fishgutsconquersall

Long ago, in a time before memory when Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli heralded the dawn and Tezcatlipoca the night, there lived in our land many beasts, both strange and familiar in nature. The beasts that filled our world then were all of the same ken we know, the Scaled Ones, the Feathered Ones, the Furred Ones, and the Ones in the Waves.

In this time long forgotten, a young scaled one lived perpetually on the shore, forever staring into the sea he wished so much to be a part of.

    You see, this young scaled one was unhappy with what life had handed him, “why must I stay in the land or trees?” he asked “The world up here is dry and boring, all we do is wander, eat and hide! I want to live in the sea, where fear floats from your heart and the world around you shimmers like a dream.”

    “Silly Axolotl,” the Scaled Ones’ elders would say (as this was his name), “living with your head in the clouds or the waves is a foolish thing to do, we on land must be firmly planted where we belong!” and they were right, on the unforgiving jungle ground your betters hunted you at all times, seeking to gobble you up! And even in the trees where the Scaled Ones and their Furred Cousins may hide, the Feathered ones come from above carry them off to Tlalocan!

    Many times young Axolotls’ scaled brothers and sisters would warn him of the danger of letting one's mind wander, but he cared little; life in the sea was greater by far an idea than life stranded on the ground. “I wish more than anything to be like the Ones of the Wave, how beautiful and mysterious they seem to me” Axolotl would find himself saying when he was all too often left alone by his brothers and sisters.

    Eventually, Axolotls moanings and wishings became wearisome to the other Scaled Ones, and his mindless wanderings too inconvenient. The Scaled Ones forced Axolotl out of his village, forcing him to wander forever until one of his betters sent him to Tlalocan.

    In his exile Axolotl was hunted, now without brothers and sisters to protect him, he was forced to think of the ground under his feet, and the trees overhead. Axolotl no longer had the time to wish for the sea, and was all the more miserable for it. One night, curled up alone in a dark place he hid himself in, he wept to himself “If only I had never seen the sea.” he said “oh why was I cursed with this longing?”

    And then, from the mouth of Axolotls cave, came a voice like a flowing brook “Is that what you think it is?” the voice sang. Axolotl was startled by this voice, and he opened his eyes to look at it’s source. Outside his little hideaway stood a beautiful one, it was not Scaled, Furred, or Feathered. This was a strange one, new and shining like the stars.

    “Do you really wish you were like your brothers and sisters?” the strange one asked, “or do you want to be like the Ones in the Waves, who live like dreams and fantasies in the sea?”

    “Oh, yes” cried Axolotl as he edged nearer the new voice “I should like nothing more than to be like those beautiful creatures! But who are you, who knows my heart?”

    The creature giggled, not like a child holding a secret, more like a parent laughing at their own children's ignorance. “I am the one who has heard all of your wishes, and wants to make them come true, I am Chalchiuhtlicue.”

    Axolotl stepped back “But you are the mother of the waves, you are meant to listen to the wishes of the Ones of the Waves, not the Scaled Ones.”

    Chalchiuhtlicue laughed again “but you are One of the Waves little fish, or you could be if you tried.”

    “How?” Axolotl asked with excitement, “how can I become a child of the sea?”

    “I can show you, I can make you and your descendants like the Ones of the Waves” Chalchiuhtlicue said “But you have to follow me” as she said this she began walking, and Axolotl ran to match her pace. “Here is where you will become One in the Waves.” Chalchiuhtlicue said as they reached the edge of a great lake.

    “But how?” Axolotl repeated

    “Simple,” Chalchiuhtlicue said from behind him, laying her hand on his head. As she did, a light shook Axolotl, and he changed. From his neck sprung gills, his tale grew a fin like that on the backs of the Ones of the Waves, he was transformed.

    “Go now,” Chalchiuhtlicue told him, pointing at the lake “Go and be the child of two worlds.”