By Paige Cross           

Legend

16th century

Blood, red and scalding as fire coated his fists, white-knuckled and clenched tightly around the shaft of the young warrior's spear.  The still, silent forms of his enemies circled closely at his feet, as if in deadly reverence of his power, and nothing moved - nothing except for the rise and fall of his chest with every labored breath. 

Ferocity among Aztec warriors was certainly not an uncommon trait, yet in the body of this young man - he who could hardly be believed to be a man - was a startling intensity and ruthlessness that could not be rivaled, and which few dared challenge.  Thousands of courageous and foolish souls were sent to the afterlife, to Tlalocan¹, by his hands, forging a familiarity with Tlaloc that tempted others to fear that this warrior was his worldly counterpart, or even his earthly incarnation. 

Yet this young warrior was not affiliated with the gods.  He was not reaping souls for any purpose other than the satisfaction of his insatiable blood-thirst.  And it was this wanton savagery, this selfish slaughter that angered the gods.  Mictlantecuhtli², god of the underworld known as Mictlan, resented the vast diversion of souls from his realm, and shook with tremendous anger following every battle.  So violent became his rage against the warrior, the insolent boy who felt he had the power to take lives and so great became his frustration that he devised a plan to still his spears and arrows for eternity.  As he thought, his shaking ceased, yet his anger continued to build, growing in intensity until his plan could be fulfilled. 

And then came the day.

Mictlantecuhtli received word that a battle was to be staged imminently, in which the young warrior would, of course, take part.  Thus, as the ranks began their steady trek to the battlefield, another force gathered under their bare, calloused feet. 

And it was most fortuitous that, in his eagerness, the young, savage, warrior arrived far in advance of the others.  As he stood alone, solemnly collecting his strength at the base of the mountains, the deadly fury of Mictlan erupted in a paradox of underworld vengeance from the sky, shattering the silence and the earth, sending forth the infernal contents of the underworld, fed by the scathing wrath of Huehueteotl³, who loathed the warrior for extinguishing the flames he had placed in each of the murdered men to give them life.

When the warriors arrived, fatigued from their journey, reluctant to fight, they lost the remainder of their breath to the sight that loomed before them.  The mountains that had stood in peaceful, imposing repose were now shrouded in ash that whispered as it fell, telling a story of violence. A story that spoke of the lives destroyed at the hand of the young, blood-thirsty warrior, who disappeared in a flash of the gods' violent wrath. They did not fight that day.

The two prominent volcanoes, Nevado de Colima and Volcan de Fuego, or Volcan de Colima, belong, respectively, to Mictlantecuhtli and Huehueteotl.  Mictlantecuhtli remains relatively silent, having had his vengeance, yet Huehueteotl still shudders and erupts as he stokes his hearth and occasionally reminds all that, although he may give the fire of life, he may also take it away if we do not respect the spark within others, like the young, ill-fated Aztec warrior.