Aztec Diary The Ancient Tales: Book One

by Leanah Song

I had to do this for school and everyone said it was really good and told me to post it. A lost diary found in a newly discovered Aztec City tells the tale of two girls living in the Aztec empire. Love, freedom, and hope mark their paths.

2. Preface

Preface

Cuetlachtli recalled that time she remembered the reason she had taken the boy name of wolf, when normally she would have stayed with the name she was given by her midwife at birth till death without any thought of change. Now she didn't even remember that name.

Cuetlachtli remembered the war, sickness, and famine that had taken all of her family, except her mother, who died in childbirth and was buried like a warrior. She remembered the sadness and the fear. She remembered the fear of being a slave. For, as an orphan, that was the only class she could belong to.

Cuetlachtli remembered her father, his face as beautifully outlined as any noble, even royalty. She could almost feel her mother's hugs and hear her soft voice when doing lessons on the loom. She could remember her happiness at finally being able to weave a skirt for her baby sister.

But that was a long time ago. Eight long years she had been in the wilderness, learning to survive and making friends with the animals, learning the beauty of peace. But she never stopped remembering, keeping alive the memories of her family, no matter how painful it was.

Yolotli, the jaguar she had befriended in the wilderness and her only true friend in this unforgiving place, was coming up to her with his latest kill, a turkey stolen from a nearby farm or noble's house, no doubt.

"Yolotli! I told you to stop hunting on the human lands! You could get caught and then what would I do? They would know that you were out here and come looking! I would be caught and brought out of the wilderness. I would never see you again! Please, I'm begging you, don't unless you KNOW no people will come, like when there's a fire."

Yolotli hung his head as if in shame as she took and cleaned the turkey. Sometimes she could swear that he understood her, maybe he did. She was never sure.

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Chalchiuitl looked around her; she was free after 7 long years of working as a slave, as all orphans do, but she wasn't just an orphan, she was abandoned. And now the only life she had ever known was now gone, she was finally free, but to do what?