Seasonally festive soft rains blanketed the city of Eztlan, combining their efforts with the holiday celebrations to thin the normal hustle and bustle of the capital. Tonauac was particularly thankful for the light rains darkening the skies to make the transition from the city’s Undertown to ground level easier on his eyes. He looked back at the metal and stone gate with a quick fondness in his eye and lingering smile, admiring the architecture reminiscent of the illustrations he had seen of Mu. Though as he had been told, such public structures were often built with the intention of melding many architectural styles of Mu into one rather than favoring any.
The nearest rail station was only a short walk away across a plaza finely decorated for the holiday with large depictions of the rain gods carved from wood or stone, with a gathering under a vast tent hosting a baking contest for creative effigies of the rain gods being celebrated. Tonauac idly glanced at the baked creations still being crafted as he adjusted his umbrella against the rains, speeding up his pace towards the rail station and already reaching towards his coin purse for the fare.
Only to have the old ticket taker insist that he not pay the moment he recognized the lizardlad and wave him onward with a faded sandy yellow and black scaled hand. No amount of insistence would change his mind, and Tonauac was sent off from under the reception desk under a large overhang with an awkward smile and tail dragging along the stone platform until he found his way onto the train. The compartments were as thinly populated as the streets, as most had already found their way to wherever it was that they would be celebrating the holiday. Bouquets of marigolds and ears of corn still in the husk in the hands of a diverse array of peoples served to show just how popular the holiday had grown since relatively humble origins.
The train sleek steel, wood, and glass sped along towards its destination at the lakefront. A more aerodynamic design betrayed how new it was to keep up with advances in steam engines. Magically created fire and water may not be permanent additions to the world but their effects could be, and boats and trains were but two marvels of magic and science that were ever advancing.
Tonauac settled into his seat in said speeding marvel and withdrew an anatomy book he had received as a gift from the priests of a local temple the same day he had awoken as a mage and they heard what his first spells were. He studied it for a few stops before he closed it to gaze out at the approaching view of the vast lake that the city sat next to and upon, if one were speaking of the vast pyramids and other mega structures of the Imperial Island visible through the rain in the distance.
And within the lake in the case of the aquatic districts. And from the looks of it, several of the passengers were likely on their way home to said aquatic districts. One such group of merrow were exiting at the same stop as Tonauac who was just rising from his seat to exit when he saw one of them showing off a bottle of fine wine before the rains loosened her grip and it fell to the ground of the rail platform and shattered.
She screamed in agony as several flying shards of glass laughed at the lack of protection her long skirt and sandals provided and embedded themselves in her shin and ankle. Tonauac threw his book in his backpack as he rushed over to the woman, dodging past the quickly assembling crowd to meet the woman sitting on the ground and failing to hold back sobs while panicking over what to do about her lacerated lower leg.
“I can help!” The lizardlad insisted as he fell to his knees next to her. “I’m a blood mage! Very new at it but I promise you I can help!”
The woman’s large pale blue eyes wavered as she looked down to her wounds and back to the smiling lizardfolk teen that still had his green scales in a shade not too far off from the blood pouring out of her leg and mixing with rainwater. She bit her lip with her needle-like teeth. “You’re…certain you can help?”
“Yes!” Tonauac lied through his own teeth like daggers in a reassuring grin that got the woman to move her hands away from her wound to let the young blood mage work. He was far from well suited to lying, quite terrible at it in fact. So much so that he sometimes looped back into being amazing at it as he lied to himself.
Though he was still very much unacquainted with mammalian anatomy, Tonauac reasoned that that was not going to be an obstacle here. This would be a simple matter of removing all shards of glass and closing her wounds. Wounds that were probably not beyond his current abilities.
After all, why else would he have been given this magic?
He swallowed hard, ignoring that question as he called for one of her companions to help him elevate the leg before he started removing pieces of glass as the rain washed away her green blood and an even larger crowd formed and debated whether someone should go call for another blood mage or whether this young one who couldn’t have been older than 15 would be enough. Which meant that Tonauac had to make this work, as he pulled glass from her leg and reassured her through the wincing and occasional gasp or yelp.
The blood mage cast a light spell to inspect her wounds for any glimmer of glass still embedded amongst the shiny black skin and light green flesh. After finding none, he gave a wavering smile to the woman. “See? Skin, scales, same thing kind of! Just…just hold still please!”
Perhaps he should have shooed the crowd back a bit to give him room to breathe, but he could hardly blame them in their curiosity to see a blood mage ply their craft. A young blood mage, at that, and all the potential that represented reflecting in their expectant eyes and cautiously optimistic smiles.
And so there was of course only success as an option for Tonauac.
He bit the side of his tongue with one of his sharper teeth, knowing the woman’s wound would require a blood price. Perhaps even a large one to make up for a lack of power and skill, and how much blood was pouring from that one laceration…
The taste of iron filled his mouth as he gripped her ankle with a shaking hand and cast Blood Stitch to knit her flesh back together as the crowd went silent, leaving only the sobs and gasps of the woman to compete with the sound of soft rains. He reconnected flesh to flesh, veins all in their place, her strange “skin” sealed up, and with nary a scar to show for it as he focused hard and put all as it should have been with his own blood in payment for such a task.
Silence reigned as even the woman’s cries of pain ended, and the crowd cheered as the young blood mage removed his hand to reveal her leg as though nothing had happened. Only a shattered wine bottle to sweep up as he had even healed her through any scarring.
“All better! Now, just be careful holding glass objects in the rain from now on!” The lizardlad announced shortly before being overwhelmed with cheers, praise, and small gifts he was unable to reject. His pack quickly grew heavy with marigolds, ears of corn, candies, and further insistence from the railway staff that he could ride for free any time. Praise and respect on any normal day had been amplified by the holiday into whatever appropriate gifts could be offered to the blood mage. Only his words that he was going to be running late if he delayed any longer were enough to let him escape the crowd right as some started asking if he needed any blood donations with outstretched wrists.
After a final insistence that they should direct all donations to their local hospital while hiding a light headed wobble, he was on his way in a brisk pace until he could find an empty alleyway to duck into between several large buildings all closed for the holiday and lean against the brick wall to gasp for air and shake away the nerves. A scream was building in his throat, as even more now knew of him and had their expectations. Far beyond someone who could perform blood magic, but a blood mage specialized in the craft. A miracle sent by the gods themselves, depending on who you asked, capable of incredible healing and harming in the same breath. A rarity amongst rarities.
Who should really find a familiar already.
His tongue flicked out, smell-tasting blood as the boy stared down the empty alleyway of back entrances into the storefronts he now hid behind and regained his wits. It was close, whatever the source of that blood was. Finally he remembered the obvious as he looked down to his hand, seeing the last of the woman’s green blood standing out against the black of his scales and hiding amongst the green. Holding out his hand for the rain to cleanse it as he stared up at the skies with only a few scant flying beasts of air traffic, he remembered it was not his to take.
“Neither given willingly by a friend, nor taken unwillingly from a foe.” Tonauac recited to himself as he continued on his way to his neighborhood at the lakefront filled with old houses with a distinct military architectural flair that made them look like they could have been located on a military base, making it easy to see why his father and many others in the military had chosen this location.
A few patrolling city guards waved him down to wish him a happy Descending Rain as he neared his home.
“Wish the colonel well for me!” The lizardfolk guard in a dark blue padded uniform said as he leaned against his axespear. “Oh, and tell him he can relax. It’s been nice and boring for us on patrol.”
Tonauac shook his head. “I will but you know he’s not your superior…”
The guard’s tonatecah partner shook her head, careful to not flick any droplets of water gathered on her beak onto the lizardlad while hefting her own axespear onto her shoulder. “Awfully humble for someone who’s dad always arranges for food to be delivered to the station for all of us who ‘get to’ work Descending Rain.”
“I will on the express condition that you watch where you swing your tail and avoid any more nails in it!” Tonauac said with a grin as he walked backwards while continuing on his way home.
“That was once!” The lizardfolk guard covered his eyes with his hand as his shorter partner elbowed his side with an avian approximation of a grin on her face. “Also thanks for healing it…”
“And happy Descending Rain!” The both of them called out at Tonauac who offered a wave and a smile to them as he ran off to his home.
The absolute last thing he wanted was to be late, though he did slow down to avoid slipping in any puddles that would be just a bit harder to navigate with that light headedness that had him promising himself to learn a Metabolic Control spell once he got to magic school so that a quick snack would assist with this.
He slowed even further as he came across all the marigolds left along the path leading up to the front door of his house, their color matching that of his eyes currently fixated on all of the flowers left here as thanks for…what were they in thanks for, anyway? Something that hadn’t happened yet?
“Tonauac?” His father’s voice broke him from his reverie, forcing him to look up and see the man’s black and white bands of scales pulled into a concerned frown and wince as he saw the boy standing and having failed to make it to the front door. “Where’s your umbrella?”
“Backpack.” Tonauac shook his head and regained a smile as he slid past his father into the house, finding his jaguar familiar waiting with his own judgmental stare as he sat in the entryway. “I left it in my backpack after I got off the train…because a woman dropped a wine bottle and it shattered and went into her leg…and I wasn’t about to just do nothing.”
His father closed the door behind them and held a hand over his son, silent except for the wind spell he cast to quickly dry him off as Tonauac wobbled in place. “And how is the woman doing now?”
“She is now missing a bottle of wine, but her leg is fine and she did not bleed out!” The lizardlad said with a cheer.
“...it was that bad?” The lizarddad asked with growing concern as his jaguar Yaotl sniffed at Tonauac’s hand.
“As it turns out, the anatomy of deep sea mammals is remarkably similar to that of lizardfolk!...in terms of artery and vein placement, at least.” Tonauac explained as he hung up his traveling cloak and set his backpack down on a nearby table. “So that one huge piece of glass that I pulled out missed that artery! So while she was bleeding really bad it was slightly less bad than the worst it could have been!”
Only a moment of uncertainty and concern struck his father to have one eye go wide and his jaw tense up.
Only for a moment.
“I’m glad you could help.” He said with a simple smile and a pat on the shoulder before pulling the lizardlad into a hug in the same motion. “You did well, son.”
Tonauac’s meager defenses lowered as he returned his father’s embrace with an unsteady smile. “Thanks dad.”
“And you know you can invite anyone you like over to Descending Rain dinner.” The older lizard chided his son as he dragged him along further into the old stone and wood house. “We have a perfectly good courtyard and your most honored and beloved father is the only one to ever have company over to use it. I wouldn’t say no to you inviting some of your friends. Like L-”
“We always celebrate tonight together!” Tonauac brushed the black and white older lizardfolk off to out pace him for a brief moment before turning back for his backpack. “It’s our thing.”
The Colonel relented with a smile and a shrug as his son ran upstairs with his backpack, and he took a moment to straighten out his blue and light green attire. Just dressy enough for the holiday, still casual enough for home. A stray look over to the fireplace crackling away and the mantel just above it before exhaling through his nostrils, then onward to the kitchen where the prepared feast had him flicking his tongue out in anticipation.
Tonauac bounded down the stairs several minutes later after stashing the day’s offerings with the others in the impromptu pantry his closet had turned into. His father knew of the offerings he received, but that didn’t mean he had to flaunt them by any means. What he would be proudly displaying was his tunic that matched his father’s mix of festive colors as he met him in the kitchen as his father worked on the meal. The Colonel used a fire spell to toast the top layer of his latest culinary holiday experiment while silently hoping this one would be more of a success than the last few.
It was, of course, fine enough for his son who always appreciated his father’s cooking as he helped him set the meal in the house’s central room before the crackling fireplace with Yaotl curled up before it. Long had it been an unspoken tradition that they ate every meal in the house no matter how large or small in that room. After all other dishes were served, the elder lizardfolk brought out the most important piece and a long standing weakness for the military hero.
“I had a few of the chefs on base try to help me improve this year, but…” The boy’s father lamented as he revealed his usual misshaped dough effigy of The Giver of Rains roughly the size of a large roast turkey sat upon a tray enchanted to keep it warm. It had long been endearing how he could never avoid making the god’s goggle eyes and fangs in differing sizes, with a dough head connected to a dough body at an angle that made the effigy look especially judgmental this year. At the very least, Tonauac noted with an encouraging smile, all of the jelly was still in the effigy this year.
“Perfect as always!” The lizardlad said with a smile as warm as the fireplace, meaning every word as he always had. He took a seat at the table. “Do you think we’ll have time to eat a bit before the priests get here? I may have skipped a meal today to be sure I was hungry.”
His father withdrew his military issued pocket watch, checking the time with a nod as he retrieved a kettle of hot chocolate brewed with seasonal spices. “Enough time for a growing blood mage to eat and regain some of his vitality.”
Tonauac winced, not even so much as mumbling a retort in this of all rooms of the house. He dished out a heaping helping of…whatever kind of corn dough and meat mix this was.
“It’s got giant sloth liver in it.” The lizarddad noted with a grin as he served some up to himself. “You’ll need it to regain blood until you learn the right spells. And no, even I can’t get you issued a Blood Pod until you’re older.”
There was still no debate to be had as Tonauac chuckled and dug in to the meat pie concoction, finding it overall quite decent as he forked more bites into his maw that finally remembered how hungry he was. The family enjoyed each other’s company for a time through their early meal, promising to pick a day soon to select a familiar, and talk of Tonauac’s upcoming attendance at Black Reef Institute and the assorted things his father had heard of it despite his own attendance at Red Forest Academy, and how the colonel had in no way had several of his subordinates draw up a cursory report on the school and location.
Tonauac narrowed his eyes as he recognized his father’s specific wording. “...you said cursory. How in-depth was-”
A knock at the door caught everyone’s attention, with Yaotl the first to spring into action and bolt over to the door in the flash of an eye as he sniffed the air at the entrance. Unphased, the lizarddad withdrew his pocket watch and nodded at the time as he led his son to the door and gave the large waiting jaguar the mental command to sit for their guests. He unlatched the door, opening it to reveal the priest and priestess of the rain gods dressed in their finest ceremonial attire of jade, turquoise, and every other precious stone laying between green and blue on the color wheel.
“You have tired yourselves in coming here, honored guests.” The colonel said as he took a knee and bowed to the pair dressed as The Giver of Rains and The Lady in Jade each carrying a censer of incense in the shape of their gods. Tonauac followed in the most formal of greetings as his father continued. “Please join us.”
“Forgive us as we intrude.” The priest said with a careful bow of his own to not disturb his elaborate headdress. The deep red of his scales contrasting the blues and greens of everything else about his attire.
The jungle troll priestess bowed in turn and spoke. “As the rains must fall, so too would we trouble you and bless you. May we enter your home, honorable Huemac and Tonauac?”
Huemac beckoned them in for the long awaited ritual, giving a wave to the priests’ carriage driver currently feeding the dinosaurs who seemed to be enjoying the rains. The guests entered, not hesitating in the slightest at the sight of Yaotl sitting quietly just beyond the entrance as they knew his mage well enough. A short show was made of Huemac offering their guests food, the guests politely refusing, and Huemac insisting once more until they relented and took a customary bite as all were well aware they would be doing so at every stop they were to make today.
Chants were performed, and the priestess gave her censer of still burning incense to the priest as she looked over the dough effigy. She gave a well practiced smile. “A creative interpretation! Baked with care, and a fine offering indeed.”
The woman’s skin was a jade that matched her long skirt as befitting her goddess, and among her ceremonial attire she withdrew an ornate golden sewing stick from a pouch at her belt. She paused as she saw Tonauac with empty eyes staring out beyond all sight. “On this of all years, do not be sad honored Tonauac.”
“I-..” No lies before his father, no lies before a priest and priestess. He thought to himself before his eyes darted over to the mantel and the golden urn sitting upon it keeping him most truthful in this of all rooms. “I’m just um…it’s all unexpected. I mean I don’t…in my dream I said…”
Huemac rested a hand on his son’s shoulder meeting the boy’s yellow eyes with his own reassuring reds. The priest ended his chant and the priestess remained silent as they waited for him to continue. His tail thrashed behind him as he forced himself onward and looked away from all of their eyes. Back over to that golden urn.
“I told The Man with the obsidian mirror what I would do…I saw…” He bit his tongue as he couldn’t even quite explain why there was this mental block, aside from it being the same block every mage had against sharing their awakening dream. That dream that was stuck in his head forever now.
Of being out on the lake with his mother and father just like they always used to when Tonauac was just a small boy. The lizardlad had seen The Man in all black out on a miniature island waving him over. His family paddled over to the island and Tonauac stepped onto the ground, finding himself at his present age as the man showed him his obsidian mirror and asked him “What do you see?”
In the mirror he saw…everyone. Mother, father, friends. All in good health. All happy. All as they should be.
He heard the cough from just behind him, back on the small boat. The same one that was stuck in his memories since childhood. With heavy reluctance as the world spun with him he turned around and saw his mother looking as sick as he remembered seeing her near the end. Vibrant yellow and black scales faded into a mockery of what they once were and hanging loose on her bones. Her eyes the same bright yellow as his own, so far away and holding onto whatever light they could as she tried her best to smile before descending into another coughing fit.
The Man asked him a simple question: “What are you going to do about that?”
Tonauac paused, thoughts coming clear even in the dream, and told him. “I can’t do anything for her now. I want to, more than even you could know…but I know I can’t.”
With all the effort in the world, he turned away from his mother to look back into the mirror and see his friends and remaining family. He reached out a claw to point to them, speaking more eloquently than he could ever muster in the waking world. “But I can still help them. And if I can still draw breath, I will.”
The Man asked him a final question: “Who are you, and what makes you think you can do that?”
“I am Tonauac.” He stated in response with even breath and a certainty unlike any he had ever known. “And as long as blood flows through my veins I’ll fight to see them well.”
The Man handed him the obsidian mirror with a nod, and he woke up in a darkened room with a spell on his tongue and a ball of light in his hand.
The same ball of light he was now staring at in his hands in the present, not even remembering having cast that spell and not remembering how long he had been caught in that memory again.
“I saw what I had to do.” Tonauac finally answered as he hoped he hadn’t been caught in a daydream for too long that time. “It seems easy then but, well nothing is as easy as in a dream right?”
The priestess smiled and leaned down to him to be on eye level. “Even the most violent storm The Giver of Rains sends to us will bless the land with water. Even the sickness he sends may be met as a challenge. All but one affliction he sends may now be cured by mages like you.”
“I kinda sorta implied to The Black Sun that I was going to cure that one.” Tonauac’s pupils had narrowed into barely visible slits as he looked down after admitting he wanted to cure one of the few ailments that blood magic could not fix. “So I may have bit off more than I can chew and that terrifies me.”
The Priest burst out laughing as he held onto the censers before quickly regaining his composure. “Forgive me, honored Tonauac, but if The Lord of The Near and The Nigh accepted your answers then he must believe you have a chance.”
“All the more important that we make our offerings and repayments today.” The priestess said with a smile as she pat the lizardlad on the shoulder with her free hand as she once again approached the dough effigy while the family watched.
She gripped the stick with both hands and raised it above her head. “Giver of Rains, we implore you to accept this family’s offering of flesh and blood in their stead. Feast with them, not of them. Send not your storms, but calm rains.”
The priestess plunged the sewing stick into the effigy’s torso just below the “neck” and wrenched it down to let the red jelly spill out of the “wound” and let the head clatter to the tray. Tonauac studied the effigy with its chest split open and misshapen head laying in a pool of red jelly. The gods dealt in blood, and now so would he in a promise that he would pursue and worry about whether he really could later.
The troll woman carefully cleaned the sewing stick with cloth that Huemac had set aside for just such a purpose and returned the ceremonial instrument to the pouch on her belt, then tore off two pieces of jelly dipped effigy for her and the priest to eat.
The priest returned her censer of incense to her as they bowed and thanked the family for their hospitality once more before making for the exit, with unfortunately plenty of other families lacking a lady of the house to perform the Descending Rain rituals.
Tonauac was already chomping down on a jelly covered dough eye while seeing the pair out when the priest looked to Huemac with a smile and nod.
“We wouldn’t want to keep our honored hosts from their feast and exchange of gifts any longer.” The priest waved to the goliath carriage driver who carried a large blanket clad object to the doorstep with enough care on long strides to only elicit one notable squawk from within…whatever it was. “However, your esteemed father did ask that we aid him in presenting you with this gift.”
“Wha-”
Huemac took the sizable object from the goliath carriage driver with a quick thanks and a bit of heft as Tonauac finally pieced together that it was a large cage under that white and green patterned blanket. A cage that had something moving about within.
“Have a blessed Descending Rain!” The priest and priestess excused themselves down the path laid with marigolds before Huemac closed the door behind them with a large grin he couldn’t suppress.
Yaotl was sniffing the cage with pointed interest before Huemac willed him away and well out of sight as he pulled the blanket off to reveal a large, highly colorful sacred vulture. The bird stared at Tonauac, and Tonauac stared right back. His father broke into a rare toothy grin as he stepped back. “I hope you like him. I have it on official intel that this had been your top pick for a familiar, and having dossiers drawn up on beasts did prove to be a good training exercise, but I hope that-”
“He’s perfect, dad.” Tonauac said as he pulled his father into a hug after he tore his eyes away from his familiar to be.
His father felt his eyes grow misty as he hugged the lad. “Then eat fast. I’ve had all the components ready for the Familiar Ritual for a week now. We can perform it in the hearth, so your mother can see.”
The young blood mage’s head spun as he was caught between multiple varieties of tears, a familiar to be, his father that he loved, a meal that was still calling to him, and some lingering blood loss.
He settled upon another hug before running and grabbing some food to share with his new lifelong companion.
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