YAGUARA:  A STORY OF JAGUARS

Executive Producer: John H. Burkitt
Co Producer:		David A. Morris

Producers/Editors:		Chris Boyce
				Ian Layton
				David Morris

Story Development:		Chris Boyce
				David Braun
				John Burkitt
				Marcis Buhholcs
				Joe McCauley
				David Morris

Imagineering:		John Burkitt (Original Concept)
				Jeff Dearman (Machoc)
				Dave Morris (The Cubs)

Graphic Blandishments:	Marcus Aanerud
				Jeroen van den Berg
				David Morris
				Myra Weber

Research:			John Burkitt
				Joe McCauley
				Rocio Orozco
				Mirco Zacher



FOREWORDS:

	I have always wanted to tell the story of the great cats of the Americas.  I started out with a few vague ideas, and with a lot of help from my friends and a little soul searching, I came up with a storyline that conveys something of the depth and breadth of my love for the Jaguar.
	The word Yaguara means, "The beast who kills with one spring."  Indeed, the characters in this work are as imposing as they are beautiful, but they are also vulnerable citizens of an uncertain world.  Let us work to secure a place for this noble cat both in our hearts and on our earth.

						---  John Burkitt, Nashville, Tennessee


	It is at once exhilarating and terrifying to plunge into a new and unfamiliar area.  Fortunately I had the local university library to explore as well as the considerable knowledge of my co-authors.  But the background aspects are a minor thing.  What I learned most--as always--I learned from the characters I was writing for.
	There’s a point in writing when the character you create becomes much more than what you put into it.  It comes alive, with its own personality and beliefs.  That moment has always excited me, and it is one of the things I love most about writing.  These characters are not mine...they came to me and let me have a look at their lives.
	Read on, and you’ll see what I mean.

						---  David Morris, Wilmington, North Carolina


	It has been a pleasure to work with Dave and John again. Just hearing John's enthusiasm about the story really brings it to life. Although I feel my contribution for this story was small...I hope it contributes to your enjoyment of the story

						---  Ian 'Rama' Layton, LaVergne, Tennessee


	Any new project is exciting, some new projects are more exciting than others. At first I did not feel very involved with the infant Yaguara! but I knew that I had to be, one way or another. I know little about jaguars, indeed I know practically nothing about big cats at all; I could not provide much useful input to character development or plot. What I do like to think I know a little about is writing. If the truth is told I have to say that I have done very little writing for this project, however I have still managed to have some useful influence over the result and I hope that that result is better for that involvement. I know that I have benefited from this experience, I hope that Chakal and Ixtab and all their cubs have benefited from mine.

						---  Chris Boyce, Godshill, Isle of Wight, UK

================================

PROLOGUE


¡Ay, muchachos! ¡Cuidado, hombres!  Light the campfire, keep watch tonight!
Yaguara stirs in the evening darkness--he who kills with a single bite!
Spangled with stars, YA-GU-A-RA!  Gold as the Sun, YA-GU-A-RA! 
¡Viva el rey, YA-GU-A-RA!  Fearing no one, YA-GU-A-RA!  Ay!

Beauty fit for a lovely woman, strength to rival the strongest man!
Yaguara walks like a graceful dancer, no one runs as Yaguara can!
Spangled with stars, YA-GU-A-RA!  Gold as the Sun, YA-GU-A-RA!
¡Viva el rey, YA-GU-A-RA!  Fearing no one, YA-GU-A-RA!  Ay!

See the night is becoming morning; scarlet beauty has filled the skies
Magic comes as the sun arises!  Hope is born as the nighttime dies
Spangled with stars, YA-GU-A-RA!  Gold as the Sun, YA-GU-A-RA! 
¡Viva el rey, YA-GU-A-RA!  Fearing no one, YA-GU-AR-A!  Ay!

	The ancient trees of the Central American rain forest rose like spires of a green cathedral.  Within their dim sanctuary, the rhythms of life and death flowed uninterrupted as they had for eons.  Yet this was not a place of peace and contemplation.  It was a place where supreme bliss and abject dispair dwelled side by side.  It was the most wonderful and terrible of places.
	On a day long before your father's father drew his breath, the forest lay pinned under an oppressive morning rain.  No birds sang, no monkeys chattered; all was silent but for the steady drip of rain from the canopy.  The forest seemed deserted, but it wasn't; the leaf strewn ground heaved and fluttered as a living carpet of ants scurried across.  Shining eyes peeked from a hollow in a tree, and hanging upside down, wrapped in their own wings were roosting bats.  Life was everywhere, waiting out the storm.
	The rain was falling harder than usual that day.  Beneath the thick canopy enough water dripped to collect into streams, and then continuous runnels.  Though the insects hardly noticed the weather, the larger creatures dared not venture out.  The wet leaves were treacherous, and even the proud jaguar knew better than to brave the full fury of a downpour.
	Suddenly, through the steady shish of rain came a heavy crashing sound.  The warm fog rising from the jungle floor was riven by a terrified black jaguar.  He was not a hunter but the hunted.  Wide eyed, he threaded his path about the trees as quickly as his panicked legs could carry him.
	His flight was slowed by a wooden stake linked by a rough leather leash to the silver inlaid collar around his neck.  As he ran, the stake caught on every obstruction that evil fate strewed in his path and he was cruelly throttled each time.  He wheezed helplessly, his lungs hungered for more air than he could take in.  The jaguar's heavy paunch spoke of more rich food than exercise.  Exhaustion was setting in and his legs burned and ached.
	A group of two-legs with spears and bows were racing noisily toward him.  He didn't have to stop to hear them; the two-legs were awkward and could not travel silently.
	A spear whistled angrily past him and buried itself in the ground uncomfortably close, then another one brushed his flank.  Fear overcame fatigue, and with a whimper the jaguar strained to run faster.  He was faint and half blind with terror, and his judgment was impaired.  In his mad haste, he darted between two trees and only made a couple of strides beyond them before the stake firmly lodged itself in the gap.  The leash cut off his air and pulled his legs from under him.  
	He looked back and spotted his pursuers.  Desperately he pulled against the rope, digging with his claws for a grip on the slippery, wet earth and thrashing his head in the wild hope that the collar might slip off.  Three men with spears broke through the scrub and closed on him.  Maybe if he pulled straight back the collar would slip off?  He faced his enemies, focused himself and gave one final surge of strength, lunging against the rope.  The collar did not budge and he fell in the mud his paws had stirred.  
	"Momma," he cried.  "Help me!  If you can hear me, please help me!"
	Another spear flew--the point struck the leash!  He pulled one more time, and the strap surrendered with a "pop" that sent the jaguar tumbling toward freedom.
	He got to his paws, and without looking back the cat dodged his way into the trees.  Freed of the tether and given renewed hope, he put on a burst of speed that quickly lost the hunters.  "Thank you, Momma!" he gasped.  "Thank you!"
	He ran on, plunging deeply into the jungle, leaving only pawprints that washed away in the pounding rain.


CHAPTER 1:  FIVE YEARS LATER

	Late one evening, the jaguar Chakal was talking with his neighbor Machoc as they patrolled the border between their territories.  It was not so much a chat as an informal ceremony mixing friendly banter and bragging.  For Chakal it was the high point of his limited social life.
	Machoc, a rare jet black jaguar, said, "Did I ever tell you about the time I had to jump through a flaming ring for the two-legs prince?"
	"Dozens of times," Chakal said.
	"Well it's still true," Machoc growled.  "So what have YOU done interesting lately?"
	"I took a nap," Chakal said.
	Machoc tried to keep a somber face but a deep guffaw started in his belly and slowly worked its way to the surface.  "I'm breaking out into a sweat just hearing about it.  You ought to slow down and try to enjoy life."
	"All right then, what was YOUR greatest trick today?" Chakal asked, irritated; "Eating and burping at the same time?"
	Machoc's tail lashed.  "Are you saying I'm a has-been?"
	Chakal smiled slyly.  "More like a never-was.  You keep telling me about all these things you could do.  I say one trick is worth an hour of talking."
	Machoc's ears flattened back.  "OK!  If you need proof, you'll get it!  Prepare to be dazzled!"  
	Machoc concentrated for a moment.  He could prove he was once a captive of the two-legs for he carried a visible mark about his neck where a silver collar had once rested.  It would be harder to defend his other claims.  After all, he had been five years without practice and had grown five years older.  Half-closing his eyes and twitching his tail nervously, he mentally prepared himself for the performance.  Then he crouched down, sprang straight up.  His legs kicked out and his body twisted, and for one brief moment he turned in space, then he landed on his paws.  It was a spectacular back flip, and the jaguar smiled with pride and relief.  "There!  Do you believe me now?"
	Chakal was stunned, but he tried hard not to show it.  “That's nothing," he stammered.  "Anybody could do that.”
	"Even you?"
	Forcing the tremor from his voice, he said, "Sure I could!"
	Machoc yawned--a carefully thought out yawn that highlighted his ivory fangs and pink tongue against the ebony of his face.  "Sure you could," he said mockingly.  "Must I endure an hour of talking or do I get a trick?"
	"Don't rush me!  I can do it!" Chakal said with fire in his eyes, but a timid twitching of his tail.  "Watch--I'll show you!"
	“I wouldn’t try it if I were you.  You might get hurt.”
	“You're just afraid I really can do it.  You're just afraid that I can do it even better!”
	"I'm scared stiff," Machoc replied, licking his paw.  "Pardon me while I work up a good shudder."
	Chakal crouched low, concentrated on what he thought he saw Machoc do, then sprang straight up, tucking his back feet against his chin and thrusting out against the air.  It was a brave effort, but he flopped down on his rump with a loud yowl.
	"Are you all right?" Machoc said with a slight smile.
	“I'm FINE," Chakal brusquely growled.  "Let me try again.”
	Chakal stuck out his tongue, narrowed his eyes, then from a balled-up position sprang up on his hind legs and arched his back with a massive thrust.  He turned for one moment in the air, almost three quarters of the way around.  Then he came crashing to the ground on his upper back and head.  "Damn!"
	Machoc laughed raucously.  “I thought cats always landed on their paws!”
	Chakal glared at him.  "Watch your tongue--while it's still attached!"
	Machoc said.  "Hey, it seems YOU are the grouch today!  Did you get turned down by a jaguaress lately?"
	“Don’t be foolish,” Chakal said, grooming the leaves from his coat with what dignity he had left.  “I’m a loner, a model of self-sufficiency.  I don’t need anyone.  Least of all another mouth to feed.”
	“Just checking.  Then you didn't see the jaguaress on your land?”
	“A trespasser??  Where??”
	“Well--”  He sat and scratched his head with his hind paw.  “I have this friend that told me she was out toward Windy Rock.”
	“I don’t believe you.”
	“And why not??”
	“You’re too irritating to have friends.”
	“Yeah, right.”  Machoc showed a little fang.  “While you’re insulting me she’s probably eating a nice fat deer all by her pretty little self!”


CHAPTER 2:  THE INTRUDER

	Chakal left Machoc and ran through the evening shadows along paths only his keen eyes saw.  He flew like an angry thunderbolt, outraged by the thoughts of a stranger feeding off an imaginary deer.  Either she would leave peacefully, or she would get a good cuffing.
	Over creeks and through brambles he glided effortlessly, until he passed Windy Rock.  He scanned the trees about him, and finally spotted a slight flake of gold that moved against the wind.  There she was--Machoc was right!  He gathered his resolve, took in a deep breath, then charged her.

***

	A young, lithe jaguaress walked about with the cautious tread of someone outside their territory.  Suddenly a male loomed up out of the trees and stopped beside her, snarling.  She looked about in alarm.  "Oh!"
	“Do you know that this is MY territory, Ma’am?”
	“Forgive me, sir--I didn't mean to anger you.”  
	She did not threaten, nor did she run.  Keeping her wits, she showed him proper respect, rolling on her back and pawing at him.
	His hackles went down and he said, "OK, you may stand."
	The jaguaress rose and shook the leaves off her pelt.  "I wish you would let me rest a while.  I'm so tired."
	"We'll see.  Where are you from?  The Western Plain?  The Tlakal valley?”
	“No.  I came from my mother.”  She looked a bit downcast.  “I’ve come of age.  She told me it was my destiny to find a mate.”
	He eyed her intently, following the curves of her body and nodding slightly.  “You certainly are of age, and I’d say you shouldn’t have too much trouble.”
	“Oh?”  She half smiled.  “I think you just paid me a compliment.”
	“Well, sometimes I do that.”  He walked about her, getting the full view.  “You don’t exactly hurt my eyes.”
	“Neither do you,” she said.  “I bet your mate likes it when you talk that way.”
	“Hmmph, an obvious ploy,” Chakal said.  “I don't like that kind of cubbish flirting.”
	She looked at him reproachfully.  “Well what DO you like?”
	“I like peace and quiet.”
	“Oh,” she said, a little disappointed.  She went up to him and stood before his face, and when her nose was about to touch his, she stepped lightly to the side and rubbed him sensuously, full length, and batted his face with her tail.  "You seem to know your whole path is set out for you.  I don't even know where I'll be an hour from now, much less next moon."
	"Well, I…"
	She came about to face him again and nuzzled his cheek making him chuckle.  "Maybe you're just lucky.  Let love in your life and before you know it, you're no longer your own master."
	"You said it."
	"The cubs are playing around you, looking up at you with their large hazel eyes and wanting you to tell them a story.  You have to stop and fondle their soft bodies with your paw and think up something to say.  And when you finally settle them down, and you're ready for that nap, along comes your mate wanting to talk--wanting to nuzzle your face…" She lowered her voice softer than a mother's lullaby.  "…wanting to caress your cheek softly…warmly… passionately."  She bussed his cheek softly with her pink tongue.  "Before long, you've lost your desire to sleep…"
	He sighed and half-closed his eyes.  "It sounds good to me."
	"Still," she said, sharply nudging his cheek with a paw, "you are absolutely right.  I should drop these foolish romantic notions and learn self-reliance."
	"You should?"
	"If you're going to be completely logical about it, having a family is a bother."
	"But…but…Ma'am, I…"
	She turned and looked him penetratingly in the eyes.  "Yes?"
	"Well…I mean…if you found someone you liked…"
	"Like you?"  She purred and stroked him with a paw.  "I might take a chance on love if you asked me."
	He purred and trembled.  “Really?"  His pink tongue tip moistened his dry lips and he said, "By the way, my name is Chakal.”
	“I’m Ixtab.”
	“Ixtab,” he repeated slowly.  “Let me show you a trick.”  He stood gingerly with his forepaws between his hindpaws, closed his eyes and concentrated with all his might.  He paused a moment, then sprang.  Arching his back sharply and swinging his back legs, he managed to sail through a full back flip and land on his feet.
	Ixtab was greatly impressed, though she was already more than interested in him.  “Oooh!  Do it again!"
	Chakal smiled.  “Maybe later.  You know any good tricks?”
	“Well, I know one my mother taught me.”  She nuzzled his face softly, then touched his cheek with her tongue.  Then she rubbed him full length again, curving her tail seductively under his chin.  “I really hope you'll like it."
	Chakal trembled.  “Ixtab, I want to see this trick.”
	She took a playful swat at him.  He blocked it with his paw, but she quickly adjusted, putting her arms about him and trying to bear his body to the grass.  She mouthed his neck gently, pawing at him, looking for a good hold.  
	Ixtab had surprised him, and for a moment she had the advantage.  She nearly flipped him on his back, but then he leaned the full weight of his strong and musky body against her soft fur.  Down she went.  
	“Gotcha!” he cried.
	She rested unresisting beneath his paws, panting alluringly.  “You win.”
	“You let me win.”
	She ran her paw slowly down his chest and felt the hammering of his heart.  A smile lit her lovely face and she said, “I let you win the round, but I will win the match.”
	He leaned down and touched her face with his warm tongue.  "You just did."



CHAPTER 3:  CHAKAL'S WORLD

	Panting and trembling, Chakal stroked Ixtab's finely formed face and gazed into her deep hazel eyes.  "Let me love you.  Let me cast my shadow over your lovely body and feel its soft  warmth against me.  I want you, Ixtab, more than I want food or air."
	"Oh!  Uh…well…"  Ixtab's ears laid back and she shuddered.  "Don't you think…uh… first if this is going to be my home, I should know my boundaries?"
	"I suppose so…if that's what you want to do."  He could sense her nervousness and restrained himself, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.  "My land--I mean our land--stretches from the riverbank to the stone pillars.  We will walk the border together.  Beyond that border is our neighbor Machoc.  Mister Personality."
	"You're much nicer than Machoc.  When I saw him, I told him 'Good evening,' and he asked, 'What's good about it??  He ordered me off his lands!'"  Her tail twitched with embarrassment.  "He doesn't have a mate.  He just dislikes me!"
	"His loss," Chakal said.  He thought of how close he came to ordering Ixtab off his land.
	"You're kind to take me in, but I must not be very attractive.  Mother always used to call me her pretty little flower.  You know how mothers are.  For a while I believed her."
	"But she was right--you ARE pretty!" Chakal said, scandalized.  "No, not pretty; you're absolutely beautiful.  Don't mind what old Machoc says.  He's just grouchy--that's his way."
	"Do you really think so?  I mean, you're not just saying that?"
	"No."
	She looked worried.  "No what?"
	"No, I'm not just saying that."  He looked at her intently.  "You really thought you were unattractive?  I thought that line was one of your mother's little traps…."
	"No.  Mother said if you think pretty, you'll be pretty, and I was trying so hard to think pretty.  I'm getting it all wrong and ruining my chance!"
	"Ixtab," Chakal said with a slight shake of his head, "forget your mother for just a moment and look me in the eyes.  Behind all these tricks, do you know what I see?  I see a beautiful but frightened creature away from home for the first time.  It's all right to be scared, and it's all right to show it."  He pawed her softly.  "I frighten you, don't I?"
	"Yes…I mean no…."
	Chakal smiled warmly.  "Is it yes or no, Ixtab?"
	"Yes."  She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.  "I want to be happy with you.  I'm just so afraid I'm going to do the wrong thing."
	"If you ever leave me, that would be the wrong thing.  I want you to fill the empty place in my life."
	Ixtab asked, "Are you really sure?"
	"I was never more sure."  Chakal purred.  "You know a little secret?  I'm afraid of doing the wrong thing too.  I'll overlook your mistakes if you'll ignore mine.  Only you must never leave me.  Promise me that we will grow old together."
	Ixtab looked directly into his eyes.  A gentle smile came to her face.  "You know something?  My mother said…."
	"Not your mother again!"
	Ixtab smiled embarrassed.  "She said that if I had a good heart and walked a straight path, I'd find a fine mate like my father.  She was right.  I want to love you, Chakal.  I want you to love me.  I want us to grow old together!  I promise!"
	Chakal purred and rubbed her full length.  "Ixtab!  What a musical name!  I love the way you smell.  I love the way you look and the way you talk and the way the spots on your hips dance when you walk.  Everything about you is wonderful!"
	"Then let us mate among the reeds," she said quickly.  "Come, darling, while my courage holds out."
	"My timid little treasure," Chakal said, nuzzling and rubbing her full length again.  He could feel her tense body tremble.  "First we will walk the boundary together."
	Ixtab sighed.  "Yes, please.  Let us walk the boundary."
	Chakal broke into a gallop that looked restful but covered the distance quickly.  Ixtab followed closely on his heels, looking about excitedly.  The two jaguars sailed easily through a sea of vegetation; the shade restricted brush and weeds to the open grasslands.  Their path was a soft bed of leaves that padded pleasantly underfoot.
	They headed first for the river.  There by a bend in the sleepy flow they found a large ironwood tree.  To the eye alone it was ordinary, but the mark it bore told any hopeful and arrogant neighbors this was Chakal's land.  Once the scent was a warning to Ixtab--now it was a welcome sign of home.
	"Pardon me for a moment," Chakal said, unexpectedly shy at performing his duty in the presence of a female.  Ixtab briefly looked away and Chakal lifted his tail, refreshing the mark with a tiny controlled amount of his scent.  Then he turned about and raised up as high as he could on his back legs and dug his claws into the tree bark.  When he was satisfied that all was properly taken care of, he came back and nuzzled Ixtab.  "Let's go."
	They headed straight into the forest.  They were bound on the most important journey they would make together, showing Ixtab where safety ended and danger began.  Chakal trekked through a series of large or oddly shaped trees, each time briefly refreshing his scent and his claim on the land.  His land was large and very valuable, spread across the bottom of a river valley.  It had access to water and no steep slopes to climb.  A couple of small meadows were gathering places for herds of deer at dusk and dawn, making a promise of meals to come.
	Monkeys chattered in a tree, but they were not greatly concerned.  A breathtaking bouquet of red and blue feathered macaws burst from a tamarind and flew screeching away.  A small herd of deer fled before the approaching jaguars, but they were not too frightened--Chakal was clearly after a different prey.
	"This is wonderful!" Ixtab said.
	"There's more," Chakal said, beaming with pride.  "Wait till you see the rocks!"
	"Rocks?  What rocks?"
	"You'll see."
	Finally Chakal came to two imposing stone monoliths.  Along the base of each were a series of symbols carved and read by the race jaguars called "two-legs."  Chakal went to one and without hesitation began to twitch his whiskers, scenting the territorial marks.
	Ixtab was clearly uncomfortable.  "I hope there are no two-legs on your land.  They frighten me."
	"No.  They live across the river from here, and if we leave them alone, they will leave us alone."
	She shuddered when she saw the likenesses of the two-legs engraved in the stone.  Rumors about the furless monkeys who kill with sticks bred more fear than admiration among the decent creatures.  Even the howler monkeys and capuchins held them in contempt and fear.  
	Anxious to make a good impression on Chakal, Ixtab went to the large stone monoliths.  She rubbed them with her paw to feel the deep cut images and examined them closely.  In addition to the two-legs graven marks, each of the pillars bore the scent marks of a jaguar.  There were two distinct scents--one was Chakal's, but the other held dread memories for Ixtab.
	"That's HIS scent!  The jaguar who threatened me!"  She stiffened.  "We need to get away from here."
	"You're not in any danger--not on this side of the line.  He's just an old grouch that…."
	"He threatened me!"  She looked Chakal squarely in the eyes.  "Are you going to protect me or not?"
	"Sure I am!  I'm only saying that Machoc is not as vile as he'd have you believe.  He likes to make an impression."
	"Well he impressed me with a threat," Ixtab said curtly.  "He said next time I stepped on his lands he'd give me a beating I'd never forget!"
	Chakal's ears twitched.  "He'd better not even THINK about it."  He sniffed of the pillar on his side of the line.  "He's never trespassed once.  If you stay inside the boundaries, he won't touch you."
	"Make sure you do a good job marking it," she said.
	"Oh, I will."  He started to turn about and raise his tail.  Then he saw her looking at him.  "Please turn around."
	She came to him and nuzzled him.  "Make our home safe--it's nothing to be ashamed of."
	"It's not that I'm ashamed to mark my…."  He looked at her a bit shyly.  "It's something I've never done with a lady watching."
	"Before the sun rises there are many things you will do for the first time."  Ixtab walked about him slowly, looking at his powerful form and sun-gold fur spangled with a galaxy of dark stars and rings.  "I think you have a beautiful body.  Nothing it does could be shameful."  She ended up at his face once more and kissed him lightly.
	He looked into her beautiful hazel eyes, her finely chiseled face and the sensual curve of her ebony lips.  Then he started about her, following her proud, strong neck to the shoulders.  His eyes fondled the playful sweep of her ribs and ended up watching the strong but graceful turn of her hips.  Her tail swept lightly and alluringly across his cheek making him gasp.  "Ixtab, you're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
	She smiled.  "I'm fast too."
	"Well I'm faster."
	Panting with soft jaguar laughter, Ixtab touched his face with her warm, pink tongue, then she launched herself into a graceful canter.  "Hey!" Chakal said, taking up pursuit.  For a while the two lovers dodged trees in a drunken game of tag.  He chased her lithe and supple body, his heart pounding.  Silver drops of newborn moonlight penetrated the trees and fondled her lovely curves.  The music of her laughter intoxicated him.  He watched her powerful haunches bunch and spring sensuously, propelling her in graceful flight like an evening eagle and he was lost for a moment in a waking dream of desire.


CHAPTER 4:  THE TEMPLE

	Suddenly the forest canopy parted and before them loomed a huge limestone hill that shone pale in the moonlight.  Ixtab halted.
	The hill was covered with regular stairsteps.  It was too structured to be a natural thing.  As Chakal approached it, Ixtab drew in a gasp and said, "It's a two-legs thing!  What are you doing??"
	"They haven't been here in years.  Not in my father's time or his father's.  Come on!"
	He ran right to the base of the structure and came before a huge ornamental snake, mouth permanently agape.  "It's my favorite place to rest.  Don't worry--this old snake won't hurt you!"
	"I know it's not real.  I'm not that foolish."  She laughed nervously.  "This is all really nice, but are you sure we should be here?"
	"Of course.  This is my home."  He nuzzled her reassuringly.  "If you like this, you'll love what's next."  He stepped around and headed smoothly up the many stairs toward the small enclosed room at the top of the pyramid.  He waited patiently until she joined him and they entered the small doorway.
	"This is where I like to sleep when it rains."
	Ixtab walked about and looked at the smooth walls, the square windows, and the ample doorway.  "Oh Chakal!  This is beautiful!  This is the perfect place to raise cubs!  We could let them play over here and outside it’s not too hard to get to the ground, but the snakes and rain won’t come inside."
	“Our cubs,” he said with a happy sigh.  "That Machoc--it's all his doing.  I could kiss him if he weren't so darned cranky."  He looked at her.  "I'd much rather kiss you."
	She looked at him intently.  "Then do it.  I'm your mate--do anything you like."
	Her knew her words were brave but saw her eyes were frightened.  "Only when you're ready," he purred.  "Only when you want me close to you."  He touched her cheek with his soft pink tongue and stroked her gently with his paw.  "I wonder how much of your mother's advice she actually lived by.  Was she really a little brush fire?"
	"I don't know.  I never actually saw her--well--you know."
	"Mating?"  Chakal smiled with amusement.  "I'm rather glad she did.  Come with me--I want to show you something."  He stepped back outside the door and sat looking out over the forest.  Ixtab came and sat next to him.  From their high perch they could see the deep purple remnants of a sunset yielding to the silver light of stars.  Among the trees were another set of stars that flashed gold among the branches.
	"Look at the fireflies," Ixtab said with a sigh.  "Aren't they beautiful!  Why do they make this light?"
	"They are looking for love."
	"It seems everyone's looking for love tonight."
	Chakal smiled.  "They live to glow for one night of romance, then fall to the earth to die.  Don't be afraid--we have our lives ahead of us, and I won't spoil it by rushing you.  I want our first time to be special."
	Ixtab leaned on him, snuggling into his musky warmth.  He purred, the hum of his chest spreading warmth throughout her body.
	Ixtab sighed.  "There is a little cub inside my heart.  You make her feel safe and happy.  She loves you.  I love you."
	Chakal purred again.  "The last time I felt love was on the night my parents blessed me and sent me forth.  I was afraid that no one would ever love me again.  Ixtab, is this just the fire inside us that brought us together, or is it something real that comes from the heart?"
	"I think it's real," she said.
	"So do I."
	Her eyes shone like stars in the moonlight.  She nuzzled Chakal and kissed him on the cheek.  "Darling, I'm ready."
	"For what?"
	"To show you that trick."
	"Are you sure?"
	She smiled.  "Yes, Chakal.  I'm sure."


CHAPTER 5:  MACHOC’S ATTITUDE

	The three days of Ixtab's receptive time passed all too swiftly, but they worked lasting changes.  Chakal did not feel the day had begun unless she was there to rouse him with a gentle paw and touch of the tongue.  Her touch, now confident as well as sensual, could soothe his worst distress and make him smile.  Yet most dramatically, within just a moon he could see the subtle change in her profile that foretold new life.  Chakal was once a loner; suddenly he had a mate and expected a family. 
	Chakal grew very protective of Ixtab, though she was a powerful cat in her own right.  He was doubly careful to mark his the boundary of his territory well and he began accompanying Ixtab in the hunt.
	Ixtab had expressed her displeasure with that arrangement, saying she preferred to forage in the morning coolness, but Chakal would hear none of it.  He suspected that she sneaked away for some unsupervised activity from time to time, but he could never prove it.  Her tread was as quiet as it was graceful.
	One morning a fly landed on a sensitive part of Chakal's nose, stepping inside one of his nostrils.
	"AhhhCHOO!"  He looked about and sat bolt upright.  "Ixtab, what happened?  Something touched me on the…."
	Ixtab was gone.
	"Oh gods, I knew she was sneaking out to hunt--I just knew it!"  He felt of her place beside him and it had already grown cold.  Ixtab had not wakened him--she had already been away several minutes.  "We will discuss this," he grumbled.  Worried and not a little annoyed, Chakal stretched, yawned, and headed out of the temple to look for his mate.

***

	Ixtab was thinking about the new life inside her.  Her lithe figure had become less graceful, but she bore it with joy; her husband's love had taken on tangible form.  She stopped to look at her face in the reflecting pool.  Did her eyes really shine with love the way Chakal said they did?  Maybe not, but there was a contentment that sparkled back in the reflection.  Ixtab was happy--unbelievably happy--and she headed off to hunt for something to share with her beloved.  Perhaps a tapir would be wading in the seasonal stream, but most likely there would be deer in the western meadow.
	Unknowingly, she strayed past the two pillars that marked the boundary of her territory.  Every step she took from there brought her farther from home and deeper into danger.
	Ixtab was worried about her mate.  What if she DID kill a deer?  Would he be glad for her, knowing that she had strayed alone?  Perhaps not at first, but would he be upset for long if he woke to breakfast with his lover?  She hoped not and pressed onward.
	Ixtab saw the brush move.  It was not the timid stalk of a deer but the confident tread of a jaguar.  "Chakal, dearest?  Don't be cross--I didn't mean to…."
	A jet-black jaguar confronted Ixtab.  "You again??"
	"Excuse me--my mistake.  Good morning, Machoc."  
	"Not for you it isn't.  I remember you.  I warned you once."
	"Look, I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to intrude.  I'll go back now."
	"Sorry does not cut it--this is the second time you've intruded on me!  You have all that good land while I'm stuck with this crappy little strip, and you're over here hunting what little game I have??  I think you've earned a good cuffing!"
	She raised her hackles and thrashed her tail.  Still, though she growled and bared her teeth, she lowered her ears in fear.  Indeed, Machoc was a splendid cat, and though he was much older, he was clearly larger and likely stronger.
	"You will learn to respect my boundaries," Machoc said.
	"Leave me alone!" Ixtab quailed.  "A fight wouldn't do either of us much good!"
	"Especially not you!  You couldn't win, you know," he said with a disarming laugh.  He turned around, exposing his flank, then let his ears and tail drop limply.  Ixtab relaxed a little bit.
	Machoc whipped out and cuffed her solidly in the face.  Before the stunned jaguaress could turn to flee, he burst on her like a thunderstorm, battering her face and shoulders with his great paws.  
	Ixtab struggled to keep him at bay, "Stop it!" she cried, trying to fend off some of the pummeling.  "Machoc, please!"
	"The more you struggle, the worse it will be!"
	Ixtab managed to land a swipe on Machoc's shoulder, causing a slight cut.  The lucky blow seemed to put a new anger into his attack.  Cursing, he laid into her with all his might.  Blow after blow rained down on her as she tried to regain her footing and flee.
	Ixtab remembered how often Chakal had warned her not to hunt alone!  As she fought her losing battle, she worried how she would explain her cuts and swellings to him!  "Leave me alone!" she cried.  "I just want to go!"
	"I bet you do!" he said, cuffing her so hard across the face that she staggered back.  "You didn't think I meant what I said, but now you'll know better!  When I say keep out, I MEAN IT."
	She cowered down unresisting and began to whimper.  The gesture seemed to appease Machoc's anger somewhat.  He stopped, and panting looked down at her huddled form.  "If you EVER tread on my land again, there won't be enough of you left to bait a beetle!  Understand??"
	"Yes," she said, sobbing.
	"Yes WHAT??"
	"Yes sir!"
	"Yes sir WHAT??"
	In a tear choked voice she stammered, "Yes sir, I won't come on your land again and I'm very sorry!  Let me go--please!"
	"Well then, you may leave."
	Suddenly Chakal appeared from the brush.  With a roar of rage, he sprang upon Machoc.  Chakal was young and strong, and his body was strengthened by the force of his terrible anger.  He furiously lashed out at Machoc with unbridled fury, his claws out and his teeth bared.
	The elderly black jaguar gasped and tried to fend off the blows as best he could.  He knew he was looking at death in the eyes and he was terrified.  Now it was Machoc who fought to gain his footing and run.
	In surprisingly little time, Chakal had downed him with a heavy blow to the shoulder, then pinned him to the ground with a paw.
	"Enough!  Enough!" Machoc cried.  "Don't hurt me!  Please!"
	"Please WHAT??" Chakal roared with a cuff to Machoc's face.
	"Please SIR!" the old jaguar said, one eye swelling shut and blood streaming from his nose.  "I'm your friend, Chakal!  I didn't mean to make you angry."  Desperately he looked into the red eyes of his conqueror.  "Maybe I can hunt you a nice deer.  Would you like that?  Or maybe I could teach you a new trick?"
	"Don't hurt him," Ixtab said.  "He's old and scared.  You don't have to prove anything for my sake."
	"He hurt you, Ixtab."
	"I know, but my wounds will heal.  He's lost his pride.  Let him go, darling.  Let him go."
	Machoc began to stroke the strong arm that pinned him with a trembling paw.  "Please don't kill me, Chakal!  Please!  I don't want to die!  Please don't kill me!"
	Stepping back at last, Chakal looked down at Machoc, panting heavily.  "I don't want to kill you--this time."  He bared his fangs and narrowed his eyes.  "Look old fool--she's carrying my cubs.  Touch her again and by the gods I WILL kill you!"
	He looked at Chakal.  "She's carrying your cubs?  I didn't know!"  Machoc glanced over gratefully at Ixtab.  "I should have courted you when I had the chance, girl.  I didn't know what I was missing."


CHAPTER 6:  THE CUBS

	Two moons later, Ixtab's pregnancy had come to term.  Chakal was beside himself with worry.  "Is it time??" he asked for probably the twentieth time.
	"Not yet.  Soon."
	"Soon??  How soon??"
	"What do you expect me to say?"
	"Give me a time.  Is it days?  Hours?"
	"Well, it might be minutes….AAAAUGH….seconds!!"
	"Oh my gods!  What will we do??"
	"WE will go into labor and give birth," Ixtab answered.  "I must get to shelter quickly."
	Panting with the exertion, Ixtab gritted her teeth as she stumbled to the base of the pyramid and headed up the steep staircase to the room where she wanted her cubs to see the light.
	Chakal frowned.  "Curse this long climb!  Are you all right, darling?"
	"I've been better," Ixtab said through clenched jaws.  She reached the top, then went into the temple and collapsed gasping for air.  Chakal started in, but she said, "Go guard the entrance!"
	"Will you be all right?  Can't I help you??"
	"You want to have the cubs instead??"
	"I just wish I could help somehow."
	"Why weren't you so helpful three moons ago!  You did this to me!"  Her tone softened.  "I'm sorry.  Just go guard the entrance!  Please??"
	Her water broke.  Blood and humors began to flow, and Chakal stood stunned.  "Oh my gods, you've sprung a leak!"
	"Chakal…"
	"I know--the entrance.  I'm going."
	The jaguar looked about, seeing nothing unusual.  Their den was practically unassailable, perched on top of an immense mountain of limestone blocks.  Chakal was very excited and very nervous--he disliked feeling so useless in Ixtab's hour of need.  Only Ixtab had any  power over the situation, and she sounded dreadfully weary, panting and moaning at the contractions that wracked her body.
	The next few minutes seemed like hours, but the devoted Chakal stayed firmly at his post.  Every time the monkeys shifted the tree boughs, he could sense a boa.  Every time the brush moved, he could see a fox.  Every time Ixtab gasped or cried out, he winced.  But then there was a new disturbance, a joyful sound of alluring high squeals.  
	"Ixtab!  Darling!  Are those my cubs??"
	"Yes, Chakal!  Three cubs--no--unggh--I have this strange feeling…."
	"Strange feeling??"
	"Yes, that I'm still being twisted in half!"
	He ran inside the room.  Lying in an exhausted sprawl was his mate, her facial fur matted and blood staining her hind limbs.  "Ixtab, darling!  What can I do?"
	"Don't 'Ixtab darling' me!"  She closed her eyes tightly and bared her teeth.  "AAAUUGH!!  You had your fun and put me through this torture!  Why did I ever let you touch me!"
	"Ixtab, I'm sorry!  I didn't know it was like this!  Really I didn't!"
	"Go!  Just leave me alone!"
	Chakal nodded, and with a last worried glance, he said, "I love you, Ixtab."  He started out, but only got halfway to the door.
	"Oh Chakal!  I'm sorry!  Don't leave me!"
	He ran back in to her.  Ixtab was already grooming her three cubs, but clearly there was a strained look on her face.  Suddenly she grimaced again.  "Here comes another one!"  She set her teeth, taking in a deep breath, letting it halfway out and holding the rest.  She strained again.  "I can do this!  I HAVE TO!"  One last good push brought the fourth cub into the open air.  The tiny male was jet black, and with his eyes closed only the pink of his nose showed out.  She yowled with relief.  "Oh thank you gods!  Oh, I can breathe again!"  Her head lay on the floor and her eyes closed.  "It was awful, but it's over.  It's all over now!"
	"Oh my gods!  Four cubs??"
	"I know!"  She raised up, breathed in deeply and let the air out in a protracted sigh.  Then she cleaned off the fourth cub, stimulating his skin and nudging him toward her waiting belly.
	Chakal crowded close.  "Oh Ixtab, look at those perfect little bodies.  Little pink noses and tiny little toes!"  He quietly said, "Look at daddy!  Aren't you some precious little things!  Yes you are!"
	The tiny black male turned to face Chakal, but his eyes were half closed.
	"Ixtab!  He's looking at me!"
	"I don't think he sees you well, but he feels your breath."
	"It doesn't matter, Darling.  He will know he's loved."
	"They all will," she answered with a tired sigh.
	"How do you feel, Ixtab??"
	"Exhausted but OK.  Don't worry; I don't sense a number five."  She looked at Chakal and smiled proudly.  “There they are, my love.  Once I was someone's daughter; now I'm someone's mother."
	"And I'm someone's father."
	"You were good.”  
	"I had help."  Chakal nuzzled her tired, moist face.
	"Honey, I didn't mean to snap at you before," Ixtab said, purring.
	"That's all right, darling."  He nuzzled her and purred back with deep contentment.  "Now whom do we have here?"
	"Here are our two sons Bol and Holcan.  These are our daughters Koh and…."  She paused a moment.  "Sorry, son!  This is our daughter Koh and our third son Kayam."
	"Koh, huh?  So we have a little Ixtab!"  He looked at his mate and back at his daughter.  "You looked like that once?"
	"And you looked like him once."
	"Yes, I looked like Holcan!  He's a feisty little thing!"
	"That's Bol.  The black one's Holcan."
	Chakal smiled.  "I always heard that a black cub means good luck!"  He thought a moment, then his smile dropped.  "Machoc is black and he hasn't been very lucky."
	"Our Holcan will be lucky.  Just look who his father is."
	Chakal nuzzled her.  "I know I feel lucky.  I must be the luckiest creature alive.”


CHAPTER 7:  GROWING PAINS

	At first the cubs started out as helpless balls of fluff that nursed and slept and rarely moved about.  Chakal listened to them carefully but he only heard them say "ing," "mmh," or "uouw," none of which he understood in the least.  He got little more out of Ixtab, who spent most of her time with him grooming cubs, nursing cubs, and nuzzling cubs.
	Once Chakal came running in excitedly.  "You'll never guess what I saw!"
	"Shhh," Ixtab said.  "The cubs are nursing."
	"I saw something almost unheard of.  There was this monkey swinging from branch to branch, when suddenly it lost its grip and fell out of the tree.  Oh it grabbed at branches on the way down, but it struck the ground and died.  Have you ever heard of such a thing?"
	Ixtab was grooming her daughter Koh.  "That's Momma's precious little girl!"
	"Well?" Chakal said.
	"Huh?"
	"What about the monkey?"
	"What monkey?"
	Chakal sighed in resignation.  He rolled on his back and cried, "Ing!  Mmh!  Uouw!"
	Ixtab looked up.  "What are you doing??"
	"I'm trying to appeal to your motherly side."
	"It's much easier to appeal to my hungry side.  Do you mind, darling?"
	"I suppose I could try the eastern meadow.  Something should be out and about."
	During those early days, Chakal spent a great deal of time hunting for Ixtab.  He would quietly bring her meat, heading home by a different route each time to make sure he was not followed.  While Ixtab ate, he would talk softly to the cubs, but mostly they would just ignore him.  It was a frustrating time that taxed his patience.

***

	Just as Chakal was ready to give up on ever playing games with his cubs, they began to notice him; they would look about and make short excursions around the den.  Before long they never STOPPED moving except for naps.  Three spotted bundles of lightning and one inky thundercloud pulled their mother's ears and tugged their father's tail, making their parents' lives harried but full of love.
	Chakal had no more problems telling them apart.  Kayam was the largest--he would try anything once, and usually did.  He was the first one to crawl across the cold stone floor and the first one to squeal out a recognizable "Momma!"  He was the first one to get into trouble, and the first one to get a good cuffing.
	Keeping him and the others in check, Koh--the only daughter--was "Mother's little helper."  Koh was always prepared to tell Momma when someone stepped out of line, and with that bunch, she had a full time job.  
	Holcan was the easiest to spot, for he was as dark as a shadow.  Holcan acted the most like his dad, picking up on his father's habits and strutting about like a miniature version of Chakal.  
	Bol always stood closest to Holcan; they formed a great team and by working together they could keep Koh at bay, getting away with things Kayam could only dream about.  
	By necessity, the cubs spent their first days in the safety of their birth chamber.  The outside world was a tantalizing paradise that they could see just beyond the door to the chamber.  While Ixtab did not let them explore beyond the threshold of their nursery, she would tell them stories about the wonders that awaited them someday.  They didn't understand half of what she said--the things she tried to explain to them were foreign, but they whetted their young curiosities to a fine edge.  
	Their energy--and their patience--quickly outgrew the small chamber.  All too soon, telling stories was not enough.
	One day, Ixtab gave them the lecture she had once received from her own mother.  "When we go out there…."
	"All right!" Kayam yelled.  The cubs crowded toward the exit.
	Ixtab came about and blocked them.  "Wait!  Listen!  You will stay in line.  You will not run off by yourselves.  Remember that a jaguar travels silently, keeping his ears and eyes open to everything around him.  Misbehave and you'll come marching right back here, understand??"
	They nodded.  Clearly, Mom meant business.
	Ixtab gently carried them one by one outside of the room, down the stairs, placing them on the soft ground where Chakal waited proudly.  It was a journey as mysterious and wonderful to them as a flight to the stars.  When all the cubs were down to the earth with its sights and smells and soft give under their tiny feet, Ixtab and Chakal led them on a trek of discovery.  They headed out behind their mother in a line, with Chakal, ever watchful, bringing up the rear.  
	A brilliant blue butterfly tempted Kayam to stray for a moment, and a clump of fire-red flowers was too good for even Koh to pass, but a quick word from Daddy quickly put them back in line.
	To the four cubs, the world was a safe and friendly place.  Never had they known discomfort or fear except for Ixtab's occasional cuffings.  The mysteries of the jungle that did not frighten them as cubs completely unnerved Chakal and Ixtab.  To the new parents every vine was a boa constrictor and every falling fruit was a swooping eagle.
	From time to time Ixtab would look back at them and caution them when their excited chatter got too loud.  "Silently!  A jaguar travels silently."  Still, it was their first time out and she tried to be lenient, smiling inwardly at the innocent wonder they felt for the miracles abounding in ordinary things.  Perhaps that excitement was infectious, for Ixtab looked about her and felt surrounded by beauty.
	"Four cubs!" said a small feline voice from the trees.  The ocelot looked down appraisingly.  "What a fine group of youngsters, Lady Ixtab!"
	"Thank you," Ixtab replied, staring at her small admirer with ears laid back and hackles slightly raised.  Ixtab knew that one of her cubs would make quite a meal for the wily cat.
	"Where are you going with them?"
	"As if I would…."
	Chakal cut short Ixtab's curt reply.  "We are headed to the river.  And where are your small ones, Madam?"
	"Resting," the Ocelotess said quickly, then she began to groom her face nervously.  "Maybe I should go check on them."
	"Nice seeing you again," Chakal said with a bit of a nod.  "You tend your young ones and we'll take ours to the river."
	It was not as long a trek as it seemed.  They entourage ended up at the sparkling path of the river, a boundary that separated their world from the world of the two-legs.  Beyond the river stretched a strange and open landscape of cultivated fields and freshly-painted buildings.  Tiny, erect figures wandered among the buildings; the two-legs themselves.
	"Wow!" Bol said softly.  "Isn't that neat!"
	"It's unnatural," Ixtab said.  "There are so few trees.  No place to hunt, and no place to hide.  Just open sky, hot sun, and wind.  I don't like it."
	"I don't know about that," Chakal said.  "It's fun to look at--from a safe distance.  It wasn't very fun for Machoc."

***

	The first trips of the cubs into the outdoors were all very sheltered adventures.  It wasn't for many more days that they were actually allowed to investigate the cool, wet wonders of the river.  Then they were under their parents' close supervision.  
	The cubs were growing fast, and with their growth came new abilities.  One day while they were enjoying the warm sun on the river bank, Kayam stepped in the water and found that he could swim, and he said, "I wonder if I could make it across the river someday."
	Holcan sat next to Bol as if to be his shadow.  Holcan idly boasted, "I bet I could do it now." 
	"Betcha couldn't," Bol said.
	"Betcha shouldn't," Koh said.
	The ebony cub looked keenly at the distant shore.  It was devoid of trees, and crops waved in the mild breeze.  There were buildings and tiny brown bodies with bright markings that traveled in the fields.  He was fascinated.
	For a while, Holcan played a game with Bol, dropping different objects into the river to see which ones would sink and which ones would float.  Most sticks floated, though a couple of waterlogged twigs worked slowly to the bottom.  Leaves floated splendidly, and when a couple were dropped in the water, Bol and Holcan let them race each other downstream.  The idea of "flow" fascinated the cubs to no end.
	Holcan was obsessed with the forbidden lure of the opposite bank.  He looked at Bol and said, "I'll do it.  I'll show you all!"
	Holcan plunged into the water, yipping at the sudden loss of contact with solid ground, and started to paddle out into the current with his paws.  He made progress, water parting before his nose in a spreading wake.  "Kayam, I told you I could do it!"
	Koh spotted him and ran to her mother yelling, "Momma!  Momma!  Look!"
	Ixtab gasped.  The tiny black cub bobbed perilously in the mighty green river.  She ran at top speed toward the bank.  "Holcan, you come back here THIS INSTANT!!"

***

	Holcan saw an angry jaguaress waiting for him on the riverbank, and he meekly returned, ears laid back and tail drooping.  "Sorry, Mom."
	"Raise your tail!"
	"I won't do it again!  Do I have to get a cuffing??"
	"Do it now!"
	Holcan crouched on his front legs, his back half still standing.  Trembling, he raised his tail, gritted his teeth and closed his eyes tightly.
	WHACK!
	"Oh Momma!  Please!"
	WHACK!
	"I'm so…"
	WHACK!
	"…sorry!"
	Ixtab prodded him with a paw till he opened his eyes.  "You must NEVER go past that river! You must NEVER go to the opposite bank. There our territory ends and the land of the two-legs begins.  You have no business ever going there." 
	Holcan tried to choke back a sob.  "Yes, Momma."
	Chakal looked at him, an amused smile on his face.  "Old Machoc could tell you an earful about the two-legs, but don't you dare ask him!  If he ever saw you cubs, he'd snap you up like little mice."  Chakal clicked his strong jaws together adding to the effect--the point was well taken.  Still, he smiled reassuringly and started grooming Holcan's wet fur.  
	"What's a Machoc?"
	"He's a big cat that eats naughty little cubs that wander away from their mom."
	Chakal added quietly, "Of course, you're quite safe if you behave yourselves and stick with your parents like you should."
	Throughout the lecture, Koh continued to stare at the opposite bank and its wonders.  "What's that white hill," she said.  "Is that like our place?"
	Chakal nodded.  "Machoc told me that the men of the two legs built them."
	"You talked with Machoc?" she said.  "Didn't he try to eat you?"
	"Nobody snaps me up like a little mouse," Chakal said with a proud grin.  "Still, I don't turn my back on Machoc, and I avoid these two-legs.  The two-legs are not like us--they are afraid of the jungle and so they make these odd places to survive.  The place where we stay was like that once--not as grand, but certainly you recognize some of the stone things from the place where you were born--but the men left and the trees grew back."
	Holcan said, "I thought they were always here."  
	Chakal looked down at a little seedling and said, "One day--not in your time or your son's time, but someday that will be a mighty giant in the forest, and then it too will fall and rot away, taken back to the heart of the earth.  The temples across the river will be overtaken there as they were at our home.  Things adjust.  Nothing is permanent."
	"Even us?" Holcan asked.
	"Yes.  We will grow old and crumble too.  But not for a long, long time."  He went to a fallen tree, dead and covered with moss.  "You see the stump and the broken pillar?  This old fellow lived when the stars were young.  The older they are, the bigger they are.  It's just like us--I'm older, so I'm bigger."
	Holcan put his tiny black paw there.  It was much narrower.  "How long have you been alive?"
	"Oh, a little over four cycles."
	"That long?"
	"That's not very old.  You make me sound ancient!"  Chakal laughed.
	"And how long have I been alive?"
	"Only three moons.  That's much less, but it means you have a much longer path ahead."
	Holcan said, "Wow, that's so neat!"  Then he looked at his father sadly.  "That means you're going to die before me?"
	Chakal bent down and kissed him.  "I hope so.  That is the natural order of things.  That's why your mother cuffed you for going in the river.  We don't want you to die young."


CHAPTER 8:  ON THE RIVERBANK

	Every day of the jaguars' life it had rained a little, but during the past moon they had endured the unremitting misery of almost nonstop downpours.  The endless sound of the pelting of millions of drops on the leaves became such a steady part of their lives that the jaguars ceased to hear it after a while.  The rain was both a blessing and a curse--the sound of it hid the already stealthy approach in the hunt, but it stirred up mud and made each moment miserable.  
	A true jaguar, Chakal enjoyed a good swim, but he hated being wetted by tiny beads that splashed in his eyes and made his fur a soggy mess.  He detested every moment spent hunting in the rain, but relished the rush of affection and attention he got when his visits were the only source of excitement for the cubs.
	Ixtab spent her days being pestered by four restless cubs.
	"I hate rain," Koh said.  "Why has it rained so long?"
	"I don't know," Ixtab answered.
	"Why does it have to rain anyway?"
	"It's part of the order of things.  If it never rained, things would be very dry.  There would be nothing to drink."
	"We could drink milk," Koh said.
	Ixtab asked, "Where would that leave your father and I?"  She half smiled at an amusing image that came to mind.  "Well anyway, where would that leave me?"
	"Will it stop raining today?" Bol asked.
	"I don't think so."
	"Do you think it will stop tomorrow?"
	"I'm not sure."
	"When will it stop raining?"
	"It might just stop before you drive me crazy."  She half-closed her eyes and sighed deeply.  "Hurry, gods, while there is still time."
	The cubs were no more fond of the rain than Chakal was, but all the enforced inactivity became even worse.  Restless and impatient, Holcan finally asked, "Mom, might we go play in the rain--if we're careful?"
	"I don't think that would be wise.  The mud is slippery and it's hard to see.  Besides, you always end up at the river, and it's in flood."
	"What's a flood?"
	"That's when the water is higher than usual.  Lots higher."
	"THIS much higher?" Koh asks, hopping up and holding her paw over her head.
	"You can't IMAGINE how much water is in it."
	"I want to see it," Kayam pleaded.  "Please, Momma?"
	Ixtab had made a grave error.  She made floods sound too interesting.  "It's dangerous."
	"We'll be careful," Kayam said.
	"No, son."
	"Please, please, pleeeease?"
	"Not now.  Maybe when you're older."
	"But I want to see it NOW while it's scary looking!"
	Ixtab raised her paw to give him a good cuff.  Kayam had been a pest, but she saw the sadness and fear in his small face and bent down to nuzzle him softly and kiss his cheek.  "It's time for your meal.  Let me think about it while you nurse."
	She rolled on her back and the cubs took their places on her belly.  The kiss of their hungry mouths spread a warm sensation of pleasure through her.  She stroked Koh, her little daughter that reminded her so much of herself as a cub, then she comforted each of her sons.  Clearly Kayam was nursing, but he also had his eyes locked into her own.  The thought was so strong, it could almost be heard.  He had an all-consuming desire to see the flood waters.  Clearly he would begin to pester her again as soon as his hunger had abated.
	She decided to take them out, but being a practical mother, she knew better than to say, "Yes, as soon as you finish your meal."  She had made that mistake before--only once.
	A few minutes passed, then she shook her head to dispel the warm muzziness that their hypnotic suckling spread through her.  "IF you promise to just LOOK at the water, but not get IN it."
	"Yeah!" the cubs cried, rubbing and nuzzling her expectantly.

***

	The trip to the river in the driving rain was not very pleasant for Ixtab, but it was very liberating for the cubs.  While Ixtab trudged along in misery, the cubs were giggling and scampering about despite the downpour.  Ixtab had to constantly call her cubs back to her side.
	Even Ixtab thought the strengthened river was worth the trip to see.  Its massive swollen bulk moved with a raw power that pushed clumps of grass, branches, and even whole trees before it with unquenchable fervor.
	Chakal had followed them from his perch in the serpent's mouth.  His fur was soaked and drops of water hung like gems from his whiskers.  Trying to maintain some sense of dignity, while blinking water from his eyes he asked, "Ixtab, this is no time to be about with young cubs.  Have you lost your mind?"
	"Almost," she countered sharply.  "If you want them to go home, you go with them.  It's your turn to keep them amused."
	"No thank you.  I only know two stories, and they've heard them enough to recite them word for word."
	Ixtab looked back at the great expanse of water.  "They wanted to come.  Besides, I'm kind of glad I came here.  There was a creek where I came from, but nothing like this.  Look at it, Chakal!  Have you ever seen so much water?"
	"Where is it all going?" Bol asked.
	"That way," Ixtab said, looking downstream.
	"Listen to your mother," Chakal said shrewdly.  "She has a wealth of wisdom."
	Ixtab looked back at him.  "Well Mister Expert, where DOES all that water go?"
	"It goes to a big hole in the ground," he answered, trying to look authoritative.
	"Have you ever seen the hole?"
	"Oh sure.  Dozens of times."
	Ixtab looked about.  "Your father is telling a little joke.  There's really no hole in the…."  She stopped, for she only saw three cubs.  
	"Where is Holcan?"
	They looked about.  "Bol," Ixtab said with barely suppressed panic, "where is your brother?"
	"I thought he was with Koh."
	Koh looked about.  "Kayam, wasn't he with you?"
	Kayam looked at Chakal.  "Dad, I thought you were pulling a leaf out of his fur."
	"Don't look at me--I thought…."  Chakal drew in a deep breath and shouted, "Holcan??  Holcan, where are you??"
	Suddenly Koh shrieked.  "Momma, Momma, look!!"
	Holcan was a tiny black dot being swept away in the strong current.
	"Holcan!" Ixtab cried.  "Oh my gods!  Get back here this minute!"
	"Momma!" Holcan cried weakly, struggling to stay afloat.  "Help me!!"
	His cries filled her with horror.  The other cubs began screaming, "Momma, do something!"
	"Stay here!" Ixtab snapped, then she began to run along the bank after the cub, dodging trees and bushes to gain a lead on him.  Finally she won her race with the swift current and  plunged into the flood.  
	The river was more than water.  It was muddy and foaming and full of wood and leaves.  Gasping and paddling to stay upright, she looked about for the small black head among the debris.  It was hard to see; muddy water stung her eyes and she was surrounded by a blur of moving objects.
	"Momma!  Momma!"
	"I'm coming, honey!"
	Moving toward the cries she was fouled by branches and battered by limbs impatient to move downstream.  "Holcan!  Where are you??"
	"Over here!"
	Surprised that the sound was so close by, she spotted the small terror-stricken face hardly a length away.  A few more splashes with her strong forelimbs brought her to his side and she finally touched Holcan's struggling body.  
	She grasped him by the nape of the neck, paddling desperately to keep his head above water.  He felt so small and helpless in the great tide.  She was little better off herself, yet her mother love gave her incredible strength.  She breasted the muddy brownish gray wall of angry water, determined to save her son.  She didn't know which shore she was approaching.  Indeed, she didn't know where she was.
	Something jabbed her in the back and she nearly dropped Holcan.  Looking about, she saw a tree trunk large enough to cling to and she grabbed for it, placing Holcan atop it so she could catch her breath. 
	"Momma, I'm scared!"
	"Don't be, darling.  I'm going to get you out of here.  I have everything under control…."
	Ixtab held her face out of the water by clinging to the log.  She could just make out the distant golden shapes of her family running along the bank after her.  "My gods, we're almost to the other bank!  Honey, we have to go now."  She reached for the nape of his neck, but before she could grasp him a huge swell tossed them high up and brought them crashing down in a torrent of muddy foam.  Ixtab struggled desperately just to stay afloat and she looked about for her cub.  "Holcan!  Holcan!!  Where are you, Holcan??"
	He, the tree, and even the shoreline were nowhere to be seen.  She was shoved underwater by a large branch and had to work fast to break its hold on her and reach surface again to gasp for air.
	"Holcan!!  Holcan!!  It's me!!  Your Momma!!  Come to Momma!!"  The cub was lost in the melee.  There was no cub's cry over the roar of the water.  Ixtab looked about frantically, hoping to catch sight of her son.  "Oh gods, answer me!!"
	Chakal's voice, barely heard, was shouting, "Ixtab!  He's gone!  Come over here!"
	"Chakal!  Where is he??"
	"Come over here!"
	She turned toward the voice and headed to shore.  She was weak from her long struggle--It took her a long time to fight her way across the current, and she did not know how far she had traveled.  Chakal and the cubs were there to meet her.
	Ixtab dragged herself up on the bank, then turned and scanned the waters for a bobbing black face.
	"Are you all right, Momma?" Bol asked.
	"I must go back."
	"Where's Holcan?" He asked.
	"He's still out there!  I have to get him!"
	She started back toward the water but Chakal intercepted her gently but firmly.  "No, darling.  It's too late."
	"But he's out there looking for me!!  Let me go!!"
	"He's not looking for anyone," Chakal said, lowering his head.  "He's gone."
	"But honey, I put him on the tree!  I can find the tree, but I have to go now!"
	"I saw him fall into the water."  Chakal's head stayed down.  "Ixtab, darling, remember the cubs.  Don't torment them.  No one could have survived that."
	"But Chakal!"
	"We're lucky just to have you back."  Chakal nuzzled her sadly.  "If I thought there was a chance, I'd go after him myself.  I saw him go under.  Oh gods, I saw him go under, but I didn't see him come up!"
	Fatigued and in shock, Ixtab said, "Oh my little baby!  I hope it was quick.  I've never had someone I love die before.  I was so close--I touched him!  I should have never put him down, not for a second!"
	"It wasn't your fault," Chakal insisted.
	"I went the wrong way," Ixtab said, panting and shivering.  "It was chaos out there."
	"I know," Chakal said, nuzzling her softly.  "Are you all right?"
	"I don't know.  I think so."
	Bol watched the large trees being swept downstream.  "He's still alive!"
	"Do you see him??" Chakal asked.
	"No.  I just feel it.  We gotta go after him!"
	"Oh son!  Don't let your feelings tear you apart!  If we stick together, we'll make it through this somehow.  He's gone--try to accept it--grieve for him."
	"Yes sir."  Bol looked down.  "But he's still alive.  He really is.  I bet I could find him.  He was black--that's supposed to be lucky!  Please let me try!!  Please!!"
	A shattered Ixtab looked across the water one last time as the rain pelted her mockingly.  "My little son."  Koh, who had always been the closest to her mother, saw that she needed a good nuzzle.  She snuggled by her side and rested her head on Ixtab.  "I'll never leave you Mom."
	Numbly, Ixtab said, "Don't be foolish, child.  Someday when you get older, you'll want to go find your destiny with a mate and cubs of your own."
	"Not me," Koh said.  "I'll never leave you.  I promise."
	"My precious little daughter," Ixtab said, tears running down her cheeks.  She kissed away Koh's tears, then turned and slowly led the cubs away.
	Chakal remembered the talk not so long ago when Holcan wanted to cross the river.  A fallen tree lay nearby.  Like the tree, Holcan had fallen and would eventually return to the heart of the earth.  "Holcan is dead!  Oh gods!"  He extended his claws and dug into the soft wood, scoring it deeply as a pain surged up in his gut and tears began to flood his eyes.  "Holcan, my son!  My son!"
	

CHAPTER 9:  THE RESCUE

	Shivering and half dead, Holcan clung weakly to a large branch.  "Mom??" he called in a thin, weak voice.  Holcan had been pushed underwater.  When he finally clawed and paddled his way back to the surface he looked for his mother but could not see her.  He begged the gods to let her live, but he felt she had died trying to save him.
	Holcan didn't know how long he had been in the water.  It might have been minutes--it might have been hours.  Just when he felt his strength failing him, the branch slowed its progress in the water close to the bank.  Wet through and shivering, he relaxed his grip, paddling weakly through the last few lengths of water and stumbling up the bank.
	After he had stepped over the short rise, he saw to his horror that he was on the wrong side of the river!  There were two-legs' everywhere!  Something told him even in his weakened state that he should try to escape.  He looked back at the branch, yet he knew he would never make it across the river till the flood receded.  So forcing his tired legs to move, he trudged weakly toward some bushes to hide himself until dark came and he quickly fell into an exhausted sleep.

***

	Holcan woke suddenly, sensing danger.  Horrified, he saw some young two-legs were headed in his direction.  One of the shorter two-legs--a cub perhaps?--pointed at him.  With horror, Holcan saw the young creature was headed in his direction.  Though it was only a cub, the two-legs still dwarfed him, and it was bending over about to pick him up!
	Holcan hissed and moved a couple of steps back.  It had a momentary effect on the two-leg cub, but it still picked him up--rather roughly.  Swinging helplessly, Holcan endured the arm across his chest that pinned him to the beaming youngster.  As the two-leg began to run with his new prize, Holcan bounced up and down and felt rather foolish and very frightened.
	Suddenly the young one came to a halt.  One of the adults was looking down, and it was angry and scolding.  "They're fighting over me," he thought.  "Maybe I can get away."
	Eventually the elder prevailed and the two-leg cub handed Holcan up to the adult.  Holcan's one chance to escape was foiled and high above the ground in the arms of a two-leg, he shivered from cold and fear of death.  Holcan's short life appeared to be over.
	And yet the large rust-skinned creature cradled him properly in its arms and fondled his neck with a large furless paw.  Holcan tried to focus on the creature.  It seemed to be covered with strangely colored fur, but the outer layer came off with a single pull as the two-legs removed it from its shoulders and wrapped him in its dry warmth.
	Holcan found that the adult two-legs gave him a smoother ride.  He was too weak to struggle much, and with the mantle wrapped about him, it would have done little good.  His shivering began to die down, for he did not feel himself in immediate danger.  But when the two-legs stepped inside its hut and all the strange sights and smells overwhelmed him, Holcan started to squirm in a panic.
	Then something extraordinary happened.  The two-legs sat upright like a monkey, its legs forming a lap.  Then it placed Holcan in its lap and gently started to dry Holcan with the cloak, getting the water out of his ears and some of the cloying moisture from his pelt with surprising tenderness.
	"This thing is trying to help me," Holcan realized.  "I'm not going to be eaten after all!"  Holcan looked into the eyes of the creature and saw no danger there, and he did not struggle as it wrapped a new cloak of soft alpaca wool about him.
	A fire burned nearby, and though Holcan had never seen fire before, he watched it suspiciously.  He had heard stories about the strange yellow light that roams where it will and destroys everything in its path.  This thing provided light and warmth but stayed where it was bidden.  Its movements were almost hypnotic, and Holcan stared at it.  The two-legs placed him near the fire and life began to soak back into his chilled body.
	So these were the terrible creatures Dad had warned him about!  Some danger!  Even fire turned out to be harmless!  The only real discomforts he'd experienced thus far were the rough child and his hunger.  Speaking of which….
	Holcan wriggled out of the alpaca cloak and walked to the two-legs.  He made the soft meowing and pawing that always made Mom roll over and expose her teats.  The stranger did not seem to understand at first. Holcan grew curious and explored it as it sat on the ground.  A couple of nudges and sniffs told him this two-legs was a male, and no source of nourishment.
	Now he WAS worried.  Unless this male had a mate, Holcan was in real trouble.  He began to yowl and paw the ground.  "I am SO hungry," he thought.  "What I wouldn't give for a good meal right now!"
	The two-legs finally seemed to understand.  He came and scooped Holcan up in his hands, lifting him high up as he walked across the room.  "Why doesn't he carry me in his mouth like normal people?" Holcan thought.  He paddled ineffectively with his legs, looking for support that wasn't there.  The two-legs then put his other hand under Holcan's rear and supported him more comfortably.
	Holcan was borne gently outside the house and into a nearby stable.  Though the structure was not as nice as his house, it was full of interesting things.  Standing in one corner was a nanny goat with a young kid.  Holcan had never seen a goat before, and though he did not like the way they smelled, he was fascinated by watching the kid take a meal.  The two-legs placed him nearby and urged him forward with a soft press on the back end.  Holcan timidly approached the nanny.
	"What are you?" the nanny goat asked.
	"I'm Holcan."
	"I've ne-e-e-ver seen a Holcan!"
	Holcan laughed.  "You talk funny!"
	"Well you LOOK funny!"  The goat looked him up and down.  "If you're not a Holcan, what are you?"
	"I'm a Jaguar."
	"I thought they were bigger!"
	"I will be--someday.  Big like my Dad!"  Holcan had said it with pride, but a sudden lump rose in his throat.  He bowed his head and tears began to roll from his eyes.  For the first time, he began to realize the true scope of his loss.  He had a large family that loved him, but now he was alone in the world.
	"Why the tears?"
	"I'm lost.  My Mom and Dad don't know where I am.  Maybe they think I'm dead."
	"Lost?" she said.  "I bet you're hungry too."
	"Yeah."
	He came to her, suddenly understanding the gentle, kindly look in her eyes.  He meowed and began to paw her, hoping she would roll on her back and nurse him.  She did not lay down, but she looked at him expectantly.  He saw what the kid was doing--he was nursing standing up!
	"That's so weird!" Holcan said.  "Momma always laid down to nurse us."
	The nanny shook her head and bleated.  "Was your momma sick?  We never lay down to nurse!"
	Holcan shyly approached her distended udder and after taking one last look at how the kid suckled, he nursed her.  The milk was different--not altogether to his liking, but on his empty stomach any milk was a healing comforter.  He lightly pawed her side to make the milk flow, and the nanny looked down at him and smiled, a little amused.  Then she reached down and lightly groomed his fur between her flat teeth.
	The kid was curious about the strange black visitor.  "Wanna play?"
	Holcan looked around.  "Sure!  Let's wrestle!"
	The concept of wrestling seemed lost on the kid.  Holcan prepared himself to accept a paws-out tackle, but the kid came running straight at him, head down.
	"OOOOF!"
	The kid had a good laugh at Holcan's expense.  Determined to defend his honor, Holcan tried to give him a good cuffing.  The kid only reared up and began to flail with his hoofed forefeet.  A couple of strikes rattled Holcan enough to make the game turn serious.
	While the kid still laughed, Holcan used his superior agility to slip underneath his opponent and flip him on his back.  Pinning him by sitting on him, Holcan beamed with a self-satisfied grin.  "Let's see you top that!"
	"Be careful," the nanny warned.
	"Oh I wouldn't hurt him," Holcan replied.  "I was just playing."
	"Yes, just playing," the kid replied, striking him with a hoof.  "Get off me, you big Holcan!"
	Fun time was over as quickly as it started.  The two-legs came and whisked him away with one quick grab, and soon he found himself back in the house.
	A longing above all other wants and needs turned his thoughts toward home, but for the present he clung to his savior and tried desperately to stave off the loneliness that had trapped him.  The two-legs seemed pleased to return his affections.  Clearly this two-legs would make sure he was fed and tended to.  Perhaps the two-legs was lonely too, and given time, his love would grow and become beautiful.
	Holcan had not given up on finding his family.  He ran to the door one last time and shrieked, "Mom!  Dad!  Please!  Momma!!"  It was a useless gesture, caught as he was in the noise of a large city.  A few chickens squawked in protest, but otherwise his call had no effect.  It was an empty feeling, as if everything that had meaning for him had been stolen in one sudden raid.  Where his family probably lay grieving in the jungle for one lost cub, he had lost his whole family.  He crawled into a corner, curled up alone and wept bitterly.


CHAPTER 10:  LONLINESS

	There was no hunt that night.  Ixtab lay quietly with Kayam and Koh huddled against her.  Chakal was crouched nearby; either he had nothing to say or so much that he scarcely knew where to begin.
	The only real movement in the temple was Bol, who paced about agitatedly and stopped from time to time to look out the door and gaze over the tree tops.  "I really think we ought to look one more time," he told Chakal.  "Dad, he's out there somewhere."
	"Come here, son."  The jaguar patted with his paw, and Bol drew near and lay next to him.  "We all loved Holcan and we all miss him terribly.  I know you were his special friend and it's going to be hardest on you losing him.  But I want you to know that we all love you too.  Kayam and Koh and your mother and I all care for you very much and we will be here for you."
	"I know."  Bol touched Chakal's face with his tiny pink tongue.  "But Daddy…." Tears sprang to his eyes and his voice was small and trembly.  "….he's out there all alone and scared.  He really is alive.  Please let me go look for him.  Please?"
	Chakal's large paw slid softly and slowly over his son's tiny form.  "Sleep, my son.  You have had a long and weary day."
	In the ensuing silence, only an occasional sob could be heard.  Ixtab, Koh and Kayam had settled into a reluctant sleep.  Chakal stopped rubbing Bol; his paw fell limp at last.
	Bol alone was awake.  Very carefully he moved from under his father's arm and crept quietly toward the doorway.
	Ixtab opened one eye.  Her maternal senses picked up his quiet retreat.  Rather than confronting him, she decided to follow him to find out where he was going.  
	As Bol headed down the temple stairs and across the grounds, she stalked him like prey, only there would be no sudden rush.  He went down to the place where Holcan fell in the river.  
	"Holcan!" he cried.  "Holcan!  Please answer me!  Please!"  No one answered him, and he rolled on his back and began to sob.  "Holcan!  Please!"
	Ixtab broke from cover and hurried over.  "Oh my poor baby!"  She stretched out on the ground, then pulled him over between her front legs and softly groomed him.  Tears ran down Ixtab's cheeks.  "This is no time for you to be about, honey.  Come back with me."
	"I can't."
	"I'm your Momma and I said come home."
	"But if it was me out there, wouldn't you want Holcan to wait for me?"
	"Yes, darling.  I would."  She kissed him gently.  "You can stay, but don't stray from this spot till you're ready to come home.  If I lost you too, I'd die.  I'd just die."
	"I'll stay here.  I promise."

***

	The first night Holcan spent away from home was odd and frightening.  The two-legs placed a roll of cloth next to the fire and sat Holcan on it.  The cub could not understand the sounds he was making, but the two-legs expected him to sleep there.  Holcan turned about on it, trying to push a depression into it that would fit his body well, then he snuggled down.  The cloth was warm and soft, but it felt and smelled very alien to him.  
	A large macaw rested on a perch in the corner, a looming presence that cast a large shadow in the firelight.  From time to time it would grunt softly, but mostly it coughed.  That was the only thing Holcan could imagine the sound was.  The bird would hold its head down and cough, then gasp.  A few minutes would pass and the process would repeat.  The noise frightened him, as did the looming black shadows all about him in the unnatural firelight.  
	Holcan felt so alone.  He had always slept with his brother Bol next to him, his head resting against his mother's side.  The familiar scent of loved ones and the murmur of Ixtab's heart would soothe him and work the magic of sleep on him.  Without them, he lay in misery trying to shut his eyes, but unable to rest in the solitude of his misfortune.  
	At last he stirred and went to the base of the bed where the two-legs lay on the floor.
	Was he already asleep?  Would he be patient and loving like Ixtab?  With a timid nudge of his nose and a soft prod of his paw, he tested the sleeping giant.
	The two-legs opened one eye, then smiled and patted beside himself.  Holcan was glad.  He didn't have to be invited twice but came and snuggled next to his warmth.  His scent was different, but the warmth and heartbeat were comforting.  Holcan tried to forget his troubles long enough to sleep.  Maybe he would go home tomorrow….


CHAPTER 11:  THE BLACK JAGUARS

	Holcan had spent much of his life in a room abandoned by two-legs, but he had never seen the many curious things they kept around them.  In the center of the room a fire crackled on the hearth, and in a corner herbs and strips of dried meat hung from racks.  More of the odd coverings the two-legs used instead of fur hung on the wall.  To Holcan's sensitive nose, the room was alive with an incredible array of scents--the tempting smell of jerky, the well-oiled aroma of treated leather, the musty odor of drying corn.  As a jaguar, Holcan was used to living simply and well.  He would gnaw on a bone or turn a stick into a game of tug-of-war, but the concept of "possessions" was usually restricted to his territory, his usual teat on Ixtab's belly, and his family.  Looking about, he was surprised to see how much stuff the two-legs possessed and handled in a single day.
	A nice soft pallet lay on the floor where Holcan had spent the night.  It was stuffed with straw and wool, and felt soft like Ixtab's belly.  From there he began his explorations of the two-legs odd den.
	Stacked about were several odd picture-covered boulders which ended up being hollow containers entered through holes in the top.  Tortoise-like, they were hard and uninteresting on the outside but contained pleasing things.  Holcan could have spent a whole day just going through the jars.
	A long straight stick leaned against the wall.  The end of the stick had a tip of pointed stone which had been carefully lashed on with a strip of rawhide and decorated with colored feathers.  Next to it was a large round piece of leather with painted designs.
	"He puts things together to make all kinds of weird stuff," Holcan thought.	 "Are these toys?" Holcan wondered.  "Does he play with them, or does he have cubs?"
	The two-legs came back.  He had a dead bird with brightly-colored plumage.  Holcan thought the two-legs would eat it or share it with him, but he plucked the long, ornamental feathers from the wings and began to attach them to the edge of the round piece of hide.  
	Holcan drew nearer for a closer look, hoping to learn how--and why--the two-legs built those odd items.  The two-legs looked down and smiled.  Suddenly his strong arm swept down and bundled Holcan up before he could resist.  "Coatl!" he said in a strong but friendly voice.  It was apparently what the two-legs called him.  
	The powerful hands bundled Holcan's small body next to one of his unusual broad shoulders.  For a moment Holcan was frightened of the large drop to the floor, but the two-legs rubbed his cheek against his face and held him tightly.  "Coatl," he said softly, and brushed his lips against Holcan's face several times.  His new friend never caressed him with his tongue, but Holcan knew love when he felt it, and he touched the brick-red face of the two-legs with his pink tongue, snuggling under his chin.
	The priest sat his back on the ground, but he used short, passionate words as if he were about to do something special and pleasurable.  Then from his belt pouch he pulled a large wooden ball painted bright red and sat it on the floor.
	Holcan went to sniff of it, but before he could, the priest gave it a little shove.  It rolled across the floor!  Holcan giggled delightedly and chased it till it hit one of the walls and started to roll back.  He looked at the two-legs, wondering if he might be allowed to keep it.  The priest smiled, nodded his head and went back to his work.
	"If only Kayam could see me now!" he thought.  "HE doesn't have any two-leg friends!"  For a moment the thought warmed him and made him proud, but it grew cold and turned sad.  Holcan wanted to see Kayam again, but it was Bol whose esteem mattered the most to him--Bol and his parents.  If only he could make the two-legs understand that he wanted to go home!  If only this creature would help him find his family!

***

	Chakal was headed around the border of his territory marking trees.  He walked a bit slower than usual and he didn't hum to himself as he once did.  "Holcan will never have a territory," he thought to himself.  "He will never hunt or fall in love and mate.  He will never have cubs of his own."
	Chakal took a halfhearted scent of a tamshen tree, then turned and sprayed it with his urine.
	From the shadows Machoc came up to him.  "Hello, Chakal!  How are you today?"
	Chakal met his eyes for a moment then turned away.
	"Look," Machoc said, "I'll teach you a new trick you can show to Ixtab and the cubs."
	"Haven't you taught Ixtab enough lessons?"
	Machoc hung his head with embarrassment.  "I didn't know she was your mate, Chakal.  I'm sorry.  Please let's not quarrel--I miss our talks, and our friendship."
	"So do I," Chakal said.  "Still, that was no way to treat a lady--ANY lady.  Didn't your parents teach you better?"
	"I never knew my father," Machoc said.  "My mother slept often--her life was not worth living.  She died when I was two cycles old.  Everything I know about life, I've learned through trial and error."
	"Oh, I'm sorry."
	"I made a mistake with Ixtab, but I learned from it.  Really I did."  Machoc looked at him with a half smile of appeasment.  "You'd know how I feel if you ever lost anyone dear to you.  I hope you never do, but till then give me the benefit of the doubt--please?"
	Chakal looked back at him, a desolate emptiness in his eyes.  His chin trembled and tears to well up in his eyes.  "I do understand.  My son Holcan was carried away in the flood."
	"Oh no!"  Machoc lowered his head.  "I'm so sorry!  I had no idea."
	"Yeah.  His life was short, but at least it was very happy."  A sob nearly doubled him over.  "Listen to me acting like a cub!  I feel like a fool."
	Machoc violated one of the strictest rules of territoriality.  He crossed the invisible line dividing his land from Chakal's and for the very first time touched his friend, nuzzling him softly and pawing his shoulder and back.  A melancholy purr escaped the black jaguar and his pink tongue touched the side of Chakal's throat.  "What passes between us will be our secret.  Let it out, friend.  Let it out."
	"I try to be strong for the others," Chakal stammered, leaning on Machoc.  "Sometimes I feel fine.  This morning it was like nothing ever happened.  I can talk about Holcan and say his precious little name…."  He trembled, leaning more firmly on the black jaguar.  "But other times I feel so mauled inside that I have to go away and be by myself.  I try to dig a hole and bury this pain but there is no hole deep enough!"
	"There never is," Machoc said, kissing him again.
	Tears ran freely down Chakal's cheeks.  "Holcan was my favorite.  I tried not to have a favorite, but the gods in heaven above know how much I've suffered since he died!  He was my heart and soul, and when he was ripped from me, my heart went with him!  I've had no one to talk to about it.  I mustn't worry Ixtab and the cubs.  They need to think I'm strong.  They need to believe I'm over this, but I'm not.  I'm not!"  He choked back a sob.  "Holcan, my poor little boy!  What I wouldn't do just to see you once more!"
	"I know, son.  I know."  Machoc's eyes welled up.  "I'm so sorry!"
	"I'll learn to live with it, but I sometimes feel I'll never be quite the same again."
	"You never will," Machoc said tenderly.  "It's rare that a whole day goes by that I don't think about my mother.  When I'm injured or sad or I just need a friend, I wish I could have her back, just for an hour."  Machoc sighed.  "Chakal, we are bound together by grief.  Let nothing separate us.  Please let's never fight again.  I will be kind to Ixtab and your cubs, and if you need to talk, I would be honored if you came to me."
	Chakal nuzzled him.  "You may be a grouch old friend, but from time to time you're really nice."
	Machoc half smiled.  "From time to time everyone's really nice."


CHAPTER 12:  A WORD FROM THE BIRD

	Holcan had suffered a devistating emotional loss.  His plunge into the river had stripped him of all he had known, all he had lived for.  Into the void came a two-leg priest and a nanny goat.  Their love sustained him as he fought depression and uncertainty. Even the nanny goat's kid came to treat Holcan as a brother.  As time passed, Holcan grew to return their love, kissing the kindly old nanny goat and cuddling beneath the priest's warm chin.  He even let the kid win a few games, teaching him how to wrestle jaguar style.  
	There was no chance of Holcan learning the lessons of a young jaguar.  No hunters lived near the priest's home, not even an ocelot.  Even if the preist was a hunter, he spoke a strange tongue that rattled in Holcan's head like so much frog croaking.  For Holcan there would be no chance of leaving to find his destiny when he came of age.  He would never find a mate and raise cubs of his own.  There was no lack of feeling in his heart, but in the strength of his youth he was prone to accept what he could not change.  Holcan seemed to know that his old life was over, and when he felt longings for his family, he found ways to occupy himself, blinking back the tears in silent acceptance.  As he gradually adjusted to his new family, the sharp pain of his own losses dulled to an ache.
	Still there were moments when the pain was sharp once again.  Holcan would occasionally awake from a dream in which he was wrapped in his mother’s forepaws while she groomed behind his ears, the place he loved best.  Nanny was as kind to him as he could hope for and she tried to fill the gap in his life, but her flat teeth could never replace the rough warm tongue of Ixtab.
	While the two-legs was gone on one of his errands, Holcan explored the many wonders of the stable about him, filling the spare time with new discoveries.  It was on one of these occasions that he finally discovered an unexpected friend.
	One of the two-legs' prized possessions was a large red and blue macaw whose feathers seemed to glow in the sunlight and blaze in the firelight.  The old bird had never spoke to him, and Holcan had always assumed he did not know how to do more than utter painful screeches and bouts of coughing.  At his young age Holcan made a lot of assumptions, many of them wrong.  He was about to discover his error.
	The black cub had been pacing about aimlessly, peering through the cracks in the boards of the rough hewn stable and batting at specks of dust as they floated in the sun that shone through them.  Working his way through a rough tumble of wooden slats, he entered a small alcove and sniffed about, tiny whiskers twitching as he detected an odd dry smell from somewhere nearby.  Working his way around, he batted aimlessly at the dust and chaff that puffed up from underneath his paws, barely noticing them as his nose continued to seek out the strange, exotic scent.   A flicker of motion attracted his senses and he batted at it absently, still sniffing at the floor.
	A scarlet wing flapped down and swatted him soundly.  “Do you MIND?  That's my tail.”
	Holcan tumbled back in alarm.  “Oh!  You’re the birdie!”
	Yellow eyes blinked and looked at him in amusement.  “And you're the black little jaguar.  Another Machoc."
	"You knew Machoc??"
	The Macaw looked back.  "YOU know Machoc??"  He flapped his wings briskly.  "Are you his son?"
	"NO!" Holcan asked, offended by the idea.  "He's my neighbor.  My mom is Ixtab and my dad is Chakal.  Do you know them too?  I got here in a flood and the two-legs and the goat have been so nice to me and all, but I want my family back, and I WANT TO GO HOME!"  Holcan fell on his back and pawed at the macaw in pleading.  "Please Bird, help me!  Help me!  Mom and Dad think I'm dead!  Help me please!"
	"Slow down, Coatl.  Don't shout--I'm old but I'm not deaf."  He coughed again, wheezing and nearly falling from his perch.  "I'll see what I can do."
	"My name's not Coatl.  It's Holcan."
	"Well, mine's not 'Bird.'  It's Oxcacopan.  You may call me Oxie."  The parrot cocked his head and shrilled a note into the air.  "The two-legs will not give you up easily.  The problem is he owns you now."
	"Can he do that?"
	"He's a priest.  He can do anything."
	"What's a priest?"
	"That's someone that makes special things happen that no one else can do.  Just look around you at all this stuff.  The two-legs kneels on the ground and talks to someone all the time, but I never see or hear them.  I wonder if the gods really talk to him, or if he just keeps trying to reach them."  He leaned over and added in a near whisper, "Coatl, I've seen some strange things since I've been here.  I tend to think they DO talk to him."
	"I don't like that name.  Please call me Holcan."
	"If it makes you happy, Holcan."
	"Where am I?"
	"You're in the nest of the high priest.  He's very important here.  Even the chief comes by from time to time."
	"What's a chief?"
	"That's someone who can beat up anyone else in the whole territory.  I used to be a chief of sorts before the two-legs came and captured me.  Now I have to do what he says all the time."
	"Why did they capture you?"
	"Because they think I'm sacred.  Coatl--Holcan--I suppose you're here because you're a black jaguar.  They think you're sacred too."
	"Sacred?  What's a sacred?"
	"It means they think you are a god."
	"Me?  A god??"  He chuckled.  "I wish Koh could hear that!  Koh's my sister.  She's always telling on me."
	The parrot also laughed.  "Yeah, what idiot would think YOU were a god!"
	Holcan looked at him crossly.  "How do you know I'm NOT one?  I might put a bad curse on you!"
	Oxie began to preen himself.  "Well if you're a god, you obviously don't need my help."
	"Oh no!  Please!!  I'm not a god!!  I wouldn't put a curse on you even if I could!"  He began to sob and he rolled on his back pawing again.  "Please help me!!  Please!!  I want to see my Momma!!"
	"Calm down, little fellow!  No need to get your feathers ruffled!  I said I'd see what I could do, and I always keep a promise."
	"But you didn't promise."
	"I promise.  Okay?"



CHAPTER 13:  HUNTING LESSONS

	The remaining cubs missed Holcan terribly.  It was their first experience with loss, and the lesson it taught them weighed heavily on their minds and hearts.  However, like Holcan they were strong at that young age--their bodies and abilities were changing daily, and the loss of Holcan was a change among others that they reacted to with sadness but adapted to with resolve.  Life went on.
	Bol was the hardest hit of the three.  Holcan was once his black shadow, but now Bol walked alone in terrible emptiness.  While Ixtab was cautious about the wanderings of the cubs, she accepted that he would slip away for several minutes at a time.  She knew she could find her son sitting by the river waiting for Holcan to return.  It was Bol's way of dealing with his grief, and out of love she allowed it.
	Ixtab gave a great deal of thought on how to help Bol.  She took Kayam aside and encouraged him to do his best to raise his brother's spirits.  She watched him try with mixed pride and disappointment.
	Kayam tried to get Bol in a wrestling match, but he would not fight.  Kayam showed off some new tricks his father had taught him, but Bol sat listlessly and paid no attention.  Kayam performed his special trick, a back flip that his father taught him--it was spectacular, but Bol paid only passing interest.  Nothing he did could make his brother smile.  
	Koh went to the dispirited Kayam and said, "Well, I thought it was a very good trick."  Usually the slightest kind word from Koh was enough to make Kayam's day, but he just sighed.
	When evening came, Kayam quietly followed Bol to the riverbank and sat with him.  Without saying a word, Kayam rested with his shoulder against Bol and sighed.  Bol looked about with genuine love in his eyes.  "I wish mother would come too.  When Holcan comes home, he'll be so hungry."
	Without thinking, Kayam said, "If he's alive out there, maybe he's eating stuff like worms."  
	It was a terrible mistake.  "IF he's alive??" Bol said, looking about crossly.  "What do you mean 'IF' he's alive??"
	Kayam was taken aback.  "Well, he was alive when he fell in the river, but he might have starved.  Or maybe something ate him.  I hate it, Bol, but he might not be alive.  It's not safe out there."
	"But he IS!  I can FEEL it!  You gotta believe me!"
	"Okay, okay, I believe you."
	"Then come with me and we'll look for him together."
	"I can't.  Mom wouldn't let me."
	"We won't be gone long.  He couldn’t be very far away.  He's lost out there and scared and hungry!  What if he IS eating worms??  Don't you care??"
	"Of COURSE I care!  But I'm not going in there to look for him.  Look, Bol, he might NOT be alive, and if we go out there, we might not be alive TOO!"
	"I thought you were my friend!" Bol snarled viscously.  "Why don't you go home and do what your Momma says, you old poop head!"
	Kayam grew angry, but he saw the tears of frustrated grief rolling down Bol's cheeks.  "I'm sorry," he muttered, turning away quietly.
	Ixtab watched for Kayam's return.  When he crept in quietly with his head bowed, she knew he had failed.  Still she was so proud of him and so full of love that she nuzzled him softly and waited with him and his sister Koh as the light turned soft and purple with the lowering sun.  At last a tired and discouraged Bol quietly stalked in and took his place on the other side of Koh from Kayam as they had their evening meal.
	Ixtab had only one plan left.  The cubs were rather small, but after they finished nursing, she looked up cheerfully and said, "All right!  It's time for hunting lessons!"
	The cubs looked about at once.  "Hunting lessons!  Neat!"
	The cubs had been eating small amounts of meat in addition to their milk diet, and even at that age they knew some animals tasted better than others.  Being able to catch their own prey and to have some choice over their diet appealed to them.  Ixtab smiled to herself, for she knew when they were away and had to fill their own bellies they would be less particular.

***

	Ixtab and led the cubs into the small western meadow.  Clearly she had their full attention, and she enjoyed teaching them, but there was a slight note of sadness.  She was teaching them the first skill that would make them independent.
	"You were born to hunt," Ixtab said.  "You were given a powerful, swift body to catch and kill prey.  But the prey was given a powerful, swift body to flee.  If you are to make a kill, you must seek some kind of advantage.  That's where hunting lessons come in."
	Chakal showed up with a hare which he placed at Ixtab's feet before nuzzling her.  "Hello, Momma."
	"Hello, Daddy."  She nuzzled him back.  "How would you like to be the prey for a change?"
	"Prey??"  He looked at the cubs and said, "I guess our cubs are growing faster than sedgegrass!  Hunting lessons already?"
	"Yes, and I need your help.  Can you be a deer?"
	"I don't know.  I've never tried."
	Ixtab shot him a shrewd glance.  "Maybe you'll find being a rat less challenging?"
	Chakal laughed.  "No thanks.  A deer it is.  But I must be a magnificent stag with seven point antlers and stunning good looks."
	"Actually they should strike for the old and sick ones first.  Don't worry--you'll be perfect for the part."
	"Well thanks," he said snidely, heading a few lengths away into the deep grass.  He looked away and plunged his muzzle into the meadow grass.  "Mmmmm, this is so good!  I sure hope it's safe to graze here…."
	"The secret to success is in the approach," Ixtab said.  "You can run swiftly, faster than your prey can, but not as far.  If you don't surprise your prey, you will go hungry.  Now watch me carefully."  
	Ixtab dropped low, her body becoming one with the ground.  The purpose of her beautiful spotted coat became clear to the cubs as she maneuvered closer and closer to her prey.  "See how I don't fight with the terrain, I conform to it.  Focus your thoughts on the approach.  Concentrate… concentrate… then when you're as close as you can dare approach…."
	Suddenly, she sprang from cover.  Her splendid spotted body closed the distance in a few bounds.  Chakal made a halfhearted effort to escape, but she was on him, striking him with her powerful forearm and bearing him down with a deadly tackle.  She pinned him to the earth, mouthing his neck in a fake death-grip.
	"Hooray, Momma!" the cubs yelled.
	"Oooh, this is so sexy!" Chakal said with an amused purr.  "Take me now!"
	"Hush!" she said, trying to sound angry.  "The cubs will hear you."
	"I can be the hunter next time?"
	"When the time is right," she said.  "If you're good."
	"Oh, I'm good all right."
	Ixtab began to giggle.  "Stop it!  I mean it this time!"
	The cubs came running and crowded about.  "Is it dead yet?" Bol asked, cheerful for the first time since Holcan disappeared.
	"Yes," Ixtab said.  "Now we skin it and eat it."
	The cubs laughingly pounced on their father, tugging his ears, pulling his tail, kissing his face and nuzzling him.  Chakal rolled on his back and held Bol to his chest with his forepaws, kissing his warm, squirming body.  Koh began to bounce on Dad's stomach.  He looked up with distressed surprise.  "No, sweetie!  Don't --OOOF-- do that!"
	Just as Kayam had nearly stretched Chakal's tail clear into Machoc's territory, Ixtab gathered up the cubs.  She went to recover the dead hare, but paused to look over her shoulder  and winked at Chakal.  "Was it good for you too?"


CHAPTER 14:  THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE

	The cubhood games Ixtab passed down to her cubs prepared them for life as a hunter.  The wrestling and snapping of their mock battles would become deadly serious when they went to find their destiny.  It was appropriate that Ixtab also began their first stalking lessons with a game.
	"Let's see how good you can stalk!  I'll show you some of my techniques--these are secrets I haven't even told your father, but I'm going to tell you."
	The cubs watched fascinated as she took up the stalking position, demonstrating how quietly she could move when she lifted each foot independently and shifted the weight of the body with care.  "You must be quiet, but you must also be invisible.  Keep your profile low.  When you get excited you will be tempted to wave your tail, but you must fight that urge and keep your tail low."
	"Like this?" Koh said.  She crouched down, but her head was still raised, looking about.
	"Not bad--for a first try.  Remember Koh, hold your head down.  Try to move quietly.  Remember that they are expecting you.  When you stalk real prey, any little mistake will be one too many.  The jungle will conceal you if you work with it, otherwise every dry leaf, every branch, and every tussock will become your enemy."
	Ixtab went a few lengths ahead and sat.  "I am the prey.  You must each try to stalk up to me.  See who can come the closest before I hear you."
	"What if we get to you first?" Bol asked.  "Do I tag you?  Are you 'it'?"
	"You won't get that far.  Even if you're really good, there's only so close you can get before your cover is lost, but you must try to come very near.  You will have to run the remaining distance, so you want to make that rush count by surprising them from close by."  She smiled.  "Why don't you go first?"
	Ixtab turned her back to him.  Her sensitive ears could practically hear the cubs' excited breaths, but she took their age into account.
	"Start now."
	Bol crouched down and began to creep up on his mother.  He was walking more quietly than was his custom, and he did not speak, but he was no hunter yet.  After only a few steps, Ixtab turned about.  "Stop!"
	Bol looked at her.  "Come on, Mom!  You COULDN'T have heard that!"  
	She smiled.  "Sorry, honey.  You'll get another chance.  Kayam, you go next."  
	Kayam was overjoyed.  He looked at Bol and said very patronizingly, "Watch me and learn something."
	Kayam took the proper position.  The tip of his tongue stuck out and his eyes and ears set with the strength of his concentration.  Still, his limbs moved stiffly, lacking the deadly grace of a proper stalk.  His hind foot rested on a round pebble and before he could stop, he stumbled, catching himself to prevent a fall but making a great deal of noise.  Ixtab looked about.  "Stop!"
	Koh giggled.  "Bol, watch him and learn something!"  She looked at the angry Kayam and added, "You couldn't sneak up on a rock!"
	"Mother, did you hear that??" Kayam said, his honor grossly insulted.
	"I thought he did rather well," Ixtab said, looking at Koh with a slight frown.  "Why don't you see if you can do better?"  Koh was mortified, and Ixtab's frown softened.  "Come on, Koh.  You don't want the honor of females everywhere to suffer, do you?"
	The challenge had been put to Koh.  There was no backing out of it.  Bol and Kayam both glared at her, and she had to perform VERY well to save her reputation and make her mother proud.
	Looking at her cubs, Ixtab said softly, "There are times when I am asleep and you nurse me so gently that I don't wake up.  Treat the earth like a sleeping mother: do not fear it, but walk gently."  Ixtab turned about and waited a moment.
	"Start now."
	Koh was tense at first, but she took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.  The image of the sleeping mother inspired her.  She remembered that when Ixtab breathed in and out, or when she shifted in her sleep, Koh would shift with her.  That was the secret--treat the earth not as an enemy but as a companion.  She felt the ground with her paws the way she would knead her mother's abdomen to make the milk flow from her teats.  She caressed its uneven surface with her body, and focused her mind on the task at hand.  Her progress was slow but steady, and she came nearer and nearer to her prey.
	"Stop!" Ixtab said, turning about.  Koh was less than half a length away, and Ixtab gasped.  "Very good!  Koh, I didn't expect…."  Ixtab glanced at her sons who waited with painful faces for her to finish the sentence.  Without realizing it, she had slighted her own sons.  
	She thought over what to do, and for a moment she was in an agony of indecision.  However, she had a quick jaguar mind, and she said, "You all did well enough that you might want to practice on each other.  I'll just go rest and leave you here a while.  I think you can handle yourselves."
	"Thanks, Mom!" Koh said.  Koh was in sheer ecstasy--Mom had recognized her superior talents!  Ah, what great creatures would fall before her deadly paws!  She sat for a moment thinking about her great destiny, then realizing that more practice would make her even better, she started to trot after a butterfly.  She was unaware that Kayam was following her with his eyes.
	Koh dropped low, then began to stalk forward at a careful, deliberate pace toward the fragile iridescent blue and gold creature.  What a prize he would make--her first real prey!
	The butterfly was but a length away.  She was ready to close in for the kill when….
	WHACK!
	Koh shrieked, sending the butterfly scattering away in a blue flicker of lost hope.  The burn on her thigh could only be one thing, and she turned to look around with hackles raised and her tail fuzzed out at the grinning Kayam.
	"So I couldn't sneak up on a rock, eh Sis?"
	For a moment she considered trying to pummel the daylights out of him, but he was clearly larger and a skilled fighter.  She drew in a deep breath and after a momentary pause, ran after Ixtab with a continuous wailing, "Momma Momma Momma Momma!"
	Things had returned to normal.


CHAPTER 15:  KAYAM'S EXILE

	Later that day, Ixtab saw her cubs returning home from stalking practice.  "Well, my mighty hunters, how did you fare?"  She saw the look on Kayam's face, a pained look through the dirty, matted fur that was more one of revulsion than pain.  The wind brought the first hint of his terrible curse to her sensitive nostrils.
	"Oh my gods!" Ixtab shouted.  "What have you done!"
	"Well, Mom, I was hunting this black weasel and…."
	"It was a skunk!  That's close enough!  Go back to the river and take a bath--NOW."
	"Oh Mom!  I hate baths!"
	"And I hate skunk odor!  Roll in the dust, then wash it off in the water!"
	Ashamed at his failure, compounded by the social handicap he had been given, he ran to the water's edge and thrashed in the dust.  Then he gathered his courage and jumped in.  
	Adding to the discomfort of his horrible odor, he was now wet all over.  Splashing about, as long as he dared, he expected the smell to leave him.  He stayed in the water for several minutes, but the spray was oily and bathing in the river barely helped.  A dust bath followed by more swimming helped only a little more.  He rolled in a clump of strongly-scented Mirabo flowers in a pathetic attempt to mask what he could not wash off.  He only left the flowers crushed and smelling even stronger.
	As he sat dejected, wondering if he would smell that way for the rest of his life, he heard the chattering of monkeys in a nearby tree.  "Hey skunk boy!  Beat it!"
	That was it.  He would never be able to hunt game.  No creature could miss his telltale odor!  He would starve and eventually some scavenger desperate enough would manage to violate his miserable carcass.
	"Shove off, Stinky!  Get lost!"
	Kayam looked into the tree.  "Do you know how to get skunk smell off?"
	"If we tell you, will you leave?"
	"Sure.  I promise."
	"Well, there's no quick cure," one of the capuchin monkeys said.  "It wears off in a few days."
	"Is that it?  Isn't there a better way?"
	"No!  Now get!  Shoo!  Beat it!"
	The monkeys began to toss fruit husks at him.  Dodging the rinds, Kayam scrambled away as fast as he could.  "Stupid old skunk!  The old poop head!  I hate skunks!  I hate monkeys too!"  He made it home, then looked at his mother glumly.  "The bath didn't help at all.  But some monkeys said that it would wear off in a few days."
	"I could have told you that," Ixtab said.  "My sister had that problem once.  We couldn't get near her for a six days."
	"Six days??"  Kayam's jaw dropped.  "I have to smell like this for six whole days??  Maybe if you groomed me…."  
	She looked at him pitifully.  "No chance of that, sweetie.  Just stay over there till I think of something.  And tonight, you sleep on top of the roof."
	Kayam languished in his exile.  Bol and Koh wrestled and giggled and laughed, looking too happy for their own good while Kayam tried to drown his envy and sadness with a marrow bone.  Every time he heard the soft panting sounds of jaguar laughter, he would bite harder on the bone.  Once in a moment of extreme jealously he popped the bone open and managed to free the prize inside--the fatty, meaty marrow.  He had just gotten used enough to the smell to allow his stomach to hold down food.  Still, he didn't enjoy it the way he felt he should as he scooped out the delicacy and finished it off.

***

	Ixtab did not know how to get skunk odor out of Kayam's fur.  Chakal had a few hints, but all of them failed.  In her desperation Ixtab worked up the nerve to risk an encounter with Machoc.  After all, he had lived among the two-legs and was known as a wise old jaguar to those who dared talk with him--few ever did.  
       With fear and trembling, she passed the twin pillars and called out his name.
	"Ixtab?"
       She fell before him, rolling on her back.  "Please don't be angry!"
       "Why should I be angry with you?"  Machoc smiled.  "How kind of you to come, Ixtab."
	The jaguaress could scent him, and the terrible memories that fragrance evoked made her tremble.  "I need your help."
	"You sure do," the black jaguar purred.  "One of your cubs had a run-in with a skunk.  I would say the skunk won."
	"How did you guess??"  She turned and sniffed once.  "Oh, I guess it's obvious."
	"You were kind to me once, and I will return the favor.  Take the cub under a Oleandra tree and dig into the wet leaf mold.  Work the rotting leaves into the cub's fur."
	"Leaf mold?"
	"Yes.  I learned that in the two-leg village.  The smell likes leaf mold even better than fur.  It's not a cure, but it's a good treatment."
	"He'll be so happy.  He's been so miserable, you know, and…."
	The black jaguar looked at her.  "Is something wrong?"
	"No, not really."  She followed his curves with her eyes, then looked him in the face.  "It's just that one of my cubs was black.  His name was Holcan.  If he had lived, he might have looked like you."  She looked away.  "He didn't live to be very old."
	"He was swept away in the flood, I heard."  Machoc stepped before her again.  "I'm very sorry about your son.  Chakal is a dear friend, and whomever loves him is welcome here.  If I can ever be of help again, please come at once."
	"Thank you."
	"You must repeat the treatment three or four times.  Bathe the cub between times to take the bad mold out and put more good mold in."

***

	The leaf mold helped Kayam somewhat, but Ixtab could not bear the smell long enough to knead the mixture into his hide properly more than once.  The remnant on her front feet was almost too much for her to bear, and she spent a long time cleaning them on the fresh-scraped earth.  The monkey's advice would have to do--Kayam had gone through one of the painful rites of passage.  There would be others.
	That night as the cubs settled down, Kayam had to climb to the roof and huddle in misery.  Alone for the first time, it was difficult on him.  He had not been nursed in hours, and he could not fall asleep because of the hunger that gnawed at his insides.  "Momma!  I'm so hungry!  Please come up or I'll starve!"
	Ixtab's mother love won out.  She left her warm spot on the floor to climb up and give Kayam his own private feeding session.  She placed a paw over her nose and gasped while he used one of the lowest pair of teats to nurse.
	"Mom," he said, "I'm sorry that I got in with that nasty old…."
	"Darling, don't be cross, but stop talking and nurse!"
	The others, awake, hungry, and impatient yelled, "Yeah, stop talking and nurse!!"
	Kayam sighed.  "Mom, I'm so lonely!"
	Ixtab looked at him, her face distorted by her attempts to live without breathing air.  "Honey, I love you enough not to let you starve.  And that's a whole, whole lot.  We'll be together soon, really."
	"I love you too.  But I need to talk now!"
	"Fine.  You stay topside and I'll talk to you."  She started to wretch, but headed off the roof and back inside the shelter.  "Can you hear me up there?"
	"Loud and clear," he said sullenly.  "Can you smell me down there?"
	"Loud and clear, honey."


CHAPTER 16:  UNDER THE ROCKS

	Skunk odor may have been strong, but mother love was even stronger.  Ixtab loved Kayam enough regardless of the stench to rub leaf litter into his fur.  She treated him no less than five times, and with each washing, he became a bit more tolerable.  Finally she could give him the luxury of a nap cuddled in her soft, warm fur.
	Indeed, Ixtab's motherly care had been honed to a fine edge since the loss of Holcan.  For a time she was afraid to let the cubs out of her sight, even to relieve themselves in privacy.  However, Ixtab knew that cubs required certain freedoms, and with time she slowly relaxed her tight grip, allowing her children to roam about near the abandoned temple, but no further.
	“When I call you, I want you standing in front of me before I finish your name, understand?”  
	They answered her with sincere nods all around, and she was content.  The system seemed to work well; if she had to call a second time, she might scowl, but a third call would earn a hard cuff and a firm lecture.
	Then a time came when the cubs could not roam at all.  Brief daily rains brought the cubs back indoors, but once the rain hung in gray sheets outside for several days in succession, leaving the cubs stranded inside.  Kayam and Bol wrestled and played games, but Koh huddled miserably against her mother and griped about the rain.
	"Will it EVER stop raining?" Koh asked.
	"Of course it will.  And don't ask me when, this time.  The answer is still, 'I don't know.'"  
	On one of those rainy evenings, Ixtab amused the cubs with a story while waiting for Chakal to return.  It was her turn to go hunting, and she looked forward to getting out and roaming the cool greenness of the jungle, rain or no.
	"Three days the mighty huntress stalked the beast," Ixtab said.  "Three days of tiresome but determined effort.  Three days the beast eluded her despite its wound.  Then she rushed it.  Metobixal could nearly smell its blood!  Metobixal could nearly savor the warm meat within her jaws!  Then suddenly the beast with a great spring…."
	At that moment a ray of sunshine broke through the clouds.  Kayam shouted, “Momma, look!  It stopped raining!  Can we go out and play now?”
	A crease furrowed Ixtab’s brow.  “It’s not polite to interrupt, son.  You'll never know how we got the Milky Way.  Besides, I’m just getting to the good part.”
	Kayam wilted visibly.  “I’m sorry Momma.”
	Ixtab rolled her eyes and laughed softly at the picture of pure misery he displayed.  “Oh all right, you little scamp!”  She leaned over and kissed the top of his head.  “Go ahead...all of you just remember to stick close by, understand?”
	The cubs tossed a chorus of “Yes ma’am!” at her and scampered outside, clambering carefully down the slick stonework to the jungle floor below.  
	Bol batted playfully at Koh and drew her into a hectic game of tag as Kayam sniffed about.  Then Bol padded away towards the far corner of the crumbling temple.
	Koh watched him curiously.  “Where ya goin’?”
	“C’mon, I’ll show you.”  Kayam grinned over his shoulder.  “Bol, you come too.  I found the neatest place.  You just gotta see this.”
	Bol immediately ceased flailing at Koh and perked up his ears; whenever Kayam uttered that phrase, there was always something worth seeing.  The three cubs meandered along the northern face of the temple, one or another pausing now and again to sniff something interesting before trotting hurriedly to catch up.
	Kayam turned and bolted into the jungle depths.
	"Hey, you're not supposed to be in there!" Koh shouted.
	"Oh don't be such a drag!  Look, Koh, there are some times in life when you gotta bend the rules, or you're not living, you're just existing."
	It was a very catchy phrase--one he probably overheard from Chakal who probably heard it from Machoc.  It pricked Koh's sense of fun, and she reluctantly turned from the temple square and followed her brother into the trees.  "Make it quick.  I don't want Mom to find out."
	"It won't take long, and hey, since when did you start wanting Mom not to find out?"
	The cubs finally arrived at a small creek.  A current of rainwater splashed down the center, but there were several stones sitting about dry.
	"What's so neat about this?" Bol asked.
	Kayam turned about and grinned, the wide wonderful grin of a magician about to unveil his masterpiece.  “I found this place a few days ago, but I kept it a secret."
	"Why?" Bol asked.  "It's just a pile of rocks."
	"Just a pile of rocks?  Watch this.  I mean...this is REALLY cool!”  As the others craned forward, he hunched over a small flat rock.  Extending his tiny claws, Kayam gripped the edge of the rock, paused a moment for effect, then flipped it over.
	Immediately a swarm of beetles erupted from underneath, scattering toward the darkness of the forest loam.  Koh screeched with revulsion and backpedaled madly, tripping over Bol and knocking him to the ground.  Bol laughed delightedly and sprang up.  “AWESOME!”
	Kayam grinned.  “I TOLD you it was cool!  C’mon, you guys try it!”
	Bol quickly found a promising stone, flipping it over and jumping away....then he frowned as nothing appeared.  “Hey!”
	“Not that little stuff!" Kayam said.  "You gotta turn over the big ones!”  
	Koh moved toward a large flat rock and pulled.  “Whoa!  Lookit, guys!”
	The others scampered over to see Koh's discovery.  Bol peered at the odd creature Koh had uncovered and grinned.  “Now THAT is a cool bug.”
	“I know," Koh said.  "Check out it’s tail...I can’t hold mine like that.”  Koh peered back over his shoulder and arched her tail as high as it would go, but it stubbornly refused to cooperate, flopping to one side or the other.  She shrugged and copied as best she could, growling playfully and flailing up in the air with her forepaws, mimicking the creature's movements as the other cubs watched, giggling.
	"Koh's a bug!" Bol said, laughing.
	“Look at its paws," Kayam said.  "I bet it's a kind of crayfish.  I bet it's going to pinch you."
	The creature had raised its claws and began to twitch its tail.  Koh looked at the upraised pincers and laughed.  "The bug thinks it can fight ME!  I'll say this much--it's brave."
	"I'm betting on the bug," Bol said with a snicker.  "What do you think, Kayam?"
	"I don't know.  It looks like a draw."
	Koh joined in the fun.  "Come on bug--do your worst!"  She began to prod at it, laughing as it moved about and swung its pincers.  The scorpion began to wave its tail threateningly.
	Bol and Kayam came close.  "Take it down, Koh!  Mighty huntress of the jungle!"
	"If I kill it, you have to eat it," Koh said.
	"Eew!  Gross!"
	Koh flailed at the scorpion with her paws, shifting slightly as it moved.  “Hold still, you stupid bug!”  It skittered backwards, and she pawed at it in an attempt to stop it.  Abruptly, Koh jerked her paw back with a cry.  “DAMN!  It stung me!”
	Kayam gaped at her in astonishment.  “Awwwww!  You said a bad word! Now it’s MY turn to tell Momma on you!”
	Bol snickered.  “Momma’s gonna cuff you good!”
	“Oh shut up!”  Koh snapped, lifting a paw to lick it gingerly.  “Stupid bugs.  This game isn’t any fun anymore.  I wanna go hear the rest of the story.”
	“All right, all right.  Be that way....” Kayam said with annoyance.  He bounded back along the trail, the others following him as they headed back towards the front of the temple.  
	Koh trailed behind in last place.  Mom would be upset.  She was sure to see the blood and ask about it, and sure as the sun rose in the east Kayam would tell what she said--with a witness to back him up.
	She paused to lick her paw.  The sting hurt and gave her a slight limp, and a strange tingling began to spread up her forearm.
	"Look, Bol, Kayam, maybe if you don't tell Mom about what I said, I can give you something.
	"Yeah right," Kayam said.  "What can you give me that would be worth the look on Mom's face when I tell??"
	"Well you're always getting into trouble.  Maybe I could be quiet about it the next time, OK?"
	"The next THREE times," Kayam said.
	"You're a dirty little cheat!" Koh shouted, licking her paw again.
	"Think fast!  In a minute the price goes up to four times!"
	"All right!  You win!"
	Kayam laughed.  "I always do."
	The brothers gamboled off, trying to reach home before Mom got angry.  Koh began to stumble after them, upset that she was showing a limp.  Even if Kayam didn't tell, Ixtab would wonder where she got that sting and start asking questions.  She needed a good story and she needed it quickly.
	Kayam and Bol had left Koh way behind.  “Hey, guys" Koh cried, "wait for me!”  Padding around a jutting rock, she stumbled for a moment, then paused to shake the dirt from her fur.  It had evidently become cloudy again while they were playing; Bol was barely visible on the path ahead.  “C’mon, guys, wait up!”
	Kayam’s voice rang out from somewhere ahead.  “Oh quit whining and come on...we can’t wait all day.  Besides, if Mom calls for us and we don't hear, you know what she'll do.”
	Koh padded forward and stumbled again, losing her balance and thumping to the jungle floor with a grunt.  Her teeth clicked together painfully and she stayed there, slumped on her forepaws with her rump upright for a moment before her rear legs collapsed under her.  She dragged herself forward a few inches, eyes swimming with tears as she sought for any sign of her brothers or sister.  “Guys?”  Her voice shook and she began to sob.  “Guys?!  Don’t leave me, PLEASE!!”
	Bol skidded to a halt and looked back to see his sister lying on the ground behind them, a small furry tangle of limbs lying in a patch of sunlight.  “Koh?  Koh, what is it?”
	Kayam paused and looked round at the cry, a frown on his face.  "Oh this is just great!  What's wrong NOW?"
	Koh lay in a small gathering of leaves, her sides heaving unevenly as she looked up at them.  “I feel strange,”  she gasped.  "I gotta get home before sundown.  It's getting dark fast."
	"But Koh, it's not getting dark!"  Kayam looked up and saw the sun peeking at him through a small hole in the jungle canopy.  He squinted his eyes.  "Something's wrong!"  He looked back at her and saw her shiver.  “Bol, go get Mom, quick!  GO!”

***

 	Bol could not look Ixtab in the eyes.  After enduring the hell of delivering bad news, he was having to show his Mom the details of the trip they had hidden from her.  The path that Bol had followed so easily when he was happy and mischievous was hard to find when he was nervous and afraid.  "She was here somewhere, Mom."
	"Well you had BETTER find her!" Ixtab growled.  "Koh!  Kayam!  Answer me!"
	"Over here, Momma!"
	Kayam's voice sounded worried and desperate.  Ixtab plunged through the trackless jungle toward the sound, Bol struggling to keep up with her.  "You KNOW I told you to stay nearby!  Just you WAIT till I get you home!"  She gripped Bol by the nape of the neck so she could run swiftly.
	Ixtab found Kayam bent over a small, helpless cub.  She put Bol down and went to her daughter.  “Koh?  What is it, honey?  Momma’s here.”  The jaguaress bent forward, sniffing, and nuzzled her daughter’s cheek.
	"It hurts," she weakly replied.  "My leg…."
	One of Koh's forelegs was swelling alarmingly.  Ixtab sniffed of it gently, frightened by the heat she felt coming from the skin.  She tried to lick the sting to clean the area but Koh yelped and squirmed.
	"I'm sorry," Ixtab said, kissing Koh's face.
	"I'm tired," Koh said.
	"All right, sweetheart.  You just rest by me.  Momma's here."  She lay down and drew the tiny, weak cub to her side.
	Chakal came pushing through the brush.  "What happened here?"
	Ixtab said, "Koh's had a little accident."
	Bol sniffled miserably and wiped his face with a paw.  “She was playing with this bug that crawled out from under a rock and it bit her.”
	“What was she doing looking under rocks?”
	Silence hung in the air, accusingly.
	“Well??”
	Suddenly Kayam bolted, darting past a startled Chakal and sprinting to a nearby tree.  The cub leaped nimbly up and pulled himself up to a branch some fifteen feet overhead, where he lay down, crying into his forepaws.
	“Kayam!  Come down here!”  Chakal peered up at him.  “What do you know about this?”
	“No!  You’ll cuff me!”
	“No I won’t.”
	The cub peered down at him, eyes bright.  “You promise?”
	“Of course I do.”  Chakal stood back.  “Come on down, son.”
	Kayam made his way back down the trunk slowly, leaping to the ground and trudging over to sit down in front of his father.  Chakal nuzzled him reassuringly and licked his ear.  “Come on, son.  Tell me what happened.”
	Kayam looked up slowly, tears spilling freely from his eyes as he began to cry.  “It’s all my fault!  I showed her how to flip rocks.”  His jaw trembled.  "I'm so sorry!"
	Ixtab said, "Chakal, take them away for a moment.  We need to be alone."

***

	Kayam trailed Chakal and Bol back to the temple.  He remained a great distance behind, a sense of dread making his ears and tail hang limply as he trudged along.  He mounted the stairs of the stone pyramid with a pounding heart--not from the exertion but from the fear of being cuffed within an inch of his life.
	Chakal sat quietly and licked his forepaws, then used them to groom the fur on his face.  Kayam quietly crept past him and curled up quietly in a dark corner to avoid being noticed.
	"Kayam, I'd like a word with you."
	"Yes sir."
	Kayam crept over with shaking limbs.  He folded down his forelegs leaving his rump standing at attention.  His teeth gritted and his eyes squeezed tightly shut--his trembling tail lifted out of the way.  With Kayam it was an all too familiar stance, but this time it was sure to be the worst beating of his young life.
	"I just want to talk to you," Chakal said.  "There will be no cuffing this time."
	Kayam's held breath rushed out with a sigh.  He pushed against his father, nuzzling and pawing him.  "I love you, Dad!"
	"Yes, I know."  Chakal fondled his small body with a paw.  "That bug of yours was a scorpion.  Their sting is very serious, and you nearly got your sister killed today.  What you did was very foolish.  I hope you see that now."
	"I won't do it again, Dad!  I promise!"
	"I know you won't."  Chakal sighed.  "It's especially important that you set a good example for the others.  I don't want you ever letting this get out--you either, Bol--but Koh cares for you very deeply and she really looks up to you.  She would never come out and say it, but she really loves you a lot and she picks up some of your habits and ways of doing things."
	"Koh does?"  The thought seemed so strange to him.  "I thought she was such a Little Miss Goodie-Good."
	"You two are more alike than you know."
	Kayam remembered what she said when the scorpion stung her.  A slight smile came to his face.  "Yeah, Dad, I guess you're right."
	"I know I'm right.  I also know you need to be more careful.  
	"I will."  Kayam snuggled his face into his father's chest.  "Did she ever SAY she liked me?"
	Chakal purred.  "In a cub's way, yes.  She also tells us all the good things you do.  The time you crossed that fallen log, for instance, she wanted me to teach her how to do it.  I said she should ask you, but she was too embarrassed.  You don't always know what things you do are going to have an impact on others, so you should always try to be your best."
	Kayam looked up into his father's eyes.  "Maybe I ought to go check on her.  Don't worry, I won't say a word about any of this."
	"She's probably asleep," Chakal said.  "Let's wait a while."
	There was a heart-rending shriek outside.  It was Ixtab's voice.  Chakal ran to the door, fear in his eyes.  Another shriek drifted up from the forest.  "You said you'd never leave me!!!  You promised!!!  You promised!!!"
	"What's wrong??" Bol asked.
	Chakal looked about, his stomach knotting up and his head lowering.  "Bol!  Kayam!  Come here my sons!  Nuzzle me quickly!"  His chin trembled and tears began to course down his cheeks.  "Your little sister is gone."


CHAPTER 17:  COPING WITH LOSS

	There remained room for Bol to cling to the slight hope Holcan was still alive.  However, Kayam had no hope to comfort him.  He endured the most devastating form of loss, a grief compounded by guilt.  He was the one that led Koh to the rocks.  He was the one that showed her how to turn stones.  He felt like a murderer, a bad enough feeling for an adult, but devastating to the cub.
	Ixtab stayed away for hours.  Day turned to evening and the sky turned soft and purple as stars winked out to shine.
	Eventually clouds muted the moon and smothered the stars with ominous black shadows.  A wind blew from the east and before long rain began to fall, softly at first but then with a vengeance.
	Chakal lay in the temple with the cubs huddled against him, trying to give them some measure of comfort.  Bol began to cry.  "I want my Momma!"
	"I know, son.  I know."  Chakal nuzzled him.  "She wants to be alone for a while."
	"How much longer?"
	"I don't know, son.  We must be patient."
	Just then a tremendous burst of lightning lit the inside of the temple like the noonday sun.  For an instant all the paintings could be seen in all their frightening detail, then it was swallowed up in darkness and a roll of thunder shook the floor.
	The time for patience was over.  "I'll be right back," Chakal said, heading for the doorway.  "Stay put for now."
	Chakal had to rely on his touch, his hearing, and his sense of smell to find his way.  Only briefly did he see glimpses of the jungle in the silver light from the sky.  Splashing along the rain-soaked ground, he tried to follow what scent remained before the downpour washed it away.
	He did not have to go very far.  A flash of lightning revealed a scene of stark horror.  Ixtab held the tiny, stiff, mud-sodden body of Koh by the nape of its neck.  His stomach knotted and tears flooded his eyes.  "Do you want me to help you hide her?"
	She didn't seem to hear him, pushing right past him and walking toward the temple.
	"Ixtab, what are you doing??  You can't bring the body in to the cubs!"
	The jaguaress sat the tiny body down in the mud.  "It's storming out," she stammered.  "She always hated the rain."
	"That's not Koh.  That's only her body.  You have to let go, my darling!  You can't hold on to a body, not when it's dead!"
	"You don't understand!  That's my girl!  My baby!  I can't just leave her out here!  The crows and foxes will get it!  Oh please, Chakal!  She was scared of the crows!  I can't let them peck her eyes out!"
	"She's gone, Ixtab!  Gone!  I hate this, but I must ask you--TELL you--to take care of Bol and Kayam.  Bol is crying for you."
	"Bol?  Crying?"
	"You've been gone for hours.  The cubs are hungry.  I'll take care of the dead--you go tend to the living."
	Chakal took the dead cub gently but firmly in his jaws.  The small body felt so light and limp.  Once that body had been so joyful, so full of life!  A few tears rolled down his cheeks.
	Chakal had only gone a couple of lengths when Ixtab started shrieking.  "Koh!  Koh!  You swore you'd never leave me!  You swore it!"
	The sound drifted up to the temple room where Kayam shivered next to Bol.  "All my fault," Kayam said, tears streaming down his face.  "It was all my fault!"
	"No it wasn't," Bol said.  "She kept on hitting at that bug.  She wouldn't stop.  I mean it was like you with the skunk--she didn't know when to stop, and it stung her."
	"I should never have taken her there!  I should have played tag or something.  Bol, do you hate me?"
	"No.  Why?"
	"I think Momma's going to hate me."
	"No she won't."
	"How do you know?"
	"I just feel it.  She's our Mom."
	Kayam sighed.  "Yeah.  The way you just feel Holcan is still alive somewhere."  Kayam almost regretted saying it at once.  "I didn't mean that.  I mean, maybe I can go look for him.  Maybe I'll find him."
	"Mom would say no."
	"Maybe she won't say no.  Cause maybe I'm not going to ask her."
	Bol snuggled next to him.  "I say no.  Don't leave me, Kayam.  Please?"
	Kayam leaned over and touched Bol's cheek with his tongue.  "You're the greatest, Bol.  You know that?"
	A few minutes later, the wet, bedraggled jaguaress came in and settled quietly to the floor.  Despite her dripping wet fur, the cubs crawled on her and licked her face.  She reached up with her paws and almost as an afterthought caressed their furry bodies.  
	"Bol, don't cry, honey."
	Kayam struggled to ask the question that was on his mind.  "Mom, where did the part of Koh that made her all living go?"
	"I don't know.  Those who go there never return to tell us.  But my mother told me that they go into the east and rise with the sun into the sky."
	"Will I see her?"
	"No.  It's too bright."  She sighed.  "If you lived a good life, the sun would take you on its back to the kingdom of the clouds.  If you lived a bad life, you had to wander until you learned compassion and charity."
	"Koh lived a good life," Kayam said.
	Ixtab trembled.  She got up suddenly and only muttered, "Stay here," before heading out in the rain.  She headed down the steps and into the jungle.  Perhaps Koh's body was taken back to the spot where she had died.  She managed to find the place quickly--indeed the place was frozen forever in her mind--and looked about.  Koh was gone!  Chakal had taken her away and hidden her from the foxes and crows.  She sat in the mud, her head bowed.  A slight lingering scent and some memories were all she had left of her beautiful daughter.

***

	Lightning revealed the face of Chakal pushing its way through the brush.
	"Back so soon, Ixtab?"
	"Where is she?"
	"In the clouds," Chakal said gently but firmly.
	"You know what I mean."
	"Does it matter?"  Chakal nuzzled her.  "Will guarding her little body bring Koh back to us?"
	"I guess not."  Ixtab collapsed, sobbing.  "I was so proud--I had four cubs by the one I love.  Now I only have two.  I was so happy when I had cubs, but now I wish I'd gone off alone.  What was it you said--self-sufficient and independent?  I gave them my heart and built my happiness on them, then one by one they die!  Who will be next?  Will it be Bol?  Kayam?"
	"Please dear, don't do this."
	"Which one is next, Chakal??  The small well-behaved one or the big one that likes to live dangerously?  Or maybe you?"  She bared her fangs.  "Why did you have to make me pregnant?"  She began to cuff him repeatedly.  "Damn you, Chakal!  Damn you for putting me through this!"
	"Stop it!  Get a grip on yourself--you're not making sense!"  He had to pin her forcefully to the wet earth.  "Don't turn away the ones that love you--not now!  You know that poor little Koh lived a very happy life.  She left this world a better place for being here, and you must never regret that she came to us--never!  I'll always remember her and the way she loved us, and I'll smile.  Really I will."  Tears began to stream down his face.  "Oh gods, my little girl!  My special little girl!  So like her mother, but so small and helpless!"  He let Ixtab up from under his paws then went to sit in the mud and sob bitterly.
	"Chakal, my poor darling!"  Ixtab sat next to her mate, leaned into him and kissed his salty tears.  "I didn't mean what I said!  I wouldn't give up a moment of our life together!  I'm sorry.  We'll make it through this thing together.  You and I and the cubs we have left."


CHAPTER 18:  KAYAM'S DESPAIR

	As the shock of Koh's death wore off, the million and one things she did, said, and cared for would be missed and added to the list of sad changes that had struck their family.
	Despite Ixtab's good intentions, she could not act like the same jaguaress as if the tragedy had not changed her.  When she nursed her two remaining cubs, she just listlessly rolled on her back as if it were some kind of duty--there was no tenderness involved and sometimes when they were nursing she sobbed softly.  Ixtab didn't sing or tell stories to the cubs anymore.  She didn't do a lot of things anymore.  She was always quiet and somber, and when she did speak, it was usually about Koh.
	Ixtab wanted to be completely objective and fair to Kayam, but she felt resentment that his foolishness had torn her beloved little daughter from her.  Kayam sensed this.  It only made him feel more guilty.
	Kayam was desperate for some attention beyond the required grooming and nursing.  He begged his mother for a story--his favorite story about the three monkeys.  
	"Ask your father.  He knows it."
	"But I want you to tell it.  Please, Momma?"
	"Maybe some other time."
	Frantically, Kayam fell before her.  "Cuff me, Momma!  Cuff me hard and get it over with!  I can't stand it anymore!  I got Koh killed--punish me now, please!"
	"There's nothing to punish you for," she said distantly.
	"But if I hadn't shown Koh how to turn over rocks, she'd still be alive!"
	"I know."
	Tears sprang to his eyes.  "Momma, I'd do anything, anything!  I want things to be good again!  Momma, cuff me please!"  He unsheathed his claws and began to dig at her flank.  He shrieked, "Please be mad at me!!"
	She took her paw and whacked him once on the backside.  It barely stung and there was no anger involved.  In fact, there was no emotion in her eyes at all.  "There, is that what you wanted?  Does that help you?"
	"No, Momma."
	"You're right.  You made a mistake, Kayam.  Koh will never be with us anymore, and cuffing you won't change that.  Koh's gone and there's nothing left."
	"What about Dad?  What about Bol?"  He hesitated a moment.  "What about me?"  He looked away from her lackluster eyes into the frightened face of Bol.  "You don't hate me, do you Bol?"
	Tears began to stream down Bol's cheeks.  "Oh Kayam!"
	Kayam didn't know whether to run to Bol and nuzzle him or to run away.  For a moment he was frozen in indecision, but then he turned and bolted out of the chamber, down the steps of the pyramid, and into the trees.
	Terrible thoughts came to his young mind.  Somehow he would have to dodge territorial males until he was large enough to hold his own.  Every day would become a search for survival as he looked for whatever would fill his belly.  As for love--at least Bol loved him.  He would find a mate someday and name his first daughter Koh.  Till then he would have to survive on a few hunting lessons.  The time for stalking games was over.
	Panic began to overtake him.  Maybe there was a family that would take him in.  He was so small, and the forest so large….  He realized he was lost.  Of course since he didn't know where he was going, any route would take him there, but that was little comfort.  He could not find his way back home.  He was fixed upon his rashly chosen path for better or worse.
	He heard a strange sound--a large animal approaching him.  He began to run.
	"Whoa there, son!"
	"Dad??"
	Chakal caught up to him.  "Where do you think you're going?"
	"I don't know.  Somewhere."
	"It's a very big forest out there.  Machoc is out there."
	Kayam looked down.  "Yeah.  I'll have to be careful."
	"You'll have to be more than careful.  You'll have to be very lucky."  Chakal nuzzled him gently.  "What do you think your mother will think about this?"
	"She'll be glad," Kayam said.
	"Don't talk smart to your father."
	"I'm not talking smart.  I wish it wasn't true, but it is."
	"Did she say that??"  Chakal looked deeply into his eyes.
	"No.  But she was thinking it."  Tears welled up in Kayam's eyes.  "I love you, Dad.  I don't want to go."
	"Do you still love your Momma?"
	"I do!  But she doesn't love me.  I can't stand it anymore."  Tears flooded his large hazel eyes.  "I told her to cuff me good, but she won't.  Once I said a bad word and she cuffed me good!  But now all she does is sit there and look away from me!  Don't I deserve to be cuffed good?  I wish she was mad at me.  I always knew what to do when she was mad at me.  I wish she would cuff me good!"
	Chakal looked at him sternly.  "Well it's about time you faced up to what you did, son.  You did something terrible, and you deserve to have the living daylights cuffed out of you!  Get down, boy!"
	Kayam huddled on the ground, his tail turned to the side.  His tiny body shuddered with anticipation as Chakal's large paw drew back.
	WHACK!
	The first blow nearly knocked him over.  Kayam gritted his teeth and dug his claws into the ground.
	WHACK!
	Kayam squealed with pain.  "I'm sorry I killed her!  Honest!  I'm sorry!"  He started to slink away.
	"Sorry doesn't cut it with me, Mister!  Hold still, or you'll get twice as much!"
	Kayam's ears flattened back.  His entire body tensed for the blows to come.  He waited for several moments for the pain to come, but nothing happened.
	The cub looked back only to see his father's head bowed in grief.  "Daddy, are you still angry at me?"
	"I'm not angry with you.  I never was angry, and it's no good trying to pretend."  Chakal took him to his side and began to groom him.  "You can't run away from your troubles, son.  Wherever you go, your heart will follow you."
	"It's all my fault that Koh died.  I'd do anything in the world to make things OK again.  Maybe I could find Holcan and Mom would love me again."
	"It's Koh's fault that she died.  She played with the scorpion.  I'm not saying what you did was right.  But the only reason to punish you is to keep you from doing it again.  You've learned your lesson--that's why your mother won't cuff you.  If you left, Bol wouldn't have anyone left to play with.  Do you think that's fair to him?  And don't you know Ixtab would be crushed if you left too?  She's already lost two cubs.  She really does love you."
	"I really don't think she loves me anymore," Kayam insisted.  "Look, Dad, we always knew Koh was her favorite just like Holcan was yours.  I didn't mind too much, as long as you still loved me some.  Now Koh's gone and she hates me.  I thought if I could go find Holcan, she might love me again."
	"She doesn't hate you.  But listen here.  If you are going to think of some grown-up thing like being out on your own to look for Holcan, you need to be blessed and given the words of power."
	"What is that?"
	"It's something the gods gave us many years ago to help us when we had a real problem.  Now you are facing a burden that is too great for a cub to bear--it is time you became a jaguar.  When you get in trouble, you say, 'Spirit of the west, I pray to be blessed.  Spirit of the east, pay heed to this beast.  Spirit of the South, give hark to my mouth.  Spirit of the North, your powers come forth!'"  Chakal repeated it twice more, slowly and rhythmically.  "Now you do it."
	"Spirit of the east, I pray to be blessed…."
	"No, listen to the rhyme.  Spirit of the west…."
	"I pray to be blessed," Kayam said.  "Spirit of the east, pay heed to this beast."
	"That's it, son!"
	"Spirit of the south….do something to my mouth."
	"Give hark to my mouth."
	"What does that mean, Dad?"
	"It means listen to what I say.  Now try it again."
	Kayam concentrated hard.  His ears became erect, his eyes half closed, and with the supreme effort, he said, "Spirit of the west, I pray to be blessed.  Spirit of the east, pay heed to this beast.  Spirit of the south, give hark to my mouth.  Spirit of the north, come forth!"
	"That's good enough, though I want you to practice it night and day till you get it right.  I planned to tell you this when you were ready to go out and find your destiny.  But you need it now."
	"I'll practice it."
	"You know the secret.  You are grown now--and I expect the best from you.  A cub might run away from home, but you can't go.  You must be ready to help support this family.  If you leave, it will be terrible for those of us left behind.  You must put your feelings aside and do what's right for little Bol and your Mom.  You must be a jaguar.  If you leave, that's the coward's way out, and no jaguar is a coward.  Especially not my son."
	"I won't leave."
	Chakal nuzzled Kayam.  "Be good to your family.  Be a brother to Bol--he misses Holcan.  Be good to your mother.  She needs you more than ever."

***

	When Chakal finally brought Kayam back to his home ground, he watched with ran to see Bol and nuzzled him with relieved joy.  Then he turned his attention to his mate.  With a forced smile, he said, "Ixtab, there is something I want to show you."
	"What is it?" Bol asked.
	"It's just for your mother and I.  We'll only be a minute."
	"Is it important?" Ixtab asked.
	Chakal frowned.  "Come now, Ixtab.  Now."
	Ixtab nodded.  "Stay here, cubs.  I'll be right back."
	As they left into the deep forest, Chakal glanced behind him several times to make sure Ixtab was following him.  He usually spoke to her on their walks together, but this time he was strangely silent.
	"What do you want?" Ixtab asked.
	"I'll tell you later."
	"Tell me now."
	"Not yet."
	Ixtab usually walked behind Chakal in single file, but she lenghtened her pace just enough to draw alongside him.  He did not look at her in the eyes.  "Look, I was about to nurse the cubs.  Tell me what's wrong or I'll go back right now."
	"Keep your voice down!" he growled.  "We're not out of range yet."
	"Are we in some kind of danger?"
	"No."
	"I'm tired of playing games," Ixtab said.
	Chakal stopped suddenly and looked around.  "Playing games??"  Anger lit his eyes with blood red fire.  "OK, far enough!!"  His nostrils flared and his chin quivered with barely suppressed rage.
	"What are you so miffed about?"
	"MIFFED??  Is THAT what you call it??"  He bared his teeth and snarled as his hackles raised and his tail lashed.  "What the hell are you doing to our son??"
	She looked away.  "What do you mean??"
	Chakal moved to look her in the eyes.  "Did Kayam tell you where he was going?"
	"He ran off crying.  I thought he needed some time alone."
	"The whole rest of his life??"  Chakal's eyes narrowed to slits.  "Damn it, Ixtab, he was running away!  Thank the gods I stopped him, or he'd be out there lost and maybe dying!"  He roared with frustration.  "I don't get it!  That's not like you!  Where is the jaguaress I fell in love with?  Your own son thinks you don't love him anymore, and I'm beginning to wonder myself!"
	Tears began to run down Ixtab's cheeks.  "How can you say that?  I love him!  My gods, I'm his mother!"  Her face and tail slumped.  "I didn't mean to act that way, but you don't understand.  You just don't understand!  I should never have had cubs.  I should never have met you.  I'm a failure, Chakal!  You should get yourself another mate and forget you ever knew me!"
	"Ixtab, don't say that!  You should be ashamed of yourself!"
	"I am, but that doesn't change things!  I've failed you, Chakal.  I failed Holcan and Koh, and now I've failed Kayam too.  I know he's a sweet little cub, but he led Koh to some godforsaken little creek and got her killed.  Every time I think about what he did, I just want to cuff him till he can't move!  Till he can't get up again!"  She began to sob.  "I love him, but I can't forget what he did--I've tried, but I just can't!"
	"Neither can he," Chakal said, the snarl fading from his face.  "That's why he was running away.  He thought if he could find Holcan that you might forgive him."
	"I know he didn't mean to do it.  I told him so."
	"Maybe you didn't cuff him, but you're not showing him love.  He has no one to turn to and it's killing him from the inside!"  Chakal's snarl faded and his voice softened.  "He's just a cub.  He doesn't have the strength to face this alone."  He nuzzled her softly.  "Kayam needs you, just like Koh needed you.  You can forgive him, can't you darling?  Please?"
	Ixtab bowed her head.  "I'll try, love.  I'll try."
	"The past is gone and the future is uncertain--all we have control over is the here and now.  Right now there is a little cub dying inside that needs his mother.  You must do something."
	"What can I do?" Ixtab stammered, tears running down her face.
	"Koh loved Kayam dearly--what would SHE tell you to do?"
	"I understand."  Ixtab nuzzled him desperately and leaned against him.  "I love you, darling.  I'll make this up to you--I promise."  She sniffed back her tears and added, "I need to go nurse some cubs.  We'll talk tonight."


CHAPTER 19:  SMALL SACRIFICES

	In the isolation of his new life, Holcan was unaware that his family was slowly deteriorating.  He giggled as he batted at the string that hung over his head, dancing tantalizingly in and out of his reach.  Purring, he snagged the fabric with a claw and pulled it to him, chewing on the end contentedly.
	The priest clucked at him chidingly and gently disengaged the cub.  “Ni, ni, Coatl!"  He reached down and ruffled the cub’s head gently, then sat up and lifted the fabric, shaking it out and smoothing it.  Intricate designs filled the center, shaping a stylistic sun with lines radiating out to the edges, where a circle lay at the end of each line.  Nodding carefully at his handiwork, the priest bent over and dipped a finger in a small pot, withdrawing it carefully, a smear of red pigment on the end.  He murmured a word under his breath and touched his finger to one of the circles, dotting it with the redness and removing it with a small flourish.
	Holcan watched this curious operation with little attention, having seen it done before.  Indeed, as the priest lifted the garment back to hang it on the wall again, there were several circles with their own dots within.  Only two of the circles remained unmarked, and the cub supposed the priest would fill them both in eventually.  He wondered absently what the two-legs would do when he had filled them all in...maybe he would get another cloth and start over?  Holcan hoped so; he enjoyed the quiet time the priest spent with him while he worked, accepting with pleasure the many rubs and pats the two-legs would give him.  It was a special moment he had begun to look forward to each day.
	The priest picked Holcan up and rubbed his head again affectionately, then carried him through the doorway that led to the small stable where the animals were.  Setting the cub down, he lay a wooden platter next to him with a few minced pieces of meat floating in broth, a new treat that he had begun to offer recently. "Coatl, meta salba."  The priest dipped his finger in the mixture, then touched the end of Holcan's nose.  Without thinking, the cub cleaned off the end of his nose with his tongue.  The taste was really quite good.
	"Salba, Coatl!" he gently prompted the cub.  "Salba…"
	Holcan immediately fell to with a vengeance; it was warm and tasty, different from milk but not bad.  The two-legs stood for a moment, watching the cub lap at the food, then he left the stable, went into his house and shut the door.
	Holcan wriggled delightedly as he licked up the remains of his dinner, then moved away, sprawling out with a sigh on the soft straw underfoot.  Nudging a depression in with his body, he settled back, eyes half closed as he surveyed the dark room, the only illumination being that which seeped in from the small opening in the far wall, and a small flicker of firelight from cracks in the wall bordering the two-legs’ hut.
	A shadow moved in the darkness, and there came the flutter of feathers.  “Holcan?”
	“Hrm?”  The cub looked up at the macaw.  “What is it?  I’m sleepy...”
	The parrot floated down and settled next to him.  “Holcan...you must get out of here.”
	“Why?”  Holcan sat up and looked at the bird.  “I thought you liked me.”
	“I DO.  That’s why you must go.”  Oxie ruffled his feathers out and looked at him, his yellow eyes gleaming urgently.  “I saw what he was doing in there with you.  He’s painting your shawl.”
	“So?”  Holcan eyed the bird warily.  “That's one of my favorite times.  He's always nicest to me when he's--uh--painting my--whatever it is.”
	“I'll tell you what that is.  It's a bad sign."  The macaw turned and groomed his wing with his large beak.  "We’re both in a cage you and I and the only ones free to come and go are the priest and the rats.  I've seen others come and go, and you my friend are soon to go, one way or the other."  The parrot had a coughing spell that nearly felled him.  “You are in danger.  If you don’t believe me, then listen:  tomorrow, he’ll take you inside again, but he’ll do something else, too.  It's part of the ceremony.”
	“Ceremony?  What’s a ceremony?”  Holcan peered at him avidly.  “What’s he gonna do to me?”
	The macaw sighed.  “He will take the gold knife and bless it.  Then he will lift you and kiss you on the throat.  That's where he plans to split you open with the knife, but he doesn't want it to cause you great pain.  That's why he's making sacrifices to the knife that it will work swiftly and well."
	"He's going to kill me??" Holcan gasped.  “Him??  My friend??  You’re LYING!”  Holcan sat back, pulling away and staring.  “You’re just jealous cause he now he likes me more than he does you!”
	"I never said he didn't like you."
	"He loves me!"
	"Sure he does.  He loves you to DEATH.  It's BECAUSE he loves you that he's going to kill you!"
	"But that doesn't make sense!"
	"I didn't say it did!  It never does!  I'm only telling you what he's going to do--I'm not trying to justify it."  The parrot shrugged and fluttered back to his perch.  The effort sent him into another coughing spell.  “One way or another you won't be here much longer.  Ask the goat--she will tell you.”

***

	Holcan was very tired the next day.  He had spent most of the night tossing and turning, and when he had slept, it was fraught with nightmares.  Despite his fatigue, he paced the inside of the barn constantly.
	"Holcan?" the Nanny goat called softly.  "You look like you have a problem."
	"I don't have a problem.  It's that lying old bird that has a problem.  He tried to tell me that the two-legs wanted to hurt me!  Why would he do a thing like that unless he's just jealous."
	The nanny goat looked at him wistfully.  "I'm not surprised that Oxie said that.  He's seen a lot of death here."  She groomed Holcan gently with her flat teeth.  "In all the time I've been here, I've never heard Oxie tell a lie."
	"But he's jealous of me!  The two-legs loves me, I can tell!"
	The goat looked at Holcan sympathetically.  "It's very dangerous when the priest loves you too much.  I'm not sure why, but I believe Oxie.  He's very clever about such things, much more so than an ignorant old goat like me."
	"But I don't understand!  I know the priest loves me, and I love him too!"  Holcan looked up at her with pleading eyes.  "Why would he want to hurt me?"
	The nanny goat knelt down and lay on her side.  "I don't know.  I only know that I don't want to hurt you.  You're a strange little creature with a long snakelike tail and a pushed in face, but the more I get to know you, the more I love you."
	Holcan went and nuzzled her face softly.  "Nanny, what if Oxie's right?  What if the two-legs wants to kill me??"
	The goat's eye rolled around to look at him.  "Little one, there are worse ways to die than being sacrificed.  At least where you would go, the grass is always green and fresh and you never have to sleep on hard ground.  It must be that way, or else why would the gods let us suffer so in this world?"
	Tears began to brim in Holcan's eyes and he snuggled next to the nanny.  One by one her own young took their places by her side and in their shared warmth the black jaguar cub slept without nightmares.

***

	As afternoon passed and evening drew near, Holcan began to shoot the parrot little glances of triumph.  “See?  Nothing happened!”
	“Yet,” the macaw replied, and settled himself.
	Later that evening, the priest came and carried Holcan inside as usual, fondling him and playing with him a bit before pulling the shawl down and beginning his work again.  The cub paid more attention this time, watching as the two-legs ran a finger down each thread of the sun rays, murmuring under his breath and then repeating an odd phrase as he reached the circle at the end.  Eventually the two-legs reached an unmarked circle and repeated his actions, dipping a finger and marking the circle carefully, then hanging the garment back up again.
	Holcan swallowed heavily.  He wasn’t a very old cub, but his mother had taught him a few things.  He could count, although not very high. He had watched the priest fill in the circles daily, never missing an evening. And he knew well enough to see that there was only one circle left.
	"So what?" Holcan thought.  "It's just a stupid cloth, anyway.  What did that mean?"
	The two-legs’ warm hands encircled him, rubbing him affectionately as always, and Holcan felt his fear dissipate, purring as the wonderfully dexterous fingers did their work, scratching him in all his itchy spots and making him close his eyes with ecstasy.  The two-legs lifted him under his forelegs and held him up to his face, rubbing noses with him and talking nonsense words that Holcan could not understood, although he heard the name “Coatl” now and again.  He smiled and licked the two-legs' nose, happy that things were all right after all.
	Then the priest nuzzled under his chin and touched his lips to Holcan’s throat, raising the cub’s head up over his own.  Holcan peered behind the priest, the purr in his throat dying as he looked behind where the two-legs was standing, seeing the shelf where the priest kept his pots of paint and other things.
	A golden knife lay there, gleaming fitfully in the firelight that filled the room.
	Holcan whimpered and began to wriggle in the two-legs’ grasp, trying to get down.  He no longer wanted to sit here and be petted.  This room that had brought so many pleasant memories suddenly became cloying, the smell of smoke from the fire thick and noisome.  He felt the two-legs' lips against his fur, felt the hard teeth behind them as the two-legs said something with a frown, then grasped him tight and carried him into the stable.
	Roughness surrounded his neck as he felt a pressure there, then the priest released him and went back inside, shutting the door.  Holcan immediately turned toward the small outdoor entrance, but only traveled a few feet before being yanked back, his breath suddenly cut off.  Whirling, he tugged with all his strength, seeing a fuzzy line snaking from underneath his chin to a wooden pole on the wall.  Beginning to cry helplessly, Holcan jerked and writhed, but was unable to break loose from the rope that encircled his neck.
	The cub sank down, hoarse sobs shaking him.  “Momma!  MOMMA!  I don’t want to DIE!”  His voice trailed up and broke, leaving him lying there on the floor, unable to do anything but weep great tears.
	The door opened once again, and Holcan shrank back as the priest entered, setting down another platter of the broth before him.  "Salba, Coatl."  The priest then went back inside.
	Holcan sat in a huddle and stared at the plate dully, the once desirable smell now making him nauseous.  He flopped down and closed his eyes, wishing again for the cool green smell of his home, and the warm dry smell of his mother next to him.
	“Holcan, I see you learned a bitter truth."  The macaw coughed fitfully.  "I hope you forgive me for being the bearer of bad news."
	"Yeah," Holcan stammered.  "He's going to kill me tomorrow.  Just one red spot left.  Nanny goat says it doesn't hurt much.  Does it?"
	Oxie looked down at the cub.  "Why find out?  We can help each other, you and I."
	"How?"
	"I don't have long to live.  I can feel the dying happening--there is a cold wave starting at my feet and another in the tips of my wings.  When they meet at my heart, I will fall from this perch and never rise again."
	"You don't have a big rope like mine.  I'll bite through your cord and you can fly away."
	The parrot lifted his wings slowly and spread them.  Several long primary feathers had been clipped.  "You have seen my shame.  Once these wings bore me to places where troubles looked like tiny ants crawling on the ground.  Now they are ruined forever."
	"Oh.  I'm sorry."
	"I will fly but once more in this world."  He looked out the window, peering at the night sky.  "When I leave this body behind, I will fly above the rain.  I will rise above the clouds.  I will land upon the sun and let its fire consume all that is old and withered in me.  Then I will join Lord Rainbow and my colors will shine above the earth forever with my fathers.  That is what I want more than anything else--to leave this captive body of aches and pain and be with them."  He sighed.  "Planning my escape was the one thing that kept me going all these years.  But in my frustration and hatred I spoke a rash oath--the most sacred oath of my people:  I swore by the sun and moon that I would escape and when I did there were things I would do.  If I help you escape in my place and you do these things, I will be released from my promise and die free."
	Holcan swallowed and nodded.  "Tell me what to do."
	"When you leave this place, and you are in the forest, you will scratch a circle in the ground.  That will be the priest's face.  You must squat on that circle and soil it!  Then you say, 'Catch me if you can, you old son of a....'"  He looked at the innocent cub's face.  "Well, what's the worst thing you feel like saying when you're really mad.  So mad you don't even care if you get a cuffing?"
	Holcan said with an embarrassed look on his face, "Once I called Kayam a poop head."
	The parrot smiled.  "Somehow after you squat, that makes a sort of poetic sense.  Yes, you say, 'Catch me if you can, you old poop head!'"  He laughed.  "You won't forget, will you?  Swear it!"
	"I swear!  Now get me out of here!  Please!"
	“Keep it down!”  The parrot nibbled at him affectionately with his beak, then examined the rope.  “Okay...there is a way.  Come here.”
	Holcan followed the parrot obediently over to where the plate of broth still lay, cooling slowly.  Grunting, the bird grasped the rope in his beak and pulled it to him, settling a small length of it into the liquid.  “Now sit there just a minute.”
	Holcan looked back curiously, sniffling a bit.  “What are you doing?”
	“We have to make this rope taste like broth.”
	“Huh?”
	“Never mind...you can back up now.”  The parrot shooed him away, then looked at the drenched rope for a moment.  “It’ll do.  Now drink all the rest.”
	The jaguar cub wrinkled his nose.  “I'm not very hungry.”
	“It’ll keep you strong enough while you get away.  Besides, for this to work there must be nothing left in the bowl.  Not one drop!  Now drink, quick!”  He looked around nervously.  “I don’t want to be down here too much longer.”
	Holcan obediently finished the broth and sat back down.  “Now what?”
	“Lie down and pretend to nap.  And whatever you do, kid...DON’T MOVE.”  The parrot flapped his wings and sailed upward to settle himself on his perch, eyeing the cub in the dark.  "Don't even THINK of moving."
	Holcan lay down slowly and closed his eyes, at a total loss as to how the food-stuff was going to make him get away.  He shivered in the dark, wondering how long the two-legs would wait before coming for him.
	Laying still was hard for Holcan to do.  He was frightened and he wondered what possible good the wet rope would do him.  Resisting the temptation to toss or turn, even holding his paws and tail still, he wondered what miracle would occur.
	The sound of Oxie shifting from foot to foot reached him.  He also heard the coughing and wheezing of the old bird.  Holcan's hearing was good enough to point out the bird's exact location above him.
	There were other sounds he heard as well.  Perhaps one of the kids shifted on the old nanny goat, but the sound was not like a larger animal.  It was a smaller scratching sound, and a sniffing sound….
	Something small ran on tiny feet across the floor of the stable, then stopped about a length away.  Then it sniffed again and moved forward.  A slight gnawing sound came from half a length away.
	Very quietly, very deliberately, Holcan opened one eye and looked about.  What he saw almost made him gasp.
	Just then with a chorus of high-pitched squeeks, something else climbed over his tail and brushed against one of his legs.
	Another furry body ran past him, the fur on Holcan’s neck rose in horror as he realized what it was.  Rats!  There were large rats coming from hiding places near the walls.  In the few rays of moonlight that filtered into the stable the rat eyes glowed red like jewels.  The rodents were beginning to gather at the soaked length of rope.
	Timid at first, the rats began to chatter and fight among themselves for the best position for the feast.  Holcan lay immobile as the rats chattered and argued with one another.  He saw a fight break out between two rats, and the white teeth he saw bared during the fierce scuffle filled him with dread.  What if they finish with the rope and find themselves still hungry?
	The stronger rat drove the loser away.  The vanquished rodent tumbled over Holcan in its eagerness to escape.  Another skittered past Holcan's face, its long naked tail dragging noisomely across the cub's nose.  Holcan shivered.
	As the frenzy grew to inlcude nearly two dozen rats, Holcan felt their small, sharp claws as they crawled over him.  He felt them sniff him all over so that he was not only terrified but violated.  One nibbled at his ear, which twitched.  Holcan's heart pounded, but he stayed still.
	Light flared again from the cracks in the wall, brighter than normal, and Holcan could hear the priest muttering sleepily as he moved within.  The parrot cawed raucously form above.  “The rope’s almost through, son!  PULL!  PULL!”
	Holcan leaped to his feet, rats hurrying away as he lurched forward, eyes squinted shut to strain against the rope.  A thumping sound from within the two-legs’ hut startled him, and he redoubled his efforts, yanking and jerking wildly.
	The rope gave with a sudden ease, parting with a soft rip.  Holcan tumbled away into the straw, then gathered himself up and shot forward, leaping up and over the lip of the opening to the outside, panting hoarsely as he vanished into the black night.  "Thank you, Oxie!"
	Behind him he heard the two-legs cry, "Coatl??  Coatl!!"  
	There was no turning back--Holcan had escaped!


CHAPTER 20:  ON THE WATERFRONT

	The gentle-mannered priest had given Holcan a protected, unrushed chance to become accustomed to two-legs and their ways.  For a while, he had actually felt at home, but once outside the Holcan found the two-legs world a frightening, alien place.  He was both terrified and fascinated as he wandered among the flickering torches, the people and their odd surroundings.  The whole of the village marketplace lay before him, an organized chaos that moved as though it were something alive in itself.  The air was filled with the cries of vendors selling their wares, fighting to be heard over the general tumult.  Livestock dominated his senses, the smell of fowl and sharper scent of fish dragging at his nostrils, made his whiskers twitch and his belly rumble.  A faint peeping noise reached his ears and he focused on it, seeing a small group of chicks in a basket.
	Breakfast!
	Seeing the owner of the chicks was occupied with haggling with another two-legs, Holcan decided not to bother him, padding over to the basket and pawing at it experimentally, eliciting panic from the occupants.  Holcan extended a paw inside, swatting at the chicks.
	A sharp jab in the rear made him yowl with pain.  Whirling, he saw a hen behind him, feathers puffed out in outrage.  “How-how DARE you!  Shoo!  Shoo shoo!”  She began pecking the panicked cub with pecks from her beak, doing no damage but frightening Holcan.  He leaped up on top of the basket and hissed, swatting at her defensively.
	At this, the shopkeeper glanced down and shouted, “Yaguara!”  
	The two-legs seized a smoldering stick from a nearby brazier and swung it at Holcan angrily.  The cub felt abrupt heat on his backside and a burning sting.  Holcan let out a startled screech, his fur fuzzing out on end.  He sprinted away, scrabbling around a corner and blundering into a stack of clay pottery, sending it toppling to the ground in a torrent of shards.  
	The female two-legs busy selling her pottery registered her protest by flinging a string of curses at Holcan, along with one of her sandals.  Ducking the missile, the cub turned and ran back the other way, darting in between a forest of legs, his blind panic driving him forward at top speed.
	In the dark, Holcan's black fur was a blessing.  He dashed from shadow to shadow, trying to retrace the route the priest had taken from the waterfront to his home.  It was not easy, for he was frightened on the way down, and he was equally terrified on the way back.  It seemed like such a long time ago.
	One street vendor had fish on a rack.  Holcan sprang up on top of the rack and grabbed one--he would need the energy later.  Jumping down, he dashed quickly down the cobblestone street.
	If only he could avoid the lights!   The black cub headed out of the torchlight as quickly as possible, seeking kinship with the concealing night.  He headed in the dark down to the riverbank and looked across the wide expanse of water that separated him from his home.  "I'll never make it across there," he thought.  "I need another tree.  One headed the other way."
	Of course trees in the river were hard to find, especially ones that moved upstream.  He did, however, see some canoes bobbing in the current, tied to a dock.  A two legs got in one and shoved off, moving out into the water easily with a stick he held in his forepaws.  Holcan knew about floating, though he did not know a word for it.  Many times he had played with sticks dropped in the lazy river and watched them go downstream.  He had also ridden a tree himself.  Perhaps this canoe would be his answer!
	He saw one had a burning torch in it.  Since many of the two-legs carried these about, he assumed that the boat would be the next one used.  So carefully he crept to the canoe and with a spring and a scramble caught the edge and pulled himself inside.
	There were soft skins in the boat.  He smelled jaguars had been there.  How fortunate!  There were soft, fuzzy things in the bottom of the boat and he tried to push under them to hide.  Only to his horror, he realized he was surrounded by the fur of dead cats!  Jaguars killed by the two-legs as the priest might have killed him!
	"The macaw was right!  Oh gods, if they find me here…."
	A two-legs grasped the rope holding the boat to the dock and loosened the end.  Then the boat was shoved a few steps and with a thump the creature stepped in the middle of the boat and knelt on one knee to begin paddling.
	The oar was right next to Holcan.  As the two-legs picked it up, the blade slid past Holcan's face and nearly hit his nose.  Shivering with fright, the jaguar cub crouched among the remnants of his unlucky brethren and felt the boat rock slightly as the strokes of the paddle thrust it out into the channel.
	But despite Holcan's optimism, he saw something with utter horror.  The star pattern he could detect through a hole in the skins began to shift.  The boat was turning!
	"No!" Holcan thought with horror.  "It's not going all the way across!  He's going downstream!"
	Holcan was trapped in a boat with a known jaguar killer!  He was foiled so close to victory!  His young mind worked at a feverish pace.  Maybe he couldn't swim the entire river, but he could make it halfway.  That would be enough to escape.  It would have to be enough!
	The pilot of the small craft noted in the eerie shadows of his firelight that the skins moved.  A pair of eyes glowing green in the moonlight pierced his own for a moment, then a black cat leaped up onto the basket just in front of the oarsman.
	A black tail fuzzed out and white teeth gleamed.  "MrrrRROOOOWWWW!"
	"AAAAAAUUUUGGGHHH!!!"
	The two-legs screamed and jumped out one side of the boat as Holcan dove off the opposite side.  As the canoe overturned, what was left of the unfortunate jaguars returned to the natural world, lost in the river.  Holcan would have been lost too, but he paddled as hard and fast as he could, keeping his small pink nose above the clinging wetness that surrounded him.
	It was a long swim, seemingly endless, through the moonlit waters.  Still throughout it Holcan had a thrill of victory.  He was going to beat the odds!  He was going to be free, if only he wanted it enough not to surrender to fear and exhaustion.
	His tiny body nearly lost the battle.  A floating log had saved him once.  A floating branch saved him again.  It was not enough to lift him from the water, but he could hang on it for a while to catch his breath.
	The remaining yards of his swim were helped by the wonderful sight of the coming shore.  Finding a reserve of strength to push a few more strokes, he managed to crawl  out of the water, cramped and exhausted, and fall panting on dry land.
	Tired as he was, he knew he had to conceal himself in case the two-legs looked for him.  And even before that, he had a debt to repay.  He scratched a circle in the dirt.  Then he squatted on legs crippled with exhaustion and soiled it.  He gasped in a breath and shouted, "Come and get me if you can, you old poop head!"  Then he promptly buried his feces with a few scratches of his hind legs and headed off upstream and into the concealing brush.


CHAPTER 21:  THE ALLY

	Holcan had a simple plan with only two objectives; to stay alive and to walk upstream.  Through the long night with only the moon to guide him, the wet, tired Holcan trudged along the riverbank over rocks and stumps, through bushes and tussocks and masses of cane.  The river had been swollen and swift when it bore him down to the two-leg village, and he had a long way to travel home.
	The sun had risen on his first day away from the two-legs, but he found himself alone and frightened.  He wondered if he had made some wrong assumptions and got lost.  Maybe he had passed his home, missing the familiar scent of his father's marks.  Maybe home was back in the other direction!
	Holcan sat, tears gathering in his eyes.  "Momma!  Daddy!  Somebody??"  Only the wind seemed to answer him.  He shrieked again, "Momma!!"
	Finally as he was about to sink into despair, he heard the familiar tread of jaguar paws on the leaves.  "Mom, is that you??"  
	"Not likely," a deep voice answered.  A black jaguar pushed through the brush and looked at the small cub.  
	Holcan froze to the spot, his ears back and his legs trembling.  "I'm lost."  I didn't mean to trespass.  Please don't eat me!"
	The black jaguar laughed--it was a deep, friendly laugh.  "Now why would I want to eat you?"  He stepped forward a couple of lengths, so close to Holcan that the cub could almost feel his breath.  "You look familiar, son.  What is your name?"
	"Holcan, sir."
	"Holcan??"  Machoc's face lit up and he walked about the cub admiringly.  "You're Chakal's son, aren't you!"
	"Yes sir!"  Holcan pawed him.  "You know my dad??"
	"Yes.  He thought you died in the flood.  He is looking for…."  Machoc thought a moment.  He looked at the tiny, expectant face that looked to him as a savior.  That tiny dark face so like his own in the days of his lost innocence.  "Well, he was looking for you.  When you didn't come back, he thought the two-legs had come.  He was frightened and took his family and moved on."
	"Where??  Please take me to my Dad!  Please, sir??"
	"I can't, Holcan.  He didn't say where he was going.  I'm sorry."
	The black cub's eyes filled with tears.  "They think I'm dead?"  He collapsed to the ground and began to sob softly.  "What's going to happen to me?"
	Machoc nuzzled the cub and kissed his face.  "Well you could go on upstream, but a really mean jaguar lives in your old home now.  He might eat you up in one bite."
	"You mean Machoc?" Holcan asked.
	"What about Machoc??"
	"He eats cubs like me in one bite.  That's what dad says."
	Machoc's insides rumbled with a low growl.  "I'm sure your dad was joking."  He softened, kissing the cub and rolling on his back to stroke him with a paw and feel his tiny heartbeat.  "Jaguars named Machoc don't eat cubs in one bite.  They invite little lost cubs to stay and be their son.  Do you understand what I'm saying, Holcan?"
	Holcan approached closely, almost nose to nose.  He turned his face upside down to look the large black jaguar in the eye.  Machoc smiled warmly and said, "I've eaten lots of things in one bite, but none of them were cubs.  I want you to stay here, young fellow.  Be my son.  I'll protect you and feed you and play with you and love you.  That's because you stole my heart with one bite.  I'm Machoc."
	Holcan backed away.
	"Wait!  I don't know what you've heard about me, but I'm really not bad."
	Holcan glanced behind himself to the cover of the trees.  For a moment he contemplated flight, wondering only if the jaguar would pursue him.
	"Holcan, please don't run away!  My cubs were lost and I'm so alone!  You are alone too!  If we don't stick together you'll end your path with starvation and I'll end mine with grief!  Trust me, son!  I want to love you!"
	Holcan saw something in Machoc's eyes that made him believe the ebony jaguar.  He gathered his courage and walked back stiff-legged with hesitation.  Had Machoc moved or even changed his expression, the cub would have darted away and never returned.  Machoc seemed to understand this and remained on his back until Holcan came and nuzzled him softly.
	"Now that wasn't so bad, was it son?"
	"Thank you, Machoc, sir.  I'll try to be a good son."  Then fearfully he asked, "Is Mom still alive?"
	"Your mother?  Yes.  She's still alive."
	Tears sprang to his eyes.  "Oh thank gods!"
	Machoc rubbed him with a paw reassuringly.  "So tell me, little traveler, where have you been?"
	Holcan snuggled next to the black jaguar, glad to feel something soft, warm and familiar.  "The two-legs got me.  A priest kept me in his home.  That's someone that makes strange things happen.  Anyway, that's what the bird said."
	"The bird?  It wasn't by any chance a large macaw, was it?"
	"Yes it was.  He said he knew you."
	"Old Oxcacopan!  Did he tell you about me?"
	"Not very much.  Just that he knew you.  And that the priest was going to kill me if I didn't escape.  He helped me get away."
	"Good old Oxie!  A bit stuck up, but he had a heart of pure sunshine.  He was the only one that really showed me love besides my mother."  Machoc rubbed Holcan with a paw.  "We are two of a kind, you and I.  Two black jaguars that showed the two-legs what for!  They won't mess with US and get away with it!"
	"Did you know the priest?"
	"Yes.  But it was the prince that I knew best.  Here, feel of my side."
	Holcan rubbed his paws along the large lumpy ribcage.  "Why aren't you smooth?"
	"That's where they beat me.  The prince and his servant.  That boy was not always cruel by intention.  No, I think I was his favorite toy.  He would ride me."
	"Ride you?"
	"Yes.  Sit on my back and let me carry him."  Machoc smiled warmly and said, "Climb on my back and let's have a go at it."
	"Really?"
	"Of course."
	Holcan ascended carefully and sprawled out with his paws, trying to hold on.  "Ready!"
	Machoc rose slowly and deliberately, starting into a slow, flat walk.  "Is everything OK up there?"
	"Sure!"
	"Well hold on tight!"
	Machoc smoothly stepped into a rolling canter.  Holcan began to giggle, bouncing slightly with each stride.  "Wheeee, this is fun!"
	"With you it sure is!  You're a lot lighter than the prince."  Machoc looked back and said, "Uh oh!  I feel a jump coming on!"
	"Oh no!"  Holcan's claws extended and grasped Machoc's hide.  If they hurt the old jaguar, he didn't show it.  On his unsteady perch, Holcan saw the log coming up.  He felt the muscles beneath him bulge and stretch.  Another moment and with surprising ease he felt himself airborne, sailing over the fallen tree, then with a firm but gentle thump he was earthbound.  He began to slip, and before he could say a word he was lying in the leaf litter in a heap.
	"Holcan, are you all right??"
	The black cub looked up.  "That was awesome!"
	"It sure was," Machoc said with a warm smile.
	"Let's do it again!"
	"First I have to check for broken bones."  Machoc began to nuzzle Holcan on the belly until he giggled uncontrollably.  "Oops, I think I broke your funny bone!"
	"I'll break your funny bone!" Holcan said, shoving him away with a paw.  "You're so silly!"
	"You just make me feel glad.  I always wanted a little boy like you."
	"Did you give the prince rides like that ?"
	"Not like that.  Of course I didn't enjoy those rides.  When I didn't go fast enough or when I got tired, he would dig his heels into my side.  If I cuffed him, or even if I snarled at him, the servant would strike me with a stick over and over."  He sighed.  "I shouldn't be telling you this stuff."
	"No, it's OK.  I'm big enough to handle it."
	"After what you've been through, maybe you are."  Machoc fondled him with a paw.  "During those beatings, sometimes I felt myself slipping out of consciousness.  It would get dark.  Other times they hung me up by the neck by a rope till I passed out.  That old son of a--well--that old scoundrel of a servant--enjoyed torturing me."
	Machoc paused a moment.  He saw the collar and remaining leash on Holcan and he gently arranged to get the knot under his shearing teeth in the back of his jaw.  It took him a couple of minutes, but the rope finally broke and slipped from around Holcan's neck.
	"You say they enjoyed hurting you?"  The thought seemed obscene to Holcan.
	"He didn't spare me one bit of pain.  Twenty blows for one little scratch.  He knew just where to hit me too.  It's like he wished they could have done more, so he made each hit count.  I hurt so bad he would put me in a room to recover, and I would pray to the gods to just go ahead and let me die.  Then he would put me with the prince, and he would ride my back for hours and kick me in the kidneys to walk faster till I would pee on the floor.  I don't know what I hated worse--when he was cruel, or when he would hug me around the waist and the neck.  He didn't know how badly he was choking me."
	"Oh that's terrible!"
	"It wasn't his fault; they never taught him better.  He was allowed to run wild and do whatever he wanted.  Who knows--with a few good cuffings, he might not have turned out half bad.  The servant children were nicer to me, but I could cuff them if they abused me."
	"Did you have a Mom and Dad?" Holcan asked.
	"I once had a mother and two sisters.  Malka died very young--it was a mercy.  Shemaka became a young jaguaress before she bit the prince and the servant slowly tortured her to death."  Tears came to Machoc's eyes.  "I put my paws over my ears to drown out the screams.  Mom couldn't take it after a while.  She clawed him--it left a nasty gash down his leg too.  For that he had her decapitated."
	"What's decapitated?"
	Machoc's chin trembled.  "He cut off her head."  Tears filled his eyes and a shudder ran down his body.  "After Momma died I was so full of hate and pain that all I lived for was revenge.  I was like a kvarna husk--hard and shiny on the outside but only weak pulp on the inside.  I had to continue acting the fool and amusing the prince with my tricks while my poisoned heart crumbled to dust.  Finally when I avenged my family and escaped, I had nothing left to live for.  I kept on breathing, walking, drinking water but I was not living.  It was an empty, weary existence somewhere between death and life.  Only three times since then have I really felt alive; once was with my mate Nuk, once was with my son Chakal, and now with you."
	"Oh Machoc!"
	The old jaguar began to paw him softly and desperately.  "Don't leave me, Holcan!  Please love me, I beg you!"
	Holcan began to cry and snuggled to Machoc's side.  "That's so sad!"
	"I'm old, and someday I will die and leave you this territory.  It's not much, but it's provided for me all these years.  You'll never have to leave it."
	Holcan nuzzled him softly.  "Why are you being so nice to me?"
	"Because no one ever needed me before.  I looked back on all the pain I suffered and asked myself if was is a God, why did he put me in this world of sorrow?  I know now.  I was made for you, Holcan.  To love you is my purpose in life."
	"And what is my purpose?" Holcan asked.
	"To make this dark world a little brighter.  There can be no higher calling."
	Holcan touched Machoc's cheek with his tongue.  "How did you get away from the two-legs?  Did the bird help you too?"
	"No.  I killed the servant."  The light of love in Machoc's eyes turned to a cold red fire of hate.  "He was weak without a spear and shield.  A pissy little coward.  I killed him with one swift bite to the throat, but I had longed to make him scream once for every blow he struck me, then to kill him the way he killed my mother.  I wanted to sever his head and pee on it!"  He looked at the shocked look on Holcan's face and felt remorse.  "Don't think poorly of me, son.  I hope you never learn to hate anyone or anything that much.  I hope you walk your path to the end the innocent little boy you are."


CHAPTER 22:  PARENTAL GUIDANCE

	Three things helped Chakal hold on to his sanity; the love of his remaining cubs, the need to hunt, and the duty of patrolling the border.  He walked the mark line with somber dignity, ears lowered and tail hanging listlessly.  Grief had weighed him down until he could hardly function.
	The one thing he enjoyed about border patrol was his uneasy friendship with Machoc.
	As Chakal trudged along, Machoc came to him and asked, "How are you, my friend?"
	"Oh, I get along."
	"Liar," Machoc said.  "I've been watching you fall apart since Koh died."
	"If you knew the answer, why did you ask me?"
	"Because I care for you so much!  You have no idea how much your happiness means to me, and how badly your grief stings me!  You don't understand."
	Chakal looked at him intently.  "Then explain it to me so I can understand."
	Machoc's face lit with a timid smile.  His tail twitched with emotion.  "Chakal, my son, there's a secret I've kept from you for a long time.  I thought it was in your best interests before, but now I think you need to know.  I am your father.  I'm your real father!"
	"My real father??"  Chakal was not pleased as Machoc had hoped.  Instead his fangs bared.  "Are you telling me my mother would mate with a creep like you??"
	Machoc snarled and he cuffed Chakal across the face--hard.  "Watch your mouth, boy!  I loved Nuk."  The younger jaguar stared at him silently as he continued.  "I'll go to my death loving her but never having her.  Think about that the next time you crouch with Ixtab--some of us live our dreams, others don't see our dreams come true."
	"You loved my mother?"
	"Yes, I loved her.  All of my life I had been someone's toy, a possession to be owned and disciplined and mistreated.  I thought when I fled that I would find freedom, but all I found was emptiness.  Then Nuk came into my life.  She loved me for who I was, and for the first time since my mother died, I didn't just exist, I lived!"  Machoc half-closed his eyes and sighed.  "I was no longer a toy, I was a jaguar.  When I felt her beautiful body shudder beneath me, I knew for one moment the rapture of a perfect joy!  I worshipped her--there was nothing she could have asked for that I would not have given her."
	"But she left you.  Why?"
	Machoc's head lowered and his tail drooped.  "We argued all the time.  I guess that's what happens when you're raised without love or tenderness.  I tried to make our relationship work--really I did.  Once I went and hunted livestock and brought it back to her.  She refused to eat it and said it was cursed.  I don't know what came over me.  I got angry, really angry.  I said some things that a million times I wished I could take back--and I hit her."  His tears began to spill to the ground.  "I shouted, 'You damned fool, turning down perfectly good food!'"
	Chakal gasped.  "My gods!"
	Machoc began to sob.  "I was the fool, not her!  She left me, and with her went my whole future.  Now I live in the past off the reflected glory of two bright days of love."
	"Is that when she met my father?"
	"That's when she met Mextal.  Don't mistake me, boy, I admire him as much as I envy him.  He takes good care of Nuk, and that means a lot to me."  Machoc sighed.  "She mated with him for two days.  For a while I didn't know if you were my son or his.  Then you did something extraordinary.  Your mate had a black cub.  I knew for certain then that I was your father."
	"But I'm not black, and neither was my father."
	"Son, son!  Sometimes it skips a generation.  There were no black jaguars in Mextal's line.  It had to be me!  I'm your father!"
	"How would you know about my Dad--Mextal?"
	"I talked with him."  Machoc saw that he had Chakal's undivided attention.  "I had to know, so I asked him.  He knows I'm right.  And while we were talking, he told me all about your cubhood.  Did you really get stuck in a tree for two days?"
	"Yes…."  Chakal stared at him, as if looking for the family resemblance under his dark hide.
	Machoc looked at Chakal with a gentle glow in his eyes.  "I was alone in the world, growing older but not a bit happier.  The secret I kept from you I kept out of shame.  I do not deserve your love.  But now you need my love and I lay the truth before you for all the right reasons.  You are my son, my beautiful son, and I love you!  I have always loved you!  Now I have a family again!"
	"Family?  Because you got my mother pregnant, then struck her?  I'm supposed to kiss you for that??"
	"Chakal my son!  You don't know what you're saying!  I'm your father--please don't hate me!"
	"I don't hate you.  I pity you.  Maybe you are my father, but you want to be my Dad.  This is all very interesting, but it's too little, too late."
	"I have a gift to give you, my son!  A gift that means more to me than life itself, and I will give it to you with a full heart if only you will forgive me!  Son, please come with me!  I can make it up to you!  Let me make it up to you!"
	"No, Machoc.  I don't want your love.  I don't want your gift.  When we meet on patrol, we will speak and I'll be nice to you, but don't call me son.  My name is Chakal."
	The black jaguar's chin began to tremble and a tear ran down his cheek.  He held his head down and stalked silently off.


CHAPTER 23:  A BALANCED DIET

	Machoc headed deep into his territory, tears in his eyes and a growing red flame of anger in his heart.  "You damned ungrateful brat, wounding me in the one last place I feel pain!  See if I ever give you my gift!  I'll keep him myself and raise him right and proper!"  The black jaguar thought of that time years ago when the two-legs threw spears at him and missed.  Chakal had struck him squarely in the heart, a wound dealt by a loved one that only a loved one could heal.
	Holcan approached him.  Not exactly the welcoming gallop that Machoc wanted or needed, but the black jaguar rolled on his back and drew Holcan to him with both paws and kissed him and wept.
	"What's wrong, Machoc?"
	Machoc looked the fearful cub in the eyes.  "Nothing, my child.  I'm just so lonely, and your coming has meant so much to me."
	"I wish Mom and Dad were here," Holcan said sorrowfully.
	"I wish they were too.  I went looking for my son today, but I didn't find him.  All I found was a rival that attacked me."  Machoc nuzzled him again.  "Is everything all right?  Do you have what you need?"
	"Well, I'm kinda hungry."
	"Have you ever eaten meat yet?"
	"A few times."
	"That's what I needed to hear."

***

	Machoc walked to the river and did something that would have horrified Holcan.  He plunged into the river and began the long swim across.  Machoc had made the trip many times before, but he was usually more careful and swam under cover of darkness.  This time, Holcan was quite hungry, and Machoc felt the urge to catch something quickly.  Machoc little feared the wrath of the two-legs, a race he held in utter contempt.
	The black jaguar emerged on the other side.  He had chosen his landing site well, quickly leaving the exposed bank to prowl through some nearby reeds.  While he was not afraid to fight two-legs one-on-one, he did respect their ability to work together.  What's more, too many raids in one place would make them move their livestock.
	Through the reeds, he managed to come close to a split rail fence surrounding some goats.  With practiced ease, the jaguar ran right to the base of the wooden fence, then sailed over it in a single bound.
	Panic ensued among the goats.  But confined by the circular fence, the goats began to run around the rim of their cage.  Machoc ran one direction, then quickly turned and went the opposite direction.  The ruse worked, and he made a swipe at a goat.  The poor animal fell shrieking.
	The two-legs female who guarded them came out and yelled, "Yaguara!"  She threw a pot at him that broke on the floor of the compound.  He snarled at her, then grabbing the dying goat he gave it a massive bite to the neck, severing the spine.  Machoc yanked up the bleeding goat, making a massive effort to scramble over the top of the fence with his prize, then tumbling down the other side with a certain lack of grace.  Still he was succeeding!
	The two-legs actually went after him with a wooden staff.  She swung and struck him.  The sting of the staff flared his temper and he swiped at her claws out.
	The two-legs  turned red in lines as the deep claw marks that must have severed an artery.  She began to scream.  Others came out and threw rocks and pots at him.  He ran desperately with the dead goat, then gained the water and began to swim like crazy.

***

	Holcan was shocked by Machoc's attitude toward the two-legs.  Holcan knew the priest wanted to sacrifice him, but he also knew the priest loved him.  It was a contradiction of aims, the drive to love and to kill in one heart at one time.  The desire to make sense of this obsessed Holcan.  He remembered something that the macaw had said about joining with the rainbow and kissing the sun.  The old, tired bird did not seem to fear death if only he could meet it blamelessly.  Perhaps death was not always an enemy.  It was at that moment Holcan finally understood something that few jaguars ever knew.  The priest was going to kill him because he wanted him to go join with the rainbow.  The priest was going to send him to the gods!
	He did not want to die while a strong heart made good jaguar blood course through his veins.  There were deer he wanted to hunt and there was a mate he wanted to find.  There were cubs he wanted to raise.  There was a life in the jungle before a life with the gods, and he wanted desperately to live it.
	That was so obvious to Holcan--why wasn't the priest aware of it too?  Why was it so important to send him to the gods so soon?  Again, it was the macaw that had given him the clue.  The circle in the dirt that represented the priest's face.  Just like the macaw, the two-legs made marks that represented things!  Though he did not have a word for "writing," Holcan finally realized there were messages everywhere--the paintings on the wall of his home, the marks on the shawl, the pictures on the two pillars; these were all messages!
	Holcan did not know the message, nor would he ever learn it.  Still he needed to believe that the priest truly loved him, so he felt the message had to be very important.  He hoped there would be another way to send it to the gods.
	An hour passed.  Holcan snoozed in the sunshine by the river waiting for Machoc to return.  He was hungry, but fatigue overtook him and he ceased his thoughts of priests and gods long enough to surrender to sleep.

***

	Nightmares plagued him.  There were two-legs in boats, the screams of a dying jaguar, the evil servant with his wooden stick beating Machoc, women who threw sandals at him, burning torches swung at his nose and falling pots of grain.  He struggled to escape the world of the two-legs and get to the water.
	Suddenly the dream broke.  Someone nudged him softly.  For a brief moment, he thought it was his father, but he saw the ebony face of Machoc.  There was blood on his mouth, not a frightening thing to Holcan for it meant the hunt was successful.  When Chakal or Ixtab came back with the tart smell of warm blood, they were in their best of moods and showed him affection.
	Machoc fit the same pattern.  Holcan felt the sincere goodness of a warm fondle from Machoc's paw and the moist warmth of his kisses.  He purred and squirmed happily at the attention.
	Holcan saw a cut on Machoc's flank.  "Oh, you're hurt!  What happened?"
	"It's nothing.  Don't worry about it."
	Holcan saw the topic bothered him, so he looked around.  "Where is dinner?"
	Machoc showed off the goat to him with pride.  The carcass had already been ripped open, exposing the meat for Holcan to easily tear.  Holcan approached it with a smile, but before he got very close he could tell that it was a nanny goat.  He remembered the kindness of the goat that had fed him, and he felt badly to see the remains of one of her sisters.  
	He was hungry, and the goat was dead.  Unlike Nuk before him, Holcan was not willing to waste good food and walk away in protest.  Holcan ate quickly beside Machoc, filling his belly with the warm meat until he could not find room for another bite.
	The meat made Holcan sleepy again.  Machoc settled down for a nap and Holcan settled on his belly to rest contented.  Snuggled into the familiar goodness of his warmth, Holcan fell asleep quickly and soundly.

***

	The sun had reached its apex, then started to slip downward when Machoc's rest was interrupted.  He felt a paw nudging his side and opened one sleepy eye.  "Holcan, what are you doing?"
	In a thin, weak voice Holcan said, "Help me!  I'm so sick!"
	"Sick??"  Machoc's eyes opened suddenly.  "Where does it hurt??
	Groaning, the cub staggered a couple of steps, then bent down his head.  His stomach heaved a couple of times, and a large lump of chewed meat came up, whitish and slimy with spittle.
	"My poor little boy!  You ate too much!"
	"I only eat a little meat," Holcan gasped.  "I wish Mom was here.  I wish…."
	"Here, Holcan.  Let me rip the udder.  Maybe you can lap up the milk."
	"No, please!"  The thoughts of mingled milk and blood made Holcan heave again, bringing up more meat.  "Oh gods, I'm so sick.  I'm so…."  He nearly doubled over.  In a protracted gagging session he completely emptied his stomach, then lay exhausted on the ground next to his vomit.
       

CHAPTER 24:  LOOKING BACK

	Chakal laid next to Ixtab in a vain attempt to rest.  Could it be that he inherited Machoc's bad luck?  He stroked Ixtab with his paw and listened for the deep answering purr, but there was no response.  He looked into her eyes and saw that their dead glassy stare was fixed upon a distant, happier time.
       "I love you, my darling Ixtab.  I love you, Ixtab.  You know that, don't you?"
       "Sure," she muttered.  "Oh, thanks."
       "You love me too, don't you?"
       "Yeah," she replied without changing her bleak expression.
       Chakal stroked her again.  "The cubs love you too.  Darling, there is nothing in the world that I wouldn't get for you if you asked me for it.  If you wanted the stars, I would climb the tallest tree and pluck them for you like fruit.  Then you would sparkle again as you once did."
       She looked at him blankly.  "Fruit?  No thanks.  I'm not hungry."
       "Whatever you say, Ixtab."
	Chakal kissed her, got up and walked out leaving her and the cubs alone.  There was a light rain falling, and he descended the pyramid carefully, finding his old favorite spot in the serpent's mouth and curling up in its quiet sanctuary.
       "Mom, I wish you were here," Chakal said with a deep sigh.  "I've lost a son and a daughter, and now I'm losing Ixtab!  I wish I were your little cub again.  I would close my eyes and you would sing me softly to sleep.  Oh Momma…."  He listened to the rain tapping softly on the leaves like tears.  "You told me I'd have a family of my own someday.  You told me I'd be happy.  Why didn't you tell me they would rip out my heart?"  His jaw trembled and tears welled up in his eyes.  "I want to go home, Momma!  My life is not worth living anymore, and I want to go home!"
       The rainwater streamed down the fangs of the serpent and began to drip softly onto the lower jaw forming a puddle.  It threatened to soak Chakal, but he did not notice.  Nothing mattered anymore, least of all a little water.
       He shivered.  He was used to Ixtab's warm body against him, soft and supple.  In days that seemed so distant to him, she would drape her paw around his shoulder and snuggle closer to him.  He would reach back and take that paw between his lips very gently, just to let her know how he appreciated her heartfelt love.  For a moment he looked at the expanse of forest before him.  Out there lay peace and forgetfulness.  Out there a jaguar could push his problems to the back of his mind and run from his woes while chasing the deer.
	A small spotted form crept in beside him and nuzzled him.  "Hi, Dad."
	"Hello, Kayam.  What are you doing down here?"
	"I followed you.  I'm getting good at stalking."
	"So I see."  He looked at him intently.  "How much did you hear?"
	Tears sprang to Kayam's eyes.  "Oh Daddy!  Don't leave me!"
	Chakal rolled on his side and pulled Kayam's trembling body to him, kissing him with his pink tongue and fondling him with his paws.  "My poor baby!  My poor little baby!"
	"I'm not a baby anymore.  Remember?"
	"You'll always be my baby.  No matter how long you live."  Chakal nuzzled Kayam and took his small face gently in his jaws, rocking his head from side to side, then kissing him again.  "Kayam, I wanted to be alone.  Sometimes I have to be alone so I can say these foolish things where I won't hurt anyone.  Then I feel much better.  You know I'd never leave you or Bol or Mom.  I love you all so much!"
	"I love you too, Dad."  Kayam nuzzled him again.  "Do you mind if I stay here with you?"
	"Sure, son."
	Suddenly from above, they heard Ixtab shriek, "Chakal!!  Come quick!!"
       
       
CHAPTER 25:  THE VISION
       
	Chakal and Kayam bolted through the rain, scrambling up the pyramid and into the chamber.  "Are you all right??"
	"Koh!" Ixtab said breathlessly.  "You just missed it!  She was here!  My little Koh!"
	"But she's dead!" Chakal said.  "I hate to say this, but I saw where the foxes had their way with her.  There's nothing left."
	"No, it was her spirit!  She said Holcan is alive!  She said we had to go bring him back!  He's in danger!"
	"You must have been dreaming."
	"No, I was awake!  I saw her!  I heard her!  Holcan is alive, and he needs us!"
	Bol was now wide awake.  "I just KNEW he was alive!  I could feel it!  I knew it all along!"
	"Koh, my precious little baby!"  Ixtab stammered, tears coming to her eyes.  "She promised she'd never leave me!  She promised, and she's still here!"
	Chakal winced.  "Calm down, honey.  You're letting your grief get the better of your reason."
	"We have to at least look!"
	Chakal shook his head.  "It's dangerous out there!  Machoc nearly got you once, and I think...."
	Kayam shouted, "Daddy, we gotta look for him!"
	Bol said--"I'll go with him to keep him out of trouble."
	Ixtab added, "Look, I'm going to search for my baby!  You can come or not!  Understand me, Mister??"
	"It seems I'm voted down."  Chakal looked at them all.  "I guess it wouldn't hurt to go looking for him once."
	The two cubs jumped about.  "Hooray!  We're going to find Holcan!"
	"Your MOTHER AND I that is."  Chakal glared at them.  "If I catch you following us, all you'll find is a good cuffing."
	Bol said, "When you find him, are you going to tell him about Koh?"
	"IF we find him, that's something we'll deal with later.  Don't get your hopes up too high.  He's been gone a long time."

***

	Chakal and Ixtab were prepared for a long, hard search.  They went to the riverbank where Holcan fell in and determined to work their way downstream.  "We'll give this one evening.  At dark you start home, understand?"
	"But Chakal!"
	"No ifs, ands or buts, Ixtab.  The cubs need you.  You go home at dark.  I'll go on alone."
	"You would do that for me?"
	"Of course.  He's our son.  I love him."
	They walked for a while in silence.  Ixtab's glanced at Chakal from time to time, and the look in her eyes was enough to raise his spirits.  Finally she said, "Things are going to be different between us.  If we find Holcan that will be great, but if we don't I still won't neglect you anymore and I'll forgive Kayam.  Honest I will."
	Chakal purred.  "I love you."
	"I love you too," she purred back.  "The day we met, I taunted you about leaving and living alone.  It was just a tease--I knew from the moment I set eyes on you that I would be spending my life with you."
	"I had you figured out," Chakal said with a smile.  "I just didn't want to look too easy."
	Ixtab smiled back.  In some ways it was the same radiant smile she used to wear, but it had grown deeper and more meaningful.  It was the smile of one who had groomed cubs and greeted a tired hunter, shed tears and known laughter.  Once Chakal had asked her if what they felt was just an inner fire or if it was something real that came from the heart.  In the soft light of her eyes he saw the answer clearly.
	They crossed into Machoc's territory.  Machoc had been making friendly overtures--indeed, he was Chakal's natural father.  But on that last fateful meeting Chakal had insulted him in the deepest, most hurtful way.  There was no telling how Machoc would react to their presence if he spotted them.

***

	Holcan was being groomed by Machoc's large pink tongue when suddenly he felt the large jaguar stiffen and look up.
	"What's wrong?" Holcan asked, sensing the sudden change in Machoc.
	"I see trespassers."
	"Are we in danger?"
	"I'm not sure.  There are two of them.  If I'm strong, I can drive them off.  Stay here and don't move a muscle.  Watch and you will learn something about life, my boy."
Machoc traveled with eerie quiet through the brush, heading toward the stream bank with a fierce fire in his eyes.  Holcan watched Machoc move silently through the trees.  
	Suddenly Machoc charged.
	In seconds the fierce black jaguar loomed large before Chakal and Ixtab.  "Mine!  This is MY land and you had better…."
	"Machoc!"
	"Chakal!"  He began to almost wiggle with surprised joy.  "My boy, you have come at last??  Sorry about the misunderstanding, my son!  I just didn't expect you here!"
	"We're passing through.  We were searching for our son Holcan."
	Machoc brightened.  "I have a surprise for you.  Remember that gift I was talking about?  Well it just so happens…."
	"We have no time for gifts," Ixtab said urgently.  "Just grant us safe passage."
	At that moment, Holcan burst from the brush squealing, "Momma!  Daddy!  You're back!  You came back!"
	For a moment Ixtab just stood there.
	"Momma, I'm sorry I fell in the water!  Please don't cuff me!"
	Ixtab's chin trembled.  Then she sprang upon him, lying on the ground and wrapping her forearms around him.  "Momma's little shadow!  I love you!  Oh my baby!"  
	Holcan squirmed his way to her face and began to caress her with his pink tongue.  She tried to choke back a sob, failed, and then started to sob again.  "Oh my little baby!  My precious little baby!"
	Chakal passed nervously about, looking for an opening.  He found one, and began to kiss and nuzzle his son, grunting with pleasure as tears streamed down his face.
	Machoc watched longingly.  "He never cared for me like that.  I'm sorry.  I should have brought him back at once, even though you…."
	"Hell yes!" Chakal snarled, his love turning into anger against Machoc.  His hackles raised and Chakal went right into his face.  "If you had harmed him in any way I'd have killed you!"
	"Look, I love him!  I wasn't going to hurt him!"
	"I don't want to hear it!"
	"You don't understand!  I was just about to…."
	"Shut up, Machoc!  Next time we patrol the border, don't speak to me!  Don't even look in my direction!  I have nothing further to say to you!  EVER!!"
	Machoc stared at him balefully for a moment, then looked down.  "Yes sir."

***

	Despite their joy at finding Holcan, Chakal and Ixtab were cautious to keep moving ahead quietly while they were in Machoc's territory.  There was no telling what he might do in his frustration.  Only when they saw the mark tree did they relax.  Chakal turned, raised his tail and renewed the sign of his claim with more than usual care.
	On home ground at last, Holcan brightened and began to gallop as fast as his short legs would carry him toward the temple.  He crossed the open ground, gained the staircase, then bounded up with all the speed he could muster.
	Bol and Kayam ran to the door.  Bol began nuzzling the panting Holcan desperately, nipping his ears and kissing his cheek, then putting his forepaws over him to press him to the ground.  Bol wanted to roll in his brother's smell and paw him, something Holcan didn't mind in the least.
	"My turn!  My turn!"
	Kayam pushed Bol aside for a moment.  "Is it you?  Is it really you??"
	The radiant cub sprang up and began to wrestle with Kayam.  "I can still beat you!" Kayam insisted, and he made a good show of himself, but he conveniently stumbled and let the panting Holcan throw him over.
	"Where's Koh?" Holcan asked.  "Off chasing butterflies again?"
	"She's dead," Kayam said.  "It was a scorpion."
	For a moment, the sad news took the edge off of Holcan's rush of emotion.  He sat and let the bad news sink in slowly.  Koh, dead?  His little sister?
	Chakal and Ixtab came in to join him.  Holcan was once again surrounded with love, and his smile returned.  "Mom, I am so hungry!  Do you mind if I have some milk?"
	"Mind??  Come on, honey!  I've waited a long time for this."  Ixtab rolled over and the cubs mobbed her, taking their usual places at her teats.  She began to stroke them with her paw and very softly she began to sing.
	Kayam had not heard her sing since Koh died.  He left his place and walked to his mother's beaming face.  A smile formed on his lips as Ixtab reached out with a paw to touch his cheek.  
	"I love you, darling.  Don't you ever run away again."
	Kayam settled under his mother's chin and purred against her warm body.  "I won't."


CHAPTER 26:  IN THE NAME OF THE GODS

	The late morning sunlight gleamed brightly over the vast green canopy that covered the earth below.  It outlined the brilliant colors of the macaws as they rose and plunged rhythmically, predators in their own element seeking out the fruits that ripened among the treetops.  Below them the sunlight was muted, transformed into a soft yellow glow that pierced the triple canopy jungle here and there with sharp shafts of light.  The humid mist and dust danced within the beams in its own pattern, not unlike that of the creatures above. It was a wondrously entrancing sight...at least to those with the presence of mind to appreciate it.
	A two-legs walked through the forest lost in his own thoughts.  His powers of observation were keen, but they were directed down at his path.
	The priest paced with deliberate silence through the undergrowth, pausing now and again to examine the minute clues that pointed ever onward toward his quarry.  Kneeling, he laid his staff down and examined the leaf-covered loam.  Brushing the leaves aside, he scooped up a small quantity of earth and raised it to his mouth.  A quick sniff and a taste brought a slight smile to his face.  "Coatl," he sighed.
	He straightened and let the moist earth trickle through his fingers, then silently brushed his hands clean.  Hanging from his belt was the small shroud intended for Holcan's long mystical trek into eternity.  Wrapped in the shroud, cleaned carefully and honed to a fine edge, was the ceremonial knife.  But of special interest was the message painted on the shroud.  There was a giant canoe with three tall trees whose tops brushed the clouds.  It was followed by magic sticks that covered with blood many brave fighters.  Many two-legs that rode beasts very different from Machoc held up the sticks, and at the feet of the beasts lay a pile of skulls.  Then there were ten pictures that made no particular sense unless their names were pronounced in order.  Ko-ah-tul um-ba-xa Ku-kul-khan xu.  "Coatl, sacrifice for Kukulkhan."
	The priest rose and headed onward.

***

	Holcan, who had always enjoyed listening to Ixtab's stories, returned rich with tales of his own about torchlight processions, pictures that carried messages, streets lined with things to eat, and an odd priest who talked to the gods.  
	Suddenly the center of attention, Holcan delightedly gave them the details of how he escaped the two-legs with the help of Oxie the macaw and the rats.  With a little embarrassment, he even told them about fulfilling Oxie's vow on the bank of the river, scratching the circle, squatting and yelling, "Come get me you old poop head!"
	Kayam rolled on the ground laughing--his first good laugh in a long while.
	"It's not funny," Holcan said.  "The bird was dying, and he was afraid."
	"You're right," Chakal said, making a painful attempt to hold a somber face.  He extended the claws of one paw and pressed them uncomfortably against the other paw, but he still had to look away and smile.
	Chakal did not smile when Holcan told him about Machoc.  At first, Chakal was furious at Machoc for the terrible lie that kept his son from him.  The only thing that kept him from rushing after his father and battering him half to death was a half remembered talk.  The present Machoc had offered him which Chakal had refused.  Was Machoc willing to bring Holcan home?
	Once Chakal had thought of the palace as a place of free meals and amusing tricks performed for the two-legs.  He changed that view as Holcan spoke of the death of Machoc's mother--his own grandmother--in shocking detail.  
	"She was discaptionated," Holcan said.  "They cut her head off."
	Chakal gasped.  Poor Machoc!  What sorrows he had known!  Chakal knew Machoc was his father, though he did not think of him as "Dad."  That honor would always go to Mextal, the jaguar that took in his mother and raised him with endless patience.  Chakal would always Mextal's wrestling matches and hunting lessons and words of wise counsel.  Mostly Chakal remembered the love.  The word "Dad" meant all these things to him, and while Machoc could never be his Dad, he clearly had feelings and needs, and one of those needs was to love his son.
	Chakal nuzzled his small black shadow.  "Next time I see Machoc, we will have a talk about this.  Maybe I misjudged him."

***

	Just a few meters away grew a stand of reeds.  A pair of eyes peered silently from their cover.  Despite their intimate knowledge of everything in the forest, the jaguars did not know they were being watched.
	The priest had hidden there hours ago, knowing they would return to the river to drink.   When he finally saw the black cub, his heart nearly overflowed with joy!  How well he had chosen that spot--how cleverly he had covered himself with mud from the stream bank to hide his scent--how close he had come!
	It would be useless to go the cub.  Both the parents guarded their offspring with care.  No, it would need to be a time when the cubs were alone.
	He watched Coatl cuff at one of the other cubs.  Before long the two were sparring at each other for all they were worth.  Coatl was at a disadvantage until he suddenly backed up, lowered his head and butted his brother like a goat.  It was all the priest could do not to laugh.  The priest was delighted by the game.  To him everything that his Coatl did was beautiful and sacred.
	Quietly, carefully, he took the shroud from his belt and unbundled it.  Inside was the gold knife.  With stoic resolve, he nicked his finger and used the red of his lifeblood to fill in the last circle.  It was now ready for use.  He also filled in the last circle on the cloak he wore and kissed its hem.  On it were the last words he would ever write:  Ixtawabu umbaxa Kukulkhan xu.
	The parents turned to go.  For a moment it looked like the cubs would fall in line and accompany them, but it was not so.
	The priest placed the knife in his belt behind his back.  Slowly, carefully, he poked his head from the reeds.

***

	The cubs gasped and looked around.
	"Coatl?" the priest called softly.  The cubs stared back at the unexpected sound.  Bol and Kayam retreated a few steps, but Holcan stayed planted to the ground like a tree stump.  "Coatl, meta salba."  Smiling gently, he took the leather pouch from his belt.  From it he brought out a small bowl and a skin.  He poured some liquid into the bowl and sat it on the ground.  "Coatl, meta salba.  Salba…."
	Holcan's chin trembled.  He wanted to shriek, but no sound would come out.
	"Coatl," the priest intoned softly.  He reached out his hand.  Once that gesture meant a loving embrace and a good scratching behind the ears.  The black cub was full of contradictory messages, not knowing what to do or where to go.
	"Get back!" Kayam said.  "Holcan, keep away from him!"
	"Meta salba, Coatl."
	"Get back!"
	The priest took the knife in one hand behind his back, and held the shroud in the other, beginning to wave it at him.  Holcan noticed with horror that the last circle had been filled.  The smell of blood wafted toward him, and he found his voice.  "Mommmm!  Daaaaaaad!  Help me!!"
	There was a crashing through the reeds.  A large jaguar--a solid black jaguar--came like an avenging spirit.
	The priest turned and screamed, "Yaguara!"  Just as he said, it was the creature that killed with one spring.  Machoc's paws struck him squarely in the chest, bearing him down to the ground.  Before he could scream again, a deep killing bite crushed his windpipe and nearly severed his head.  His body began to twitch and thrash, proof that his spine had been severed by the savagery of the attack.  His blood smeared the funeral shroud he had made for his own death.  Ironically he lay in state according to his own customs.  On his robe was his epitaph: "Ixtawabu, sacrifice to Kukulkhan."
	Machoc looked about for the cubs.  He saw his small black friend cowering behind a tussock of long grass.  "Holcan, are you all right?"
	The cub stared at him and nodded ever so slightly.
	Chakal and Ixtab came running and poked their heads into the clearing.  "Machoc??  Who is this??  What's going on here??"
	Machoc looked about, picked up the gold knife from the two-legs' limp hand and dropped it before Chakal.  "This is a knife, a killing thing.  The creep was going to split your son's throat, so I had to do something fast."
	Ixtab ran to Holcan and nuzzled him desperately.  "Don't worry.  He's gone.  Everything's going to be all right!"
	Chakal sniffed of the body, then looked at Holcan.  "Was this the priest?"
	Holcan nodded silently.
	"Oh Lord of Thunders!"  Chakal shuddered, glancing at the gold knife and back at the two-legs.  Then he looked into Machoc's eyes.  There was a love and gentleness in them that surprised him.
	"Thank you.  You saved my son."
	"I love your son," Machoc said.  "As much as I hated the two-legs, more even, I loved your son.  I would never let anything happen to him.  I know I have not always been nice to you, but I risked my life for him.  I want to be able to see Holcan once in a while.  I'm old and the morning chill makes my bones stiff.  I'd like to know a little happiness before I die."
	Chakal answered, "I suppose if we are together you may visit him.  But you must never approach him when we're not here.  Is that understood??"
	"Yes, son."
	"Don't call me son.  Call me Chakal."
	Machoc looked down.  The pain in his face was clearly evident.  "I deserve that.  That and a lot more.  I don't want to take Mextal's place in your heart, but it would mean a lot to me if you would let me be a father, just once."
	Chakal's ears laid back.  "I believe you love Holcan.  And I believe you want to love me.  But it's going to take a little time, all right?  I have to be able to trust you.  You KNEW how badly I grieved and yet you kept Holcan.  How can I be sure you won't do that again?"
	"I've changed," Machoc said.  "I love him and I want him to be happy.  He can't be happy without you."
	"I didn't realize how much grief you've been through in your life," Chakal said.  "I understand suffering--I've lived through it myself.  So I will give you another chance.  Don't foul this one up."  He came forward and gently nuzzled Machoc.  The black jaguar purred and rubbed him full length.  
	"My flesh and blood!  My son!"  Machoc touched Chakal's cheek with his pink tongue and half closed his eyes.  Then with a smile he looked at Holcan.  "Come here, fellow!  It's OK now.  Come give your Granddad a little kiss."
	Holcan shyly hid behind his mother.  
	"Don't worry.  I won't hurt you.  I love you!"  Machoc approached but Holcan retreated further behind Ixtab.  
	"What's wrong with him?"
	"He's just afraid.  Do you blame him?"
	"There's nothing to be afraid of!"  He tried to go behind Ixtab.  "Come here, dammit!  I killed a two-legs to save your hide, and all I ask is a kiss!"
	Chakal snarled at him.  "Watch it!"
	Machoc's ears drooped.  "I'm sorry.  He doesn't have to come if he doesn't want to."
	"Just you remember that, Machoc.  It's time you learned how to behave around others."
	"Yes sir.  Look, I'm sorry.  I'll come back when he's feeling better."  Machoc looked back at Holcan.  "Honey, even if you don't let me touch you again, I love you.  I'll understand--really I will."  
	The black cub looked shyly from behind Ixtab.  "Would you give me another ride?"
	"Yes, honey!  Yes!  I'd give you anything I have!"  Machoc looked back at the priest.  "First I have to get rid of your friend.  I'll hide him in the river."
	The priest was heavy, but Machoc put his full strength into it and the two-legs was soon sliding over the carpet of leaves.  Ixtab took the hated gold knife in her jaws and Holcan took the shawl meant to wrap his dying body.  They wanted to wipe out every trace of the two-legs' existence.  Chakal scratched over the priest's tracks and urinated on them to cover the scent.  The one evidence they left from Holcan's odd adventure was a token of love that fell from the priest's pouch--a red wooden ball.


CHAPTER 27:  THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

	The next morning a rain was falling.  Chakal awoke early and could not go back to sleep--something was not right.  He rose and walked over to her mate and the cubs and nuzzled them.  He had never been happier than he was at that moment, finally reunited with his family. But something was bothering him.  It was Holcan who had told him about Machoc and the two-legs.  He tried to go back to sleep but he just kept feeling an uneasy presence right at the border of his land.
	He walked out of the temple.  The rain was so dense he could just barely see the grove of trees across the open fields where the cubs loved to frolic.  He climbed up to the very top of the roof and sighed.  If there was danger in the land, surely he could see it from there!
	Still, there was no visible threat.  Chakal lightly laughed at what he felt was his own foolishness.  "Here I am when I should be asleep with my family, sitting on this cold rock in the rain!"
	He quietly headed back down and stole into the chamber on muffled paws.
	Ixtab was peacefully asleep when Chakal first saw her.  He admired her graceful beauty while she slept but decided it would be wrong to disturb her with a soft nuzzle.
	Suddenly the peaceful look on Ixtab's face turned sour.  Her paws twitched and her jaw began to move.  A grunt escaped her lips.
	Chakal was startled.  He listened carefully to the sounds she made.
	Another grunt escaped her lips, this one more urgent.  She uttered, "No!  No!"
	Chakal shook her lightly with a paw.  "Honey?  Darling?  Wake up, Ixtab!"
	Her eyes sprang open with a look of utter horror.  "Chakal!  The two-legs are coming for us!"
	"You were dreaming, dear!"
	"I was asleep, but I know what I saw!  Koh was lying there the way I found her.  The scorpion was still there.  I tried to smash it, but it turned into a gold thing!  It was the gold thing the two-legs tried to hurt Holcan with!  It was covered with blood.  They are coming for us!  We have to get away!"
	"You're in a panic, dear!  Calm down!  Since that two-legs died, you've been jumping at shadows!"
	Ixtab shuddered.  "Shadows sometimes hide the worst enemies.  Chakal, I love you more than life itself.  I would risk my hide, but I won't gamble with the cubs.  We're leaving, understand?  Leaving!  I beg you to come with us, but I'm taking the cubs out of here TODAY."
	"Right now?  In the rain?"
	"Right now!"
	"But think of the danger!  Crossing strange ground outside of our territory!"
	"There's nothing to think about.  I will not spend another night in this death trap."
	Chakal looked at her face, equally beautiful and determined.  "As you wish," he said, nuzzling her.  "This territory is not a home unless my heart lives there."
	"Bless you," Ixtab said, nuzzling him back.  "I'll make it up to you somehow, my darling.  I promise."
	Chakal shook the cubs gently with his large paw.  "Come on, boys.  We have to go."
	The urgency in his voice did not escape them.  Kayam asked, "Where are we going?"
	"Away.  There is nothing to worry about.  Everything is ok."
	"Where are we going, Dad?"
	"I don't know.  Somewhere--anywhere else."
	"Can we take my toy?" Holcan asked.
	"No.  It would slow us down.  I'll get you a nice bone later."
	With no time for a good bye, they left the dry temple for the last time and headed out into the rain.  As they headed down the long staircase, Chakal said, "It was great while it lasted."
	"We'll find a better place," Ixtab said.  She thought a moment and added, "Well, maybe not.  But we'll find a good place."
	They headed toward the rim of the valley, making their way in the pouring rain toward the two pillars.  Then they paused for a moment beside the two stone monoliths.  Out of habit, Chakal started to mark the stone, but he sighed.  "This is it."
	"I'm sorry," Ixtab said, nuzzling him.  "I know how much you loved this place."
	"There's nothing to be sorry about.  It's the two-legs.  They did this to us."
	"I did this to us," Holcan said guiltily.
	"No you didn't," Ixtab said.  She nuzzled Kayam and added, "Sometimes we lose sight of the fact that bad things sometimes happen for no reason at all.  We look for someone to blame, but it just makes the pain worse than it needs to be.  Anyhow, this was their territory before it was ours.  Perhaps they are just coming to take it back."

***

	Machoc saw them entering his territory.  "What are you doing dragging the cubs out in the rain?  You have that nice dry home to wait it out in!"
	"We're leaving," Chakal said.  "The two-legs are coming.  They will find the body and there will be hell to pay."
	Machoc thought a moment.  "My territory is meager.  No rich bottom land here on the slopes, but I don't do so poorly.  Stay here with me, son.  Wait out the crisis, then go back when it's safe."
	Chakal pawed him, "No, Dad.  It's not far enough away.  If you want to stay here, the temple is yours, but I suggest you go."
	"Thank you so much--it's the greatest gift I've ever been given."
	"I imagine so.  That's a lot of territory."
	"No.  I mean you called me Dad."
	"Because you treated me like one.  You will never see us again--not in this world.  I want there to be peace between us when I go."
	"So do I," Machoc said.  "May the gods bless you.  I will think about you every night.  My son, my dear, kind son."
	Machoc escorted them to the far edge of his territory.  Then he nuzzled them all one last time, including Holcan.
	Sad but resolute, Chakal and his family walked into the east, the land of the sunrise, to begin a new life.  At their steady pace, they would be many miles away very soon, far out of harm’s reach.
	Not a word was spoken as they climbed the high slope at the rim of the river valley.  To the cubs this was an adventure, but to Chakal and Ixtab it was a link with the uncertain past, heading out from home to find their destiny.  It would not be easy to begin again, but they were determined to make a life for themselves and their cubs.
	When they reached the crest of the slope, they paused for a while.  It had been a long climb, but worth it.  The sun had just come through the clouds and in its golden light lay the entire bend of the river to be admired for the first and only time.
	Chakal said, "We've lost all our holdings, but at least we're all together."  
	Kayam added, "Except for Koh."
	Ixtab said, "Oh no, Kayam.  Koh will always be with us.  She promised me, sweetheart."
	"Will I ever see her?"
	"When you need her, you will."  Ixtab smiled.  "Just remember when you think you're getting away with mischief, she will be watching you!  I'll find out."
	In the glory of the newly freed sunlight, a magnificent rainbow arched over the land.  Holcan looked into the light, his eyes filled with wonder.  A smile of joy spread across his face.  
	"It's pretty, isn't it?" Ixtab said.  
	"It sure is, Mom."

***
	 
	The black jaguar was sad to see his son leave, taking his grandchildren into hiding.  But he was also aware that he had been given the greatest gift a son could bequeath a parent--a whole new place to live!
	Machoc lost little time heading to the temple in what was now his territory.  He had wrested his life and his food from the two-legs.  Now he owned one of their creations, a marvelous mountain of hand-cut stone!
	"Well, I'm alone now.  My son is gone.  My grandchildren.  But.....great view.  Lots of prey.  And not half bad access to water.  Yes, I think I'll take the loss in stride."  
	Machoc settled back and smiled as the emerging sun warmed his stomach.  Then, restless, he got up and looked in the reflecting pool.  An ebony face looked back at him.
	"You still have all your teeth, you looker you!  You may have a little aching in the joints in the morning, but you can hide it.  You'll find yourself a good mate and you'll have cubs.  Dozens of them!"  He looked up at the sky.  "These won't be ashamed to call you Daddy."
	Machoc, bounded up the stairs of the temple, achieving the grand view from the doorway of the crowning room.  He found a slab of stone where Chakal's family used to nap and he stretched out on it. He fell asleep daydreaming of what life will be like as the ruler of the ghost city.  "What a great piece of land!  I'll rule it wisely, and I'll be kind and gentle.  I'll always let my mate have her way.  Yes, I will have peace at last.  No more livestock if she doesn't want it.  I won't drive this family away--not this jaguar!"
	Suddenly Machoc sat up with a fright, had he heard something?  "He- Hello?" "Who's there?  Chakal, is that you?"  The sound did not repeat for a while.  "No," he thought, "It's nothing, just my imagination."
	Suddenly out of nowhere came a lone Mayan warrior. 
	"HA, breakfast!" 
	The young warrior did not move. He just stood their watching Machoc, holding his spear. Machoc just sat back, still amused by the game he would play before mauling the two-legs to death.  Then suddenly two more warriors popped out of the walls. 
	Machoc, now a little concerned but not afraid, looked up at the small band of hunters. "Lunch and Dinner I presume?" 
	The small group of warriors crept closer to Machoc.  Suddenly five more warriors appeared. Draped over one of them was the blood-spattered cape that the priest had worn.  They began moving toward Machoc each with a spear in hand.  Machoc could feel the hatred--he knew there would be no easy escape for there were two-legs all around him, and all he could see were their eyes and spear points. They crept closer, and closer, until finally they were almost upon him. 
	"Oh crap!"  He ducked under their legs and made a break for the jungle accompanied by the clattering of spear tips on stone.


THE END:  YAGUARA!
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