Faces were glistening with sweat in the gathering gloom and firelight. A storyteller reminded the new warriors of good things, but even those good things were now tainted with the reality of the world they now knew. She finished her story by saying:

"I remember when I was still just a little girl, these canyons were full of the blossoms of beautiful plants and the berries of juniper were the color of sunset. My sisters and I would play there beside the streams that ran clear and cool. There was never a fear of any kind of enemy then, in those times. It was still a long time until the sad times and the time of migration. The sad times; that is when the songs-that-are-stories became silent and the mothers had no babies to sing to in the night. Before the silent times. You see, before then, these valleys were all filled with the music of human voices and everything was peaceful." said Sihu, grandmother to the gathered boys. They could not be boys any longer. Their fathers and uncles were dead, fallen in battle, and new warriors were now needed. But she could see in their eyes that they were still just boys and they were not ready to join the Qeleteqe.

Of the three the oldest was Tcivuv-tame, then Kwewe-bous and the youngest, far too young for battle: Tsay-sikya. Upon each of their faces the Black-handed Woman put her mark with her drenched fingers. They were no longer sons and boys; receiving the Nayawa meant they were licensed to kill and to say prayers to the Naked God. When the moon rose the men of the Qeleteqe would come and claim their new warriors. Their mothers were weeping in the shadows.

This was a time of shame and despair: when men slaughtered each other and there was no more peace.

The Black-handed Woman was none-other than Sihu's last surviving sister: Pekyewo. She wore no mask for the ceremony. Masks made for this ceremony were made to look like the face of Pekyewo; wherever the original Black-handed Woman was not available, in distant fortresses. Everywhere the last of The People lived in fortifications built in the shelters of the earth, cliff sides. As she left a dark stain on their faces she said their new warrior names and took from them their boyhood names given by their mothers. She called them from oldest to youngest:

"Deer-fang" as she marked Tcivuv-tame. Then she wiped the scalding darkness on Kwewe-bous and called him: "Wolf-eyes"

But even the callous witch known as the Black-handed Woman hesitated before she burned the dark substance onto the skin of the youngest: Tsay-sikya. Her hesitation let some of it drip from her pinky finger to the earth and there it let a curl of steam where it hit the dust. The other boys made a pained face as the Nayawa scalded their skin and left a mark that would last for many years as stained their flesh, heating painfully as it mixed with the moisture of sweat from the firelight. Then she branded the boy and said his new name:

"Snake-color" she called him. But his name sounded childish and unintimidating. The other two boys, despite the pain of getting marked, tried not to laugh at the little warrior's name. It rhymed with 'yellow-runner' and meant he was a coward and weak and it sounded much like his child-name of Tsay-sikya. The Black-handed Woman had given him a weak name. Then the ceremony was over and they had to leave the comfort of home and wait outside for the warriors of the Qeleteqe to come for their new recruits. When the moon rose they would follow the secret path up the cliff. The boys stood there with their faces cooling and waited.

Snake-color felt a tear break free of his eye and scald his cheek anew. It would be a permanent blemish to his warrior-paint. This made his shame even worse as he stood with the others and waited. He said his first prayer to the Naked God, in his thoughts:

"Dear God, make me strong and brave. I know my people are suffering, but if I am brave enough, strong enough, then I can help end the war. Help me fight so fiercely that I can somehow make the fighting stop. Make me a man. Thank you God. Thank you for hearing my prayer."

The moon began to climb through the canyon's cleft and into the air. Beneath it the secret path to the cliff fortress was lit up and the warriors of the Qeleteqe could be seen moving like shadowy figures. They had spears and bows and daggers made of sharpened bones. Some of them carried axes and others had clubs. So heavily armed that they carried little else but weaponry. These warriors, seen in the firelight that bathed the rocks behind the walls, had faces scowled with violence, to replace their fading Nayawa paint. The leader wore one gold earring, a ring that was gauged into his left ear. The symbol of a temple guard, before the times of strife had escalated. The leader spoke to them slowly and with malice in his voice. He was deadly serious when he said to the boys:

"I am Hawk-smiling. This is my division of the Qeleteqe and tonight we come for warriors from this place: Cricket Village. Who answers this call?"

"I answer." Deer-fang said loudly.

"Me too." Wolf-eyes tried to sound manly, but his voice squeaked.

"I do too." Snake-color, the youngest, said in a voice that betrayed his youthfulness. He was but a child. They all were, but he was obviously too young.

"Is this all the men you have here?" Hawk-smiling was not happy sounding with his new recruits.

"Take them and go, or take me instead." Pekyewo used a charming and feminine voice to make this trade, from the shadows.

"Of course." they were murmuring. The warriors of the Qeleteqe all looked up to behold some vixen; but instead they were greeted with the sight of the original Black-handed Woman stepping forward from the entrance of the cliff house. She stood there in only her shawl, her hands still steaming in fresh Nayawa and dripping the burning substance onto the steps. The warriors gasped in horror at the sight of her face. It was no mask but a ruin of warfare atrocities and a twisted nightmare of violence.

"I think not." Pekyewo laughed witchily. Her cackling and giggling continued as they shuffled their steps away from her and nervously turned and left, taking the boys with them. They could hear the echoes of her real-voice as they fled at a terrified pace, walking with urgency to escape the Black-handed Woman of Cricket Village.

None of them had the courage to take that woman, so they had accepted their recruits instead. Hawk-smiling grunted at the shame of his men, fleeing from a woman who had offered herself to them, but could say nothing. He had felt the most fear of all: as the first among them.

The boys did not understand what their great aunt had done. She had found it funny somehow, so it must have been a joke. So they were smiling. They all had seen her enough times to have grown accustomed to her ruined face, although in the firelight and when she scowled she could still frighten them. They walked at the pace of the grown men with longer legs and the boys struggled to keep this pace. Back down the moonlit path and out of the canyon they went with their new brothers of the Qeleteqe.

Hissing and rattling, Brother-snake was coiled and they all stopped. The warriors had no animal friends. War had corrupted their spirits. A rattlesnake barred the path up ahead and Hawk-smiling told Wolf-eyes to fight it. Obeying orders Wolf-eyes threw rocks at the serpent until it fled the rain of stones. Wolf-eyes felt shame at hurling stones at Brother-snake, but he knew he had to do whatever was commanded by the leader of the Qeleteqe.

"Very good. No enemy must stand in your way, boy." Hawk-smiling put one hand on Wolf-eyes's shoulder and assured him. His feelings about the animal changed and Wolf-eyes looked proud in the setting moonlight. He easily could have killed it, but driving away the rattlesnake was enough.

For the rest of the night they continued to walk until they reached a silent and mournful kiva. Here were the supplies and the encampment of the entire Qeleteqe. Warriors from two more divisions were gathered. All together they formed an army of over sixty warriors. There were new recruits in the other divisions from other nearby places: Juniper Village and Grasshopper-creek Village. Hawk-smiling said to his new warriors:

"We once numbered in ten times this amount. But we have fought to the last of us, and this is all that still stand against the awful priests of the Sun God. No desert deity smiles on our clans and no true god smiles upon theirs. Blood will continue to drench the desert sands and the fertile canyons until only one way remains."

"What does this mean?" Wolf-eyes felt bold enough to ask.

His question was met by silence until another man spoke up. He was not of the Qeleteqe and he was not even of The People. He was tall and in the morning sunrise his shadow was even taller from where he stood atop the beams over the pithouse near the abandoned kiva. He therefore cast his shadow over the gathered Qeleteqe, quite deliberately. They could see he had the feathers and the robes of a priest of a nomadic tribe called the Pocoteli.

The Pocoteli were well known to those of The People whom had left the old ways of the Sun God and now lived outside the laws of the desert. The strange people, the Pocoteli, had come for a long time before the strife began. They were traders from far to the south that brought gold and goods and also the Naked God. They had given the Naked God to a man called Hoota. He was now a prisoner of the old priests of the Sun God. The priests of the Sun God dared not execute Hoota or release him as long as the Qeleteqe was still banded. It would bring the old ways crashing down if they made a martyr of Hoota.

With his arms outstretched to extend the darkness against the rising sun he said to those in his shadow:

"The Naked God is here and now is the time to rise up and take back what belongs to everyone. No more will the old ways obfuscate the truth and oppress The People. All of the land will be green and verdant when the desert deity dies with the last of the old priests of the old religion. Let this day be the one where your sacrifices bring forth the new and powerful Naked God!"

The warriors thrust their weapons up into the rising sunlight. Then they followed Hoota's second-in-command, a man who now commanded the entire Qeleteqe. His name was Little-light and he introduced himself to the new recruits brought from three different villages to this place. Then he introduced the Pocoteli priest of the Naked God as Mentiroso. He had with him several of his Pocoteli friends. They all wanted to see Hoota rescued and the priests of the Sun God destroyed. It was explained that they were devoted to the Naked God and had given their faith to Hoota who had spread it to many villages in the early days of the drought. Now Hoota was a prisoner of the priests of the Sun God.

"In the House Of The Sun. The kiva of the Sun God. A pilgrimage has begun and we shall go there as well." Little-light told all of his warriors.

They set out and found one of the many roads by afternoon under the terrible heat. It was as if the Sun God were trying to kill them with high temperatures. The boys were very thirsty and Hawk-smiling told them they could go into the canyon nearby to find water. They were given water-skins to fill and they had to carry them back full of water for the other warriors.

"I will kill any pilgrims of the Sun God with my spear." Deer-fang told the other two. Only he had a weapon, the other two had to carry the water skins back full. The shade was cool and they soon found a stream there.

Snake-color, the youngest, had set eyes on someone bathing in the water while the other two did not notice. She was very beautiful and had white blossoms in her hair. She looked up and froze in terror at the sight of three Nayawa covered faces. She was alone, nude and defenseless. Somehow this made her a shimmering beauty to Snake-color. In his heart he felt far more terror at the sight of her. He thought she must be a nameless goddess he had heard stories of.

They talked of their own bravery as they filled the water skins, but then they looked up at the sound of a splash. She had retreated unseen by the other warriors.

"What was that?" Wolf-eyes had thought he had seen a nude girl disappear into the bushes.

"Someone bathing?" Deer-fang wondered also.

"A spirit." Snake-color stood there and said, the flash of his eyes startling the other two as they looked at the youngest warrior. He was not known to say things that were mistakes and so they took his word and made no pursuit or investigation.

They took the water-skins with them but Snake-color looked back and saw her watching from where she hid. Their eyes met across the stream and it felt like that instant lasted for a very long time. Snake-color did not want to look away from her gaze. He felt strong and brave as she stared at him. Her fear had become something else as she heard him and saw the warriors leave. He had raised her spirit and now her eyes flashed in a startling way. Then the moment was over and he had to leave her and follow the others away.

When they reached the top of the bluff there was dust and screaming. Some pilgrims were caught and being slaughtered by the warriors. The boys stood and watched in horror. Wolf-eyes fell to his knees and wretched into the dust. All around the warriors straddled their victims. They were punching them, strangling them and smashing in their heads with rocks. All around there were many dead bodies with arrows and spears in them.

The last of the pilgrims was held to his feet by Hawk-smiling with a shard dagger to his throat. He slit the man's throat then and blood sprayed all over the place. Then the violence was over. The Qeleteqe had found these men and women and children and killed all of them.

Deer-fang stood with his mouth open. He had peed all over himself in terror at the sight of carnage. Never had they seen such a thing. All the killing was so vicious and ruthless and happening like it could not be stopped. This all was observed by Snake-color but he did not react except to pray again to the Naked God, quietly in his thoughts and muttering:

"Dear God, so this is battle? I do not like it. There is no strength and no bravery. Instead you showed me something just a little while ago and I felt strength and bravery then. But is this what you really want? I am doubtful. Show me again what you showed me before and take this from my sight. I know I am a man now, but what are you, my God? What are you? Thank you, I guess. Yes, thank you, though."

"Deer-fang, that woman there is not dead. Use your spear and kill her the rest of the way." Hawk-smiling told one of his new warriors. There was no obedience. The boy just stood there trembling. He dropped his spear. Hawk-smiling grabbed the crawling wounded one by her hair and slit her throat and her blood shot out and covered each of the boys in red.

Wolf-eyes was crying and said:

"I want to go back to my mother!"

"You are not going to do that. You boys are not ready for this, but you will be soon enough." Hawk-smiling promised. He walked over to them and smeared more blood on them. Only Snake-color didn't flinch.

"I am ready to be a warrior and kill." he said.

"See? Very good. The little boy is ready. You older boys should be more like he is. You deserve his name instead." Hawk-smiling admonished them.

"I wasn't finished talking." Snake-color looked up and met the warrior's cold eyes.

"Oh?"

"I will kill for the Naked God but I see no reason to murder women and children. I will fight warriors who stand against my god. But there is no reason to kill these kind. These are still of The People and they were innocent."

"No. You are wrong. These are the enemy and this is how our war is being fought. You imagine battlefields with warriors bravely dancing but war is about fear. Fear of supporting the wrong god. This is to end that god and bring about peace and fertility. The rain will come and the drought will end forever if the Naked God stands without the rivalry of the Sun God. It is the heat of the sun, the orb of the Sun God, that is killing us all."

"Then take some of the water we have brought." Snake-color was strangely calm. The other warriors were of the new recruits and shocked by the brutality of the massacre or of the veteran Qeleteqe and panting with the exertions of murder. Only Snake-color was calm, among all of them.

It was time to leave the dead there and continue to the nearby pithouse of Charcoal Village. But before they left Hawk-smiling and his warriors stopped to see a warrior being admonished by Little-light:

"What have you done? You stole turquoise and Ooqey and precious offerings they carried to the Sun God? These things must be left on them."

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"I only took stuff that is valuable. They are dead and they don't need it."

"You stole from them! That is not what we meant to do. Leave all of that stuff!"

And so nothing was taken from the dead. Apparently it was wrong to steal any of their offerings the dead carried to their god. Murder was justifiable but not theft. The purpose of the killing was not to rob them and so there had to be a difference. And the difference was made clear by Little-light. In his anger he walked over and kicked all of the things that were stolen out of the warrior's hands and it all went everywhere and landed back on the ground where it belonged.

At sunset the band of warriors approached Charcoal Village. There was music and dancing as they arrived and nobody saw the warriors surround the place and wait in the darkness watching and awaiting orders.

It was a wedding.

Snake-color's eyes flashed in the sunset and firelight at the sight of the girl he had seen bathing earlier. So the Naked God had listened and now he saw her again. She was standing like an offering dressed all in blossoms of white and the petals of flowers and the silver grass woven into her skirt. Her long hair was being braided to the rope of the wedding pole to be cut free by the groom. The groom was across the fire from her and he looked handsome and nervous. She was smiling at him with such a wondrous gaze it made Snake-color feel even more proud of her. She was so brave and beautiful and he loved her without hesitation. His heart swelled with pride as he remembered she had seen him and loved him. And this was her, a girl of such strength and beauty that everyone could see and she had loved him back. Snake-color felt very proud as he watched the wedding.

Dancers and musicians filled the night with a joyful sound and scene. Then Snake-color felt a kind of awful dread inside and he realized they were The People but the wrong kind, they were ones who still worshiped the Sun God. The girl had a necklace of the gold disc of the Sun God and so did her groom. When the Qeleteqe were ready, would they kill all of these too?

Horror was felt by Snake-color. He himself was part of the Qeleteqe and these were his enemies. Then the moment of celebration and peaceful gathering was finally interrupted. Little-light and Hawk-smiling and the other warriors showed themselves. The music stopped and so did the dancing. At first, in the silence, nothing happened.

Warriors started to eat some of the food and stare at all the beautiful women. Snake-color could not bear to see what he thought was going to happen and he stepped forward as well, between the bride and Little-light.

"Don't harm her!" Snake-color stood in defiance. Then he felt the powerful grip of the warrior's hand on his neck lifting him.

"Stop!" the bride ordered, her voice a trembling sonnet of fear. She did love Snake-color and he could hear it in her vocalization, loud and immediate. There was silence then. Everyone was watching this central thing unfold itself.

"You tell me this? To stop?" Little-light looked at the girl, the bride of this wedding and then said:

"I was going to let everyone here live, I thought. This is a confused place in a confusing time. Should some of you join the Naked God and abandon the Sun God? We are not savages. We have just cause." Little-light insisted, still holding the boy in the air with one hand gripping the neck. He sounded sincerely defensive. He really didn't want her to think he and his Qeleteqe were savages and moreover the guests of the wedding and the residents of Charcoal Village.

"Then that is how it should be." she begged the powerful warrior. Now she sounded insistent but submissive. She was helpless to do anything but speak.

"Oh?"

"I am the daughter of the high priest. This union should make this into a village of the Sun God. They pray not one way or the other. Show mercy, show the strength of the Naked God by showing mercy." she spoke up and at these words there was a lowering of the young warrior he held up with just one strong arm's grip. He was still choking him inches above the ground.

Little-light made a commanding gesture to lower weapons and step away and all of his warriors did that; vanishing out of sight and back into the night. All except Hawk-smiling who had his shard dagger to the throat of the groom. The young man had yet to speak but his spirit insisted he do so and he said:

"Don't harm her, she is Taalawa. You might harm me and free her of her pact, but do not cut her hair!" he spoke, despite the bite of the blade.

"Don't say that Koongya!" the bride, Taalawa cried out to her groom. He looked deep into her eyes with love, knowing his words had cost him his life.

Then Hawk-smiling slit his throat and his blood did mistily gush out. His body fell and the smell of blood met Snake-color's nostrils. Little-light laughed and dropped the choked boy to the ground. Then it went dark for Snake-color.

He awoke some moments later to all sorts of wailing and cries of anguish at the slaughter of the groom. His body lay nearby.

"What have you done?" Taalawa was screaming. Her voice was hoarse. She could say nothing else over and over. Her weeping and tears wet her face and it was like when she had first turned and saw Snake-color at the stream. But that is not where they were anymore.

Little-light wrapped his arms around her, holding her. Then without ceremony Hawk-smiling walked to her and cut her hair with the same blade. For a moment the horror of what they were doing to her silenced all of the wedding guests. Only the sound of the sharp object sawing through her hair and the wedding rope that braided it to the pole. Then the shrieks of horror of the women screaming at them to stop their brutality.

Hawk-smiling finished cutting her hair and she struggled free of Little-light and went to her fallen groom. For another moment she knelt by him, trembling hands reaching out to touch his remains that lay dead on the ground.

"You killed him!" she protested, glaring up at Hawk-smiling. He and Little-light just stood there by the wedding pole. They both realized they might have gotten a little carried away.

"Get her, she is coming with us." Little-light noticed the young warrior, Snake-color getting to his feet shakily. Then they too vanished into the darkness around Charcoal Village with the rest of the Qeleteqe. Snake-color had no choice but the make her a captive. He walked to her reluctantly and touched her shoulder. She was sobbing and crying as somehow a maiden and a widow at the same time.

"Come on. You are a hostage now. You have to come with me." Snake-color said to her. There was very little force in his young voice. She looked up to him and this time she saw him as her enemy. The love was gone.

Snake-color felt his heart break. He offered her his hand and she took it and got to her feet. She was taller than him and looked down. Their eye-contact was locked and they were saying something to each other silently. Everyone saw this but knew not what it could be that they were saying.

Taalawa followed her captor to the waiting warriors and they continued their march to the House of the Sun where her father would not be pleased to see her among his enemies. She was a precious hostage and with her they could make an exchange of prisoners. The question was, would this work? Was she worth Hoota to the priests?

Snake-color prayed again as they walked:

"Dear God, you have put her in my care and by my side somehow, but it is horrible, now she hates me and she is among enemies. I was there when they killed her new husband and then they cut her hair. Why is this happening? I am happy she is with me but the circumstances are as terrible as they can be. Why God? I mean to say thank you, so I guess I will: thank you."

As the sun rose above the distant hills they were nearing the House of the Sun God.

"Will the war soon end? Will there be peace? Maybe that is what I should have prayed for." Snake-color thought. He was very tired. The Qeleteqe stopped in an arroyo and rested there out of sight. Taalawa slept by his side and sometimes sobbed and sniffled in her sleep. Snake-color watched this and eventually he too fell asleep, surrounded by all of his brothers: her enemies.

They shared a dream that night. In this dream:

Alone they stood ankle deep in a stream of cold water. Birds flew around them in a swirl. They turned around and each other were there. Then they played in the water, laughing and splashing. They became the birds and flew away. In a distant and verdant place they stood side by side and many of The People were there. A hole opened up in the sky, which was like a cliff wall, it looked natural and fertile, like a belly-button. Sorta a naval of the whole world. The People each held the hand of another person and together the couples jumped merrily into the hole. Taalawa asked her companion:

"What is your name?"

"Tsay-sikya." Snake-color told her.

The girl was then suddenly dressed as a bride again, her hair long and braided and with white blossoms. She laughed and smiled and her eyes flashed and then she leaned down and kissed the boy's forehead.

"I love you Tsay-sikya. Together?"

"Yes" he agreed and they took each other's hand and ran to the hole-in-the-world and jumped through it together. They both looked back and saw the world behind them was entirely dead, none of The People remained. They were in a new world and there was no sun, just warmth and there was certainly no war because there was no Naked God.

Then Snake-color awoke and saw her staring at him. She whispered in the early light of dawn:

"I had a strange dream. Is your name Sikya?"

"Tsay-sikya." he whispered back to her.

Then Taalawa sat up a little bit and leaned over him and gently kissed him on the lips. It sent a strange feeling through him. He felt loved again but this time it was not a proud feeling, it was a sad feeling. A kind of happy feeling that was lined on the edges with profound sadness.

The sun was rising and all the warriors were well rested and as they got up they looked upon their prisoner with unmasked lust and hatred. But they could not harm her, she was an important hostage and Little-light had need for her so they could trade her for Hoota. She was safe among such cruel warriors. Only Snake-color was trusted with guarding her. He was obviously in-love with her.

And the cruelest thing was to make him her enemy. He could not set her free but had to be the one to walk behind her as they marched. Under the hot burning orb they walked directly across the desert until they found another pilgrim road much closer to the House of the Sun.

Then the Qeleteqe stopped and took up hidden positions as a scout signaled that someone was on the road ahead. Many of The People were walking slowly and Snake-color left Taalawa in the shade of a big rock. He climbed it enough to see over and beheld these ones:

They walked with grim slowness and many of them wore only rags and sorrowful faces. Some had dried wounds and others broken limbs and burns. All were victims and refugees and they had covered themselves in dust and ashes. They were walking the road and leaving the lands of The People.

"Not again." Snake-color worried that another massacre would befall these poor wretched wanderers. But instead the Qeleteqe hid and many of the warriors covered their eyes or their ears, as though afraid of these of The People.

"We don't attack?" Snake-color dared ask, relief evident in his voice. Hawk-smiling had his back turned to the walking crowd as they shuffled past hidden death-dealers.

"Ghost Folk" Hawk-smiling said quietly and then he shuddered in fear.

Snake-color took another glance and felt a chill of dread at the awful sight of them. They were alive but not one warrior anticipated killing them. They were free to escape and migrate away. No harm would come to the Ghost Folk; whom had safe passage to leave all the horrors they had experienced behind them. It didn't matter what god they had prayed to. They walked away from it all.

That afternoon the Qeleteqe reached the House Of The Sun. The place was built of many houses and rooms in the shape of a rising sun and had served as the capital of The People and was where the priests lived.

For nearly a thousand years, it had stood countless droughts, many worse than this one.

But Hoota had taken power from the Sun God when he spoke words to so many rural villages on behalf of the Naked God. A foreign deity that promised no more Sun Priests and that fertile seasons would come always. This had begun the early troubles and those had escalated into warfare. Now many of The People lived in fortified cliff dwellings in canyons guarded by towers and watched over by either god.

It seemed that nobody was in the House Of The Sun. The Qeleteqe wandered around unchallenged until they found just one warrior waiting for them on the road towards the sunrise. Of course, the Sun-dagger Temple would be the final refuge of the priests.

He stood alone with a stone club, an Omaha. He had his earring of gold like the one worn by Hawk-smiling. A gold ring gauged into his left ear.

Taalawa was standing before all of the warriors, refreshed with some water as they all were. Dark rings under her eyes shown she was feeling ill from the strenuous journey and heat and dehydration.

"I am going to go with him, he is Clouded-might. None of you can beat him in a warrior's duel and what honor would you have if many of you fought him together? See how brave he is to stand alone and claim me? You would be cowards and the Naked God would not listen to your prayers if you did not fight him one of you at a time." Taalawa held her hands up and said these words loudly to all of the Qeleteqe. They shuffled their feet nervously. Not one of them wanted to fight Clouded-might and so she simply walked from them to him.

"She is right and also I am the temple guardian and I stand in your path. The same thing will happen and you cannot go past me as long as I stand here." Clouded-might told the many warriors.

"I will fight him." Hawk-smiling said, knowing he must or he would no longer be first among his warriors.

"So the traitor will be the first to die." Clouded-might chuckled. He had seen Hawk-smiling and recognized the temple guard that had become a believer in the Naked God.

They fought a violent duel and soon Clouded-might had beaten Hawk-smiling to the ground. He did not spare the life of the fallen warrior and raised the Omaha for a killing blow. Hawk-smiling let out a terrified scream and then it was over. His head was smashed by the heavy club.

"Is there not one among you who can fight me now?" Clouded-might pretended that his wounds were painful and that he was tired.

Two warriors suddenly rushed at him at once and he killed them both as they reached him. Then another tried to run at him while letting out a warcry. Clouded-might picked up the spear and threw it heartily into the crowd of warriors where it found a home in someone's leg and went clean through.

"I have courage!" Deer-fang charged with his spear aimed at Clouded-might. He died with that courage frozen on his face.

"Who can fight me? Are you all just boys? I see Nayawa but not one warrior with courage!"

This time it was three warriors that came at him and in a blurry dance he struck them each aside and as they lay gripping broken parts he showed them no mercy, raising his bloodied club in a death blow for each of them.

"You die!" one of the leaders of a division of the Qeleteqe, named Scorpion-star, shouted as he fired an arrow into Clouded-might's leg in retaliation for the spear he had thrown. Then he sent five warriors to finish the lone temple guard.

They charged at him and cut him with their spear points, adding to his wounds left by Hawk-smiling's shard dagger. There was dust and sprays of blood as he surprised them with the same shard dagger and slashed open a wrist and kicked dust into another's face. He struck one alongside his head and that warrior staggered away. He had taken a spear and spun it around and knocked one from his feet. He clubbed that one in the same movement. Then they stabbed him with their spears.

Grunting in pain the big warrior still held the fight and crushed another skull. He picked up the shard dagger and as one of those five warriors tried to stab Clouded-might again he threw it and stuck it onto the eye of his enemy. He took the spear and turned with it and put it into the next warrior. Then he smashed the other that he had injured and followed the staggering and stunned warrior and split his skull from behind.

Clouded-might had many wounds but he stood there still.

"I will fight you now." Scorpion-star walked boldly to go and fight the panting lone warrior who dripped blood from many wounds. Then he too was struck down.

The warrior with the spear through his leg was crying out and moaning horribly. It was the only sound as everyone stood there unsure what to do. Little-light became frustrated and went and killed his own warrior with an ax to silence him.

"Someone slay that warrior." Little-light commanded and pointed at their enemy. He stared down each member of the Qeleteqe until only Wolf-eyes met his gaze. The boy picked up a stone and walked close to their enemy.

"Is it you that finishes this? You are just a boy! Send me a warrior!" Clouded-might bellowed.

Wolf-eyes felt only a little bit of fear as he prayed in his thoughts:

"You, God, see me standing alone before this terrible warrior. I have thrown a thousand stones that hit their mark. Only when I meant no harm was no harm ever done. Dear God, make my aim as true as my courage as I stand here. Thank you, God."

"What do you wait for?" Clouded-might asked his only willing foe left among the Qeleteqe.

"No enemy will stand in my way." he recalled with words he spoke and with sincere accuracy he threw just one stone which struck Clouded-might in his forehead.

The warrior fell backwards and died with sunlight in his eyes and golden left earlobe.

It was at that moment that the Qeleteqe looked up and around for their prize but she was gone. Somehow during all of the fighting she had fled. Only Snake-color had seen her go back into the House Of The Sun. It was in vain that they searched all around for her and found no trail of her. She had doubled back and hidden herself very well.

The remaining warriors regrouped and were about to leave after an entire day was gone searching for her.

Snake-color had deserted the Qeleteqe during the scattered search and when they left to go to the Sun-dagger Temple. Surely they would find the priests there and kill them all and rescue Hoota. Or maybe something else would happen. Snake-color did not care. He was tired of war and wanted to find Taalawa.

He took a bow and some arrows from where Scorpion-star had left the weapon and also his own spear. He knew that with the Nayawa he must be armed or die whenever he was seen by any enemies. But he had abandoned war. He doubted that the Naked God cared.

Wandering the halls of the great place, that had once held many festivals and thousands of The People, he felt very alone and afraid. Darkness and echoes were all that remained. For days he explored the derelict House Of The Sun and eventually he gave up finding her there.

A light shone at night atop the cliffs of Sunlight Canyon where all pilgrim roads led. No more tribute came here, but perhaps the Sun Priests were not so long gone?

Someone had the brazen stance to remain overlooking the place.

And so he thought that Taalawa had gone to the lights up there. And he made the ascent up steep paths. When at last he came there he found strangely dried up dead bodies posed and decorated as Pocoteli upon pallets that sat overlooking the House of the Sun below. The mummies were very old and shriveled and sat with empty staring eye sockets. The voice Snake-color had heard when he started his journey spoke from aside where he hadn't noticed him there:

"They are living-ancestors. They will live here with us and the Pocoteli will have their home here. A home for us, a wandering tribe from so far away. Now we have our very own land, as the Naked God promised us." Mentiroso was sitting there. A red and green bird was on his shoulder. It spoke too:

"Where are the Sun Priests?" the bird asked. "Parrot want an eye. Give pretty parrot an eye. An ear?"

"Your bird speaks?" Snake-color sounded amused. He almost forgot the creepy ancestor-mummies.

"He does. Parrot speaks the words he heard when I met my new bride." Mentiroso smiled back, bemused at the attention towards his colorful bird.

"New bride?" Snake-color looked around and saw that the curtain of the pithouse was drawn. His dry throat suddenly choked him. A dreadful feeling was gnawing at him. A very bad feeling.

"She was very beautiful."

"Was?"

"Just a moment, I will show her to you as she is, joined with the Pocoteli." Mentiroso left the bird there and stood with eagerness. He skipped to the pithouse and went inside.

"She was." the bird said. It didn't seem amusing anymore.

Then there stood Mentiroso and he stood in hideous glory shouting the kind of prayer that the Naked God really heard. He wore a strange new costume of a stretched hide as a robe and a crown of amaranth and a mask of another human's face.

"All for you, my lord, Yacatecutli! We, no longer of the Pochtecas, were cast out again and again and now we have come at last to our great home! Thank you for this that is now ours!" the priest of the Naked God danced as he shouted this prayer with wild eyes. He held the leg bones in his hands and shook them as scepters with many strips of colorfully dyed leather, feathers and golden bells.

Snake-color stared unblinking at this spectacle of horror; seeing that Mentiroso was quite mad. Bile and rage welled up inside him as the horror of the moment beat in his heart like a drum. He stared directly at what Mentiroso was now wearing.

He was wearing her skin.

Without any further hesitation Snake-color aimed the bow and shot an arrow into him. Then another arrow and another. The priest was still moving until the spear was pushed downward into him. Then he was as dead as his ancestor mummies.

He untethered the bird and it flew away saying:

"All for you! Thank you!"