Time goes back to half a month ago. On the distant ice field, among the vast snow.

Sejuani's main force was temporarily stationed on this endless barren snowfield.

More than ten years ago, Winter's Claw was Avarosa's sister tribe, and Ashe was Sejuani's childhood best friend, not her biggest competitor.

Now more than ten years have passed. The Avarosan tribe has grown into a united alliance in the hands of Ashe, and Ashe has become the Ice Queen in the hearts of many Freljordians.

She successfully brought the powerful southern tribes under her command, led Avarosa to establish a firm foothold in the southern part of the "warm" ice field, and embarked on the successful path of self-sufficiency in farming, grazing, and self-sufficiency.

Sejuani took a completely different path.

The Winter's Claw has no land for farming or pasture for grazing, only ferocious fangs and deadly claws.

They have been the most ferocious raiders on the ice sheet since ancient times, relying on hunting and raiding to support their tribes.

This is how Winter's Claw survives.

After taking over as War Mother, Sejuani undoubtedly succeeded in carrying forward this tradition.

She led the Winter's Claws to attack everywhere, plundering wildly, and achieved brilliant victories. This also allowed the Winter's Claw tribe to successfully absorb dozens of other clans and the entire Stonefang tribe, and finally grew to where it is today.

.

Now Sejuani is a true war mother - she has thousands of blood warriors, heavy infantry, mammoth riders and ice blood under her command.

She vows to prove that she is the only one worthy of ruling the Freljord.

"War Mother! War Mother! Let's sing to you~" The children's affectionate calls brought Sejuani's thoughts back to reality.

The ambition in her heart instantly dissipated, and her grudges with Ai Xi were temporarily put aside.

Sejuani looked down at the children surrounding her.

These children are all the new generation in the tribe, and the oldest one is not more than 5 years old. After all, those over 5 years old are already considered adults who can help with some chores. They cannot be as carefree as they are now.

"Nursery" played happily.

Yes, Winter's Claw has a "nursery".

The severe survival pressure made every adult in the tribe unable to take time off and unable to take care of their children on their own; many parents died tragically in brutal battles shortly after giving birth to their children.

So whether it's Winter's Claw or other tribes, everyone can only engage in socialized parenting and bring the children together to raise them together.

Sejuani always likes to come here to visit.

After all, the tribe is a big family, and the children are the future of the family.

As the war mother of the tribe, Sejuani is of course also the loving mother of all the children in the tribe.

"Let's sing to you~" The children also liked her young "mother" very much.

"..." Sejuani fell silent again.

She lowered her eyes and looked at these children. These little and thin ones were like snow hares after hibernating. They were all sallow and skinny, and some could even see their skin and bones.

Although the tent made of mammoth skin was thick enough, the ruthless cold wind still penetrated through the gaps, making these thin little guys tremble when they spoke.

"War Mother? Do you want to hear us sing?"

"Well..." Sejuani finally nodded with a heavy heart.

So the children happily huddled together and sang in sweet voices the old nursery rhymes she had sung when she was a child: "La~ They plowed the fields hard and sowed seeds silently~ We do whatever we want and burn everything~"

This song is very spirited.

But the children's cheeks were so thin that they could stick to their faces, which still made Sejuani feel distressed.

"Ogai Yin." She couldn't help turning her head and said to the female war priest next to her: "How long do we have food reserves? Can we give some more to the children?"

"War Mother..." Ogayin pursed her lips slightly: "The harvest from the last robbery has been almost consumed. The few hunting teams we sent recently have not gained much."

"Unless we are lucky enough to encounter a migrating herd of animals, even if we save on food, we can only hold on for another month and a half at most."

Sejuani heard this in silence.

She raised her lips with difficulty: "But children are the future of the tribe. If they don't have enough to eat, they won't grow into reliable warriors."

"I know." Ogayin's expression remained unchanged.

She looked at a thin baby lying in the corner of the tent and said: "My daughter is hungry too, I know."

The baby was so hungry that he cried, but Ogayin still looked away decisively: "But the soldiers need food more. If they don't have the strength, how can we win the next plunder?"

Sejuani fell silent again.

She hesitated for a moment and then finally said: "Let those old guys over 35 years old eat less. The extra rations will be given to the children."

"..." Ogayin was stunned for a moment, then nodded quickly: "Yes."

Ice people care about children, but ignore the elderly and the weak. This is the moral that winter has taught them.

After calmly accepting Sejuani's order, she couldn't help but say: "War Mother, it's time for you to make a decision."

"Where should we go next?"

"This..." Sejuani pondered silently.

This is a very important question, and it is also a fatal problem that the Winter's Claws, as a hunting tribe with no fixed settlement, need to face several times every year:

The ice sheet is so big, which direction should we move to next to survive?

Go fishing in the frozen sea of ​​the north?

But it is close to the North Pole of the planet, and the weather is not only extremely bad, but also unpredictable. A cold wind may blow overnight, and a hopelessly thick layer of ice will form on the sea surface.

Then go east and plunder Noxus?

But Noxus is not someone to be trifled with either.

Although Winter's Claw once defeated the Noxian Northern Army, it also caused the famous Darius to suffer a humiliating defeat and become a humiliating "ice student".

But Sejuani knew that this was just temporary luck.

After all, Noxus is a ferocious beast. If you try to snatch it away, you will easily get bitten back.

Then go to the west and plunder Avarosa?

Go to the southwest and enter Demacia?

Or simply continue wandering in this ice field, searching for those migrating snowfield beasts?

...

No matter which option you choose, there are huge risks behind it.

Once you make the wrong decision, the tribe will pay a huge price.

The reason Winter's Claw is hungry and trapped at the moment is actually because Sejuani made a wrong decision before, which caused the tribe to fail to complete the KPI for this quarter and fail to grab enough food.

"I don't want any more children to freeze to death or starve to death because of my decision." Sejuani sighed.

"But no one can win all the time." Ogayin also lowered his eyelids and said, "War Mother, you should be mentally prepared like this."

Sejuani slowly clenched her fists. Indeed, it was time for her to shoulder her responsibility as a leader.

So she pondered and prepared to make a decision: "Next, we will go west..."

At this moment, a ranger warrior hurriedly came to the tent door and delivered a message to her: "War Mother, we found a wandering beast spirit walker on the ice field. He said he is your old friend.

, War Mother.”

"Oh?" Sejuani was slightly stunned.

A beast spirit walker who can wander alone on the ice field...that's not an ordinary person.

Moreover, he is still her old acquaintance?

"What's his name?"

"Udyr, he calls himself Udyr." The Ranger replied.

"It's him?" Sejuani was a little surprised.

Udyr is her mother's old friend. Although it is not a formal blood pact, the relationship between the two is almost the same.

Therefore, Udyr can almost be regarded as her sworn father.

However, this does not mean that their relationship is very close. After all, a war mother often has many blood alliances, and Sejuani naturally has many sworn fathers.

Udyr was just one of her many godfathers, and Sejuani didn't get along with him much when she was a child.

Later, Udyr was expelled from the tribe by her grandmother because she could not control his powerful and dangerous talent.

Since then, Sejuani has never seen him again.

The world is vast, and a separation on the ice field is often a farewell forever.

She never thought that one day she would be able to see this old friend again.

"Invite him to come." Sejuani didn't know why Udyr returned to Winter's Claw after so many years.

But after all, they were old friends, so she was still willing to entertain him.

"Yes." The ranger warrior quickly turned around and rode on a Juvask wild boar, and hurriedly rode the pig away.
To be continued...