WALKÜREN – THE THREE MARY Chapter Twenty-Five

 WALKÜREN – THE THREE MARY

Chapter Twenty-Five

It was still late at night. The woodsmen walked slowly, without making much noise. In fact, the most incautious had no way of noticing its advance into the forest. They were as silent as a jaguar... and much, much more dangerous to their prey. There were five adventurers... Cornélio, Manoel, Bueno, Gaspar and Gonçalves. They were part of the expedition commanded by Fernão Dias. Their mission... evaluate the aboriginal tribe that was little more than a league away from the explorers' camp... and see the possibility of imprisoning them to sell them in the next province as slaves... because they needed to assess the tribe? Well, it wasn't always worth attacking a cluster of hollows... sometimes the number of elderly people was large, and then the market value of the pieces didn't compensate for the risk. But if there were a lot of young people... strong arms for farming... well, then the attack was justified, but in a way that there would be a minimum casualty among the forestry workers, preferably only among those who would have no use for the group ... the preference was for children and young people, who were entering puberty... they would be easier to tame. Already trained men and women, from the time they were still young, also served. The rest could be discarded, as no one would really want to buy them...

The five spread out to better assess the situation. From what they could tell, it was a group worth capturing. While one of the group's members returned to their camp, the rest remained on guard at the site, to guide their companions when they arrived... yes, the plan had already been drawn up. They would attack the village before daylight. It would be much simpler to surprise the savages when they were still dormant. It didn't take long and Fernão's group was already ready, just waiting for their leader's orders to begin the attack. They were instructed to exterminate all those who were of no use to the group. The shadow of death would fall over that town. The cassava plantation would be stained with blood. Those people would never drink their cauim again...

- Is that how your grandfather told you this story, Matilde?

- Yes, that's the beginning, delegate... do you want to hear the rest of it?

- Yes, of course... but I already know in advance what happened to that village. Young people captured, adults and elderly people exterminated... after all, dead people can't take revenge, right?

- Well... when a blood debt is high, the dead take revenge, yes.

- That is what happened?

- At least that's what my grandfather told us... he said that, after the attack on the village, and for a long time, the tragedy followed that group.

- What kind of tragedy?

-According to his words, Anhangá began to persecute and exterminate the group...

- And it was a small group?

- The flags were never small groups... they generally had three, four thousand men to explore the backlands...

- And they acted against their hunting...

- That. They preferred to attack the missions, the villages where the priests had already taught the Indians how to take care of the crops... as if they had never done this before in their lives...

- I don't think that's exactly why they preferred catechized Indians, right?

- Of course not... the "civilized" Indian was easily dominated by hunters and almost never rebelled against the imposed yoke...

- Which means it wasn't always like that, right?

- Clear. Freedom was an essential thing for the Gentiles of the land. But those who had been baptized... well, these were easy prey for the bandeirantes.

- That story you were telling... what happened to the people in the tribe?

- Well, despite being sleepy, when they were attacked, they reacted. Bow and arrow, club, club... even the little ones also went to fight against the invaders... it was carnage. In the end, casualties on both sides and no Indians captured... and the shaman's curse on the head of the group leader...

- That was Fernão Dias...

- That was Fernão Dias. Of course he didn't care much about the curse... after all, whoever lives attacking people always has one or two plagues on his head...

- But it happened...

- Yes... you're a little impatient, aren't you?

- Sorry, lady... I'm in a bad place and I think your story could help me understand what's going on...

- Well, it took them about two years to reach their final destination. But a good part of the troops stayed along the way...

- Why?

- Because he started chasing them... and killing them!

- And how did he do that?

- According to my grandfather, attacking his victims and tearing their necks...

A warning sign lit up in Juvêncio's mind... the demon ripped the necks of his victims... could it be...

- Then he bit the victims' neck...

- No deputy... he almost took the victim's head off... and left no trace of blood behind... 

Juvêncio almost jumped off the bench where he was sitting... and hadn't he finally found an ancient story that had something in common with the attacks suffered in the region? Of course, in this case the Indians were the primary cause... but... well, it was a mystical force, as he had suspected. Now it was just a matter of finding out who had triggered it...

The fact that attacks in the past were associated with indigenous people did not mean that they were, in fact, the central theme of the event. There were a thousand and one explanations, none of which made sense at the time. But he would certainly be able to discover the relationships that should exist. In any case, this was a story he had never heard before... from what he learned, Anhangá defended forest animals against hunters... it was the first time he had heard that the mystical entity attacked a group of people to collect a blood debt.... living and learning!

The afternoon was pleasant, a cool breeze was blowing through the square, where the two were talking. The sun was sinking in the west, with that laziness characteristic of a mild day. Because it was a pleasant temperature and it wasn't a school day, Juvêncio preferred to meet the director in a public place, so as not to give rise to misunderstandings between people... he just forgot that the square is normally the place where lovers usually meet... and people would definitely make some comment, since they were both single and were sitting there, next to each other, practically all day...