While traveling through the rugged Knurl Range, Drace and his kabrisk foster-father Shabak encounter a young girl fleeing the soldiers of a lord wishing to make her his bride by force
 

    Drace shivered underneath his heavy woolen cloak.  Late fall was a wretched time to travel, particularly through the mountains, with clouds the color of tarnished iron covering the sky from horizon to horizon.  But, when Shabak had decided to visit an old officer of his in the Knurl Range, nothing but a full blizzard could have swayed him.  Drace certainly couldn't.  The three-day journey to Odigar's home had been cold and miserable, but at least there had been a warm fire, fresh meat, and hearty ale at the end of it.  Long hours had been taken up with lengthy conversation between Shabak and Odigar.  Those had been occasionally interesting, when they touched on the battles of the war against Valedarius, but more often they had been tedious and impossible for Drace to follow.  Odigar's sons had departed to farm their own land, except his eldest, who Drace had found even more boring than his father.

    Now, on the road home, Drace had nothing to look forward to but a cold winter and hard work at their crude home on Talon Point.  They walked amongst towering mountains with dense evergreen forests crowded around their feet.  A rough slope lay to Drace's right and a steep climb to his left as the road wandered along the side of one great mountain.

    Shabak had walked a little ahead for the past hour, but now he dropped back beside Drace.  Shabak was the only father Drace had ever known.  He stood a little over five feet and was sheathed in a mossy green exoskeleton.  His legs were short but strong, and in addition to two thick arms, a third appendage tipped with a pincer rose from his left shoulder.  Shabak's hard black eyes were deep-set in his boxy head.  His stubby tail flapped slowly behind him.

    "We'll need to work hard at getting crabs," said Shabak. "We need food for the winter—some days will be too stormy to check the traps or fish."

    Drace sighed. "More work, more cold, more wet, and nothing to show for it but another season passed."