The Journey Around The World, In Order To Save Spring

Communication Skills? More Like Communication Kills!

They were walking through the jungle in Central America when they stopped by the Rio Motagua's banks for a drink and a rest. It was midday anyway, and they could use a cool-down. The trees had become denser the further South they travelled so all they had to do was keep under the shade to avoid the extreme 20°+ heat. Amaruq washed his face with the cool water of the crystal clear river-lake. He exhaled before looking into the water. Ignoring his reflection, he saw some Amatitlania swimming between the pondweed.  Their striped patterning looked so beautiful. He wished he could take them home, but he knew that they'd die in his weather.

Such was the nature of living things. Limited to a certain range of conditions, lest they become living things no more. Such fickle, fickle things. "Hey," Atsuguk said as he sat next to Amaruq. "Whatcha lookin' at?" He asked. Amaruq nodded his head towards the fish defending its territory in the river. "Those convict cichlids. They're really cute," he said. "Oh," the younger male said. He knew of how his Amaruq liked small animals. Actually, he also liked big animals, but big animals were normally not too friendly to him. He remembered his friend's dog too. It was weird at first, but he quickly learned to like the canine. But it died when Atsuguk was still small. "I guess they're sorta cute, in a scaly sort of way," he half-heartedly agreed. Amaruq chuckled at that.

After they finished resting, the trio then went on their way, crossing the Guatemala-Honduras border. The brush they had walked through had turned into jungle by now. There, Amaruq saw many new things. Like tall trees that formed a canopy or sloths. Granted, he had seen sloths before, but they were nothing alike. The giant Eremotherium sloths that Amaruq had seen lived on the ground and were 20 feet long. These new sloths lived in the trees, were about 3 feet long and were very very slow. He wondered how they didn't get eaten already. While they were walking, Amaruq tripped on something, "Oof!" He rubbed his head before picking the offending object up. "What's up?" Atsuguk asked as the two stopped walking. "I just tripped on this... thing," he replied.

Amaruq looked at the object. It was a stick with some sort of hard crystal tied to it. The crystal was black. Weird. Amaruq had never seen black crystals before. Huh. He threw the stick over his shoulder but decided to keep the crystal. They kept on jungle trekking, paying attention to their surroundings. Although, they couldn't hear much over the buzz of the insects, especially the cicadas. They were really loud, with their calls sounding like mini-chainsaws. Not that any of them had ever heard a chainsaw before, but still. The jungle was really hot, about as hot as Mexico was, except it was also really humid. This was mostly a problem with Amaruq, as his sweat clung to his skin, not evaporating in time.

Unlike him, the other two only sweat on their noses and paws. Amaruq was jealous. They didn't have to feel so sticky and clammy. They did, however, felt hot. That was shown as much by their frequent panting. How much longer were they supposed to walk in this noisy and stuffy jungle? Their walk was going smoothly until Amaruq was looking at an eagle. The eagle was pretty big, about a metre tall. It reminded him of the giant teratorn that tried to eat them back at the mountain pass. However, it wasn't the eagle that made the walk not to smoothly. It was the prick that Amaruq suddenly felt in his shoulder. "Ow!" He exclaimed as he held his shoulder. He felt something stuck to it, so he pulled the object out.

It was a dart! Suddenly, Amaruq started to feel somnolent. He teetered left and right and looked to his friends. They were faring just as well as he was. He tittered at them, his eyelids heavy before succumbing to unconsciousness and falling to the hard ground. It was a while later when Amaruq woke up. He looked around and saw empty blankness. He blinked before seeing a single chair. The chair wasn't the interesting part, but the wolf sitting on it was. "Hello... Amaruq," he said. "Huh? Who are you? Why do you know my name?" The confused youth asked him. The man laughed, "Let's just say you're starting to get well-known among us."

"What? Among who?" He got closer.

"That doesn't matter. What does matter is the ice creeping down on your little pack."

"My pack? So you know what's going on?!"

"Absolutely."

"Then you know how to stop it! Tell me!"

"I'm afraid it's not that easy," he laughed again.

Amaruq looked down and saw that he was disappearing. "What? No! Please tell me!" He pleaded as he kneeled in front of the mysterious stranger. But no matter how much he tried, the stranger merely waved his fingers as he too faded away.

"No, please!" He yelled, his eyes opening again. He breathed heavily as his eyes adjusted to his surroundings, darting everywhere. He saw that he was being carried on a stick, and saw his friends lower down on the same stick. When he tried to move his arms, he found that they were tied. Actually his whole body was tied. To the log. He wriggled in the rope but it didn't budge. He figured as much. He looked to his friends and saw that they were also waking up from their drug-induced sleep. "Hey," he called out to them. They blinked the sleepiness from their eyes. "What? Where are we?" Taggak asked groggily.

"I don't know. But these weirdos apparently captured us and are bringing us somewhere," Amaruq answered. He looked around. There were small sandstone buildings here and there. They were on a pathway of rock. The wolves carrying them were wearing traditional tribal clothing. So they weren't very advanced, just like their tribe back home. Ok, maybe they were a little bit advanced, judging from the stone buildings. Hmm... "Hey, where are you guys taking us?" He asked the man underneath him. The man spat back at him in an unknown language. No dice. "What the heck was that???" Taggak asked him. "I don't know! It was worth a shot," he replied nonchalantly, shrugging and failing as he was still tied up.

Not long after, he felt the ground rising. He looked down and saw the savages climbing up some steps. He followed the steps with his eyes to find them on a massive pyramid. His eyes widened. Now he knew who these were. "These are the Teotihuacános!" He shouted to the others. They snapped their heads to him. "Who?" Atsuguk asked. "Teotihuacános is a large tribe of native people here in Central America!" He told them. "Great. The question is do you they speak English?" Taggak asked, his first sentence sarcastic. Amaruq thought about it. Their tribe had learned English to communicate with the outside world, but these guys didn't look like they interacted with other people much aside from capturing them.

"I don't think so!" He said. But he did know that he could still understand them. "Watch! Activate Universal Translator!" He ordered his watch. "Activating..." it said in a robotic female voice. He thanked the Gods Solar had thought about making a translator. At the top, they were unceremoniously dropped onto the flat-topped pyramid. "Oof!" They said. Amaruq looked up and saw a man dressed in ceremonial tribe clothes. Was he the tribe shaman? There were a few other people up there too. The shaman turned to the sky and opened his arms to the Sun. "What is he saying?" Atsuguk asked. He did not understand Nahuatl, and Amaruq didn't blame him.

"Uhh... something about... the God of the Wind? The weather?" He said. The shaman continued to give his speech to the crowd and maybe to the Gods too. "Let's see... they need Quetzalcoatl, that's the God of Wind, to make the cold winds go away. I guess they don't like the cold?" Amaruq translated. Truthfully, Amaruq didn't feel cold. Right now it was maybe 18°, in the evening. But he guessed that tropical people had different standards. He was thinking about why the trio could even be involved in this prayer to their God. Or, one of their Gods. Not the highest one, too. The Teotihuacános had a hierarchy of Gods. The highest one being their 'true' God, the Great Goddess, as they called her.

Amaruq liked that concept. Like, he and his tribe believed in many Gods, all in control of their individual jurisdictions. But they weren't all-powerful, all-encompassing or omnipresent. If there were a God to rule the Gods, who was everything positive imaginable, even perfect, then that would make a lot of sense. Hmm. Maybe Amaruq was going to believe that now. Thank you, Teotihuacános. Suddenly, his eyeballs bulged, "Oh no." "What? What is it?" Atsuguk asked. "They're going to... make a sacrifice, to Quetzalcoatl."