In the frozen plains slightly north from the equator, the land was glowing white with the sun reflecting off of the snow covered land. However, the peaceful scenery was disturbed by a large group of gers dotted closely together across the plains. Built out of mammoth and deer hide, most gers were completely set up where some where still undergoing construction. On the outside, placed in a star shape around the settlement were smaller one to two man gers, about five of them. Outside stood two tamers at each ger, one was holding onto a sabre-tooth tiger by a rope around the neck where the other was setting up a wooden cage. The tigers were obviously well trained and tamed, they were either lying in the snow allowing the tamer to pet them or play fighting with the tamer.

---

At the center of the settlement stood a tight collection of gers, the main family gers. They were decorated neatly and were made of high quality hide. Outside stood two men, conversing about the settlement;
"Everything seems to be running smoothly, Brother, now we just need to get the report back from the scouts before we get into action." One of the two spoke, he was the current leader of the Clan. Alekzandr Rostovii, he wore thick clothing made of mammoth fur, with leather gloves over his hands. As he exhaled, white steam diffused into the air.
"Mm, from the reports while traveling, the herd seems to be dwindling. But that could just be a false report, since the scouts were attacked by some damn sabre-tooth's." The other replies, Jodac Rostovii. A man of large build, dressed in similar clothing but had a black rag worn over his mouth. A large scythe-sword known as the Rostovii great sword hung from his belt, glistening in the sunlight.

The conversation was interrupted by a younger man, out of breath and dressed in poorly made insulated clothing. "Sir, we have the report on the herd. It's very small and consists of little adults. We think it's either a small amount of the main herd which was accidentally separated or a neighboring tribe had been picking at it." He spoke between breaths, hunched over and resting his hands on his knees.
"I see... Thank you. What about the foliage? There must be some fruits around." Alekzandr replied.
"Yes, there is a large amount of fruits in the forest nearby."
"That will have to do, we might need to lower rations for the following months. Go get the hunters to gather here at sunset." He dismissed the scout, causing him to nod and jog off, wheezing out of fatigue. He then turned to Jodac.
"Brother, I want you to gather the gatherers and set up on a foraging mission as soon as possible. Gather as much fruits and return by sundown."
"Ugh, seriously? You really do underestimate me." Jodac replied to his brother with a click of his tongue.
"I don't care, do as I say." He sharpened his voice at Jodac, forcing him to wonder off after giving a swearword and a large sigh.

"I wonder why I haven't been dreaming lately, It's hard to make decisions if I have no influence from the gods. Have I been abandoned? I need to find out, but I doubt my parents would help, they would get me dethroned at an instant. Jodac would do the same and Vladamir probably doesn't understand. I really don't trust Jodac though, he seems to be finding fault at everything I do. He must be planning something..." Alekzandr thought to himself and he headed off around the settlement, searching for his son.

---

Vladamir was located at the edge of the settlement, play fighting with one of the tamed sabre-tooth tigers. His movements were smooth and he would click his tongue at random intervals to work as means as echolocation. He was also dressed in high quality furs with a black rag stretched across his eyes.
One of the tamers gave off a small giggle before speaking to the heir; "He seems to like you, Vladamir"
"Aha, maybe he is just working me up before he eats me." Vladamir replied with a joke, laughing a little.
"Hahaha, probably! Shouldn't you be heading to the center? Your father must be looking for you."
"Hm, I guess I should." Vladamir stood as he spoke, wiping his clothing all over with the effort to remove the snow from him. "Could you point me in the direction of the center?" The question caused the tamer to turn Vladamir's body towards the center of the settlement.
"That way."
"Thanks!" He waved as he walked off, clicking his tongue to determine a path.

"I should ask father why my dreams always consist of either standing in the snow surrounded by bodies, or at a mass funeral. And in each dream, I was covered in blood. Maybe it's just some nightmare, I don't want to worry him..." He thought to himself before being stopped by one of the clansmen who stated that Vladamir was about to walk into a ger. He was pointed onto the main path and set off towards the center.

The city of Duraquai, built many generations ago on a hill that sat proudly alongside the Derantai river. Though the city began small it has quickly grown as it attracted many people over its history. Sat directly on the top of the hill lay the royal estate, with the palace, ministers houses and the royal barracks enjoying the best views and finest surroundings in the city, beyond the thick wall lay the city proper, a vast mass of houses and merchant squares, where one could loose themselves for days at a time in the mass of streets and people. The city was guarded by a huge wall that surrounded it, though beyond even this wall houses were built, as more people wished to join the city for its protection and could find none inside its walls. This great city held almost a million people, both Lukai and Kurkai, and from the city it could call on 10,000 of the city guard and further 5,000 of the royal guard, and even then another 10,000 at the very least could be called to the Duraquaian army alone.

In the royal palace the King, Damain Faraquai sat upon his marble and silver throne in his wide and well cleaned audience chambers, set along its length at regular intervals were great colums where bared the symbol of the Faraquai banner on great silken flags, under these stood a member of the royal guard, clutching a spear in one hand and a sword at his belt, these men were drawn from the greatest fighters in the army and like the rest of the military wore lacquered armour and close fitting helmets, died in the blue colour that was the Duraquai symbol for war, the thing that marked them out as members of the royal guard was the great wolf fur cloak that hung around their shoulders, the empty head sat on their helms, staring out in anger as the guards looked out impassively. The secrets of breeding and training Dire Wolves had been taught to the city many years ago, and since then they had quickly made great use of the massive creatures, which could be as large as a man, as a result the city of Duraquai was the only one of its kind in the known world to be able to field cavalry.

The king himself wore a robe of green and white, and looked every part the regal image he had long since showed to his city, even if he paid little attention to the ministers who were knelt at 50 paces from him, only the first minister or his personal bodyguard were allowed closer. He noted that the ministers were simply telling him the amount of taxes the city was to give up the end of the month, and how close they were to reaching that goal. For a moment he wished his wife was present in the court, so that he may have something to distract him from the droning minister. He knew these wishes were folly of course, women had no place in courts of the men, instead his brother Kastor sat on a smaller throne a few paces away from him, taking far greater interest in the ministers figures, Kastor had a far better head for numbers than Damain did.

It was at that moment that his son Lieka hurriedly entered the chamber through one of the side doors, his eyes darting nervously as his father and uncle as the minister fell silent at the intrusion. Lieka stopped 10 paces from his father and knelt before him, he attempted to control his posture as his father did with mild success. Damain studied him for a moment before gesturing for the ministers to leave them, they touched their heads to the floor before rising and hurrying out of the main doors, which were shut behind them. Only then did Damain rise and walk towards his son.
"You are late." His voice did not betray his emotions as he stopped in front of his kneeling son, Kastor turned slightly in his throne to watch the exchange. "You are late for a third time in a week alone Lieka."
"I am sorry father, I was not aware of the time when I awoke and did not think I needed to hurry." Liekas voice showed the strain he felt inside, the glaring look from his father and the sideways glances from his uncle was more than enough to throw him off balance.
"Whether you believed you did not need to hurry or not is irrelevant, you have on every occasion failed to explain why exactly you have been late." Damain caught his brother smiling out of the corner of his eye and an annoyed glance caused the smile to quickly fade.
"I am sorry father, I have no explanation for you." Lieka bowed his head and stared at his fathers feet, wondering whether he would be punished severally or not. To his surprise his father placed a hand on his arm and on impulse he stood quickly, ignoring the rapid flush of dizziness that accompanied the rapid movement. He followed his father over to one of the large windows, aware of his uncles boring stare at his back. The pair stopped at the window and Damain raised a hand.
"Tell me son, what do you see?" Lieka tried not to frown in confusion as he looked out onto the world.
"I see the city." He glanced at his fathers face, though he could read no emotion he tried again. "I can see the wide plains." Again no emotion but before he could try again he was cut off.
"And beyond the plains?" This surprised the prince greatly and his eyes searched frantically across the open miles for something he felt he was missing in plain view, before he could embarrass himself further his father answered for him. "The wondering tribe lay beyond, my son. These unwashed savages eye our great cities with envy and hate, and in a single moment of weakness on our behalf they would destroy us, even with vast walls and even vaster armies to protect us." Here he turned back to Lieka. "This is why we hurry even when we think we have time, to move quicker than the tribes, and to seem to be everywhere at once. This is why Duraqai has stood for as long as it has, and why it shall continue to stand." He moved back to his throne and sat himself down in it, Lieka stood just behind him. The king motioned for the ministers to be brought back in and for the sake of teaching his son a lesson he made sure he listened to them in detail this time, even if it bored him after a time.

A couple hundred kilometers away from Duraquai stood a large, synthetically flat-topped mountain. On top of the mountain stood a large temple, built completely of stone and marble, steps followed down one side of the mountain, carved completely out of the stoned sides of the mountain. It consisted of about 10 massive, decorated pillars on each side. Holding up the solid stone roofing which was also decorated in a variety of colored gems. The front of the temple contained a large, house sized diamond worked into the roof, shining in the nearly setting sun.
Around the base of the mountain stood the magnificent city of Shadopolis. On top of a very small hill (compared to the mountain) stood the great "Castle of Weilacca". A massive European-like castle stretching across the whole of the hill, the only difference was that the five spires were built with so much support that they seemed to float while only touching the walls. Around the mountain and hill stood many wooden and thatch housing, built in a way to make the whole city form a circle centered at the mountain. Many stone barracks and engineering huts were dotted across the city to make up for the high amount of soldiers and war equipment. The city itself was surrounded by a massive circular wall, large towers were spaced around the wall at equal distances from each other and were equipped with large scale fixed ballastae and mangonels. All together, the city had a great diameter of two miles.

---

Inside the castle stood similar small scale pillars to the temple, large tapestry hung from the top of them each showing a different story. One tapestry was located behind the large wooden thrown showing the symbol of the Vladaminsky. The throne itself was carved and shaped to look like a dragon's head. On the nose of the dragon head sat the Lacca (king) of the Vladaminsky, Weilacca Vladaminsky. Dressed in black baggy trousers, a black tight sleeveless shirt with two leather straps on the torso shaped together like an X. On his left side stood his sword, struck into the ground in front of the throne, his left arm was bandaged from the elbow to his palm.
Weilacca's head hair was styled in a peculiar way, his left eye was covered by his fringe. The back of his head held hair flowing down to the bottom of his back and the left side of his head stood naturally spiked hair, all spiking horizontally. The rest of his body was well shaved.

"Agh, I'm bored!" Weilacca called out, interrupting the recruitment adviser from his speech. "I don't care that our army has reached over a million. What I want to know is if the surrounding towns are still well defended. I'm not like my bastard father who only cared about the capital. If the towns and villages aren't defended, then we have no means of feeding the population should they be attacked by those tribes." He sighed after his moaning. "Look, if you guys have no good news about the development of the outer settlement's defenses then leave. Now."
Weilacca's demand caused the 3 adviser's to slowly stand from their small wooden seats located at the bottom of the steps to the throne. Without word, the advisers saluted by slamming their fists to their chests and turned around to leave.
"Wait." They all stopped in their paths, one shaking out of fear. This happened before, and the previous economic and recruitment advisers were killed. The three turned to face their Lacca.
"You pricks are useless." One of the slaves hidden behind one of the pillars ran towards Weilacca and handed him a crossbow. He sat, holding the crossbow facing the three advisers, loaded. "Hmm... I'm feeling nice today. Get some damn representatives over to each settlement to collect reports on the development. You have a week." He threw the crossbow across the large room, causing it to hit one of the slaves which was cleaning the stone wall in the head. It did not speak, instead it continued, allowing another to pick up the crossbow and run off with it.
The advisers nodded, trembling with fear they ran out of the castle.

---

"Damn this pathetic war! Why can't we just peacefully get rid of that tribe instead of defending against them? It's been a week now and they still won't fuck off!" Domakeo shouted at one of the armored generals. He was dressed in full metal armor, holding a shield but refusing to wield a sword.
"The Lacca's orders are to defend the town of Dergat. Can't you see that the trebuchets are ripping them apart?" The general replied, in a calm but agitated tone.
"They may be, but every now and then those fuckers keep getting here. If we dealt with them peacefully, then we won't be risking the farmer's lives! We may even have time to complete the wall."
The general stood speechless, it was usual for Domakeo to think of peace, especially when his sister was out on the front lines.

The town of Dergat was a simple farming town, consisting mostly of massive fields of wheat or cattle, there were also housing located at the center of the town, surrounding a larger town hall. Around the perimeter of the town stood massive trebuchets, built of wood and consecutively firing large stone boulders. Some were slowly being reloaded by lowering the arm, others were firing, swinging at great speeds they threw the boulders into the crowd of thick clothed tribal warriors. There were also wooden towers built around the town, equipped with bowmen and ballistae, they were also firing into the enemy, trying their best to miss the Vladaminsky soldiers.
The tribal warriors themselves were being held back, not just by the constant bombardment of boulders, arrows and ballista rounds. But by the Vladaminsky soldiers that stand before them. The Vladaminsky were obviously at an advantage, their soldiers were equipped with full metal armor, shields and spears/swords, but the Vladaminsky forces were dwindling, not many died but the town itself was poorly defended.
However, the vast amounts of tribal warriors were still meeting their doom. The only thing that kept them fighting was their stubbornness.

The frozen north. Far from civilisation, it is here only the greatest of beasts survive, the great mammoth herds or the colossal cave bears. Yet even here a group of Lukai find themselves. It is here following the paths of the migrating mammoths the Kulan tribe wonder the wilds they have called home for generations.

Each member of the tribe carried a part of their homes with them, other than the very old and very young. Because of this they carried great packs on their backs across the many miles in search of a new place to pitch their gers each night to ward of the killing frost. All of them knew the dangers their frozen home held.

Walking at the head of the tribe was Kulan Duain, in his right hand he held a spear with a cast iron head, it was far from his weapon of choice, that was his bow which he had strapped to his back, waiting to be strung one more. Thinking of his weapon caused his free hand to drift to the quiver at his hip, he mentally counted each of the arrows. '30'. It was always 30 arrows if he could help it. He looked back along the line of his people and smiled to himself.

His brother Fetain was, as usual, proving he was much stronger than anyone else in tribe. The huge Lukai always carried double what anyone else could and made a point to carry almost all of his families equipment, yet he somehow always had room for his mammoth bone great sword to hang freely from his back, the great sharpened weapon was as strong and as durable as any weapon made from metal. Behind his brother came his father, he no longer carried any of the equipment for the family, and he too walked with a spear in hand, more to aid his walking than to fight. Behind him came Duains son, Kulan. The boy had grown quickly in just a few years and all could see he could one day lead the tribe with ease, if he survived the wilds, his mother had not been so fortunate.

Duain turned his head back to the path, they had been following a herd of mammoth for a week now and still had yet to sight it, though they knew they could not follow them for much longer. Though supplies were plentiful enough for the time it would soon be winter again, and the tribe would have to head back south towards warmer lands. It would soon be a matter of pride to keep following the herd, but then again the Kulan tribe had survived worse. And they had yet to meet any other tribes as they followed the herd. Maybe they could continue for a time into the winter.

It was night, but the frozen plains were still glistening in the light reflected from the two moons in the clear night sky. Guards wondered around the perimeter of the Rostovii settlement, pulling a sabre-tooth tiger with them. The guards held large flaming torches to give them light as they surveyed the lands, protecting the Clan should there be any attack. On the inside, guards walked around the labyrinth of gers in twos, one carrying a flaming torch for light. Some guards were returning to their family's ger showing it was the end of their shift. Everything was silent, for now.

---

A mile away from the settlement lay a small herd of deer, either sleeping on the snow in the dark, or wondering around the area ripping out the small tufts of grass which poked out of the snow. Nearby, hidden in the local foliage were the Rostovii hunters. They numbered to about 30 men, including Alekzandr and Vladamir. Without a word, Alekzandr made a simple hand signal, telling the hunters his plan. They should gain one deer per man in order to feed the rest of the clansmen, there was a enough deer to fulfill this rule, but they were mostly juveniles. The group spread out, walking carefully to only give off the small sound of crunching on the snow. They were picking their targets and moving in slowly, each wielding either a spear or a Rostovii Great Sword.

Alekzandr did not wield any weapon, they were insignificant to him. This did not hinder his choice as he slowly made his was to the largest deer. He gave off a small whistle while pulling his gloves off, showing his strange hands which made him a spokesperson. They had holes in them, not from fighting, he was born with them. The cold air instantly turned them red and then blue, this also caused the holes to begin bleeding, small drops of blood fell to the floor. It was a religious rule that spokespeople must use their "hidden sense" when taking part in acts of survival. As long as no other being saw the hidden sense, of course.
The whistle attracted the attention of the large deer, it perked it's head up and quickly stood, raising it's awareness of the surroundings. Suddenly, it was met with a being jumping onto it's back. Alekzandr used the noise given off by the small cries of the dying deer and the noise of his target raising to quickly move into it's blind spot. Now that he had made contact, he made the killing quick, grabbing onto the head of the deer and quickly whipping it sideways. Snapping the neck and causing the deer to fall to the ground. Dead.

---

Vladamir had followed a juvenile deer into the woods, using the sound of it's heartbeat and footsteps as a means to track it. He stayed far enough from the deer to make clicking sounds without grabbing it's attention. He used this chance to climb a tree and move silently across the branches. His light footed nature placed him at an advantage. However, the sounds of the deer had disappeared, he looked around hoping to "see" the sound waves but there was nothing. It was a good thing no one was around, he raised his arm to his head and pulled the rag which covered his eyes to rest on his forehead. His eyes were obviously deformed, the eyelids were sealed a small parts, giving the look of his eyes being behind bars. His sight was the same, he could not see well due to the parts of his eyelids covering his sight, but it was still enough for him to see the deer. It was still and looking around the area. The sound of climbing the tree must have made it aware, but it did not stop Vladamir. He quickly and silently ran across the branches, placing him above the deer, in it's blind spot. He carefully pulled his swords off of the clips, holding them both upside down, the blade cleanly ran parallel to his arm with the scythe part pointing outwards.

Vladamir switched his wielding to hold one of the swords upright, resting the scythe part across the branch he lowered himself down carefully. Hanging right above the deer, finally, when the time was right. He pulled the sword away from the branch and dropped down, before he even touched the floor, he swung the other sword upwards. Using a punching motion to drive the sword into the neck of the deer, the scythe part, specially designed to decapitate, sliced into the deer's throat, cutting cleanly until it was stopped by the spinal cord.
As the deer fell to the ground, dying the snow from white to red in blood, Vladamir landed on the ground next to it. He placed his swords back to the clips located on the sides of his belt and pulled the rag back over his eyes. He quickly felt over the deer and grabbed the legs, pulling it in the direction of the rendezvous point, clicking to determine a path.

The Faraquai family had just finished their final meal of the day, a three course feast that they had enjoyed just as they would on any other day. The animosity between Damain and Lieka had for the most part cooled down until they were once more able to talk freely with each other, though both guarded their words carefully with one and the other.

Even at the families private feasting hall, guarded by only a few of the Royal Guard and carefully watched by their servants, politics did not escape the ruling family. It was towards the end on the meal that Damain, who was sat at the head of the table turned to his brother a short distance away from him.
"Kastor." He began, causing his brother to look up from his desert. "It has come to the attention of the court that there are rumours that we have abandoned Derakur. I would like you to remedy this if you are able to make the visit yourself?" Kastor, still had his mouth full of food and could only in nod in reply. He knew his brother too well to simply deny the request and set a mental note to set out on the two day journey in the morning.

Despite having no warning of the Lord Regents departure, a small crowd quickly gathered to see him off, something which he personally enjoyed. It was well known to him that he was the least popular member of his family and he was pleased whenever he was granted even small moments of recognition and public apprehension. He had left the city on the back of a tamed Dire Wolf, with two dozen Royal Guard on their own mounts, he knew he could arrive at Derakur by midday tomorrow if he set a good pace.

The party halted late that night, they had just passed the crest of the Derantai river and it was a near straight shot to Derakur, though even here Deraquai was lost from sight, even on the wide open plains. It was setting up their camp over the open stars that Kastor detached himself from the group and looked up at the twin moons high above Surkai. Looking out onto the plains he saw at a great distance away a small speck of light, he turned and motioned for a pair of his guards to go investigate. It seemed to take an age but eventually the great wolves returned to the camp, the first one quickly dismounted and knelt before Kastor.
"It is a barbarian tribe, my lord. There seems to be a number of them, though they do not seem to have noticed our presence even when we rode close." The Lord Regent nodded to himself and made a note to inform his brother of their presence in their lands.

It took slightly longer than midday for the party to arrive at Derakur. The town was more of a fortress than anything, great walls stood around it, with ballistas sat firmly atop large watch towers, at the heart of it all lay the keep itself. The town was governed by General Agurnine Kestalian, who had risen quickly in ranks and was well known to drill his men to the point of breaking, it was because of this that Derakur alone could field 15,000 well armed, well trained men into the Duraquai army alone. Inwardly Kastor grimaced as he was led towards the generals keep, knowing he would have little of the luxury he had enjoyed back at the royal palace, and the constant blue armoured soldiers that marched through the streets with vigilance would ensure he would have little rest too it seemed.

Night had fallen over the grand city of Shadopolis, however, it was still bustling with life as the high class citizens celebrated birthdays, weddings or were getting drunk simply for the fun of it. The whole area behind the great stone walls was lit with hundreds of thousands of fire torches, each burning a large amount of oil.

---

Weilacca sat inside his bedroom located in one of the castle spires. Paper was scattered across the room, each with strange drawings and plans, some papers showed flying machines with massive crosses scribbled over them, others showed weapons which fired metal balls again with crosses scribbled on them.
On the wall hung a large piece of paper, it was a full sized plan of a suit of armor. However, it was different, it had a variety of weaponry attached to the arms, it was noted that a spring system would be attached to allow the weapons to be switched freely. There was a strange device on the back with piping leading to a crossbow attached to the arm, it must be an idea to automate crossbow fire. There was signs of the invention being remade, replanned and renamed due to the amount of scribbles. But the final name seemed finalized; "Gaylepian" (Ancient language for "super soldier").
Weilacca was seen sitting on a wooden chair at a wooden table, drawing and planning what seemed to be a cannon, but he was constantly sighing with every new thing he noted down. Screwing the paper and throwing it across the room only to grab another piece and try again.
Finally, Weilacca dropped his quill and leaned back on the chair giving off a massive sigh. "This is impossible. No matter what I do, this weapon will need a large amount of power to throw the metal ball. The explosives I have are still a work in progress, it's hard to control the explosions and sometimes it just won't work." He looked back down at the drawing, "But, using steam sounds like it would work. I'll test it out when I have time." He stood and clicked his back, throwing himself into a crude bed and closing his eyes to sleep.

---

The battle for Dergat was at a pause, the nightfall had caused the tribal attackers to fall back into the woods. This gave the defense a chance to regroup and replan. The trebuchets were reloaded and ready to fire, the ones located on the other side of the town were turned back to face outwards, in case the town was flanked. The towers and the perimeter were the only parts of the town which was lit up by torches. The rest was left in darkness, where the citizens were asleep.
"Right, Domakeo, you are the tactical genius here. Don't bother with peace, just give us a plan." The general ordered Domakeo, knowing he was far out of authority to order the Lacca's son. Domakeo did not answer, he just leaned back on the support beam of the trebuchet, thinking.
"We need to scare the shit into these guys. There are many ways to do this; 1. Arm the civilians and send a full out charge. 2. Find and attack their settlement now. 3. Bombard the fuck out of those guys with explosives." Domakeo listed his separate plans, not making a choice.
"Explosives! That's suicide!"
"I don't care, it's a last resort. This battle has gone on for too long now, it's only a matter of who can last the longest now. These guys are most probably going to send everything they have as soon as the sun rises, it's what they do. They are trying to scare us into submission. If we prepare the explosives and set the trajectories, as soon as we see them emerge from their hidey holes then we blow them up. Only then will they shit themselves and run off. Then we need to get into completing this wall, otherwise you guys will be shot by your Lacca."
The general replied with a groan and considered the choice, before he could answer, a voice called out from behind him;
"I'm with brother. That plan will work. The only bad side is that the explosives would not explode. We should just load every trebuchet with a gunpowder barrel, light the fuse and lob it over to them." She explained Domakeo's plan in a more simple way, lightening the general's face as he finally realized what Domakeo wanted. This only brought Domakeo's expression to a more irritated one, how could this idiot not know what he wanted?

It took about an hour, but the trebuchets were unloaded of the boulders and had a gunpowder barrel placed in each, a robe fuse attached and ready to fire. "Now, we wait." Domakeo spoke out as he dropped himself to the cold floor and rested his hands behind his head as he stared toward the sky. The two moons were beautiful, the stars were even better. Maybe he should just fuck with the tribe while he can, only a few words would cause them to fight each other to death.

It was early morning when Leika left the royal palace, at that time only the servants and Royal Guard would be up and he was free to escape from the royal estate with relative ease. He passed under the great gates and was already heading down towards the market before even his own personal servant realised he had vanished again.

Duraquai was only just waking up as the prince wondered its streets, over night drifts of snow had gathered on the side of the streets and there were people beginning to clear them from the doors so customers could enter their shops, most people in the upper parts of the city were either merchants or nobles but there were a few well recommended shops even up there. Leika gave a few cheerful greetings as he passed the common folk of the city.

He decided on taking a slow winding path through the city, to admire the dawn. He had always enjoyed how the snow built up on the stone buildings and life seemed to have adapted so well to the unnatural environment it was impossible for him to think of what it must be like for the tribes outside of the cities.

As he reached the outer walls he came to a market square he had visited many times before, he stopped to look at a few stalls, he even passed over a couple of copper coins for a small drink of yak's milk before he moved on, the market was always a busy place even first thing in the morning as as he looked through the stalls he saw more and more people, he wondered how many of them lived in Duraquai and how many were from outside the city, or even outside of their country.

It didn't take him long to find what had brought him into the city, a large house that for the most part looked no different from any of the other buildings around, perhaps a bit less snow covered the ground but that was it. It wasn't until one got closer that they would smell the sweet perfumes that lingered on the place, and the odd man leaving the place, seeming very content and his coin pouch much lighter for spending the night with the merchandise. Lieka knew full well his father would disapprove at his visiting a place of ill dispute, but he always managed to get back in time to see most of the court assembly.

The rising sun and reddened skies was a beautiful sight when held in contrast with the snow covered land. It had snowed over the night, this was obvious as the gers had a neat layer of snow sitting on the tops. Although it was early, the settlement was lively as ever. Clansmen left the warmth of their gers to gather at a very large ger built nearby the center, smoke poured out of a few small holes made in the roofing and the smell of cooked meat filled the air. At the front of the gathering stood the two founders of the Rostovii Clan, dressed in the same high quality mammoth fur as their children. Dae Rostovii stood at the entrance, handing the rations of cooked venison to the clansmen, they were smaller than usual due to the small amount hunted, but it was enough to give the clansmen just enough to survive the day and enough left overs for the royalty.
Inside the ger, Ranko Rostovii was cooking the venison on an open fire. Wood pierced the fresh, blood covered meat and were driven into the ground to hold the meat close enough to the fire to cook without major burning. About 20 pieces could be cooked at one time.

---

Alekzandr Rostovii sat on the ground cross legged in front of the royal family ger, staring at the reddened skies as the sun slowly rose. His stomach rumbled at the smell of food, causing him to give off a sigh, he had to wait until the rest of the clan was fed.
"I knew we settled too close to a settler's domain. The perimeter guards told me that they noticed some riders standing too close for comfort, the way they described them made it obvious that they were settlers. But why didn't they attack?" He thought to himself, raising his hand to his chin as he thought further; "It would be suicide to attack now, since they are aware of our presence. And we have to wait some time before we can send some scouts after the herd to monitor their movements, we may be in this place for a week."
He gave off a sigh and then a giggle, "If I spoke to Jodac about this, he would go crazy and lead an army without my consent. And Vladamir would just panic, probably. Actually, I haven't spoke to him much. Ever since his mother died, he's been very quiet and reserved. But why?"
He gave off another giggle as Jodac poked his head out of the entrance to the gear asking "You said my name?". Alekzandr simply shook his hand and continued laughing.
"I'm just happy with the peaceful morning we're having. Life just overwhelms me at times."