Running, always running.
Kulala had no idea where to go.
She had run all the way here with her younger sister, but although they had spotted a city, its gates had been sealed because of the snow disaster. They could not get in.
Kulala and Kulalis really had returned to the Mountaintops of the Giants.
But had they come to see the stars? Yes and no.
They had indeed always wanted to see the stars. But that did not mean they had to choose a troublesome day to leave home.
Much less that they had to run off on their own.
They could have had adults accompany them to see the stars.
The reason they had come was simple. War.
Their family had wanted to escape the ravages of war, so they had deliberately headed toward the Mountaintops of the Giants.
Radahn had set out from Caelid, fighting all the way.
Their family had chosen a fairly good time, arriving just as Radahn retreated from the Mountaintops of the Giants in defeat. That proved the region was safer than anywhere else in the Lands Between at the time.
Besides, Miquella was a benevolent Demigod who treated the people in his territory well.
But they had never expected Radahn's second defeat to unleash a scourge of soldiers.
There had actually been signs of it after his first defeat, but they had been less obvious.
And with disaster relief needed, the Haligtree's forces had mostly been active within the Mountaintops of the Giants.
Those defeated soldiers, bandits, and roaming outlaws had mostly kept their heads down, daring only to make occasional raids.
Suppressing bandits had always been troublesome work.
They were like cockroaches. No matter how many were wiped out, there were always more.
That made them quite a headache.
What had