Freed Paddock Animals (two river otters, nine cormorants, a brown bear)

Found by Vaela in the Old Redwater Mill paddock; described by guards as 'just a few of the foreman's pets.' Two river otters: wide awake and alert in a single slotted crate, wearing rope collars — bribed with fish pickles, collars untied, shooed off (ran away). Nine cormorants: held in a tall cage with cords tied around their throats — Vaela freed one first, then the remaining eight the next round ('she did grow up on the river, she would know knots'), and opened the cage. A brown bear: chained (not caged), dead in the middle of fat bear week and 'chunky' — accepted a salmon pickle, let Vaela undo the chain clasp on a sleight of hand 15, and took off into the woods. All animals freed before Vaela burned the paddock. Their connection to Kreel or the mill's operations is unexplained beyond 'the foreman's pets.'