In the morning, one can hardly see the difference between a fairy and a common woman, let alone the fact that normally fairies can shrink to the size of a pea. Fire fairies have at least four wings and four sub-wings that help them fly higher distances within the inactive volcanoes. But the most dangerous of all the species of Fairies are the Nāga – the male counterparts of the Nāgi. Being exquisitely beautiful of in human appearance as any fairy spirit would be, they can be treacherous when they hate someone. And yet, they protect any of the Fairy Class. They were the guardians of the springs and of the mysterious lakes and swamps and pounds formed by rocks near the sea cost.
Still, there is a legend about the spouse of Lord Jetwas, the God of all the Snake Folk. This same myth is very popular between the people of the German, Japanese and Bellanian community: it's about a nymph of low stature, refined in her jewelled green tunic, perching in an old willow tree. It's a tale that goes back to the first five hundred years after the exile of the Killer of Love.
Matlalihuitl was one of the many messengers who delivered important letters from the Capital to the lands of Shunamari. He also delivered the messages that came from the Japanese boats which came alongside the beaches. People called him the paynani – the messenger. His first name "Green Blue Feather" was given to him due the fact he was very fast, running like a deer to deliver his messages, whether they were important confidential reports or warnings of tax inspectors to the Duke, or if they were informal letters to the inhabitants of Shunamari, who were most of all peasants working in the two villages that existed near the beaches and near the forest. He loved his land and enjoyed his work, running miles from the Capital to the Duchy.
In that time, Shunamari was a very rural region, where there was only a little town close to what we call now Merlonogrado, where most of the merchandise was traded. There was also a marvellous white and red palace where the lord of Shunamari lived.
Some meters far from the cliffs, there was a local highway made from a very polished stone. Through this golden painted highway, many coaches, cars, people and horses passed every day. To its right, there were the dark woods which were more dangerous than the common byways and highways the Bellanians used.
The two villages that existed near the beach and the woods were Potztipaltze (Corner of Happiness) and Cuentlatzontliomelshan (Field of Eight Hundred Jokes). The first one was known by loving music, while in the other one, everyone liked to play pranks and to tell funny stories.
In Potztipaltze lived a young warrior named Mecltna Tochtli (Honey Rabbit). This was because Mecltna was product of a bond between a Bellanian prisoner of war and a young Japanese damsel: or at least that's what the couple told. The true was that he was found within a tiny ball of fluffy rabbit's fur and that leaved a small trace of golden and sweet honey. Many boys of his age teased him, because in Japanese, Rabbit (Usagi) is name for a girl. Still, Mecltna was much braver than the other boys of his age, and much more talented in the use of weapons.
He liked to go to the cliffs and see the ships that arrived from the distant Japan. He cared much for his mother, who told him many stories about the strange creatures who lived in the woods.
Meanwhile in Cuentlatzontliomelshan lived a boy with reddish hair and blue eyes. He was a little barbarian who had no parents except but an old slave. He had as name Achiyaotl Cipactli (Red Crocodile). He stole the bread when the Bellanian women weren't noticing; he called bad names to the daughters to the Japanese warriors; told lies to every single person he knew in the village; and worst crime of them all, he didn't believe either in Fairies or in the Gods. But, like many children in that village were quite mean and ill-mannered – at least the ones who lived in the streets – the people didn't cared much for the little prankster.
But, one of his worst pranks once made the guards of the Japanese palace in Shunamari crazy! With some of the dung he stole from the peasant's stables, he painted the walls that surrounded the palace. That mischief had a very high price for the guards, who had to paint once again the walls from the start before their lord saw it.
Who ruled over the Shunamari lands was Hideyoshi, an Nāga with more than hundred years. Hideyoshi had one blue eye – like the one of a wolf. Every human child in Shunamari feared him. The other he had lost because of the wars between Japan and the Bellanian Empire. Being a roughly built man – like a pine tree – Hideyoshi was known as the "Soul Hunter". To put it simply: he did not terrorize the life of the poor people of Shunamari for the Emperor of Japan and the Emperor of Bellanária had made a treaty for that not to happen.
Instead of hands, he had claws. Therefore, he always used black gloves. This sinister appearance almost recalled the one of a black sorcerer, so much that Matlalihuitl never dared to badmouth his master.
However, there was one day when Achiyaotl Cipactli didn't make in time to run away from the guards...
In that same day, Mecltna was playing with his ball just nearby the palace's walls, and was also caught by one of Lord Hideyoshi's servants.
But fortunately for the young boy, the Nāga servant was kind towards humans who had a pure heart and let him play just near the walls, seeing that the young human boy was terrified.
Suddenly, an old, odd and ugly hag appeared there.
Wild, white hair grew down her shoulders and her face was very thin. Her tunic was filthy and tattered. Yet, her Asian Northern black eyes gleamed in a generous and motherly semblance.
And Mecltna was not afraid of the considerably experienced woman. As if she had awoken from a deep slumber, the old woman pointed with her walking stick made of dried grape vines to Lord Hideyoshi's palace.
"Excuse me, young lad." She talked in an incredibly soft voice at Cipactli. "But from whom might this wondrous house be?"
"What a silly question!" Cipactli replied rudely. "This is the haunted castle of His Highness, Lord Hideyoshi. He's the Border Island's own Evil, the Plague that devastates our lands and the smelliest of all the water beasts Lord Jetwas has created!"
Suddenly, the woman cackled and her laugh made the thunder in autumn monsoons look like a tiny drum's voice.
A bit frightened, Cipactli tried to run away from the woman, but to no avail. She devoured him alive in one gulp!
As soon as the palace's front guard moved away, the woman smiled gently towards the young Mecltna.
She invited the boy to sit down next to her, in the warm summer morning. Mecltna did not know why but he felt very good when he was near her. In fact, when the guard tried to throw out the poor old woman, he felt a sudden need to protect her.
While caressing with her tiny hands his face, she asked if he did believed in Fairies and in the awesome power of the Gods. Immediately, Mecltna answered positively that he believed in the many classes of magical creatures.
The woman slowly laid her walking stick beside a stone, and smiled.
"If I said that I was goddess, would you believe in me?"
"With all my heart, yes I shall, grandma." Mecltna eagerly replied.
"Then, if you believe in what I tell you, you can save not only your family, but also these beautiful lands. Are you slim enough to enter through the gate's fissure, over there?" Her frail hand pointed to a small hole between the bronze gate and the wall.
The young boy nodded. Thus she handed to him a small golden clamp with the form of a key.
"When Lord Hideyoshi falls asleep you may take one of his canines with this...people say that only one of the Nāga people can defeat another one with its fangs. But be careful, he always has his left eye awake."
Mecltna did not how he could take one of Hideyoshi's canine teeth with such a small object.
But, when night fell, he saw that the five hundred old Duke was sleeping in a sea of comfy pillows, with his serpentine dark tail coiling five human ladies. One of them was just about the same age as Mecltna. Curled up inside a comfortable open pavilion, the body of the half-cobra, half-human lord was longer than the young boy assumed at first.
Tip-toeing until he reached to see in a close and safe distance Lord Hideyoshi's face, he saw that man never grew old. Maybe as a human he could be judged having at least thirty years. The most prominent feature of this unnaturally attractive man was his only left blue eye, which looked like a slanted ball when it moved.
Mecltna almost was caught by a few inches. The old woman was not joking when she had said Hideyoshi had only one eye in his triangular face. There was dark hole where the other right eye should have been ages ago! His eerie, attractive physique was hypnotic – even to the young Mecltna.
And there, inside that mouth, were the two sharp fangs that the old lady had spoken of! Even if it was stifling outside, the young boy felt a chill in his spine as he lowered the clamp to get one of the teeth.
Amazingly enough, the golden clamp did not made a single sound as it pulled out the right fang, which was the one Mecltna thought the Duke Hideyoshi would feel less pain.
As he did so, he was astounded to know that the lord of Shunamari was still fast asleep, as peaceful as a little lamb.
Hastily, Mecltna ran towards the same way he had entered inside, and then, as fast as lightning, he returned home, where he kept his little and shining treasure as a souvenir of this exciting adventure.















