How do you chase lightning? How do you run down the wind? Still having time to spare before having to get up for the day, I sought [Sunchaser] using the confirmed links between us. He’s easy enough to spot when I want to pour one out for him, but actually getting down to business? Tough.
Having exhausted the countryside I huffed in exasperation and turned to go.
The weight of his hand on my forehead brought me to a complete stop.
If Snake taught me anything, it is that a brief appearance will reveal more than a thousand words can hide. This wasn’t the Sunchaser I had become comfortable seeing. Not the too-lean sickly-hued human with backwards feet and a black dog’s head.
He towered over me the way only gods do. What skin could be seen was as black as an interior shadow during a solar eclipse. What fur that covered everything else was equally black. He wore a formal regalia of various skins (some more familiar than they should be) along with black feathers from several species of birds.
A hybridization of dog and man, Sunchaser’s claws dug into my scalp as his soft palm tickled my face. He moved a thumb from before my eyes and I saw his head.
A giant dog’s sun-bleached skull with a headdress of black feathers.
“Ready?” It wasn’t a question.
Be careful. [Mxtl’s] words echoed in my ear.
“Let’s go.” I tried to nod but his grip on my head was absolute.
“Not yet. I have to take you.” Uh-oh.
“Take me… how and why?”
“You are not full-blooded [Nahua]. Not enough for them. But enough for me. I don’t care what they think anyway. Times are not what they used to be. As if being in the Age of [Ollin] hasn’t informed them of that. But if you are mine, then it doesn’t matter whose dick seeded you in or whose cunt squeezed you out.” He never released my head while speaking. I knew for all his words and the appearance of choice, I was already as good as enthralled.
“My, such language. I’ll have to take notes.” His jaw dropped an inch, and I knew he was silently laughing. “Okay, I need to know… ahead of time, because I’m sure no matter what I say, I’m gonna find out one way or the other… yours… how? I’m owned by another, and I’d rather not be in the middle of a turf war between gods, y’know.”
The giant skull bobbed. “I am aware of that claim, and I will not attempt to supercede it. But I also know the limits of that claim and the risk I will take if I try to push that boundary. No, Weaver, I do not seek to be your master. But in these lands, you must be of my company or you won’t have the range to do what you need to be doing.”
So many questions left intentionally avoided in his answer. So many assumptions that need to be challenged. Still held motionless by his grip, I sighed as a token of rebelliousness. “Fine. Let’s go. I’ll have to get my answers later.”
He closed his jaw and I knew the moment of fun was over. “Become Weaver [Epithet].” His grip prevented me from lifting my head in surprise. That particular form was something very private, very personal. More than anything, it was the symbol of my personal progress on my personal path thus far. “I need all of you involved in this, Weaver.”
The shifting of my form did not shift his grip on my head. After I settled into my new form, he turned my head slightly to the left and to the right, inspecting what I had become. He nodded one more time, then reached up into his own headdress and plucked a small black feather from his regalia.
Well, small to him, anyway. What appeared to be the length of his pinky finger was the length of my hand. He tightened his grip on my head and lowered my face. “This might sting.” I swear I could hear him chuckling.
I felt something stab through through the feathers on the crown of my head and into the underlying scalp. Might sting? It hurt like hell. This wasn’t just something being inserted into my flesh. The calamus only bit a quarter inch into my skin. His power reached deeper, under the surface appearances, under my personal assumptions, into the core of what made me Keri.
My knees buckled under the weight of the force invading me. I felt like a score of animals were mauling me from within. I smelled something like a wet dog coming from inside me and felt snarling echoing in my bones. I lost control but did not fall. He only raised his hand enough to let me dangle limply.
My consciousness shifted with my appearance. I am very cognizant of what I had become, but I will not write it here. I twisted in his grip, eager to feel the ground under all four feet. He dropped me without formality and I landed with security. Barking wildly, I was impatient to…
To…
What the hell was I supposed to be doing, anyway?
I stopped my impatient wiggling and sat down at [Sunchaser’s] feet. He’ll let me know what to do next, I’m sure.
His laughter sounded like barking to human ears but I understood him just fine. He spoke a joke in human words but it escaped my understanding. That I did not recognize it made it even more funny to him. “Come on. We have a [dinner] to attend.”
I remember…
So many teteo. So many harsh cries of disapproval. One teotl in particular was sternly quiet and judgemental as hell, though I could not discern who he was more upset with, what I had become, or who had brought me here. But among the shouts demanding my head (my heart, or both), were shouts demanding [Sunchaser] show off what he had brought.
“This is [*redacted epithet*]. She is mine as all dogs are.”
“Since when do dogs have feathers?” A very old, very feminine voice snapped at [Sunchaser]. All others fell silent in respect.
“Since when do snakes?” His retort was as devoid of respect as the others’ silence was full of it.
I felt hostility circle the teteo, hostility towards my elder, [Sunchaser]. I would not stand for that hostility to continue unchallenged. I placed my foot forward and made [a certain stance]. The action surprised many of the teteo but not the teotl that had brooded over my appearance. He was turning to the side in a futile attempt to hide his smirk.
“Your dog would dance, [Sunchaser]!” The smirk was gone from the teotl’s face but not from his voice. “Let us see what kind of dance she knows. If she does not dance well, I shall have to teach her a new one.” He leaned back and fanned himself with feathers from his regalia. “Of course, if I have to teach her a new one, then I shall have to remake her as well. Give her better feathers to adorn herself with.”
“[Weaver Redacted], dance the song singing in your blood.” [Sunchaser] looked down upon me. I looked up into the face of one I love and adore. Over his shoulder, I could see the Evening Star shining brightly in the darkening night sky. It had recently forced the Sun to set. I could feel its triumph here on this blood-stained earth.
The feeling made my blood surge in my veins.
I stepped to the middle of the platform, drew my weapons, and bared my teeth for all to see. Decorum be damned.
I danced.
I forgot myself and danced.
I cut the air into chunks and diverted winds that dared to approach, and danced.
I gouged the ground into chasms and laid traps for floods that dared to approach, and danced.
I sung [a terrible song] that offended half of the teteo and delighted the other half, and danced.
I stopped dancing.
I stared at the teotl that demanded the spectacle without judgement nor aggression. I had done as I was asked. I could not read his face nor his form. He was as cold granite to me. So I turned away to face my elder, [Sunchaser].
In a flash, my elder grabbed my head and pulled me sharply to the rear. Just in time to dodge a stiffened feather piercing the air where my neck would have been.
“Take care to keep your dog close, [Sunchaser]. She is yours, and well proven so. But she is still not [Nahua]. She is not welcome here without you.”
“She is mine, and that is enough where she will be going. I have presented her to you. You know who and what she is.” He looked up into the western sky to see the Evening Star about to join the Sun below the horizon. “And now my work begins. Til dawn.”
Night fell across the platform, and across my memory.
“Oh, my head… am I hungover?”
“Heh. No, [Weaver Redacted]. You are not. You haven’t been pushed this hard before.”
I sat up on the raised stone platform. Across the plaza between pyramids, I recognized a familiar landmark. “The fuck did I do, anyway? I remember the [dinner], but I don’t remember anything else.” I looked down at myself and saw I was still in [Sunchaser’s] modified regalia. “I’m not enthralled to you, but I’m still dressed for the part.”
“As you will have the ability to be upon demand. You can become [redacted] at will, yours or mine, now. But I suggest you not explore this on your own until you have better recollection of what you are doing under my command. The other [teteo] are not happy with my choosing you, and they will take any occasion or excuse to bury you as they can.”
I asked him some things that I understood, and he answered me plainly. He asked if I was going to make the physical token as he requested before. I answered that I did not understand the ramifications enough to risk it. Instead of being offended, he nodded in acknowledgement.
“Your reluctance is justified. Continue being cautious. You may survive this, yet. I promise you this, I will not take you without knowing.”
“But will you allow me the choice of submission?”
The teotl said nothing, but transformed into a large black dog and bounded away with a careless track.