Totoka River On the sandy coast, windswept

It took a whole day and a half for Saena to realize the locusts would not harm her or her pups, but still, venturing out beyond the broken ridge is difficult. Everywhere she steps there are locusts, some crawling along the strand, others just dead carapaces littering the sand. The sea that laps at the shore is laden with dead locusts that drift in-and-out with the tide. Beyond the ridge, the forests are spindly and what green has unfurled there is stripped away. With it goes Saena's desire to remain on the coast, herself oblivious to how far the plague truly goes. She vows to give her wolves a few more days to rest, then they will move on to where the land doesn't crawl with bugs.

For now, the pups are in the care of some wolf or another at the ridge—no doubt they're either thrilled or terrified by the locust swarm—and Saena is free to wander. She trails down the coast, her steps slow and meandering, with eyes to the territories beyond. The Ravensblood that stood so proud beside the plateau is stripped bare of foliage and appears far less ominous than it ever has before. Gyrfalcon's Keep, normally swathed in thin trees, now resembles a moat of very elongated spikes. And though the coast offers the locusts little, they still flutter in a choking cloud over the sea and shore, and Saena shakes every few moments to dislodge them from her coat.