Splash.
Cold cold cold.
That's all she felt. It was just cold. The warmth of her child pressed against her breast wasn't enough to chase away the cold of the waters.
The torrents of water swept her down down down stream.
Her lungs were running out of air.
Breaking to the surface, she was met with a cold wind.
She drifted a little further, her near frozen hands meeting the rough wet bark of a fallen tree.
Grasping a hold of it, she wrapped an arm about the fallen comrade; perhaps it feel while trying to save another as well.
Soft thumping could be heard and she raised her eyes up from the swirling waters. The cold, swirling waters.
Large. Teeth. Fur. Tusks. Mammoth.
Fear thundered through her and her eyes widened.
Couldn't move. Too cold. Too scared.
A smaller, pathetic animal scurried from behind the colossal creature poised before her. They both stared at her in wonder, mouths gaping, eyes wide.
She still felt fear, but upon looking into eyes spun of amber and sorrow, she saw nothing near malice.
With her last bit of strength, she slowly made her way to the jutting rock that they stood upon.
In an effort of hope, she offered her child.
Please, take him. He cannot enter the other world with me... keep him safe... she pleaded with her last gasping breath.
The large animal extended a tentacle like body part out to her child. Pulling her son closer to him, farther away from the waters... farther away from her...
She smiled, knowing that her son would be safe, knowing that he would be looked after.
Inside of her, her heart broke to match the rest of her body.
The two gazed upon her child, the smaller one seemingly relieved that he was okay.
Her strength gave out... she let go.
Under the waters, under the reign of those turbulent rushes and harsh arms she let her self be taken.
The currents pushed her down further, closer to the earth the waters pushed her. Their cold arms holding her. Holding her like she would never hold her child again.
Pain coursed through her under the caress of the river. Her eyes clenched in the hurt, her lips parted in a scream of agony that none would hear.
Flashes of white danced in her vision, the vision of her inner eye.
She saw him, so many years from now, dancing with his fellow brothers, an embrace to his father.
She knew her son would never hunt. She knew the moment that she slid his bundled form up the rock to the animals that stood there.
She knew her son would be cast out, against his father's will, she knew that he would die a frozen death just as she did now, but she also wished against her hopes that his ways would change.
'No...' giggled the gurgling river. 'We may not have him now, but we will taste such flesh... and no animal can stop us then...'
She cried out, anger laced in her words.
A rock. Her closed eyes. The river.
The river.
She was now a part of the river.
-------
Please forgive me... that was really bad... oh ye gods of old... excuse me while I go and sacrafice a goat and virgin. shudders Ew.