[color=66FFFF]The Gods were here. Angry Bumblebee was both relieved and terrified. First, a flash of splendid pink, the colour of his favourite roses in his garden back in Tenochtitlan.
That was awesome. The Christians ducked, and then fell onto the ground. They must have misinterpreted what was happening, for he heard the cries of horror, rushed prayers, and yells of damnation.
He moved fast in the confusion. He grabbed the body of the priest and gave it a good shake.
‘Ah!’ the body said.
He moved his face right next to its shocked eyes and screamed: ‘Welcome back, Laura! Just gave you a new body. It stinks, but don’t worry. Temporary!’
The body tried to faint, but the Great Speaker slapped it across its face. ‘Stand firm and order all these wonkers to back off! Tell them: ‘All’s under control, this pink flash is a sign from God’ or some other nonsense you might expect from your priest! Go, go, Laura!’
Lady Laura in the priest’s body struggled onto her new feet. She moved jerkily, getting all the gestures wrong. Angry Bumblebee grabbed her across the huge beer belly and yanked her onto the wooden stage where the stake stood.
The pink in the air was dissolving. As Laura began to shout orders to stop the violence, awkwardly at first, but gaining confidence as she went along, he darted around looking for his Obsidian Dagger.
There it was, under the stage.
The air was almost clear. With the last explosion of energy, he rushed towards the stake and cut the ropes around Laura’s real body.
‘Macamo xitequipacho’, he told the woman inside the body in Nahuatl:
Don’t worry.
But the gods were not done with him yet. A powerful gust of fresh wind blew him off the platform, sending the dry wood everywhere. His women (for this is how he now thought of both Lady Laura inside the priest and a Nahuatl-speaking one inside Lady Laura) somehow held on to the stake and did not fall. [/color]
‘Angry Bumblebee! Turn, and face a god, one as immortal as yourself!’
[color=66ffff]‘What? Lord Judas! You, My Lord!?’[/color]
‘Tired of you. Die already.’
[color=66FFFF]A severe gust of wind threw him off his feet and dragged him across the plaza. Angry Bumblebee was petrified. What did he do to deserve this treatment by one of the Four Eternal Brothers, the just and sophisticated Lord if the Wind? He looked around. All he saw were people, struggling against the hurricane; and both the Rain Warrior and Lord Gytis’ black peasant were kowtowing and kissing the earth like lunatics. He did not see the God.
He felt the power of the wind spear-headed at him. He held on to the cobblestones of the Piazza, thankful for this European invention. He felt his nails braking and his feet dangling in the air. [/color]
The battle with the Wind, drawn by Angry Bumblebee a few days later for the benefit of his future descendants.
[color=66FFFF]What power the Gods have, he thought – for he could not do much now beyond thinking.
He had never seen a person killed by a God: all sacrifices were made by people for themselves. He never saw a God deciding a battle: all interventions were non-material, pink flashes and gusts of wind and visions in the sky; strong because people believed them irresistible.
A heretic thought ran through his mind: gods have all the power we give them.
All the power
we give them.
‘You are just as powerful as I believe you to be, Lord Judas!’ the wind stuffed his words back into his mouth, and blocked his breath.[/color]
’Watch.’
[color=66ffff]The cobblestone he was holding on to gave in to the weight of his body and strength of the storm and went loose. Angry Bumblebee ducked just in time not to be hit smack in the forehead.
He made a Somerset in the air and crushed into the side of the stake platform. He hauled from pain, and cursed, and held on to this thing, reassured by it’s weight. Soon, however, it started to tremble and moan under the strain.
‘You gods can not intervene! Your power is in my mind, and I am giving you none!’
He could see the people around him clearing the Piazza, panicking and bumping into each other. But, bent by the strong wind, they could walk; as did priest’s body with Lady Laura inside, who was now running aimlessly around the platform. Only he and – how should he call them – creatures from Mexico fought for their lives. This confirmed the thought.
‘You are not behaving like a true God worth of worship, Lord Judas!’ Angry Bumblebee managed to squeak out. His lips flapped about his face, and his tongue almost went down his throat. ‘No true God worth of worship would take my power and pretend it was his! No true God worth of worship would take my power to take my life from me! For the power you have over me is the power I give you!’
The wind stabilised, as if it was thinking; and then attacked with fresh fury.
Angry Bumblebee turned towards the Rain Warrior and the black peasant and yelled: ‘Expire!’
Singing glory to their respective Gods, the creatures vanished with loud pops as the air filled the vacuum behind them. The wind went down in its power, but was still too strong.
‘Hey you! Macamo momauhtia! - Don’t be afraid’ he yelled to the strange Nahua woman inside Lady Laura. ‘Repeat after me: ‘Ma xipatinemi, Judatzin! - Farewell, Lord Judas!’
She looked at him in horror, continuing to hug the stake that she wanted to escape so much just a few minutes ago. Now she clinched to it with her hands and feet, and looked like she was ready to use her teeth to hold on to it, too. Lady Laura’s clothes and blond hair were flying around her in complete disarray.
‘Repeat! Ma xipatinemi, Judatzin! Say it! He’s going on the power of your faith!’
She shook her head in disbelief, and he made a terrifying face at her. The wind became stronger.
‘Damn you, woman! You are giving him strength!’
She might have seen that too; for her lips moved. The platform moaned under them, and the trembling became wilder.
‘When you say it, believe it! For goodness sake!’
Her lips moved again. And then again. And once more. He could now read her words, as difficult as it was for her to speak against the hurricane: ‘Ma xipatinemi, Judatzin…’
‘Ma xipatinemi, Judatzin!’ he joined her. ‘Ma xipatinemi, Judatzin!’
They were now screaming together, with their heads bent forward into the wind, their souls being blown away from their bodies; but they were nevertheless screaming for the God to leave them alone. ‘Ma xipatinemi, Judatzin! Ma xipatinemi! Ma xipatinemi! Ma xipatinemi!!!!’
In the next moment Angry Bumblebee yelled from pain, as he hit the stones. He uttered a very rude word, which resonated around him like thunder.
For it was very quiet.
And the air was still.
He looked around, and found himself head-down on the cobblestones. He stood up, deaf and nimble. He saw the priest sitting near the platform with eyes open wide, and Lady Laura’s body lying next to the stake.
‘Tlazocamati,’ he said to the strange Nahua woman inside that body:
thank you.
Then he turned to the priest: ‘My Lady, Lord Judas has blown away all the enemies. But we must run fast. For it’s now safe for them to return.’
He could not hear his voice as he spoke.[/color]
