Today, the village is known for its carvers, but they all still look for the "heartbeat" in the grain, hoping to catch a flicker of the magic Bram left behind.

Bram felt the silence. He retreated into his shop and didn't emerge for three weeks. The only sign of life was the amber glow of his lantern and the rhythmic scritch-scratch of his chisel.

One winter, a heavy gloom fell over the village. The crops had been thin, and the frost was biting. The townspeople were too worried about bread to think about play, and the children’s laughter began to thin like mountain air.

Once, in a village tucked so deep into the mountains that the clouds often slept in its streets, lived a man named Bram. To the world, he was a recluse with sawdust in his beard; to the children, he was the keeper of magic.