winter

The unforgiving snow laid siege to the little town of De Smet, enveloping everything in sight. The Ingalls family, huddled together, peered out the frost-coated window, watching nature's wrath in silence. Pa Ingalls' fiddle remained untouched; the echoes of its harmony were now lost in the blizzard.

In the frosty expanse of the Northern territory, lay a silent castle named Winterfell, home to the illustrious House Stark. Eddard Stark, the honorable Warden of the North, brooded alone in his study. A letter, arrived at dawn, perturbed him. It carried a dangerous secret, a secret that could light the Seven Kingdoms aflame. The king's friend, Jon Arryn was dead. A message from his wife implied that it was murder, orchestrated by Queen Cersei, of House Lannister.

Ethan Allen Hawley, the protagonist of John Steinbeck's 'The Winter of Our Discontent', had a life filled with turmoil and moral dilemmas. Caught in a storm of economic struggle and ethical corrosion, he was consistently discontented. This story takes us further into Ethan's journey, but now, during the Spring following that infamous winter.