And with that we both rose and took our plates into the kitchen that was
connected to the dining hall on the opposite side as the hallway and
deposited our plates to be cleaned later (for even the leaders of a
society must do their fair share of the work). Then we walked back
through the dining hall, down the hallway, and out the door.

Outside we found that the people had already began to assemble on the
road in front of their communities and were preparing for the festival
by chattering with one another as loudly as one would think possible. A
hush began to fall upon them like a descending fog when we came out,
though, and within a few moments it had died down to a ghostly silence,
for all that could be heard was the wind's constant blowing. Ramma took
the head of the procession of Munams that had formed on the road, and I
took the place next to him. With a sort of quiet anticipation of the
joys to come, there was little movement, and what little there was, was
hushed by a sense of subdued excitement. Then, with a somber gait, Ramma
began the parade down the road, in the opposite direction as we had come
from, that being northwest, and all followed him as he did.

The sun at that time was just beginning to set, and once we had crossed
one of the larger hills we came face to face with the coast, the sun's
great red form half sunken beneath its surface. A faint cloud layer
floated by and was illuminated by the twilight so that it stretched
haphazardly across the face of the sun. Never have I seen so profound a
scene as that which then presented itself, with the desert sands and the
ocean's still surface reflecting the last agonies of the sun's descent
into the underworld with such a subtle emotional undertone so as to
render it a subconscious delight. Its recognized superiority to mortal
life forms left us all mute and somber, but at the same time the freedom
felt from the same gave us joy beyond reckoning.