All hail the day of the Burst.
Diaján and Freca, leaders of the Tainex@s, signaled the start of the mating ritual with a cry into the atmosphere. She sliced her wing and fed it to her warriors. Diaján knelt before the surf and payed homage to the seas; his brethren followed suit. This was the beginning, and it played out as it always had and always would. All hail the day of the Burst.
The cocoons grew in between the wings of the Tainexas. They were dropped from above, in between moons, and were left on the shore to be protected by the Tainexos. As it always had and always would be. All hail the day of the Burst. There was no home beyond Tainex.
On the morning of the red and purple moons, all hail the day of the Burst.
On the morning of the first crack of the first cocoon, all hail the day of the Burst.
Tiny, intricate wings for the female babies. Sharp, serrated tails for the male babies.
As it always had and always would be.
All hail the day of the burst.
They waited for the largest cocoon to rupture. They waited for the spawn of Diaján and Freca, the heir to the celestial throne. The one who would rule home. They waited. Its name had already been chosen by the moon and the seas. Caguay. They waited for Caguay. There was no home beyond Tainex. There was no entity beyond Caguay.
When Diaján and Freca merged forces and bodies on the eleventh moon, protected by Freca’s tremendous wings, they loved for an eternity. They loved Caguay into existence and trembled at their creation, a coccoon greater than the eleventh moon.
The Tainexos waited. All the other cocoons had hatched. Diaján waited on the earth. Freca waited among the moons.
The Tainexos screamed in horror when Caguay burst from their cocoon embodying the surreal. Shining silver wings, broad as energy shields, massive spiked tail larger than the River of Culebras.
The greatest Tainexa ever to be conceived, born of the most powerful couple, born of the very first Tainexas to exist: Freca and Diaján.
In dreams, Caguay was everything. As a Tainex@ warrior being, Caguay’s physical properties were great. Imagine a gargoyle. Imagine a shinigami. Merge the horrific and the supreme. Take sculpted marble, turn it into shoulders. Add nylon and metal, mold them into wings. Rip off human fingernails, replace with ivory talons. Scream Caguay into the atmosphere and in an instant the demon of islands and galaxies long since annihilated now exists in the universe. Not her. Not him. Not they. More than it. Caguay was the magnificence of possibility, a deviation in conformity, the splendid and sublime manifestation of all that has always been. In waking life, Caguay was a threat, a non-conforming monstrous threat to the structure of the Tainex@ community. There was no other home.
Until Caguay. Only Caguay.
Caguay the Terror. Caguay the first and the last born. Caguay the A and the O. At Caguay’s emergence, all of the energy building froze, moon three and four crashed into each other.
All was rage. All was destruction. All in the name of Caguay.
Viewed as the ultimate threat to their continued existence, the Tainexos summoned the depths of their barbarism and unleashed the unholy power of group violence upon Caguay.
Diaján, father of Caguay and leader of the Tainexos, Guardian of all the cocoons, watched as his brethren commenced the annihilation of his spawn.
Caguay both A and O. Caguay at once nothing to Diaján and everything to Freca.
Freca, out of the atmosphere, channeling energy into the eleventh moon, heard the cry of her first and last born. She threw back her body and unleashed the scream of Columbus. The scream used to warn their world of outside invasion. The scream that stopped the production of energy and summoned the infinite number of Tainexas working on the other sixteen moons.
She descended into the atmosphere and watched her Tainexos attack the newborn known as Caguay. The Tainexas froze, suspended in the air.
Caguay was not A or O. Caguay was the threat, the embodiment of evolution, of their feared irrelevancy. The Tainexas remained in the sky, pushing lunar energies into their male counterparts. This had never been. All efforts were put in to protect Tainex.
There was no other home.
Freca wailed again. Diving, bombing to the ground, expelling a blast of nuclear energy to thwart the attack on her first and last born, her A and her O.
Freca expanded her wings, wrapped them around Caguay and exploded forth into the atmosphere. This had never been.
There was no other home.
Freca hovered in place, above the murderous, frothing horde, her people, the Tainex@s. Her eyes roamed the crowd until they found Diaján. He stepped forward covered in ash and sweat. Diaján raised his hand to the sky, to Freca, and offered her the rage swirling inside his chest. The child must be erased.
Diaján cracked his spiked tail upon the earth; it split beneath him. The act declared war.
Freca held Caguay between her wings and offered Diaján her first. Pointed downward, toward his skull, she offered the maldicíon de madres and cursed his life force.
In a flash of blue light, she was gone.
She’d remembered the time before Tainex.
Freca flew through the wasteland of QuadrantX.2, a newborn in her arms, fear choking her breath, and yet, pride swelled within her being. She carried the A and the O.
Freca traveled alone for eons until she came to Suspiros. It was there that she descended into the purple mountains, along the Northern Slope. It was there that Freca opened her mouth and released the melody of the sirenas.
In an instant, Sin Vergüenza, Freca’s most adored and feared Camarada, appeared. Their embrace lasted one human lifetime. Freca pressed the story of Caguay, the battle of the Tainexas and her flight across the galaxies into Sin Vergüenza’s flesh and the newborn Caguay into her arms.
Caguay would be born again, in the mountain of Suspiros, the planet of air, the original birthplace of Freca. The only secret she kept and would keep forever.
The Camaradas were wrapped in Freca’s wings. They kissed on the mouth to seal the promise of Sin Vergüenza. The promise to be the love guardian of Caguay.
The promise to raise Caguay alongside Sin Vergüenza’s daughter, Lexicona Lolita Sin Vergüenza, and to foster the relationship of the universe’s most powerful Camaradas forever.
Caguay’s home was to be the birthplace of his mother. Caguay would grow and dream and wonder if somewhere out in the universe there was another home. One with others that had both a tail and wings, one where creatures grew so monstrous that they often had to shape-shift into smaller beings just to feel safe.
Caguay the A and the O.
Freca vowed to seek revenge on Diajan and the betrayal of the Tainex@s. In a burst of lunar energy, she was gone.
Caguay the A and the O lived.
Caguay the first and the last born survived.
Caguay would grow to become an element of the Super Moon.
Caguay flexed rippling wings and slammed a mighty dragon’s tail into the mountains.
Caguay, the A and the O, was greater than the universe itself.
And from a distance immeasurable, the Elders watched, as they always did.
Image Credits: Joe Dyer via Flickr
