The tall man. El hombre grande.

That was his new nickname to the field hands. He chuckled. El Gato Grande, he whispered to the wind. That's what they should say!

He watched them driving the fat cows out of the hill pastures, away from the lake shore. And his woods.

His woods!

Or they soon would be. Bared teeth began the cat's smile in anticipation.

When the workers were all gone, he changed and began loping about the boundaries of the chosen area. Stopping here and there to scratch at the base of a tree, or the face of a large stone, purring strangely at each stop. He completed the circuit in under two hours.

As he neared the center of the area, he changed again, reassuming an imposing bipedal form. He reached a glade near the base of a giant oak, he piled the waiting wood and struck a match. Flames soared to the sky, singing in gleeful release.

The chanting began, low and melodic. A voice from an older darkness. As the fire reached higher for the heavens, the sound from the oak's glade grew. Higher, more shrill. Then gently lowered again to a murmur.

 

The man-cat sat in meditation for a long moment, caught in the embrace of the spirit root, the humming still low in his throat. As his eyes opened, they looked upon the land with new sight, as if seeing an alien world.

A world superimposed on something. Something more primal. That brought the cat smile back.

He stood slowly, moving in ritualistic grace from the still raging flame to the top of the slope. He spoke.

 

"Father Chiech-Balaam, this land is now yours. After the long ages, one of your children has returned! By the order of the Elders, the kuasha has given this cub the power. The Tribe has sent its Emissary! This place, this home is now in your service. There is once more La Casa del Balam north of the great river! We have returned. I, Alejandro, Pedras Vertes, Tekhmet of the Encuentros, have come to build a new realm. I am the first. This land of my ancestors I dedicate to the Tribe.

"The Balam have returned!"

 

With the power of the speaking, the form shifted again, uncontrollably. A giant cat reared, stretching its claws on high, roaring a sound lost north of the Rio Grande for nearly a thousand years.

 

The jaguar had returned.

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