HEARTHWANE · HERDER
human, 19
At nine, climbed to the dragon with the cheese basket because her mother's knees gave out.
THEIR STORY
Bett is nineteen and comes from Highfold, a shepherd hamlet at the foot of Kestrel Road. At nine she climbed to the dragon with the cheese basket because her mother's knees gave out, and the dragon thanked her by name. She knows every goat on the mountain by name and calls them aloud like a roll call. Nobody else would climb, so she keeps the village's hazel tally-stick, three hundred years of notches long. She wants only to keep her village's deal alive.
FROM
Highfold, a shepherd hamlet at the foot of Kestrel Road
HOW THEY LOOK
Wiry and sunburned, a brown plait tied with goat twine, a cheese basket on her back and a crook she uses as a staff.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
“She knows me. She has to. I'm the one who brings the cheese.”
“That's Pepper, that's Biscuit, that one bites.”
BEFORE THE TALE
10 years ago · Gall's Tooth
At nine, climbed to the dragon with the cheese basket because her mother's knees gave out. Ketterow thanked her by name.
6 years ago · the switchbacks
Learned every goat on the mountain by name. They are the only ones who answer when she talks to herself on the climb.
3 years ago · Highfold
Inherited the village's tally-stick, a hazel rod with three hundred years of notches, because nobody else would climb.
a year ago · Gall's Tooth
Was asked her name twice in one visit, then a third time. She told nobody in the village.