48 pages • 1 hour read
J. C. CervantesThe Storm Runner
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 12-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
Against his better judgment, Zane goes to the volcano and brushes up against day-old demon runner poison that soaks into his skin. Brooks arrives and cuts his arm open to purge the poison. When the poison is gone, Zane’s arm heals by itself. Hearing his dog whimper again, Zane starts pulling loose rocks from one of the walls, revealing a narrow passage to a sacrifice chamber that is meant to be used to free Ah-Puch. Zane feels the god’s power calling from a pool of foul liquid. Above, demon runners hatch from pods around a stalactite. As the creatures jump down to attack, Zane grabs Brooks’s hand and jumps into the pool.
Chapter 13 Summary
The demon runners give chase, and Zane hauls Brooks through the water to a cavern, where the demon runners disintegrate. Brooks isn’t breathing. Suddenly, Zane hears Ah-Puch’s voice. The god states, “I can save her” (125). Desperate, Zane picks up the owl statue from which the voice emanated and offers to free the god if Ah-Puch brings back Brooks and his dog. Ah-Puch agrees, and Zane smashes the statue, freeing the god of death.
Chapter 14 Summary
Ah-Puch appears as a tall, handsome man wearing a crisp suit. With a snap of his fingers, he transports them to the top of a skyscraper in Los Angeles and offers Zane a new deal. He promises to save Brooks and Zane’s dog if Zane agrees to become one of his soldiers of death. Zane argues that they already had a deal, but Ah-Puch dismisses this, claiming that he has changed his mind. With no other recourse, Zane agrees, and Ah-Puch marks his wrist before throwing him off the building.
Chapter 15 Summary
Instead of splatting on the pavement, Zane wakes in his bedroom to Brooks shaking him. The two can now hear each other’s thoughts, and Brooks realizes that Zane is part god. She learns that Zane traded his life to save her and starts to rage about how Ah-Puch will kill him soon, but Zane tells her not to worry. He plans to stop the god before Ah-Puch can transform him into a soldier of death.
Chapter 16 Summary
Zane relates his predicament to his uncle and another neighbor. Meanwhile, Zane’s seer neighbor has transformed into a chicken. Through telepathy, she tells Zane, Brooks, Zane’s uncle, and the other neighbor that the goddess Ixtab has taken over Xibalba and was the one who tried to kill Zane to prevent him from freeing Ah-Puch. Now, Zane has a plan to confront Ah-Puch, and the seer neighbor orders him to take one of her magic eyeballs so that she can keep an eye on him. Zane is disgusted but obeys her instructions.
Chapter 17 Summary
Zane’s other neighbor gives Zane his prized possession—a very hot pepper that might be strong enough to harm a god. Zane’s uncle packs tools that will make good weapons, causing Zane to wonder, “How do you prepare to save the world when you’re a featherweight up against an immortal heavyweight?” (159). Zane’s plan involves finding the hero twins. In Mayan mythology, they are the only non-gods who have ever killed a god. Zane wants to convince them to help destroy Ah-Puch. Brooks argues that the twins are pompous jerks who won’t help, but Zane convinces her that they have to try.
Chapter 18 Summary
After driving for several hours, Zane, Brooks, and Zane’s uncle stop at a burger joint. Demon runners disguised as doubles of the group arrive and grab Brooks, intending to bring her to Ixtab. The group fights off the demon runners, and during the battle, Brooks feels something inside her break. Back on the road, she is quiet and angry because she can’t transform. She states, “I’m...I’m not a hawk anymore” (181).
Chapter 19 Summary
Zane sleeps during the next part of the drive and wakes when they arrive at a beach in San Diego. He wades out into the water and meets the goddess of time, who was sent by his father. Zane asks who his father is, but the goddess says, “Only he can reveal himself to you” (193).
She also explains why Zane’s father has stayed hidden from Zane. When the part-god hero twins were born, the gods grew jealous and proclaimed that no god would ever again produce a godborn. Zane’s existence is therefore in direct violation of this decree, and if his father were to claim him, the gods would kill them both. Before the goddess leaves, she gives Zane a tooth made of jaguar jade, and a giant wave pushes him back to shore.
Chapter 20 Summary
On the busy streets of Los Angeles, Zane finds himself face-to-face with a street musician who offers to tell his future, hinting at Zane’s prophecy. Brooks pulls him away, and when Zane wonders if he should pay the guy for more information, she tells him no, insisting, “You make your future, Zane” (206). Brooks leads the group to a surfboard shop which is staffed by a Mayan giant who tells them that all the gods are aware that Ah-Puch is now free. The giant becomes suspicious of Zane’s identity, and Zane starts to feel warm with the weight of all the lies he has told. Suddenly, his nose starts bleeding.
Chapter 21 Summary
Zane feels a spinning sensation and finds himself standing atop a pyramid in jaguar form. Another jaguar approaches and introduces itself as Hurakan. He is one of the Mayan creator gods and is also Zane’s father. Hurakan tells Zane to forget the hero twins and seek out Sparkstriker in the Old World. Zane keeps asking questions that Hurakan barely answers. Needing to blow off steam, Zane starts to run in his powerful jaguar form and revels in his speed.
Chapter 22 Summary
Zane awakens at the giant’s home, aching all over. The giant gives Zane some hot chocolate, which makes Zane feel better and reveals his supernatural nature. Brooks lies easily, telling the giant that Zane is a magician. Her skill at lying makes Zane wonder “how many lies she’d convinced [him] of” (236). Despite what Zane’s father said, the group still plans to attend a party that the hero twins are hosting. The giant gives them enchanted clothes that will hide the quality each dislikes most. For Zane, it will conceal his limp. Before they leave, Zane mixes the hot pepper that his neighbor gave him with the leftover hot chocolate, thinking that he might get a chance to induce Ah-Puch to drink it.
Chapters 12-22 Analysis
Despite Zane’s vehement objections to freeing Ah-Puch, his desperation over Brook’s condition compels him to fall in line with the prophecy, and this event represents the author’s first major foray into the recurring theme of Choices and Their Consequences. Although Zane knows that freeing Ah-Puch is a terrible idea, saving Brooks is more important to him than keeping the god of death and destruction imprisoned. In the heat of the moment, he makes the choice to save the few at the potential expense of losing infinitely more in the long run. Thus, Cervantes crafts a scenario that reflects a classic ethical dilemma, and although Zane makes a choice that may result in widespread catastrophe, he nonetheless remains a sympathetic character in his unswerving loyalty to those he cares about. Ultimately, he is presented with an impossible choice that has no clear answer, and his decision to prioritize those he cares about supports his heroic nature. In this moment, he steps up to become the hero that the world needs even though his choice technically precipitates the crisis that necessitates a hero in the first place. By saving Brooks, Zane has solved one problem only to unleash an even greater one, but in his steadfast determination to find a solution, he also demonstrates the value of forging ahead no matter how many obstacles stand in the way of one’s final goal.
As the plot accelerates, Cervantes’s in-depth world-building is showcased in her creative reinterpretations of Mayan mythology and culture. For example, Zane’s seer neighbor represents all seers of Mayan culture, for such people supposedly had the ability to glimpse the future and the realm of the gods, making predictions and gaining insight for their communities. Within the context of the novel, the seers are turned into chickens to prevent them from communicating what they have seen, and Zane later learns that this is the product of his father’s and Ixtab’s influence. Further references to ancient Mayan culture can be found in the hot pepper that Zane’s mortal neighbor gives him, for hot peppers were a prominent aspect of both cuisine and medicine in Mayan culture. Thus, the author demonstrates her ingenuity for world-building by inventing peppers that are a potential weapon against Ah-Puch. Similarly, Brooks’s giant friend is a strong allusion to ancient Mayan mythology, for giants called quinametzin are linked to both the Mayans and Aztecs and were supposedly punished by the gods for refusing to show obeisance to them. Cervantes also brings ancient Mayan culture into a modern day context when the giant uses ancient Mayan remedies, perfecting the hot chocolate recipe for the drink that he uses to heal Zane. Finally, when Zane meets his father and takes on the form of a jaguar, this scene stands as Cervantes’s homage to the fact that the jaguar is associated with powerful hunters in Mayan mythology.
When Zane receives an offer from a street musician to tell his future, this moment represents the temptation that a protagonist must endure on a classic Hero’s Journey. Up until now, Zane has relied on himself and his own choices to survive, remaining true to The Journey of Self-Discovery. However, this scene represents an opportunity for Zane to pass along his burden. This offer is tempting because he is tired and afraid, and in a brief reversion to a childlike mindset, he only wants someone else to tell him what to do. However, Brooks’s objection drives home the point that hearing about the future is not the same thing as controlling it, and might in fact derail Zane’s forward momentum. If the street musician were to give Zane a direction for the future, this knowledge would influence Zane’s every decision. By skipping the predictions, Zane takes full control of his future, for although he has no direct power over what will happen, he won’t be shackled by someone else’s perceptions and will remain free to choose his path as he sees fit.
