The north wind whistled and slid over the woods, cutting through the frozen air like a sharp blade that had been thrown with force. The strong force of the wind bent the canopies of the trees, and sprinkled the snowflakes piled up on them, spreading them like fine grains of salt on the resting Quaid warriors. Sitting on the ground, the hooded fatigued warriors didn't react, and as long as the snow didn't fall on their faces and melted into their necks, they wouldn't waste a of strength to pull them off.

Even Riga lay down on her back against a pine tree, trying to regain her strength as quickly as possible while letting the soft silver moonlight pour uncontrollably on her body. The few warriors whose lungs were stabbed by the cold air were wrapped in fur, leaving only their eyes protected by frost-white eyebrows still moving in the air. Their covered cheeks twitched, and they chewed a thick, dark brown leaf in their mouths. These leaves are harvested from a tree called holly, a seasoning that keeps the cold away and has a fiery taste. When leaving the fortress, the wizard sent an apprentice and asked him to carry a large amount of medicine, and these holly leaves were one of them.

When sitting and resting in the cold wilderness, time is like grit clenched in a fist, slowly only leaking through the fingers. The howling wind and icy air made the warriors tremble uncontrollably, but they could only endure it.

As the Silver Moon rises from the eastern horizon to the very top of the starry sky, the ice field finally has its most noisy moment. Beasts lurking in caves due to the blizzard crawled out of their hiding places and began hunting with hungry stomachs. The roar of bears, the roar of lions, and the howls of wolves mingled in the silvery night sky, like a stirring symphony that woke the hunter who had almost fallen asleep.

Slowly opening his eyes covered with ice and snow, Riga leaning against the trunk of the tree moved. He looked at the branches in front of him that had lost their long shadows in the snow, and finally shook his frozen shoulders, straightened his arms, and stood up. The legs wrapped in the snow badger's skin were almost unintuitive, but fortunately the rest was not long, and after a few straightening and bending, the Quaid felt the calm earth again.

The crunch of moving and squeezing the snow caused several sentries to turn their heads, and Riga's movements caused them to begin shaking the surrounding clansmen and waking them up from their rest. None of the fighters slept in the cold and dangerous wilderness, so they quickly helped each other to their feet, moving to drive away the stiffness and numbness in their bodies.

After about a time of prayer, the silver moon in the sky shifted half a palm to the west, and the Quaid in the woods were ready to continue walking. Because they need to find a good campsite sheltered from the wind before the red moon goes down and the black moon falls.

Soon, the team of nearly thirty people was on its way. Rough leather boots or skins that cover your feet sink deep into the snow, driving away the beasts around them with a sharp and unpleasant sound like a snow badger's cry. There were still a few powerful beasts sneaking over to hunt the Quaids, but when a cave lion hiding in the bushes wailed and was impaled through its body with a spear, the remaining predators immediately scattered and fled.

It was Riga who threw the spear, and when the other warriors saw the massive cave lion roaring and jumping out of the bushes, two Quaids with heavy axes immediately rushed forward and cut down the beast that had been pierced through the shoulder blades. The massive beast, which was more than five feet tall at the shoulder and eight feet long, did not die from two wounds in its skull. It struggled the ground, its limbs with hook-like claws slashing through the snow-covered ground, making several curved arcs of varying shades on it.

The wounded cave lion struggled even more fiercely, opening its huge mouth full of curved canine teeth and roaring fiercely at the Quid. The stinking hot air that emanated from its mouth and the sharpness of its claws that swung more violently caused the two warriors to take a step back in fear. But Riga drew the weapon he was hanging from his waist just in time, roared and jumped up, kicking the cave lion on the head with both heavy feet, stunning the beast as the iron sword pierced the heart through the gap in the ribs.

"It's a big one, at least a thousand pounds. A warrior with a long red beard exclaimed, with a long face, eyebrows and hair as dark red as clotted blood, and a few dirty marks on his face that had not been washed away. A strong body in a gray cloak squeezed out of the crowd, and the redbearded warrior touched the head of the beast, which was still struggling weakly. "This is a rare bloodline of the Cave Lion King, a rare beast that is said to grow into a magical beast. ”

"It's just right to serve as our food, although the meat of the cave lion tastes scratchy. Gal squeezed in from the side, too. He looked at the rare big lion, and the corners of his mouth seemed to smack a few times.

With the approval of many warriors, the cave lion was spared the fate of being immediately skinned, but an extremely tall warrior carried it, and the beast's breathing was stopped forever as it shook. The warrior was Paul, who had lived in the tribal tavern, and the destruction of the camp had left him without a place to live and work, and since Riga had helped him several times, the warrior had been slowed down by a brain break during his birth and joined the team. The brute strength in his stout body also made him a coolie for carrying cave lions.

The lingering smell of cave lion blood in the air caused the weak beasts to flee, but it also attracted even more powerful beasts. Around the woods where the team was advancing, Riga could always feel the looming danger, but he couldn't see a suspicious shadow. Thankfully, the sense of danger didn't last long, and the long woods finally came to an end when the red moon, made of blood and tears shed by Avne, the goddess of death and pain, appeared for her lover.

In front of the Quaid was a steep hillside, and about sixty feet below them was a new plain, and above the new plain was still a large forest of tall firs. The cold wind on the hillside was so bitter that Riga even had to use his hands to stop him several times when he was blinded by the snowflakes that swept in.

In order to reach the bottom of the slope safely, the hunters sent several warriors, hoping that they would find a way down in the surroundings. The rest of the warriors retreated into the woods, using their trunks to fend off the raging cold wind, but before they could take twenty breaths, one warrior ran back panting.

"There is a gentle slope on the south side that allows us to walk safely. The young warrior gasped hard, holding back the stinging pain coming from his lungs. Luckily, the Wizard's apprentice was right next to Riga, and he quickly took out a holly leaf and put it in the warrior's mouth, dissolving the pinprick-like pain in his chest.

PS1: Ahem, Happy New Year, everyone! (I suddenly found out that I forgot to give my book friend a New Year's greeting.) PS2: Thank you for the tips from Book Friends Deus, Qi'an Aslan, and Dragon Yin Zhenxiao. PS3: I know that I update the scum, but I also want to point the data to support my face. Running naked next week, ask for a collection recommendation. Ahem.