The Emberlow Farmstead

A half-day north of Valenfeld: the Oakhollow family's old holding, abandoned two Lean Years back when the well ran dry, and denned this season by a wolf pack nobody in town knows about yet.

The Oakhollows walked off Emberlow the year the well went bad and the roof followed it, and moved into a smaller plot inside the Valenfeld wall where the water's reliable even if the ground isn't theirs. They still own the paper on it, technically, and every so often somebody goes back to check the fences are standing and take whatever the brambles haven't claimed. This season something's denned in the collapsed byre — the tracks around the old well are wrong for a dog and too many for one animal — and the last person who walked up that road to look was Tam Oakhollow, three days ago, who has not come back.