When the Prince and his ladies were still chatting at the little stall, Landen had already slipped out of the city on Totapara. He headed north, then east, using the terrain to evade the watchful eyes around the Girislav camp before entering Frost-Wolf Forest.
After Totapara had led the Beastmen, Wolf-Barbarians, and wolf packs in a mass migration out of the forest, most of the groups that had originally lived there had moved to White Wolf City. Their main forces had joined the Frost-Wolf Knights and the infantry.
Most of the groups that had remained in the forest now lived in the six camps Totapara had established. All six camps were in the northern part of the forest and had once belonged to the Wolf-Barbarians. After Theresa's renovations and expansions, they were now nearly as large as the Girislav camp outside the woods.
With Landen on her back, Totapara raced to the largest of the camps. It had once been the battlefield of the God of Life, Lucoa, and the Human Empire's legendary National Pillar, Girislav. A statue of Lucoa had once been enshrined in the cave there.
After that battle, Landen had been fortunate enough to enter the cave. It had been a world unto itself: though its interior bore only the crude marks of human excavation, the Magic Arrays etched into the rock walls were extremely complex. Magic maintained the cave's temperature and humidity, making it a shelter for hundreds of Barbarians or Beastmen.
Now that they had returned to the cave, everything was shrouded in gloom, and none of the Magic Arrays were working anymore.
Feeling the temperature inside, the Frost-Wolf asked in puzzlement, "I remember it being quite warm when I came here before. How did it get so cold when winter hasn't even arrived?"
Landen