Chapter 31 Winter's First Promise

• The first true breath of winter had settled over the village, sharp and biting. Frost sheathed the trees in silver armor, and the ground crunched underfoot, hard as stone. Even the river near the eastern glade had slowed, its surface rimmed with a delicate skin of ice.
• Inside the village, the rhythm of life had shifted with the season. Hunters returned laden with meat and pelts; gatherers hurried to dry what remained of the last herbs and tubers; the steady hammering of bone needles sewing winter cloaks echoed from the communal halls.
• Every household, every hand was preparing for what the Elders whispered could be the harshest winter in decades.