Nights of Unrest
No one enjoys being out at night, when the moonlight makes everything seem... different, and not in a good way. Especially come winter, when the nights get long and longer, and the cold and still air plays tricks on the senses, if it hasn't rendered them useless already.
But in the Rolling Hills and Hillwatch, the fall and winter nights carry another threat. When the winds get unruly and the clouds coming in from the Wolf Hills threaten th devour the hills like wild beasts, no one wants to get caught outside by the falling night. Even if it was your mortal enemy outside your door begging for shelter, no one would turn them away, for those nights bear a danger everyone feels in their bones - and yet no one can explain.
The walls and windows are shaking from the onslaught of thousands of... things that ride on the wind. Is it claws? Hands? Weapons? No one knows, and no one dares to look. The shutters have been strengthened at the end of the summer in anticipation of these nights, the livestock is safe behind tightened and bolted doors, practically running into the stables before darkness. The howling outside ebbs and falls, but even the guard dogs do not dare raise their voices like they sometimes do in summer. All life is hiding, breathlessly trying to avoid the attention of whatever the winds brought in from the wilderness.
Some believe this to be the Gods of the wolves inhabiting the Wolf Hills attacking civilization, just like their underlings regularly do. Others think there are far more sinister forces at play, like the spirits of the deceased along the trade route to Hillswatch, where accidents and robberies are more plentiful than people would like to admit. This belief is one of the reasons bandits find little support in the villages along the road, and their ill-gotten goods need to be transported to the Eye or other places to profit off.
Regardless of theory, everyone works hard on being prepared for when those nights come. Stables and houses are strengthened, especially the shutters, and every crack and fissure that may let things in gets meticulously hunted down and sealed. Even the poorest of houses is not drafty in these areas, and if someone lacks materials to do so, their neighbors without fail help them out. After all, human squabbles become meaningless in the face of the nameless and faceless dangers of the Nights of Unrest.
The Rangers of Hillswatch significantly reduce their foraging into the Wolf Hills during those months, and have certain spots prepared as shelters in case they really have to leave. This can be a cave fortified with a palisade wall to prevent bears from making it their home and hidden behind vegetations to protect it from looters, but there's also a few huts that were created in strategic places and maintianed during summer. Patrols will under no circumstances leave Hillswatch when the Mother of Hillswatch predicts bad weather. Tarisal was the first to be called Mother, but when she grew old, she chose another talented woman to take up that mantle, stating that any family needs a mother, and that she would do her best to teach the new Mother and the others.
At first, the thought of losing her guidance caused some anxiety, especially regarding the Nights, but she made sure to integrate her successor into the life of the village early on, and soon people trusted the new Mother as they did her.
Terrible fates befall those caught outside in the chaos, or so people have heard. Everyone knows a story of a thrice-removed cousin's friend's mother who didn't make it and vanished completely. Or maybe bloody, shredded bones were found soon after. Other times, the next Night of Unrest brought a skull to the front door of the house the missing person used to live in, to greet the people when they come out the next day. The variations are endless.
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