The Star Visitors.

Thin wisps of silvery-white smoke drifted upwards on the evening breeze, stark against the darkening sky. The Autumn moon had yet to rise leaving the night barely illuminated except for the rush torches glimmering around the settlement.
Inside the Sacred Hut the elders were swaying in a trance, their movements timed to the beat of the drums of the initiates. Another, younger man was keeping the fire alight, his sweat running in rivulets down his naked body. He was sweating partly from the heat of the fire but more from his own fear…the aroma of his own body combined with that of the elders making a sickening stench in the fetid air. Yet there was an air of excitement about his person and his eyes kept darting towards the Shaman. He knew the elder man was blind. The tribe’s Shamans were blinded when chosen by the others. Still, it took a strong-minded man to move freely against that blind scrutiny. It was said that the Shaman saw much more without his eyes than a warrior that could kill an eagle at fifty paces.
This was his second time in attendance at the sacred rites and the honour visited upon him and his family bode well for the future. Why then did he tremble so? Hastily ducking his head down he sought out the pestle and bowl in which the root was mixed to call up the ancestors.
Kitichua sat upon the ritual mat, his senses already heightened by the ground peyote root. Tonight he had taken little, knowing that his inner sight needed far less of the drug to awaken his visions. In fact he had been having waking visions for some days now, but the tribal elders would only hear the ritual words. He was aware of Ixia, the young man that showed such promise after barely two moons of service. In the back of his mind he resolved to speak to the youth’s parents before the next seeing. Now the firelight glowed and the visions run one into another. He "saw " the star visitors as they would appear to the tribe; this was a true seeing and he would interpret it as guided by the Gods.
Some would question as was their right. He could sway their minds, but this was not his way. He would tell true and the years of his waiting would reach fulfilment. This he had seen, but visions could rebound on the seer, he only wished that his people would be guided by him, the future of not only his race, but many still to come was in their hands.
*
They fell from the sky, the Gods that glittered bright in the morning sunlight, slowly descending so that all the people witnessed the bright array around their heads.
Many fell back in awe and natural fright. It was one thing to hear the prophecies but another to believe in them. Ixia had no fear, he believed the Shaman and his eyes described the scene to his master.
‘They drift down from the sky with the sun behind them and a trail of fire in their wake. None can yet see their faces though it may be they hide their glory behind a mask, as does the sun god himself.’
Kitichua heard the words and his heart was glad. It was as his ancestors had promised so many hundreds of years ago when the people walked in darkness with only the words of his grandsires to guide them.
‘Tell me more of what you see,’ he asked his young helper, but the silence dragged on for a moment. The boy was intelligent and would become a great seer, but he feared the blindness that came with the true sight. Kitichua sighed, he felt the agony of the youth’s indecision and wished that he could spare him this ordeal, but his people would not follow a sighted shaman and in the years to come Ixia would be needed to guide the people true.
‘I beg of you my son, tell me what these strangers are like as I beheld them in visions the second night you served me. I will not ask of you that which you cannot give, but I cannot be betrayed by false Gods, though my heart says these are the ones I have awaited for many years.’ So he asked and the youth put aside his fear.

‘They seem as beings of light, their bodies glow and their hair streams behind them as feathers from the dove. I would approach them as they alight, but I am not fit to welcome messengers from the God’s themselves.’
‘Then you must lead me forward and I will speak with them. First though, give orders to the elders in my name, that a feast is prepared for our guests. White bread with butter and honey, roasted birds with herbs and such roots as we have. Beg of your mother her sweet pastries and ask of your father the finest wines.’ So the shaman ordered and his acolyte led him to meet the strangers.
The shaman strode forward as if he was sighted and bowed low to the visitors. Ixia followed fearfully in his wake. The beings folded their wings and put them in a cocoon. Shyly he peered at them as his master tried to communicate. First he used their own tongue, that of the Maya. The visitors stayed silent. Next he tried the older language of the Pueblo Indians and when that failed he hesitantly tried the language of those that had built the great Pyramids.
At this the leaders of the Gods appeared to understand and some small greetings were made in this speech. But the Maya had little commerce with other races and for some time they all sat on the warm ground as Kitichua spoke at length in his own tongue.
Something was decided, as with both speech and gestures the strangers moved forward to where the meal had been laid out on long low tables.
Certainly they ate as the people did, with long white fingers scooping up the delicacies with bread. The wines brought a little colour to their pale cheeks, but still Ixia and the elders could not stop staring at the pale faces, thin limbs and the silvery-gold hair of the fair folk. Only the daughter of the shaman showed no fear as she passed amongst them, her golden skin and sun bright hair making the strangers appear even paler. Where she passed there was merriment and soon the elder woman of the Gods answered a comment in the tongue of the Maya.
Ixia held his breathe, would Tolanon now turn away or accept the strangers?
The tinkling laugh sent shivers down his spine and in that moment he knew he had lost her forever.

* * *

That night the star-people, as they were named by the tribe, slept in a strange building that they said was a spaceship. The people were afraid to go near the vessel from the sky, not seeing how a ship could ride so near to the sun and not burn to ashes.
Perhaps the words the strangers used were different in their own language, but the shaman had reassured them that the strangers had really sailed the sky. If so then they were indeed gods and to be treated with respect. Throughout the long hot day the strangers had sat on the baking ground with nothing to rest their limbs on. Each elder had knelt on the mats used for ceremonies, but when offered to the strangers they had politely said “no.” Some of the elders had prostrated themselves, believing that the gods must surely be angry with such a poor offering and one had even offered himself as a sacrifice. The tall one that appeared to be a leader chopped his hand down in the gesture of refusal, yet he was not angered. His smile was full, as the moon that laid on her back. Kitichua translated the words of the gods, though the gods learnt the peoples’ words quickly. Soon they would prepare a proper feast with music, dancing and games. The people would show the gods that they were worthy of them.

Kitichua was aware of the people’s unrest. It had surprised him even though he had expected the visitors the strangeness of them was overpowering. The problem of conversing with the gods had never occurred to him. He thought they would know the Mayan language, but instead they had tried the speech of the people’s ancestors from many hundreds of years ago before they found one that both could speak.
He was not a shaman for nothing. His racial memories went back before the ages when the tribes had come from a much older land. The gods spoke this language with much ease, yet it was to his advantage that the gods soon could use many of the Mayan words.
The people would think Kitichua a great shaman and leader to teach the gods so quickly. They would not know of his own struggle to turn the thoughts in his head into speech…and yet the visitors just put one hand behind their ears and spoke a word without prompting.
He should have been scared, indeed his first thought was that they would demand of him a sacrifice and it would be the highest price to pay. His beautiful and fearless daughter, Tolanon, she who walked with the blessing of the Sun God at her heels. For such a prize as she many provincial kings had offered him much land and slaves to work it. Ixia had been her heart-slave since he was a youth of barely ten years, but Kitichua had seen a grand future for this child of his. He had loved her mother until she was taken from him to serve the Sun God. Already the people were muttering about giving Tolanon to a wealthy ajaw, she would fetch much land to their small settlement.
Today he had seen the man-god Gartinus smile at his daughter and she in turn return his smiles. To wed a god, even a minor one would enhance his status. Before he slept he prayed to Sun God to bring his vision to life. Then his seeing would prove true and his daughter become a mother to all races.

* * *

The visitors stayed for many years until the people became used to having the gods live in their midst. The first year they left their great sky ship and moved into the huts like the villagers. A great building had been started ten years before the gods arrived and with their help the temple and palace was nearly finished. Of the twelve gods, it was Gartinus who worked with Q’utamk the thinker of the people who knew both the written language and the knowledge of the stars and planets. The female goddess, Rinakla, worked with Chaca on the study of Mathematics, which the Maya people had some knowledge of, though it was said to have come from the land of the Pharaohs. To some of the people the sky gods worked alongside them to irrigate the land where no rain fell to water the crops. Great works were then made and Kitichua’s people were the envy of all tribes.
Although the sky gods taught them much, it was Tolanon that made them smile. The people knew she was favoured and brought her the cocoa plant to make both drinks and the bars of cocoa sweetened with honey that the gods loved so much.
The second year the sky gods helped the people to finish the temple and the palace for the ajaw, Kanaka. It reached to the heavens, this “stairway to the stars”.
A great feast was prepared for the night when the temple would align with the planet that the gods called “Venus” and the people called the “bright star” in their own language.
The few traders of the Maya took both animals and maize to the people of the sea, who gave them many offerings in return. The cattle that returned were laden with salted fish, a great delicacy for the land-bound tribes. There were also furs from the seals and specially made needles from the bones of spiny fish that the women used to sew both garments and wounds.
The men brewed strong drink for the occasion with beer and mead plentiful.
The few slaves stamped out the ground where the people would play at pitz in honour of the planets that spun like the rubber balls they played with. The games would be fast and furious with both men and women playing the game.

* * *

Gartinus was discussing the forthcoming event with the other people from Té-Antis. He was young to be a leader, just 100 years of this planet, Terra. For many centuries his people had visited the primitive people of this planet and found a keen intellect in need of a little guidance. His own grandfather had been a tutor to the Sumerian race and his father had spent many hundreds of his thousand year life span with the Egyptian race. These particular people showed an understanding of the universe at a basic level, certainly enough to be gently pushed in the right direction. However, his own people were wary of this event with the talk of sacrifices to the gods. Their own instinct was to say that they knew the other gods would not want blood sacrifices, but when you live with a people on the same level they start to grow used to you and carry on as they had done for thousands of years. Their own policy of non-intervention with the societies religion and customs had to be upheld.

The great day came with feasting starting at dawn. Food was plentiful, drink flowed like water and yet few people were that drunk. In the afternoon they slept off the indulgences to be ready for the night’s entertainment.
Gartinus had expected Tolanon to serve her father, but it was the turn of Ixia tonight. Kitichua had a principle role in the ceremony which would start after the games. The prospect of an all day and night’s feasting and drinking was distasteful to Gartinus, whose own race had long ago shed such primitive pastimes. Yet the allure of something different made him feel edgy. A lot of it was due to Tolanon and still he tried to pretend the attraction didn’t exist.
The afternoon was waning when the people shrugged off their lethargy. The Pitz players had taken little food or drink. All knew the game was played seriously and the winning side would be honoured this night. They lined up, twelve men and women, six to each side. Though they were all well-padded it was not unknown for a player to suffer a serious or even fatal injury. She stood in the front of her team. Tolanon was playing for her father and for the sky-god she secretly worshipped. Gartinus looked on in horror as the game started and both teams clashed over the rubber ball. He dreaded watching, but he was too scared to turn away. In the eerie glow of evening he saw her as a heroine out of one of Terra’s stories. Light played over her oiled body where the padding didn’t touch her muscular body. She darted in and out, weaving a skilful defence and then switching to attacking the opposition. Several times she was knocked by another player and something primeval awoke in his soul as he watched her pitting her body against strong men.
Thankfully the game was finally over with no fatalities, though several of the players left the field of play minus an ear or with a crushed foot. They were swamped by the people and both men and women drank the strong brews. He went to her then and led her to the feasting table where he abandoned all restraint, feeding her dainty morsels of food from his fingers, kissing her in full view of the people who cheered them on.

He didn’t see the rest of the ceremony. The food and drink consumed. The heavy beating of the drums as the ajar or king was led up the temple steps where the faint glow of Venus was visible in the night sky. Neither did he see Kitichua give the dreaming root as the king pierced his own penis with a sacrificial dagger so the blood run into the bowl.
Gartinus was sharing a tiny hut in the surrounding forest, his blood on fire with love for Tolanon. Again and again they made love, sometimes with him pinning her to the ground, at others she impaling herself on his manhood. She rode him like a being possessed and he responded in kind. Never had a native Tian been allowed more than three bouts of intercourse, with a planet already overpopulated it was necessary to breed the sexual urge out of most of the planet’s inhabitants. This thought was lost to Gartinus as he drifted into sleep, sated by sexual congress with the daughter of a high priest.
The morning brought another bout of love-making and then he knew that he was destined to become an outcast to his people. His place was here, on Terra, with Tolanon and whatever children were bestowed on them. Although he had witnessed many weddings amongst the Maya, he was not sure if even he could wed such an honoured woman. Haltingly he asked the question of her. Without the ear worn translator he still found some words difficult to put into a sentence. She laughed loudly in the morning air, scaring bright-plumed birds from the undergrowth. Her laughter was infectious and soon she led him to one of the nearby hot springs where they bathed their sweat away. Only when both were clean did she answer his question. She was of the high caste by birth, but the people would be honoured if one of the sky gods wished to join hearts and bodies in marriage.
Her father would “rebirth” him with great joy. They could be wed before the end of the three day ceremony.

* * *

So it came to pass that one of the race of enlightened people, the Tians, was married to a Mayan princess. Perhaps he had thought that he could take his bride home, but an event occurred which settled the matter quickly. For several years the two peoples worked side by side. Slowly the gods were making great progress with the Maya, giving them knowledge of the stars that would set them apart from other races. Another great temple was built and this one had an intricate sky map that any traveller from Té-Antis could home in on. There was less blood-letting and sacrifices than ever before, as the Tians told stories of their own planet, that they called “the home of the gods.” Gartinus was closer to the Maya now and he saw a different picture through the eyes of his bride. These people had a society that was far in advance of his own race at a similar primitive time. They were bright and inquisitive with minds that grasped difficult problems quickly. He suspected that some of the great thinkers were aware that the gods were actually aliens from a place similar to Terra.
The mystique was kept alive by other travellers from Té-Antis. Those whose missions took them to the Northern lands of the Celts and others to lands on different continents that would eventually become great nations.
In time Tolanon became pregnant and as the spring equinox came around she was safely delivered of a baby boy. Kitichua prepared for a week of feasting when suddenly one of the shining beings came to the others with news of a terrible storm heading their way. The Maya were used to the occasional hurricanes that decimated their trade with the sea-folk tribes. It was even said that once the sea had arisen in mighty waves, pushing onto the land and swamping the pastures. The people were not that concerned. The temples and palaces were built on high ground and crops could always be grown again.

The Tians held a meeting to listen to the news from the people who had travelled to the great ice-caps where only a very hardy race managed to make a living from the frozen waters. They were not interested in the strangers or tales of the gods. One thing they excelled in was tracking the progress of storms and as Theba guided his spaceship along the edges of the continent, he could see a great boiling mass out at sea. Never had any of their races seen such a sight before, the waters rising up to massive heights they could only flee from.
In vain they pleaded with Kitichua to move all his people and animals to high land. ‘I will hold a meeting,’ he said. Gartinus was another problem. If he could be persuaded to leave his Terran wife and child behind then they would take him with them, for evacuation seemed the only answer now.
They left as they had arrived. The glow of their helmets catching the angry red of the sky before they were swallowed up as if they had never been there at all. The people moved to higher ground and many were glad of the great temples as the waters burst around the very foundations. In the general evacuation, Gartinus, together with his wife and child were separated from the others. They paused a moment before they trudged up a steep slope. Rain beat down in torrents and the land was swamped with water. Shouldering his survival pod Gartinus turned away and with a glance at his family they all moved on and were never seen again.

*