The young farmer, Jeremiah, pulled his tattered cloak tighter around his scrawny shoulders. The nights were still cool even though it was on the cusp of summer, but nothing was as it should have been in the Kingdom of Rirea. Or perhaps the chill Jeremiah felt came from fear at being out so late and not the temperature at all. But he had to stay out in the field with his flock instead of rolled up in his thin blankets by the fire. The wolves had hunted his sheep every night for the last week. Now there were only a handful of the animals left, but if they lost even one more, then he and his little sister Hannah would starve within the twelve-month, if not sooner.

Jeremiah and Hannah only had one another. Their parents had died the previous winter of a wasting disease that turned them into bloodless husks.