"nataku nataku!" litouten was vigoroly shakg his son's shoulder "wake up!"

"huh?" the boy dazedly asked as his father pulled hi up fro the bed and literally dragged hi out his long, bck locks fell to his waist and he barely had ti to tie the back when he was phed onto the balny "does tentei want aga?" he rubbed his eyes

"no"

"then wha-"

"ssshh" litouten hhshed hi with a vile gr on his face, a filthy hand on his shoulder "and watch"

nataku did all he saas dead bckness and the western ary hog plex not too far to the distance "there's nothg there"

"not now jt wait tonight will be" he trailed off, searchg for a word glorio enough to do jtice to this sensation of sweet, sadistic victory he was now tastg "nataku, wake up!"

the boy had fallen asleep on his feet "i' awake, father tonight will be what? you said it'll be what?"

"e"

he sounded like one of those ic books the arshal always slipped under his door whenever he knew litouten isn't around nataku looked grupily towards his father and shrunk back as the hand on his shoulder tightened to an oppressive grip he looked to western ary, then closed his eyes aga he didn't want to see this

he had never really seen barrenness until now, the charred hos, trapled flower beds, broken fences, and severe eptess -ade ore paful by the ultitude of footprts the snow dicatg that there were once any ore people here- it all tugged at ories that only this body knew and what this body knew, tenpou uld only guess

walkg the ld epty streets, that part of hi nub to huan sufferg seed to die with each step whisps of soke fro dyg fires rose fro vario pots the vilge where several failies had decided to stay out of love for hond "when it es right down to it," a woan had told hi "total disaster is the eye of the beholder yes, we iss our lost friendsbut we still have ourselves hos are jt sticks and stones, and they can be rebuilt besides, the toas startg to look a bit decrepit anyouldn't you thk?"

if heaven had the opportunity to experience such caities, aybe it wouldn't be so tolerable, so untouched sothg so egotistically virg needed a bit ofnon-virg experiences dirt snod ra fire fire

it was a di, gray sunrise, givg way to a sickly pale sun that seed to suck the heat fro earth stead of give he caught a wide frozen splotch of red agast a hoe, btant and fed with the st screa of the dyg, then fought the urge to gag when the scent reached his nose tenpou picked up his pace and headed to a wood right outside the town