It was that simple — she'd even marked the spot with an X! — and Achi shook her head at the sorry piece of wood that Krista had chipped to bits in her failed attempt at splitting it like she'd shown her the proper way. She held out the ax, and touched its heel with a finger, then ran it gently up towards the toe and sighed when she didn't draw blood. It was dulled, and she'd have to go sharpen it, but there were no more whetstones which meant she'd have to go find a well-sized rock in the woods. Only she couldn't just up and leave while there was still things that needed doing, and so, while she hated that she couldn't, she hated Krista even more for wasting a perfectly fine ax. She rested the ax against a pile of firewood, then went over to an earlier gathered pile of assorted kindling, produced a bit of twine, and made a faggot to carry into the house for the fireplace.
Hefting it across her shoulders with a grunt, the winters here weren't as harsh as in her village, but the wet was creeping up all the same and she reckoned with the waters disappearing that this one coming was still gonna be bad. Best to stoke the fire now, and keep it fed, than suffer for it later.
As she came to the house, there were no lights, no voices, just silence, which was strange because this was around the time Isolde would start preparing breakfast, being that the markets would open soon, and it was only after she put down the firewood that she noticed a cup of tea on the kitchen table and screwed up her eyes in exasperation; least the blondie coulda done was dumped it if she wasn't gonna finish it!
She grumbled and did just that, then dried it and set it back in its proper place with the help from a chair, and once that was back where it was supposed to go, too, crouched down at the fireplace. She took her knife and cut the twine, chose her first stick, used it to spread the embers still warm, and tossed it in.
The flames began, and in its depths she saw her village set to torch. The burning of those shepherding fields and rescue of her family's flocks by the military in their attempt to halt the Titans' advance. Her house, consumed by fire as it fell inward, crushing her mama and the Titan that'd killed her. No sign of her papa. Only green pastures baked black, thick smoke against orange sky and red sun and how the Titans waded through the flames sizzling like long stripes of her mama's bacon by the end but happy all the same.
Her eyes welled and soon she cried, and sobbed into the fire while it began to crackle and blaze, comforting her like a warm embrace in the absence. She stoked it, uncaring if the flickers singed her hair, when she heard someone behind her and stifled her tears.
"Go away," she croaked, her face buried in her arms.
Burrowing deeper into her ball of misery, Achi could still hear them, smelling of ash and cinder and approaching slowly, delicately, faded world weary, and even after she grew angry, hotter than the fire itself, yelling at the old woman to get lost, she only came closer still. She didn't protest when Isolde took her into her own and loved her with all her might… but it was when she pulled away that Achi realized it wasn't the old woman but someone darker skinned.
Thinking it was one of the work hands from the village, she found herself looking up at a girl she'd never seen before. Yet, she didn't reach for the knife. Instead she hugged her again. The girl hugged back and pulled her underneath her chin. She whispered something. Achi couldn't make out the words but recognized a lullaby and before long was having great difficultly staying awake, soothed to sleep, when another shadow entered the room and this time it really was Isolde.
Taken from the girl, Achi felt herself being carried to her room, all the while hearing them speak in tongues and when she was set gently in her bed, how they sounded like those wanderers in the stories of old.
And how much she missed her mama and papa dearly.