A story relating how a captured pagan boy eludes his captors and searches for a way back home. It is a perilous journey through the conquered, winter locked Livonian land.   Brother Henry, the chronicler of bishop Albert of Riga wrote wearily as the winter wore on:

For the year of our Lord 1224".  The Lord has sent us a cold winter.  So cold that the bay froze and there was peace in Livonia for its entire duration.  And many other wonders occurred as well" .. 

Wonders occur when faith is strong and this is a time of strong believes.  But Uvis, the son of a Samogitian thane, who was captured by Christians, can now rely only on himself.  He makes a daring excape from the Bishops troops and now must find the way back to his native land. It is a perilous journey through a dangerous, winter locked wilderness.

The pagan gods that he remembers have forsaken the desecrated oak groves of this conquered land,  the God of the Cross, about whom his captors taught him, remains foreign and distant.  Then he remembers a hymn that a frail novice nun taught him, a canto first voiced by the abbot Francis of Assisi, and his praise of Gods creation rings true. The words of the abbot, his contemporary and not yet saint, bring solace and lend meaning to the poor sacrifice he can offer to his own pagan gods.  Especially the one that he so much depends on - Medeina, the goddess of the forest and the hunt…

And Medeina seems to hear and take compassion… 
 

When he is almost lost, she guides his steps to the lair of a she wolf and ties his fate to that of one of her creatures. A bond is forged between the pagan fugitive and the wolf cub assigned to his care.  They flee across a trackless, frozen swamp, and Medeina helps them to survive the remnants of winter and a chilly spring.  As the wolf cub grows, gaining in strength and cunning, they become a team. By the time summer arrives, they are not helpless anymore.  Now they can resume their way back to Samogitia, and it is their pursuers who are in for surprises.

At the time this story takes place Abbot Francis in far off Assisi was still alive, but his influence had already spread widely.  Especially beloved were his cantos to God's creation, which to a pagan had echoes of familiar Nature worship.