The Wolves of Winter were stationed separately across three towns. It was not that they did not want to stay together, but that they simply had no choice.
The towns of the Northern Territory were all small, with few permanent residents. They could not support the entire Winter Wolf Guard, so the force had no choice but to split into three detachments.
The last encirclement of the resistance seemed to have been a success, at least according to the officers. Yet less than half of the soldiers who had gone returned, and most of them were still badly shaken, their faces filled with fear.
They said there had been nothing remarkable about the resistance, but their leader, Nora, had been truly terrifying. She had charged head-on into the cavalry by herself, met them in a direct clash, and actually killed everyone who rode at her. If they had not outnumbered her so greatly, they might not even have been able to defeat her alone.
No, perhaps they truly had not defeated her. Those men had looked more like they had fled back. But they had indeed brought back Nora's head.
The noble lords strictly forbade anyone from discussing the matter, and so all manner of bizarre rumors spread wildly.
Some said Nora had three heads and six arms; whenever one head was cut off, two more grew back, and her six arms wielded six longswords as she slaughtered an entire cavalry unit.
Some said Nora was the Evil God incarnate, and that her head had merely been a seal. Once it was cut off, the Evil God descended and nearly wiped out the knights.
Others said Nora was the incarnation of the Bone White Crow. No mortal could pierce her armor, but there was a design flaw at the neck