When Durandon found Costa, the silent man was chopping wood, in fact, he had been chopping firewood for a whole day, and Durandon had only seen him by going around a firewood volcano. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

At some point, scattered snowflakes fell in the sky, and Delandon looked at the back of this silently chopping wood, and after a little hesitation, he took off the sunflower emblem on his chest and walked up.

"Is it Chief Costa?" Durandon asked quietly.

It is said that when a recruit sees a commander, he will have a "greeting gift", and he doesn't know what the new commander will give him and how he should deal with it. Is it to beat him up directly? Or give him two gold coins? None of them seem to fit well......

In the midst of his whimsy, Costa stopped what he was doing and turned his head back.

To Derlandon's surprise, the chief was young, and looked about his own age, but his face was expressionless, cold as a block of ice.

Without any superfluous words, let alone a "greeting gift", Costa nodded and said just one sentence, "Help me stack firewood." ”

Costa then continued to chop wood, and although Derandon felt strange, he could not disobey the order, and was glad that he was not harassed. So he walked over, picked up the chopped wood seriously, moved it to the side and put it away, and the two of them had no other words.

The snow is still falling, silently.

Compared to here, the wind and snow in the Alterac Mountains are much more violent, and the cold wind is like a knife, and it only takes a moment to blow people's skin apart. Even the locals rarely go out in such harsh winters, and even the black bears hide in tree hollows to sleep.

However, no matter how bad the weather was, it couldn't stop the travelers, and in the howling north wind, the two of them rode over against the wind and snow. They were a man and a woman, the man was a thin, middle-aged man, and the woman looked to be in her teens, dressed in a blue power suit, with a longbow and sword crossed behind her.

They are none other than Zhuoka and Rosen, who went into the mountains to find people.

"Zoka, we can't go any further east, there's nowhere to spend the night, we'll freeze to death." Rosen drove the mule forward and shouted against the wind.

The mountain road ahead diverged, one to the east to the Ott Peak, and the other to the south, to the former Alterac Castle.

At the end of the war, the Orcs were defeated and imprisoned, and the angry human soldiers burned the royal city. Now it is occupied by Sauron and his men, and it is said that preparations are underway to rebuild the royal city and gather the people in preparation for the resumption of rule.

After some thought, Droka nodded, and turned his horse's head south.

After a short walk, ruins began to appear on both sides of the road, but they were all too dilapidated to live in, so the two of them had to continue to walk deeper. Braving heavy snow all the way, at dusk, after rounding a mountain corner, the former royal city finally appeared in front of me.

Looking at the valley ahead, Zoka was dumbfounded, she had been here before, although there were no ogres, but the ruins were only infested with wild beasts, and it was extremely desolate. But now looking down, many houses have been repaired in the center of the ruins, and the lights are lit, and I am afraid that there are no less than a thousand households.

In the most central location, several slightly larger stone houses were built in the original royal palace, which is the residence of the "new king" Sauron. With so many people gathered in such a short period of time, it seems that this Sauron is quite popular with the people.

"Drive."

As soon as he lifted the reins, Zoka began to walk along the avenue towards the valley, where the wind and snow were much lighter because of the valley's sunny position, and the two animals, which were almost frozen, began to trot without urging.

The road was unimpeded, and there was no trace of people, and the two of them descended into the ruins of the valley from time to time. It was on the periphery and had not yet recovered, and Zoka did not want to come into contact with the newly established regime, so he found a relatively intact house to live in.

She planned to wait for the next day when the snow was lighter, and then cross the valley and rush to the Otthorn by another road.

At night, it was quiet outside, only the whistling wind was heard, but Zhuoka, who had been tired all day, could not sleep. For some reason, she felt that the mountains had become a little strange and made her feel repulsed.

The cranky thoughts continued until midnight, when Zoka felt sleepiness attack, when suddenly the sound of horses' hooves was heard in the distance, mixed with the sound of the wind. Zoka's eyes that had just been closed suddenly opened, and his figure flashed, and he was already under the window.

It was a closed carriage, rather luxurious, that drove slowly from outside the valley without any markings. The car was lit with wind lamps, and under the light, it turned out to be a beautiful girl driving, wearing only a pink gauze skirt, and there was no discomfort in the winter night.

Zoka glanced at it, then quickly retracted his head, leaning his back against the wall, his brow furrowed.

The carriage drove past the window, and Zoka quickly rolled out of the window, and quietly followed under the cover of the ruins. When she looked at the woman driving the car just now, she could see that the girl's pupils were erect!

Passing through the ruins, Zoka kept her grip on the carriage, her body moving and light, silent all the way. After another half an hour, the carriage drove into the central area, and it was late at night, and the lights of the inhabitants had been turned off, and the dream had begun.

After a few more moments, the carriage entered the ruins of the palace without stopping, where a group of soldiers were already patrolling with spears. With a slight hesitation, Zoka walked around the broken corner of the wall to the other side, listened carefully, and climbed over the wall to feel inside.

The guards here are not strict, although there are many patrols, but the organization is a little messy, and Zoka finds the right gap to get into it and enter the central area. About 50 meters apart, the carriage stopped outside a central hall, and the girl who drove it sat in the snow and waited quietly.

After a while, there was the sound of hurried footsteps in the main hall, and from the position of Zoka, I saw a young man in a gorgeous robe leading the way, and a group of people hurriedly ran over.

"Vielan, my dear friend, you are back!" Far away, the young man began to shout, his tone trembling with excitement.

Zoka shook his head, he hadn't heard the name.

The next moment, the young man himself climbed into the car and opened the door, and a person poked his head out of the car and looked around. Zoka was inadvertently swept by the man's gaze, and he felt a pain in his eyes, as if he had been pricked by a needle.

Zoka quickly retracted his head, closed his eyes and shook it off, and when he opened it again, the man had already walked out of the car. It was an extremely tall man, handsome in his face, and his gestures were as calm as a mountain, and after he withdrew his gaze, he nodded to the young man who greeted him.

Zoka breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed that he had not been exposed just now.

"Sauron, my brother, I can't stay here for long, I have come here this time because I have something to discuss with you." The tall man named Vielan put his arm on the young man's shoulders and said with a calm expression.

At this point, Zoka realized that the young man in the fancy costume turned out to be Sauron, who had been proclaimed king, and he did not expect him to be so young.

In the car, after greeting each other again, the two walked into the main hall with their hands, looking very intimate, while the girl who was driving remained motionless, ignoring everything around her. Zoka waited in the shelter for a while, and after weighing the direction of the palace, she turned and retreated.

That glance just now was too shocking, and that Vielan seemed to be so powerful that she didn't dare to venture deeper. (To be continued.) )