In the peaceful village of Ealdor, the peasants go about their daily work when they are violently disrupted by the arrival of a band of horse-backed bandits. Their leader Kanen orders his men to spread out, and soon enough they drag a man from his house with his arms full of food. The man Matthew, spokesperson for the village, tells Kanen that he was only hiding the food that the villagers need to get them through the winter. Kanen is unimpressed and promises that he’ll be back in one week to take the rest of it (right now is apparently not a good time). Merlin doesn’t have an answer to this.