The sun was beginning to set on another day within the Viking village and Ashildr was returning from the fenced field where her people milked their cattle.
With a pale of milk hanging on one arm, she noted the strange feeling in the air. It was still, quiet. Too quiet. And a foul smell of burning clung to the air like bark to a tree. Then, with a bite, the silence was broken by a shrill cry. A scream of agony coming from the distance.
The wooden pale dropped to the earth with a clunk, it's watery white contence spilling onto the soil beneath her feet.
Without hesitation Ashildr began to run towards her village, fearful and afraid of what she may find when she got there.
Black smoke bellowed from the windows in their shacks, and more screams filled the sky. Cries of infants, and the gargling noise unmistakably from someone whom had their throat torn open.
She continued to run through the chaos until she saw the one thing she feared the most. At the opening to her home she saw him. Her father's body splayed out on the floor like a pile of cloth. Lifeless.
She dropped to her knees, tears stinging her eyes, and clutched his hands to her chest. His blood was seeping into her clothes, coating her skin.
"Help!" She screamed. "Doctor, help!" She pleaded.
And then she had a thought. The tile.
The tile that hung around her neck since the day she died. The tile that was said to bring everlasting life to whomever she gifted it to.
She began to lift it from where it rested when a rough voice rang in her ears.
"Stand up boy. Face your killer like a man." The voice almost sounded taunting. "Didn't you hear me boy? Get to your feet and die like a man!" The stranger yelled.
"I am not a boy!" Ashildr screamed as she turned her head. She refused to leave her father, but she wanted to see the person responsible for her pain.
The man was more beast than anything. Covered in more hair than even the oldest in her village. His face almost seemed like that of the lions that roamed the mountains. Cat-like.
She turned to look upon her father but one more time.
"I promise I'll bring you back." She whispered.
And then the searing pain began as a sward cut through her flesh like a spear through water. One strike above her shoulder, almost severing her arm clean. And then a final blow through her back. She felt the blow break through her rib cage, grazing her spine before protruding through her abdomen. And as she lay on the dirty ground, rivers of blood flowing from her wounds, she saw them set fire to the fallen around her. Burning it all before the intruders left with what they could plunder. Unaware that through her dying eyes Ashildr could see it all.
As the flames around her grew higher, a darkness shrouded Ashildrs view. And once again she slipped away from the world.
For a second time, Ashildr died.
But death greeted her with another dream.
She could see a familiar face, but it took time to recognise who the beautiful features belonged to.
"Ashildr!" The soft voice hummed.
"Ashildr!" The voice grew louder.
"Ashildr! Hello me!" The voice was clear now.
"Ashildr! I can't do this alone!"
It was the Clara woman, and she was scared.
Ashildr woke with a jump, her heart racing. She could feel her skin healing; netting together like a spider's web until she was whole again.
She cast a glance around her to find nothing by smouldering ashes where her family and home previously lay broken. And then she looked back to where her father was. Only, her father was no longer splayed lifelessly before her. All that was left of her last parent was the scraps of his remains, blowing away in the chilling breeze.
She clenched her jaw, knowing she was too late to save the only person she had come to love more than life itself.
"I'm sorry." She muttered, refusing to cry.
"I will find him." Ashildr promised. "I will find The Doctor, and I will make him fix this."
As she walked into her future she couldn't help but think of the vision she had of the Clara woman. Or more importantly, the feelings she felt towards her. The warmth that radiated through her body when she heard Clara's voice, the comfort that embraced her when she saw her beautiful features. And the pure dread that shook her when she saw the fear on Claras face.
Ashildr knew it was more important now than ever that she found The Doctor, not only to get back what she had lost. But to help the Clara woman too.