The Queen With The Frozen Heart 18

Iluku landed next to the mountain and deposited the men to the ground.

The sky was full of dark clouds and she could hear the vultures screaming throughout the storm the boa people had called on them.

The electric storm lighted the sky briefly and she could see Amarun's hideous form and hear his roar through the rumble.

He screamed his hunger and need of destruction to the wold to hear.

The men shivered from fear and huddled closer together.

Iluku lead them further inside the jungle.

Away from the danger of the monster's claws and the smell of death from the jaguar men's cave.

She could see a large boulder with petroglyphs next to a waterfall.

Her memories told her of a cave behind the waterfall where the men could rest, hidden and protected by the magic in the figures in the stone.

One by one the men crawled in the cave and shivering from the cold and fright they tried to warm each other.

- Let me build a fire, the cacique said when he had warmed up a bit, no one can see the light from here and the foam from the waterfall will hide the smoke.

The men nodded happily and little by little they fell asleep with the cave warming up around them.

In the morning they found Iluku gone and the ground littered with dead vulture men and their offspring.

It was a sad morning, the sky hung low and the memory of the fear from the night before was close to the men.

They were afraid of Amarun and worried that he would swoop down on them on any moment.

Silently they hunted a sloth and returned to the cave where few men had caught catfish and were preparing them wrapped in a banana leaf over the fire.

The water was clear and cold to drink.

Satisfied their hunger the men lay in the ground telling jokes and stories.

It was time to rest and prepare themselves for the night when Iluku would be back.

The men competed telling their jokes and laughing out loud to the stories with sexual connotations.

The young men were hazed and given advice on how their prowess with women would me much greater after returning to home.

A warrior was a strong man and strong men had strong children.

Outside the river sang to the men and hid their voices from the jaguar men's sharp ears.

Their smell was washed away by the rain and hidden under the stink of the dead bodies of vultures.

The earth, the sky and the water converged to hide them until the night when Iluku would return.

To be continued...

This is the eighteenth part of the story.

If you want to read the first part of the story, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 1  

To read the second part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 2 

To read the third part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 3. 

To read the fourth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 4. 

To read the fifth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 5.

To read the sixth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 6

To read the seventh part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 7

 To read the eight part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 8

To read the ninth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 9

To read the tenth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 10

To read the eleventh part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 11

To read the twelth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 12

To read the thirteenth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 13

To read the fourteenth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 14

To read the fifteenth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 15

To read the sixteenth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 16

If you want to read the seventeenth part, go to the The Queen With The Frozen Heart 17

The Queen With The Frozen Heart 14

The moon stared the men from the nightly sky with a frown on its round face.

It did not appreciate what its wife was up to and it had no soft sentiments for neither men nor the boa people.

But since the vultures and the jaguar men had managed to insult even the moon with their hateful ways.

It had decided to leave his wife to her own device.

She was smart enough to know what she was doing.

The silent men filled the opening in the forest.

Red, yellow, brown and colored boas bathed in in the moon’s light while they hanged languidly from the tree branches around the opening.

- Iluku, a voice called.

- I – loo – koo, it screeched in the night.

A huge white owl flew by the moon and landed softly in front of the prince.

Iluku, he saluted her softly, thank you for coming.

The owl nodded and screeched again.

It opened its wings and the men found themselves without a space where to stand.

 - Hop on it, Amarun indicated, she will fly us to the mountains where the jaguar men live.

The warriors shuffled their feet and raised their spears but no one moved.

Hurry, the prince admonished them, we only have the night!

The men looked from one to another, nobody wanted to be a coward but not one wanted to mount the huge owl either.

- It is Iluku, Amarun explained, she will not hurt you but she is here to help us.

- I will go, a young boy moved forward.

- I trust you, Rumi said to the prince.

 The warriors shuffled their feet again, raised their spears and thumped them to the ground.

Then they all climbed on the owl, and while they climbed the owl grew in size, so that each and every one of them was able to find a place where to sit on it.

But there was no space for the boa people, and neither did they want to try to ride on Iluku.

They were no friends, she would rather eat them than let feel their coils around her feathers.

The owl plucked a feather from under her wing and held it in its beak.

 Its wise eyes looked into princes eyes.

 - I shall give you this gift if you wish it, Amarun could hear its voice in his head, but the magic is strong and I do not know the antidote.

Slowly he reached out and took the feather from the owl.

His body started changing form, it became longer and more sinuous and he could feel a ridge growing from his neck.

Something was tickling his back and his hands and his feet.

- Amarun, he could hear the warriors whispering, the Feathered Snake.

When the prince opened his arms he could see that he had now wings and instead of human feet, his were like a lizard’s.

 Slowly he walked to the bubbling river next to the clearing in the jungle and watched the reflection of his new form in the water.

His head was like a snake’s head but he had a big ridge growing from it and the ridge was covered with rainbow colored feathers.

His hands were wings covered in the same rainbow feathers and his long fingers, covered in scales, ended in claws.

His feet had similar multicolored scales and ended in talons.

From his behind he could see his tail, when he moved it the rainbow feathers moved together with him and formed a multicolor crown around him.

- He is the Great Rainbow Snake; the men muttered and shook from fear.

To be continued...

This is the fourteenth part of the story.

If you want to read the first part of the story, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 1  

To read the second part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 2 

To read the third part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 3. 

To read the fourth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 4. 

To read the fifth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 5.

To read the sixth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 6

To read the seventh part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 7

 To read the eight part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 8

To read the ninth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 9

To read the tenth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 10

To read the eleventh part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 11

To read the twelth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 12

To read the thirteenth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 13