Mawnfold Herdling

Mawnfold Herdlings are the half-grown scions of hill giant clans who, for reasons scholars debate, take to pastoral life instead of pillage. They are most often found on the fringes of agricultural lands and upland commons where wandering flocks or feral sheep provide practice for their caretaking instincts. Village tales tell of a Herdling that tamed a corrupt weather spirit by offering it a blanket of fleece; farmers called it the Fold Blessing and left an extra ration at crossroads as thanks. Many Herdlings keep to small, ramshackle flocks and forge uneasy pacts with local shepherds. The study of rural folklore by the antiquarian Jerrin Kest of Oakhurst recorded several treaties: Herdlings will protect livestock from wolves and ravagers in exchange for simple comforts — a warm stew, a sharpened crook, and the right to tether a few lambs in the village green. The Border Shepherds' Cooperative maintains a quiet network of signals to call for a Herdling's aid when predators push too close to the fields.

Tall but gangly, the Herdling stands roughly twice the height of a human, with long, knobby limbs and a belly rounded from too many whey cakes. Its skin is sun-browned and laced with faint scars; dirty, matted hair grows in a tangled mane and forms a rough beard around a wide, earnest face. It wears a patchwork cloak of sheepswool and hides, stitched with bright scraps by its own clumsy hands. Its crook is a gnarled oak staff nearly as tall as the creature, topped with a loop large enough to catch a lamb; the staff is decorated with carved notches marking the names of its flock. Fingers are thick and blunt, tipped with soot-stained nails; its feet are wide and callused, suited to traversing moor and hollow.