Anna plodded along with the group, the previously bone-chilling soak she'd received now turning into a damp, uncomfortable heat in the tropical air. It had been winter in Shanghai and America, but now, here in the upper tropics it didn't seem to matter what the season was. Mosquitoes buzzed around her, and for once her tail found its animalistic use as it swatted at the insects trying to land on her as she wiped the sweat from her brow.

"Oh god, I'm gonna get malaria from all these bites," Willie cringed as she swatted at another mosquito. Her skin, still moist from the river, had done a great job of absorbing as much dust, mud, and plant fibre as possible from their trek through the jungle. She was at least two times as miserable as she looked, and she made sure that fact was no secret to the rest of her party.

Indiana chuckled, "Gotten malaria so many times at this point that I got immunity. I'll see if maybe we can get some citronella oil wherever this man's leading us," he rubbed his arm, chasing off two separate mosquitoes.

Short Round adjusted his cap as he looked back to check on Anna, "You okay?"

"'Are you okay'," Anna sighed as she carefully hopped down a rock incline, one that the humans' longer legs scaled with no problem. The instinct to simply fly over obstacles awkward to navigate by hoof fought with the steady, thrumming pain in her wings, "And I'll be a lot better once we're back in America."

"I second that," Willie sighed, reaching up and brushing dirty locks from her eyes, "Ohhh I hope they have a shower at least."

"Ham lagabhag vaheen hain. Aap jald hee vinaash dekhenge," the Indian man leading them said.

"What's he saying?" Willie asked, wincing as she stepped on a sharp pebble, having ditched her high heels a while ago.

Indiana pursed his lips, "My Hindi's not up to scratch. He's talking about his village though," he said.

Scouring her mind for the lessons she took last summer, Anna threw in her ten cents, "I think he's saying his village is destroyed?"

They didn't have much time to question it, though, as a break in the treeline finally appeared. Beyond the break in the treeline, the terrain quickly became desolate and barren. A ring of rocky, gravelly land that stabbed at Anna's frogs lead into dry, parched earth. Even grass and weeds struggled to grow, their strands sickly and yellow. There were signs of agriculture on the land, with dying and withering plants attempting to lift themselves from the soil. Wooden fences surrounding a pasture were broken down, either by neglect or perhaps from an escape. Anna doubted the second possibility as she spied the dead, dry bones of goats lying in the dusty soil of the pasture. It even extended into the hill ranges beyond the fields, with dead trees reaching up into the grey skies topping crumbling hills.

Beyond the tilled land, sets of mud brick houses surrounded a well. It too was in the same state of squalor and disrepair. Several of the houses rooves' were collapsed. Trash littered the roads, and the entire place stank of sewage and death. The only living things aside from, possibly, the plants in the fields were rats poking around in the scraps of stinking piles of refuse and through the glassless windows of the houses. Their impromptu guide turned his head to look at them as he walked, his face grim as he judged their reactions.

Anna's nose shrivelled as she watched her step on the rocky road. Dust and particulates in the air, blown up from the dusty hills caused her to blink and squint. An uneasy silence settled on the rest of the group as their guide lead them through the village boundaries, they too no doubt unsettled by the absolute devastation portrayed by the environment.

"God..." was the only word mustered, coming from Willie Scott, as they passed an abandoned wagon sat next to a crumbling retaining wall.

The dirt and dried mud infesting the village was so thick that everything seemed to be coated with a layer of drab, brown paint. Anna's eyes, glancing at her friends and father, noticed they looked positively vibrant compared to their surroundings. Her own colored fur, although still damp and stained by a few days without a shower, looked bright against the decrepit, shambling buildings around them.

Eyes watched them from the buildings, only to be shortly followed by the shuffling of feet as the village's occupants slowly made their way out of the buildings and into the streets. Men, many of their ribs showing through their ragged clothes with sunken eyes and gormless, hungry expressions stared at them as they walked nearer to the village center. Anna subconsciously began to move closer and closer as she moved towards her father. Several women, many elderly and many with drawn faces and shaking hands approached them, speaking in Hindi with desperate voices.

"Dad, what're they doing?" Anna said, realizing too late just how highly strung her voice was.

Indiana swallowed as reached a hand down to keep her next to him, "...They're begging for help, Anna."

Anna frowned as the guide raised his voice and said something, causing the villagers to back off. As the crowd parted, Anna's vision around her was no longer obstructed by their bodies, and she saw what lay dead ahead of them.

It seemed to be a shrine of some sort. White speckling covered a giant boulder, in which the shrine was directly carved, seemingly by hand. A divot in the rock, painted with three white stripes, seemed to be a place to hold a relic of some sort. Something interesting called out to her the longer she stared at the stone, something that tingled at whatever instincts usually worked when she felt a storm incoming. However, it was unlike the energy she usually felt when working with her abilities. It felt like a negative energy, like a pressure void that a weather front was seeking to fill, except far more alien and foreign than it could ever be.

She noticed the eyes of the guide on her as she blinked, realizing she'd been staring slackjawed at the shrine for quite some time. Indiana's voice came from behind her, "What's up, Anna?"

Anna looked at their "guide" properly again. He was thin and unkempt, like many in the village. He wore a necklace of beads... beads like those usually meant something. She knew from the stories she'd been told, of the few lessons on world culture she'd received from her father, that this person was... distinguished in some way. She glanced between him and the shrine. When she glanced back, the man locked eyes with her, before simply nodding.

Taking a breath, Anna's heart raced unusually fast as she stepped forward towards the steps leading up to the divot. Biting her lip, she reached up towards the inset, touching the place where the three lines met. As her hoof touched stone, she scrunched her muzzle in confusion. Despite the fact that her hide told her that the rock was warm, no doubt from sitting out in the sun all day, her bones chilled at the touch of the empty space. She stepped back, analyzing her forehoof as she stood at the base of the shrine's stairs.

"You feel anything?" Indiana questioned, walking up beside her.

"Does the rock feel... really cold to you? But also warm at the same time?" Anna asked, face contorted with confusion.

Indiana made an experimental reach into the inset, poking the rock, "Just feels warm from the sun to me."

The beaded man's voice attracted their attention away from the shrine as he waved them towards himself, "Hamen jaldee se mukhiya ke ghar jaana chaahie."

"He wants us to..." Anna shook her forehoof off, trying to get rid of the chilled feeling she felt as she stood up, "...Hurry up?"

"I think that's what he said, yeah. Come on, best to try and see if they got anyone who speaks English. We need to get out of here to Delhi. Any chance you can check your maps and navigate us out of here?" Indiana asked, turning away from the shrine and rejoining with Willie and Short as they followed the man.

"I'll try once we're sitting down," Anna gave one last look at the inset before trotting to catch up. Her bag had been soaked during her encounter with the river, but the map itself was made of a type of paper that didn't just crumble when exposed to water.

"Good, I'd rather not spend too much time here..." Indiana grunted.

Willie Scott frowned as she joined their group, "The rats give me the creeps. I just feel sorry for the village itself. Isn't there anything we can do?"

"I dunno," Indiana dismissed, "I've been to a lot of pretty impoverished places in my time. This definitely tops the list, I wonder why they haven't just... moved out. It doesn't look so bad just over the ridge."

"If I had to guess," Anna chipped in, "Maybe it's cause of that shrine. I've never felt the way I do around that thing."

The building they were lead to overlooked most of the village, and didn't look too distinct. It too was made of mud bricks, with a few glassless windows and a door to guard the entrance. Planks were dug into the dirt to make the climb to the building easier, and a wooden swing on a rope swung lazily from a dead tree nearby. The sight of a plaything made a lightbulb go off in Anna's head as she panned her vision around. The villagers, while not in their faces anymore, still followed with curiosity propelling their exhausted steps.

That's when she noticed it, "Dad," she said as she trotted closer to her father, "There's no children."

"I noticed," he murmured in return.

Only a few more yards away from the house, the door opened as another man stepped out. He wore a white, slightly pinkish long-sleeved shirt that was only slightly higher class than the rags the other villagers wore. A red dot was on his forehead, and his head was covered in a cloth wrapping. His white beard clung beneath his chin, dour with the same expression that the rest of the village held. Initially, his eyes regarded the strangers with trepidation, but quickly the man with the beaded necklaces who had guided them here began to speak in Hindi with the better dressed man.

"vVe yahaan hain, ve hamaaree praarthanaon ka uttar hain. Ve humol parvat kee or se gire. Yah jaanavar ve apane saath laate hain, ise devataon dvaara bheja jaana chaahie. Vah bolatee hai, aur shivaling ke prati mandir kee bhookh ko mahasoos karatee hai" the necklaced man described to the other, gesticulating wildly.

The man brightened up as he looked at the strangers, a smile spreading across his face, "Is din ko aasheervaad den... hamaaree praarthanaon ka uttar diya gaya hai."

"Ve angrejee bolate hain, main unhen pooree tarah se samajh nahin sakata ya unase baat nahin kar sakata?" the necklaced man asked.

"Phir main unase baat karoonga," the man in the robes stepped forward towards Indiana, before speaking in heavily accented English, "I can speak English."

"Oh thank God," Willie sighed with relief as soon as she heard English, "Can you help us get out of here?"

"Yeah, we'd appreciate a guide to Delhi-" Indiana began.

"You will come inside and eat," the man said gesturing them towards the door as he stepped backwards into the doorframe, "I am the chieftain of this village. We have much to discuss."

Indiana chuckled, shutting his eyes and rubbing his forehead.

Willie Scott cocked her head as she walked up unsteadily behind him, "What's so funny?"

Indiana took off his fedora, brushing his hair before putting it back on and following towards the chieftain, "Whenever someone tells me, 'we have much to discuss', it never ends well."

Once they were inside the building, they were invited to sit. The chieftain's house was barren of furniture, and the dusty floor was the only cushioning they got. The only exception was Willie, who got a single straw pillow to soften the blow, which to her credit even though she cringed at the dirtiness of the pillow, she sat on without any further complaints.

Once everyone was seated, Indiana continued his previous thought, "Our airplane crashed up in the mountains, and we barely escaped with our lives."

"You are British? Australian?" The chieftain enquired as he sat down on the corner of the room opposite the door. Behind him, the necklaced man sat, his wizened eyes glancing between them, analyzing their every move.

"American," Indiana answered, "My name's Indiana Jones, I'm a professor of archaeology. This is my daughter, Anna Jones," he indicated to Anna, who had sat close beside him on the opposite side from Short Round, "My assistant, Short Round. And this is Willie Scott," he gestured towards the singer, "...My tagalong."

"Unwilling tagalong," Willie tossed her head, "Every second I'm in the world's buttcrack I'm losing business and fame back at home."

The chieftain tilted his head as the necklaced man said something in Hindi to him. Seemingly translating, he looked towards Indiana, "You regard this as your daughter?"

Indiana Jones sighed, "Yes. That's what she is. Her name's Anna, by the way."

The chieftain nodded, clasping his hands together as he looked at Anna. Eventually, he relayed the information back to the necklaced man, who said something else for the chieftain to translate, "Who gave birth to her?"

Indiana paused, rubbing his chin with his thumb. He spared a glance towards Anna, who simply shrugged at him. Turning back to the chief, he answered, "I don't know. I found her while I was on an expedition in Panama. She was alone, so I raised her as my own."

The chief relayed the information back to the necklaced man, who leaned back and placed his hands on his knees, seemingly satisfied by the answer.

The chieftain craned his head to look behind them suddenly. Following his gaze, Anna looked to see a group of four women marching up the trail towards the house, each one carrying a wooden plate of something. Willie seemed to have noticed too, as a growl of hunger instantly emanated from her gut, "Ohh, I hope this means dinner. I'm starving."

"Me too," Anna interjected.

The women arrived, holding out the plates to the guests with faces that spoke both of their own hunger, but also their grace and willingness to feed them. Anna's stomach, which had been rumbling all the way up to the point that a plate was passed to her, went completely silent as soon as she saw the food on her plate. There was rice, but it was covered and mixed in with a strange, slimy grey meat. She looked up at the others around her. Indiana managed a smile, giving a single nod and muttering thanks in Hindi to the woman who gave him his meal. Short Round cringed slightly at the sight of his plate, but still looked up and said thanks. Willie Scott, though...

"I can't eat this," She immediately said.

Indiana looked up at her immediately, giving a nervous glance to their host and the women, "...That's more food than these people eat in a week."

Anna blinked, instantly forcing a neutral face as she realized that a disgusted look mirroring Willie's had naturally landed on her own face. She looked down into her own plate, her stomach revolting at the thought of actually consuming what had been given her, but she sustained the battle between her mind and digestive tract as the two continued talking.

"They're starving, Willie," Indiana finished.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Willie went to give the plate back, "You can have it-"

"Eat it," Indiana affirmed, locking her with a cold stare.

Willie gave an awkward smile, still holding out the plate, "I'm not hungry," she said, her voice laced with a mixture of defiance and desperation.

Indiana gave a mirthless chuckle, before following up with a smile of the same kind, "You are insulting them, and you are embarrassing me. Eat it."

"Eat it," Short Round repeated, having already eaten some of his portion. No doubt, living poor in Shanghai had hardened his stomach.

Anna looked up at Willie, giving her a sympathetic shrug despite the attitude of her father and friend. Reaching down into her own plate, she braced as she shovelled a mouthful into her mouth, bile already rising in the back of her throat as she chewed and swallowed as quickly as possible. Never before had she wanted a cup of water so badly as to wash down the tasteless, too-soft too-tough meal that was in front of her. She tried to hide a tear that welled up in her eye as she looked back down at the plate, seeing that her ambitious mouthful had only cleared a fifth of the plate.

Willie, swallowing nervously, eventually followed Anna's example, shovelling her own mouthful into her mouth. Indiana could only smile as a similar look of bowel discomfort flashed over her eyes as she raised a balled fist to her mouth, trying to retain some gracefulness in front of their host.

Satisfied that his daughter and companion had at least tasted his host's food, Indiana turned back to the chieftain, "We need a guide, back to Delhi. Can you help us?"

The chief nodded, "Sanju used to navigate our caravans. He knows the way to Delhi."

"Ve pahale Pankot jaayenge, unhen bataayen," the necklaced man suddenly interrupted.

"On the way to Delhi, you will stop at Pankot," the chieftain translated.

Indiana blinked, looking towards Anna. She looked back. While she wasn't that familiar with Indian geography that intrinsically, she had seen a map of India once or twice. Pankot was north of Delhi... north of the arm of the Himalayas that they had crashed in.

Indiana knew the same thing as he looked back to the chief, "Pankot is not on the way to Delhi."

After translating for the necklaced man, the chieftain turned back to the group, "You must go to Pankot Palace."

Indiana let out a confused puff of breath, before shaking his head and tossing another small bite of food into his mouth, prompting Anna to try and take another portion. After swallowing, he continued, "I thought Pankot Palace had been abandoned since... 1837? Isn't Pankot administrated from Dehradun now?"

Another bout of muttered Hindi later, and the chieftain shook his head, "No, there is now new Maharaja in Pankot. Once more, the palace has the power of the Dark Light."

"What's he talking about, Dad?" Anna suppressed a dry heave as she swallowed another bite of food.

"Pankot used to house a cult called the Thugee. They did human sacrifices, slavery, and dark magic. The British killed them all in the 1830s," Indiana explained, eyes focused on the necklaced man as their gazes locked.

"Thugee is back," the chieftain said, not needing to wait for the necklaced man to give him his words, "The Thugee in Pankot, they kill our people."

Indiana frowned, putting his plate down. Anna gladly took the excuse, putting her plate on the ground as well, "What happened here?" Indiana asked.

The necklaced man gave the chieftain his words once again, and it was repeated in English, "The evil of Kali Ma, it start in Pankot. Soon, like monsoon, the darkness sweeps over whole country," the necklaced man, behind the chief, emphasized the latter's words by holding his hand over his own eyes.

"What did they do?" Indiana pressed.

"They came from the palace," the chieftain gestured upwards, before pointing out the window towards the village, "And took Shivalinga from our village."

"Took what?" Willie knitted her brow, looking towards Indiana.

Indiana frowned, brushing a thumb against his chin, "Shivalinga - they mean a stone, a holy stone of some kind that protects the village."

The chieftain nodded at his explanation. A burst of Hindi from the increasingly energetic necklaced man, and the chieftain continued, "Our shaman, he says it is why Shiva brought you here."

Short Round looked to Anna with a quirked eyebrow. Indiana simply chuckled in disbelief, "We weren't- we weren't brought here. Our airplane crashed," he made a motion with his hand, mimicking the plane crashing into the mountainside.

"We crashed," Willie affirmed, nodding.

The chieftain shook his head with a knowing smile, "No, no. We pray to Shiva to help us, find the stone. It was Shiva who made you fall from sky. You even bring with you a winged spirit as sign of divine blessing."

Anna huffed, "Flattering."

The chieftain continued to translate for the shaman, "That is why you will get Shivalinga, and bring back to our village."

Finishing their meals, or what they could stomach of it at least, the shaman and chieftain lead them back out towards the village. They would be accommodated overnight as the sun set, and would set back out again the following morning. They took the opportunity to hang out some of Anna's spare changes of clothes, which had been soaked by the river, to dry at least a little bit overnight. She'd also checked on the status of her map. The marker had run a little bit, but overall the map was still very much intact.

"Are we going to do what they say?" Anna whispered to her father as she slung her now much lighter backpack over her side again.

"I dunno. If Pankot Palace is really back up, there's probably a road... or maybe an airstrip there. We could at least check it out, maybe get easier transport back home. But, we'd probably save ourselves a lot of trouble just heading south until we reach civilization," Indiana responded.

The chieftain waited behind them, much of the crowd having dispersed to get back to work. Once he saw that her bag was empty, he gestured her forward, "Here, come to the shrine. We will show you what you must seek at Pankot."

Anna frowned, looking around her once again. Even after a full two hours at the village, she still couldn't quite comprehend the desolation surrounding her, "...Can't we at least hear them out?" Anna asked, "Maybe they're right. What're the chances we end up here, at just this time?"

Indiana waved his hand dismissively, "Coincidences happen all the time, Anna. Lao Che got us stranded here, and I'd describe him as the exact opposite of divine intervention."

Anna sighed, grouping back up with the rest of her allies as they journeyed back towards the shrine. She hadn't felt it at first when she was near the shrine, but ever since she'd touched it... her bones felt like they were being constantly gnawed on by hundreds of freezing, frozen teeth whenever she entered its vicinity. As the group stopped nearby, she reached up to her knees, rubbing them slowly to try and alleviate some of the feelings.

"Anna," Short Round suddenly whispered from her right, "It true that you are a magical spirit?"

Anna frowned. An hour ago, she'd have answered with a definite no. She'd still answer with a no to the spirit part - she was pretty sure spirits didn't have heartbeats and the need for toilet breaks - but the magical part? The drawn to whatever mystery was going on in this village? Maybe...

"I dunno," she eventually answered, "Maybe? Also it's 'is it true'."

Short Round slowly nodded, looking back away from her towards the shrine again.

"They took the stone from here," the chieftain explained, pointing towards the empty inset in the shrine.

Indiana Jones approached, frowning as he rubbed his chin, "Was the stone very smooth? Like the rock from a sacred river?" as the Shaman nodded, he questioned again, "And it had three lines on it? Representing the three levels of the universe?"

The Chieftain nodded as Anna approached as well, her heart rate rising as she looked at the rock. Her father's voice faded into the distance, along with the sounds of the crowd's clamor around her. Was it just her, or could she hear noises coming from it now? Like.. the booming of a distant drums... or maybe a large workshop? She heard water boiling, a whip cracking, a child screaming-

"Anna?" Indiana poked his shoe at Anna's fetlock, looking down at her with a quirked eyebrow, "You okay?"

Anna wiped the sweat that she didn't know had been forming on her brow, "Uh... yeah. I'm hearing things."

"What kinda things?" Indiana's brow knitted as he put his hands on his hips.

"Mining, machinery, music, screaming..." Anna shook her head.

Indiana's fist tightened at his side, "I swear, if they spiked you with something, I'm gonna break some faces."

Short Round performed the motions of cracking his knuckles, even though Anna knew he didn't know how to actually do it (not that she was an expert on cracking knuckles, considering she had none), "I bet you and me, Doctah Jones, we take on whole village."

"The whole village," Anna sighed, "Listen, don't do anything brash. I swear I'll start screaming it starts taking over my brain or something like that."

"If you say so," Indiana turned back towards their hosts slowly, his eye keeping track of her until he turned back all the way around.

Willie Scott leaned in to whisper something to Indiana, but Anna's more sensitive ears could pick it up just fine, "Your daughter's kinda weird."

"She can hear you," Indiana said in a less hushed tone, to which Willie responded by turning her neck and looking back at Anna with a look of surprise, then remorsefulness as she opened her mouth to possibly apologize. However, she didn't get a chance to as Indiana stepped forward to the shrine and held out a hand towards it, "Why would the Maharaja take your sacred stone? Why not some other one?" he asked, looking towards the Chieftain.

Short Round stepped gingerly around the older man as he went to inspect the inset, touching it experimentally like Anna had. The Chieftain, ignoring the child's antics, responded, "He come down to our village. He says: 'you will pray to our evil god'. We says, 'we will not'."

Indiana pulled Short Round away from the shrine, who proceeded to look towards Anna and shrug. She still felt the chilling teeth scraping and tasting her bones, only seeming to get worse the closer she got. Instead, she remained at a respectable distance, close enough to hear the conversation, but not close enough to get the audible hallucinations. Still, the occasional wisp of sound caused her ears to flick towards things that weren't there.

"How could a rock destroy a whole village like this?" Willie asked, stepping closer.

"Kya aap mujhe samajh sakate hain?" the Shaman finally said aloud, looking towards Indiana.

Indiana looked away from Willie, pursing his lips as he adjusted his belt, "Agar aap dheere bolen to main koshish kar sakata hoon."

"Jab Shivaling choree ho gaya to hamaare kuen sookh gae aur nadiyaan ret mein badal gaeen," the Shaman said, repeating it a few times until Indiana nodded in comprehension.

Translating for him, Indiana looked in the direction of his allies, "He's saying that when the stone was stolen, the wells dried up and the river turned to sand," turning back towards the Shaman, he asked, "Aur iseelie aapakee phasalen barbaad ho gaeen?"

"Nahin, jaise hee patthar gaanv se baahar gaya, phasalen dharatee mein sama gaeen aur jaanavar letakar sad gae," the Shaman replied insistently.

"The crops were swallowed by the earth, and the animals laid down and turned into dust," Indiana explained.

"Hamane dobaara paudhaaropan kiya, lekin ek raat kheton mein aag lag gaee. Purush aag se ladane ke lie baahar chale gae, lekin jab ve laute to mahilaen akele ro rahee theen..." the Shaman's voice lowered as his sentence trailed off. Several of the women gathered nearby began to weep, their chokes and sobs hushed and quiet.

"Then one night there was a fire in the fields," Indiana began to slowly walk forward, hands on his belt as he focused on the words the Shaman was saying, "The men went to fight the fire, but when they came back the women were crying in the dark..."

Once Indiana finished his sentence, the Shaman finished his own, "Tabhee ve hamaare bachchon ko le gaye."

A woman began to weep in the crowd as Indiana turned, an unreadable look in his eyes as he asked for clarity, "Un sabhee ko?"

The Shaman simply gave a single, grave nod.

"He says they stole their children. All of their children," Indiana said.

Anna looked back at the shrine. Somewhere, a little girl screamed.

Author's Note

The music Anna is hearing from the shrine is the Slave Children's Crusade.