I now felt like I was on the road for an eternity. But as my gold was running out, I was lucky to find in a small village a client who sent me on a search for a missing child. The child had gone to the north to collect iceberries, whatever that might be. Anyway, he'll pay me 20 gold pieces when I bring the child back safe.

In this white something that the locals called snow, you could read tracks quite well. Unless more of it fell again or the wind blew new snow over it. To bear the cold, I had sewn wool into my coat. But it didn't seem to do much good. When I'm to survive this, I will either need more clothes or I will avoid such places. I would prefer the second, because who wants to live in such an uncomfortable environment?

When one of these snow storms came up, I sought shelter in a small cave nearby. However, it seems, that I wasn't the first person in this cave. The campfire I found was still glowing gently. I continued looking around and saw a small flu, which I approached carefully. When suddenly a small, green hand jumped out of the flu, I recoiled for a moment, but then continued to approach. I was amazed to see a little green thing lying in the flu, which seemed very peaceful despite the small tusks on its lower jaw. It grabbed my finger, which I held out to it, and squeaked happily. Green and tusks on the lower jaw? Father once spoke of them and called them Orcs. Their greatest weakness was their fierce aggression. In the corner of my eye I could see something big, green grunting came at me. But before I could get out of the way, this huge mountain of flesh caught me and threw me against the wall.

I wouldn't go up against that mountain, and who knows if it's alone. I decided to flee and headed for a narrow entrance through which I might still be able to crawl, but the orc was faster than expected and so I only hoped to reach the passage with time. I dropped to my knees and slipped through the rift. When I looked back, I saw the orc break through the wall as if it was made of paper, overlooking the big hole in the ground through which I fell.