The air was arid and dry as the people, weakened and malnourished from hunger, waited for their daily bread from the rulers of their city. For years, famine had ravaged the city of Teotihuacan as the crops failed to yield the desired amount of harvest that was meant to feed the people of Teotihuacan. The plants and wildlife were also affected by the famine as the weather was less then ideal as the rains barely came during the long years of famine that had ravaged the land. The land itself had become a dry husk of itself as went from a thriving wet jungle full of food and fresh water to a dry and barren desert wasteland where survival was pushed beyond its limits. Many of its people tried to leave the land but the ruling class, the priests, and merchants, forbade as the gods deemed it necessary for the people to suffer in this famine-based hell on earth. Though others tried to leave the city, they were often killed or sacrificed to the gods as both a punishment and a warning to those who would dare to defy the gods and their priestly rulers. Now it was morning, and the hungry masses walked to the middle of the city to claim their daily bread in the hopes of staving off hunger and see a divine sign from the gods that these famine nightmares would end. And so hungry masses of starving and withered people, from half dead babies to the skeletal elderly who to even young men now mere shells of their former muscular selves now nothing more than a skeleton with a pot belly. Many of the starving masses now limped, crawled, or dragged themselves to the middle of the city to hear any news on whether the famine would end or at least get a scrap of food to eat. The hungry masses waited in the middle of Teotihuacan to hear the priests' utter prayers to the gods to end the famine as they waited for the hour of the high priest's arrival. When the hour approached, a plump and obese middle-aged man approached the stand and appeared before the hungry masses surrounded by heavily armed guards who were also well nourished. He raised his fat hands to the sky and utter chants before the gods of Teotihuacan and brought out a plump and juicy deer by two well dressed attendants. The deer was ordained with jade jewelry and marked with plenty of designs meant to curry favour with the gods and was led to block of stone. The attendants laid the deer down gently, as it was drugged to make it easier to control and laid before the fat high priest. The priest then pulled out an obsidian dagger and plunged into the belly of the deer and pulled out its innards. Using a stick, the priest moved the deer guts around to examine its organs and after a pause went up to the people and said "the gods have declared that the famine will not end yet" he said with a holier than thou art attitude. The people groaned at the thought that the famine would continue as people knelt to sob, others banged their fists on the ground, some yelled at the sky, while others just accepted without a second thought. The guards braced themselves for whatever was about to happen, but the people were too defeated or saddened to even think of rioting especially with guards so well armed and ready to kill anyone who dared to try. A year ago, a group of hungry citizens tried to start a riot at another ceremony for the gods, but they were massacred brutally by the guards and their bodies hanged in the city square as a reminder of what happens when you resist its priestly rulers. Now its people were to be starved or malnourished to fight anymore as the famine had robbed them of any hope or source of strength to move let alone resist. But one man, Teto, who was the only one in the starving masses who hated the priestly rulers for their incompetence during the famine that had ravaged many of his family members who died of starvation. Now, he was furious that once again the priests and the gods do nothing to stop the famine ravaging the land while the priestly rulers of the city dine on ample food found from somewhere, but where exactly thought Teto? As he ponders that question, he reminds himself of the events that happened last year when the group of city civilians dared to rebel against it's rulers with the leader himself being tied to a tree post and burned alive in a bonfire before the high priest ripped out his heart and ate in front of the hungry masses. Teto remembered that day vividly as the leader the small uprising was non other than his own father, Tetolone who was a well respected elder and minor priest who was well known for his kindness and wisdom among the people of Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan was saddened and left demoralized by the death of Tetolone and now his son Teto, was now frothing silently in thought of anger towards the tyrannical priestly elite. But then a thought came to Teto, what if there was a way to be rid of the priests, and then he remembered a story from his grandmother who told of a cave that was used as a secret storage of beans. Her father, and ancestor of Teto, was a high-ranking priest who commissioned the creation of a storage area in a secret cave that was filled to the prime with beans and water. Her father had commissioned it as part a secret plan to help the starving masses in the future as the city's ruling priesthood had become corrupt and feared that they would take any food for themselves at the expense of the people. He also remembered that an old nursery rhyme spoken by his grandmother in his adolescence that could tell him the location of this cave. The rhyme went as: "The eagle lands in the spot above, where life and death are intertwined, in a loving flower's embrace, where serpents dine and fine jade lines the walls and doors open to new life." Deciding that having a source of food would help the people, Teto goes to his house where he begins packing his belongings and waits for the cover of night before sneaking out of the city. He leaves the house at night as most people would be asleep and strides to the eastern gates where the guards are most lazy and corrupt. He sneaks past a hole in the wall that has not been patched in years and quickly heads to the direction of his grandmother's nursery rhyme. After a few hours, Teto stops to grab a drink from a nearby river wherein he hears footsteps nearby and hides in a log crawling with bugs. He then notices the individuals to be the guards of the corrupt priests who are on a hunt for food for the fat priests and their families. They carry assortments of meat and fruit that cannot be found in the city or nearby but somewhere far and then notices something as he spies a recognizable figure in chains being led by the guards and realizes it is old childhood friend Mateo. Then Teto makes the realization about various disappearances occurring among the city masses that the priests claim is the gods taking their sacrifices and realizes that they are selling people into slavery to nearby tribes for food and resources. Realizing, he cannot allow his childhood friend Mateo to be sold into slavery, Teto uses some nearby tools and resources to kill the guards and saves his friend Mateo. He then notices Manchineel in a nearby tree and notices that the guards are carrying apples that look like the deadly fruit as they also are green. He also notices that guards are preparing to rest for the night as they begin setting up camp and start putting food together to make a soup which includes the use of apples. Seeing an opportunity, Teto quickly goes into the camp unnoticed, using camouflage with nearby mud and plants, and takes the bundle of apples before the guards can notice and throws them out next to his log hiding spot. He then proceeds to go to the manchineel tree and gathers the deadly fruit into the basket and then sneaks it back into camp where the guards begin preparing to add into their soup unaware that the apples they are using are manchineel fruit. After finishing their meal, the guards go to sleep and rest for the night until hours later they can feel intense cramps in their stomach and notices that the palms of their hands are blistered and irritated as the deadly fruit leaves incapacitated. Luckily, Mateo did not eat the fruit and is safe from its harmful effects but even he worries it could be contagious disease and begins to cut off his chains desperately until Teto shows and helps his friend to free himself. After that, they kill the guards and hide their weapons for later while enjoying a nice feast of apples to satiate their hunger. Teto then says "now that we are well fed, I am looking for a lost cave filled with precious beans and water that can feed our fellow citizens" after which he tells him the nursery rhyme made by his grandmother. Mateo then remembers seeing a nearby area of water next to a sulfur pool where an eagles nest stands on a pillar of rock intertwined with dahlias. Next to those pools of water and sulfur, is a cave filled with the sounds of snakes and what are jade at least according to what Mateo remembered on his way to being sold as a slave to a nearby tribe. So, with tools in hand and a nursery rhyme in his head, Teto and Mateo make their way to secret reserve of food and follow the path that Mateo remembered, and they finally come across the very sight of the entrance towards the secret bean reserve. They see an eagle's nest resting on top of a stone pillar surrounded by lakes of water and sulphur with vines and rows of dahlia flowers covering the pillar of stone. Near it, an obvious cave entrance that emits sounds of slithering snakes while the green glare of jade ricochets off its walls. The duo had found the area mentioned by Teto's grandmother and now came the hard part of how to get past the traps of snakes, sulphur, and other dangers in the area to reach the reserve of beans so that they can feed their people to start an uprising. Then Teto remembered, when his grandmother passed away, during the first years of the great famine, she left Teto a key that would open the entrance towards the bean reserve. Luckily, Teto had kept the key as a necklace and a memento in remembrance of his beloved grandmother. Then he remembered another part of the rhyme: "the entrance found shall be set in stone" which made him, and Mateo look for a stone piece that would help reveal the entrance towards the bean reserve. After hours of looking, the duo collapsed and gave up and just as they were resting on a stone, which they had checked, Teto noticed a hole that look like it fit his grandmother's key and placed into the hole which set off a clicking sound. The area rumbled as stones began to move and ponds of water and sulphur began to ebb and flow as the ground began to move revealing a set of stairs around the bottom of the stone pillar and a path open on the other side of the stone platform. Following the path and going down the stairs they find a stone door which also has a key hole that fits Teto's key which he uses to open the stone door which opens to reveal an underground chamber of bags of beans, still in good conditions, with seeds sprouting leaves but still edible. He and Mateo also see a large cache of weapons and armor to fit a large army and so after eating their fill of beans, and a few bugs that Teto found in the log that he hid in, the duo sets and returns to the city. They then go to each other houses and convince friends and family to come with them who then bring in others with them to come to the place where food is ample. They approach the area of the bean reserve, stock up and eat plenty of beans while also scavenging the weapons and armor to arm themselves. With full stomachs and weapons galore the angry mob of once downtrodden citizens begin their march towards the city to free it from the tyranny of its priestly tyrants. They are met with a group of guards, also armed and ready, but they overwhelm the guards who are also overwhelmed by angry citizens who seeing their chance attack the unaware guards from behind as they stab and beat the guards before eating them alive. News of the guards' deaths at the hands of the rebel army reaches the priestly elites who begin evacuating only for their servants and guards to run off with whatever they can carry. The fat high priest, panics as the rebel army and its irate citizens breach the priestly quarters as they break down the gates and charge in killing the loyal guards and tyrannical priests. The fat priest is dragged in front of the angry mob only to come face to face with Teto, whose father Tetolone, was killed by the fat priest who meets the same fate of the bonfire as the hungry and angry citizens prepare him. They lather him up with spices and cooking oils and place under a fire skewer as they roast him alive while a fruit stuck in his mouth covers his cries of agony and pain as they citizens cheer on his suffering. Then they, to quote the expression "eat the rich," the once oppressed eat the now dead priest down to the bone. After ravaging whatever food and riches they can take, Teto, now their leader, decides to make the decision to leave the city as the area can no longer sustain them and their people as they make a new journey to find a new home away from the now abandoned Teotihuacan. After days of packing, and tears for the now abandoned city, the citizens begin the first step in a long journey as Teto can only look behind in tears at a now once great city not left to ruins for the ages of time. Weeks after its abandonment, the city now lies empty, devoid of citizens but overcome with growing vegetation and small animals that now roast in the highest ruins. But while the city has not seen a rainfall in ages, the first drop of a plentiful rainfall begins with a single drop of water.