Chapter 2 Chapter One

Huddled beside her mother, Annamaya suddenly woke up from her dream and heard the patter of rain on the hut. It was still dark, and the night in the forest was dark and dark.It was raining heavily.Except for the patter of rain, there was no sound, neither the creaking of beams nor the cry of apes or other regulars of the forest. She turned to face the reed bedstead, looking for her mother's hand.She didn't know why she couldn't sleep. As soon as she opened her eyes, the darkness turned the beams of the roof into vipers, and all the jars into monstrous monsters.Once she closed her eyes, the noise of the rain was unbearable again.Those raindrops were as heavy as stones, as if they were about to pierce through the palm roofs and hit her chest hard.

She didn't know what to do, but she was uneasy.She was depressed, and there was a strong and inexplicable pain in her heart, similar to that in the dream. She shrank her legs tremblingly, pressed her body against her mother's belly, and sobbed fiercely.But she didn't complain, and she didn't speak.Afterwards, she fell asleep again in a daze. In the twilight of morning, she forgot the fear of last night.She jumped up, slipped quietly through the gap between the hammocks, and walked to the empty courtyard outside the house. This is a small village surrounded by jungle barriers.A high wooden wall with sharpened ends guards four large settlements of thatched huts, leaving a large courtyard in the middle.At this time, there was nothing in the courtyard, and the rain had stopped.Yet the air was hot and sticky.The sky was overcast, gray clouds reflected in a few glistening bands of mire in the tall grass.

Anamaya killed a mosquito on her arm, and they swarmed around in the humid air like little transparent clouds that came and went without a trace. With three jumps and two jumps, she came to the towering fence and the sentinel stationed by the gate.The soldier was a young man.Like all the people in the village and all the Chiriguanos, as they are jokingly called "those who are afraid of the cold," he wears only a cloth sash around his waist.His chin and cheeks were lined in black and green, his forehead and perfectly curved top of his skull were shaved clean.His skin was as dark and smooth as the village soil, and the long string of shiny turquoise necklaces on his chest looked even more dazzling by contrast.

He was drowsy, but when Ana Maya poured the water on him, he woke up suddenly, pointed his spear at him, and laughed loudly: "What are you doing out here at this hour, fat girl?" "Come to help you defend the village!" Anna Maya replied seriously. The soldier stopped laughing and nodded seriously: "Good idea! If those Incas knew you were with me, they wouldn't dare to attack us!" "Never dare, of course! . . . Then, will you let me go?" The young warrior laughed again, and patted her on the back of the neck. "Go, girl. But don't go far, or your mother will pickle my head in one of her pots!" he joked, letting go of the straw rope that held the heavy door.

Anna Maya hurried through the gap and ran all the way towards the dense forest. Ignoring the thorns that would tear her clothes, she jumped and galloped in the open space in the forest, her bare feet shuttled back and forth among the colorful flowers like the wind. When she approached the big pond, she jumped into the water and swam swiftly, her young body as smooth and soft as the water in the pond.She enjoyed swimming in the water, and then she swam to a branch of a low-hanging pink vine, jumped up, grabbed it, and climbed up like a monkey. At her feet, the reflection on the water melted with the waves after she landed, and then merged into the calm water of the pool.It was the reflection of a ten-year-old girl. She was obviously much taller than the other girls in the village, with fairer skin and a flatter forehead.In addition, her sharp and stubborn chin makes the whole face look very slender.And what she hates the most is that the bridge of the nose is much slender than that of the Chiriguano girl.Even her mouth is different from others, it is relatively small, although the outline is clear, it is a pity that the lip flesh is a little too thin.

What's more special is her eyes. She closed her eyes and kicked the water with her feet, causing the splash to disperse her reflection. Why does she look like this?There were rumors in the village, but her mother never wanted to tell her about it. Her mother...she suddenly wanted to see her, to touch her so much that her stomach ached. She laughed and screamed her mother's name, and when the cry echoed in the dense bushes, she jumped off the branch of the pink vine and ran back to the village with all her strength, her speeding heartbeat full of love. At noon, the dark clouds dispersed.After a ray of sunlight shot into the forest, it stopped on those thatched huts.Ana Maya laughed happily as the sunlight climbed onto her shoulders.

She danced lightly, with a smile on her face.She opened her hands, letting her thick black hair sway with the rhythm, and she wanted to dedicate her naked body to the sky that was sunny and rainy. "Anamaya!" her mother called to her. In the whole village, she was the only one who covered herself with clothes. A coarse long gown covered her knees. The color of the cloth had faded long ago, and only some carefully decorated patterns of squares, crosses and rhombuses could be vaguely discerned. There was nothing on the clothes. There are several patches sewn with agave thread. "It's the sun!" The child spun and cheered under the golden sunlight. "Come out, mother, come out!"

Ana Maya ran to her mother, grabbed her by the hands, and tried to drag her out of the house.Her mother smiled, hesitated for a while, and was finally persuaded by the child's happy mood. They danced up and down.The mud on the ground splashed around between their feet, staining their legs amid shrill laughter.Suddenly, Anna Maya slipped and fell.Her mother stretched out her arms and pulled her up. When she was close to her, she almost fell to the ground with her. It was not until the two gradually stopped laughing that they stood up again and embraced tightly. together. "Come on, Mom, do it again!" Anamaya murmured in her mother's ear.

The tender mother looked at her child with shining eyes. "Have you forgotten our agreement?" She whispered softly, pretending to scold. Anna Maya frowned.No, she didn't forget it, and it wasn't fun at all! "Do we really have to help the old hag?" "Anamaya! She's not an old witch, she's a fairy grandma." "So what? I just don't like her." Mother smiled and pulled her back.Holding hands, they walked around a hut and then across the central courtyard.The sun was flooding the pond now, and intermittent drizzle puckered the water.

It was so sweltering that the jungle was smoking.Layers of light, transparent ribbons of smoke curled upward until they drifted past the bramble bushes beside the tall fence. By a dimly lit fire in the corner of a hut, an old woman with a long, flat-handled Irok spoon kept stirring the green, viscous sap in a wide-necked urn.Anna Maya couldn't help making a face. "I brought the clothes, fairy grandma..." The witch looked suspiciously at the square piece of cloth.Due to excessive use, the entire cloth has long since become thin and transparent, and even the pink piping has faded to white.

"It's almost ready," she murmured. Anamaya stood on tiptoe and looked carefully at the dye in the pot. "How do you know there are elves in it?" she asked the old woman. "Because I added it, you idiot." "I'm not stupid. I can't see..." "Be quiet, Ana Maya," her mother ordered gently. "Why can you see it but I can't?" Anna Maya continued to ask. "Because I have clairvoyance, you know it very well!" The old woman became impatient, "Now, be quiet and listen to your mother, little girl!" Anna Maya sighed.They spread the cloth on a clay urn whose neck was blackened by smoke, and the old woman poured the dye slowly, leaving a layer of green sediment on the cloth, with a strong smell, a kind of A taste from the bottom of the forest where the sun never shines. Anna Maya waited for the elf to appear, but unfortunately, she could only hear the sound of the dye dripping into the bottom of the urn, and the dripping became slower and slower. She really wanted to ask another question, but she didn't dare.Suddenly, she felt a coolness creeping up to her shoulders scorched by the sun, so she raised her eyes to look at the black figure in the sky, but unfortunately loosened a corner of the fabric she was holding tightly in her hand. The green dye immediately flowed into the bottom of the urn, and the old woman screamed. "Anamaya!" her mother yelled too. "what are you doing?" "Mom! It's a bird!" It was huge, almost as big as a hut.The air whizzed between its jet-black wings.It hovered in the low sky, making people think that it was about to stop and rest, but no, it continued to twist its long neck covered with down, extended its terrifying beak, and flew high into the sky. "Mom, look, it's so beautiful!" All the naked children in the courtyard stopped playing, and the adults also put down their work.The men with clean-shaven skulls were worried, and even the older generation walked out of the house, blocking the sun and raindrops with their hands, and looking up at the sky. The tip of the bird's wings spread out like fingers, shaking its white and slender feathers.Now, it flew back above them, and people could clearly see its huge claws, which were bigger than a human hand.Anna Maya wondered about Big Bird's eyes.For a moment, her round pupils tracked its eyes and held on.However, she could no longer see everything around her clearly.All she heard was a growing noise, a clamor in the night, a tramp like a hundred marching in unison.She wanted to scream, but her mother's gentle hand was on her shoulder, a hand that was trembling as it tried to comfort her. "Great vulture..." her mother stammered, pressing her fingers tighter and tighter. "A messenger from the Incas," said the sorceress. Anna Maya was next to her mother who was muttering to herself. "The vulture...but the vulture never came here. It never flew down to the plains." Ana Maya looked at her mother.She saw that her mouth was open and her face was pale. "Mom! Mom, what's the matter with you?" The big bird fluttered its wings and flew high.It turned around and flew to the east. After flying through wisps of mist, it shook slightly, as if it was about to pounce on the village.But no, it flew higher and higher.Then the clouds gradually parted, opening a passage for it to the mountains to the west, when the sky suddenly cleared. Ana Maya was throbbing, her words congealed in her chest, as if a thousand voices suddenly echoed through her, pressing on her belly and ribs. In the courtyard of the village, all the faces are still upright, and all the people are still silent.Everything stops turning.Everything is silent, even the forest is as silent as a cicada. Then there was a piercing blast of horns. "The Incas! It's the Incas!" The sentry leaped over the fence and staggered forward. "The Incas! Here they come!" The moment the sentinel fell to the ground, there was still such a cry in his lips.At the same time as he landed, the turquoise necklace on his body was also torn off, and small blue gemstones rolled in the dust and fell into the soil.A stream of dark red blood slowly flowed from his temple, flowing over the red and black paint on his cheeks.He was hit in the head by a catapult. Ana Maya felt her mother tremble all over.The horn sounded like a beast roaring again, and the thumping drums shook the entire forest.Cries pierced the sky.The men rushed into the house and took out their weapons. Others had already rushed to the fence, holding bows and arrows, with sharp arrows with double skeletons exposed on the top of the barrel.The noise was unbearable.Anamaya pressed her face against her mother's belly, who restlessly stroked the child's hair, cheeks and hands. The great vulture disappeared in the mountains.The clouds in the sky closed again.Chiriguano fighters crouched by a fence of stakes.For an instant, everything stood still. Then, suddenly, it seemed as if all the sounds were humming again.Anna Maya saw that the sky was covered with lines, and a large shadow spread in all directions like swarms of flying insects. Then, hundreds of flying arrows shot straight into the courtyard. "Mom!" Ana Maya yelled again. Her mother had already bent down and held her in her arms.They couldn't help closing their eyes when they heard the enemy's javelins piercing into the flesh and blood of the warriors in the clan as easily as if they were inserted into the mud.Blood flowed everywhere, and even men wept like babies. The earthen urn containing the green dye fell to the ground. Surrounded by fear and death.Her mother sang to comfort the little girl curled up in her arms, telling her that she was still with her and that she had nothing to fear.But Anna Maya couldn't listen to a word. When she opened her eyes again, the atrium was filled with colorful feathered long arrows.On the recumbent men, the shiny feathers are like clumps of conjurer's flowers. "Come here!" her mother said aloud. When the sound of fighting came through the fence, she took the child by the hand and led her across the field of arrows.Several men wearing colorful masks jumped out from behind the defenseless wooden posts.They turned their slings, and the sound of the lasso's pimp echoed through the air.Lost to the number and weapons of their opponents, the Chiriguanos fell one by one, and the short mace in their hands was useless at all. "Quick, hurry!" her mother yelled. They ran forward desperately, despite the broken javelins scratching their feet.A flurry of stones from slingshots whistled past their ears.Just as an old man with black teeth was warning them, a stone hit him in the chest, and he fell backwards before he could speak. "Hurry up, Annama..." Ana Maya felt a twitch in her hand.A strong shock went straight up her arm.Then her hands were suddenly released and she lunged forward with her mother, but she stood up immediately. "Mom, stand up, I beg you! . . . " Her mother didn't move.Anna Maya dared not look at her face.She pulled back the extremely warm and strong hand that was holding her tightly just now.She tugged hard, and her mother's body slid heavily on the water-stained ground. "Mom, hurry up, they are here..." She guessed that those soldiers in different clothes had already approached gradually from behind.After the sounds of fighting and killing were over, all that was left were groans and a few words of laughter. At this moment, she finally dared to face her mother's face. There was a pool of bright red blood in the center of her forehead, her eyes were closed, and a little brown blood was seeping from between her lips. She gets it. She saw that she was still clutching a rag stained with the green dye of the elf-possessed.She opened her mother's clenched fingers and took out the rag.She could no longer hear the triumphant laughter of the victors, the mournful wails of the dead, or the cries of babies abandoned in cradles inside the house.She could no longer see the last fighters defeated, the first flames that burned fences and huts.There was only silence left on her now, as if all the doors in her heart were being closed one after another. Under the terrifying bang of the flames of war, she knelt down slowly and hugged her mother's belly tightly. No more breathing, no signs of life, nothing but a little warmth and sadness still emanating from inside her body. This is what she looked like when she was found by the soldiers. When he was about to take her away, she didn't howl, but resisted desperately. He had no choice but to forcibly pull her fingers away, and forcefully pulled away her body that was leaning against her mother, trying to bring her back to life. At last he separated them, but he had to drag her, as if immobilized, across the dusty mud. She is alive and dead. In his right hand, the Inca officer held a Chuchi, a long javelin with a bronze head and a wooden body inlaid with the feathers of a large vulture.On his chest he wore a leather breastplate, and on his head a helm carefully woven of reed grass, decorated with a red and yellow egret. There was a pungent smell of smoke in the air.Holding the silk rag tightly between her fingers, Anna Maya lowered her eyes tenaciously.She studied the Inca's slender back. "Did we kill all the damned Chiriguanos?" he asked the soldier who had brought her to him. "Yes, Captain Sikanshara. But a few people took the opportunity to escape from the forest." "very good." He turned to face Anamaya, whose face and body were covered in mud. "Who is this one?" "I don't know, Captain Sikanshara. She was next to a dead woman. I brought her back to you because..." "Look at me, little girl," interrupted the officer. Ana Maya was motionless, her fists clenched in rags.When the soldier was about to step forward to grab her, Sikanshara stopped him. "Look at me, little girl," he said very gently. She remained unmoved.After he handed the soldier his spear and breastplate, he walked slowly towards her.He squatted down, held the child's chin with delicate fingertips, raised her face to him, and then caught the brilliance of the pair of blue pupils with focused eyes. Startled, he stumbled back a few steps. Ana Maya saw the face of a man with a strong nose and beautiful lips. She saw his surprise, but also his fear.