On Winter’s Eve

On winter nights, when the snow is falling, Pippa goes to sleep knowing shell wake up to tracks in front of her farmhouse. The tracks are small, and they come from the woodsthose same woods that her mother says are full of witches and elves and trolls, and her father says are full of wolves and bears and demons. But these tracks are the Tomptes, and he is a friendly creature. Or at least thats what Pippa hopes. . . The Tompte borrows and mends things, he takes and he sometimes leaves things, and such is life on a farm at the edge of the realm. Her mother calls it tradition. Her father calls it a curse. And when things start going missing and trouble comes their way, Pippas not sure what to believe. Soon enough, she'll have no choice but to go into the woods to find out. . .