Post by SANGRE on Sept 17, 2024 0:08:03 GMT
“Sangre… What is the source of your anger?”
Chapter One
Once Upon a Time in the Yucatan
Yucatan, Mexico
2001
“... You see, Mr. Tench, although we appreciate the lavish gifts that you, and your company, have offered my village, we cannot accept. We are a simple people and have no use for the material goods you present. We understand that you want to purchase our land, but as I have mentioned before, this land does not belong to us–it belongs to the Gods. For hundreds–thousands–of years, Maya descendents have been born into and maintained this land as our home and in exchange the Gods have allowed us to prosper here.”
Within the Yucatan Peninsula once lived Earth’s brightest and most powerful early warriors, the Maya. However, by 2001, what remained of the Maya was a community of small modernized villages located within the jungles of the Yucatan. Although the community was led by a Chief Yumka, he was more akin to a mayor of the people. As one of the village’s only English speakers (from which he learned while attending his studies in Merida), he was often tasked with fending off foreign solicitors who seeked to profit off the fruit of Yumka’s home.
On this day, he was charged with politely declining the offer of a rather high-profile visitor, billionaire trust-fund baby and CEO Daniel Tench. Inside the village’s office (an adobe-like structure made from wood, red clay, and mud), Tench puffs a cigar while his corporate cronies scramble to write down a new number on a piece of paper.
Daniel Tench
Listen here, Yarka–
Yumka
Yumka, sir. My name is Yum–
The cronies slide across a piece of paper to Yumka who reviews the number.
Daniel Tench
All you have to do is leave, Yarkle. Take the money, and you and your little villagers can go live happily ever after making your clay pots and dancing to summon the rains or whatever.
Yumka slides the paper back.
Daniel Tench
You underestimate the depth of my pockets.
Yumka
Your offer is kind, and beyond my own comprehension, truthfully. But this land lives and breathes, and therefore has a sacredness to us. We call this a “k’uh”.
Tench takes one last puff of his cigar and blows it across the table at Yumka.
Daniel Tench
One day this land will take its last breath. What are you gonna do then? Huh?
Tench twists the ember of his cigar into the meeting table leaving behind a circular burn mark.
Daniel Tench
I coulda made you richer than most wealthy Americans, but if you still want to live in some fuckin’ hut in the middle of God knows where, be my guest.
Yumka, feigning courtesy, extends his hand across the table.
Yumka
I assure you, Mr. Tench, the Gods know these lands well.
Tench drops his unlit cigar into Yumka’s palm.
Daniel Tench
Take care of that, will ya sport?
Tench and his cronies exit the office while Yumka stares intensely at the smoke emanating from the burn.
Outside of the office, the children in the village play-wrestle within a giant wrestling ring formed by several bales of hale forming a squared circle. One of the little boys, donning red and black face paint, climbs to the top of one of the bales and lets out a mini-roar. Before he jumps from the bale, he is scooped up by Yumka who carries him off.
Yumka
Did you get into your mother’s tomato and black bean and use it on your face, Tohil?
Tohil
Hey Papa! No! IT’S UHH… IT’S UHH…
Yumka wipes a small amount of black bean paste off his son’s face and smells it. They approach the home of Yumka and his family.
“Yumka! I can’t find the black beans.”
Yumka drops Tohil down and chuckles as he nudges his son into the kitchen. Lahun, Tohil’s mother, stops in her tracks when she sees him and smiles.
Lahun
Oh! Well there they are!
She rushes over to Tohil and jokingly suggests eating him since he’s wearing dinner. The two twirl in the kitchen while Yumka watches from the doorway. A simple people.
…
That night, Tohil is awoken to the sound of screams and gunshots. Like lightning bugs falling from grace, pieces of the straw roof ablaze fall to the floor.
Tohil
Mama? Papa?
Tohil wipes his eyes.
The corner of the roof caves in just feet away from Tohil, sending embers into the air like a bursting firework. Tohil screams for his mother as he backs himself into the corner, but the elements of the hut are highly flammable. Tohil begins to scoot alongside the perimeter of the hut in an effort to make it outside, but the fire is so intense it begins to singe his face. He cries and screams, but continues to fight until he is outside where a whole new horror is revealed.
The whole village, and all of its history, is burning to the ground. In the distance, muzzle flashes silence the screams before a vehicle peels off into the darkness of the jungle.
Tohil sits on the ground and wails, but the cracking of the blaze is enough to muffle any cry.
In the morning when the sun turned the sky a pinkish blue, Tohil searched the remnants of the village. His home, as well as all the others, were reduced to a muddy ash. Strewn throughout the grass are bodies of villagers who ran out of their homes to escape the heat, and were subsequently shot. After a half day of searching for his mother and father, or anyone for that matter, Tohil learned the hardest truth: he was the only one left.
As the little Tohil began his trek out of the village to search for life, he yearned for comfort, his mother and father, and a bedtime story. On a typical night, Yumka, a proud Maya descendant, would sing his son to sleep the adventures of the Maya gods. Tohil’s favorite, naturally, was the tale of his namesake and a war god. In the Maya lore, the first beings were received by Tohil, who demanded a blood sacrifice. Tohil, the God of Fire, consumed the gift which gave him life.
Chapter One
Once Upon a Time in the Yucatan
Yucatan, Mexico
2001
“... You see, Mr. Tench, although we appreciate the lavish gifts that you, and your company, have offered my village, we cannot accept. We are a simple people and have no use for the material goods you present. We understand that you want to purchase our land, but as I have mentioned before, this land does not belong to us–it belongs to the Gods. For hundreds–thousands–of years, Maya descendents have been born into and maintained this land as our home and in exchange the Gods have allowed us to prosper here.”
Within the Yucatan Peninsula once lived Earth’s brightest and most powerful early warriors, the Maya. However, by 2001, what remained of the Maya was a community of small modernized villages located within the jungles of the Yucatan. Although the community was led by a Chief Yumka, he was more akin to a mayor of the people. As one of the village’s only English speakers (from which he learned while attending his studies in Merida), he was often tasked with fending off foreign solicitors who seeked to profit off the fruit of Yumka’s home.
On this day, he was charged with politely declining the offer of a rather high-profile visitor, billionaire trust-fund baby and CEO Daniel Tench. Inside the village’s office (an adobe-like structure made from wood, red clay, and mud), Tench puffs a cigar while his corporate cronies scramble to write down a new number on a piece of paper.
Daniel Tench
Listen here, Yarka–
Yumka
Yumka, sir. My name is Yum–
The cronies slide across a piece of paper to Yumka who reviews the number.
Daniel Tench
All you have to do is leave, Yarkle. Take the money, and you and your little villagers can go live happily ever after making your clay pots and dancing to summon the rains or whatever.
Yumka slides the paper back.
Daniel Tench
You underestimate the depth of my pockets.
Yumka
Your offer is kind, and beyond my own comprehension, truthfully. But this land lives and breathes, and therefore has a sacredness to us. We call this a “k’uh”.
Tench takes one last puff of his cigar and blows it across the table at Yumka.
Daniel Tench
One day this land will take its last breath. What are you gonna do then? Huh?
Tench twists the ember of his cigar into the meeting table leaving behind a circular burn mark.
Daniel Tench
I coulda made you richer than most wealthy Americans, but if you still want to live in some fuckin’ hut in the middle of God knows where, be my guest.
Yumka, feigning courtesy, extends his hand across the table.
Yumka
I assure you, Mr. Tench, the Gods know these lands well.
Tench drops his unlit cigar into Yumka’s palm.
Daniel Tench
Take care of that, will ya sport?
Tench and his cronies exit the office while Yumka stares intensely at the smoke emanating from the burn.
Outside of the office, the children in the village play-wrestle within a giant wrestling ring formed by several bales of hale forming a squared circle. One of the little boys, donning red and black face paint, climbs to the top of one of the bales and lets out a mini-roar. Before he jumps from the bale, he is scooped up by Yumka who carries him off.
Yumka
Did you get into your mother’s tomato and black bean and use it on your face, Tohil?
Tohil
Hey Papa! No! IT’S UHH… IT’S UHH…
Yumka wipes a small amount of black bean paste off his son’s face and smells it. They approach the home of Yumka and his family.
“Yumka! I can’t find the black beans.”
Yumka drops Tohil down and chuckles as he nudges his son into the kitchen. Lahun, Tohil’s mother, stops in her tracks when she sees him and smiles.
Lahun
Oh! Well there they are!
She rushes over to Tohil and jokingly suggests eating him since he’s wearing dinner. The two twirl in the kitchen while Yumka watches from the doorway. A simple people.
…
That night, Tohil is awoken to the sound of screams and gunshots. Like lightning bugs falling from grace, pieces of the straw roof ablaze fall to the floor.
Tohil
Mama? Papa?
Tohil wipes his eyes.
The corner of the roof caves in just feet away from Tohil, sending embers into the air like a bursting firework. Tohil screams for his mother as he backs himself into the corner, but the elements of the hut are highly flammable. Tohil begins to scoot alongside the perimeter of the hut in an effort to make it outside, but the fire is so intense it begins to singe his face. He cries and screams, but continues to fight until he is outside where a whole new horror is revealed.
The whole village, and all of its history, is burning to the ground. In the distance, muzzle flashes silence the screams before a vehicle peels off into the darkness of the jungle.
Tohil sits on the ground and wails, but the cracking of the blaze is enough to muffle any cry.
In the morning when the sun turned the sky a pinkish blue, Tohil searched the remnants of the village. His home, as well as all the others, were reduced to a muddy ash. Strewn throughout the grass are bodies of villagers who ran out of their homes to escape the heat, and were subsequently shot. After a half day of searching for his mother and father, or anyone for that matter, Tohil learned the hardest truth: he was the only one left.
As the little Tohil began his trek out of the village to search for life, he yearned for comfort, his mother and father, and a bedtime story. On a typical night, Yumka, a proud Maya descendant, would sing his son to sleep the adventures of the Maya gods. Tohil’s favorite, naturally, was the tale of his namesake and a war god. In the Maya lore, the first beings were received by Tohil, who demanded a blood sacrifice. Tohil, the God of Fire, consumed the gift which gave him life.