Has been overwhelmingly positive!?!!?

Four votes for keeping the title, and none saying the title sucked, so the title is sticking.

But the most satisfying thing is it's the first time I've ever been told the opening of a story I wrote was good and drew the reader in, and two people have specifically said that. All the more awesome since I know exactly what I did different to do it again. I went and looked at the openings of stories that I remember drew me in the fastest, and they started with an introduction, whether it was a few paragraphs or 4-6 pages, of the viewpoint character. It's less jarring than starting in media res, as seems to be the height of fashion these days. So that's what I did, and it worked.

The ending and buildup to the climax need work though, so I'm going to do that before sending it to friends. And I'm almost done the first rewrite of The Eternal Army of Kharduev, so that will go out en masse first.

Title: Blood and Snow (so far - open to a better one. It's better than the first one, and you don't even want to know what the first working title was.)
WC: 7709

I was promising myself to finish this two and a half weeks ago, but work has got in the way. i blame turtle for going to gencon rather than writing night and making me finish amped up on energy drinks. :P I've been so tired lately, I don't know what's wrong with me. Maybe I'm coming down with something and my body's just trying to fight it off. Anyway, will post the story sometime when I've had the chance to double check I haven't said anything stupid or illogical or lacking in continuity in there.