The pale redhead trekking through the storm had expected a break from the harsh flurry of sand that swept past him, diverted only by his control over the substance, but it seemed like the Sand's Domain truly lived up to its name. High noon or late at night the wind swept up a cloud of debilitating sand, shrouding the surrounding area from visibility for miles around in an eternal blanket of grounded up minerals. It was the sole reason so much history from the people of Kaze no Kuni's past could remain lost for millennia, and why countless lives were taken from travelers unfortunate enough to wander into the area. It was so bad it was even grating on the nerves of Suna's number one sand lover.

Following the path he had mapped out for the village previously was little trouble. Having created the knowledge for this small section of the Sand's Domain gave Rokumaru an advantage at traversing the confusing and treacherous terrain, recognizing previous landmarks from his prior journey through the low visibility landscape such as sanded down cacti and ancient pillars. And even then it was difficult not to walk off course and be forced to retrace his steps, having done so multiple times already. There was so much to explore further in the ancient ruins of the long dead city, but the Sabaku boy would start first with the pyramid structure that was found upon his previous expedition.

The mission he had embarked on this time was begun the previous day; it was a continuation of the previous charting task done a few weeks earlier, to personally explore the ancient structure discovered by him. Having left early in the morning Rokumaru traveled for hours upon hours and miles upon miles before finally reaching the edge of the Sand's Domain just before nightfall. Even with his abilities in harnessing and controlling sand it would be hazardous to enter the sandstorm without the shaded light of day. So he settled down for a night to camp, caught a few snakes sneaking through the makeshift encampment and slept until early morning. With the rising sun warming his back and improving visibility a fraction, he entered the unyielding storm.

Now, a few hours later compounded by long bouts of backtracking, the boy was approaching where he had found the pyramid weeks earlier. Last time he had stumbled upon the structure was late at night with the moon's light barely lighting it's facade, only stumbling upon from nearly running into it, but during the light of day Roku could see a faint outline of its triangular shape from through the shroud of sand he dove his way through. Now it's finer details could be seen; taking out his pencil and pad of paper, with a copy of the drawing of the structure tucked just behind it to act as a reference, the pale Genin wrote out the finer details he could see. It rose perhaps over 50 meters, not the largest building Roku had seen with a few in Suna standing taller, but truly a feat for a society without modern building tools or practices. Was it built as a monument for some fallen lord, or something mundane such as for grain storage. Did a guild of elite builders craft the structure with pride, or was it built on the sweat and blood of slave labor?

Upon further inspection there could be seen thousands of years of erosion by the swirling sand upon the structure, perhaps wiping away any trace of carvings or ornamentation that decorated its facade. It appeared to be made entirely of sandstone, with no shortage of the sedimentary rock to be found in the deserts of Kaze no Kuni, entire blocks of the substance stacked atop each other. They had to be very heavy, each rectangular block measuring close to 1 foot by 1.5 feet, dense blocks that would require a very strong adult to lift one by one.

The entrance was once guarded by stone doors with a carved archway directly in the median of the pyramid. While outside a swirl of sand was always present, just an inch inside the entrance seemed to be free and clear of any weather whatsoever. Rokumaru approached the entrance as he sketched out the arch in further detail, and took his first step inside the structure. The floor was at a slight decline due to the entire pyramid having sunk into the sand somewhat, and was made of tightly packed sandstone blocks. Here, no sunlight breached the ancient hallway that stretched deep into the structure. Roku had expected this and came prepared, replacing his paper and writing utensil into his backpack in exchange for a handheld flashlight. He flicked the switch to power the device and bathed the hallway in light.

The entire hallway was wide enough to allow to fully grown adults to stand side by side, but only stretched a few feet higher than his 5 1/2 foot height. The walls were spared from the eroding properties of the sandstorm, but were completely smooth and devoid of detail. The boy placed a hand on the wall to his right, quickly feeling the perfectly 90 degree angle they were carved in, but a deep groan from the shifting stone blocks made his pull his hand away. It would seem he would need to be much more careful with the delicate structure.

Shining his light ahead of him Roku followed the straight passageway deep into the pyramid's core. The air around him grew colder and colder the further he went until it reached a temperature that mimicked Suna's cold desert nights. The boy shivered slightly and pulled his crimson cloak up tighter around him.

The passageway led to a single sanctum inside the large pyramid, with a low ceiling only barely taller than the hallway and the walls only 5 meters in diameter from each other. Those walls, however, were decorated with a detailed panorama of identical scenes on all 4, showing simple carvings of stick figures. In the center of each wall was one large, life sized stick figure facing towards the observer. On each side of the figure were an army of smaller figures each with a thin line connecting to the outstretched hands of the central figure's hands. It was a mural depicting an ancient puppeteer; any fool could see that.

And directly in the center of the room was a carved stone sarcophagus, the single item in the room. It rose 3 feet from the ground and was 6 feet in length by Roku's estimation. On its heavy lid was carved with the image of a bearded man with closed eyes, arms crossed in front of him with simple robes and a simple crown stretching across his brow. Roku would need to request permission to open up the coffin, and after taking a detailed sketch of it returned to the village to report his finding.

WC: 1174/1000
Mission Complete~