Mayan Jaguar Arc 2 Chapter 1

Temple of The Mayan Jaguar
"Almost Lover"
Open Your Eyes
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Tecihuitl paced the steps of the stone pyramid, the sun was low, already behind the trees to the west, nightfall always came swiftly in the jungle. With every footfall the thin loops of gold on the gold bands around his ankles clinked, the music of a stressed King’s worry. The gold crown on his brow was older than his people’s way of life, before humans had taken them in as equals, before many gave up the solitary nomadic lives of their ancestors. Humans had crafted it to curve over the broad brow of a jaguar, remaining in place by twin curves behind the ears. His yellow fur rippled over thick muscles, box like rosettes showed in stark contrast. His paws ached from threading the stone so many times in the course of the day. A larger male lay on the stones of a step above his King’s pacing. He watched, listening to the frustrated mutterings of Tecihuitl.
“She will be fine my King. She is healthy and the strongest in the tribe. These things just take time.” Tecihuitl growled looking up at the other jaguar. “She is my Queen! Tlahuizcalli is more precious to me than anything!” He looked around before striking violently at a loose stone, sending it flying across the courtyard. The large male spoke slowly, knowing the King’s strength, and silently thanking the Spirits that the King had taken frustration out on a stone rather than him. “The Queen will be fine, Your Majesty. I have known for this to take a full day. Soon they will come down those steps and tell you she is well and that it is over.” The King hung his head, of course it would all end well. “Thank you, Maco. I don’t know how you did so well when Inoma’s time came.”
Hours passed, until in the fading light the frame of a female stood out against the stone, her long body leaving the entrance to the Temple. Tecihuitl looked up his heart pounding as she approached. “My King. Ixchel has smiled on you after all these years of trying. Tlahuizcalli is well, and you have a daughter.” The yellow male took off running up the stone steps of the ancient Temple.
Inside the building was darker than what he’d left, the King stood his head high with regality as he waited for his eyes to adjust. When his vision was once again clear, he entered the massive stone structure. The first distance was narrow corridors, designed by humans to slow invaders. The space was only wide enough for two jaguars to walk abreast, but only one at a time could fit through the doorways. Inside the main chamber, twelve adult felines moved, long bodies them over the stone floors. Females walked down from a raised area, just high enough to be out of sight, but to cause injury if one should fall. The place females went to have their cubs. Nothing else mattered as he climbed the area towards the place where his mate lay….There. Her white fur seemed to almost glow in the half-light, faint grey rosettes barely visible if not for the contrast of the white pelt. She smiled as he approached, her blue eyes shining with pride. Everything about her was pale, the mark of her foreign birth, before he met her he had heard of white borns, but never known it to be true. When he stood close enough to touch her he finally saw it, at her side, with Tlahuizcalli curled protectively around, lay a tiny cub, his daughter. Her fur was pale grey, with the faintest promise of rosettes along her sides. Her eyes would take ten days to open, but only time would tell if her rosettes would darken as she aged as most cubs do, or if they would remain pale like her white pelted mother’s. So this is what occurred when a white jaguaress bred with a normal coated male, a cub the color of the moon. After years of trying for an heir, after all seven still born cubs, a healthy daughter was given to them. Nuzzling his beautiful Queen, he purred the deep rumbling purr of a jaguar. This was the start of a dynasty, his father’s royal line would not end with him.
Smiling with pride he slowly left the birthing area. Traditionally he shouldn’t have even seen them on the day of birth. Royal fathers had to wait until the cub was thirteen days old, the day they were either declared the Heir, or denied the future throne. But this was different, both Tlahuizcalli and Tecihuitl himself knew there would not be more cubs, this was their one, their only, their Heir. But tradition would stand for the others of the tribe, the Queen’s guards would protect the path to the birthing area carefully, until she was thirteen days, and named, no one but her parents would see the cub. Tecihuitl looked out the opening to the main interior of the Temple, the sunlight was gone, bats began to fly overhead. The pale moon snuck a glimpse of her face above the canopy tops bathing the world in blue light. Taking a deep breath, the King walked down the steps of the pyramid, entering a smaller opening four paces down, inside the stone walls were cool and blank, save one. The farthest wall from the King held claw marks, not from random sharpenings, but precise cuts into the stone. Near the wall’s base, branching lines like tree roots stretched downward, above that long strokes crossed over and over again, the thick trunk of the tree. Finally, a single short vertical line above the trunk, connected to another identical line by a horizontal one, from the horizontal a long vertical branched to two more short verticals, those each connected to two others by their own long horizontal lines. Gently the King traced the Tree upwards to those lines, then, carved up from one of the top horizontals, then a new short vertical like the others, a new life in the family tree.

**edit: I added more to the chapter, fixed some unclear things. Enjoy**