The storm front towered above them and the wind was cool on their sweating faces. They slumped bleary-eyed in their saddles and looked at one another. Shrouded in the black thunderheads the distant lightning glowed mutely like welding seen through foundry smoke. As if repairs were under way at some flawed place in the iron dark of the world.
The characters in Cormac McCarthy's "All the Pretty Horses" find themselves under an imposing storm front, feeling the cool wind against their heated faces. Exhausted and bleary-eyed, they share a glance, indicating their unease and fatigue amidst the brewing storm. The atmosphere is tense, reflecting their inner turmoil as they brace for the impending weather.
The distant flashes of lightning, obscured by dark clouds, evoke a sense of something being altered...