Play@YSDC

An indecisive Anna says: "Let's, carefully,"--glancing upward--"search the cenote again. If no dice then we'll try the bat's cave--I can't wait until it's dark, Quinn."

"That sounds like a good plan to me," says David.

Quinn joins in searching the cenote again.

You carefully search the cenote. You cannot tell if you are being observed from above but there is not reaction from Hernando as you look around.

David is first to notice something at the center of the cenote floor. Under a canopy of vegetation which shields it from observation above is a large Stelae. It is about 10 feet tall.

"Over here, everyone," says David. "I've found another stelae, right in the middle." He moves the vegetation aside to get a closer look at it.

Percy helps to move the vegetation.

Anna wipes away any moss or dead vegetation from the stela.

The Stelae has many carving of the giant bats. Some are attacking people and while other carvings show priests conducting human and animal sacrifices to them. The dominate carving is that of Camazotz which is on each side near the top.

Anna,As Anna is cleaning and examining the stelae, she feels a intense itching on the palm of her hand that is resting on the stelae.

"Sacrificing humans and animals to that god? Well, they just changed the god, but kept the rituals. With the same result it seems. Let's see if we find some other place to stay." - says Percy

Quinto, explorer

"Let's kill a giant bat, don its carcass, and scare Hernando as the angry god," jokes Quinto. He sometimes find humor relieves a stressful situation.

"I think I'd have a better chance of convincing him I was Quetzlcoatl," says David. "It worked for Cortes, at least. My guess is that sacrificial victims were put in the cenote to be eaten by the bats, and that'll be us if we don't escape by nightfall. Let's get some pictures of the stelae - in case we get out alive."

"What an itch," says Anna, scratching at her palm after she wiped at the moss on the stele.

"Who did the god change to?" she asks Percy. And to everyone: "Let's re-explore the bat's cave."

"I'm saying that they had other gods before, they changed the cult to this bat god to try to save themselve and they still perished. Did you hurt yourself?" -Asks Percy with curiosity.

When Anna removes her hand from the stelae there is a wet bloody hand print where her hand had been. Her hand is also covered in blood and it feels like it has been stuck with dozens of sharp needles.

"How did you do that?"- asks Percy shocked

"Dunno," mumbles Anna, examining her hand.

Anna wipes the blood from her hand but no wounds can be seen. Her palm still stings though.

Looking at the bloody hand print on the stelae it starts to disappear as if the stone was soaking up the blood.

"How odd," says David, peering at the stelae but taking care not to touch it. "This stone must have small, sharp protrusions sticking out of it, and it must be porous to absorb the blood like that. Perhaps the Mayans tied their sacrifices to the stelae."

"That's mighty strange," comments Quinto about Anna's hand and the stellae. "A property of the rock?"

He tries to chip part of it, any protrusions, off with his machete.

Anna wraps her hand with her handkerchief, "Must apply some Dr. LeGears."



She goes back into the bat's cave.