GrrRkkrKrk

A gravelly rumble permeated through the cavernous tunnels.

“MOM…..MOM”

T’udze’s squeaks reverberated through the winding shafts.

“Mommy the ground is mad!”

The earth roared once again, its deep treble twisting the child’s nerves, tying his throat into a noose.

His pale fingers reached for his mother’s comforting grasp, her arm recoiled at the thought, pulling away, hiding from his searching hand.

“Mo-”

His mutter cut short.

“Asivisuit.”

She yelled, interrupting the pleading child as she leered at him from the corner of her eye.

“Asivisuit!!!”

Her annoyed cries coalesced with the grating tremors of the quivering ground.

T’udze’s mom shared the snowy complexion with her young son, but unlike his scarlet eyes; her irises were like the cold oceans of sapphire of Vanatuk and her hair instead of milky white was golden like the morning sun.

She wore a seal skin tunic, covered with polar bear hide.

The coats concealing her gestating child.

Her gaze jolted away fixing itself at their chamber’s entrance.

It was a dour sight, the tiles across the floor had become brittle from the years of tremors.

The ceiling and walls had caved from the the dirt they desperately held at bay.

CLOMP

CLOMP

CLOMP.

A series of running steps answered back, rising in clarity and volume, closing in towards her cries.

“Galina…”

A deep resonant voice answered, between the galloping steps.

“GALINA!”

The steps drew closer, growing faster.

“Alexi my love… please control….your…son.”

She pleaded, cradling her belly with one arm as she leaned into the dusty stone table, relieving her weight against it.

A lean muscular man turned swiftly into their chamber.

With a complexion was much like the rest of his people, a light shade of olive and his straight black hair was kept short.

His clothing similar to his pregnant wives, but more practical.

A hunters uniform, tight and fitted with belts and traps for his trade.

“Come on Asedatzin, you know better than to stress mommy.”

Asivisuit plucked the young boy by his arm, tossing over and securing him over his shoulders.

“Sit down honey-”

He reached out to attempt to comfort his wife.

“Why is the boy still here?”

Galina snarled pulling her arm from his loving caress.

“We agreed you’d take him along when he was old enough.”

Her husband’s face shifted into a stern visage, shaking his head and lifting the boy off his shoulders, lowering him gently over unto his dusty feet.

“Heeeey buddy, can you go get daddy’s Gemite for his big mission?”

He asked T’udze.

An ear-long grin filled the boy’s face.

“ I get to go along with you dad?”

He yelped.

His father smiled, staring at his son’s pallid face, trying to restrain his tears.

“We’ll see bud.”

The young boy sprinted off his father’s feet, towards the dim hallways.

“He’s too young for the harvests, just give him over Gali.”

Asivisuit tried convincing his wife.

“YO-

We cant protect him forever Alexi, the boy needs to either learn or…”

“He will, he just needs more time.”

His fathers almost eyes held back his tears at the thought.

“…It bleeds water…”

With eyes closed, T’udze’s mind imitated his father’s warm voice.

“Asedat, connect with the memories of our ancestors.”

Even the way he inflected his pet name: Asedat.

How that made his face stiffen and flare.

The memory alone flustered his pale white cheeks to match his blood-tinted eyes.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Much like the stone pipes before him, only that instead of flushing red, the cylinders blushed with a humid and icy blue aura.

Creeping his fingers along the wide tubes that jotted across, from one wall of the echoing chamber to the other.

Arching along the ceiling’s convex, then curving into a cistern chiseled from the bedrock of cobalt gemite.

The stone’s intricate etchings ran across its length, like embroidery on the cloaks of the elder shamans.

Pulling his fur sleeves up, T’udze slyly traced the engraved symbols.

Memorizing every groove and curve decorating its polished surface.

He was careful to not press hard on the crude twig brush, as he painted them on a tattered piece of cloth; Its yellowing threads rank of odorous mollusk ink.

“T’udze that stinks.”

A young girl complained behind his hunched frame.

His classmates chattered, as the last group of children entered the sacred chamber.

T’udze turned his face, scouting the underground room.

His class had their usual beige furs, coats, and caps.

Their olive skin stood out compared to his snow complexion.

That’s everyone?

He pondered.

Never had he seen such a sparse initiation.

Hardly a quarter of the room had filled.

Drip

drip

Condensation of the fuming energy trickled from the marble cylinders, and failed to create even a puddle at the bottom of the carved basin.

Before the pristine waters that filled the cistern, stood rows of his classmates waiting for the ceremony to commence.

He shrugged turning back to continue his illustrations.

“T’udze-ELFAE is trying to lick the rocks again!”

A boy with frosted eyes and a light tan complexion yelped.

“HEHEHEHE!”

The surrounding children standing not far behind T’udze broke into laughter.

Pressing the point of his painting twig firmly, he maintained focus on his scribbles isolating him from the noise.

T’udze buried his head deeper within his thoughts.

“Salbator! Back to your place!’”

The elderly Yunuen ordered.

Her white robe was rife with stones of jade and obsidian.

Colorful lined patterns decorated her flowing garments.

Its wide sleeves concealed the hefty stone cane she leaned her injured leg against.

Her wrinkly eyes leered at the chuckling class.

Faster than their squeaking laughter started, they found themselves back in formation.

Gently she rested her cane next to T’udze’s buried face.

As the boy’s red eyes gazed back up at her, Yunuen raised her eyebrows in frustrated admiration, cocking her head to the rows of children.

“Yes, Tlamatzaline.”

Dragging the fur cuffs down to his wrists.

He slid his writing sticks inside the pockets of his light brown pelt.

“Forgetting something Asedatzin.”

She looked down at the gloves and clam stuffed with paint strewn about.

Swift as a rodent, the boy collected his things and proceeded to search for his spot among the lined-up children, finally slipping into his usual front row next to the instructor.

Looking around he had never seen so many classes in one instance, there were fewer and fewer mystics, to the point where the selection had been reduced to one ceremony a year.

Gathered in the temple of Sedniniq, were more children mutates than he’d ever seen, and even more of them as adults than he could conceive of.

The elders had lined against the three walkways framing the drying pool.

In their ceremonial robes, clad with tassels of muted blue and red, they turned to face the cistern’s pulsating glyphs.

The enchanted walls resonated with the chanting elders;

As their synchronous whistles and hums emulated the long purring cries of pods in the deep.

RUMBLE

RUMBLE

Groans shook the ground.

With their heightening song, the staccato of the glowing scriptures intensified.

Flowing from one end to the next, the blue shimmer rushed along the pipes in waves, from the ceiling and wall down into the reservoir.

“ow oW OW!”

T’udze’s palms raced to his ears.

Huff huff huff

His chest began feeling heavy.

Arm and face muscles jerked in response to the tremors.

“STOP!”

He screamed, struggling to stay calm.

The old crone placed her hand over his white tuft.

Drip

drip

drip

A drizzle joined into the symphony.

Growing in volume as the pipes began gushing into the cistern’s bowl.

The tribe’s once vacant well roared as the cascading waters fell from the weeping cylinders, crashing into the crater.

Their wailing cries coalesced into the center of the room, forming a translucent orb above the rising pool.

An ethereal light emanated from the center of the resounding sphere, and a solid white energy grew within.

Morphing from a glowing egg into the embryonic silhouette of a celestial whale.

WHIIIR-RRR-

The pulsating glyphs began stuttering, choking on their own mana.

Sputtering the flow of water, into a mere trickle.

Babble

babble

The teachers and elders glanced at each with confused stares.

“What…?

Why…?”

They mumbled.

“Let’s get on with the test while I’m still walking please.”

T’udze’s instructor reigned their attention back to the initiating students.

“We can discuss this after our young mystics have been evaluated.”

Thump

The Tlamatzal swung her cane, tapping the chief’s shins.

Snapping him out of his concern.

“Asivisuit…Get on with it boy!”

Yunuen continued to instruct.

Her eyes leered at the hesitant chief.

“Elders of the Vanatuk,”

Asivisuit greeting his people.

“Masters of the mysteries, and to our young tiguak, whose time has finally come.”

The chief Swimming in the pelt of an Ottuga whale, its voluminous fur draped over his leather tunic, obscuring the mosaic of patches painting its rigid surface.

“Here we have the future of Vanatuk.”

His arm directed the onlookers toward the younglings.

“We hold with the keys for a future in which we once again flourish on the surface, where we can bask in the radiant sun as our ancestors could.”

Turning his sight towards the chamber’s shattered archway at the end of the room.

“Bring in the Aspenktis!”

Commanding his guard to step forth, carrying with them the gemite relic.

Two soldiers in ornate uniforms marched forth toward the chief’s altar nearing the pool’s edge.

Their faces were painted in red and white lines; in honor of the animal spirits of Vanatuk.

Between them, a small tray carried a granite chest, the handles held firmly in their grip.

In file, they paced, until kneeling before Asivisuit and delivering the precious cargo.

The chief slid the lid off the crystal box, revealing a tucked sphere snuggled atop a fur bed of arctic fox.

Reaching under the pelt, he scooped the orb beneath the thick skin.

Asivisuit flesh ignited the follicles, enveloping the orb within its pulsating mana.

Closing the chest, the soldiers moved along behind their leader.

Lifting the orb mid-air the chief continued.

“We present these graduates with the heart of Mareaqoa. May its pure waves nurture your souls, and reveal your destiny.”

With closed eyes, his head made a slight bow to the relic.

“Your first graduate Master Yunuen-”

He asked the elderly woman.

“Miss Yunuen”

she corrected.

“Go on Salbator, it’s your big moment.”

Her eyes widened as she smirked, tapping her cane.

Coming off the first row Salbator walked up to the altar.

“Salbator-hahahaha. My boy, I think everyone here agrees that you pass.”

HAHAHA

The adults around the room chuckled at the notion.

“Go on with the elder you chose.”

Asivisuit dismissed.

“EVERY graduate requires examination without exceptions, waivers, or stipulations Chief Asivisuit.”

Yunuen reaffirmed.

“Whomever

they

may

be.”

The chief’s usual charisma vanished before his serious stare.

“Recent….decrees of great Tlatoani Moctezoma, have deemed individuals of certain… pedigrees…um…pre…ordained.”

His breathy tone recited.

“I’m sure you understand Tlamatzaline.”

The woman rolled her eyes and shrugged.

Her twisted mouth painted her discontent.

“Proceed Salbatzin.”

She waved her shaking fingers, her clear distaste written all over her face.

“Lucky”

“That’s not fair.”

“No way!”

The other children complained.

“Who’s next?”

The chief looked at the kids’ disappointed faces.

“Tuliqq you’re next.”

Their instructor answered.

Her fragile hand tapped the boy along.

Tuliqq was small even for an eight-year-old, his petite frame was like that of a wild hare before the wings of a predatory albasqua.

Made it easy for Salbator and his stooges to boss him around.

The malnourished tanned boy took off from beside T’udze’s row, over toward the altar.

“Yurasuk you’re after Tuliqq.”

Looking past the girl Yunuen continued over to the next student.

“Asedatzin, you’re after her.”

Leaning down to T’udze’s eye line.

“I know there’s more to you boy, have faith.

And don’t worry, there will be other trials.”

Her eyes radiated a comforting smile.

The chief lowered the orb unto the boy’s small hands.

It seemed cruel really, a gemite fossil of that size on a boy so frail.

But just as the onlooking class expected his will to falter, the folds of the silver pelt lit up to the slightest touch of his stubby fingers.

The orb lustered with the undulating mana.

Rings within rings and lines across lines flickered within the sphere, converging into the constellation of a rune, brandishing a shape of the Ethos of Mareaqoa.

“Go with the elder you’ve chosen.”

Chief Asivisuit sent Tuliqq on his way.

Before he could call for his next subject the young girl stood ready.

Once again spacing the relic toward the child’s hands, only this time, the lights remained dormant.

He nestled the gemite into her bare palms, yet not a blink emerged from the orb.

“Sorry darling, you have to go back with Tlamatzal Yunuen.”

The little girl simply shook her head and scuttled back to her teacher.

At last, it was T’udze’s moment.

He marched up to the chief, placing his hands in a cusp before him, waiting for the gemite.

Bracing for the unexpected.

“Congrats buddy, head to the elder of your choosing. "

Asivisuit spoke before the boys’ hands could near his.

“but-but I wanted the test…”

T’udze demanded.

“It’s not necessary Asedat.”

The chief clicked his tongue signaling his guards to escort the boy.

“Please, just let me touch it.”

He looked back, as the soldiers escorted him away to Master Yunuen.

“I just want to trace…please.”

His faint words whimpered.

As they dragged him away from his dream.