Priest Quisac didn’t respond. He didn’t seem to hear him.
William looked up, expecting to see the branches of the tree over his head, but instead he stared into the unobstructed sky. When he looked back down, all he could see were branches. He tried to move his arms, and the branches shook below him. William could feel every branch and twig in the tree, as though he had a hundred arms and a thousand fingers—a strange, but wonderful sensation. Tiny ants scurried up and down his limbs, tickling him in places. He could not move his legs and it seemed as though his feet were buried deep into the ground, with his toes stretching out even further. He felt a tingling sensation where his stomach used to be. When he looked closer, he could see that it was where Priest Quisac held his real body against the tree trunk.
William gazed over the top of the palace and saw everyone scurrying about, planting the shrubs around the temples. He spotted Betty walking beside Teshna. As usual, Betty was talking up a storm—something about planting rose bushes in her grandmother’s garden, oblivious to the fact that Teshna could not understand her.
He felt so relaxed from his new perspective—all his prior concerns and worries seemed so silly and meaningless. Nothing really mattered when you were a tree, and he instantly wished he could remain a tree forever.
Suddenly, the mental grip he had on the tree—or the hold the tree had over him—loosened, and he fell down through the trunk, landing on the ground deep beneath the earth. He was back to himself again, with his arms, legs, hands, and feet. Funny, he pondered, to be wearing shorts and sneakers.
It occurred to William that he was in a dream state. He knew his real body still sat at the surface, at the base of the ceiba tree. Yet he felt awake as ever—breathing, smelling, and feeling. Even though no light penetrated the tunnel, he could see every object by its true color—brown tangled roots, light green chunks of limestone, and bright red ants that crawled around.
The tunnel appeared recently excavated. Rocks and soil fell like an uncomfortable rain around him. Above him, the giant roots of the ceiba tree dripped forth a black goop. With the acute vision from his dream-like astral body, William noticed wounds on the massive roots, like scratch marks from giant claws. In the center of the root there were teeth marks resembling a surf board bitten by a shark.
The trail extended in two directions, and he wasn’t sure which path led to the fields. A gross smell drifted his way, and William followed the scent through the tunnel, stumbling over clumps of rocks and debris toward the stink ahead. “Yum Cimil!” he hollered, his voice echoing. “Wait up, you forgot something.”
The horrible stink intensified as he scrambled through the passages. He heard a scratching noise off in the distance. “Yum Cimil… Au Puch…where are you? I have something to show you.”
The scratching sound was coming from just around a bend in the tunnel, where he also heard rocks falling to the ground, and a high-pitched voice of a man talking to himself. William peeked around the corner and blurted, “No freaking way!” There he was—the demon—a giant, lurking monster that filled the entire passage, digging with huge claws that ripped through the solid rock like it was clay. A thorny shell covered his back, with hooked spikes protruding along the center of his spine. His thick, slimy green legs looked reptilian.
The demon’s head shifted beneath a bizarre helmet of bones, as he ripped solid chunks of rock to his sides, muttering to himself all the while. “Oh, this is fine. Yes, this is nice. Work today, play tomorrow.” He laughed with a creepy high-pitched, “hee-hee-hee-hee-hee.”
“Yum Cimil,” William called out, his voice cracking from fright.
The beast stopped and cocked his head to listen for a moment before continuing to dig again. “No, no, must work. Plenty of work. Must finish my work.”
“Yum Cimil, I have something important to tell you,” William said.
The demon froze. He snapped his head around to see who was calling him. A giant skull-face with black eyes came into view. “Who is this that dares to interrupt my task?” he asked, regarding William. “I do not know you. Leave me at once, for I have work to do!” Black pus dripped from the sharp teeth of his jaw bone. He turned back and continued with his task.
Though frightened by the horrible creature that had just addressed him, William tried to convince himself that he could not be harmed in his current astral form. So he gathered up another helping of courage. “Yum Cimil, you missed some plants back at the temples.”
The demon spun around and charged at William, stopping within a few feet of him. “Did I not ask you to leave?” His hot putrid breath—the sick smell of death—enveloped William.
Yum Cimil’s expression softened. He put his bird-like claws under his chin, tilting his head. “Oh, I’ve frightened you,” he said in a girly voice. “Forgive me… oh, where are my manners, hee-hee-hee. I don’t socialize much these days for I have work to do!” he said with a blast of hot air that knocked William onto his butt. Yum Cimil tilted his head again. “How I would love to stay and chat, but leave me now!” The demon maneuvered his hulking body around and lumbered back to the end of the tunnel, muttering about the annoyance of being delayed as he went.
William got back up and followed the beast, realizing he would have to be more creative. “They are such beautiful flowers. The King waters them himself.”
The demon stopped again, cocking his head back to listen.
“The bees have such joy spreading the pollen of its colorful flowers all over the world.”
Yum Cimil spun around with a skeletal smile. Black drool dripped from his jaw. “Oh, do continue… tell me more, fine Sir.”
“There are fifty-two plants that are the most sacred to the King. They are planted around his temples to make everyone happy. People come from other parts of the world just to see them.”
“How beautiful… how wonderful… how splendid,” the demon said, mocking him in a creepy, sarcastic manner. “Ayah!” The demon screeched with a wild look in his eyes. He studied William for a moment. “What manner of being are you? Tell me, my friend, what are you called by?”
“I am… a spirit from another world. I go by the name of… uh… Jupiter,” William said. “I’ve been sent here to help you with your task.”
“Jupiter,” he said, drawing out the syllables of this made-up name in a girly voice, with his claws under his jaw bone and rolling his black sunken eyes around as he teased. “What a splendid name. How divine… how fanciful… how precious.” Yum Cimil scratched the side of his boney skull, looking skeptical. “Tell me, Jupiter, how is it that I did not smell these sacred plants?”
William thought for a moment, pretending to be angry. “That ceiba tree… it clouded your senses… to trick you!”
“Oh, but of course. That must be the reason.”
“Maybe you can smell them now… back up the tunnel?”
The demon sniffed, his forked serpent tongue licking at the air. Black goop dripped from his mouth, splattering next to William’s feet. “Why yes… I do indeed smell them now,” he said, surprised. “How beautiful… how sweet… how full of life. Come my new friend, Jupiter, we have much work to do.”
Yum Cimil lumbered back up the tunnel. His large legs propelled him so fast that William had a hard time keeping up.
The demon came to an abrupt stop and scraped the dirt above him, revealing the roots from the first of the fifty-two plants. He licked the soil with his forked tongue. “Such a strange taste. What do you make of this my dear friend, Jupiter?”
“Maybe it’s, uh… fertilizer?” William said.
“What?”
“Like special water that helps the plants to grow better.”
With a creepy smile, Yum Cimil put his claws beneath his jaw bone again. “How extraordinary… how marvelous… how fabulous.” His expression changed to disgust and anger. “How about some of my fertilizer!” He snapped his head back to the plant, vomiting forth a blob of black slime onto the roots, causing them to shrivel and dissolv
e.
The demon continued clawing his way through the ground beneath the temples, spitting the black gunk from his mouth onto the roots of the plants. William tried to stretch out the task as long as possible by commenting on each plant, making up whatever story he could think of in the moment. Yum Cimil took great delight in listening to his stories, and he would follow them with sarcastic, cherishing remarks prior to killing each plant.
“Tell me, my dear friend, Jupiter—tell me of this one.”
“Well, now that plant was especially special to the King. Not for the beautiful colors or how the flowers swayed in the wind,” he said, getting into the mood of the game, and speaking with much emotion. “No, he loved this plant because it was a gift from his mother.”
Yum Cimil listened to William with a boney smile, resting his chin on his claws. “From his mother? I am going to cry,” he said in a pathetic voice, wiping fake tears beneath his eye sockets. “How sweet… how special… how thoughtful… how about you die!” He spit his black gunk on the roots and then turned back to William with a pleasant demeanor. “What fun… let us continue, Jupiter.”
Although William had lost track of time in the underworld, he guessed that some hours had passed in the physical world above. He grew weary making up stories for each plant to entertain the demon along his path of destruction. However, he had kept count as they proceeded, and he knew that they were approaching the last of the fifty-two plants. His task would soon be done.
Yum Cimil never grew tired of William’s stories. In fact, he was tickled by each, savoring the moments prior to the regurgitations of the black stink from his mouth.
“Jupiter, my brother of death, tell me of this one.”
Being the last plant, William knew he had to stretch it. He invented a long story about how the plant was found—traveling across the ocean, fighting giant serpents, and climbing a huge mountain. Then his tale continued in reverse, with more folly along the way. He stole bits and pieces from Star Wars, and ended the story with Yax planting the rare bush in a beautiful pot.
Yum Cimil appeared glued to the heroic tale through the first half, but he became bored as it went along. He rested his reptilian elbows on his knees and leaned his massive head against his clawed hands for the remainder of the saga. He tapped his sharp nails against his skull. “Are you quite finished then?”
William scrambled to think of a way to further delay him. “Would you like to hear how he found the pot?”
Yum Cimil bolted up, glaring at William as if he figured out what he had been up to. “That won’t be necessary.” Yum Cimil raised his arms, and William thought he was about to smash them down upon him. However, the demon’s expression changed abruptly. He became exaggerated with his compliments again, waving his claws about in a silly manner. “How courageous… how valorous… how dauntless… how you sicken me!” he said, spitting out his goop onto the roots of the final plant. “We are finished here, my friend Jupiter. Let us now resume our work in the fields. Come.”
“Well, Yum Cimil, I’m only here to help you with your work under the temples. I think it’s about time for me to head on out,” he said looking up, not sure how to pull himself out of the trance. “It’s time for me to go!” He gazed at the dirt ceiling above him, hoping that Priest Quisac could somehow hear him.
Yum Cimil moved in closer, coming face to face with William. He seemed annoyed. “I heard you the first time. No, you will go with me. I insist!” he said, inadvertently spitting black goop on William’s face. “Oh, forgive me, my friend. My manners again. Horrible… appalling… ghastly. It is settled, then. Climb on my back so that we may travel together.”
William nodded, wiping the gunk off his face; it burned a little, and smelled like something rotting in the garbage. He climbed onto the shell of the demon’s scaly back, held a hooked spike on his spine for support, and they maneuvered through the rocky tunnels together. They passed by the roots of the great ceiba tree and returned to the end of the tunnel where William had first met the beast.
Yum Cimil clawed away at the ground, tunneling for a long ways. Suddenly, they broke through the dirt wall ahead of them and discovered a large chamber—an underground palace with a rounded ceiling high above. A sweet smell of incense permeated the room. “What is this?” the demon asked.
William climbed off the beast’s back and studied the beautiful chamber; it had polished limestone walls and colorful plants that grew from the red-tiled floor. In the center of the large chamber, a short flight of steps led up a small pyramid to a raised platform. There, an odd-looking man, twice William’s size, sat cross-legged, smoking from a curved pipe. He had a big angular head and huge green eyes. Although his face looked boyish, he held a timeless wisdom in his gaze. “Good day, Au Puch.” He greeted the demon with a fancy wave, twirling his hand above his head. He took another puff from his pipe. “How nice of you to drop by.”
The demon marched up the short stairway, with William following behind. “Yum Kaax. Oh my, the Lord of the Fields is here. How impressive… how magnificent… how stupendous,” he said in his girly way. “I must behave myself in the presence of the powerful Maize god, mustn’t I?”
“Please introduce me to your friend,” Yum Kaax said, tilting his head toward William.
“Oh, forgive me your highness,” the demon said, putting his claws under his jaw bone. “May I present my dear friend, the entity known as Jupiter. His horrid breath filled the chamber, wilting the vegetation around him.
“Jupiter, is it?” The Maize god chuckled. He gave William a sly wink as he took another puff of incense from his pipe.
“Come, Jupiter,” Yum Cimil said. “The Maize god cannot delay us on this day.”
“Feel free to proceed to the fields, Au Puch, but there is little point now, for the harvest is complete.” He motioned for William to join him on the platform.
The demon had already begun tearing a large hole in the limestone wall at the far end of the chamber. He spun around. “Do not play your childish games with me, Maize god!”
“I am afraid it is true, Au Puch. Yet I understand that you must continue with your task, for you are a slave to the curse of the soil plague. For that, I do pity you.”
“I do not believe you. You are a trickster.” He spotted William standing on the platform beside Yum Kaax. “Come, Jupiter. You will entertain me with your stories as we poison the land together.”
“Your friend, Balam, will not be joining you on your mission to poison the harvested fields, Au Puch,” he said, with incense drifting out his nostrils.
“Balam?” he asked in a confused tone, scratching the scales on his back. “Where have I heard that name before?” His forked tongue licked at the air, and his black eyes rolled around as he tried to remember. “Why yes, that was the name I heard from above when… when I was summoned below the ballcourt.” He glared at William. “Balam?”
“Balam is the master of the bloodstone, Au Puch,” Yum Kaax said with a big grin, pointing at the demon. “I guess that makes him your master as well.”
“You have deceived me!” the demon shrieked. He rushed up the steps of the small pyramid. William’s eyes grew wide as Yum Cimil charged him with black pus streaming from his jaws.
The Maize god leaned toward William with a half-smile, seeming unconcerned. “Take this, Balam,” he said, handing William his pipe. “Smoke from my pipe and return to your friends.”
William snatched the pipe from the Maize god and took a long drag of the incense, coughing from its harsh taste. He could see the demon at the top of the steps, its claws reaching out to him through the thick fog that he coughed up.
When the smoke cleared, he saw the limbs of the ceiba tree above him. Priest Quisac was still holding him against the tree, while another priest waved incense around his face. William coughed and used his free hand to swish away the smoke. “Okay, I’m awake,” he said in a cranky tone, as if coming out of a deep sleep.
Teshna kneeled beside William, caressing
his shoulder. “Balam, you did it… the harvest is complete.”
William removed his hand from the ceiba tree. “But the tree… the land…. it will still die.”
“We shall see,” Priest Quisac said.
Chapter Seven
After the Binding Ritual, William came down with a fever and rested in his bed for the remainder of the day. The Serpent Priest explained that his reaction was normal and would soon pass. However, William was in no rush to get better, for he loved having Teshna take care of him. She tried to keep his temperature down by patting him with a damp cloth. Yet her mere presence caused his blood to race, especially when she leaned over, allowing the front of her huipil to drop enough for him to see her body. She had a great figure, with curves in all the right places. Teshna noticed him ogling her, but she didn’t seem to mind. It was obvious to him that Teshna wanted to be there—her soft touch and flirtatious body language made that apparent.
William told Teshna about his strange dreamlike journey in the underworld with the demon, Yum Cimil—how he convinced the creature to return to the temples by making up stories about each plant. He explained how Yum Cimil seemed to enjoy his company, and William feared he would be stuck there forever as the demon’s permanent assistant.
The entire community had been overwhelmed with processing the crops from the harvest, and Teshna gave him updates along the way. She said there was only enough food to last one season, and that rations had been enforced.
Betty also popped by now and then to check on William. He wondered where Yax was, for he had not come by at all that day. When he asked Betty about Yax, she rolled her eyes, saying that she’d explain when he was feeling better.
Just before drifting off to sleep, he heard Priest Quisac talking to Teshna in the hallway. The Serpent Priest said that no crops would grow in their land until the curse had been lifted. To make matters worse, neighboring kingdoms were refusing to help them for fear that the soil plague would infect their land as well.
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