Chapter 39: Darkness' End, Part 2

Dawn if it could even still be called that had barely broken when the dark shape washed up on the shore. Pausing in her work, Petra placed her barely-filled bag on the ground and peered intently through the gloom to where the shape lay. Even from this distance her keen eyes could make out the outline of a naked body sprawled on the shore amidst the sea-weed and detritus the tide left in its wake.

She has seen it many times before. Every so often the bodies of the dead washed up on the long stretch of flat sandy shore of the bay. If the bodies hadn't already been dumped in the water naked, they were soon stripped of their possessions by the scavengers that patrolled the bay like vultures. For many, the small amount of money or the few possessions they managed to secure might even be enough to buy a meal.

To Petra and her poor family, to find a few coins washed up on the shore was like finding the greatest treasure on earth. Though she saw the body was naked, there was a chance it ma