Shadows of the Past

While he always seemed calm and easy-going, you are quickly discovering a quite different side of Mahuizoh the shaman on your way. As you had guessed, there's a distinct shortage of people helping him today. Aside from you, only Atl, a boy two years your senior, is there to help him and only a lone huntress is guiding your way and standing guard. The poor woman seems rather put off by the loudness of your little trek, but Mahuizoh insists on cramming as much knowledge as possible into you two before you reach the ruins.

He prattles down an endless list of plants and how they look before switching to descriptions of frogs and which ones you shouldn't touch. Just as you have already forgotten about most of the plants again, he switches back and needles you with questions. It's rather embarrassing to see his pitying look whenever you get a question wrong, but at least he never appears angry at your inability to tell the bark of different Sapote trees apart when you have never seen one before. At least not at you. He isn't shy about his displeasure at having to go out with such a tiny group just because the chieftain wants to leave in a hurry. It seems Mahuizoh had recommended to move on a while ago already, but was rebuffed multiple times.

In the end though, it's all worth it. You have seen your fair share of ruins on the marches between camp sites, but the clearing you reach after three hours of walking is far beyond what you imagined.

At first it's just a few overgrown foundations and a stone path that has become more uneven then the jungle floor with all the tree roots breaching through its cracks, but as if you've crossed an invisible boundary, the trees just stop growing at some point. A little while longer you walk among shattered houses and even Mahuizoh keeps quite while you wonder at the whole city you have wandered into. Their roofs caved in long ago and the remaining walls covered in moss and lichen. A few times you try to take a peek into the empty interiors, but can spot nothing but ferns and rubble within them before you are called by the huntress to keep up and not to dawdle.

At last you reach a large pile of rubble, which apparently was a once a very tall and impressive building judging by the broken wall two men in height that it leans against. Mahuizoh waves the huntress to stop for a moment before taking a few steps up the pile and waving to Atl and you. "Come on, children. I want you to have a good look at this." You don't wait a second at that request and rush up the broken stones, Atl following right behind you, and from the top of it you look over the field of ruins before you.

Broken houses as far as the eye can see. You can only faintly spot the other end of the field where the jungle begins again, and in between there is so much. It's hard to comprehend just how many people must have lived here once. If everyone in your tribe had a score of houses for himself, you still wouldn't even use a fraction of this place. And in between, there are so many even bigger houses, even if they are half collapsed. Mansions they were called, you dimly recall, and even of those there are enough for every single member of the tribe to have one all for himself. Lastly, your eyes linger on the greatest of them all—a great building with many tiers and stories rises in the center of the ruins. Before it stands a great, quadratic pillar of stone with a faintly shimmering and gleaming tip.

You wonder what this place must have looked liked in the past, when Mahuizoh finally reaches the top of the rubble pile behind you and lays a hand on Atl and your shoulders each. "It is quite different to see it for yourself, isn't it? Not all tall tales by old men. Look as long as you like, but don't wander off. We will take a break before starting to gather the plants."

You nod absentmindedly as he points to a broken wall there huntress is already sitting on while rummaging in her pack. Stories are what you came for on this trip, but as you drink in the view from your vantage point, you silently decide that this alone was worth it.

Nonetheless, after a while longer, you creep back down the broken stones, leaving Atl up there alone for a while. Mahuizoh had sat down in some distance to the huntress and was eating a few dried fruit from his pack as you sat down next to him.

"Something you wanted to ask me Yaxkin?" He grins broadly as you look at him in surprise. "Oh, don't be like that. I know quite well that a young girl isn't asking to pluck herbs for me without a reason. Not the ruins that you wanted to see, then?"

"That too, but... You are always so busy. I thought, you would maybe tell me a bit about the spirits and the world?"

"If that isn't a pleasant surprise." He offers you some fruit which you eagerly take while nodding towards the place where the huntress is sitting. Apparently Atl joined her and tries to ask her questions too, but is utterly ignored by her. "It's rare these days for young folk to ask me about such things. They always want to hear the boasting of the hunters about how big a sow they got and how many men high that jaguar was they escaped so narrowly. Well then. What question drove you to me?"

"What are the spirits? Where do they come from and why do they want offerings from us?"

"Not the easy questions then. What they are, I think no man can truly say. I can only tell you what they are made from and that, my girl, is magic. The power that once made our forefathers great is not something foreign to them, but their very flesh and blood. Strange powers do they wield without any effort. Some can become one with the shadows around them as easily as if they stepped through a tent flap. Others crawl though the earth and stone like fishes in the water. It's only right and just that we make offerings to them. Much ill they could bring down on us if they feel slighted by our presence in their lands, so they always get their fair share of what we take. It would be folly to fight the spirits, for they ask for little and there is no victory against them. I've seen the young and brash strike them with knifes and arrows, but they all shattered like a clay urn upon striking their skin. Peace with them has served us well for as long as I can remember and it will still serve us well when you have grown into a old crone like me."

You mull over this for a bit as you chew on the fruits and some smoked meat from your own pack. If your forefathers could do the same? Swimming through the earth sure sounded strange, but maybe it was just as fun as in the water? It was probably a lot harder to see something though. "My mother sometimes told me of the dead walking. Is that something that spirits do? And why would they?" At this Mahuizoh sighs and looks into the distance for a bit. "What can I say? My life I dedicated to understand the spirits, but their ways are still strange to me to this day. I think they punish us for our bad deeds by doing these things."

He shakes his head with a sigh. "A long time ago, I've met a traveler. He had walked all the way from the sea through Cualli and seen many things. He told me of the greatest city. Far greater then this here. It was once the biggest and most important city in these lands. But now only the dead walk there. Twisted bones that walk of their own accord. All sharp teeth and claws, cobbled together from a dozen men. Of a great beast he spoke, like a centipede, but so large that it could look above the trees themselves and it too was made of nothing but broken bones fused together into this shape. They all wander the empty city to this day and nobody knows why or for what purpose. Like beasts they fall upon all who dare to approach the city, to add their bones to their endless number."

You grow quite at his words. Some part of you is afraid at the mere mention of these things, yet another stumbles about how outlandish it sounds. Then again, had some described the place you sit now to you, it would have sounded no less outlandish. What truly startles you though are his next words. "Maybe a young mind can find an answer where a old man set in his ways can not. What do you think is their reason for doing these things?"

Truth be told, you never really thought about this. Why do spirits do what they do?
[] [Reasoning] Write-In

After you give your answer, Mahuizoh just smiles and nods before rising. "Maybe I will show you something once we are done with our work. There are more things here to see then old stones and men." He gives no indication that your answer was either right or wrong like on the way here when he asked about the plants, and you honestly don't know what he thinks about it. Maybe it's just important to have an answer for yourself.

What will you do while working for Mahuizoh?

[] [Work] Gather plants as you are supposed to.
[] [Work] Sneak off when nobody notices to explore the ruins.
-[] [Work] Explore one of the mansions.
-[] [Work] Go into the large palace at the center of the city.
-[] [Work] Write-In

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AN: And this marks your first trip away from the safety of your home. Mahuizoh was rather distracting while you walked through the jungle, so you didn't really have the attention to spare to your surroundings.

If you got any more questions or more specific ones for him, feel free to ask and I will answer them in the thread.