CHAPTER 61: THE FIRST HARVEST
The winter passed slower than any we had known, but it passed in peace. Where once every family had hoarded grain and locked their doors against neighbors, now storehouses stood open, and messengers traveled daily between valleys carrying extra firewood, medicine, and news. We had learned to check on homesteads that had always been left to fend for themselves; we had learned to share blankets when the snow piled high and to mend each other’s roofs when the wind tore them away. No one counted favors or kept score of who had given what. For the first time, help was simply help, not a debt to be repaid later.
When the first warm rains fell in early spring, the whole region turned out to work the land together. The council had mapped out the fields weeks before,
