Twisted Slough the ground beneath us is shaking, the sheep are finally waking

They were both fascinated by the ocean, Masquerade perhaps morbidly so. She wouldn’t say she enjoyed the seaside, necessarily, but watching @Riley discover it distracted her from her thoughts and brought her a measure of delight in these trying times. When they found themselves passing by a bay, she even splashed with him in the surf briefly, smiling for the first time in many days.

From there, they wandered into a forest that showed signs of a fire many years ago, just like the rise. It put a lump in Masque’s throat. A plateau rose up to block their path along the coastline, so she hastened inland. She led her mate through a thick forest that slowly morphed into something significantly less scenic. She thought of the marsh neighboring the rise.

Suddenly, Masquerade’s forelegs sank several inches into some sort of quagmire. If she’d thought the ocean kind of stank, it didn’t compare to the odor that belched out of this squidgy patch of ground. Masque retched.