Winter arrived without mercy.
Snow covered the mountain paths like a white shroud, hiding the scars of countless battles fought in the past months. Trees bent beneath the weight of frost, and the cold wind cut through armor and cloth alike.
Kaelan Var stood at the edge of a frozen ridge, watching the valley below.
His patrol had grown larger.
After weeks of successful operations against the rebels, Captain Ralen had reinforced Kaelan's command. What had once been thirty soldiers had now become nearly eighty.
More men.
More responsibility.
But also more danger.
Sergeant Dren approached, stamping snow from his boots.
"Scouts returned," he said.
Kaelan looked up.
"What did they see?"
Dren's expression was serious.
"Tracks. Lots of them."
"How many?"
"Hard to say. Snow covered most of them."
Kaelan frowned.
"Guess."
Dren hesitated.
"Maybe… fifty. Maybe more."
Kaelan's eyes narrowed.
Rebels rarely moved in groups that large.
Which meant only one thing.
Maroth.
Finally.
The patrol moved cautiously down the mountain path.
Snow crunched beneath boots.
Visibility was poor, and every tree looked like a hiding place for an enemy archer.
Kaelan raised his hand.
"Halt."
The soldiers stopped immediately.
Something felt wrong.
Too quiet.
No birds.
No wind.
Just silence.
Dren whispered.
"You feel it too."
Kaelan nodded slowly.
"Yes."
The ridge ahead narrowed sharply between two cliffs.
A perfect choke point.
Kaelan studied the snow carefully.
Tracks everywhere.
But something about them looked unnatural.
Too many.
Too messy.
As if someone had walked back and forth repeatedly.
Suddenly Kaelan understood.
"Stop moving!" he shouted.
But it was too late.
A horn echoed across the mountains.
Then the snow exploded.
Rebel soldiers rose from hidden trenches beneath the snow.
Arrows rained down.
War cries shattered the quiet valley.
"AMBUSH!" Dren roared.
Chaos erupted instantly.
Several imperial soldiers fell before they could even raise their shields.
Kaelan drew his sword.
"Form shield wall!"
The soldiers reacted quickly, locking shields together as arrows struck the metal with sharp cracks.
Rebels charged down from the cliffs.
Dozens of them.
More than Kaelan expected.
Easily seventy or eighty.
And they had chosen the battlefield perfectly.
Kaelan's men were trapped in the narrow pass.
Dren fought beside him, cutting down a rebel who leapt over the shields.
"They planned this well!"
Kaelan parried a sword strike.
"Yes."
Too well.
Which meant Maroth had studied them carefully.
Kaelan realized the truth immediately.
This was not a random ambush.
It was revenge.
The battle turned brutal.
Snow quickly turned red as soldiers fought desperately in the narrow valley.
Kaelan moved constantly along the line, shouting orders.
"Hold the center!"
"Archers, left flank!"
"Don't break formation!"
Another wave of rebels slammed into the shield wall.
Steel clashed violently.
A young soldier near Kaelan fell with an arrow in his throat.
Dren cursed loudly.
"We're losing men fast!"
Kaelan knew it.
But retreating through the narrow path would turn into a massacre.
They needed space.
High ground.
Kaelan looked up toward a steep hill beside the pass.
An idea formed instantly.
"Dren!"
"What?"
"We take the hill!"
Dren blinked.
"With how many men?!"
"Enough to break their line!"
Dren grinned despite the danger.
"Finally something fun."
Kaelan turned to the soldiers.
"Twenty men with me!"
Without hesitation they followed him.
Leaving the shield wall was dangerous, but necessary.
Kaelan led the charge up the snowy slope.
Rebels tried to intercept them.
Kaelan cut through one with a swift strike, pushing forward.
The climb was brutal.
Snow made every step difficult.
But reaching the top changed everything.
From the hill, Kaelan could see the entire battlefield.
Imperial soldiers trapped below.
Rebel forces surrounding them.
And at the far end of the valley…
A tall man wearing a black cloak.
Watching.
Maroth.
Even from a distance Kaelan could feel the man's presence.
Their eyes met across the battlefield.
For a moment the entire war seemed to freeze.
Two commanders studying each other.
Hunter.
And wolf.
Then Kaelan raised his sword.
"ARCHERS!"
The archers quickly took position.
"Target the rebels below!"
Arrows rained down from the hill.
The rebels had not expected enemies above them.
Their formation broke instantly.
Seeing the opening, Dren shouted from below.
"CHARGE!"
The imperial soldiers surged forward.
The rebels began retreating.
The ambush had failed.
By the time the battle ended, darkness had begun falling.
Snow covered the battlefield once again.
But this time…
It was stained red.
Kaelan walked slowly among the fallen.
Victory had come.
But the cost was heavy.
Fifteen imperial soldiers dead.
Many more wounded.
Dren approached quietly.
"We drove them off."
Kaelan nodded.
"But Maroth escaped."
Dren looked toward the mountains.
"He'll come back."
"Yes."
Kaelan stared into the dark forest.
"And next time… he'll try something even worse."
That night the survivors built a fire among the rocks.
Exhaustion hung over the camp.
For the first time since Kaelan began his campaign…
His men had nearly been destroyed.
Dren sat beside him.
"You know something?"
"What?"
"You smiled when you saw Maroth."
Kaelan didn't deny it.
"Yes."
Dren shook his head.
"You're strange."
Kaelan stared into the fire.
"This war needed a real enemy."
Dren laughed quietly.
"Well congratulations."
He looked toward the mountains.
"You found one."
Far away, deep in the dark forest, another fire burned.
Maroth stood beside it, watching the distant mountains.
One of his lieutenants spoke nervously.
"We almost had them."
Maroth said nothing for a long moment.
Then he smiled slightly.
"No."
"They survived because their commander is smarter than the others."
He looked toward the distant battlefield.
"Kaelan Var."
The name tasted interesting.
A worthy opponent.
Maroth's eyes glimmered in the firelight.
"The next battle will be different."
And somewhere in the frozen mountains…
The war between hunter and wolf had truly begun.