When he headed east from the mountains, he'd had no particular destination in mind. Mace was too unfamiliar with the Lore to be able to target any one place, anyway. Now, in a tangle of trees so thick he could hardly see for the darkness, he regretted that decision. He should have found someone to ask for directions before going off on his own. He wished that before bringing up his family name, he had asked Iyes where he might find the nearest pack, but he'd lost the opportunity when he revealed who he was.

Oh well, he thought as he struggled to clear the gap between two pines that seemed to embrace one another. You don't know where you're going anyway, mister Mace. So on he went, padding deeper and deeper into an unforgiving and silent woodland, feeling suffocated by the press of trees all around him. He was a wolf who favoured forests, but this was overwhelming and oppressive, and it dragged his mood lower and lower the more he proceeded.

Without warning, he broke through the trees and found himself at the edge of a sprawling lake that seemed gilded by the rays of the sun overhead. After spending so long in the drowning darkness of the trees, the light hurt his sensitive blue eyes and he squinted and uttered a muffled oath. Yet being in the light lifted a weight off his chest and he took the moment to breathe deeply, drinking in the scent of the lake and the open air, and whooped out a sound of relief that echoed out over the water's still surface.