Lost Hope
The soft patter of rain was all that could be heard now amongst the ruined buildings. Smoking debris and charred remains of a once proud city littered the streets. With the eerie silence seeming to last an eternity, a few of the residents that had hid during the ordeal, now emerged from their fractured homes. Kiarra opened her eyes as she regained consciousness, blinking a few times to remove the rain that blurred her vision.
Painfully she raised herself to her knees and breathed long and slow, feeling as the air filled her lungs as she calmed the torrent of thoughts in her head. Methodically and with more clarity than she had ever had before, she ordered her thoughts and stored them to be dealt with one at a time.
Shell shocked, she gazed about herself at the carnage. Men moved from building to building, searching for signs of life with little hope of finding a soul. Children cried for parents long gone, wives sobbed in grievance for their husbands that had been caught in the confusion, and unable to escaped their painful fates. Those lucky enough to not lose ones close to them spread amongst the other survivors, offering what little comfort they could.
The last thought to order was that of Parrin. Numb, she climbed to her feet and began to make her way through the few streets to the palace courtyard. Bodies littered the streets she walked, yet she paid them no heed. There was nothing that could be done for them now. As she rounded the corner and approached the gates, she stared in awe. Almost nothing remained of the massive archway. The thick steel reinforced wooden doors now lay in splinters. Head snapping up she looked toward the courtyard, where her breath caught.