"You are... me? How... old are you?"
"I'm six!"
"Six? The six-year-old me? Why did you appear?"
"Me? I was asleep the whole time. But there was a very nice old granny who fed me medicine and woke me up."
"Old granny? Fed you medicine?... Hiss!"
Snake Mother Chief Miawa sucked in a breath, and fear carved into her very bones surged up from the depths of her heart in an instant. Terrified, she shut her eyes, hugged herself tightly, and as she slowly merged with those lost memories, she finally remembered everything.
"Ah! I remember now!... That elderly priestess, that terrifying old woman! She was a goddess priestess of the Mexica People, more terrifying than every Totonac Snake Priestess! And the most terrifying things were those mysterious medicines I'd never seen before!... What on earth were they? What on earth did I go through?"
"Why? Why was I wandering through nightmares day and night, over and over, constantly reliving the scene from that night? I seemed to hear someone murmuring again and again, telling me to obey him, obey him—only he was the light of day, the one who could take me away from the nightmare!..."
"Him?... Who is he?"
Miawa widened her eyes, remembering that beam of light seared into her bones beneath the dark veil of night. In the deep prison of her soul, only that single key could free her from the heavy nightmare and wake her from endless darkness. And when that beam of light appeared, she had hurled herself at it without hesitation, clinging to it tightly, never letting go!
"Ah! My little girl, you're awake!"
A kind yet familiar voice came over, but it made Miawa tremble all over, as if she had encountered a real snake. Priestess Akuits walked into the great