Morning came gently to Hell's Paradise Island although there was something almost watchful about the sun when it finally climbed beyond the horizon.
After everything the night had endured, daylight did not arrive with its usual careless warmth.
—the first rays spread slowly across the island pale along their outer edges before deepening into rich amber as they touched forest, river, towers and distant mountains, almost as though the sun itself were testing the world before committing its full brilliance to it. There was comfort within that warmth, the familiar tenderness of dawn brushing frost from leaves and chasing the final chill from stone, yet something strangely protective accompanied it now.
