Cocomama and the Inca Baton
An Inca myth about bravery
It was a sunny day in Machu Picchu, Cusco, people were happy, and the day was bright. Machu Picchu, a green area with a small village was the home of Cocomama, a thirteen year old girl, which means that she was going to get married someday soon. She spends her days helping her mom with her two brothers, Catequil and Ilyapa. She lived in a typical Inca house, a small, one room, stone house which overlooked the Machu Picchu mountain. Apart from working at home with her mother she took care of her white llama who she named Ekkekko after Ekkekko the god of wealth and plenty. Cocomama who had black diamond eyes, long black hair and dressed in colorful outfits, loved to play with her friends and spend time with her family. In the mornings Cocomama walked her brothers two kilometers through the Inca trail to the farm where her brothers worked, since they were poor they could not afford education and had to work.
One regular day after leaving her brothers at work she saw black smoke coming out of the stone, pyramid shaped Inca palace. Scared, Cocomama ran home. When she was close to her house she saw her mother Zaramama waiting for her in the home entrance which was unusual so it meant that either there was good news or bad news waiting for her. She approached Zaramama and Zaramama instantly broke into tears.
“Supay my father has disappeared, the Inca baton has been stolen,” said Zaramama.
The Inca baton was a gold baton which held the life of the Incas, if it was stolen or even misplaced the Inca people would start to vanish one person at a time, so far only Supay and three other farmers had disappeared.
The next morning was cloudy. The Inca villagers were all given an order to meet in front of the Inca palace.
“Good morning villagers,” said one of the retired chasquis, who now read news to the people in Cusco. “Yesterday as you might know the Inca baton has been stolen by evil spirits, if anyone has any information about this report immediately to the palace.”
Everyone was ordered to go back home or return to their working places. At home Zaramama and Cocomama cried and prayed to Viracocha and Inti for the return of Supay and the other villagers who had disappeared.
After Zaramama and Cocomama calmed down a loud knock was heard in the house. Cocomama opened the door and in front of her was an old man who she had never seen before which was strange since she knew most people in the village. He asked to talk with Cocomama in private so Zaramama waited inside the house.
“You, Cocomama need to bring back the baton from the evil spirit’s layer,” said the old man whose name was Punchau.
Cocomama refused to take accept and quickly went back into the house. Cocomama and her family discussed about this, Zaramama refused to let her daughter leave but Khuno her dad tried to convince Cocomama to go. After discussing about this call from the old man the whole family went to sleep. Cocomama and her family slept on the floor on top of animal hair. While she slept a dream came to her, the dream was about Supay begging for her to go save the baton. The next morning she searched for the mysterious man everywhere, but no sign of him. It was when Cocomama was eating lunch when she heard a knock on the door. The mysterious man was in the front of the stone home. He asked Cocomama one more time if she wanted to take the quest and she accepted.
After Cocomama accepted the challenge to save the Inca village. The old man supposedly named Punchau took her to a strange cave next to her who she had never seen before. Inside the cave she saw a golden portal. Punchau entered the portal and Cocomama followed him. On the other side of the portal there was a gold room with walls made out of pure gold and everything in it was made out of gold. Cocomama felt scared since she barely knew this so called Punchau. When Cocomama raised her head to look at Punchau she saw nothing, no sign of Punchau.
“Cocomama,” said a strange voice.
Cocomama turned around and behind her was the sun god Inti. Inti was a very respected god for Cocomama’s family since they were farmers they prayed a lot to the sun. Punchau who is actually Inti was shaped as a sun and shined bright. He had a rough voice and lived in this huge gold house.
Out of nowhere Inti said to Cocomama “Let the training begin,” and so they started training for the challenges that will face her.
“First of all, the evil spirits have stolen the Inca village life baton. So we will expect many disappearances in the village,” Inti said in a calm voice.
“You are here to kill the evil spirits and bring back the baton so that everything comes back to normal. The evil spirits can take any shape or object so trust no one, unless I tell you. I will follow you, but not as Punchau but as Inti in the sky. I will warn you if any danger is coming, but apart from that I can’t do more. You will learn how to handle a sword, use fire magic, and this healing potion which will keep you from getting hurt,” said Inti.
After a hard day of practicing sword fighting, and handling fire magic Inti told Cocomama to go home, she will also need to keep her training a secret.
“Here you have some forgetting magic so that your parents don’t know you will be fighting,” said Inti while giving Cocomama a small bag of magic dust.
Cocomama left through the portal and went home to sleep.
The next morning a knock was heard again in her home. Cocomama opened the door and made sure not to wake up her family who were comfortably sleeping on the house floor. She spread some magic dust on her family’s faces and opened the door. Inti who was dressed as Punchau he greeted her and they both went to the cave, through the portal and into the gold house.
“Today we will begin the journey, I have taught you all I know, now you will fight the spirits, ” Inti told Cocomama and lead her to another portal. Cocomama went through the portal to find herself on the Inca trail. It was about four pm, the sun was still shining and the antbirds were chirping their usual high pitched whistle like songs. She looked around her and saw Inti who was in the sky as the sun and nodded his head indicating her to follow the trail until the very top of it. She was wearing gold armor and had a gold sword as well as a wood one. Inti sprinkled some fire magic on her and Cocomama was ready to start her journey.
After walking about three kilometers it started to rain warm and soft water droplets, which was normal. On her way up the trail she saw many villagers with their llamas. One man stopped and looked at her. His name was Capac, he was riding a black llama who are the hardest llamas to find and right behind the black llama were three more llamas. Two white llamas and one old llama who was white, black and brown, these types of llamas are not wanted in the village since they have so many colors it is hard to make clothing of their wool. The man looked at Cocomama and asked her if she wanted the multicolored llama and with no doubt she said yes, now she had something to ride on.
After ten kilometers more it started to get dark, Cocomama and her llama Maita were exsouted so they decided to rest. Inti who was still watching her but now behind the moon, gave Cocomama a blanket to sleep on. Since it was cold Cocomama decided to make a fire using some wood and her fire magic given to her by Inti. She slept all night perfectly.
Cocomama was waken up by Maita who was licking her. The day was bright and very hot. Maita was sitting down on the grass green floor and licking all of Cocomama’s face. Cocomama stood up, climbed on top of Maita and continued her journey through the Inca Trail. It was a sunny summer day with clear skies. Almost half way through the trail Maita and Cocomama came across a patch of wild purple flowers. It was rare seeing such flowers in Cusco, so Cocomama decided to pick some flowers for when she returns home. Just before she picked the prettiest flower she heard a yelp.
“Stop, don’t hurt us, we only want to help,” said a mysterious voice.
After looking for where the sound came from she saw the flowers moving and talking to her. The flowers gave Cocomama some advice on what was waiting for her in the top of the trail
“The evil spirits fear one thing, but we still don’t know what it is, but you have that. If you want to bring back the baton you will need these powers,” and the flowers threw some sprinkles on her apparently giving her ice powers.
“These ice powers will help you freeze things such as water and soil, you might be able to freeze some spirits but that depends on how you use these powers. Now hurry along and continue your journey,” said the purple flowers and instantly disappeared.
Cocomama and Maita walked up the inca trail. It was getting dark and both were very tired. Inti who was watching them sent Cocomama a bag. Cocomama reached into the pale blue bag given to her by Inti and found many goods such as potatoes and purple corn. Cocomama ate the potatoes and gave the purple corn to Maita. After eating late lunch she continued her journey.t. Thirteen kilometers after eating the sky was already pitch dark and no sign of light, they came across a small house. Cocomama knocked on the door only to find an old man waiting for her. The man offered Cocomama and Maita shelter to sleep that night and food. Cocomama left her gold armor and weapons on the man’s old and dirty sofa and went to the wooden dinner table to eat. The old man offered her some soup which she drank eagerly. She started to feel sleepy and dizzy, the man led her to a bed and she fell asleep instantly.
In her dreams she heard Inti calling her “Wake up Cocomama you are falling behind in the journey many people have disappeared in your village, wake up.”
Cocomama waked up surprised only to know she been asleep for two whole days. She walked carefully to not wake up the old man who was nowhere to be seen. She looked for her weapons but they were not there only a wooden sword which was broken and had dents in it. Cocomama rushed out the house and looked for Maita and then quickly returned to the path.
“You have been tricked by an evil spirit, they have stolen all your weapons all I had left was this broken sword. Now hurry up before everyone disappears,” Inti told Cocomama.
After walking and walking Cocomama and Maita where at the end of the 43 kilometer long Inca trail. Cocomama felt proud of herself since she had never finished the whole trail. In front of her was a spooky looking portal. There was lightning and cloud surrounding the portal. Strange, loud noises where coming out of the portal.
“Behind this portal lies the evil spirit village. In the biggest home lives the evil spirit king who has the baton. You will need to first kill all the villagers and soldiers. But the hardest part will be to kill the king and bring back the baton. I will not be able to enter the portal because it will kill me, wish you luck,” Inti told Cocomama. Maita and Cocomama looked at themselves scared. “What have I gotten myself into,” said Cocomama and entered the portal.
“Oh my god,” said Cocomama as soon as they entered the portal.
In front of them was a spooky village. The homes were made out of dark purple stone, they were all tangled in dead vines, they had an ‘A’ shaped roof and black smoke was coming out of the small chimney. All homes were the same, except for one. This house was massive sort of like a palace. It was also made out of dark purple stone and gold decorations, the palace glowed. Surrounding the palace was a thick layer of some sort of electrical dome, this meant that it was going to be hard to enter. Cocomama and Maita walked through the small houses and suddenly Maita started to screech.
“Shh, Maita they are going to notice us,” said Cocomama to Maita but Maita continued to screech, that is when Cocomama noticed she had been shot by an evil spirit.
She prepared her powers and started shooting fireballs to the homes. The villagers shot arrows at her but she would protect herself by freezing them. By the time the she reached the gate Maita could not handle it anymore, so Cocomama created an ice dome around her so that she would not be shot.
“How am I going to enter, at least the dome is nothing but air,” Cocomama said to herself outloud and stood there for a minute to think.
Cocomama came up with a brilliant idea to climb the gate, this was a successful idea. Just when she landed on the ground she heard cannons. BOOM BOOM she heard. Instantly Cocomama searched for the nearest hiding place. In the distance she saw a whole next to the palace door. She had to cross the white wood bridge, right below lived crocodiles who looked at her eagerly as if they wanted to eat her. She searched the bridge just in case if there were any holes. When she finally felt a bit more secure she went over the bridge, right when she was about to cross the bride the evil spirits started to shoot arrows. Cocomama could not see the evil spirits since they were always changing shape, so it was hard to hide from them. She finally crossed the bridge and the bridge started to crumple apart. Cocomama rushed to hide in the whole next to the door. While she took a breath she noticed a small door behind her. She grabbed the doorknob and twisted it, but it was locked shut.
“Now how am I going to enter the palace,” Cocomama whispered to herself.
She was about to give up when she remembered her powers. Cocomama first freeze the doorknob and with one small tug she broke the knob. She then tried to open the door but it was stuck between the walls. She tried freezing the door, then burning it but nothing seemed to work. After trying and trying she decided to combine both ice and fire to break the door and so it did. The door came crumbling down as big chunks of warm ice. SHe rushed through the door. Right in front of her was a whole army of evil spirits who had taken the shape of humans. Cocomama started to tip toe so that she would not be seen but she tripped upon a shield. A loud bump was heard which made the whole army look at her. They started to shoot arrows. Cocomama scared grabbed the shield and started to throw ice and fire balls to them. The army would shoot back cannons and arrows.
Cocomama noticed that they had no swords which meant that if she came close to any of them they had no way to protect themselves. Cocomama ran to them and freezed all of them with a single touch. Everything seemed to be quiet. Cocomama went through a door which lead to a pathway. The pathway was dark and cold. The walls were made out of dark purple velvet and had many gold chains as well as many candles. At the end of the pathway was a gold door and guarding the door were five spirit soldiers. Cocomama threw a fireball to distract the soldiers and as soon as they turned around to see what had happened Cocomama froze them and quickly entered through the door.
“How fascinating,” said Cocomama and started looking around the room.
The room was bright and had a huge mirror in the middle back of the room. And right in a middle was the golden baton. Cocomama rushed to get the baton.
“What are you doing?” said a laughing strange voice.
Cocomama turned around, only finding herself with the evil spirit king who had a sword.
“Don’t be scared, fight me,” the evil spirit told Cocomama.
Cocomama was scared, she had no weapons to defend herself, only a damaged wooden sword which was useless. Cocomama shot fireballs at the king, but nothing seemed to kill him. The king stabbed Cocomama in the leg, but luckily she had the healing potion, but it did not work instantly. Cocomama was starting to loose blood, she kept shooting the king with fireballs and ice balls. Cocomama began to give up and as the last movement she got out the wooden sword and stabbed the king.
“Ouch,” screamed the king.
That is when Cocomama noticed that she had killed the king. She got up and her wound started to heal. Right in front of her was the evil spirit king dead, she got his armor and sword just in case. She went to get the baton and out the door she went. Through the pathway and through the small door. When she went out the small door she heard ice melting, looked behind and noticed that the evil spirit army became to melt. She tried to get out through the main gate but she the army started to run towards her. Cocomama climbed out the gate, unfreezed Maita and rushed to the portal. It was hard to find the portal since it camouflaged with the village. When she saw the portal the army was very close to her so without thinking she froze the whole ground making the army stick to the ground. Cocomama rushed through the portal and arrived to the top of the Inca trail safely. Inti who was waiting for her this time disguised as Punchau immediately closed the portal and they both destroyed it.
Inti created another portal and went through it, he ordered Cocomama and Maita to join him. She went through the portal which was white and simple. On the other side of the portal was the door of the Inca palace.
“Should I give the baton to the Inca?” Cocomama asked Punchau.
Punchau nodded and she went in. When Cocomama turned around Punchau had already left. Cocomama presented the baton to the Inca and the Inca congratulated her.
“In return will you marry my son?” The Inca asked Cocomama.
After about a week Cocomama and the Inca’s son get married, Cocomama gets and education and power.All the villagers returned to their homes and everyone in the Inca kingdom would thank her for her bravery and for saving their lives.
