The Colour of the Night Page 26
Beyond the distant rise of the blackening, against a cerulean sky, a small dot altered form and shimmered in the midday heat. A sudden gust blew a flurry of ash and for a second it obscured their view, then the object took shape again. Like a sculptor’s handiwork, something was forming on the brow of the hill: a head and shoulders first, then a torso, and finally a complete but diminutive figure. Elton took three steps towards it, his mother followed, and suddenly all five were running, an ungainly group of galloping bipeds charging towards a new and unpredictable future.