In March, winter's rule over the Northern Territory finally began to show signs of fatigue. The bitter cold and deep snow that had endured for months slowly and irreversibly began to melt beneath the increasingly warm, persistent sunlight.
Spring had returned once more to this land scarred by suffering.
Yet for the Sauron Kingdom, which had only just survived a bleak winter and been left bloodied and battered beneath Carnford City's walls, this belated spring light brought not only hope and joy, but a tangled mixture of relief and dread.
The relief was that thawing ground meant the season for spring plowing had finally arrived.
Though last year's campaign had gone poorly, the southern expeditionary army had suffered devastating losses, and vast stores of grain and supplies had been consumed, so long as they seized this precious chance to sow seeds into the black earth made soft once more, and labored diligently, the golden spring wheat harvested in August or September could bring life-saving yields. It would ease the kingdom's worsening food shortage and buy Sauron a sliver of breathing room.
Spring plowing was Sauron's most urgent need—and its most fragile lifeline.
The cause for concern was that their southern neighbor, Carnford and its lord, Karl von Schmidt, who had just dealt them a crushing blow, clearly had no intention of giving them time to farm in peace and recover their strength. Scout cavalry from the south had grown ever more active, while border tunbaos sent warning after warning. Every sign showed that Carnford's war saber had been drawn once again—and this time, its blade was aimed not at defended city walls, but at the vast yet already weakened heartland of the Sauron Kingdom.
The Lord's Hall in Frosgard, seat of the Sauron Royal Court, felt even more empty and