Deorfled of Woodhurst is the eldest daughter of the sandy-haired shepherd Cenulf and the weal-blooded weaver Dilys. While her parents had many daughters, they had no sons, so spirited Deorfled, quick as the doe for which she was named, followed her father and his flock since she was young. Her family was not rich by any means, but Deorfled - or Deora, as her mother always called her - wanted for nothing as a girl thanks to her mother's fine spinning and weaving. She was the shy one in her group of friends, tall and awkward but not ungentle. 

Yet as Deora's friends grew older and came to speak of sweethearts and future homes, Dilys and Cenulf had graver conversations with their daughter. One day, Dilys had gone to market only to return with her dress singed after a young boy and girl tried to push her into the bonfire. She returned the next day only for the butcher's son to chase her away with his own knife. Conflict was rising between the Eorlings and Dunlendings of Woodhurst, and their family was caught in the middle. Cenulf could not bear to see his daughters in danger, and thus locked them away indoors, but Deorfled longed to rejoin her father in the grassy hills. 

After a tearful, frightened winter, Cenulf and Dilys agreed that she and Deora would take their younger daughters toward Kingstead, where they might escape the growing violence in Woodhurst. Fair-haired Cenulf, even for all his neighbors knew of his wife and daughters, could remain. With a heavy heart, Deorfled drove the wagon that brought her family east, away from the only home she ever had.

Now Deora herds a wealthy man's flock, wishing to save up coin to buy her own sheep someday. She dreams of a nice home for her mother and a fine dowry, the trappings of wealth that would prove that she belongs even so far from the Stonedeans. Yet a phantom axe hangs over her head - the fear that she will be locked away in her own motherland, hiding from friends and neighbors who fear the blood of a land that she has never known.