THIS
IS

PATHETIC!

REVEIW!!!

Chapter 3 – Stone Walls

When Cuetlachtli finally looked up from her task, with her hands firmly around a struggling turkey, you would have guessed she had just seen a ghost from how quickly all the color drained from her face and the fear in her eyes. The turkey was forgotten and dropped to the ground with a great thump but she stared straight at the same spot without even moving. She looked as if in some sort of daze, unable to tear her eyes away from the sight that had plagued her worse nightmare since she was seven years old, the sight of other people. But this was worse, because these people had seen her and were coming toward her.

There was no time to run or hide. Her mind had gone blank as soon as she saw them so there was no time to come up with a decent explanation.

The thing that brought her the most fear was that a warrior was with them, most likely to capture her and bring her for punishment. He would probably lock her in a chamber for days, with no windows or cool breezes, the air would reek of blood and then she would be sacrificed or…

As her mind came up with hallucinations of how she would die, the people closed in on her. Yes, they were surprised to see her in a burning field. Yes, they were happy she had saved the animals. And yes, they were wondering why she was there. But most importantly they were surprised that the elderly man around forty years old recognized the woman in front of them. She was his daughter.

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Cuetlachtli looked amazedly at the man she once new, now aged to an old man. Cuetlachtli noticed that he was different, holding himself like the warriors would. "*Gasp*" "what is it Tlachinolli?" her father asked. "F-Father, why do you call me by that name, mi name is Cuetlachtli, it is wolf." "Tlachinolli what sickness has gotten in your head? Tlachinolli is the name the midwife gave you after your birth. Cuetlachtli is a boys name, never is it used for women." Her father's voice was stern as he said the last sentence. "But Father, surely you must remember that after your death I had to- Father, how did you not die? And why are you dressed as a warrior, Father? I do not understand!" "Tlachinolli! I did not die, I was captured, and when I got to the city my brother recognized me. I had been greatly injured on the battlefield when I was young. I had been knocked unconscious and when I came to every one was gone. I managed to crawl to the nearest village where I said I was a peasant and married your mother.

"Then the battle came, I saw your brother killed and I was captured. Fortunately for me, I told them who I was and my father, who was on his deathbed, recognized me. After I got home my father died and I married three other women. Now, we must be going home, I need to talk to some men about your husband."

"N! -Yes Father." Cuetlachtli, now called Tlachinolli, bowed her head meekly and followed her father while all the time dreading what she would have to do. She would be taken from the wilderness, most likely never to see it again, taken from Yolotli, never to see him again, and shut up in four stonewalls while she waits for a suitor to deem her worthy enough to marry him. After that it would be one birth after another, she would watch her children grow up and watch her sons die in battle or on the sacrificial altar until she died and went to live with the gods.

Her real life, a life of freedom, was over and the life of captivity, as one would capture a bird and put it in a cage, to never fly again, was just starting.