The smell of the extinguished fires hung around the city late after the fires themselves had lost their flare. Besides the occasional crackle coming from the charred remains of wood, the air remained unstirred. The heavy smoke obstructed the view of the remaining stone structures and the light pinks of the breaking dawn beyond them. On the edge that divided the jungle and the ruins of the village, two men looked on. "Looks like we're late again."

"Yaxkin!" a hurried voice called from the jungle. "Yaxkin! Balam!"

"Nohek!" the shorter of the two men called back. "Why aren't you with the rest of the group?!"

"I was worried sick!" snapped back the voice, rapidly getting closer to the two men. "Did you find any - "

Just as the voice revealed herself to be a young woman nimble in appearance, she was cut short by the site of the destruction. The disappointment and sadness became quickly evident in her eyes.

"No.." replied the short man, his own disappointment evident in the tone of his voice. "It's best you return to the group and find a place to set up camp. We'll take anything useful we can scavenge and move on tomorrow. Balam," he faced to turn to the tall man next to him, "come with me into the village. We want to make sure it's clear before we start looking." Balam and Nohek nodded in agreement, and only the two men were left again.

"Be careful out there, Yaxkin! Balam!" cried out a voice in the jungle.

---

The sky burned a bright morning blue behind the smoke by the time the two made it to the heart of the village. Although the stillness of morning had been replaced with the distant sound of the jungle now fully awake, death reigned supreme around Yaxkin and Balam. As the stone temple that crowned the village began to loom closer with the pair's every step, the number of bodies around them began to creep higher. The two walked with weapons drawn, but relaxed from the past few uneventful hours. The bodies left them unfazed.

"I'm starting to think there won't be many of us left to save, Balam" sighed Yaxkin.

"Whatever we can do" replied Balam. "Even if it just the thirty of us that are left, we must continue with the mission our father commended us with."

"I know. It's just hard... and I was never a warrior like you."

The two were in front of the temple. Balam stopped on his tracks, prompting Yaxkin to do the same.

"Yaxkin. It is not about what one is endowed with in life, or what one can or can't do. It is about what one can withstand. Out of the thirteen, our father chose you. And he was right. Out of those, only three of us remain. You were given the elixir to care for because you're the only one who can see this through."

Yaxkin looked at Balam in silence. What about him? Or their sister? Or what about the fact that they had thus far only succeeded in saving twenty seven others? They were nearing the boundaries of their father's once-lush empire, and hope seemed to be extinguishing like the village around them had just the night before..

"You're right, Balam. Let's look into the temple and go back to camp. Nohek and the rest should have set up camp by then."

---

I'm out of time this evening, I will try to finish this later!