MONSTERS HUNTING MONSTERS

I dropped the rifle and grabbed at the last of the roots with both hands, hanging on as the tree pulled me out of my sandals and swept me downstream.

People were shouting, and from the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of my friends frantically trying to reach me as the tree rushed past them, but I put them out of my mind as I found footholds and hoisted myself up onto the trunk. Rainbow was a few feet away hanging onto a large root, her head just above the foaming water as she sucked in air, and I dug my toes in as I pushed myself further along, gashing my arm on a root as I moved towards her.

As I got close, I hooked my leg around a big root and held out my hand. She flung out her arm and grabbed it, her face full of fear as her nails dug into my flesh, the water trying to rip us apart. Praying I had the strength, I reached out with my other arm and got it under her armpit, then heaved as hard as I could. Rainbow let go of the root and clung to me, her feet scrambling to find purchase as I fought the cold, swirling water.

Then she found a foothold and pushed herself up. I pulled again and together we got her up and out of the water, wet bark scraping my skin as I got her onto the tree trunk. “Thank Providence you Eldarions are so skinny,” I gasped.

“And that you humans are so heavy,” she panted, coughing as we both shivered in our wet clothes. She looked past me and her eyes widened. “Oh no.” I glanced behind us.

Everyone else was gone. Daylight was dying as the sun slipped down past the horizon, a mournful howl echoing from upriver as the water grew rougher and the trees and brush continued rushing past. “We need to find a way to get off this tree before it kills us.”

“I don’t see how without drowning first,” Rainbow replied, her eyes squinting as she continued looking back. “Something’s following us.”

Peering back again, a dark shape was in the river behind us a ways off. “Likely another tree the giant threw in.”

An appendage like an arm with a hand attached extended upward then forward, like a person doing the backstroke through the water. “Ancient Ones protect us,” Rainbow said. “When it realized you escaped it by climbing onto this tree, the giant pushed itself into the water.”

“Bloody hell,” I snarled, yelling at it, “Give it up, already.”

“It won’t,” Rainbow said. Fear sharpened her voice to a razor’s edge. “You defied it, and it won’t stop until either you’re dead or we’ve lost it.”

Darkness was settling in around us like a cloak, and I sat up as I looked around for anything going past that might help us get off. A black shape like a giant bird whooshed past me and I instinctively ducked. “What the-”

“Get down!” Rainbow pulled me with her to lay flat on the rough bark as more black winged shapes flitted past us, their voices chittering in high pitched squeals. “The Zotz must be hunting the giant, and they were waiting for darkness as they can’t abide daylight.” Behind us, the giant began bellowing as the massive arms began thrashing about. “They hunt monsters, but they’ve been known to hunt people as well, so we need to stay low.”

Waves from the thrashing giant were beginning to reach us as the creature fought against the smaller monsters attacking it, rocking the tree and pushing us closer towards shore. I raised my head and saw lights on the left hand bank. “I think I can see a house up ahead.”

“We need to reach it while I still can,” Rainbow said, the fear in her voice being overcome by weariness. “I can’t keep this up much longer.”

“We’ll get off this together,” I said with far more bravado than I was feeling. “Move farther up the trunk so we can get away from the roots.” She nodded and I let her move ahead of me, both of us keeping our heads low as more chittering Zotz flew past while we crawled along the tree trunk.

The tree shuddered as it came to a stop. “We hit a large rock,” Rainbow said as the foaming water rushed around its roots. “If the current spins us around, we might have a chance to jump off into a more sheltered spot before the river takes the tree back.” Dark water closing in over my head flashed in my mind’s eye, and my fear must have shown, for Rainbow reached back and grasped my hand. “You said we’re getting off this tree together, so we’ll jump together.”

I nodded as I squeezed her hand, stilling my face into calmness. Brace up, I berated myself as branches crackled and snapped while the trunk beneath us shuddered. It began to swing out towards the middle of the river, and I prayed the branches would hold onto the rock as the tree roots swung downstream, the lights coming from the thatched roof house up on the shore like the promise of home after a long, hard journey. Both of us crouched on the trunk, holding hands as the tree swung towards the shore. With a snapping sound the branches gave way as the tree began to move once more. Rainbow squeezed my hand with all her strength as we jumped.

Icy water hit me, and I let go of her as the river pulled me down. I panicked, but my feet touched a slimy rock and I pushed myself forward and up. My head broke the surface and I gulped air. Down again as the river pulled at me, refusing to give up, but my feet scraped against a log, which I used to propel myself upwards once more. I broke free then dropped down, the water not so deep this time, and I fought hard against my panic as I sank then shot forward once more, gulping air. I sank back down.

The river only came to my chin. I almost cried in relief as I bounced through the cold water towards the shore, the golden light streaming from the house seeming to offer warmth and refuge while the river’s icy fingers reluctantly relaxed their grip. I waded forward until the water just swirled around my knees before turning back towards the river.

The tree had already vanished downstream as the giant floated past. In the light coming from the house, I could see the giant’s movements had slowed to a feeble slapping at the hundred or more winged shapes covering its body, like Direwasps feeding off the bloated body of a cow. The arms went still as the eyelids closed, and the monstrous shape of the giant heaved its final breath as the darkness swallowed them all.

“Jon,” Rainbow’s voice called out behind me, and I turned back towards the shore. She stood on the riverbank, wet and bedraggled, yet never looking as beautiful as she did in that moment, framed in the golden light streaming from the open doorway and windows of the stone house.

I pushed my way through the water, then climbed up onto the riverbank, both of us shivering in the cool night air as I wrapped my arms around her in a tight embrace. Rainbow hung onto me as if she would never let me go. My mouth found hers and I kissed her hard, her tongue lashing against mine fierce as the river raging behind us, my mind forgetting everything else except for the slender Eldarion held fast in my arms.

In time we stopped to take a breath. “Oh dear,” I said with a smile. “Miss Rainbow, I believe I have broken more of your unwritten rules.”

“It’s about time.” Her eyes widened as she stared at something behind me. “Jon, look out-”

Something dropped from the sky and bowled us over, my forehead gashing against a sharp stone as we hit the ground and broke apart. I shook my head as I rolled over onto my back. “Bloody hell,” my face wincing as I lightly touched my forefinger to my brow. It came back bloody. “What hit us?” I began to sit up.

A clawed hand pushed me back down.

Flat on my back, I stared up in horror at the creature hunched over me. It was man-sized, yet even bigger than Rune, its face a cross between an Eldarion’s and a bat’s, with night-black skin and a bat-like body covered in dark fur. The claws on the heavy hand pressed against my chest glittered like black diamonds. The fangs protruding from both jaws were yellow as old bones while the wings, attached to a separate set of limbs protruding from its back, flared out like a villain’s opera cloak from a Penny Dreadful. The eyes staring down into mine were red as blood from a beating heart.

Even though my body shivered from the cold, I made no other movement as the man-bat face lowered itself down until its broad snout almost touched my cheek. Then it began to sniff. It did that several times before moving its mouth over the cut on my forehead. A snake-like tongue lapped at the wound, the creature stopping a moment as if contemplating the taste, like Varney the Vampire at a blood tasting exhibition, before it lapped at the blood again.

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A whimpering sob came from several feet away. The creature kept its hand pressed against my chest as its head whipped up, and without moving another muscle, my head turned towards the sound as well. Rainbow was curled up in a ball, her hand to her mouth as she stared at the monster in terror. Seeing her distress, I turned my head back and attempted to sit up.

The creature pressed down on me without taking its gaze off of Rainbow, its claws pressed against my flesh with just enough force to remind me of their sharpness without breaking the skin. Rainbow whimpered again and the creature seemed to smile as its snake-like tongue licked its fangs. Its leg was pressed against my arm, and I felt muscles like steel cords tense as the creature prepared to pounce.

From the house, a large figure stepped out of the doorway with a torch in hand. The bat-like face whipped forward as a Maya woman, fat as my mother’s cook, strode towards us and began waving the torch about like a weapon. Its hand left my chest as the creature sprang back, the great wings unfolding as the woman’s torch began giving off sparks like angry hornets chasing after it. The monster leaped into the air and began winging itself backwards until it hovered over the water.

But even as those sparks faltered and died, the woman continued walking as she waved more sparks towards the monster, causing it to fly backwards even farther. It hissed in what seemed to be frustration. The woman took no notice, stepping past us before she decided to stop. “Black Lion, take Kinubal back into the house.” She was speaking American English, and I know I gave her a confused look, for she glanced at me a moment before looking forward again. “I can repeat it in French, if you prefer.”

I snapped out of my trance. Scrambling to my feet, I raced over to Rainbow, still curled up in a ball, and shook her. “Come on,” I said as she gave a start and looked up at me with wide eyes. “We will be safer inside than out here.” I had no idea if I spoke the truth or not, but she let me pull her to her feet and together we ran through the doorway.

We slid as we came to a stop on old, weathered stone and looked around. Inside, the house was one large room with stone walls rising eight or nine feet, with small tree trunks fashioned into support beams holding up the roof made of thatch. The left side had a fire pit lined with blackened stones, on which a fire was crackling, with iron bars over it on which a metal pot and a battered brass teakettle had been placed. A scarred wooden table had four rough hewn chairs set around it. A half dozen wicker baskets sat next to a smaller table, with a cleaver beside a large carrot and other vegetables in the process of being chopped. Herbs hung from the walls in bundles, giving the air a fragrant scent.

The right side had a shadowed loft built level with the top of the walls, supported by more shaped tree trunks, upon which I could see the outline of a wooden bed. A crude ladder leaned against the wooden floor. Against the far wall were the outline of stones and the shimmer of water of a small cenote.

Candles made of beeswax lined the open windows, placed in niches built into the walls or hung from the support beams in wicker baskets, while a fat one sat in the center of the large table, all of them illuminating the inside of the house with their soft, golden glow. Rainbow shivered as I put my arms around her. “I’m so sorry I fell to pieces back there,” she said. “It looked at me, and I just knew it was going to snatch me up and carry me off.”

“It would’ve done just that,” the Maya woman’s voice said from the doorway. She had a warm voice reminding me of my Aunt Jo, who was everyone’s favorite relative in our family. The large Maya woman had nut brown skin and two long, flat braids of hair she wore on each side of her head, which she wore over each shoulder almost to her waist. Her dress was grey, without any embroidery, and the nails on her broad hands were long and thick. “The Camazotz has gone into its rare time of rut, and it’s looking for an Eldarion female to mate with and transform into one of its kind.”

She walked into the house with a rolling gait as Rainbow’s expression slid into horror. “That… thing, used to be one of my people?”

The Maya woman inserted the torch into a niche set in the stone doorway, where it continued giving off sparks which flew outside. “There. The torch should keep the Camazotz from entering, though the candles should be enough as all the Zotz cannot abide light. Child,” she said as she turned towards us, “the magic that turns mortals into what are called monsters, existed before the time Eldarions ruled the earth. Or did you think it was your race that created the spell Black Lion here has been cursed with?”

I was taken aback. “How do you know who I am?” A thought struck me, and I added, “For that matter, what is the Camazotz doing here? Why is it not in Zotz-Na, where it is supposed to be?” She raised her eyebrows, and I realized I was being rude. “Please forgive my lack of manners, though under the circumstances-”

“Don’t get a bee in your bonnet,” she said, smiling as she waddled into the room. “Ran-Li and I are old friends, and she told me you were coming. Call me Great Grandmother, if you would. Now,” the large woman looking at Rainbow, “you both need to get out of those clothes. Child, look in the basket there and pull out a cloth robe for each of you. Black Lion, beside the dried sage you’ll find a few split logs of wood for the fire. Build it up while I fix you both some tea.”

I exchanged a look with Rainbow, then we both did as the Maya woman asked while she took ceramic cups and bowls from a basket, along with several wooden spoons, placed them all on the table, and made us tea from another bundle of dried herbs hanging on the wall. Rainbow, a sardonic smile on her face, let me hold the robe around her while she changed, then did the same for me. At Great Grandmother’s request we sat at the table and sipped tea close to the fire, while the woman draped our clothing over baskets to dry.

Great Grandmother finished and began dishing us vegetable stew from the cook pot. “To answer your second question, the Camazotz guarding Zotz-Na is known as the Camazotz-Ahau, or Lord of the Camazotz. He is larger, and much fiercer than the other ones, and he guards the upper lands from the realm of Xibalba, which is located deep within the bowels of the earth. There is a cavern there which connects the two lands, the only way in or out, and the Camazotz-Ahau fights and often kills the larger creatures trying to enter, while his smaller siblings either help or, on rare occasions like this one, hunt down the little ones that occasionally slip through.”

I gave her an incredulous look. “The giant slipped through while no one was looking?”

Rainbow answered. “The giant grows… well, grew, a tiny amount with every person it ate. It was a part of our legends for a long time, so it had to have been a lot younger when it first slipped through.”

Great Grandmother smiled at her. “Exactly. Black Lion, tea works better at warming the inside of you if you actually drink it.” Chastened, I sipped at the herbal liquid in my cup as she set the bowls in front of us and gave us spoons. “No meat, as I can’t abide it, but you’ll find this good regardless.”

Rainbow and I began to eat, the stew every bit as flavorful as she said, while Great Grandmother lowered her bulk into a chair. “Ah, that’s better. So, the Camazotz-Ahau is like the giant in that the more flesh of a creature from Xibalba it eats, the larger it grows.”

I asked, “How much larger?”

Again, Rainbow was the one answering. “The Hall of Elders in Edzna has the bones of what they believe is the Camazotz-Ahau from the time of the founding of the city, which was at least a couple thousand years ago. It was twenty feet tall, more or less, about the same size as the giant.”

“How big is the one at Zotz-Na?”

She shrugged. “No one’s visited Zotz-Na since the time of the Spanish conquest, except for my grandmother. I know there’s a calendar event coming up where an offering of gold is supposed to be made to the Camazotz-Ahau, but since we don’t have royalty anymore it’s going to have to go unremarked.”

“Ran-Li and I have spoken about it,” Great Grandmother said. “She told me she has a plan to appease the Camazotz-Ahau and for you not to worry.”

“Every time she tells me that, it makes me worry more. Great Grandmother, for someone alone in the woods you seem to have a great deal of wisdom. Are you a priestess of Ix-Chel?”

The Maya woman gave her a sad smile. “I fear the shrine of Ix-Chel is now little more than a garden I tend. Ever since the Maya signed away their rights to have kings and fighting queens, no one of noble blood has made the pilgrimage. Also, since your Eldarion healers have become so adept in treating female problems, no humans have made the trek here either. None of the Eldarion-Maya females have pledged their lives to Ix-Chel since the conquest, and since the Maya humans build shrines to her in their churches, they have no need to pledge their lives to her either.”

Great Grandmother opened her hands to us. “I fear I am the last remaining devotee of Ix-Chel.”

I respectfully inclined my head. “Though I understand the reasons why, I am still sorry to hear this. I am also infinitely grateful that you kept the faith.”

“And knew how to drive off the Camazotz,” Rainbow added.

Great Grandmother smiled. “The mysteries of the shrine’s guardian have not been lost.”

I leaned forward over my bowl of stew. “Rainbow told me the guardian was a creature known as the Rabbit Scribe.” She nodded, and I said, “Please forgive my ignorance, but having a rabbit as a guardian seems strange.”

Great Grandmother dismissed my admission with a wave of her hand. “Admitting ignorance is the first step on the road to wisdom, and Ix-Chel treasures wisdom above all else. Rabbit Scribe has always been less a guardian than Ix-Chel’s chronicler, using her priestesses to gain knowledge, and has even walked upon the earth herself to learn what she could.” She gave me a broad wink. “At least, that’s what the legends tell us.”

“It’s said that all Rabbit Scribe had to do was touch you,” Rainbow added, “and at once she’d learn everything you knew.”

“Child,” Great Grandmother said with a snort, “of course there’s a ritual involved.” She looked at me. “May I demonstrate?” I nodded, and she reached across the table to lay her palm on my forehead. “After she’d asked permission, she would form a link to the person and document his or her experiences, not only what they’d done but what happened after they parted company. Then she would write down everything she’d learned.”

Her hand was warm on the side of my face as I said, “I can only imagine what she could tell us, were she here.”

Great Grandmother’s dark eyes locked onto my own. “Considering she came through with the Ancient Ones when they broke through the barrier between the Elder Darkness and the mortal universe, I imagine she would have quite a few stories to tell.”

The Eldarion-Maya are silent in the matter of Ix-Chel’s shrine, except to say, ‘You cannot find the shrine of Ix-Chel, no matter how hard you search. But if you are meant to be there, the shrine will find you’.