“Do you really think the Tushiri haven’t forgotten the offense yet?” Dada, the older son, asked as if he had read in his father’s mind.

   “I am sure about it. Those people are not like us. They can’t be trusted.”

   “Then we must attack, before they attack us,” Dada said dryly, clenching his fist around the arch.

   “No, you do not have to do anything.” The man got up from his hammock. Slowly. He was getting older and older and he could feel it. “This is just about me. That small jaguar was me, thirsty and naive. You must not put yourself in danger unnecessarily.”

   “This is not possible. We must protect you and, to do so, we need to know what the Tushiri are plotting", Pashu stepped in, more worried than determined.

   Maiki declined the proposal with a quick wave of his hand. He did not want to continue arguing about it. “Just stay away from their territory,” he said firmly. “They would kill you.”

   Maiki didn’t wait for the two young men to express their disapproval again, so he just walked away, crossing the yanowith a quick step to reach Mawe, who was sipping a hot drink in his hammock. He was getting old too. However, his bowl-cut hair was still black and the colorful feathers sticking out from his earlobes gave him a fresh look.

   “We have to protect my daughter,” Maiki began, after scanning the place in search of Janera, his daughter. He couldn’t find her.

   Mawe put the empty bowl back on the ground and looked at his son’s father-in-law with a puzzled stare. Why on earth was he asking for something like that? It was natural that the girl was safe within his family.

   “I have a bad feeling,” he added. “I had a dream. We have to make sure that my daughter does not leave the yano.”

   “What could happen to her?” Mawe asked, frowning.

   “I'm afraid the Tushiris want revenge.”

   “But it’s been a long time!” Mawe exclaimed, trying to contain his concern. In fact, he did not really believe either that time had canceled the offenses. 

   “We don’t know what they are really capable of.”

   “You think they could attack us despite the deal?”

   “I'm afraid those people don’t know the meaning of that word.”

   Mawe gave him a puzzled look.

   “Yet they’ve respected it so far. They never attacked us in three years. We have never even found them on our territory!”

   “Three years of peace can make us think that the danger no longer exists and we, consequently, lower our guard. What if this is exactly what they want?”

   Maiki didn’t like having to explain something that should have been clear right away. Not even to Mawe. Even though he was the head of the village, that man was first and foremost one of his closest friends and Maiki didn’t want him to question what he was saying.

   Mawe seemed to think about it for a few moments. “In any case, we cannot risk sending our men on their lands. It would be like declaring war.”

   Maiki agreed. They wouldn’t be the first to break that deal. They wouldn’t risk much. The time they had welcomed them into their yano – their large circular house – Maiki had seen something evil in their eyes. The dry blood that decorated their arms, the bones gathered around their waists like a macabre kilt, and their laughter... That wicked laugh that made the blood freeze in their veins. That was the reason why he had chosen not to sacrifice his daughter, when the two tribes had decided to exchange women to seal their new pact.

   After they had gone on killing each other for too long, they had finally opted for neutrality. They had divided the forest establishing a boundary between the territories of the two tribes and had committed to staying away from each other’s lands.

   The transgressors would be caught and punished with death.

   “For now, we have to make sure that my daughter no longer leaves the village,” he said, relieved after noticing that Janera had just returned, along with her husband. The two were heading to their hammocks with a basket full of berries.

   “They must no longer go in the forest alone,” he added strictly.

   Mawe opened his mouth, undoubtedly intent on articulating some other objection, but then said nothing. His attention was irresistibly drawn by the noise coming from a group of men who had just returned from a hunt.

   A little too early to come back. Maiki had seen them going to the forest some time before, armed with bows and arrows with bone tips. But their bags seemed to be completely empty.

   Bad omen and curse were some of the words shouted by the men of the group, which now echoed throughout the yano. The whole village was gathering around them, all in the grip of a superstitious terror, even though many of them still didn’t know what all was about. Maiki and Mawe rushed to the center of theyano too, where two of the hunters were lighting a fire. Another one had knelt down and showed the shells of two small blue eggs in his open palms.

   “We found them in their nest,” he said with broken voice. “They were already cracked.”

   “It’s a bad omen! The evil is lurking, like a jaguar who has spotted its prey!” another one exclaimed. He no longer had to shout now that the confusion had been replaced by a mortified silence.

   Maiki watched the scene with increasing awareness. The fire was blazing under his eyes as people began to murmur prayers and formulas which were supposed to keep the evil away. So something really terrible was about to happen. He had learned to believe his own dreams, but sometimes he did it superficially just because he was used to that. However, now the signs were multiplying. In addition to the little jaguar devoured by the crocodile, now they also had to cope with the curse of two blue eggs found broken in their nest.

   A long time before, while he was still an initiate under the guidance of the village shamans, Maiki had been told that thepajauro – which he had later identified as a colorful and short-legged heron – always lays two blue eggs and builds its nest near a source of water. The color of the eggs recalls that of the sky. This is why the pajauro is considered the reincarnation of good spirits and, therefore, its presence near a village is seen as protective and auspicious. If the mother senses the presence of evil spirits, she leaves the place, but first she kills her offspring by pulling them out of the eggs and eating them. The shells are left in the nest as a warning. If found, these must be picked up, taken to the village and burned in the middle of the yano to ward off the evil. Even so, nothing is guaranteed.

   Maiki moved to make room for two of the village’s three shamans. He was the third one.

   Yet this has never happened before. He had always thought it was just a kind of legend, nothing more.

   He felt Mawe’s gaze laying on him. He turned around. Mawe’s expression was filled with dismay and fear. Maiki could also catch a slight sight of embarrassment, like his friend had finally acknowledged his mistake.

   The shells were thrown into the flames and the shamans began to sing a chant, turning around the fire and waving their arms in an ecstatic dance. Maiki did not want to fail in his duties as a shaman, so he joined them, but the words he was pronouncing seemed as empty as the shells he had just seen fading into the flames.

   No spell would truly protect them.

   Not in that place forgotten by the world.