Actors
Annis
Pimm's exacting, discreet mother, a late-forties bookroom keeper who teaches reading and arithmetic while defending the village's books from damp and mice.
Cobb
A long-limbed timberman and seasonal miner who drinks too much but remains dependable when work turns serious.
Crawfish
An oversized lake-edge crawfish that hunts the shallows and the wet rock beside a causeway.
Cress
An eight-year-old orchard girl whose place in Kip's home life makes her one of the village's most important characters.
Drift Rat
A pale river-rat variant that scavenges the seasonal mine's drains and abandoned meal pockets.
Glimmer Vole
A small climbing scavenger that nests in windfall and defends ledges and trunks with height on its side.
Hearth Newt
A blind newt of the wet mine workings that clings to walls and ceilings, drawn to warmth and light beneath a faintly visible hearthsalt crust.
Hetty
The ninety-four-year-old keeper of the common hearth, whose precise memory of favors gives her influence without office or title.
Hob
Kip's foreman and de facto father, anchoring him to village work and tradition.
Kip
The silent, authored protagonist whose ordinary first assignment draws him into the valley's crisis.
Mist Moth
A large dusk moth that drifts slow loops over open ground and presses from above, dusting from a perch.
Moss Boar
A stocky woodland boar that paces a home shelf and charges along a line; the first creature the road puts in Kip's way.
Old Brackenjaw
The individual crocodile used as the opening's first substantial boss encounter.
Old Siltclaw
An oversized crawfish that came up the flooded drain during the mine's empty months and partly chokes the pump intake: the wake-the-mine regional boss.
Pimm
A seventeen-year-old bookroom apprentice and community letter writer who helps neighbors put private words on paper.
Pit Timber Vole
A glimmer-vole variant nesting in dry spare pit timbers above the mine's wet floor.
River Rat
A low, quick scavenger that works wet ground under roots and comes in close.
Tam
A sixty-five-year-old route-taker who carries letters, parcels, and spoken messages because he enjoys the road and considers waiting poor route design.
The Exiled Seller
A villager in exile whose sale of a small breathsalt sample helps expose the motherlode.
The Sump Rat
One unusually large drift rat occupying the mine's stopped pump intake: the wake-the-mine climax.
Village goat
A Cinderfolk goat, escape artist of the fair.