PARRITA, PUNTARENAS, COSTA RICA

The machine that transported me was a metal box with wheels, it was able to achieve high speeds impossible for the creatures on the surface. As I understand it, humans call them automobiles and they are their main means of transportation. Right now I was inside one of them against my will, I had been careless and fell prey to a low trick created by these human warriors, a maiden was supposed to bring me another important human for me to sing to and obey us, thus taking another step in our preparations before launching our assault on the surface and claiming our true home, but when I approached the surface they threw strange nets I had never seen before and covered my mouth, I could not defend myself.

They were taking me to a place completely unknown to me, there was nothing good that could happen to me with them. But contrary to what I would think of this situation, it was the human hunters who were full of fear. It seemed that their plan had collapsed with a single prayer that came from a magic box they carried with them.

"Divine providence informs that Cacique has appeared and is in the area of operations"

"Cacique has declared that he is hunting his prey"

"What the fuck!" the boy said.

"As of this moment, the country has entered into lockdown for all Hunters Special Forces"

"All operations have been suspended"

"All military personnel are required to leave the area as soon as possible by their own means"

"I repeat"

"All operations have been suspended with immediate effect"

"Evacuate the site if you want to survive"

"At this time you are on your own"

"Do not compromise the church with your actions" the magic box sounded again.

"Oh my God!"

"This is the first time ever that Cacique has ever been reported."

"I thought he was a legend!"

"Wasn't he never supposed to intervene!"

"He is supposed to be neutral!" Said the girl, who immediately began to quickly review her notebook.

"And what do I know!"

"I never thought that one of the great warriors would appear in a place as remote as this!"

"Something made him so angry that divine providence intervened and reported?"

"Cacique is different from the rest of the other great warriors"

"Unlike highlander and Gladiator, those are clear warrior names."

"Cacique is the indigenous title of these regions of King."

"Cacique unlike all other warriors is a ruler"

"Someone with recognized authority, even by divine providence"

"..."

"If he demands our heads the church will give them to him on a silver platter"

"Is it just a king? And that he makes him different from the rest of the kings out there?"

"Because this king has always been there, since the beginning of humankind, very probably before, and perhaps since the beginning of time!"

"His name has always appeared along with the others, but this is the first time he has shown signs of doing something"

"We don't even know who he is, nor what he is capable of doing"

"So if it gets in our way, what do we do?"

"We can do nothing"

"The only thing we can do is to try to keep Cacique from knowing of our existence"

"If he doesn't know about us he can't do anything, can he?"

The humans were scared of this Cacique, but while he might be their enemy, that didn't mean he was my ally either. After all, I knew much less than they did about whatever they were going through. What I was supposed to do was to try to escape, to get to the sea or to a river at least. But unlike the sea, here on the surface, my body could not move freely, as my tail was too heavy for me to crawl on my arms alone. Father must have noticed my absence by this point, he will send a party to rescue me, won't he? Will he send the maidens or some other servant? Will they arrive in time before what these humans plan to do?

The huge metal box was coming to a stop, as far as I could see from the windows there were several of the same devices lined up in a row, every few minutes we only moved forward a couple of meters before stopping again for several more minutes. It seemed that this transportation method needed a lot more improvements to be efficient, not at all compared to the ships at sea.

"Damn it!"

"We have little time and there is a traffic jam in the middle of the jungle?"

"What the fuck!" Said the man, the one who seemed to be the one who controls this machine.

"Even though we are in a country made up of mostly virgin forest does not mean that people do not have access to the modern world"

"The automobile is the main means of transportation here, on average each family has 2 cars."

"That together with the constant improvement of the roads makes it easy to find traffic jams on highways like these"

"Once we get to the work zone, we will be able to maintain high speed until we reach the airport" the girl answered, she seems to be the intelligent one because she always had answers for everything

"And what is that guy doing? Is selling candy in the middle of the jam?"

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"The constant car dams are used by the locals to sell things"

"It is one of the most widespread informal jobs around here"

"I don't like this at all"

Another human arrived at the car, this one, unlike the others, was much darker, he had a box in his hands. He went to the window and looked inside the machine. If what the girl was saying was correct, most likely this man was the salesman they were talking about earlier. The man who controlled the machine rejected him violently, not wanting to talk to the dark man. But before he left, he looked out the window again, our eyes met for a moment. In them, I could see how clearly he was surprised to see me, but as soon as he looked at me he left, not towards the car behind us, but into the jungle, where I lost sight of him. Had he finished selling? His box was still full of things to sell.

The car continued to advance a little more until it reached an intersection of roads, where one could clearly see the origin of why so many machines were advancing slowly, the girl was right. After this part, the machine would again gain unprecedented speed, but just as it was about to move forward, a huge crash was heard. The human hunters screamed in panic, I was startled too, I looked out the window and saw another metal box coming towards us, this one was almost 3 times bigger than ours, it hit the front side of our carriage, so it didn't kill anyone.

When the metal box finished spinning the man grabbed a sword and kicked the door open as soon as possible. The girl was pretty hurt but he started using magic to try to heal them both. It seemed that we were under attack, they were finally my allies trying to rescue me, I had to help them, I tried to untie the device that held my hands, but it was impossible, but I could move it enough to untie my mouth a little, I took a breath to sing, but the girl noticed it and threw me an electricity spell, my body fell without obeying me. The man finally managed to break down the door after several kicks. He got out of the car to fight with the men outside, but almost the next second he fell asleep, it didn't look like magic because there was no trace of it. The girl panicked and started to scream, it was then when the dark man appeared again through the window and put a cloth on the girl's face, which the next second she also fell asleep. Was it a magic cloth that put people to sleep? From outside I could hear the panicked screams of more people, for what was happening had clearly not been planned by all the humans. It was very likely that they were my allies. I could barely move my hand, and I stretched it out to the black man, who took it and looked me in the face. It took several minutes for him and several other men to pull me out of the shattered metal box. But just as I was beginning to feel grateful for them, one of them hit me on the head and made sure the mouthpiece was tightly closed. They also had several objects in their ears, I didn't know how effective they were but they clearly knew of my ability and looked for ways to protect themselves. They put me in the back of their vehicle, which was huge compared to the others, the place was not comfortable, this part of the vehicle was not designed for passengers. They started the vehicle and at full speed took me out of there. Far from continuing on the comfortable black road, they took a dirt road into the jungle, where, in spite of the rough ride, they never slowed down.

I could hear them arguing, some of them were full of panic also for what they had just done, others did not believe what they had seen with their own eyes, and several did not agree with what they were doing, but still continued their journey, going deeper into the jungle, where now there were only trees and it was hard to see a couple of meters ahead. Now there were only trees and it was hard to see a couple of meters ahead, we arrived at one of the houses of the humans, but it was clearly seen that it had been abandoned long ago, in front of it there were two more vehicles. The large vehicle was hidden behind the abandoned structure, and then ..... nothing. The men got off and started walking around, they were alert and nervous, they were waiting for someone, probably their boss, maybe this person was the contact between them and Father, the person who planned my rescue.

Time went by, almost half an hour had passed, but still, nothing had happened, I was beginning to think that maybe I had made a mistake, but then something happened, a whistle was heard, it was a sign that the person who was approaching was the right one. Several of the men were startled to see the new person. But although I couldn't see her from where I was standing, I could hear her.

"Hello all "

"Are any of you Dago's son?"

"I am the person Adelis sent, I think she already talked to you about me" A little girl was heard talking.

"I am Christopher, Dago's third son."

"The others are Chopo, JuanK, and Chuz"

"They are from the "association", you know how it works, don't you?"

"The girl is in the fear car over there"

"If you need any help in a moment you have the gang next to you, just let us know"

"And tell Adelis that we hope she can find Maria as soon as possible" another of the men spoke.

"Excellent, thank you"

"It has fuel, right?"

"Of course, tank full"

"With this, you can leave the country and return"

"All right, the next thing I need is a speedboat"

"Fast but with range, I need it ready by tomorrow morning at the latest"

"I want it ready to go in Jaco or thereabouts"

"You can get it right?"

"Of course!"

"If you want, we can lend you La Niña"

"It's the same boat with which we deliver coca to the United States with a full tank of gas."

"The trip is done in one day"

"The coastal patrols never catch us with it"

"I'm going to call Dago to get it out of the garage and have it ready."

"Just call and tell us where you want it, we'll deliver it ourselves"

"Excellent"

"I'll leave right away then"

"I still have a few things to do before I leave."

"Thank you"

The door of the vehicle opened and a little girl appeared through it. She was completely white, with blood-red eyes. She was wearing a much stranger outfit than the rest of the humans, it was white armor too. But she was not human, not a normal one at least, she seemed to have ears and a tail that I had not seen before on any human. She looked me in the eyes, blanked out for a few seconds, and then made the car start moving, although she had a hard time handling it, unlike the men, due to her short stature. I didn't know where she was taking me, was she my ally or my enemy? Who were these people and what did they want from me?