For years, the brave and determined wolf Rainer has been preparing to overthrow the rule of the tyrant and murderer of his family, Jarl Magnar. Just when he has the chance to defeat his greatest enemy, a certain someone unexpectedly falls into Raine...
The snowdrop rising above the melting snow appeared to be tantamount to a decision to march the troops out immediately. Rainer was not surprised by this, after all, it had to be so. If the rebels were to use the element of surprise in attacking North Hill, they had to stick to the plan drawn up weeks earlier.
The preparations for the march alone took just three days during which Wolf had his hands full. He personally oversaw the state of his troops' supplies, made sure everyone was well clothed for the upcoming, not easy journey and also sent messengers to his allies beyond the mountains. In addition, he helped the blacksmiths sharpen their weapons, and together with Olaf divided the men into groups and appointed minor leaders within them. According to the plan, all the allied forces were to meet in the forests near Jarl Magnar's fortress. They were to travel in small groups that would be less visible to possible enemy scouts. However, if anyone encountered any troops patrolling the North Hill area, they were to be pursued and defeated at all costs, so that those troops would not have time to reach Magnar with news of the approaching troops. If that happened, the plan to open the city gates would have to be carried out immediately before Magnar realized that his men were not returning from scouting.
Rainer felt that the three days of preparations for the march had literally passed in a few hours. The flow of time for the rebel leader began to apply too quickly. Scandinavia, until recently blanketed by snow and ice, had already begun to recover from the chill of winter as if summer rather than spring were to come overnight. It seemed to Rainer that nature was trying, as if out of spite, to melt as much snow as possible in the shortest possible time. It was as if she was specifically ordering the trees to put out their first leaves just to take away from the wolf the precious time that wasn't much left anyway. In those three days, one single, innocent snowdrop growing over the hot springs managed to multiply and cover the entire mountain cleft where Rainer's camp was located. Although objectively speaking the sight was truly beautiful, it did not bring the rebel leader any positive thoughts.
"Damn snowdrops will probably only be associated with bloodshed for me anymore." - He thought grimly.
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The rebels in the mountains, gathered under the wolf's arms, were ready. They had with them sharpened weapons of all kinds, shields, supplies of food and warm clothing. There were actually going to be very few people left in the camp in the mountains. All able-bodied men and women were already gathered in the ravine in anticipation of marching out. The rest were to remain on guard and be ready to receive any wounded if something went wrong. Admittedly, the high morale in Rainer's ranks suggested that all the warriors were planning to rest after the battles in North Hill, but the wolf himself knew very well that this whole elaborate plan had a high chance of failure. That's why, because of this risk, the man preferred to see to everything personally to make sure everything was ready.
At dawn on the fourth day after Colin and Rainer discovered the first signs of spring, the army of five hundred rebels left the mountains and headed on a slow and difficult march to North Hill.
