Rand al'Thor

Rand al'Thor was raised in the Westwood by his father Tam, on a farm a day's travel from Emond's Field. He never asked for more than that ordinary life, and he is reluctant by nature, slow to take up the burdens others keep pressing onto him and quick to wish himself back among the familiar fields he knew.

On the road to Emond's Field before Bel Tine, hauling cider and brandy with Tam, he saw a black-cloaked rider on horseback who vanished without a trace, leaving behind a sense of hatred aimed at him personally. In the village he learned that Mat Cauthon had seen the same rider days earlier, and he later told Perrin and the others about it. Around the same time a raven seemed to watch him deliberately, until the newly arrived stranger Moiraine frightened it away. She and her companion Lan enlisted Rand, Mat, and Perrin to assist her with unspecified tasks, paying each of them a silver coin.

Festival preparations went on around all of this. Egwene al'Vere asked him to dance, and the peddler Padan Fain arrived with news of a war in Ghealdan, a man who could channel the One Power and was believed to be a false Dragon, and Aes Sedai riding south from Tar Valon to face him. The Village Council took Fain into the Winespring Inn for private questioning while the villagers argued over what it all meant for the Two Rivers.