The rolling onyx clouds brought an early night upon the pair. Frejya had rushed inside and barricaded the windows in preparation of the oncoming downpour. Thama simply sat on her bed, deep in though.

The thunder that came crashing down upon the hut was unlike any other Frejya had ever heard. It shook her to her bones and the house to its foundations. The air in the hut was heavy and humid, like the breath of a great beast. The fire crackled loudly in the blackened hearth and the flames danced wildly upon the embers. Frejya tried to understand what they were saying, tried to read the tongue of fires like Thama had thaught her. But to no avail. They seemed almost like a panicked crowd, too confused and scared to speak coherently, only able to wail in agony of what was to come.

When late at night all that could be heard was the hammering of the rain against the shingles of the roof and the booming thunder, Frejya couldn't help frightened tears from rolling down her ashen cheeks. On the rare occasions she was able to close her eyes and sleep, she would be woken by the gutural wails of Thama. They were jagged, like great mountains peaks, and cold. They seemed to seep into Frejya mind and turn everything to ice. It seemed none of her memories were safe from the reaching tendrils of the crone's moans and soon they were all tainted blue and silver.

Frejya couldn't remember what the sun felt like on her face, or what gentle winds sounded like. The storm felt like an eternity, as if the earth wanted to cleanse everything on its surface.

But the sun did rise again. As bruttaly as it had started, the rain and the clouds and the thunder had left. The silence was welcomed but foreign. Frejya felt like a sudden vaccum had swallowed her and her senses. There was no crashing thunder to shake her bones or pummeling rain to wake her.

When she stepped outside, the sun blinded her. A sea of silver waters covered the land. It seamed to stretch out as far as the eye could see. Frejya felt her breath stolen from her throat.

"And so the sea came to our threshold..." was all she was able to whisper.

Her guts were twisting and turning, unable to give her clear indications as to what was to come. She rushed back inside and went straight to Thama's side. The old woman was frail and thin, buried under many blankets. Her eyes were glazed over and her gums had receded, turning her teeth into long ivory daggers. Frejya took her hand, at a loss for words.

"You may not know it yet, but you will find your way... the right way." Thama said between two long sighs.

Her cold fingers clutched Frejya's hand with more strength than the girl though possible. In her white eyes, Frejya saw a darkness seeping.

"Don't forget where you came from... And don't forget, don't forget..." The old woman trailed, her breath turning to laborious weezes.

Frejya grasped the crone's hand feverishly, a cold dagger tracing up and down her spine at dizzying speed. The darkness overcame Thama's eyes and her body turned to ash. Frejya's heart turned to shattered crystal. She fell to her knees and wept. She could feel the shards of what used to be her heart aching and stabbing her chest repeatdly.

And she wept.

She wept until she had no tears left, until her body curled up next to the remains of Thama. And there she fell asleep.

When she woke, she felt empty, like her body had been drained of her vital fluids. She carefully took Thama's favorite necklace and placed on her neck. Although the jewelry had but a sparrows head and a few bones as ornement, it felt heavier then anything Frejya had ever encountered. It weighed down on her and drew blood from her neck.

When she passed the threshhold on her way out of the cottage, she knew she could no longer turn back.

It took immesurable strength for Frejya to keep herself from lunging into the flames that engulfed her house. Part of her was convinved her place was at Thama's side, in life and in death. Part of her wanted to feel the flames licking at her arms and legs as she rested one last time next to Thama.

But when she set of of her steed, back turned to the blaze, she felt no warmth from the fire.

As the pair walked away from what was once their life, the ripples of water around the horse's legs dispersed, sending waves further then they both had been.