The Legend of Cuicuilco

The early-autumn sky was clear as if washed clean. Eagles and falcons wheeled high above, looking down on the earth brimming with life. Cloud-pale green mountains rose and fell in layered ranges, stretching unbroken from the borders of the northwestern city-states toward the southeast of the lake region.

The group traveled west, then turned south. The woods grew denser and the terrain gradually steeper. After forty or fifty li, the trees along the road suddenly opened up, and they saw the towering Mount Estella. Mount Estella sat southwest of the capital, on the edge of the Ajusco volcanic region. From here, if one continued deeper to the southwest for over forty li, one would reach the famous Xitle volcano.

Alisa walked on foot to the foot of the holy mountain and stopped to rest for a while. Her face was flushed from the exertion, and her eyes shone with the joy of an outing. She hopped onto a large rock, turned back with a light laugh, like a proud little fox, one hand on her waist and the other pointing southeast.

"Xolotl, do you know? At the foot of Xitle volcano, there is a glorious ancient city! In legend, that is where all myths began, and also the place where the gods originated—the divine city of Cuicuilco!"

"The place where the gods originated, the divine city of Cuicuilco?"

Xolotl murmured the name softly, finding it vaguely familiar. He looked southeast, but saw only high peaks and endless woods, with no trace of any city-state. Suddenly, his gaze sharpened. Seeing the solidified lava and obsidian beneath the mountains, he remembered his grandfather's stories, those legends passed from mouth to mouth.

"You mean that ancient divine city buried beneath volcanic lava?"

"Mm-hmm!"

Alisa blinked, stretched out a fair, tender finger, and traced