The air was thinner than Miyatz Yax Balam was used to as his entourage made it's way through the mountains surrounding the land of Puh--the 'Place of Cat-tail Reeds' as his people called the spot of creation and the raising of the World Tree. He was to be the ambassador from the Kinich Ahau of Lakam-ha to the Jaguar King Nacoxoc of the Ah Puh...the Toltecs. From his kingdom of Bak in the Toktan Valley the journey had been long, but not overly hard...for a good part of the journey had been done by water, and parts along the sacbeh or 'white road' which led from one city to another in the lands of the True People. It was only this last stretch in the high mountains of the Mexica that was difficult--the bearers had no easy task carrying their burdens in the thin air.

At the top of the ridge, he had his bearers stop, and dismounted from his palanquin to get a better view of the capital of the Ah Puh...a magnificent sight which dwarfed the cities of his land! It seemed that the city rose straight from the waters of Lake Texcoco, it's stepped pyramids rising to the skies. He could see canals and roads running through the city, dividing it into districts--and wondered where he should go? No doubt the guards at the city's gates would direct him!

"Ba Tzib, do you think we can make the city before night fall?" he asked of his chief secretary. The older man, who had been to the city once before, looked at the sun, then at the great city below.

"Sahal ahau, I would recommend lodging at the guest house just down the road...we shall lose the sun before we reach the city walls...the distance is deceptive from this height."

Yax Balam nodded, and climbed back into his covered litter, motioning for the party to make for the inn compound just below the ridge line. The bearers lifted their burdens again, grateful for the brief respite. At the inn, Miyatz took a private chamber, leaving the others to the common room. He noted that the room had been provided with blankets, which he had found useful in the mountains, despite the summer's date of 12 Chikchen 3 Mol.

Early in the morning, Miyatz Yax Balam--Learned Green Jaguar--set off again for the capital of the Ah Puh. Deceptive distance indeed!--it was past the noon hour before they found themselves in the compound reserved for visiting lords. He sent Ba Tzib off with a message for the Jaguar King, detailing his arrival and the list of goods he had brought in gifts: cacao beans, fine jade ornaments, fine cloth and feathers from many birds, polished obsidian and flint knives, and a fine young girl to be a bride of Nacoxoc, cementing the peace between the lands of Ah Puh and his own kingdom of Bak. He hoped that the king would be pleased with the last gift, Ix Sak Kuk, for the lady was a relative of his own lord Janab Pacal, king of Lakam-ha the mightiest popul of the True People, and a beauty with raven locks and deep amber eyes he had felt on him every day of the journey.