Fires Within, Snows Without

In Donnic tradition, the month of Úlmanad is often referred to poetically by the translation of its dwarven roots, the “Month of Dreams.” Indeed the dreaming month is a quiet one for the land, as many of the insects and amphibious noise-makers of the Dusking Fens south of Fenmoss-town have long since entered their yearly period of hibernation. By the solstice, the nights are alive not with various clatterings, clammerings, and buzzings, but only with the calls of owls, herons, and loons that fade into the growing whisper of a frost-laden wind. To begin the celebration of Kjól, and its commemoration of another turning of the great cosmic wheel, fires are traditionally lit on the thirty-second and final night of Úlmanad, which are to be kept lit all throughout the longest and darkest night of the year. This year seems especially one to guard the hearths from the outside, as a gentle snow has begun falling. Perhaps it is the beginnings of a storm? Oh well, that is no use worrying about on a night like tonight. Monsters beyond the walls are best fought in the light of day rather than the glow of a night-time hearth.