"inkstone" by nick tassone:

a chief of the calchaquí valley, inkstone wore his colored feathers proudly, relaying the gods' orders through his soul and out on his tongue. on the twenty seventh of may (the month of fertility), he was ironically murdered in cold blood by his fourth wife, to which he had not proved his potency: a large concern in his choir of fellow argentinian natives.

while this was an imminent problem in his life, and later his death, his impotency largely affected the community as a whole. when he was able and alive, inkstone watched every night for the unrest in the hills, where the 'yotes, pines, and the god of death hungered. as long as he watched, they stayed (a deal he had made which involved no more than 12 slain wilde geese a month). but as a result of his murder (or sacrifice depending on who you ask), the god of death, mictlantecuhtli, was freed from the constraints of chief inkstone's gaze and with a free swoop and very few outcries from the argentinians, removed them from their homes and showed them the door to a world where the ungrateful stay.