A hawk's cry

            Today is Day Quiahuitl of the Malinali-period in Tlatelolco, a trading city in (modern)  Cental Mexico. A Sharp-shinned hawk's cry is echoing through the tiny houses built from adobe, a sun-dried type of cheap brick, while the morning sun is shining gracefully over the landscape.

            My name is Ehecatl, and I might be the most typical Aztec young man ever. I like playing tlachtli, pottery and climbing in the nearby forest. My brother, Coanacochtzin on the other hand is THE Aztec man. Even his name means tribal leader... He's the family's and Huehue, my dad's  favourite. He is only a year older than me, and he already acts like he's  Huitzilopochtli or something! The only thing I like him for is the fact that he gets asked to go visit the cousins in Tenochtitlán. I don't like my cousins, they always brag about living in the capital and being able to read and so on... Even my mom agrees with me, and she's the kindest, most soft-hearted woman ever.

             Day Quiahuitl is a perfect day for travelling, so Huehue decided to send Coanacochtzin to our cousins again, but this time he had a little surprise for me: he sent gifts too, so I needed to go too, to help Coanacochtzin.

I could've done so many other things! This is awful! I even promised Mapachin that I would go to pottery class with him... But I can't say no to Huehue either. I know! Once we're in the forest, I'll just dissapear and go home to Mapachin! Great, now I just need to distract Coanacochtzin, which would be an impossible task, if you didn't know my mischevious nature... I'm just kidding, this gimmicky monologue is something Mapachin would say, and I can't sound like the son of a builder, at least not today. Not that I have anything against  Mapachin... he's just a bit slow.

            The sun is burning our skins as we walk on the old road to Tenochtitlán. My shoulder is aching insanely much from the heavy baggage Huehue put on my back, meanwhile that spoiled city boy, Coanacochtzin is enjoying the trail's beauties... How beatiful, I must say! I don't want to seem like Coatlicue, my classmate who complains all day, so without saying a word, I set my Cacaxtli down on a rock, and, without Coanacochtzin noticing, I dissapear into the dense forest. I hear my name echoing through the huge trees as I happily rush back to Tlatelolco, but I seem to get lost somehow. I end up in a beatifully sustained garden, whihc seems a bit too well managed... Where am I?

            I look around in confusion and I immediately start recognizing warning signs: a very expensive-looking house with MULTIPLE guards next to it, a few alpacas next to the fence I must've not seen and worst of all: a very angry guard rushing towards me.The last thing I see are his huge fist coming towards me in an alarming rate, probalby with a bad intent, and my vision fades to black.

Next thing I see is a face of another, very angry soldier next to one more, very angry soldier. I don't have a clue why they are so angry... Wait a minute. There lives a noble, a man named Moquihuix in the expensive outskirts of the city. Is there any way I trespassed in HIS property? Oh no, if I did, my entire family is doomed. He is known to be very cruel and unforgiving, often sacrificing his enemies to the most pointless gods like the god of sweetwater fish, even though there are NO sweetwater fish in our big, Aztec empire. He sometimes even sentences his victims to a real game of  tlachtli, and then exiles them to those madman Incas or something...

Oh for  Huitzilopochtli's sake, why couldn't I stick to my brother and go see those unforunate losers of Tenochtitlán... Now I'm going to bring misfortune to my entire bloodline! Great job, Ehecatl!

            But then I hear sudden footsteps. My blood freezes and even my heartbeat stops from the unimagineable fear: it is Moquihuix himself, and  his very important-smart-rich-I'm-better-than-you noble presence makes me lose all my remaining hope. But when he looks at me, he immediately loses his mood too, so he just nods to set me free and leaves the cell. I bet he was expecting a cold-blooded (Inca) criminal, not a puny kid like me... But at least I escaped the devil's hand!

Lakatos Áron   VIII. B