~
The morning sunlight spilled upon the corpses in a long yellow triangle that widened as the grunt officers pushed open the doors into the Temple of the Wind Crystal.
General Uriost slowly made her way up the last few steps behind the soldiers she borrowed from Sergeant Sabina’s outpost in Keeto. When she entered the Temple, her eyes fell upon two extra bodies among the Temple Keepers that her platoon had dispatched earlier the day before.
She didn’t know who the naked orange tabby was, but the grey hare laying sprawled on the altar steps, where the sun cascade the most from the open doors, was wearing Alliance gear with a red cape that was entangled around one leg.
Sergeant Aruto. Uriost’s eyes narrowed.
The young wolf’s hard-set eyes scanned up the steps, to the altar top as she heard footpaws coming up the steps behind her,
It was bare.
Under her visor, searing heat burned Uriost’s cheeks.
“So he’s been here, then,” she heard a voice above her ear.
The shadow of Commander Blacktail spilled into the triangle of light cast against the interlocked stone floor. He then moved in front of Uriost, his golden cape flapping with each step. She couldn’t see his face, although his rhino-horned visor was up.
“Yes, Commander,” Uriost murmured.
“And you said his two archers came through Keeto last night?”
“They apparently did.”
“But no access request form was filled out and sent to Mecia over radio?”
“No, sir.”
Commander Blacktail stopped at the foot of the altar steps and regarded the bare table of worship.
“That’s inconvenient,” he stated with two paw digits against his relaxed lips.
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay, well – let Doblah know, and I’ll head straight for Durnam this afternoon then, when we get back.”
Uriost looked away from the doorframe and gave a short nod to the swordsman officer in her platoon, so that he could alert the two grunts and three archers from Keeto to prep the horses.
“That’s the only one he has, right?” Commander Blacktail’s voice echoed from inside the door.
Uriost peeked inside and saw him sitting with shoulders relaxed, in the very front pew off to the right-side of the Temple.
“I believe so, sir,” she said.
“All right – let Doblah know that, too. Procedure is procedure.”
Uriost froze, remembering her conversation with Sergeant Sabina.
“Yes, sir,” she said, and started down the steps, back into the stony, pillared, valley floor of the Stone Zephyr.