Oztoticpac was the sky
Just so you all know that I haven't given up on my novel.
45572 / 50000 words. 91% done!
We're getting to the interesting parts. So, uh, some context: Yoloxochitl has met the "god" Oztoticpac who she had disturbed from slumber, abandoned Raquel and got her ass kicked by Balthazar, the magebeast. And then she got thrown off a cliff and she miraculously survived the fall.
I don't know why she's alive either.
Her fever dreams brought her back to Tizoc. Yoloxochitl was in the arena again, holding her favorite sword in one hand while the other hung limply at her side. The single mass that the crowd was blurred into moved restlessly, but there was no sound. In fact, there was no sound at all except Yoloxochitl’s own breathing.
It was long and deep, a little ragged at the edges. As if Yoloxochitl had just been interrupted in the middle of a battle. But there was no one else in the ring except her.
The sand was white, not a single drop of blood spilt. Yoloxochitl turned around, squinting up at the cloudless sky. Judging from how high the sun was, it must have been midday. But when Yoloxochitl blinked again, there were two suns.
That...Wasn’t right. Yoloxochitl shook her head and stared at the sky again. Now there were five suns. With every blink, the sun multiplied until the whole of the sky was covered in suns. And in the next blink, the suns were no longer blinding white but blue.
The unmistakable blue of Oztoticpac’s eyes.
Oztoticpac was the sky, staring down at her with its many eyes. Thunder rolled through the dreamscape, as Oztoticpac opened its mighty jaws. Those long pointed teeth sank into the crowd mass, wrenching a scream from it. Although synthesized into one sound, the scream was that of millions, overlapping each other so that they blended into one awful note.
That large chunk of crowd mass disappeared into Oztoticpac’s jaws and presumably down its throat, taking the awful sound with it. Oztoticpac roared again and turned its head to take another bite of the crowd mass. There was the sound again, loud in Yoloxochitl’s ears, before it was snuffed out.
Oztoticpac continued to eat the crowd mass, each time drawing the synthesized scream from it, until there was nothing left. Yoloxochitl had long fallen to her knees, sword still loosely clutched in her hand.
In front of her stood Raquel in her perfect dress, with her hair pulled up into a perfect chignon, belly flat and unoccupied. She turned around and smiled at Yoloxochitl, looking completely at peace, before Oztoticpac gave a thunderous roar as its only warning. Raquel disappeared in Oztoticpac’s jaws with hardly a scream.
The brightest and reddest blood flowed freely from Oztoticpac’s mouth, slipping between its teeth and finally trailing down its jaw to drip on Yoloxochitl’s face.
In the next heartbeat, Yoloxochitl was holding a head aloft in the arena, completely severed from its body. Blood continued to drip from the fresh stump of its neck and down Yoloxochitl's face. The crowd was there again, cheering for her, the Battle Maiden. As if Oztoticpac had not consumed them all.
There was one sun in the sky again, with an eagle’s shadow a distant figure flying around it.
Yoloxochitl realized, almost numbly, that the head she was holding was her own. Dead brown eyes stared back at her. The hand that had been hanging limply at her side slowly came up to her neck and felt something warm and sticky flowing freely from it.
When she pulled her fingers away to examine it, her fingertips were scarlet red.
*
Yoloxochitl awoke to the sounds of children playing and the heavy herb scent of something cooking. Her heart was pounding in her chest but her breathing was unsteadily calm. She closed her eyes again and took a deep breath, trying to catch the last vestiges of her dream.
The only bit she could remember of it was Oztoticpac’s jaws closing on Raquel but even that was quickly slipping from her memory.
Yoloxochitl shifted just a tiny bit and felt her whole body become alive with aches and pains. Sensation flooded her body again, reminding her of just how much damage she had taken.
That easily brought memories flooding back into her mind, of Raquel in the forest, of Oztoticpac awakening and that creature with its many arms and spells. The fall she had taken and the ice cold water.
Yoloxochitl scowled, baring her teeth. Her body was the living proof that she had failed beyond any doubt, and that she had succumbed to her weakness. Her being human. Fled from Oztoticpac the moment it rose from the ground and left Raquel there to die. She had even lost to a beast with spells.
Shame burned red hot in her chest. How could she have been so weak?
Yoloxochitl looked around the room and found a nearby table where her armor and her sword lay. Sword, her mind clarified. Singular.
The mahaquitl! Yoloxochitl thought long and hard of when she last had it and could only remember that fight with the magebeast. The mahaquitl had fallen from her hand.
Her father’s sword.
Yoloxochitl forced herself to dismiss all her body aches from her mind and gripped the hem of the blanket, all but ripping it off of her. She needed to get back into that forest. That sword needed to be found.
It took collosal amounts of effort for her to even be able to swing her legs off the bed. Actually getting on to her legs was another thing altogether. The moment she had shifted her weight on to her feet, white hot pain shot up her legs, drawing a scream from her. Her balance completely shifted and the floor suddenly rose up to meet her.
Yoloxochitl's cry of pain triggered the sound of running from the next room. The door swung open to let Tala in and she rushed instantly to Yoloxochitl’s side. “You mustn’t get up!” she said, although it was too late. “You’re much too weak.”
“Let go of me,” Yoloxochitl snarled, trying to struggle away from Tala’s arms. Her legs felt broken in several places, absolutely useless, and this only served to stoke the flames of her anger.
“I will not,” Tala replied and slipped her arms under Yoloxochitl. Tala was already in her forties, and was much smaller than Yoloxochitl, and Yoloxochitl’s weight was too much for her to bear. She turned her head to call to the next room, “Doctor! Achcauhtli! Help me!”
Yoloxochitl still tried to get up even as the human doctor and Tala’s husband rushed into the room. It was ultimately useless. With the help of both men, Yoloxochitl was carried back into bed.
The doctor assessed her legs and sighed in relief. “Well, she might have gotten up but she didn’t do any additional damage to them.”
“I hadn’t expected you to be awake so soon.” Tala smiled and smoothed Yoloxochitl’s hair away from her face, although Yoloxochitl clearly did not like it. “How are you feeling?”
“I want to get my mahaquitl back.”
The doctor shook his head. “I’m sorry, Yoloxochitl. At the moment, our top priority is getting you healed back up. I don’t think you’ll be going anywhere any time soon.”
Tala stood up. “Well, since you’re awake now, I’ll get you something to eat.”
Yoloxochitl glowered at the doctor as Tala left the room and didn’t care what Achcuahtli saw or heard. “Listen to me, doctor,” she spat the title out, “I want to go back into that forest to get my father’s sword back.”
The doctor raised an eyebrow and planted his hands on his hips. “Well, you can most certainly try, Yoloxochitl, but I don’t think you're getting anywhere with those broken legs. That is, without completely destroying your legs and rendering them useless for the rest of your life.”
Those last words hit home with Yoloxochitl. Her whole body sagged, completely drained of fighting spirit. To be crippled for the rest of her life. She looked away and at her legs. They were splintered right now, several rolls of bandages holding splintered to her bones. They were keeping her bones together.
One unsteady hand, her right hand, came up to cover her face. This wasn’t happening. She was the undefeatable Battle Maiden. These wounds, these injuries, shouldn’t be doing this to her. Pain was nothing.
--Pain was everything.
This pain, was no longer the fire of her rebirth but the flames of her anger. Towards Oztoticpac, towards the magebeast and most importantly anger towards herself.
45572 / 50000 words. 91% done!
We're getting to the interesting parts. So, uh, some context: Yoloxochitl has met the "god" Oztoticpac who she had disturbed from slumber, abandoned Raquel and got her ass kicked by Balthazar, the magebeast. And then she got thrown off a cliff and she miraculously survived the fall.
I don't know why she's alive either.
Her fever dreams brought her back to Tizoc. Yoloxochitl was in the arena again, holding her favorite sword in one hand while the other hung limply at her side. The single mass that the crowd was blurred into moved restlessly, but there was no sound. In fact, there was no sound at all except Yoloxochitl’s own breathing.
It was long and deep, a little ragged at the edges. As if Yoloxochitl had just been interrupted in the middle of a battle. But there was no one else in the ring except her.
The sand was white, not a single drop of blood spilt. Yoloxochitl turned around, squinting up at the cloudless sky. Judging from how high the sun was, it must have been midday. But when Yoloxochitl blinked again, there were two suns.
That...Wasn’t right. Yoloxochitl shook her head and stared at the sky again. Now there were five suns. With every blink, the sun multiplied until the whole of the sky was covered in suns. And in the next blink, the suns were no longer blinding white but blue.
The unmistakable blue of Oztoticpac’s eyes.
Oztoticpac was the sky, staring down at her with its many eyes. Thunder rolled through the dreamscape, as Oztoticpac opened its mighty jaws. Those long pointed teeth sank into the crowd mass, wrenching a scream from it. Although synthesized into one sound, the scream was that of millions, overlapping each other so that they blended into one awful note.
That large chunk of crowd mass disappeared into Oztoticpac’s jaws and presumably down its throat, taking the awful sound with it. Oztoticpac roared again and turned its head to take another bite of the crowd mass. There was the sound again, loud in Yoloxochitl’s ears, before it was snuffed out.
Oztoticpac continued to eat the crowd mass, each time drawing the synthesized scream from it, until there was nothing left. Yoloxochitl had long fallen to her knees, sword still loosely clutched in her hand.
In front of her stood Raquel in her perfect dress, with her hair pulled up into a perfect chignon, belly flat and unoccupied. She turned around and smiled at Yoloxochitl, looking completely at peace, before Oztoticpac gave a thunderous roar as its only warning. Raquel disappeared in Oztoticpac’s jaws with hardly a scream.
The brightest and reddest blood flowed freely from Oztoticpac’s mouth, slipping between its teeth and finally trailing down its jaw to drip on Yoloxochitl’s face.
In the next heartbeat, Yoloxochitl was holding a head aloft in the arena, completely severed from its body. Blood continued to drip from the fresh stump of its neck and down Yoloxochitl's face. The crowd was there again, cheering for her, the Battle Maiden. As if Oztoticpac had not consumed them all.
There was one sun in the sky again, with an eagle’s shadow a distant figure flying around it.
Yoloxochitl realized, almost numbly, that the head she was holding was her own. Dead brown eyes stared back at her. The hand that had been hanging limply at her side slowly came up to her neck and felt something warm and sticky flowing freely from it.
When she pulled her fingers away to examine it, her fingertips were scarlet red.
*
Yoloxochitl awoke to the sounds of children playing and the heavy herb scent of something cooking. Her heart was pounding in her chest but her breathing was unsteadily calm. She closed her eyes again and took a deep breath, trying to catch the last vestiges of her dream.
The only bit she could remember of it was Oztoticpac’s jaws closing on Raquel but even that was quickly slipping from her memory.
Yoloxochitl shifted just a tiny bit and felt her whole body become alive with aches and pains. Sensation flooded her body again, reminding her of just how much damage she had taken.
That easily brought memories flooding back into her mind, of Raquel in the forest, of Oztoticpac awakening and that creature with its many arms and spells. The fall she had taken and the ice cold water.
Yoloxochitl scowled, baring her teeth. Her body was the living proof that she had failed beyond any doubt, and that she had succumbed to her weakness. Her being human. Fled from Oztoticpac the moment it rose from the ground and left Raquel there to die. She had even lost to a beast with spells.
Shame burned red hot in her chest. How could she have been so weak?
Yoloxochitl looked around the room and found a nearby table where her armor and her sword lay. Sword, her mind clarified. Singular.
The mahaquitl! Yoloxochitl thought long and hard of when she last had it and could only remember that fight with the magebeast. The mahaquitl had fallen from her hand.
Her father’s sword.
Yoloxochitl forced herself to dismiss all her body aches from her mind and gripped the hem of the blanket, all but ripping it off of her. She needed to get back into that forest. That sword needed to be found.
It took collosal amounts of effort for her to even be able to swing her legs off the bed. Actually getting on to her legs was another thing altogether. The moment she had shifted her weight on to her feet, white hot pain shot up her legs, drawing a scream from her. Her balance completely shifted and the floor suddenly rose up to meet her.
Yoloxochitl's cry of pain triggered the sound of running from the next room. The door swung open to let Tala in and she rushed instantly to Yoloxochitl’s side. “You mustn’t get up!” she said, although it was too late. “You’re much too weak.”
“Let go of me,” Yoloxochitl snarled, trying to struggle away from Tala’s arms. Her legs felt broken in several places, absolutely useless, and this only served to stoke the flames of her anger.
“I will not,” Tala replied and slipped her arms under Yoloxochitl. Tala was already in her forties, and was much smaller than Yoloxochitl, and Yoloxochitl’s weight was too much for her to bear. She turned her head to call to the next room, “Doctor! Achcauhtli! Help me!”
Yoloxochitl still tried to get up even as the human doctor and Tala’s husband rushed into the room. It was ultimately useless. With the help of both men, Yoloxochitl was carried back into bed.
The doctor assessed her legs and sighed in relief. “Well, she might have gotten up but she didn’t do any additional damage to them.”
“I hadn’t expected you to be awake so soon.” Tala smiled and smoothed Yoloxochitl’s hair away from her face, although Yoloxochitl clearly did not like it. “How are you feeling?”
“I want to get my mahaquitl back.”
The doctor shook his head. “I’m sorry, Yoloxochitl. At the moment, our top priority is getting you healed back up. I don’t think you’ll be going anywhere any time soon.”
Tala stood up. “Well, since you’re awake now, I’ll get you something to eat.”
Yoloxochitl glowered at the doctor as Tala left the room and didn’t care what Achcuahtli saw or heard. “Listen to me, doctor,” she spat the title out, “I want to go back into that forest to get my father’s sword back.”
The doctor raised an eyebrow and planted his hands on his hips. “Well, you can most certainly try, Yoloxochitl, but I don’t think you're getting anywhere with those broken legs. That is, without completely destroying your legs and rendering them useless for the rest of your life.”
Those last words hit home with Yoloxochitl. Her whole body sagged, completely drained of fighting spirit. To be crippled for the rest of her life. She looked away and at her legs. They were splintered right now, several rolls of bandages holding splintered to her bones. They were keeping her bones together.
One unsteady hand, her right hand, came up to cover her face. This wasn’t happening. She was the undefeatable Battle Maiden. These wounds, these injuries, shouldn’t be doing this to her. Pain was nothing.
--Pain was everything.
This pain, was no longer the fire of her rebirth but the flames of her anger. Towards Oztoticpac, towards the magebeast and most importantly anger towards herself.