The women had laboured hard all morning in the forest, cutting down the choicest pine branches to decorate their houses. It would be a simple Mettarë celebration. Food was scarce in this season.   Yet the evergreens, like the Rangers, weathered both good times and bad. 

The green boughs carried welcome cheer into every house; calling forth memories of nature’s abundance, and fresh scents of the forest in summer at this darkest time of year.
 

Gilraen arranged the pine branches around her home and protectively patted her swelling belly. Winter would pass. This spring would bring new hope to their people.