Years have passed and I still don't possess the lightning. My name is Joaquín the Lightningless. I live in the villages of the Eastern mountains and have traveled far beyond the Wall of Laurels, beyond what is known by my village, only to possess the lightning and understand its power.
"Your sister mastered it at the age of five, Joaquín. You, at 18, can't even control it," my disappointed father said.
He didn't name me Joaquín the Lightningless, it was the people from my village. My father only called me Joaquín, not even my son, as he did with my sister.
I hadn't seen anyone after crossing the Wall, only wild animals that I tried to avoid. I couldn't even see a nearby village where I could talk to people and get information about the area. There was nothing more dangerous than not knowing where one is, but staying where people despise you was even more dangerous.
As I walked through the forest, I saw a strange mountain that looked like a trident. I didn't know its name, but surely the locals would call it Trident Mountain. Then I saw a huge waterfall falling into a river full of giant river snakes. I could see them from my position. Some frolicked on the shore, sunbathing, while others swam in the lagoon that formed. It was a spectacle worth seeing at night when their electric discharges illuminated the river. I envied them because they somehow also controlled the lightning.
"Conceited," I said as I tried to light my fire.
Then I remembered when we all went hunting and I got lost with my sister Anarella. She called the lightning to light the fire. The thunder that the clash against the firewood I had been collecting caused was so impressive that I haven't been able to forget it. It also served as a signal to give our location and for our father to find us. I was only 9 years old and my sister was 10.
"Conceited," I said again as I lay down and looked at the clear night sky. "They're all conceited."
While sleeping, I dreamed that a powerful lightning bolt pierced my chest and left a hole in my heart, taking my soul with it. I woke up sweaty and scared.
As I raised my gaze to see the lagoon, I came face to face with a river snake that was looking at me closely. It was only a few inches from my face. I regretted settling near the waterfall. I had forgotten that they could reach my location. The reptile opened its jaws to show me its sharp teeth and threw its fishy breath at me.
"Did you dream that you were struck by lightning?" I heard the voice and understood the question, but it was formulated in my brain as if I had another little voice whispering things to me.
"Did you ask if I dreamed that I was struck by lightning?"
I realized that the river snake was talking to me. I had heard myths that ancestral animals spoke in your mind, but I always thought they were lies. Ancestral animals were gods in our mythology.
"So, creature, are you as stupid as the fish that I devour every morning?" The snake opened its jaws even wider and looked fiercely at me. "I thought I glimpsed your dreams and glimpsed intelligence in your mind, but you are a thoughtless beast."
I tried to stand up, but fear prevented me from doing so.
The snake began to emit electric discharges from its body that I could feel, but not see. I felt my hair and fur stand on end.
"If the lightning rejects you, I will do the same," she indicated, and when she was about to touch me, I spoke.
"If I am a thinking being just like you, Oh divine river snake!" and I quickly prepared to bow. "I apologize, I never thought I would encounter an ancestral animal. I thought they were myths and children's tales."
"Ancestral animals? I don't know what you're talking about, creature. We all speak," the river snake raised its head, and down in the lagoon, all the snakes did the same. "We, since we have a reason, can think and speak, but you are new, a creature that I have never seen before. You are neither a rabbit, elk, or armadillo, you don't even look like a fish," she looked at me sternly. "But just because I have never seen anything like you doesn't mean I'm going to stay silent, that's bad manners."
I nodded in embarrassment.
"You're right, Oh divine river snake!," I said.
"My name is Coluber, none of that divine river snake nonsense. Are you flattering me? That won't work, I'll just look for a way to strike you," Coluber continued to look at me as if expecting something from me.
"I'm sorry, Coluber, it's not my intention. I don't know your customs, and you don't know mine. So there may be misunderstandings," I said and swallowed. "Did you say that the lightning rejects me?"
Coluber nodded seriously.
"We are also rejected by the lightning, the lightning hates us because we can produce our lightning without asking for favors," Coluber approached her tongue to my cheek and touched me. "You can also produce your lightning, that's why it hates you. You are like us."
I felt a chill run through my body, feeling the tension of the electricity flowing through every part of me. Coluber raised her head towards the sky, and I could see the lightning coming from her body to the heavens. I glimpsed a blue electric arc, creating beautiful branches that impacted the sky, defying it.
"We don't need to possess the lightning because we are bearers of our lightning."
I cried like never before at that news.
In that particular area, no humans lived, but the river snakes welcomed me among them. They taught me how to channel my "Fulmen," as they called it, to channel the electricity or lightning from within. In a year, I could project my white lightning.
"The white color tells us many things," Vipera, the oldest of the river snakes, explained to me. "White means that you have been holding onto your fulmen for many years, that is not good. Over time, it will acquire that bluish color. If you had continued to hold onto that power, the lightning would have sought you out and killed you."
"And now?" I asked, observing the cloudy sky. "It's going to rain."
Vipera also looked up at the sky.
"Well, now the lightning will have to settle for you being a Fulmen Propagator like us," they both watched as the lightning manifested and impacted the lagoon several times, its brightness illuminated the entire forest. "Well, now it will be harder for it to kill you because the lightning is jealous and thinks it should be the only one with such a gift."
As I had seen countless times, the river snakes manifested their fulmen to the skies. Millions of lightning bolts came from the ground to the skies and touched the clouds. Minutes later, the lightning responded, but it was millions against one.
"I will continue to be Joaquín the Lightningless," I said and manifested my fulmen to the skies.
This is my story and how I became the Fulmen Propagator, or as they would say in my village, the Lightning Propagator. This is just the beginning of my adventures to dethrone the lightning from the skies.
Cover and Banner made in Canva; AI-generated images in Canva, Separators made in photoshop
