The Headless Coquito: Vol. 2

A woven scroll of the Masters of the Night-Wind. The story it tells is said to be older than the Masters' birth—yet truth is hard to verify.

Seeing the warrior she had chosen meet so vile and tragic a fate, the Lady of Heaven's Stars grieved in fury, and bade her star-demons descend to earth to guide headless Coquito on the road of vengeance. In that long dark age people saw Coquito's headless body still walking under the moon, tightly gripping the stone club "Makana." Some said he became a black spirit-panther, silently crossing forest and plain, bringing nightmare and inspiration to priests sunk in meditation.

Later—none know how long he wandered the long night, nor how many forms he took—Coquito walked every blood-washed land and every altar that once pleased the master of the sky, and at last found the hateful traitor Nagual in the burning scorched land. There Nagual rested in an oasis, sipping serpent's blood and the hallucinogenic juice of Mexicali.

Then headless Coquito raised "Makana," and with a swing of the club the traitor's head shattered like Mexicali's illusory oracle. Blow after blow, headless Coquito with "Makana" smashed Nagual back to his burning homeland…

Though vengeance was complete, Coquito's soul had already fused with the earth's life and could not return. In that headless body only forever-burning cold rage remained—like the cold sun in the night sky of the hero's homeland.

Long, long after—until the Dog-Sun spirit, the cunning twins, and the master of the jade-green skirt had all died, until even star-spirits of the constellations flickered with decaying light—the weavers said Coquito's rage still had not gone out. His headless shadow still roamed silver plains at night, prowled deep forests dense with shade. It is said that in the earth's age of war many heroes inherited his "Makana"; the legendary great tyrant Ochican was one, and he too met his end in rage… But that is another story.