A/N: Nahuel: jungle cat
The Origin of Huilen
The Mapuche Tribe, Mid-1800s, northern Chile, South America
A pair of sisters were out in the forest surrounding their home, foraging for berries to share with their tribe. One sister had a suspicion that the other was up to something untoward, as she'd been secretive lately. Huilen had noticed Pire would sneak off while their people were sleeping, returning before first light. Now that she had her sister alone, she was going to find out what was going on.
"Pire, where is it that you've gone these past few nights?"
"Never you mind, Huilen." Pire smiled to herself and swept her long braid back over her shoulder.
Huilen knew something was amiss, but her sister enjoyed keeping secrets whenever she could. It wasn't often they could hide anything from one another; they were born only one year apart, and their lives ran parallel. Huilen was the responsible one, the capable and dependable one. Pire was beautiful and charming, and everyone flocked to her. She could have any boy she wanted, yet she refused them all.
"Have you finally chosen a boy? Running off to dally with him in the woods?" Huilen asked, her eyebrow raised, both teasing and accusing.
Pire threw her head back and laughed. Then she looked around and when she saw there was no one near, she leaned in and whispered in her sister's ear. "Not a boy, a man. And not just any man. A beautiful creature, muscles hard as rock, his essence all-consuming."
"You stay away from white men," Huilen admonished. "You know they're killers."
"Not this one." Pire shook her head wistfully and went back to picking berries.
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A few mornings later, Pire did not return from sneaking out at night. Huilen was afraid. She feared her sister was killed, or worse, stolen by that sinister yet seductive man. Pire was missing for two days and the search parties had not been able to find her. Huilen felt hopeless but she refused to give up when the others did. She branched out on her own, going far away, further than she'd ever gone before. It was there that Huilen found her sister, lying in a patch of dried grass, the dead bodies of small animals flung out around her. The poor thing had to eat what she could find, Huilen told herself, avoiding looking at the mangled bodies. She must have been desperately hungry.
"Pire!" Huilen cried, and her sister's head snapped up at the sound. When her eyes settled on her big sister, Pire sat up, smiling. "Oh, Huilen, you came!" Pire rose to her feet gingerly and that was when Huilen noticed a protrusion from her abdomen.
"Pire, are you alright?"
"Oh, never better, dear sister. My lover has given me a child. He told me he was an angel from God, and my baby would be holy."
Huilen cursed the fanciful lies this strange man filled her sister's head with. And she cursed the missionaries too; if they hadn't come and forced their teachings on the Mapuche people, Pire would never have believed such tall tales.
It had only been a few weeks that she'd been sneaking off at night. Pire shouldn't be showing the evidence yet; her midsection should still be flat, and yet it bulged out as it would over more time. Perhaps she'd been seeing this man for longer than Huilen realized.
"Pire, how many moons have you been seeing him?"
"Only one."
"But, sister, how…?" Huilen couldn't finish, so she gestured toward her sister's bump.
Pire cradled her belly lovingly. "It's a miracle, Huilen. My baby is magical."
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Huilen stayed in the woods with Pire. She had always been the hunter between them, and Pire couldn't start a fire to save her life. So Huilen took care of her, killing small animals for her sister to eat. But the fire was only to keep warm, not to cook. No, Pire didn't want the meat, she wanted the blood.
Now that her stomach was bulging out, she could no longer move around much. So, Huilen brought her meals. The first time, the mink was already dead, and Pire had complained. So the next time, the animal was still very much alive, squirming in Huilen's sack. She set it down next to her sister and pulled the mink out of the bag, handing it to her sister by the tail. Pire took it and smiled, then slashed the animal's throat open with the small knife she carried, letting the blood pour into her open mouth. Huilen was horrified, frozen to the spot as she watched her sister drink the blood. When the animal was no longer twitching, it's lifeblood drained, Pire tossed its body to the side before leaning back against the tree with a satisfied smile.
Huilen always broke the animals' necks first after that.
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Pire struggled to breathe. It had been nearly 3 weeks. The child grew and grew, stretching skin that had no time to accommodate naturally expanding. This was much too fast. And it was strong too. It broke her bones just by moving, and she complained of a great pain in her chest. Huilen watched as the impression of a foot pushed out under her flesh, making her sister cringe and cry out in pain. The thing was killing her. But Pire would not allow Huilen to cut it out of her. She still believed her baby was good, a messenger of peace to the world. It was the child of an angel, and she was privileged to be the one to bring it to life. Even if that meant she had to die.
"And where is your precious angel now?" Huilen had asked after Pire had sustained a particularly bad fracture.
Pire didn't take the bait. "He'll come back for me when his child is born."
"And leave you with the hard part?"
Pire just sat back, squaring her shoulders, pointedly looking away from her. Obviously, they were not going to talk about this. So Huilen let it go. Pire was dealing with enough without Huilen's judgement of the baby's father.
This was difficult for Huilen to accept. Pire's choice to die was going to take her sister from her, the closest person to her, the one who knew her inside and out. They may have been different, but they were sisters above anything else. And soon, Huilen would be alone. She contemplated cutting the child out when Pire was asleep, catching her unawares and not giving her a chance to stop it. Huilen would cause her great pain cutting into her belly, but was that not better than certain death? Didn't she want to live?
It was as if Pire could read her thoughts. "This baby will be good, you know. You think it will be some demon. He's just strong, that's all. I can handle it. And if I die, then it will have been worth it, for I know this is an angel's child, destined for greatness."
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It was only four more days when Pire let out an ear-splitting shriek of terror and pain, her belly bouncing and stretching as little fists and feet visibly pushed and kicked. Huilen tried to comfort her as Pire screamed and screamed, the pain in her voice shaking Huilen to the core. She brushed the sweaty, matted hair away from Pire's stricken face while her sister cried out with every new twist, crack, and tear. Finally, Pire's spine was broken, leaving her eerily still after so much thrashing. Huilen listened as the baby tore her sister apart from the inside, trying to get out. Pire's midsection hadn't stopped moving and her belly stretched, her skin about to split.
"Pire!" Huilen cried in horror as the creature broke through, blood pouring out of her sister's inert body, her eyes getting duller. She rushed over to her beloved sister, knowing Pire was about to die. "I love you, dear sister. You can't leave me."
"You have to go on," she insisted weakly. "Please, you must take care of him, my nahuel."
Huilen hesitated and looked back at the grotesque creature that had killed her sister. It was trying to crawl up her sister's body. Huilen turned back toward Pire when she spoke again, this time in whispers, the life leaving her body. "My death cannot be for nothing. You must guide him so he can be all he is meant to be."
Huilen met her eyes and lied. "I will. He'll be safe with me."
"Oh, thank you, dear sister," she breathed, and then her eyes unfocused and they were staring off into nothing. Pire was dead.
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Huilen planned to kill the demon that had murdered her sister, but she was still reacting to her sister's death when it happened. She hadn't noticed that the child had succeeded in dragging itself up Pire's body, and it bit Huilen on the back of her upper arm, exposed to him by the way she was leaning in to close her sister's eyelids. For a few moments, her arm stung as she felt the suction pulling the blood out of her. Huilen was bleary eyed and woozy for a minute after the sensation was over, and in the next minute, fire rapidly spread from the wound and she was being burned alive. Huilen staggered away, desperately trying to run from the enduring pain, but it was no use. The fire overwhelmed her and she burned, burned for an indefinite amount of time. Was this Hell? Had the missionaries been right? Was she being burnt and sent to Hell because she had plotted to kill an angel? If so, she was sure she would burn for eternity.
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Eternity in Hell didn't last nearly as long as she thought it would. The fire subsided and she opened her eyes to a brand-new world and a brand new Huilen. Every sense was amplified, every movement graceful, and the world was more wondrous than she'd ever imagined. She experienced so much input in the first few seconds after she'd opened her eyes, and then a noise, like twigs rustling, consumed her attention.
She looked in the direction of the sound, her neck moving so fast she was almost distracted by the surprise of her speed, and was immediately filled with awe and terror. She felt herself crouch as she stared at the child, drained animals scattered around, Pire's corpse clean of blood. He looked like a normal little boy—an adorable little boy. But he was much bigger now—when he was already big to begin with—and he was crawling toward her with a drooly grin.
He reached her in record time and she let him crawl into her arms, still in shock at how different he looked after what must have been only a short period of time, judging from the lack of decay on her sister's body. The fires had felt like forever and had warped her sense of time. When he was settled in her arms and they were face to face, the baby smiled, flashing a full set of teeth. She remembered the biting sensation.
"Did you do this to me?" she asked.
The baby just smiled.
"What are we?"
The baby cooed and smiled wider. He looked over his shoulder, indicating a distant pond surrounded by tall reeds. The wind shifted and Huilen was running toward the most mouthwatering scent she'd ever smelled—she needed it. The child was in her arms when she reached the source of the scent. The old man screamed as she set the child down and drained the blood of his son right in front of him. His heart ceased to beat and he dropped to the ground. The baby was babbling from where she'd set him down. When she looked over, he was already halfway over to her. He crawled up to the body and smiled at her before sinking his teeth into the man's neck. Shocked by what she'd done and what she'd seen this baby do, she thought there was more than enough blood in that human for him, and she latched her teeth into his arm. Huilen met the eyes of the baby after they'd emptied the old man's body. She was terrified and awed by what she'd become.
The baby just smiled at her.
Hope you enjoyed it! I'll post again with Nahuel's story next. If you liked this, check out the story it was inspired by: Visions Interrupted, on my main page. Thanks to palmofafreezinghand for keeping me historically accurate! She's the best - read all her stuff.
