Final notes:

While my aim is to write stories that can stand alone, for the sake of convenience, I've included links to earlier-published stories that underlie the background and relationships in this tale.

The freakish weather in this story was inspired by accounts of the Armistice Day storm that battered the U.S. Midwest in November 1940. I prefer to believe that the number of hobbits caught out in the weather was few because the wind and rain began in the middle of the day when people would have still been busy about their work, not yet free to take up their bows to hunt the wild migratory birds that had begun appearing in increasing numbers that morning. Unfortunately, the nature of the Thain's work that day put him and his head of escort at risk. No disrespect is intended towards the people who actually experienced that historic weather event.

As noted early on, this story builds on events in StarFire.

The incident wherein Pippin tricks Ferdi and rides into an ice storm, along with subsequent events, is described in Flames and Jewels.

The effect of Mistress Lalia's malice on the hobbits around her can be found in Pearl of Great Price.

Pippin's brief experience as a shepherd's apprentice takes place in Thain. 

Some background information about the Tooks' battle to survive and remain free during the Troubles appears in The Rescue. 

The Tooks' deep reverence for life reflects Frodo's observation in 'The Scouring of the Shire': 'No hobbit has ever killed another on purpose in the Shire.... And nobody is to be killed at all, if it can be helped.' In Honour, Tookish archers mark their enduring gratitude to Frodo for preventing them from 'slaying those of their enemies who threw down their weapons ... in their wrath at their losses' [included in Tolkien's description of the Battle of Bywater].

To read about Lotho's schemes against the Thain and the Master of Buckland, along with Regi's reinstatement of the Thain's escort after Paladin had discontinued it, see Flames. 

Lastly, Pippin's first impression of the damage Lotho had done to the Shire, as seen in this story's Epilogue, comes from 'The Scouring of the Shire' in The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien, from which a few words and phrases have been borrowed.