Beyond human reason or understanding. Even Braulio Bergantin did not understand how he got his abilities or where they originated. He only knew it was a stolen legacy.
“It isn't enough to do what you like," said Ana de Bergantín. “The children need more food and top-quality clothes.”
The cries of the baby being rocked by his wife reached Braulio.
“I'll get the money," was his reply.
He went out that night, running away from the whimpering of his two children. He walked the neighborhood along the rooftops.
"What will you do like your father?" were the thoughts that settled in Braulio's mind, but they were not his.
He continued to glide along the rooftops.
In the six months that had passed since the death of his progenitor, he had been engrossed in investigating the source of the necklace and how his father had found it. What he ended up stumbling upon was his father's dark past. A stealthy thief of the rich, he was known in the underworld as El Jaguar. He would sell what he stole on the black market, always avoiding being recognized, yet his mark remained. He did this for 20 years without ever being caught by the authorities.
“I'll get the money," he whispered, hiding on one of the roofs of the church of La Vega.
His father managed the money to try to give himself comfort, regardless of the 42 children he had scattered among different women in the capital. At least he was trying to give his children a good upbringing.
At that time Braulio was still remorseful for what he had done by stealing his father's necklace at the time of his death.
In the small room of his mother's house, he had the misfortune of being the witness to find his father lifeless. There were no words of encouragement, comfort, or any nice memories. Surely he would have died 4 or 5 minutes before he arrived in the room. The heart stopped dead in its tracks and the body deflated like a balloon. The only present left was the necklace. He had never received a birthday or Christmas present, seeing him dangling that shiny object had the impulse to claim it.
-I'll get the money," he mumbled and slipped through the trees in the square.
He wandered through the narrow streets of the neighborhood into the woods.
He could never sell it, it was not composed of gold as he thought. It was another, a rarer metal that no one could tell him what it was. How old Braulio got it was the mystery he had taken to his grave, it seemed destined to be lost.
In six months he also discovered how to manage his powers. He managed to control the adrenaline that allowed the passage to the transformation and use his abilities to 50% being human.
"Why don't you steal like your father?" asked Tepeyollotl again, the god who resided in the necklace.
“You refuse to answer my questions, but you can ask yours," Braulio answered loudly.
He was in the woods near his home. Where he once hunted with his six siblings on his mother's side. At that time of night, the forest was buzzing with wildlife. He was just another hunter and the animals knew it when they noticed his presence. He put out his paws and swiftly brought down a deer that tried to flee.
"You are so rare, Braulio Bergantin. You use your skills to save people and now you hunt like a predator."
Braulio was following the conversation, but he was focused on immobilizing the animal. He snapped his prey's neck and when it stopped flailing to death, he responded:
-Why am I weird? Was my father normal? I must feed my litter.
"Never did a human who bore me care about other people's lives" Braulio could tell the god's confusion inside his head. He designed to cut off the valuable pieces of the deer. "Won't your wife be suspicious when you bring her all that meat? Besides, little Alexander needs medicine for his asthma, he couldn't even eat meat."
He deposited the meat on some leaves that he selected with accuracy. They would serve to preserve it until the morning he went to fetch it. He dug his claws into the ground and a small hole opened up in the earth.
"I didn't know you cared about my children!" he buried the meat, the next morning he would look for it and sell it to the first one willing to buy it.
"You are strange!"
"How many carriers have there been before me?" was a question already asked before.
I was running through the forest again. It was a new moon and he felt the power flow between his limbs. Animals were moving aside to give way to him. As he emerged from the wild he could make out laughter, snores, cries, and screams. Each sound he could divide and categorize.
He knew Tepeyollotl would not respond.
"All the way to tomorrow, Tepeyollotl god of mountains and jaguars!"
What power would you like to have?
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