Chapter 23

Upon a grassy steppe and beneath the clear gray sky, there sat a small community. In fact, it could hardly still be called a 'community' at all; for all of three tiny houses now sat entirely unoccupied, save for the fourth, which hardly saw use anymore. The grassy terrain bordered along a shelf of gravel which led to sand, which led to a large reservoir of fresh water that had yet to turn fully into ice, though nearly all of the ground now lay covered in a fine sheet of snow.

The small hut still housed an occupant during most nights; but save for a few candles burning in the window and by the bedside, one might never know that. Its owner was rarely at home anymore, preferring the lonely company of evergreen trees and an empty shore to the confines which had once housed so many memories, and which his body had long since outgrown. Nothing tied him to thi