Two Eyes Cenote no, no, it's rightfully mine.

he'd been shoved awake by a rough prod, the first thing he saw the wide, owlish stare of two incensed sage green eyes. recoiling, rowdy felt the last vestiges of his troubling dream slip away.

carry this, she'd issued, thrusting a bundle of harvest grass and the charred limb of some unrecognizable animal. rowdy rubbed the last sleep from his eyes and looked around him. it was late, and the witch moved with an efficiency that suggested he'd better do the same.

his mind went back to his dream. it was like he'd lost some profound parcel of truth, and now struggled to find it -- but the more he dug into his subconscious, the more snaring thoughts clung to the surface like tenacious ivy and pushed his dream away.

qiao led him from the chambers. at times he had to stop to shift the uncomfortable burden on his back -- when he did so, she whipped around and quickly re-dressed him, urging him on with a glint of her hard teeth. rowdy's two tails sagged as he toiled down the embankment, realizing tonight's ritual was taking place at the cenote's rim.

set them down here, she ordered. rowdy did so, his soft motions disturbing gravel that tumbled down into the deep black. he flinched, for the report of stone hitting water felt enormously loud, as if he had just inappropriately caused attention to himself in a moment of grave silence. from his vantage, the cenotes looked like two sunken eyeholes -- not so different from the moss-studded wolf skull that qiao presently -- almost gingerly as if an old friend -- placed on a stony plinth.

as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw markings scribbled into the dirt where he'd been ordered to stand. at the base of the stony column, runes were enscripted in the sand and a pale white circle of clay, its contents filled in with rough strokes, was painted upon the stone's face. a pungent scent of myrrh languidly rose into the air.

he looked to qiao in inquisitive quiet, sensing rather than knowing that a ritual of great importance on the cusp of being performed.