092

*7*

Atl of Tlamanih of the Eagle warriors, loyal to the Empress and of the first wave looked at the land of his pre-ancestors. The place where his ancestors had been before they had been his ancestors. A place of the past for his people, and now a place of the present. He touched the cold stone of the castle ramparts, It is a good castle, he reasoned. It is a shame that the Eagles had to destroy parts of it, but it was what had to be done. The prophecies had spoken and the lands of their pre-ancestors had to be retaken. The Totec had come home and the welcome had been bloody.

The castle had old bones and Atl was sad to have been a part of it's destruction. He loved old things, and the castle stretched back to a time of long ago, it's location known on Totec maps. Of course it had not been a castle on those yellowed parchments, it had been nothing more then a circle on a map. Perhaps a wooden wall encircling a small village, perhaps nothing more then a summer camp. The maps were not specific but the details had proven correct. The sky began to brighten as the very hint of the rising sun began to spread across the land.

Atl stretched his back and raised his hands to the coming morning. He welcomed the sun and thanks Quetzal for bringing forth another day. Atl was not a religious man, yet he knew of know warrior that did not thank Quetzal for the day when at war. These foreigners were soft, they wrapped themselves in the comfort of these stone walls thinking them to be unbreachable. Atl reasoned them primitive, the walls were strong but hiding within them while your enemy threw stone after stone against your wall was insane. The eagles rained stones down upon the castle walls day and night while the foreigners stayed within. Then the casters arrived and they added the power of the ancestors to the stones. Soon glowing red stones had lit the night sky and made short work of the walls. Old bones were strong, yet with enough force even they could be broken.