The Pathless On Paths---------Chapter I (Revised Edition)

A chill breeze ran its icy fingers through Emmerly Karrson’s hair. He shivered, but did not move. He stood in the middle of a dusty path, before him it stretched forward down a long and gentle slope, a gray band winding and twisting into the distance, amid black woods and gray mountains, rounding hills, climbing in and out of deep vales, under a sky gray and dark in the dusk. The sun was emitting its final rays of the day, a small patch of light brightness in the distant west, diminished by the gray dust clouds that pressed over Karrson’s head. The wound in his shoulder throbbed painfully, and his left arm was numb. The cold breeze worsened the numbness, its chilly edges cutting into his wounded arm, prickling, as it hung limp in sling at his side. Karrson traced the road with his eyes. He felt cold, though a coat was draped over his shoulders. Deathly cold.