Kou'rha gave Tenrir a hard look. The old man's eyes showed an urgent fury that Kou'rha had never seen before, one that frightened him more than he cared to know. Staff in hand, Kou'rha turned and marched out of the hut.
The easternmost temple was a three-hour trek across the forest and up Uorlhan's Spine. Kou'rha did not run or rush, but lumbered steadily and without yielding toward the sacred spot. At last he came upon it: atop a cold, windblown bluff was the barren temple, marked only with a few natural columns of gray granite. Here, it was said, Uorlhan emerged from the earth to place his people, to fasten them to the land as his servants.
Standing much like the stone columns around him, Kou'rha waited, his senses opened to the blistering wind buffeting the temple area, waiting for a sight or sound or smell. Tenrir had been urgent in his command; for what was Kou'rha summoned here? Patient as the unmoving earth, the guardian waited.