by swfletcher
[Author's Note: MARA WHITEFOX is a complete and polished novel. I am posting it to Royal Road and other sites a chapter a day until the entire novel is online, free to read. I hope you enjoy!] As seventeen-year-old Mara of Twingrove prepares for her quarterlife ceremony, cruel bands of raiders march south toward her village. And after Mara is cryptically dubbed 'Whitefox' by the village elder, scores of men from Twingrove are suddenly kidnapped and brought north to be traded as slaves, including Mara's father and brothers. With the fate of her people in jeopardy, Mara makes a sacred vow to travel across the Great Snowplains and rescue the captives. Mara is soon joined by her steadfast younger sister, and the two of them recruit a mute swordswoman and a reclusive sorceress along the way. But when word of their journey reaches the enemy, a price is put on their heads, and an expert assassin arrives hot on their heels. Mara's party must battle murderous villains, trudge through harsh blizzards, and fend off savage creatures as they make their way north. But most dangerous of all are the horned beast-men known as the thrasks, who Mara soon learns are behind the burgeoning slave trade. These are the monsters who razed the great city of Hegvel to the ground, and pushed the northern natives to the brink of extinction. Under the wicked Drudgelord's command, the thrasks now threaten to overtake the land of Argosil and subjugate good people everywhere. Only Mara and company stand in their way.
