At the brink of dawn, Tzekel-Kan arose from his slumber, slightly groggy, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, stretched, and then climbed out of his bed. He fixed his hair in a golden mirror, making sure there were no stray hairs out of place. Fixing his clothing he headed down the stone stairs to awake his new student.
He arrived to her chambers only to see a mass of blankets wrapped into a messy ball. All he could see was a lone hand sticking out, he chuckled lightly. Strolling over to her bed, he bent down, hearing her snore underneath the blankets. He tapped the mass, she twitched, he tapped again, another twitch and a groan before he ripped the blankets away.
"HEY! YOU GOT A PROBLEM?!" Eva shouted, having no clue who she was speaking too, or where she was as she bolted upright, about ready to take a swing at the person who had the nerve to disturb her dreams.
"Well, good morning to you too!" Tzekel replied.
She squinted to get a better look, her eyelids still heavy, she groaned and fell back onto the bed, hands over her eyes. "Come, come! Time to start your training" Tzekel beckoned.
"But, so early?" she whined. She threw her arm over her face to try and block the sun.
"Yes, so early, now c'mon get up!" he demanded.
She sighed irritably, sitting up with a yawn and a stretch of her arms. Eva rubbed her face to wake up, which was almost impossible for a night dweller such as herself. Her hair was all over the place, her bangs stuck up, she had cowlicks. Getting up she almost tripped over the blankets, still slow, she walked over to a table that had a brush just calling her name.
A bowl of water was placed on the table as well, she cupped her hands full of water and splashed her face, it was cool and woke her up to a point where she wasn't still sleep walking. She brushed down her bangs and managed her cowlicks to a certain point that they weren't totally visible.
"Ready for your first day?" Tzekel asked with a grin.
"As ready as I'll ever be" she stated.
"Good! Now follow me" he ushered before heading to a staircase. She followed suit, slowly ascending the steps, her body still not use to waking up so early in the day, tripping up at least three steps.
They came to a landing to a vast room. The one giant quality that it had was a open window in the roof. It framed the sky, which was colored with oranges and pinks. "Wow..." she whispered in awe. At night you could see every star out this window, Tzekel-Kan could predict the future and what the gods would be telling even though sometimes it was unclear what they were telling him.
Tzekel sat in the middle the room, welcoming her to sit next to him. Taking her seat she felt on edge for some reason, adrenaline was beginning to coarse through her body.
"First, you must offer the gods your blood to them." Tzekel spoke, picking up a knife that was made from stone and sharpened to a point. Both sides of the blade were searing, making it easy to slice through and across anything.
"And do you know why Gods need blood?" he asked, as if it were the most important question in the universe.
"Because...Gods don't bleed?" she inquired.
He grinned from ear to ear "Precisely".
Eva gulped uncomfortably, she knew of this agonizing tradition, yet, never anticipated she would have to do it in her lifetime. She watched in horrified silence as Tzekel cut the palm of his hand open, barely making a noise, he then slapped it on the ground, rubbing the stone floor with his blood in front of him. When he pulled it up, a green-flicker of light came from his wound and grew smaller upon it till there was no more of his wound. Eva's eyes widened with an open mouth at the sight.
He handed her the knife, still having his blood on one side she flipped it to the cleaner side. She glanced to Tzekel with a sense of fear lying her chest heavily. Eva cut her hand, yelping in pain as the knife tore through her flesh. Eva mimicked what her mentor had done, it hurt even more to drag it around on the stone floor. Now her hand ached, blood still flowing from her hand.
Her hand was put into Tzekel's by him reaching over, a sharp-burning sensation came from her hand. Eva tried prying her hand away from his as she gasped and hissed. Tzekel, however had a firm grip on her palm. The green light came back, flickering between their intertwined hands. And suddenly, the pain was gone, her blood seemed to vanish, and when Tzekel removed his hand there was no open wound, just a faint scar.
"How are you able to do that?" Eva asked.
"You have your secrets, I have mine." he replied simply.
He stood up, walking to one end of the room while Eva studied her hand in awe as she stood as well. Tzekel came back with a stack of books piled in his arms before he handed them to Eva, who nearly fell over from the weight of them.
"Now! I want you to read these books." he spoke with a grin.
"You want me to read?" she inquired with an incredulous look.
"You can't read?" Tzekel questioned.
"I can read!" she huffed irritably. "Just, I have to read all of this?" she tried to hold up the books a little higher to possibly ease off the weight.
"If you are to brush up on our gods then, yes. All of them." he stated before walking to the stairs. "Oh, and have fun" he laughed, leaving her alone with a huge stack of books and an annoyed look.
Out of spite she dropped them on the ground, still in a stack, however, uneven. She sighed, snatching the top book, opening it to the first page and sitting cross-legged on the stone floor. Placing her cheek in the palm of her hand she began the story of how it all began.
Later that evening, when the sun had just set for the day, Tzekel-Kan returned upstairs to find Eva still preoccupied with reading, she had moved all the books to sit underneath a torch. All the books were open at various points, surrounding her in a circle-like pattern. He raised a brow, had she really read all these books? Or was she taking her time by switching from one to another?
"Good evening, Eva" he greeted. He stood halfway between a light from a torch and a shadow. She didn't seem to hear him. "Hello, Tzekel" she spoke not looking up from the book in her arms.
"I read all of them." Eva said.
"What?" Tzekel asked, bewildered.
"I read them all, I'm just puzzled by some passages is all, they seem to contradict each other in some way or another" she repeated.
How could she have read all these texts in one day?! Tzekel asked himself in disbelief. "They what?" was all he could get out past his lips.
"What I mean is, one says one thing, and another says something different to the same subject. Which is confusing to say the least." she explained.
He came over to the books, peering down at them with his hands on his hips. He had read these texts many times, knew them all by heart, yet, she was the first to say that they went against each other.
"But, mostly I'm studying them thoroughly, I don't want to miss any details." she stated, still having her eyes on the book.
"May I ask how you are able to read all of these in a single day?" Tzekel questioned.
"I can read" she smirked, now eying him. Eva shut the book, rubbing her eyes with a groan. "I'm starving" she held her stomach, it ached with hunger pains.
"Dinner is ready, I was coming up here to tell you." Tzekel said, turning around and heading to the stairs once more, Eva stood up and hurried along to his side, food was beckoning her.
During dinner, she had tried not to scarf down all of her food at once. It was rather impolite to stuff your face with food in front of someone. He was watching her, he knew she was starving.
"I know you're hungry, eat." he spoke, breaking the silence.
She stopped mid-chew to look up at him. "What?" she questioned. Tzekel made a simple gesture, giving her permission to eat like she wanted to. There was a pause, Eva thought he was testing her...until...she went crazy, not to the point where it was disgusting, she just ate faster. Pretty soon, her food was gone in about ten minutes flat.
"Enjoy your meal?" he asked.
"It was very good." she picked up a cloth and wiped her mouth.
"You haven't told me much about you. I'd like to know you better." Tzekel said.
"There isn't much to tell..." Eva replied.
"I think there is loads to tell." Tzekel stated.
"Well...my mother died while giving birth to me, my father died of illness when I was ten. And, from then on I was on my own. That's about it." Eva's expression had changed, she was acting as if it didn't bother her when in reality she was hurting. "I've had a hammock near the jungle for the past five years, that's where I stay-OUCH!" she yelled, she held her hand up, she had been gilding her fingers across the edge of the table when a splinter stabbed her middle finger.
She cursed under her breath, a small patch of blood began to well up at the injury. Tzekel held out his hand "let me see it" he said.
"No! It hurts!" she tried protecting her hand by putting it behind her back.
Tzekel rolled his eyes "just let me see it!" he demanded, getting up from the table and coming over to her, holding out his hand, Eva stood up quickly, putting her foot on his stomach, stretching her leg out to make some distance between them.
"Do not come near me!" she tried defending herself in a pathetic attempt.
He made an unamused face as he grabbed her ankle firmly, so she wouldn't wriggle her way out, "don't you dare!" she threatened. He smirked, threw her back onto a pile of pillows, cushioning her landing, before she even had time to get up he sat right on top of her, her legs kicked in a futile. "Get off me!" she yelled. "Just let me see!" he ordered. "No! You're gonna yank it out and it's gonna hurt!" she shouted. Eva tried hitting him with her good hand, but he caught it and pinned it to her other hand. He was definitely stronger than she, still she squirmed, with one hand he held her's together. Tzekel ripped out the splinter "OW!" she screeched.
"There, was that so bad?" he got up off her and began walking away.
"You're sadistic!" she spat.
"Thank you" he replied heading to his chambers.
Eva sighed irritably, lying back down with a huff. She sucked on her bleeding finger, metallic in taste. 'I already hate him' she thought bitterly.