“Breaching cloud layer,” Silvertalon croaked. Handy turned to see the wispy clouds part before the ship’s windows. He was greeted with a vista of rocky hill-lands and winding, shallow rivers framed by mountains to the west and great pine forests darkening the horizon far to the east. Sparse deciduous forests, whose autumn colours stood out like burning fires against the greens, browns and greys of the land and tiny villages dotted the landscape along with large, hedge farms as the griffons tried to eke out subsistence from the sparse soil, usually by grazing herds of the strange, grey three legged animals that griffons used as cattle.