Last Watch Before Dawn: Volume 1, Page 14

I finished a page, and it’s still regular business hours!

I’m going to be trying to build up a backlog over the next couple of weeks. That will mean a) I’ll get this thing done in a somewhat more reasonable time frame and b) I can stick to the posting schedule with fewer interruptions.

You will find this page below the cut:

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Table of Contents

Back to Page 13

Forward to Page 15

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Image description:

A four-panel, black-and-white comic page.

Panel 1: A wide shot of the top of the cliffside, with the shrine and one of its windmills visible in the lower right corner. The shrine is three buildings attached to one another, the largest one in the center, and it has peaked roofs and columns bracketing its sets of shoji doors. Snow gathers around the base of the buildings and the stairs in front of each door. Far to the left, a pine forest sits under a moderate covering of snow. The wide sky is gray and clouded. A tiny figure in a straw cloak walks on a path of footprints in the snow, moving from the shrine to the forest.

Panel 2: Underneath a pine tree, we see Resunotek kneel beside a large root. She has taken the basket off her back and set it on the ground in front of her, opening the lid and examining the unseen contents. A branch of the tree crosses the foreground, its needles bedecked with clumps of snow.

Panel 3: Resunotek, a young woman with wavy dark hair, slightly pointed ears, and traditional Ainu tattoos (a smile across the mouth and a woven pattern on the hands and forearms), holds up a plant in one hand and a knife in the other. The knife has a thick, serrated blade, like the tooth of some very large predator. The plant has black branches and a thick, white taproot. Tiny green filaments connect her fingers to the plant; this is the only color in the image. Her expression is pleased.

Panel 4: In another part of the forest, Resunotek walks among tall pines. Time has passed, and she and the trees cast long shadows. She holds her basket in both hands, and it is now full of roots, branches, and a number of mushrooms threaded on a string. She looks up and away from the viewer. The shadows of a flock of birds in flight are scattered among the trees’ shadows on the ground.