The Yohan First Horde emerged from the southeastern highland corridor on the morning of the seventh day.
The transition was abrupt. One moment, the column was moving through the narrow valleys and rocky passages that had defined the march for a week, the terrain pressing in from both sides, the sky a narrow strip of blue between the ridgelines that channeled their movement. The next, the highlands fell away and the Threian frontier opened before them like a door swinging wide, the rolling farmland and scattered woodlands of the kingdom's eastern border stretching to a horizon that seemed impossibly distant after days of confinement in the corridor's stone embrace.
Khao'khen halted the column at the corridor's mouth and rode forward with Sakh'arran to survey the terrain. The Verakhs had already deployed into the open ground, their scouts fanning outward in the surveillance patterns that would provide the situational awareness the Horde needed to operate in unfamiliar territory.
