The Queen With The Frozen Heart - To The Enchanted Night

Iluku held out a giant snail's shell to her husband.

- Call out for the warriors before you change, she told Killa, so that the enchantment will brake and they will wake up.

The moon took the shell and lifted it to his lips.

It had been years, decades, maybe hundreds of years since he had blown into one of them.

But his lips and hands still remembered.

He blew and the low sound shook his body and travelled through the air.

On the mountain top Amarun shook in his sleep and the mountain growled and shot dark clouds of ash to the air.

Far away in her palace the queen sprung up and listened with attention.

In her village Sisa felt how her magic fluttered around her and the call compelled her to leave and search for its origin.

Under the mountain the jaguar men growled and hissed their anger at the sound of the shell.

In their cages the kings men held their heads up and felt the hope grow in their desolated hearts.

Alone in his lonely cave king heard the sound and feared to hope and wish.

Behind the waterfall the warriors woke up from their enchanted sleep.

Ready to follow Iluku's instructions as soon as the sun reaches its zenith.

Killa lowered his hand and felt his heart stir.

There was a reason why the magic loved the humans.

- Take the clothes, Iluku's exasperated voice broke the spell, we don't have all the night. In fact the night is almost over. And we still need to reach the jaguar men's cave before the sun rises over the horizon and they close the mouth of the cave.

Killa took the clothes and hid himself behind the trees.

When he had the garments on, he could feel the enchantment around him.

His back bended closer to earth, his eyes became watery and it was hard to see, and his hands shaked and had huge wrinkles and brown spots on them.

Touching his face with his hands he could feel the wrinkles there too.

- I am old, he sighed.

- Look at me, he whined to Iluku, I have never been old. And now I have to look like this just to humor you and to save some human king. Can't they find another one to replace him instead?

- Oh, be quiet before you reveal your stupidity to everyone, Iluku hissed.

Angrily she started towards the mountain and the home of the jaguar men.

Their walk was not graceful anymore.

Instead of it, they waddled around the trees and panted while walking through the bushes, heaving their disobeying old bodies up, higher and higher.

- Will we never arrive, Killa panted, when will we be there?

Iluku raised a gnarled finger to her lips and stood quietly waiting.

- We are here, she hissed.

- Finally, Killa sat down and rested his weary feet and back.

- Oh, don't be like that, Iluku shook her head, get up and let's go! It's almost morning!

To Be Continued...

This is the twenty second 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

To read the seventeenth part, go to the The Queen With The Frozen Heart 17

If you want to read the eighteenth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 18

If you want to read the nineteenth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 19

If you want to read the twentieth part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart 20

To read the twenty first part, go to The Queen With The Frozen Heart - The Night Of The Black Moon

The Queen With The Frozen Heart 15

The prince opened his mouth to calm his men.

- Do not fear, he tried to say.

But instead of a human voice, only a great predator’s screech could be heard.

He rose his head to the moon and roared, and the earth shattered with his rage.

Iluku shook his wings and rose to the sky with the terrified warriors.

The snakes hanging from the trees, threw themselves to the ground and slithered towards Amarun.

They came from every direction and climbed on him like he was a huge tree.

Finally every one of them was on him, the last ones hanging from his talons.

He shook his wings and uncertainly he rose to the sky.

In the distance, Iluku’s white wings shone with the moon’s light.

The huge owl was flying towards a black mountaintop that rose above the jungle.

Amarun flew through the night, and threw the sky.

He was like the vengeance on wings, tearing down the clouds and the stars with his power.

- There are strange lights on the sky, the people of the land spoke, what do they mean?

- We must ask the queen, others answered, she will know what they are.

In the castle, the queen was raised from her sleep and taken to the roof.

But no one could say what the colorful lights undulating on the night sky meant.

Not even her.

The prince flew and with every movement of his wings he learned to control them better.

He could see Iluku, far far away, too far to reach, too far to touch.

And he flew, only thought in his mind, to reach the owl, to catch it, to win it.

To what, he asked himself.

To devour it, his new nature answered, to devour the owl and everyone it is carrying.

To strangle them with our body and to tear their flesh with our talons.

To sink our beak into their blood and drink it to our refreshment.

- Fly, he roared.

- Fly, his new nature screeched.

The terrifying voice filled the skies scaring the people below them.

Shaking from fear they huddled in their huts.

- You must flee, the guards shouted to the queen.

- It is the beast, they screamed, the feathered snake has returned and it will kill us all!

To be continued...

This is the fifteenth 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

The Queen With The Frozen Heart 12

Outside a feast was prepared.

The women had tended large banana leaves on the ground and top of them delicious foods were served.

Everyone, the warriors, the elderly, the children and the women, had large cups of chicha to enjoy.

There was chonta chicha, yuca chicha and even maize chicha.

The pekari's meat was tender and it melted in the mouth.

The yuca was well cooked, tender and without grain, grown in the sandy beaches of the river.

There was mazamora, cream of banana and patasuchu, white cacao stew with little red chili peppers that burned your mouth and made your eyes water.

- Uchu, the men called, and the chili sauce travelled from one to another, everyone smearing their food with a generous portion of the spicy salsa.

From time to time, someone would suck a mandarine or an orange or drown their thirst with a mighty gulp of herbal tea.

The women snickered and looked at the prince shyly from under their hair.

- It will make your manhood grow more, the men laughed and offered him another pilche.

For dessert Amarun was offered a cacao fruit.

He sucked the pulp from around the seeds and enjoyed the fine aroma that rose from the fruit. 

 

What a feast, surely fit for a prince, and he was one to know, he chuckled alone.

It was time for the dancing to begun.

The women danced first, moving their bodies in sinuous forms like a snake, inviting the men with their hips and the movement of their waist.

They danced the preparing ceremony of chicha and the search and preparing of the fat and delicious chontakuru worms that everyone loved to eat.

Group of unwed young women and men danced together the proceedings of a fishing trip and how each had their own responsibility to hold.

Then it was the time for the young warriors.

Together they danced the hunt for pekari and the kill.

At the end the older men stood up.

They were the warriors and each carried a heavy chonta spear.

It was the time to dance the hunt of the jaguar to bring good luck to prince's quest.

In the end, when the jaguar lay dead, the prince stood up and nodded.

- Thank you for your help, he told them, tomorrow we must leave so that we can find Iluku on time.

Quietly everyone stood up, the women and older children running off to leave the sleeping little children inside the huts.

After a little while, they returned to clean the village’s center from the leftovers.

The men spoke quiet in little groups to each other's about the trip they were going to embark.

Sisa stole small glances at the prince but he had not looked her, once, during the whole night.

- Do not bother yourself with him; her mother warned her, he has promised to marry the daughter of the boa to tie the two nations together. He is a prince. He must marry for his people, not for love.

To be continued...

This is the twelth 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