I lost my name the day I became shaman.
Since then, I ceased to be a man and became a symbol — the tribe's spiritual guide, the voice of the ancestors, the devoted servant of Oroti, our guardian. My past was erased like footprints in the rain. Only duty remained.
During the initiation ritual, before the fire and the sacred chants, I swallowed the venomous frog. The pain was excruciating. My body burned from within, my vision shattered into impossible colors. I survived.
And in surviving, I was reborn.
The venom now runs through me like blood. I can produce it, manipulate it, turn it into death… or into healing. I can induce visions, awaken deep fears, make men face their own demons. The tribe respects me. The tribe fears me. Power sustains my authority.
We live at the foot of the sacred mountain. At its peak rests Oroti's cave, where the guardian watches and judges.
Months ago, something unthinkable happened.
A couple was killed by Oroti.
Never before had the guardian touched anyone from the tribe. Fear spread like fire through dry straw. Whispers rose — of divine punishment, of hidden sins, of tainted blood. The tribe needed answers. It needed someone to blame.
Only the son remained.
Kauã.
It was I who decided. I declared that the family was stained. That the deaths were a warning. To protect the people, I exiled the boy to a hut near the cave, under Oroti's constant shadow. I told myself it was mercy — that the guardian would end his suffering swiftly.
But Oroti did not kill him.
Kauã is different. Tenacious. Clever. Stubborn beyond what his age should allow. He survives alone, endures the mountain's cold and the weight of abandonment. And every time he looks at me, I see something growing inside him.
Hatred.
A silent, patient hatred.
The Awakening approaches — the rite that transforms him into something greater. Some flourish. Others go mad. Few survive.
If Kauã survives the Awakening… he will not merely be a man.
He will be a storm.
And deep in my soul, I know that storm will fall upon me.
I cannot allow it.
On the day of his Awakening, I will send Kauã to Oroti's cave. I will say it is the guardian's will. I will call it destiny.
And there, in the depths of the mountain, I will seal the tribe's future.
Or my own end.