After seven days of fighting, the Players finally gained the upper hand in the scout skirmishes, breaking several gaps in the warning line the Minisians had established across the King's Plain.
The Prince's Army gained a precious opening. Without the slightest hesitation, Chris immediately ordered his troops out of the mountains to seize a position where they could establish a firm foothold.
"Tweet, tweet, tweet..."
A shrill whistle sounded urgently in his ears. Standing in the ranks, Jacques crushed a shard of ice beneath his army boot, which was made from some unknown leather. Looking at the dark soil beneath it, he could not help exclaiming,
"What fertile land."
Jacques was a hunter, and he had farmed before. His grandfather had once been a farmer too; in fact, everyone in Mountain Peak Village had once been an honest, hardworking farmer.
Why had they become hunters?
The reason was simple... their land had been confiscated.
Who had done it?
No one could say anymore. Their fathers had forgotten, so naturally Jacques did not know either.
Only now, after Prince Chris had granted land to the young men from Mountain Peak Village who had enlisted, had the hunters naturally turned their hunting village back into a farming village.
Those with land became landlords, while the villagers without any rented land from them to farm, picking up the hoes their grandfathers had abandoned.
Farming was hard, but hunting was even harder. It was dangerous, and the returns were extremely unreliable.
Hunters had to track prey through dense forests for days, enduring hunger and cold, all for a mouthful of food to fill their stomachs.
They had to face fierce beasts deep in the mountains, their hearts pounding like drums, without daring to retreat. Every time they left home, they might never return.