[Panda_Kahn_fan]

Chapter Ten

The ruins of Cara Sucia.... a once-beautiful Mayan city, located near the Salvadorian border. I can only marvel at it's massive crumbling Pyramids, and dirt covered stone walls. Even in ruins, this place is still a wonder to behold, a reminder that there were great civilizations that came before ours, and their are great civilizations that will rise after we are long gone. As I study the detailed art along the stonework, I heard the light tread of a human woman's footsteps coming up behind me.

"Excuse me,senior Leonardo?" I turn to find a native woman, dressed in a pair of green khaki shorts and button up shirt. "My name is Cuervo Sombra-Alma, and I work for the Direccion del Patrimonio Cultural, I'm one of the excavators here on the site."

"Ah, so you must be the archeologist the NYPD sent here to guide me around this place." I reply, shaking her hand. "It really is a pleasure to meet you, miss Cuervo. I'm really looking forward to what you can tell me about this site."

"Please, call me Radical; it's a nickname one of the American college interns gave me while he was here, and it kind of stuck with all English speakers on the site." Radical tilted her head curiously. "Still, I was muy sorprendido to hear you were interested in touring the city. Cara Sucia is usually off limits to tourists and visitors."

"I know, it's just...well... I've always been fascinated by ancient ruins such as these." I try to explain, looking over the ruins again. "The way the ancients lived, the kind of lives they led. It's all so very fascinating to me. I just can't stop thinking about the past." I look back at her. "And let's face it, I can't exactly visit any of the ruins with swarms of tourists everywhere; being a giant talking turtle, and all."

"I understand completely, mi amigo." Radical replies with a laugh. "Come, I will show you around the ruins."

She begins to give me a tour, sharing all of the wonders of this city; large pictograph murals, crumbling staircases that went nowhere, and half-buried temples at the very tops of pyramids. I keep asking more and more questions about what I see all around me, which she is more than happy to answer.

There are, however, some things that bother me.

"I admire all that these people accomplished, but all of this talk about human sacrifice..." I shake my head, as we climb another set of stairs. "Does every human civilization have to take part in some cruel activity or another?"

"And how is human sacrifice any different than how modern criminals being executed, or how a ninja cuts down his enemy?" Radical asks sarcastically, looking back over her shoulder at me. "Don't judge anther's culture so lightly, Leonardo, unless you wish them to judge yours."

I fall I silent at her chiding, until I come across a large mural with a Jaguar and a horse facing a rodent in battle.

"Hey, Radical?" I ask her, stopping my tour guide in her tracks. "Isn't this a horse on this ancient painting? You said these ruins are from the pre-classic period, but horses didn't come to the Americas until the Spanish conquest."

"Aha! You have a keen eye, senior! Yes, this is some graffiti inscribed here just after the conquest, probably by a Mayan scribe passing through the ruins of the city." Radical explains, coming back to read the mural. "This is the story of Queen Sihuehuet. It is a legend known to most Maya in Central America in many different forms, but I shall relay it as it is written here."

A faraway look comes over her face, as she begins to tell the tale.

"According to Mayan Legend, Sihuehuet was the last empress of the kingdom of Cuzcatlan, the mighty Mayan nation that ruled this entire region. She and her daughter, the princess, feared the coming of the Conquistadors. And so they came to trust a powerful sorcerer, known as the rat king."

"The rat king? Like in European folklore? The creature that is a swarm of rats tied together by their tails?" I ask in fascination. "I've heard of him being mentioned in other cultures."

"Yes, his existence is mentioned in other cultures." Radical agrees. "Anyway, the rat king betrayed Sihuehuet and her daughter, and used his magic to transform the queen into a horse maiden, and her daughter into a Jaguar."

"The horse woman... the legend of the Sihuanaba. I heard about it from some of the villagers during our vacation here" I reply, my blood running cold. "Radical, is it possible Sihuanaba was a mutant?"

"Before I met you, senior Leo, I would have said no. But now..." Radical shakes her head. "If the queen was indeed a mutant like you and your brothers, she would have to be five hundred years old. Sihuanaba sightings continued throughout Central America until the 1960's, when some villagers in Costa Rica claimed they shot her down, and burned the body to ash."

"But what about her daughter?" I ask curiously. "Whatever happened to the princess?"

"Well, my people say she still wanders the forests of Salvador, protecting the ruins of all the different Mayan cities in ruins from looters." Radical answers. "The Pipl Maya still look to Princess Jagwar as a protector, a defender who will save them from evil."

"Wait, your people?" I ask in surprise. "You're Pipil, as well?"

"Si, all the people of El Salvador are descended from the citizens of Cuzcatlan, mixed in with conquistador blood." Radical replies proudly. "But I come from a family that still speaks Nawat. We are true pipil, free of conquistador culture."

"Is that why you work here? To feel close to your ancestors?" I shake my head knowingly. "I can understand that. There's a power in these ruins."

"Yes, even with my scientific training from the university, I still hold to the mystical views of my ancestors." Radical tell me. "Do you not use ninja magic yourself, senior Leonardo?"

"We ninjas don't use magic, we have mystical ninja tricks called jutsu." I explain, putting two fingers in front of my face. "We concentrate our chi, in order to produce a specific effect. Master Splinter taught us these simple tricks, as early as we learned the martial arts."

I concentrate for a moment, before vanishing from the top of the pyramid in a puff smoke, then reappearing at the base of the great staircase.

"Hm, pretty neat trick." She compliments me, applauding. "I'll have to have mi abuela show you some Pipil shamanism sometime."

The two of us laugh at that, as we continue our tour of the Cara Sucia ruins...