Morgan tried to process everything Xol was telling him.
He was sure he had heard that story before, at some other point in his life, back when he was only Morgan the human.
So he tried to ask a question.
"Wait, I know who you're talking about. They are..."
But Xol quickened his pace as his only response, a clear way of telling him not to interrupt.
A little exhausted, Morgan hurried forward again until he was walking beside him once more.
Xol spoke in an irritated tone.
"Will you let me finish, or are you going to keep interrupting me, brat? Because if you keep it up, I won't tell you a damn thing."
Seeing how annoyed he was, and knowing he still had many unanswered questions, Morgan decided to simply apologize and beg him to continue.
"Sorry. Please, go on. What happened next?"
He lowered his gaze and fell silent. Xol looked at him, let out an annoyed sigh, and spoke seriously.
"Good. Then shut up."
He cleared his throat to steady his voice and continued.
"As I was saying, the jaguar swore he would take revenge on his brother, the serpent. As time passed, more and more gods were born. More and more gods came to inhabit that paradise born from the flesh and blood of the beast.
Yet creation remained empty. Without life. Without purpose.
So once again, the Parents of All entrusted a new task to their children: to create beings who would inhabit that world. Beings who would give weight and balance to everything they had built. Their existence was necessary for the sun and moon to endure.
And so it began. Each of their children tried to shape this new humanity. The first world was the work of the jaguar, but it perished. It fell into darkness, and the beings he had created died. Their bones remained upon the dead earth, and the few who survived became monkeys.
One after another, they failed. Each new sun, each new species that was born, eventually perished. And when failure seemed absolute, the serpent's turn finally came.
Like his brothers, he too failed at first.
The bones of all those failed attempts were cast into the depths of nothingness, into the realm of the one who ruled over death.
Refusing to surrender, the serpent journeyed to that place in search of those bones, determined to try once more.
But its ruler would not let him leave so easily. The serpent remained trapped there for a long time. He realized he could not escape without confronting him, and he knew that defeating him in battle would be nearly impossible. So he chose to deceive death itself.
And death, believing itself superior in every way, accepted the challenge with naive confidence. The serpent succeeded in tricking it and escaped. He took the bones and fused them with his own blood.
And in doing so, he gave life to a new species.
The one that would be called humanity.
Humanity, seeing the effort and sacrifice the serpent had made for them, filled him with love and devotion.
And once again, the jaguar felt as though something was being taken from him. He wanted all of that love for himself. For over time, this new humanity had come to see him as a god of darkness, unlike his brother, whom they loved and honored with tribute.
The jaguar could no longer bear the envy and hatred festering within him.
And he committed an act so terrible that he would regret it for all eternity. An act that marked him so deeply that it would lead him to make one of the most difficult decisions a god could ever face.
Morgan was completely absorbed in the story. He wanted to know how it ended.
Xol, noticing just how invested he had become, smiled venomously and asked:
"Do you want to know what he did? Do you want to know what decision he made?"
Morgan swallowed hard and nodded silently.
With a small chuckle, Xol said:
"Then perk up those ears and pay very, very close attention..."
End of Chapter.
Next Chapter: The Fall of the Serpent.