Armoredstalkers, Winter
Ib Goldlancer, as the only one with even the vaguest idea of how to operate an aquaculturist operation, was called upon to provide for the other 18 dwarves. An error in what could be stored where resulted in a dozen meals going to waste sitting in the kitchen, and the tusk oxen could only provide so much milk in one sitting. Everyone's spirits were on a downward slope, with 11 dwarves already below content due to having to sleep on rocks, grass, mud, or other uncomfortable places and a lack of tables and chairs to eat what little food was available at. Zoden tried to force rationing of what little there was to eat, but she was called a tyrant and even threatened with violence, so she told them if they wanted to starve then that was their business.
To make matters worse, a group of gnolls, foul creatures intent on stealing anything not bolted down, tried to make off with one of the spare wood splitting axes. This was the last straw for Colonel Kugik, who vowed to not chop trees again and grabbed the recent migrant Thelbil Shipwires, who was one of the only three dwarves with any military training and told her to grab the third spare axe. Kugik himself took the other two with full intent on killing the gnolls before they became a problem. As far as he was concerned it may not have been a sword but they'd chop well enough. And sure enough, after chasing one of those mean-spirited wretches down he was able to cleave it in half, though it did take the use of both hand axes to do it.
It took them many hours of hunting, chasing, grappling, and chopping to finally kill the whole lot, and once it was over, Kugik looked to his fellow dwarves and asked if they had any compunctions over stripping the flesh from these thieving wretches. None did, and all were happy to have fresh red meat. Ib also breathed a sigh of relief; while he knew how to run a fish pond and had gotten one running a week after his arrival, it was only now able to produce anything besides brackish water and he'd barely been able to pull farmed oysters free of their spots to keep the food stock barely breaking even. The gnolls, in spite of their intent to steal their tools, had turned out to be a windfall. Likewise, Kugik and Thelbil were lauded by the others as heroes for saving them all from a slow horrible death by starvation while Zoden was left ignored by many, and would remain so for some time to be sure.
It really was a good thing they brought those spare axes and that the gnolls tried to steal them. If they hadn't I'm sure that The story of The Joyous Steel would have ended by mid-spring in madness and starvation, as they all had considered the beetles, now their only source of alcohol, and the tusks as a source of cheese, as too valuable to slaughter.