The gentle rain that broke the drought did more than water the fields; it washed away the lingering residue of fear. The community of Aethelburg moved with a renewed and sobered grace. The abundance was still there, but it was no longer a possession to be guarded. It was a gift to be tended, a shared responsibility in which every member played a part, from the youngest child shucking peas to the oldest elder sharing stories of seasons past.
This hard-won equilibrium was the fertile ground in which the next challenge took root. It did not arrive with the drama of a storm or the subtlety of a drought. It arrived in the form of a young man from Stone Creek, breathless and caked in dust, his eyes wide with a different kind of fear.
