Hûb Beriannen

Shielded from the winter gales by the great northern wall of the Aeglir Arvethed and the Bleak Mountains, and from sea storms by the arm of Rast Losnaeth, the calm waters of Sheltered Bay are a deep, wonderfully lustrous green. Locked securely between Rast Losnaeth and the out-thrust peninsula of the Herd Tundra, the narrowness of the bay's inlet blocks strong currents from Belegaer. Both the Jäämiehet and Lumimiehet fish and whale on the bay, and their settlements and camps dot its shores. Since Sheltered Bay holds no icebergs, the Merimetsästäjät make forays across it only rarely.

The eastern coastline of the bay is lightly forested with pine, fir and rare stands of hardy cedar. Black mink and blue otter can be found in significant numbers around the mouth of the Lhúchir, which empties its waters at the southeastern end of the bay. The herd animals that migrate into the Everdalf in summer can also be found wandering near the bay's southern shores. The northern coasts facing the Lakeland are rocky, but plentiful in grass, sedge and wildflower, as is the tundra beyond. Here too, mink and otters thrive, and reindeer and elk graze. Further north, the bay sends long, finger-like inlets towards the Bleak Mountains, their shores surrounded by beaches of large, round, watersmoothed stones. The western shore is composed of the low, desolate hills of Rast Losnaeth.

Without the surging violence of wind or storm-driven waves, Sheltered Bay freezes earlier and thicker than Forochel's other gulfs, and its ice-packs are thus some what safer than those farther west. Travelers need not worry about a sudden, deadly plunge through thin ice. The calmness of the water allows the ice to extend far out into the bay. The Lumimiehet say that, in the depths of a long, hard winter, it is possible to walk from the westernmost shores of the Herd Tundra to the southern tip of Rast Losnaeth.