Perhaps because of the daylight, Northern's journey back to the castle gate was serene – at one point, it almost felt too peaceful.
There were no signs of life, no monsters, not even a crawling ant. The city felt deserted, in fact.
He stopped at Master Annette's place to check on her, but she was not around. Then he proceeded to the castle gate.
Having to pass through the crowd of shelters scattered here and there left a bitter taste in Northern's mouth.
For some reason, he was reminded of homeless folks who had been victims of horrible natural disasters like earthquakes or tsunamis.
'There was quite a lot of that where I'm from,' he dwelled momentarily on the thought of how ruinous and pitiful the people looked.
But he strangled that thought a couple of seconds later. There was nothing he could do about it. The disaster had caused so much damage that no one could ever contain or prevent it.
