The fire crackled as the bellow blew into it. It warmed the sweaty skin of Lod, who wept his brow as he threw another tree on the pyre. It had to be high and hot before people started to sacrifice. 

Lod looked around the temple courtyard, proud of his work. The smell of the burning green pines behind him filled the whole cathedral. Three fires burned brightly. One was small, in a pit with a roster above it. Another was slightly bigger, with an altar in front of it. The last one, the one he just finished, was enormous. It stood right under the central tower, so that big sacrificed could be thrown into them from the balcony. 

It was the one where most human sacrifices would be brought. 

This information fazed Lod little. It had been done before, so it would be done again. Most of the sacrifices would be food, or tokens dear to the one giving it. But sometimes people would throw themselves, or others, into the fire. That is why Lod burned fresh pines, so that the smell of burning flesh wouldn’t make the other visitors sick. 

Lod was done, soon he would be paid for his effort, like any other year. He walked to a big barrel and filled a tankard with Mead. He sat down and fondly drank the golden honey brew. Soon the people would arrive, so Lod sat quietly, enjoying the crackling sound of the pyres.