Epunamun’s War Journal-Entry Two

Epunamun-Entry Two July 2nd, 1500 9:00 PM

Well, my unit sinchi is a complete jerk. Ugh. Well, I suppose that maybe it’s a good thing he’s so mean. Otherwise he might not be able to whip my group into shape. But still, it’s kind of a pain. Ayar-Cachi was not in good shape after our first encounter with him. I feel bad for the poor guy. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I should begin at the start of the day.

It was just like any other day, until I heard that drumbeat I knew meant it was time to go. I had seen my father leave with the military, then my brother, and now it was my turn. I said goodbye to my mother and father and then to Pahuac Mayta and Urpi. I looked around my little stone house and sighed. I would not see everybody for at least a month, and that was only it I survived.

“Epunamun!” the voice outside thundered. I sighed. This was it. As I headed over to the front door, my mother stopped me.

“Oh, my Epunamun, please don’t go!” she begged.

“Mamacona, you know I have to go. Please, don’t make this harder than it needs to be. I cannot deny the call to duty.” I told her.

“Epunamun, you are my cusi, and I cannot bear to lose you.” She moaned. “But since I cannot convince you to stay, I at least want you to have this.”

I gasped. She wanted me to have her sacred statue of Quilla, the moon god. It was her prized possession. She only took it out on the rarest occasions. She barely wanted people to look at it when she did! And now she was giving it to ME.

“Mother, I cannot take that. It is yours! I can’t even believe you’re considering this!”

“Oh come now, Epunamun. You need it much more than I do.” She reassured. Suddenly, the voice yelled out again, “EPUNAMUN!!”

“Don’t worry mother, I will take care of it with my life.” I promised.

“I believe you, son, now go, my little pachacutec.” She told me, and rushed me out the door, where I ran smack into the largest man I have ever seen in my life. He was at least 6’ 5”, his breath smelled of day-old chicha, and he was muscular in every sense of the word. His outfit was completely magnificent! He wore and incredible headdress, a cape made of what appeared to be poma hide, and his armor was every color of the rainbow!

“EPUUNAMUUUUN!” he bellowed so loud my ears popped. “What took you so long!?” As he went on about respect, discipline, and order, I allowed my eyes to wander a bit. I noticed I was the last one to be picked up for the unit; there were 9 other guys standing a little to the left. Other than Ayar-Cachi, (who was completely petrified) I only recognized a few faces. There were the two twins who lived down the road from me, a couple of my brother’s friends, and a few older men that I didn’t recognize.

“…and maintain dignity throughout this army! Do you understand!?” I realized he had wrapped up so I quickly straightened up and said, “SIR, YES SIR!”

“Goooood, so now you can go join the other soldiers.” He said. “Go right next to Ayarchi there.”

“Umm…sir…it…it’s…um, Ayar-Cachi, sir…” Ayar-Cachi mumbled. Well, at least the poor guy is standing up for himself, if rather meekly.

“Well, at this point, It’s not important, so until I need to know your name, you can be NYUNYUMA for all I care.” The sinchi rambled. Wow, I thought. I don’t even know the guy’s name and I hate him.

“Now, as you know, the Aztecs are obsessed with war, and apparently, it’s our turn to be their little war victims. Well, we’re not going to let them tear our hearts out, and you know why!?”

Nobody really wanted to answer, but we also didn’t want to feel the wrath of this guy either, so we all shouted out our loudest,
“WHY SIR WHY!?”

“I’ll tell you why,” he went on again, “because we’re INCAS!!! We have the SKILL, the STRATEGY, and the GUTS to beat these guys! Now, I am your general, Apo-Mayta. While on this expedition you will treat me with the highest respect or you will suffer unimaginable pain. HAVE I MADE MYSELF CLEAR!?”

“SIR YES SIR!”

“Now, listen. We will be traveling through some of the most dangerous terrain known to man, and we will have to be quick if we are to intercept the enemy. That means there is to be no fooling around whatsoever! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?”

“SIR YES SIR!”

“We will be traveling through EXTREMELY harsh circumstances nonstop for long periods of time. Often you will be very uncomfortable. But I do NOT want to hear ANY complaining. GOT IT!?”

“SIR YES SIR!”

This went on for about 10 minutes, as he explained strategy, group fundamentals, and a bunch of other things. But seriously, I’m just surprised he managed to come up with about 20 ways to get us to say ‘Sir Yes Sir’! Anyway, after that, we marched off to the town warehouse, where we were supplied with tents, eating utensils, fresh clothes, and enough food to last about 2 weeks, if we were conservative. Then, we were off.

We strapped our equipment to our backs and started hiking into the who-knows-where. We hiked for 12 hours, going about 26 miles, before Apo-Mayta finally let us settle camp at about 7:00. We still have a long way to go from now. There may be dangers and there may be risks. I don’t know what’s going to happen when we get farther and farther away from Incan territory. I don’t know if I’m going to survive. Heck, I don’t even know where we’re heading! But there is one thing I am completely sure of:

My unit sinchi is a complete JERK!