The old priestess made her way slowly up the temple steps. The afternoon sun glared off her many rings and the silver staff in her hand. The staff was mainly for show but it did help to steady her during her long ascent. The laughter of the temple prostitutes could be heard in the square below as they performed their duty. The gold they brought into the treasury would see the temple through at least another season or two. Times had grown harder here in Sanctuary now that the outcast fisheyes with their princess had taken up residence here. The foreigners with their snake Goddess had changed many of the citizens old ways and only a few of the old Gods and Goddess temples had remained untouched by the evil cult. Her own Goddess had remained quite for so long that the old woman wonder if She even cared about those left here on this mortal plane.

"These steps seem as old as I" she mumbled to herself as she climbed ever upward. "Old and cracked and brown with the passing of time." At last she made it to the large brass doors and the gatekeepers pushed them open for her so that she might enter the holy shrine. In years past the doors had been layered in Gold and Silver but now brass was all the temple could afford and soon not even these. She turned her thoughts away from economics to more pleasant things. Tonight was the beginning of the Festival of Harvests and even she, as old as she truly was, looked forward to the nights revelry. Why if she was only just a few years younger she might join the prostitutes in the square she chuckled to herself. But there was much to do and little time to do it in and so she made here way to the altar and the priest hole which lay behind.

The readings were going very well and the crowd was larger then the years before. "Must be because so many temples have been demolished by the Snake guards" she mused to herself. The collection plates were filling up, as were the rooms where the temple girls lay. As the young and old men were finding another type of holy experience the old priestess was giving the most powerful reading of her life. "The Goddess is very close to me this evening" she gave thanks. And the crowd agreed with a yell, for they could see it was true. Suddenly the brass doors buckled with a grinding of oak on metal and 200 Snake guards rushed into the shrine weapons drawn and a look of glee in their fishy eyes. The leader walked up the steps of the shrine and stuck his hand into one of the collection plates raising it and letting the gold slip through his green skinned fingers. "The offering looks like it?ll be very good indeed for US tonight old woman!" Most of his men agreed with loud laughter and with that he struck her with the flat of his sword.

She fell to her knees the blood streaming from above her eyes. But the warmth of the blood was not the only fire she felt. For within her grew a flame of great multitude and before the eyes of the whole assemblage the Goddess of the temple came awake. The old priestess became young and beautiful once again and grew at least three times as large as the gapping mouth man who now shook before her. He died urinating on himself then and there and those who could gather their senses made a quick retreat for the broken down doors. Worshippers and Snake guards fell before the Goddess as the blood flowed deep in the temple. When all was quiet once again in the temple the Goddess waved her hand and the doors became whole, layered in gold and silver. She looked around her and spoke, even though there was no one left alive to hear, " It is a good start to long long Harvest." And with that she left the temple with a smile on her lips?..Fini