[dojango]

Kurgarru stopped and stared up at the night sky. If he squinted his eye, it almost looked like the comforting roof of the caves back home. As long as he pretended that those alien stars were just chips of mica glittering in the faint light. His new friends, these Mictlanese, were creatures of fire and light. He didn't understand them, they worshipped the cruel brightness and seemed to cluster around fires. They burned their food and they looked as if they had been burned by some fire as well. Kurgarru had never heard of the Mictlanese until a few months ago. He had been working in the plump helmet fields in the caves of home when some lord had made him change his shovel for a spear and march to war, to conquer the surface in Harrow-Gar's name.

But Kurgarru's old life seemed to fade away the more time he spent on the surface. He could barely remember the caves of home now, the faces of his family and children playing in the underground streams, working the loamy caves where their crops grew. The only thing he could remember clearly was the battle, the one thing he longed to forget.

In the chaos of his memory, he remembered being struck, not by a blow or a spell, but by a clear and crystal idea. Suddenly he realized that Harrow-gar had betrayed them. With that realization, he dropped his spear and opened his arms to embrace the Mictlanese tide. But they washed around him, drawing him in to serve.

The Mictlanese priests had been very helpful in explaining to him what had happened. Harrow-Gar must have been the one to weaken the seals. Harrow-Gar was sending the people to die on the surface lands to weaken the nation. Harrow-Gar was working in concert with the terrible umbrals that the Agarthans had sworn to contain. When they explained it to him, it all made sense, although the knowledge kept slipping away as he wandered the dark nights, dreaming of home. The one thing he knew for certain was that if he followed the Mictlanese army to the ends of the earth he would find his way home again.