"That's their little den over there!" 

The cold was cutting, it did nothing to dim the young woman's beauty. She looked like the daughter of nobility, like someone who would have been more at home in an elegant ballroom than under the gray skies of the Federation's mountains. 

Her wavy, blond hair was tied in two tails, and her facial features had prideful cast. The size of her bust was obvious despite the chest armour she wore, her waist so narrow that she had no need for corset. 

The rapier that hung at her hip was of striking construction; the way it demanded admiration gave much the same impression as its master.

At the girl's neck, hung a silver necklace, catching the sun that shined off the snow. 

This girl, Sylvia Virginia was a mercenary, and her four companions had spent several days scrambling up the side of this snowy mountain. Now, a very large ugly hole lay open before them. One look at the disgusting mountain of waste beside the entrance made it clear that this was the nest. 

They encountered pig with men bodies, famously known as orcs for the first time in their life at this snowy region. In preceding two encounters, in the past two days, they achieved hardly fought victory and that gives them confidence. The traveled further to find the hidden village but what they discovered were orcs. 

Sylvia's inexperienced heart lusted for battle at the very thought of them. Now, she had no family, no riches, no power. Only her own ability and her friends would help her complete this quest. 

For their first deed, they would get rid of the orcs disturbing remote villages in the border of Federation. 

"All right, is everyone ready?" She put her slim hand to get hips in proud gesture that emphasized her chest, then pointed at the big hole with her rapier. There were no orcs in there, only some dead reindeers. They put everything in there on fire.

"Let's starve the orcs out!"

That had been a day ago. 

" The orcs attack the villages because they are low on supplies." Sylvia said , with full of confidence. 

"A few days without food, they will have no choice but to make a run for it."  

And that was what happened. They fell five orcs trying to breakthrough the defensive barriers. Some days later, two starving  orcs emerged, and they were killed. Everything was going on as planned. 

This was the northern region in the continent, a frozen place. There was even an ice cap nearby. A person's breath could turn into ice as it left their mouths, and frozen eyebrows made noise each time one blinked.

Equipment became heavy with the chill, stamina draining day by day, with next to no relief.

The were two other women, Sera and Sharon, in the five persons party, including Sylvia. 

But the load was heavy, since it included their equipment, the barriers, and the cold weather gear. Individually, each of them carried only a handful of provisions. One of the members, Sharon knew the way of hunter, but it was very difficult to get food for five persons.

Arrows, too are limited, better be used to kill enemies than to kill animals. They tried to retrieve the arrows they had used but ... The arrows used on orcs' hard skin become damaged after one use.

They made mistake of eating the ice and snow without heating them up, causing diarrhea and further taxing their already worn out endurance.

The reason they didn't heat the ice and snow because they ran out of fuel and couldn't burn anything. They had some food but no clean water and no way to keep them warm. However, they refused to give up. To run back to clients and failed the quest would be humiliating. 

That being the case, someone had to go down the mountain, get supplies in Sooka town and return. 

They looked at one another, huddled under their cramped tent. Sylvia who was shaking from the cold, using her rapier like a staff to support herself, yet levelly returning everyone's gaze. Nobody wants to blame themselves when things go wrong.

"You go.." Sharon, the hunter said. Even though she was the first to agree when Sylvia suggested the starvation tactic. 

"She is right." Dick, the priest said, nodding somberly from underneath his heavy cloak. 

" I was against that idea from the start."

"Yeah, I agree." It was Sera, the youngest in the group. She could cast magic spells.

Sylvia thought that she and Sharon, the hunter had grown closer over the past several days of adventure. She turned her gaze on Sharon, feeling betrayed, and gave a dismissive little sniff.

"Then, there would be no point to all our suffering. What do you think, Simon?" Sharon added.

"I don't mind whoever goes." He looked at Sylvia with sympathetic gaze.

"Very well. I'll do it!" Sylvia who had been listening in silence, replied curtly. "I have big responsibilities." Yes. That was it. She went because she had big responsibilities as a leader, not because her plan failed. She repeated that belief to herself as she worked her way down the long mountain road. 

Leaning on her heirloom rapier as a staff, she removed her breastplate, and stashed it on her back, no longer able to endure the weight, and the cold. 

She bit her lip, embarrassed that her equipment had winded as nothing more than mere luggage.

On top of that, was the welcome waiting for her at the village. The village was within Sooka but it was far from the Sooka town. 

"Miss mercenary, you have returned. Do you get what are you looking for."

"Well, not yet. We are still looking." Her face was red from embarrassment despite the freezing temperature. 

"I wonder... If you could share a bit of food with us, please."

The answer was no.

The villagers themselves have no way of getting food in this extreme winter. What little they had left was accumulated before the extreme winter. Even money given by Sylvia was rejected by them as money was worthless if they couldn't bring the money to town to buy food. It's dangerous to cross to Sooka town in this weather.

"But we had killed eight orcs around the mountain. Could you at least give food for that." She begged.

The villagers had been troubled by orcs in recent months. Having less orcs were definitely more worthwhile than food.

It could only be called a stroke of good luck that Sylvia was able to wheedle a few trifles out of them as a reward of killing several orcs. 

The cruel irony was that these additional supplies only made her return journey that much slower and difficult. With every step she took through the snow, regret filled her heart like the ice that sloshed in her boots. 

Should they have made more preparations before hand? Invited more mercenaries to be part of their party? Or maybe they should have made a tactical retreat instead of pushing ahead with starvation idea?

"No. I am not running from some pigs!"

She let her emotions do the thinking, but there was no one to talk back.

By now, she was enclosed in night, a night that further blackened the the whipping snow. She had already been exhausted when she began this march with her heavy load, and everything about it was a cruelty to her.

"I won't give in.. to pigs."

She breathed on her numb hands, trying desperately to set up her tent on a downhill slope. She went to place on the mountain slope that was not steep, and finally found it. Just having something, anything, between her and the snow and wind would make such a difference.

"It's very cold.."

The icy night air was merciless. Hugging herself and trembling, she ate some food left from ones she bought at White City. The expensive food was said to create warmth.

Even that was a luxury, this is an emergency. She  thought no further but hugged her knees, trying to curl into a ball to help her escape from the sound of the howling wind and snow. Until few hours ago, she had friends. Now, she was all alone. Her friends were a few hours' climb away. They were waiting for her but Sylvia simply didn't have the strength to reach them.

"I'm so tired " That's everything, all she could think.

She loosened her belt, and the straps of her armour. It was something she had once heard you should do. The warmth of the food she ate just now began to seep into her body, and her spirit eased.

Was she mean to her family and friends? The humility she felt was real as Sylvia closed her eyes. She began to drift off, consciousness growing farther away.

With such fatigue in her delicate body, how could she desire anything than rest?

That's why she didn't realize immediately the sound outside her tent.

She heard the sound of something moist slapping down.

Somehow the edge of the tent had come up, as it was caught by the wind.

The wind blew and the thing landed in front of her eyes. She sat up from  where she had lain down and looked at the thing sleepily. 

It was an ear. A human ear, cruelly severed halfway down. 

"Yiiiiii!!!"

She fell backward, landing on her behind. Still yelling, she scrambled back.

At that moment, there came a horrible laughter, it seemed to surround the tent.

The eerie deep voiced laughter was interspersed with oinks, snorts, squeal, and grunt, typical of pigs.

It was the moment after that something from outside grabbed the tent and pulled it down.

"Oh, no. What's this? Why the pigs .." 

Sylvia writhed under the fallen tent, half mad. When she at last worked her way out of the entrapment, her braided blond hair became disarray, her eyes and nose messy with tears and snot. There was snow on her face.

When she raised her face, she was terrified.

"Orcs !!!"

She cried out and recoiled at the sight of ugly big creatures, backing away from the smell of their insanitary bodies. 

Sylvia was completely encircled by orcs in the dark, snow-whipped night. They held crude clubs and stone weapons, wore a little more than pelts, covering their crotches and asses.

Not only the hideous faces frightened her, but the things in that they held in their monstrous hand, the familiar heads of Sharon, and Dick. Farther away, Simon was being dragged limply by the red hair through the snow. He left a red streak behind him like a brush across a canvas. 

"Oh, my God."

Sylvia shook her head like a spoiled child, the movement sending waves through her hair. She figured that the orcs cunningly waited until she was away to attack. She reached her rapier, with a hand that wouldn't stop shaking, tried to draw it from its scabbard.

"Why it can't get out." Her sword had been soaked by snow. 

Dozen of orcs closed in on every side of the weeping girl. The girl, however, pulled her lips tight. She was hit on her stomach by a punch, it brought Sylvia to her knees.

"Stooop!"

She cried as they grabbed her loosened long hair, screamed as they took her rapier.