Current Month: July
Current Weather: Blistering hot sun without a cloud in sight

Enter Canada:

Not a drop of rain has been seen since early May, and every animal is feeling it. The sun has become uncharacteristically hot, killing and drying out the Mustangs' main food source: vegetation. The horses have fled to a small, twenty mile area of pine forest, deep in the mountains, seeking shade and relief from the hot sun, which is burning light colored horses.

Deer and moose are heading to wetter lands, depriving the wolves of their main food source: fresh meat. Because of this the swollen wolf populous have turned to the horses for food; killing young foals and old horses alike. Safety in numbers has been taken to the extreme, some herds harboring well over a dozen horses. More wolves have passed through these lands, following their prey source. When they happened upon the hundreds of Mustangs hiding in the mountains they stayed, adding to the already overgrown Canis Lupus population. Mares keep even older foals close, and yearlings with a good head on their shoulders dare not stray from the protection of their lead stallion. Because of the dry, sparse grass, lactating mares are condemned to a dwindling milk supply, unfortunately and quite unwillingly starving foals unequipped to graze on what little grass there is.

The new wolves brought with them an awful disease, dubbed the "Staggering Sickness". The horses have no known treatment, but healers are working tirelessly to find a cure. It can take anywhere from four to ten days for the symptoms to appear, and contact with the victim's droppings, urine, saliva, nasal discharge, or even breathing the same air will almost guarantee the sickness continues to spread. The main symptoms are thick nasal discharge, staggering gait, hind leg weakness, fever, and lethargy. Some infected horses even die. Wolves seem unable to catch this horrid disease, but it passes from horse to horse like wildfire, and whole herds are dropping like flies, especially with more horses in a smaller area and larger herds. The disease also causes malformed or aborted foals in pregnant mares, and foals, along with the elderly, are more susceptible to it.