They hid behind the cobblestone fence. The day-long search to find the mysterious, glowing pink line had suddenly come to an end, but now what? Artemis felt the cool surface of the weathered and eroded stone wall against her cheek. She peeked over a section of the waist-high barrier where the top row of rocks had fallen off—probably from a leaping stag, imagined the young, free-spirited girl.

She looked out over what used to be a peaceful stretch of valley woodlands and flowing grasses, but was now unrecognizable and foreign-looking to her. She noticed Ambros looking around with a confused look on his face, like he was also having a difficult time grasping the enormity of the situation. Most of the trees had fallen except for the "mother trees" that stood sturdy every hundred meters or so; they had lost their leaves but still stood proud and upright. Artemis looked back toward the old lady’s house, and she could see nothing but the large tree in her backyard standing unharmed. I hope the lady and her house survived the storm, she said to herself.