Dawn broke over the treelines of the Lag'ranna Mountains in a pale wash of gray and gold. Mist drifted between the trunks, curling around the stumps of felled trees and the half-finished earthworks that marked the Yohan tribe's labor. The scent of sap and smoke hung thick, mixed with sweat and damp earth. The clearing ...once nothing more than wild woodland ... now throbbed with the rhythm of ordered toil.
A horn sounded three short notes, clear and even. Instantly, the noise of argument and chatter ceased. Lines of orcs hefted their axes, trolls reached for sledges, and goblins hurried to stack bundles of brushwood. They moved not in chaos but in cadence... an army of laborers instead of warriors at the moment.
