A cold night
She tripped and fell into the cold snow... the alley way did not provide much shelter from the winter wind…
How long she had been living on the streets, she didn't really know. Two years possibly… it was hard to tell or remember in the cold weather. It was bad weather to sell matches, but she dared not steal nor beg. She could live well enough without the title of a princess but to live without family…
She did not blame Dai Shimarron entirely… only its ruler…
Its coward of a ruler who had ordered men to kill her uncles and her fathers before her very eyes as well as the other castle tenants… Greta was the only one left alive.
She remembered Yuri's last words:
"Greta..." he rasped, "You are loved... You are so loved... Greta, be safe… be strong…"
As the 27th Maoh of Shin Makoku breathed his last breath, he handed Greta his pendant and she ran before the assassins could find her… for the next year she followed the assassins all the way back to Dai Shimarron and took revenge upon her family's murder…
It went against the teachings of her uncles… her fathers… but what else does she have to lose?
She had no place to call home…
Greta grasped the pendant that hung around her neck, Yuri's last gift, as warm tears ran down her cheeks. She remembered the funeral procession of her family. Her uncles' mangled bodies, displayed and burned to destroy the hopes of the people of Shin Makoku. She leaned against the wall and cried in the cold… what would her fathers say knowing their little girl had shed blood?
No one could hear her cries… no one was there to comfort her…
The pendant began to glow then… warming her hands…
It was strange... it had never done that before...
Her feet were no longer cold... she could hear heartbeats... the blizzard seemed non-existent... Conrad was holding his hands out to her and lifting her into the air… Gwendal was holding her securely on his lap, teaching her how to knit…
Both images disappeared in an instant…
Greta grasped the pendant tightly… hot tears formed in her eyes…
"Greta…" a familiar voice called, "Greta don't cry…"
"Greta…" another familiar voice called lovingly, "we're here…"
Through her tears, never letting go of her pendant, Greta looked up to find her fathers crouching and smiling before her. "Papa Yuri…" she murmured, "Daddy Wolf…"
"Let's go home, Greta," Yuri said, pulling her into a hug, "Everyone is waiting for us." His embrace felt so warm and real… She felt Wolfram's hand brushing through her frozen curls…
"Conrad and Gwendal are waiting…"
"Don't leave me!" Greta sobbed, holding onto the pendant tighter than ever… she wanted to keep the image of her fathers for as long as possible… Yuri never let go of her, neither did Wolfram disappear.
"We will never leave you again, I promise," Yuri murmured as he and Wolfram flew away with their daughter between them into the stars where everyone was waiting.
In the morning, a little body was found, clasping a blue crystal pendant and never letting go. The people could not even break her fingers... she would be buried with her hands clasping her pendant. The strangest thing of all was the fact that the streaks of ice… resembling trails of tears went lined down her cheeks… but she had a smile… a truly happy smile…
No one would know of the images she saw… but they all believed that she is finally at peace.