Chapter 170: The Herd of Horses

"Hoo~~"

Grim's massive, simple-minded bear head exhaled two long streams of white smoke, blowing the snowflakes drifting before his eyes into a chaotic scatter, after which his furry head shook rapidly.

These soft snowflakes always landed on Grim's hairless nose, making him itch as they melted, and he kept wanting to scratch at it with his claws, which made Grim somewhat irritable.

Of course, facing this situation, blowing air and shaking his head in exasperation solved absolutely nothing; Grim still had to twitch his pitch-black nose, distinguishing the scent left by Cress in the air, then find his big sister-boss to complete the task Allen had entrusted to him.

Grim's position was actually not far from Cress; the girl, wearing thick winter clothes, was currently bandaging the wounds of an exceptionally magnificent white horse, while the white horse stood quietly in place, letting Cress wrap bandage after bandage around its body, covering the gruesome laceration on its belly.

A grey pony with extremely smooth fur was pacing around the person and horse, restless and uneasy, occasionally scraping the ground with its hooves and neighing twice at Cress, seemingly asking something.

All around them lay hundreds of wolf carcasses covered by snowflakes, as well as dozens of fallen, sturdy horses; most had no signs of life left, while the remaining horses still had slight heaving, but the movement was growing smaller and smaller.

The most magnificent stallion, though covered in wounds, was lying on top of a massive wolf carcass; if one looked closely, its hooves had even stepped into the grey wolf's chest.

There was no need to think twice to know that an extremely tragic battle had taken place here.

And in the small forest further away, hundreds of mares were peeking out with their foals, looking over here; they had been frightened by the wolf pack's attack and were currently in a state of lingering fear, so even though the battle was over, they dared not leave the forest to approach the area where Cress was.

Meanwhile, over a hundred stallions were standing quietly on the snow between the forest and Cress, as if guarding something, or perhaps wary of something.

With Rhovanion suddenly suffering such severe snowy weather, most creatures living in the Wilderness had to do something for their own survival.

The wolf pack, which had not managed to store enough food, launched a fierce attack on the large herd of horses without much planning when the heavy snow paused for a short time after falling for over an hour, and then most of them died here; although the attacked herd won the battle, they also suffered heavy losses.

"Don't worry anymore, your mother is very lucky; although this wound looks very serious, it didn't damage any internal organs, otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to wait for me to run over."

As she spoke, Cress stopped the movements in her hands, then patted the snow off her body, looked at the few horses not far away that still had some movement, and said with a bit of sadness: "As for them, I have no way to help; if my boss were here, he might be able to save them, but at this time, he should still be saving those wounded soldiers."

Two hours ago, Cress was still busy back and forth in the infirmary tent with Allen; it wasn't that this big girl had suddenly become interested in medical knowledge, she was just interested in that white light of Allen's that could save people from the brink of death.

But Allen couldn't teach her, and Cress was a bit careless in her actions, knocking this over or bumping into that next to the wounded soldiers; not only could she not help, but she also didn't let Allen worry any less. In the end, she received a couple of scoldings and left the tent, feeling sullen.

After that, Cress headed to the edge of the camp, intending to blow off some steam there and, incidentally, find a place with no one around to speak ill of Allen. As a result, in the wind and snow, she saw the little grey horse wandering not far away, but the little grey horse ran off immediately after realizing someone was paying attention to it.

Cress had grown up a bit after all; if it were ten years ago, she definitely would have left the camp without a word. Now, before leaving, she at least told Grim; of course, she definitely didn't dare tell Allen, as telling him would mean nothing but a refusal, plus a couple of phrases like "Nonsense!" or "Reckless!"

Thinking of these things, Cress's mood naturally didn't get any better. The little grey horse nearby seemed to sense Cress's depressed mood, so it trotted over to her side, gently rubbed its head against Cress's arm to show comfort, and let out a soft whinny at the same time.

"Alright, no need to thank me, I should be leaving too; it's about to get dark, and if I don't leave now, it will be hard to find the way back."

After finishing speaking to the little grey horse, Cress came to the side of the magnificent white horse, reached out to touch its body that looked like silver, and urged: "I have already bandaged your wound and applied medicine; you cannot engage in strenuous exercise for this period of time. After a month or two, it should be fine. Remember, do not do strenuous exercise."

At this moment, the white horse, which had been very quiet, suddenly shook its head and neighed twice at Cress, its voice containing some anxiety and also a hint of compromise.

"What? You want to see my leader? Why do you want to see him? Hey? Hey!"

Cress shouted loudly, as if she had suddenly reacted.

"Are you two really horses? Even the horses raised by Beorn aren't as smart as you, but never mind, there are always some strange creatures here. Don't say I didn't warn you in advance: if you want to see my boss, you have to be prepared to serve him. Not just you, but your friends over in the forest, none of you can avoid it. His other subordinates won't be as polite to you as I am, unless you serve them. Although following my boss is actually quite good, you will definitely lose some of your freedom. Are you sure you still want to see him?"

Upon hearing this, the white horse was silent for a short while, and finally nodded firmly.

"Alright then, I'll go ask him; he will definitely be very interested, he treasures horses so much. But not today, it's too late, let's make it tomorrow morning. Don't leave, or I'll get scolded."

Just as Cress was rambling on, a sturdy, tall Shadow slowly walked out from the wind and snow. The moment the white horse and the little grey horse sensed Grim's aura, they entered a state of alert.

Although Cress didn't know what had come behind her, she sensed the tension of the two horses, and her expression turned grave in an instant.

She twisted her body extremely quickly in the thick snow, and at the same time drew the Curved Blade from her waist. After a flash of cold light, Cress saw Grim's extremely simple-minded face.

The moment she saw Grim, Cress knew that Allen knew about her coming out, and she definitely wouldn't escape a scolding upon returning, but she was used to it, so she casually put the Curved Blade back into its sheath.

"Alright, my friend has come to pick me up, so it's settled, see you tomorrow morning."

As she spoke, Cress walked toward Grim, while reaching out to pat Grim's head heavily, saying fiercely: "Was it you who snitched? Was it you?"

Grim, having been hit, shook his head aggrievedly, indicating that this matter had nothing to do with him, then glanced at the two horses casually, turned his massive body, and left with Cress. In the wind and snow, words like "Is he very angry?" seemed to drift by.

The magnificent white horse watched as the human and the bear disappeared into the wind and snow, then, with its son, stumbled slowly toward the forest.

If there were a Rohirrim from Edoras here, they would surely exclaim the name "Mearas," because these two fine steeds were so similar to the mounts of the King of Rohan, just as magnificent, just as sturdy.

The herds of horses living in the Anduin Valley had actually been mostly domesticated by the Rohirrim hundreds of years ago, and when they left here to migrate to Calenardhon, they had taken all the horses with them; of course, this was a very normal thing.

Therefore, after Allen arrived here, he could only see large-scale horse farms in the valley, but rarely saw herds of horses.

And to the east of Mirkwood, because the Rohirrim had never lived there, and the Northmen there were more accustomed to farming life, several herds of horses were able to gallop freely on this Wilderness.

However, it was not just the wolf pack that was affected by this heavy snow; the herds of horses also lost their food source. They had no way to uncover the snow to find the withered grass covered underneath, not to mention that the territory occupied by the Easterlings had greatly compressed their original living space.

Most of the time, these wild horses were divided into families, led by a stallion with several mares and their children, living in different places. When the heavy snow first started falling, some horse kings with bad premonitions gathered all the families together, preparing to migrate to the south, and the white horse was the wife of the horse king.

However, during the migration, they encountered an attack by a wolf pack, and the strongest adult stallions almost all died in the struggle with the wolf pack, which even included their horse king.

However, the entanglement with the wolf pack and the passing of the horse king delayed the best time for the herd to relocate. Furthermore, they stayed behind to guard the wounded white horse. At this moment, the thick snow on the Wilderness had reached a level that hindered them from leaving; even if the adult horses could, the foals could not.

Mearas are an extremely intelligent breed of horse, and their lifespan reaches over 80 years. Legend has it that their ancestors came from the Undying Lands of Valinor, and there is even a legend that Nahar, the mount of Orome, the greatest Knight among the Valar, was one of their ancestors.

The white horse knew deeply that its herd had reached a life-and-death moment. It had no problem itself; it could run in the snow and stay away from this devastated Wilderness.

But its herd could not. If there were no help from Humans, they would very likely all die in this cruel winter.

This was a disaster; to survive, one always has to pay something.

"It's simply nonsense! Do you know how thick the snow is outside!

Do you know that in snowy weather, it gets dark very quickly!

You will freeze to death in the Wilderness after dark! Where am I supposed to find you then?? Send troops out to clear the snow in the Wilderland?"

Roars like this had been echoing over the camp for a quarter of an hour. Allen knew that with the existence of the Skin-changer, Cress shouldn't encounter too much danger, and she should be able to be found one way or another, but he was just very angry.

However, Cress quickly found an opportunity. She took advantage of the moment Allen was drinking water to quickly explain the matter of the horse herd, and as Cress expected, Allen's attention was immediately diverted.

Horses, in this era where walking basically relied on legs, who would complain about having too many? Moreover, the two horses Cress described were clearly not of an ordinary breed.

Allen quickly agreed to meet with the white horse the next morning, just as he had agreed to Thorin, willing to take Fili and hundreds of Dwarf Cavalry to Gondor. Who could refuse such a "the more the better" kind of thing!

Moreover, Thorin finally persuaded Allen to go find Thranduil to give it a try; anyway, there would be no more war in the Wilderland in the short term, and tricking the King of the Woodland Realm into sending some troops to the south to help Allen put on a show would be good too.

Speaking of this, the King of the Lonely Mountain had no sense of guilt at all, but Thorin also knew that he couldn't persuade Thranduil, so he let Allen go persuade him.

Under the guise of "the three of us are an alliance," there was no reason for the two of them to have sent troops while he didn't; what would those Southerners think of them!

Allen certainly knew that this statement was nonsense, and he was not confident that he could persuade Thranduil to send troops; after all, this guy didn't even want to fight the battle at his own doorstep, let alone a battlefield thousands of miles away.

But Allen still considered trying it. He had also made a plan for this: tomorrow morning, he would take the Skin-changer, as well as the personal guard led by Commander Holimion, and go with Cress to talk to that white horse to see what the other side's requirements were.

In fact, looking at the cruel weather outside and thinking about what the herd needs to survive, Allen already had a pretty good idea; it was nothing more than food and a shelter that could withstand the cold, and Allen was not lacking in any of these.

In any case, Allen would help these horses get through this winter; after all, he could not just watch them freeze or starve to death in the Wilderland, and as for a reward, that would depend on the situation.

In Allen's view, this matter was not actually a particularly complicated one, and it should be handled quite quickly; after that, he would take his men to Mirkwood to find Thranduil.

As for how to persuade Thranduil, that could give Allen a headache for an entire night.