Gods and Rivals: A Guerrilla War in Brazil

The dense jungle canopy was threatening to obscure the afternoon sun, and the humidity had a bite in it. The air was muggy, but the bugs weren’t as bad as I’d feared. My boots crunched softly on the dry leaves as I picked my way through the trees. The path had been easy to follow so far; Mara’s vengeance seemed hurried, if not entirely careless.

I kept my eyes trained on the ground, looking for any signs of passage that might indicate her or her allies were nearby: footprints, disturbed vegetation, footprints, scuffed leaves—footprints?

I froze in place and crouched down to examine them more closely. They were large boots, definitely male sized. A tinge of excitement surged through me. This was the first time I’d even seen any indication that Mara would be joined by anyone in her quest for revenge. She’d been very careful to hide her alliance with Pomba Gira from me in our last encounter. These tracks could be hers… But then again, they could belong to any number of allies she might have recruited in her travels.

I continued walking after a moment, trying to keep my excitement at bay. If these tracks belonged to Mara and her allies then this could potentially be one of their resting spots. If that were true then I needed to be more cautious than before; a camp full of angry spirits could pack quite a punch if they caught me off guard. If these were Mara’s tracks then it meant that I was closing in on her, and that thought gave me confidence; Mara would make an easy target now that some of her allies were within striking distance.

I began picking up my pace; I wanted to get back and report what I’d found before sunset. It wouldn’t be safe for me to wander around without my protection once night fell; this territory was still crawling with malicious spirits who would relish an opportunity to kill a god.

The light was already starting to fade from the sky by the time I made it back to camp, and I was exhausted from my trek through the jungle. Ligia had set up a small fire near our tent; it flickered cheerfully in the darkness of early evening, giving us just enough light to see by until morning came again and we could put our torches back into use.

Ligia looked quizzically at me as I approached, then returned to stirring whatever dinner she had cooking on the fire. “Did you find anything?” she asked me as she stirred an unknown substance into boiling water inside a pot perched over the flames.

I sighed wearily and collapsed next to the fire pit beside where she stood, too tired to manage much other than a head shake in response to her question. Our dinner smelled delicious—I was suddenly very hungry—but all I wanted right now was a moment or two of rest before we ate; my legs felt like jelly after that long walk through the trees, and something like sleep sounded heavenly right about now…

Ligia seemed to sense my fatigue because she responded kindly to my lack of answer: “It doesn’t matter if you didn’t find anything today; tomorrow is another day." She reached out and ran her fingers through my hair tenderly as she said this, smiling at me affectionately before gathering our dinner onto two wooden plates for us both. We sat quietly together for the next hour or so eating our dinner and listening contentedly to each other chewing happily on our food as we enjoyed each other’s company before finally retiring for the night in our tent together after we finished eating.*