Shadows stretched languidly across the ancient stone courtyard, cast in the late evening sun by the spectral figures of decaying architecture. These long-deserted, monolithic ghouls loomed several stories high to the north and west, their gaping black windows staring horribly across the smooth flagstones into the crumbling expanse of deceased masonry beyond. Tight clusters of rough, blue-grey weeds had forced their way up through the cracks and gaps in the granite pavement, rising over the years to a height of several feet and forming a crazy checkered pattern wherever space permitted. The cracked remains of a colossal marble archway stood at the southern edge of the circular courtyard, its center long since collapsed, its thick white pillars standing bright and tall in the remaining sunlight, set in stark relief against the cluttered darkness beyond. A cold wind moaned through the carcass of this once-great city, carrying with it the chill of approaching winter.
Silently, amidst these tattered remains of civilization, a dark figure picked his way furtively across the western edge of the courtyard, halting occasionally to huddle along lichen-encrusted walls against cruel clutches of the biting wind. He was wrapped in the barest of rags, and crusted in dirt and grease. Stringy locks of grimy black hair hung limply down his back, though the crown of his head was bare. Dark eyes sat deeply above hollow cheeks, with his gaunt, thin-lipped face fading away, pitiful and grey, beneath the hateful intensity of his gaze.
The sun slipped further toward the hazy horizon, lengthening the ominous fingers of shadow cast by those horrid stone leviathans looming behind him. Night was fast approaching. With a quick, anxious glance around him, the lone figure scurried away into the vast maze of dilapidated ruins beyond the pillars. Scrambling like a giant cockroach, in mere moments he had vanished into the rubble.
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