Redhawk Caldera rough gem

They had gone to ground during the worst of the swarm, surfacing only as the wave of insects began to recede into the distance. Peregrine hadn't really been worried at first. Surely the bugs would move on soon enough. But when he crept out of the cave and surveyed what was left behind, well... he gasped. He literally gasped. There were piles of dead bugs all over the place. Those didn't really concern him. What stole his breath was the bare, patchy earth and the dead-looking trees. It was the height of spring. But there was no grass. There were no leaves. The locusts had left behind a barren, dead wasteland.

"Oh, fuck," said Peregrine, roaming restlessly forward. Lying low the past few days had been good for his leg, yet he still couldn't put weight on it. He hobble-hopped as swiftly as he could to the rendezvous site, feeling a pang when his single eye swept over the devastation. The rolling, grassy hills were bare, naked, stripped of all life. He swallowed dryly, glancing out to the distant lake. Although its glistening blue surface reassured him, it also teased him. It was the only smudge of color for miles in any direction.

He was a hunter, so he knew what this meant for the resident herds. They would move on entirely. Peregrine's heart throbbed. He had never experienced a famine before, yet he remembered his parents passing on stories about something called Fimbulvetr. The Alpha could not picture anything more excruciatingly slow and painful than dying of hunger. His lips pressed together as he realized that he, his mate and his children might be facing just such a grim fate.

As much as he loved Redhawk Caldera, Peregrine decided right then and there that he would uproot if it came down to it. Even if Fox resisted, he would insist. Speaking of which, Peregrine turned and began hopping down toward the borders, in the direction of the (now alarmingly bare) Bramblepoint. Fox had been missing for days and he assumed she had taken shelter somewhere between here and Moonspear. But she hadn't come home yet, so now that he had taken a moment to process his initial alarm at the situation, it was time to find her and bring her home.

Her howl reached his ears when he was most of the way down the slope. Hearing the note of urgency in it, Peregrine hastened his steps and wound up stumbling several times for his effort. Grunting in frustration, he located her figure in the distance and made his way there as quickly as possible, his happiness at seeing her quickly eclipsed by a growing horror as he saw the mess on the side of her face. The Alpha's stomach rolled as he braked to a stop in front of her, gingerly reaching out to touch the side of her neck.

"Babe," he crooned. "Did a bug do this to you?" he guessed, trying to swallow the heart that had lumped to throb in his throat.