#;three

It’d been too long since Brooke had been out in the field. She was losing her touch -- far too used to having a plethora of computers and access to colleagues around her.

Still, she couldn’t deny it was exciting, having to think on her feet like this. She’d been staying with the people of Kamrigloska for two weeks, and had, in that time, managed to pick up a good deal of their language and customs. It was an unorthodox assignment from Luna. They had some important artifacts in a temple nearby - relics of a lost civilization that had once spanned galaxies. Brooke was Luna’s best translator and by far the quickest cultural study, so she was going to spend however long it took to translate the inscriptions on the temple’s walls well enough to find those artifacts. 

Of course, Brooke wasn’t about to do any of that without the people’s consent.

For now, their priest had let Brooke get as far as the inner sanctum of the temple. She’d spent the night out here, studying the inscriptions and staying a respectful distance away from the deeper recesses of the building.

That morning, she’d packed up her notebooks, pens, and supplies, and had started back for the village. The trees hung thickly around the trail, the canopy blocking out much of the sunlight and filtering it green. She was about halfway back when she heard footfalls, and stopped short.

“Priest Alim? Is that you? I promise I’m not lost-- I’m just on my way back.”