Meeting the butterfly
Glen Bowman, champion caber tosser and scion of Thor, had found himself temporarily at a loss until Hugin and Munin showed up again and sent him off with another job from Dad - go to the Mexican jungle and help out some scions. Fortunately the ravens came along to help him navigate his way through. He passed a number of large, dead monsters before finally meeting up with the scions - who had a brief but confusing chat with the ravens first.
After a brief chat about giant frogs, they continued on their way, and soon found something odd. The two-day-old remains of something. They could see big spider legs, and a puma's head and huge bat wings and some scorpion parts, all effectively hacked up. Kajou asked a tree what had happened, and learned that a human had jumped out and attacked the creature while another human had thrown things at it.
Kajou went swinging through the trees again, but stopped in time to avoid hitting a bit cliff. He noticed a carving of a skull on the cliff, which looked like it was perhaps meant to be pushed in. There was also another carving, which seemed to depict a tree with flowers on top, with a cleft in the trunk from which something was flowing. There were some obsidian shards set into the stone above the skull, and some channels running through it.
"That's for the rainwater to run away through," said Cammeron, but nobody believed him. Glen cut his hand on the shards, and once his blood had run into the channels he was able to push the skull in. A huge doorway opened up in the cliff.
The tunnel was dark, but in true movie style it had a channel filled with oil along the side, which lit up the tunnel beautifully once lit. A few snakes, spiders and scorpions scurried away across the floor. There was a suggestion of sending someone to scout ahead and check for traps, but then Kajou realised that by lighting the oil he'd made it obvious to anyone that they were there.
They'd been walking down the tunnel for some time when they heard a grating sound as the massive rock door slid closed behind them. Kajou hurried back, and had a look at the inscription on the inside of the door, but all he could make sense of was the last symbol. It clearly represented some kind of Aztec creature, with wings and claws.
With no way back, they could only go on. They emerged from the other end of the tunnel into a tropical paradise. Ahead of them was a flat-topped mountain covered in trees. All around them was lush vegetation. Quetzals and hummingbirds thronged the air and the place was alive with the sound of insects. Sparkling streams ran down the mountain. It was the type of landscape not normally seen outside of Disney cartoons. The only odd note was that part of the mountain top seemed rather bare.
They began ascending the mountain on foot, but were distracted when a huge fire-breathing vulture swooped down from the top of the mountain (incidentally incinerating many insects). Miguel shot it, but it didn't seem to notice. It ignored the scions entirely, and vanished into the tunnel that they'd recently left.
Kajou and Glen decided to investigate by air. On top of the mountain they found a stone temple, with the same insectoid-looking creature carved above the door as Kajou had seen at the end of the inscription. Since the door was open, they flew in.
The first room they came to was round, with a deep gutter running all the way around the edge. They flew over it. They did the same with the second room, a square room with a tiled floor. The third room was round, domed, and had a pool in the middle of it with a trickle of water dripping down from the ceiling. Some stairs led down from the high entrance point to the floor. What the room didn't seem to have was another exit. They went back to fetch the others.
Most people were content to fly or to be carried, but Miguel decided to jump. He jumped straight into the middle of the round room, which wobbled, but stayed put. He jumped out of the room on the other side, and everyone else was flown across that room and room 2.
The third room was more of a poser, but after Kajou had had a quick chat with the pool, several people swam down and discovered the wheel at the bottom which opened up a drain through which they could swim out. Peggy made everyone who needed it able to breathe water with a quick kiss, and off they went.
Through the gap they soon came to an open area where they could climb out of the drain, and after a brief pause while everyone got the water out of their lungs, they continued into a corridor. It was lit with flickering burning torches, and jets of warm air blew from the many gratings in the walls. "Hairdryer," was Kajou's verdict, and indeed they were all dried out by the end of the corridor.
They came to a door. It had hand prints on it, and set into them were shards of obsidian. The symbol of the winged creature was also on the door. Glen used his other hand this time, and as his blood picked out the features of the creature the door swung open.
They found themselves in a courtyard surrounded by high stone walls, which were bedecked with the shrivelled brown remains of vines and creepers. The bleached white skeletons of small birds lay scattered around on the floor. A small pool of water was in the middle of the courtyard and doors led into rooms at the far side. And there, on a stone platform, lay a strange creature bearing some resemblance to the symbols on the doors. She was female, that much was clear. Big black butterfly wings were on her back, and huge eagle claws were on her hands and feet. She jumped up on seeing them.
"Visitors! Oh, how exciting! Xiuhquetzal, come and meet our visitors!"
And from one of the doors came a second creature. This one closely resembled a handsome human, except for the huge golden feathered wings on his back. They'd seen something like that before. The angel Saphrael, who had tricked them in London.
He suggested that she offered them some food, and went to get a plate. She touched the ground at the edge of the courtyard and up grew a cherry tree, a swiss cheese plant and a cactus, all of which came rapidly into fruit. He picked the fruit and put it on the plate, and moments later the plants started to wither and die. He brought the plate over to offer it to them, and she gave him an affectionate pat on the shoulder - which made his skin turn paler.
Some confused conversation went on, but they soon ascertained that the first creature was Itzpapalotl, the obsidian butterfly, and that she was responsible for creating all the strange creatures. Xiuhquetzal suggested she create another one, and she darted off to make some kind of amphibious jellyfish.
With Xiuhquetzal on his own, the scions decided to act, started off by Cammeron stabbing him in the back. He proved difficult to wound, despite being easy to hit due to being very much off his guard, but the scions prevailed and he collapsed dead on the floor.
They were just discussing the viability of cutting out his heart (Cammeron's idea, naturally) when Itzpapalotl came back. She looked at Xiuhquetzal's body, and threw herself to the ground, screaming and crying and thrashing about. Cammeron decided to stab her while she was distracted, but found that his flaming knife did her no damage at all. Instead, he experienced a stab of pain himself.
It seemed that attacking Itzpapalotl, the goddess ruler of Tamoanchan and bringer of life and death, might not be the best plan. She showed no sign of stopping crying though. Kajou went for a look in the room she'd come out of, and found a thing rather like a jellyfish mantle covered in frogskin. Recognising it as the same skin as the giant frog, he decided against licking it, and instead woke up the spirit of the room.
One of the walls developed a face in a very Knightmare kind of way, and explained that she'd only started making the weird monsters after Xiuhquetzal showed up. The current screaming and sobbing was entirely normal and happened every night. Her touch was lethal and she touched Xiuhquetzal a lot in the evenings, but he always got better again the next morning.
Kajou also made an attempt to comfort Itzpapalotl, without success. She refused to stop making monsters so long as Xiuhquetzal wanted her to. Being told that he was Titanspawn only caused a pathetic wail of "But I love him!" And she didn't seem too keen on helping out the gods when none of them liked her and left her all alone in Tamoanchan because of her lethal touch. Kajou thought the gods would probably overlook things like that, under the circumstances, but she didn't seem persuaded. Finally she got up and flapped up to the roof where she lay down and sulked.
After a brief chat about giant frogs, they continued on their way, and soon found something odd. The two-day-old remains of something. They could see big spider legs, and a puma's head and huge bat wings and some scorpion parts, all effectively hacked up. Kajou asked a tree what had happened, and learned that a human had jumped out and attacked the creature while another human had thrown things at it.
Kajou went swinging through the trees again, but stopped in time to avoid hitting a bit cliff. He noticed a carving of a skull on the cliff, which looked like it was perhaps meant to be pushed in. There was also another carving, which seemed to depict a tree with flowers on top, with a cleft in the trunk from which something was flowing. There were some obsidian shards set into the stone above the skull, and some channels running through it.
"That's for the rainwater to run away through," said Cammeron, but nobody believed him. Glen cut his hand on the shards, and once his blood had run into the channels he was able to push the skull in. A huge doorway opened up in the cliff.
The tunnel was dark, but in true movie style it had a channel filled with oil along the side, which lit up the tunnel beautifully once lit. A few snakes, spiders and scorpions scurried away across the floor. There was a suggestion of sending someone to scout ahead and check for traps, but then Kajou realised that by lighting the oil he'd made it obvious to anyone that they were there.
They'd been walking down the tunnel for some time when they heard a grating sound as the massive rock door slid closed behind them. Kajou hurried back, and had a look at the inscription on the inside of the door, but all he could make sense of was the last symbol. It clearly represented some kind of Aztec creature, with wings and claws.
With no way back, they could only go on. They emerged from the other end of the tunnel into a tropical paradise. Ahead of them was a flat-topped mountain covered in trees. All around them was lush vegetation. Quetzals and hummingbirds thronged the air and the place was alive with the sound of insects. Sparkling streams ran down the mountain. It was the type of landscape not normally seen outside of Disney cartoons. The only odd note was that part of the mountain top seemed rather bare.
They began ascending the mountain on foot, but were distracted when a huge fire-breathing vulture swooped down from the top of the mountain (incidentally incinerating many insects). Miguel shot it, but it didn't seem to notice. It ignored the scions entirely, and vanished into the tunnel that they'd recently left.
Kajou and Glen decided to investigate by air. On top of the mountain they found a stone temple, with the same insectoid-looking creature carved above the door as Kajou had seen at the end of the inscription. Since the door was open, they flew in.
The first room they came to was round, with a deep gutter running all the way around the edge. They flew over it. They did the same with the second room, a square room with a tiled floor. The third room was round, domed, and had a pool in the middle of it with a trickle of water dripping down from the ceiling. Some stairs led down from the high entrance point to the floor. What the room didn't seem to have was another exit. They went back to fetch the others.
Most people were content to fly or to be carried, but Miguel decided to jump. He jumped straight into the middle of the round room, which wobbled, but stayed put. He jumped out of the room on the other side, and everyone else was flown across that room and room 2.
The third room was more of a poser, but after Kajou had had a quick chat with the pool, several people swam down and discovered the wheel at the bottom which opened up a drain through which they could swim out. Peggy made everyone who needed it able to breathe water with a quick kiss, and off they went.
Through the gap they soon came to an open area where they could climb out of the drain, and after a brief pause while everyone got the water out of their lungs, they continued into a corridor. It was lit with flickering burning torches, and jets of warm air blew from the many gratings in the walls. "Hairdryer," was Kajou's verdict, and indeed they were all dried out by the end of the corridor.
They came to a door. It had hand prints on it, and set into them were shards of obsidian. The symbol of the winged creature was also on the door. Glen used his other hand this time, and as his blood picked out the features of the creature the door swung open.
They found themselves in a courtyard surrounded by high stone walls, which were bedecked with the shrivelled brown remains of vines and creepers. The bleached white skeletons of small birds lay scattered around on the floor. A small pool of water was in the middle of the courtyard and doors led into rooms at the far side. And there, on a stone platform, lay a strange creature bearing some resemblance to the symbols on the doors. She was female, that much was clear. Big black butterfly wings were on her back, and huge eagle claws were on her hands and feet. She jumped up on seeing them.
"Visitors! Oh, how exciting! Xiuhquetzal, come and meet our visitors!"
And from one of the doors came a second creature. This one closely resembled a handsome human, except for the huge golden feathered wings on his back. They'd seen something like that before. The angel Saphrael, who had tricked them in London.
He suggested that she offered them some food, and went to get a plate. She touched the ground at the edge of the courtyard and up grew a cherry tree, a swiss cheese plant and a cactus, all of which came rapidly into fruit. He picked the fruit and put it on the plate, and moments later the plants started to wither and die. He brought the plate over to offer it to them, and she gave him an affectionate pat on the shoulder - which made his skin turn paler.
Some confused conversation went on, but they soon ascertained that the first creature was Itzpapalotl, the obsidian butterfly, and that she was responsible for creating all the strange creatures. Xiuhquetzal suggested she create another one, and she darted off to make some kind of amphibious jellyfish.
With Xiuhquetzal on his own, the scions decided to act, started off by Cammeron stabbing him in the back. He proved difficult to wound, despite being easy to hit due to being very much off his guard, but the scions prevailed and he collapsed dead on the floor.
They were just discussing the viability of cutting out his heart (Cammeron's idea, naturally) when Itzpapalotl came back. She looked at Xiuhquetzal's body, and threw herself to the ground, screaming and crying and thrashing about. Cammeron decided to stab her while she was distracted, but found that his flaming knife did her no damage at all. Instead, he experienced a stab of pain himself.
It seemed that attacking Itzpapalotl, the goddess ruler of Tamoanchan and bringer of life and death, might not be the best plan. She showed no sign of stopping crying though. Kajou went for a look in the room she'd come out of, and found a thing rather like a jellyfish mantle covered in frogskin. Recognising it as the same skin as the giant frog, he decided against licking it, and instead woke up the spirit of the room.
One of the walls developed a face in a very Knightmare kind of way, and explained that she'd only started making the weird monsters after Xiuhquetzal showed up. The current screaming and sobbing was entirely normal and happened every night. Her touch was lethal and she touched Xiuhquetzal a lot in the evenings, but he always got better again the next morning.
Kajou also made an attempt to comfort Itzpapalotl, without success. She refused to stop making monsters so long as Xiuhquetzal wanted her to. Being told that he was Titanspawn only caused a pathetic wail of "But I love him!" And she didn't seem too keen on helping out the gods when none of them liked her and left her all alone in Tamoanchan because of her lethal touch. Kajou thought the gods would probably overlook things like that, under the circumstances, but she didn't seem persuaded. Finally she got up and flapped up to the roof where she lay down and sulked.