"Ku...kulkan? The Feathered Serpent?" She stuttered, "I never liked that one. The stories used to give me nightmares when I was little."
Layla instantly backtracked, attempting to set the mousey girl back at ease, for fear that she might run back into her burrow, and never ever come back out. "Well, it has to do with the lost city we're looking for, right?" She did her best to remember what it was Dr. Ruiz had said to her last night, "He, uh... helped create the world and people or something, right? And he's supposed to guard the underworld and all that."
"Something like that," Lanie chuckled nervously, almost as if she were straining for words that didn't want to sound condescending or insulting. "Sometimes he's also referred to as the War Serpent, too," Layla instantly remembered that monaker from her encounter with Ruiz last night. Lanie continued, "basically, he's really similar to other references to dragons in most of the rest of the worlds folklore. Medieval Europe, Japan, China, Scotland, Greece... all of the dragon-like figures share so much in common in the ways they are described! It kinda makes you wonder if they're all talking about the same thing. Something fantastical, but based in something real and classifiable."
Lanie looked out onto the perplexed faces of her colleagues, and sputtered to find a more tactile method of explanation, "take Kukulkan... he was a feathered serpent by his description, and as a result, was known to go have the power of flight, much like those found in Eastern folklore. But then you have descriptions of him swimming and occupying sacred sacrificial pools and lakes, which is more akin to creatures like the Loch Ness Monster and other mythical sea serpents from sailing mythology. And in some cases, he was even said to have the ability to breathe fire, which harkens back to the dragons described in Medieval Europe," Lanie paused, realizing she was getting increasingly excited in discussing something she had a great deal of interest in, "it... it really makes you think, you know? Like maybe they're more than just stories."
Lanie trailed off and gave an anguished, fearful sigh, her mind going back specifically to the feathered Mayan serpent god, "anyway, Kukulkan was a key figure in Mayan Cosmology. He was one of those gods that were born of more human-like parents, him and his sister, Sacniete. Not a demigod, like what you see in Greek mythology. No, Kukulkan was a full god, but, you know, he definitely wasn't just another humanoid god like the others. It was clear very early on that Kukulkan was... different."
"Clearly," Becca scoffed after stumbled a bit, recovering as best she could after tripping over a protruding root, "I mean, he was like a giant snake, dragon... thing... right?"
"Well, yes... kinda... but, I mean, you'd be surprised. He really wasn't like that as much at first, though," Lanie was clearly straining to put something very enigmatic into real-world terms, "but you have to remember, this is a creation myth, after all. Before people and everything. It probably isn't meant to be taken completely literally. And besides, it was more like, he was this monstrous creature, with this primal, aggressive side that couldn't be suppressed. He's described at this point in the texts as a giant flying serpent, with fangs the size of a man's forearm, and wild exaggerated feathered fringe from his head to his tail," Lanie shuddered again, before going on, "yeah, I know. As a kid, pretty much the stuff of nightmares! But his sister, Sacniete, she still loved him, regardless of what he was, or what she knew he'd eventually become. She made it her duty to protect him and confined him with her, deep inside an underground cave, where she could keep him safe. She brought him food, kept him company. But as the years went on, that just wasn't enough for Kukulkan.
"Eventually, when he grew big enough, he viciously killed his own sister, swallowed her whole, and attempted to escape from the cave, only to unwittingly fly further into the heart of Xibalba. Now, he's said to be trapped down there for good this time, a sentry of the cave that leads to the Mayan underworld, and still guarded by the spirit of his sister, who's spirit is forever tethered and bound to his. Sacniete is usually portrayed through the artwork that accompanies Kukulkan as embodying the image of a large black dog."
Layla froze, mid-stride. "Can you... uh... run that last part by me again?"
"What, about Sacniete, like a black dog?" Lanie seemed taken aback by the interruption, but continued anyway, as she wondered at a patch of cerulean orchids they were passing off to the side of their path, "It's kind of similar I guess the idea of a Hellhound in Western folklore. It was a sort of curse, I suppose, for showing her brother as much sympathy and compassion as she did," Lanie gave a slight chuckle, "I know, she got a pretty bad break, right? And she usually gets overshadowed in the literature by her giant feathered serpent brother, as you can imagine."
Lanie could tell by the petrified looks on her colleagues' faces that maybe she'd gone a little too deep into the folklore, and decided to reel back a bit. "But, you know, it isn't all bad. We have Kukulkan to thank for aiding in creating humanity, of course, not to mention smaller things like the seasonal wind currents, earthquakes... Blood sacrifices were made annually in his name to appease him, and guarantee regularity of the seasons and the harvest... The Cult of Kulkulkan is still around, too, and was pretty much the first Mesoamerican religion to survive past the old ways. Even if it is mostly practiced in secret now."
Layla continued to be mostly speechless, still trying to wrap her head around
