Bramblepoint growing strong

It should have been easy to guide them, yes, but Dirge couldn't help but think of how hunger swept through them in waves. They could have been tearing into their caches to live like kings and queens, but they were a bit more rational than that. Or so he hoped; the mental note was made to take stock of where they had frittered away the bulk of their stores for the season.

"It's a shame the quaking brought most of them down," he noted, eyes shifting skyward. "Or perhaps we should have thought of this sooner." But they had no real way of knowing that the herds would not return easily other than the hunch of their collective intellect and what wayfarers shared. It was mostly the same story anywhere that he had ranged and because of it, they had to spread themselves thin.

Which brought him round to Hydra's parting statement—it may have been true that the unsavory lurked already. He was keen to believe in it, but did not entirely agree with flushing them out yet. "It would be nice to have a quiet moment or two before we have to butt heads with someone else, too. I thought about going south towards the fen to see if I can't find that girl and her merry band, to come to an arrangement. If we had them on our side too, perhaps we gain a respite."

Even though that left the blackheaded sea witch and her one-eyed gladiator out there.

And there was the bloke in the north, the yearling.

Still, safety in numbers...