On the longest day of the year, the sweltering sun beat down upon the earth. The maize in the fields withered under the weight of the sun and turned brown with the heat. White puffy clouds gathered briefly in the sky only to drift lazily away without bringing the relief of rain.

The peasants went to the priests of Tlaloc and askes, 'Priests of Tlaloc, can you ask him to bring us the rain our maize needs to grow?'

The head priest of Tlaloc said, 'I fear all is not good in Cem-Anahuac. Mighty Tlaloc has forsaken us. He is too happy and has failed to bless us with his tears for several months.'

'The great god, Tlaloc, must be appeased before he will bless us with his tears,' the head priest of Tlaloc continued.

A Huitzilopochtli priest exclaimed, 'Tlaloc is weak in comparison to the mighty Huitzilopochtli! 'Why cry about the crops when you can wage a bloody war?' he asked.

The head Tlaloc priest declared, 'Bring me two captives to be sacrificed!'

An albino and a hunchback were brought from the menagerie and sacrificed to Tlaloc. The head priest of Tlaloc cried out, 'Drink of our offering, Tlaloc, drink!' as he cackled insanely. The steps of the Ipac Tlamanacali flowed with fresh blood, but still the sun bore down on the corn and the clouds lazily drifted across the rainless sky.

The head priest of Tlaloc decided that Tlaloc's thirst for blood has not been quenched, but that they must have rain or will have no crops. The head priest of Tlaloc declared, 'Tlaloc requires a more suitable sacrifice!'

A Huitzilopochtli priest boasted, 'We shall send our best warriors to bring back the necessary xochimique to satisfy both our gods and Tonatiu as well!' The Cuachic Extli-Quani sharpened his maquahuitl and readied his knights for war.

The head priest of Tlaloc said, 'Very well, we shall make preparations. Tlaloc must be appeased!' The head priest of Tlaloc grinned evilly as he thought about the sacrifices to come.

Atop the Ipac Tlamanacali the priests of Tenochtitlan gathered to greet Tonatiu as he rose into the morning sky. Tlazolteotl priest protested, 'This drought bodes not well continuing through the solstice.' and one of the Tonantzin priests agreed, 'No, I fear it will be a most diastrous season if something cannot be done soon.'

The head priest of Tlaloc exclaimed, 'Is your faith in the Gods so weak that you mewl like kittens at the first sign of trouble? Do not fret, I have taken things into my own hands so that Tlaloc shall bless us with his tears!

The head priest of Tlaloc continued, 'The priests of Huitzilopochtli and the Cuachic Extli-Quani are now organizing a war party to obtain more suitable xochimique to sacrifice.'

Shortly, the Cuachic Extli-Quani, also known as Blood Glutton, along with a complement of Jaguar Knights, and two Huitzilopochtli priests arrived.

Blood Glutton said to the head priest of Tlaloc, 'Mixpantzinco.' and smiled at him. 'We are nearly ready, we need only a few more to complement our war party,' he said. Zafira, Cirus, Nietzsche, McDougan, Amairgen and Xerox promptly volunteered.

The head priest of Tlaloc said to the Cuachic Extli-Quani, 'A proper sacrifice should include a mayan, an anasazi and a noble from south of the city.' Blood Glutton nodded in agreement with the head priest of Tlaloc as he picked up his oblong wooden chimali and shook it vigorously.

The party headed south of the city and made their way to the high plateau of Quanunahuac -- a favorite summering place of the Mexica nobles. Upon their arrival, the Cuachic Extli-Quani sought out the most powerful of the nobles, announcing to him, 'You must serve the needs of the priests of Tlaloc!' Blood Glutton said to the nobleman.

'This is a far far better thing you do,' Zafira assured the nobleman who shivered uncomfortably. Amairgen urged the nobleman to come with them as Xerox wailed, 'This is not going to work!'

The nobleman shook his head, saying, 'I have a wife and family.' He then got down on his knees and begged for his life. Zafira reminded that his family would be honored by his sacrifice and Amnairgen said they would prosper through his death. Then Cirus asked the nobleman coldly, 'Do you have honor?'

'His life has more meaning! Take mine, please,' Xerox interrupted, begging the Cuachic Extli-Quani.

'Dunnae be shuishidal?' McDougan protested, slurring every word, to Xerox who only sighed, 'I have nothing to live for. I was disowned by the only family I had. If I can make some use of my life I will do it.'

Blood Glutton reminded Xerox that the head priest of Tlaloc had spoken of specific people to be sacrificed. 'Then your sacrifice would not be fitting,' Zafira said in a cold distant voice to Xerox. 'Do you think the gods are pleased with just anyone?'

Amairgen threatened the nobleman, saying that if he did not accompany them, then his wife would. 'No,' Cirus argued, 'There is no need for threats it is his choice.'

The slate grey morning sky looked unpromising. But the nobleman said, 'It is true there is great prestige in being sacrificed. I will come with you,' and sighed loudly.

'You are an honorable man,' Cirus told the nobleman as Blood Glutton reassured the nobleman's wife that her husband's life would not be meaningless if it pleased Tlaloc and sent blessed rain to their people.

The group travelled south though the Uaxyacac, where the peoples of the Olmeca, Mixteca, and Tzapoteca sometimes cohabitated and into the Tzempuula Mountains. In those mountains there is much cover for the large cats that roam the slopes and lichen covered paths threaten to send you sliding over the edge of the narrow trails that meander high above the timberline.

As Zafira was drinking water from a stream, a wild boar charged! Quick reflexes saved Blood Glutton as he managed to sidestep the wild boar's tusks.

Zafira kicked the wild boar as McDougan rushed at it, screaming 'Oonder theshe shtonesh will lie yer bonesh, a-hopin for shalvation; Boot if sic ash ye in heaven theer be, then weelcoom, Hail! damnation!!' paralyzing the wild boar. One of the Jaguar Knights leapt between Blood Glutton and the boar and pierced the beast's heart until blood gushed out as it slumped to the ground, silent.

They made camp there for the night. While enjoying a fine dinner of roast pig, Amairgen said, thoughtfull, 'I did not know there were Mayans left in the world.' McDougan, drunk on celebratory ale, assured him there were to the south and passed out.

The next morning as the party was passing near the city of Tecuantepec, which in the Mexica tongue, is known as Jaguar Hill, and they whispered nervously among themselves, some saying they felt they were being watched, others saying they were being followed. When suddenly a pair of jaguars closed in for the kill!

The party reacted quickly and soon enough one of the Jaguar Knight's three pointed spear went in one side of one jaguar and came out the other while Zafira's perfectly executed kick crushed the other jaguar's head!

Looking around to survay their damages, the group realized Blood Glutton was lying on the ground near one of the jaguar corpses, clutching his ankle.

Blood Glutton sighed, 'My ankle! I have twisted it...' He then tried to stand only to flop helplessly back to the ground.

Zafira flips him over her shoulder and moved him to a more comfortable location. Cirus urged him to sit still, saying he was a doctor as Amairgen fashioned a poultice out of a handful of barberries and several strips of gauze and wrapped it around Blood Glutton's swelling ankle.

Nietzsche chanted a spell that caused wings to sprout from Blood Glutton's back, but unused to such sorceries, he wasn't able to keep all his weight off the ankle and winced in pain with every step he took.

Blood Glutton said, 'I fear we shall have to return to Tenochtitlan and hope that the nobleman's sacrifice will be sufficient.' Amairgen exploded, claiming that they if they ignored the gods it would end in peril!

Blood Glutton insisted that he could not travel any further, but he could stay there until his ankle healed and he could return to Tenochtitlan but someone else would have to lead the party to finish their quest.

'I will lead,' Amairgen said and Blood Glutton nodded his agreement and thanked him for his offer. And as the party left Blood Glutton, Xerox said in parting, 'Rest m'lord we will save thy people.'

After passing through a desolate land of dun-colored flats, the group eventually came to the shores of a vast lake, where fishing was plentiful and little clusters of farming villages huddled close by.

They came across a woman working in the fields. So party approached her and asked if she was a Mayan. The Mayan nodded and sighed loudly, 'We were a once proud people.'

'You can be a proud people again,' Zafira assured her as they explained the head priest of Tlaloc's plan to her. 'Your sacrifice is needed for the crops of all,' Amairgen pleaded with the Mayan.

The Mayan, assuming that they were joking with her, eyed them warily. 'What care I of the crops of people so distant?' she asked.

'We are serious,' Zafira insisted. 'Tlaloc requires your sacrifice to bring rain.' To which the Mayan woman replied, 'He is not my god, what care have I?'

McDougan began to wonder if this was all really necessary and Amairgen reminded him that the Gods were demanding their sacrifice and they would withhold the rain until they were appeased.

'But there will be a greater reward in the end for those who sacrifice for the lives of others,' Xerox suggested to the Mayan and Amairgen pleaded, 'One of you must come with us, or all will die!'

'I'm nae coompletely shure I like thish...' McDougan said, uneasily slurring every word.

Cirus tried to scare the woman saying, 'You will die of starvation.' The woman asked him, 'Have you looked around? Our crops grow steadily here. We are not starving. The fish are plentiful in the lake.'

'It is obvious that she cares not about others,' Xerox grumbled to himself, disgusted. He thought a moment and then asked her, 'Is it true that you do have a sister?' The Mayan reluctantly admitted, 'Perhaps. What do you know of her?'

Zafira muttered frostily, 'Only where she lives.' Pressing this new advantage, Xerox quietly asked the Mayan, 'She is living with the Aztecs is she not?' The woman agreed that she was. She had been captured on a hunting raid three years before.

Zafira sharpened The Soulseeker and said in a cold distant voice to the Mayan woman, 'Come with us, or she dies.' The woman cringed away from Zafira in mortal terror. 'I work for the greater good,' Zafira said shrugging as the others gasped at her.

McDougan whapped Zafira across the back of the head to bring her to her senses -- a dead Mayan would do them no good. Zafira said coldly, 'They will give themselves willing, if rather fearfully.'

Amairgen said outraged, 'She must realize that this sacrifice will protect her family as well!'

Xerox said, barely audible, to the Mayan, 'What would you do for her life and safety?' as he motioned for the others to be quiet. He repeated, 'What would you do for her life?'

'Your sister is in terrible danger,' Xerox said, sounding afraid, to a Mayan. 'Terrible,' Zafira echoed as she ran her thumb along the edge of The Soulseeker, grinning evilly. Xerox continued, 'As are we all if you do not come with us.'

The woman sighed heavily and said, 'Well, if I must trade my life for my sister's, so be it.'

'We must hurry,' Xerox said, 'There is a greater evil coming.' Zafira laughed at Xerox and asked 'The return of Quetzlcoatl? Or do you mean Cortez?' She suddenly spun about, her arms outstretched, yelling, 'A great evil will descend upon you...SMALLPOX!'

Xerox shook his head and whispered, rather frightened, 'Something much deeper.' And in the distance they heard the eerie cry of a hunting bird of prey...

As they travelled north, the party puzzled over the head priest of Tlaloc's third choice of a sacrificial victim. One of the Jaguar Knights reminded them that the Anasazi they brought back must be worthy or Tlaloc would not be pleased. McDougan suggested drunkenly, 'There ish one Anasazi that it wuid be guid tae get rid of - the vviolent fierce Anasazi.' Zafira agreed, 'The fierce looking one is the strongest, and the best warriors make fitting sacrifices.'

After a long and arduous journey, the party arrived in a corn field in Chaco. Where they found the man they sought working in the field with several others.

Amairgen told the fierce-looking Anasazi man, 'You must come with us. The gods demand a sacrifice' to you. But the fierce-looking Anasazi man just looked at him questioningly.

Amairgen continued, 'Follow us, your life belongs to the gods now.' The man looked puzzled and said, 'Me?' Amairgen nodded solemnly, saying, 'Your sacrifice is needed to bring the rain.'

'Your life becomes worthy today,' Zafira explained to the fierce-looking Anasazi man. Nearby a thin Anasazi man poked his stick into the ground, and then placed a single seed in the hole that he made. Xerox bent down and deftly plucked the seed from the hole.

The fierce-looking Anasazi man peered at Zafira, looking her up and down, while Xerox examined the seed.

The fierce-looking Anasazi man looked at the sky and sighed loudly. 'We sure could use some rain, but...' he said hesitating, 'The gods have never demanded anyone's life before...'

'You have been determined to be the strongest and bravest of the Anasazi people,' Zafira declared. 'We will reward you by allowing you to be sacrificed.' The fierce-looking Anasazi man flexed his bulging, impressive muscles, preening at her words.

Zafira told the man about how she had had a vision where a God had appeared to her and told her that the strongest and bravest of the Anasazi had been chosen by Tlaloc himself.

The fierce-looking Anasazi man asked, 'Chosen?' and he looked again at the sky, sighing, 'We sure could use the rain.' Zafira explained, 'Your blood will feed Tlaloc, and in return, he will bring rain.'

The fierce-looking Anasazi man asked, 'What do you mean feed?' as McDougan whimpered softly. 'They have real rituals there,' Zafira said in a cold distant voice. 'None of this silly dancing. It will be as if you become a part of the god!'

'What does an aztec god have to do with me?' the Anasazi man asked. He 'I am an Anasazi!!' he said proudly thumping his chest. 'Are you not tired of your simple, pitiful existence?' Zafira asked the fierce-looking Anasazi man. 'Sowing meager crops in the sand?' The fierce-looking Anasazi man shook his head and stormed away.

'I am quite happy.' piped up the thin Anasazi man. 'Yet, the rains have not come for some time, no?' Amairgen said wisely to a thin Anasazi man. 'Although people keep dancing and dancing,' Zafira said under her breath.

A thin Anasazi man said, 'If it doesn't rain soon, we all may die.'

Xerox suddenly asked 'Hey, where did you obtain this seed?' The thin Anasazi man replied it was from the storehouse, from last years crops.

Xerox asked if if he was sure as he held up a root with a large nob at the top that looked like a head and four limbs that looked very much like arms and legs. Xerox accused the thin Anasazi man, 'You were about to plant a mandrake root amongst your crops!'

Xerox said, looking scared, to a thin Anasazi man, 'The mandrake would have grown in with the crops and you all would have died from poisoning.' The thin man cowered away from Xerox in confusion. 'You owe me your life,' Xerox threatened the thin Anasazi man.

The thin Anasazi man hung his head and quietly said, 'Kill me now, if you must.' looking around for something with which to sacrifice himself.

McDougan winced as Zafira whispered angrily to Xerox, 'Is your deceit so much more honorable than my threats?'

'It is not now that you must give your life,' Xerox comforted the thin Anasazi man as Amairgen assured him, 'Taking your own life would accomplish nothing.' Zafira agreed, 'It must be done properly by priests.'

The thin Anasazi man said sadly, 'If you will not take my life now, it is worth even less than I thought,' as the Jaguar Knights stood nearby judging the thin Anasazi man critically. One of them asked, 'He looks a bit scrawny, do you think he'll have enough blood?' The other replied, shrugging his shoulders, 'The priest did say they should be worthy.'

Amairgen told the thin Anasazi man, 'It is worth much in the Heart of the One World,' but the Jaguar Knight insisted, 'One who is willing to kill himself will surely not be seen as worthy by Tlaloc.'

'Even if the sacrfice is of his own accord?' Xerox asked the Jaguar Knight, who was shaking his head sadly. Zafira also looked doubtful.

'Tauld ye, we oucht tae get the fiersh luikin un,' McDougan piped up, slurring every word. Nodding her agreement with McDougan Zafira said, 'I too was thinking that this man is too scrawny to be a fitting sacrifice.'

Suddenly, Xerox muttered quietly, 'Forgive me what I am about to do m'lord,' as he tried to slip behind the thin Anasazi man and apply a choke-hold, but his grip didn't hold!

McDougan managed to calm everyone down even as Xerox was restrained, crying out, 'He must die!' McDougan replied forcefully, 'NAE! Dunnae hairt him.'

'Let us not waste blood needlessly,' Zafira said quietly, 'This is not the one.' McDougan agreed, saying to the thin Anasazi man, 'Och, ye plashe ish here, lad. Gae, and heelp ye people.'

So the set off after the fierce-looking man and followed him to his quarters in the village where the men were preparing to sleep. Near by a coyote serenaded Metzli, the moon.

McDougan said drunkenly to Xerox as he looked around at the sleepy men, 'Thish ish gaein tae be a shlaughter.' Xerox agreed, 'This doesn't feel right...'

'It feels right to me!' Zafira said frostily. Xerox said, looking scared, to McDougan, 'I think somehting is going to go terribly wrong with this.' Even Cirus agreed something didn't feel right.

The fierce-looking Anasazi man threw up his hands when he saw them asking, 'You again?'

Amairgen threatened, 'Come with us, or all these people die in their sleep!' The fierce-looking Anasazi man glared back unblinkingly as he said, 'Attack them and I will kill you.' Zafira tried to calm him, saying, 'We know that you are brave warrior. We wish to save lives here.'

But it was too late. Amairgen began chanting under his breath. Suddenly, an old Anasazi man reeled from the blow of his Power and quickly toppled, what little of his life force remaining, destroyed.

Zafira sighed and Cirus tried to apologize explaining how badly they needed the fierce Anasazi man's help as McDougan wimpered softly in the corner. Cirus insisted 'Were here to save lives not to take them.

'Come and no one else need die,' Amairgen said angrily.

Cirus said coldly, 'It is to save Aztecs not to take lives that are not suppose to be taken.'

The fierce-looking Anasazi man asked, 'What do I care about the Aztecs? It is the anasazi that are going to starve if we don't have rain.'

Cirus said in a cold distant voice, 'Your people are in danger as well and they need your help, will you help them even if it cost your life? We are out to help save your family and everyone here as well, please help us.'

The fierce-looking Anasazi man growled, 'Yet you killed one of them already.'

'I have nothing to show you to assure you, but you have my word and that is the best I can do,' Cirus said coldly.

The fierce-looking Anasazi man asked, 'And what of the work lost to my people by my old grandfather, whom you have killed? How will you repay that?'

Amairgen said sagely, 'He's dead at my hands, I shall remain.'

'If I could swear to you that he will be ressurected to continue his work will you come?' Xerox asked fierce-looking Anasazi man.

The fierce-looking Anasazi asked incredulously, 'You could do that? If he could be restored to us, all would be well again.'

'Can you resurrect the old man?' Amairgen asked the Huitzilopochtli priest, who replied, 'I am not in the business of life, only death.' as he sharpened his weapon.

'His soul is growing inside a pregnant woman in Kayenta's body as we speak,' Zafira eagerly told the fierce-looking man.

He smiled suddenly and asked her 'Truly?' as if by even asking, he was daring too much to hope. 'If you could show me that this is true, I will go with you as you ask.'

The group travelled the next day to Kayenta to seek out the woman of whom Zafira had spoken. Zafira said dramatically as they approached the village, 'Here she is!' and the fierce-looking Anasazi man gasped in astonishment as he fell to his knees and worshipped the pregnant Anasazi woman before him.

Xerox said, 'Now will you come with us?'

The fierce-looking man begged the woman, 'Teach him well,' as they led him away. Zafira assured him, 'She will teach him, and the spider Grandmother will protect him.'

The pale pink light reflected off of a few wispy clouds in the eastern sky. 'We have returned,' Amairgen said to the head priest of Tlaloc. 'With the anasazi, the mayan,and the southern noble.' The head priest of Tlaloc simply nodded and turned and climbed the steps to the top of the Ipac Tlamanacali.

The head priest of Tlaloc cried out, 'Bring me the captives to be sacrificed!' The captives were brought before the head priest and he performed the ritual cleansings.

Sensing something was dreadfully wrong, Xerox paced back and forth, nervously glancing over at the head priest of Tlaloc.

The Mayan woman was held down on the sacrificial stone by two anonymous priests as the head priest of Tlaloc pulled out his sacrificial knife.

McDougan swore, 'Gif their deathsh be for naught, I weel KEEL the heid priesht!' and Nietzsche tried to calm him down. McDougan said to the head priest of Tlaloc, 'Be sairtan o' whit ye dae.'

Xerox yelled, rather frightened, 'NO!' and launched himself across the room and tackled the head priest of Tlaloc to the ground!

The head priest of Tlaloc struggled with Xerox as he cried out, 'You are a false priest! I cannot let you go through this!' The head priest protested saying, 'We MUST have rain! Tlaloc demands more blood.'

Straightening to catch his breath, 'You are nothing but a false priest no wonder the rains haven't come,' Xerox said, disgusted. The head priest of Tlaloc sidled over to the stone and sliced open the throat of the Mayan woman, who screamed loudly!

Not reacting quick enough, Xerox puts his hands around the head priest of Tlaloc's throat, attempting to strangle him.

'No!!!!' McDougan screamed as the life gushed out of her body and trickled down the gutters and the priests dumped the body unceremoniously down the steps.

The Mexica nobleman was sacrificed next, all the while Xerox was screaming, 'No, Take ME!'

McDougan winced as the life gushed out of the nobleman's body and trickled down the gutters and the priests dumped the body unceremoniously down the steps.

Xerox raved, 'If the last man is killed the dark one will return. We cannot allow that!'

Cirus raises his eyebrow at Xerox. 'What!?!' Zafira said frostily to Xerox, 'Fool.'

The head priest of Tlaloc said to Xerox, 'Do not be foolish! Tlaloc has spoken to me! He requires the blood of the fiercest Anasazi, not yours.'

Xerox tried to explain to the others, 'The prophecy on the flake of obsidian. A priest will come in time of draught feeding the life source of innocents to the dark one. He will feed on the power and will return when the life of five innocents is given.'

Cirus asked, 'What do you think we should do, Xerox?' Zafira hissed, 'There is no dark one, ignore him!'

'Damn you! Do you not see!' Xerox said, rather frightened, to Amairgen, who replied patiently, 'Tlaloc is the rain god, not some dark one.'

'But whit I shay shtandsh,' McDougan said to the head priest. 'I will keel ye gif ye fail.'

Xerox looked at the head priest with a hollow look in his eyes.

'Ignore Xerox and carry on,' Zafira said coldly to the head priest of Tlaloc as Cirus vowed, 'I will join McDougan if this fails.'

Xerox said sarcastically to the head priest of Tlaloc, 'What have me to do, oh enlightened one.' as the priests of Tlaloc prepared the fierce-looking anasazi man for Tlaloc.

The head priest of Tlaloc said to Xerox, 'Stand back.'

'No, you shall not win in the end,' Xerox said in a cold distant voice to the head priest of Tlaloc.

'NO!!!!' Cirus cried out, incapable of stopping what he saw coming.

The head priest slit the anasazi man's throat just as Xerox attacked the Anasazi with his own knife, hoping to spoil the ritual. Amairgen and Nietzsche managed to calm everyone down, but the damage was done.

Xerox said in a cold distant voice, 'NOOOOOOO!'

McDougan bursts into tears as the life gushed out of the nobleman's body and the priests dumped the body unceremoniously down the steps.

The head priest of Tlaloc cried out, 'Drink of our offering, Tlaloc, drink!' as he cackled insanely

Zafira snarled at Xerox, 'Are you trying to ruin everything?!' as he knelt down on the ground, sobbling quietly to himself.

'Wheer are the rainsh?' McDougan demanded of the head priest of Tlaloc as the steps of the Ipac Tlamanacali flow with fresh blood, but still the sun bore down on the corn and the clouds lazily drifted across the rainless sky.

Zafira peered at the head priest of Tlaloc, looking him up and down.

McDougan continued, 'Name one reashon why I shauld nae keel ye where ye shtand?' as the head priest of Tlaloc danced about looking hopefully at the sky. Amairgen yelled, 'We have sent you blood, send us the rain, Tlaloc'

The head priest of Tlaloc sighed loudly as McDougan poked him in the ribs.

The head priest of Tlaloc decided that Tlaloc's thirst for blood has not been quenched, but that they must have rain or will have no crops. The head priest of Tlaloc declared, 'Tlaloc requires a more suitable sacrifice!'

'Take me,' Xerox begged. The head priest of Tlaloc spat at Xerox, 'Tlaloc requires a more suitable sacrifice!' Zafira inquired, 'What sacrifice do you require now?'

The head priest of Tlaloc continued, oblivous to those around him, 'Very well, we shall make preparations here after the new dawn. Perhaps the breaking of this drought will require a very special xochimique.'

The head priest of Tlaloc throws his head back and cackled insanely as he thought about the sacrifice to come!

'I dunnae troosht ye,' McDougan said to retreating back of the head priest of Tlaloc. 'Nae a bit.' Amairgen reminded McDougan, 'He is Tlaloc's voice.'

The head priest of Tlaloc turned and said, 'We will do the preparations after Tonatiu has risen again.'

'Have faith,' Zafira told her companions. 'Their ways have built a prosperous city in the searing desert.'

The head priest of Tlaloc said, levelling his eyes upon those who had threatened him, 'I have instructed the next in line of what to do if I cannot complete this task.'

Xerox paced back and forth. 'I'd rather live in a land with no rain than live in a land without goodness,' he said coldly to the head priest of Tlaloc.

The head priest of Tlaloc said to Xerox, 'You would condemn us all then?'

Zafira asked, 'When will you need us again?' The head priest replied, 'Tomorrow. Tonight is for praying to Tlaloc.'

'We will go then, and return tomorrow to do what we can,' Zafira said as the head priest of Tlaloc muttered, 'May he bless us with his tears.'

As the priest vanished from sight, Xerox swore, 'I will prove that you are a false priest and I will kill you and bring rain to this land.'