Innocence

When Marigold was born, Xibalba's 'pets' disliked her.

Garra, Colmillo, Medianoche, even Ponzoña wasn't very fond of their princess, but for very different reasons. While Xibalba and La Muerte mostly had their daughter in the Land of the Remembered, there were times when La Muerte would bring down Marigold to see her father to spend the night there. For those days, Xibalba had made a cradle for his baby, out of oaken wood, with a mattress filled with his own feathers, with a few on top of it to make it a bit more comfortable; wooden bars were stuck to the sides of the cradle to keep Marigold from falling out. While Marigold's crib in the Land of the Remembered was a traditional bassinet of pastel tones of pink, yellow and a touch of red filled with white blankets and pillows, this crib was more like a traditional cradle on a rocker, considering the Land of the Forgotten didn't like colorful nor flamboyant things.

Why did they dislike her? For each of the animals, it was a very different reason.

Garra and Colmillo disliked her because Xibalba no longer displayed them as much attention as before; before he would sometimes let them sleep with him on bed (when La Muerte was not down there, of course), but now he didn't even go into his chambers, thinking their fur might provoke his daughter an allergy attack. Now, all his affection to the hounds was displayed simply by scratching behind the ears.

Medianoche disliked her because his master no longer had time to go on a ride with him. All day, Medianoche was confined to his stable, often neighing and stomping his hooves to call for attention, but Xibalba would only tell her to be quiet or he would wake Marigold up. The horse would retort by stomping his hooves and neighing even louder, but this only made the dark god shake his head in disappointment and leave to check on his baby.

But Ponzoña disliked her the most. Before she came, everything was perfect. He had been the center of Xibalba's affection (after La Muerte, at least), and would often curl up in his lap or slid up his arm to receive his affection, a stroke on one of his heads or scratching under the chin. However, now it seemed Marigold had replaced him; Xibalba held her in his arms most of the time she was there, giving her the bottle or changing her diaper. And when she was taking a nap, he would sit next to her cradle and watch her sleep fondly. Wherever Ponzoña tried to take advantage of these moments to rekindle his bond with his master, Xibalba ushered him away.

Besides, what did that smelly, small, motionless thing have that made their master and his mistress fawn over it so much? All day it nothing more than sleep or cry, yet when she did wail Xibalba and La Muerte would immediately rush to her side and check on her. They hated it.

On this particular day, Xibalba was unfortunately immersed in his paperwork, while La Muerte had to go tend to some issues back in her own realm, not before they lulled Marigold to sleep and left her carefully swaddled in her cradle to take her nap. As always, Xibalba forbad Garra and Colmillo from disturbing his beloved daughter. However, as soon as they were sure he was in his study, the hounds silently scratched at the door; Ponzoña slid down his hat stand and towards the door, removing the lock to allow the hounds to come in.

Under no circumstances would they accept living under the same roof with that… thing. The best solution for this? Get rid of it. They would take it outside, and look for some place to leave it for anyone to find it and keep it if they wanted to. Besides, they hadn't really gotten to get a glimpse at the creature. The cradle was a few steps away from Xibalba's bed, with no sound coming from within it. Ponzoña slid up the frame of the cradle while Garra and Colmillo looked through the wooden bars with raised ears, their eyes on the baby.

Marigold was asleep, clutching a purple plush snake with black stripes that was bigger than her. Seeing her made them angry. However, only Garra uttered a growling sound from within his throat, before one of Ponzoña's heads hissed at him. If he startled the infant, it would cry; if it cried, it would call their master's attention, and they would be in deep trouble.

Suddenly, Marigold started to stir, and opened her eyes. She felt four pairs of eyes on her, but she soon knew none of them belonged to her parents. Her glanced changed between Garra, Colmillo and Ponzoña's heads, wondering what kind of creatures they were, and if they were friendly. She cooed and gurgled, reaching out for Ponzoña's heads; when he jerked away, she changed her attention to Colmillo and managed to grab on his nose. The wolf-like black hound whined in pain and jerked away its snout for her grasp. And she giggled at it. Colmillo growled at her trying to sound as menacing as he could, but she only giggled even more.

Garra and Colmillo glanced at each other and at Ponzoña's heads. Why didn't she fear them? Was she that dumb? They proceeded to sniff her, searching for any kind of reason as to why. Marigold giggled when she felt their hot breath tickling on her skin.

The more they stared at Marigold, the more they realized they were actually fascinated with the little one. They noticed she had their master's eyes; red, circular pupils in a pool of green sclera, but her eyes glimmered with a great innocence, curiosity and desire to learn new thing, rather than coldness and cruelty. Ponzoña noticed two feathery black stubs coming out from the blanket she was swaddled in, just on her back. They recognized them instantly as wings. However, the most notable features this little one had was that it was like a younger, smaller and more fragile version of their master's mistress, in every single way.

Now Marigold was holding out her plush in the air, as if she wanted to show it to them; maybe she was saying that she wanted to be friends with them. Soon, the animals realized they were starting to like the pup, hatchling or whatever it was called. Colmillo couldn't help it, and he stretched out his neck to sniff at the plush snake; however, the material it was made off provoked him an allergy reaction that made him sneeze loudly.

Marigold yelped in fright and started to cry. The animals panicked; if Xibalba found them like this, he would think they made her cry on purpose and he would be mad at them. Quickly, Ponzoña jumped off the cradle and slithered towards the drawers he had seen Xibalba keep the baby's pacifiers. Meanwhile, Colmillo started rocking the cradle at the base to try and sooth the infant, while Garra howled a random tune he thought off.

Xibalba grew alarmed as soon as he heard his baby crying, dropping his long black quill on top of his desk in the process; 'upstairs', La Muerte immediately felt her baby was in distress, and in a blur of marigold petals, she transported to the doors of Xibalba's chambers just as the dark god landed in front of them two, growing even more alarmed when they realized the doors were open.

However, when they opened the doors to pulverize whoever had dared lay a hand on their child, they were rather surprised by what they found.

"Guys?" Xibalba thought he had fallen asleep on his desk and was having a weird dream.

Colmillo was rocking the cradle, Garra was 'singing' to Marigold and Ponzoña had slithered up the crib, holding a pacifier in one of his mouths; Marigold's crying ceased as Ponzoña lowered the pacifier to her lips, and she immediately latched on it.

"Well, Balby, looks like we won't worry about finding a babysitter the next time we go out." La Muerte giggled as she approached the cradle –Garra and Colmillo moved out of the way- and picked her little one up. Marigold squirmed in alarm and her eyes started looking for the hounds' and the purple snake's shapes.

Xibalba glanced at his hounds, and found they had cowered away from the cradle, giving him fearful looks, thinking he would be angry. However, the dark god grinned and patted their heads softly. "Good boys." Having received affection from him after days of watching form afar, Garra and Colmillo immediately lunged at their master and knocked him over to the ground, their tongues coming into contact with his face like when they were pups and he was just a boy. However, Xibalba wasn't finding the situation any funny.

"Garra! Colmillo! Sentados!" The dark god protested, trying in vain to push his hounds off him.

La Muerte giggled at the scene and was soon joined by Ponzoña and Marigold (Marigold didn't know what her mother was laughing at, she just imitated her). Finally, Garra and Colmillo stepped off their master and allowed him to go back to his feet; Xibalba frowned and wiped their remaining saliva off his face, then looked down at his cloak and glared at his hounds. "You know it doesn't wash off!"

"Don't be mad, Balby, they're just happy you actually paid attention to them." La Muerte smiled, scratching behind Garra's ear with one hand, making the hound pant happily and move his leg.

"I guess you're right." Xibalba sighed. He hadn't spent too much time with his pets, now that he thought of it, with Marigold's birth and all that. Xibalba approached Ponzoña, still on the cradle, and extended his arm out to him. "Come here, boy."

Immediately, the two-headed snake slid up Xibalba's arm and wrapped around the crook on his arms, rubbing both heads against his cheek. Xibalba responded by scratching under its chins with his long, claw-like fingers.

Suddenly, Marigold sobbed and wriggled in her mother's arms, holding out her hands for Ponzoña.

"Oh, mi bebé." La Muerte snuggled her daughter into her embrace. "You grew attached to Ponzy, didn't you?"

Xibalba thought for a moment, before walking closer to his wife, taking Marigold from her gently.

"What are you going to do, Xibalba?" La Muerte inquired curiously.

"There's someone else she is yet to meet."

Medianoche had given up his ranting of hoof stamping and neighing, finally accepting that Xibalba would no longer fall for it. Instead, he lay down unto his straw bed, relaxing and taking a nap, remembering when he and his master met.

He was in his 'place' again.

His father would not find him here, that's what he hoped. He didn't want to receive another beating. In the darkness of his cave, ten year old Xibalba hugged his knees and buried his face into his them, wrapping himself in his wings, wincing everytime the freshly-made wounds made by a whipping stung. What did he have to do to earn his father's affection? He had no friends either, none of the other young gods liked him, they thought he was scary. When he thought of this things, he sobbed louder and his eyes stung with more tears.

A sound caught his attention, then the feeling of hot breath exhaling in his neck. Xibalba jerked back in fear that his father found him, but was surprised to find instead a young horse –probably a yearling- stepping back in surprise and startled eyes red eyes. Its coat was of the darkest black, its body was elegant and well-proportioned for its age and its mane and tail were gracefully curved at the tip. How had it gotten here? Animals always went up to the Land of the Remembered. Xibalba moved away again in fear when the yearling approached him once more.

"Leave me alone!" he snapped, still sobbing, trying to wrap himself in his wings.

The yearling stared at his wings curiously, and stretched out his neck to sniff them. Then, he started to nib a few of them, making the young god snap his wing back in annoyance. "Go away!" Xibalba snapped, burying his face into his knees and turning around so that the horse wouldn't bother him any further.

The yearling realized the boy in front of him was sad. He started to think of way to cheer him up. Xibalba felt curiosity when the foal started to neigh loudly and stomp his hooves; when he turned around to tell the horse to go bother someone else, he was surprised to find the foal dancing (or at least trying to), stomping its small hooves rhythmically and lifting them off the ground. Xibalba couldn't help but laugh a bit at it.

"You're funny, stupid horse."

The foal neighed and approached Xibalba once more, then started licking his tears dry. The young god giggled even more than before, and gave the little beast some pats in the neck.

"You're just lonely, aren't you, boy?"

The foal approached Xibalba and rested next to him, laying its head on his lap, flicking its ears in relaxation.

"You lost your mama? I lost mine too. We can be friends if you'd like."

The foal let out a small snort.

"How about I name you? I can't refer to your as horse all the time." Xibalba examined the foal for a second, before running a hand across its coat as dark as midnight… as dark as midnight.

"How about Medianoche?"

"Medianoche."

The horse was brought back from the unofficial Land of Memories when he heard his master's voice; happy after days of not seeing him, the stallion immediately stood up and approached the door of his box… but was very much disappointed when he saw a familiar, wriggling bundle in his master's arms. Master's mistress was holding unto his arm with a worried expression, her eyes set on the bundle. Garra and Colmillo sat a few steps away, Ponzoña wrapped around Colmillo's beck the three were staring at the horse anxiously.

"Hello there, chico." Xibalba spoke softly, gently bouncing Marigold in his arms to keep her calm.

Medianoche snorted and took a few steps back with bent back ears..

"I know I haven't been here to see you for the part days, but I'm here. I wanted to introduce you to Marigold."

Medianoche stared at the wriggling bundle of blankets in his rider's arms.

"Xibalba, are you sure this is a good idea…?" La Muerte whispered, tightly holding unto her husband's arm when Medianoche approached once more. "What if he gets scared?"

"Come on, mi amor, how could Marigold scare him?" Xibalba chuckled, reassuringly wrapping a wing around his wife, before centering his attention back on his horse and holding out his baby a bit. "Look, boy. This is my baby, Marigold"

Marigold was back to her nap, warmly swaddled up in blankets, suckling on her pacifier innocently, wriggling in her father's arms every now and then. Medianoche carefully reached out his neck and sniffed the child curiously, his ears pointing forward. Marigold giggled in her sleep at the ticklish sensation and tried to hide her face into her father's chest.

Suddenly, Medianoche didn't dislike the little one so much now. With a snort and a silent neigh, he grabbed unto her blanket and nibbled on it, in hopes of waking her up. Marigold opened her eyes slightly and started looking around for the thing that had interrupted her nap, and was startled when she realized there was a ridiculously large head above her, grabbing at her blanket. However, rather than being frightened by it, she was curious; immediately, she cooed and reached out for Medianoche's nose.

La Muerte giggled at the scene. "Aren't they a cutie?" However, her motherly side soon made her take her baby back from her father. "But we can't let her near them so much, Balby. Remember she's just a baby, her defenses are not that developed fully yet." But as soon as she stepped away from the horse, Marigold started to cry and reached out for him. "Aww, don't worry, mi Chiquita." La Muerte held her baby against her chest and kissed her head, soothing her a bit. "In a few months you'll be able to play with papi's pets."

"I'd rather use the term 'family', my dear." Xibalba spoke as he approached her, glancing at his hounds, snake and horse with a smile. "They're part of the family too."

The animals were touched by those words. As they saw La Muerte and Xibalba go back into the castle to lull their daughter back to her nap, they realized that they didn't need, nor want, to rid themselves of that brat; even that word, brat, had changed from insult to a cute nickname.

They just couldn't wait to play with her again.