguar sat beside her and with his tail he cleaned the small tears rolling down her cheeks “Isn’t that beauty as well? Who are we to decide what is pretty and what is not” he continued looking at the vast jungle “my silly child, death is just another way of life you shall never diminish one for the other”. 

Morning finally came, just as the jaguar instructed Mictlan she went back to her home before sunrise to prepare for their long trip, they had to travel on boat for several days. There existed magical portals but since many people were going it would require a lot of magic to transport all of them. Unlike the Bellicost region they didn’t liked the flying zeppelins because they burned a lot of coal. So the Tlali tribe took their old and trusted boats out from their shacks, placed them in the water and off they went. There were a lot of villagers of sending them off with songs and dances wishing good fortune in their trip and for them to return safely. 

The trip was long and tiresome, with some encounters with sea monsters and some storms along the way but no one got badly hurt, and in one week they finally arrived to the coast of the Liaoning region. Since their boats could not only travel on sea but also on rivers they took one of the rivers to get closer to the royal capital. As they entered into the river Mictlan was surprised of everything she was seeing, everything was different from back home, even though there were tall mountains filled with vegetation and even some farming land. There was people working on their crops as they looked down to see the newcomers. The vegetation wasn’t as thick as the one in Tlali and as they grew closer to the town it decreased, but beautiful trees ready to bloom could be seen everywhere.

 

The tribe arrived in a neighboring town of the capital and there were already people waiting for them to be their guides. Quetzalcoatl and Jacob were the first ones to come down the main boat, the townspeople were all surrounding the area murmuring in their mother tongue, that not many people from the Tlali town knew. 

The guides from the palace introduced themselves with a bow of respect to the chiefs and stretched his arm signaling for them to walk with him. Chu, Somé, Ronin and Curu were right behind the chiefs but Mictlan decided to go behind all the tribe, she knew that was the best spot to actually see the wonders of the Liaoning region. At the front the people were all around the chiefs’ family admiring their beauty and exotic features.

Since the blooming festival was the next day the guide told them to rest at a hostel they already had prepared for them in that town and tomorrow with the first ray of sun they would go up to the capital city, it wasn’t a long trip, and as soon as they arrived they could start the blooming ritual, the people would be already waiting for their arrival.

The tribe accepted the kind offer of their hosts and went to the hostel to rest, the chiefs had one room for themselves and the others had to share there were two or three people in each room, Chu, Somé and Ronin shared a room while Curu and Mictlan shared another one. The little boy was exhausted from the trip and he soon fell asleep. Mictlan on the other hand stayed looking from her room’s window, she saw how the sun started to set behind the mountains and how the people started to get ready, turning up many lamps illuminating the whole town with a reddish tone it looked so warm and full of life.

It was a rare sight for her because normally in Tlali when the sun started to set people just went to sleep and turned off all the lights, mostly out of respect to nature to let it rest; but here the people were all around, still buying and selling in their small shops, some people were playing music lightly and others were still roaming the restaurants, drinking wine, laughing and telling stories; but just like Curu, Mictlan was also tired and soon she fell asleep as well. 

   

At sun rise everyone was already awake, the walk to the capital was right through a rock path in the mountains. They had to go up hill since the capital was actually a town up in three mountains that each had their blessed waterfall. It’s said that the people of the old Liaoning found this place following Ao, a giant tortoise that settled in that place and there the three mountains were born out of it, so the people decided to build their most blessed city up there.

 Right at the entrance of the royal capital the tribe of Tlali were already prepared with their ritual costumes. One of their Liaoning guides went inside the town and after a few minutes he came back running giving a signal that the people inside were ready to beginning the blooming ritual. The tribe got into their positions, they grabbed each other's hands closing their eyes and started chanting in a soft voice.

The runes in the bodies of the tribe people started to glow slowly and steadily, as they opened their eyes they were also glowing. The chanting was getting louder and louder, the musicians took their instruments and started to give the chanting a rhythm, suddenly it stopped the main musician took his place at the front of the ready to lead the parade. He screamed up to the sky, and then he hit his drum, all the other musicians did the same and the music started as they began to walk into the capital.