Una's tears quickly turned to fear when she saw the expression on Yvar's face. His horse had fallen, his animal friend who had carried him through hell and back. Una bit her lip and looked away. She couldn't watch Yvar become so upset. His eyes sweltered with tears and his eyes furrowed in anger. Yvar had never seemed so terrifying to Una. Even on the battlefield, he had men die in his arms, but he barely knew them, not like his horse. This horse had been by his side for more than a decade. Balder was his last link to the happy days of his childhood.

"Yvar," Una said softly but hesitated.

Yvar ignored her and bent down to touch the long neck of the dead horse. As he pets the horse down its neck, he lifted his hand, and dark crimson blood was smeared across his hand. He brought it up to his face, staring at it. His soft pale-yellow hair flowed gently in the wind coming up the bank. The smell of death was here now, the pungent tannic smell of blood looming like a fog.

"Yvar, I..." Una hesitated.

What could she say during a time like this? Yvar was devastated. It was apparent from him shutting down. He ignored Una, he didn't speak, and his tears dried up. He was in shock, and devastation was an understatement. Suddenly Una felt a presence behind her. She turned around and saw Frey walking up slowly. He stood far away, staring at Una and then at the beached horse. As he walked closer, he stepped on a branch. Yvar snapped his head around and looked at Frey with the evilest eyes Una had ever seen on him.

"Yvar?" Una said breathlessly, her fear growing.

Before Una could react, Yvar sprang up and hurled himself at Frey. Frey whipped around and ran as fast as he could, back towards the forest.

"Yvar!" Una screamed, running after him.

"Stop!" She shouted as Yvar caught up to Frey and tackled him to the ground.

"You bastard!" Yvar cried as he crawled on top of Frey and began to choke him.

"Stop it!" Una screamed again as she tried to pull Yvar away.

Yvar was hell-bent on breaking Frey's neck. He knows that no one else would ever do such a thing to his beloved Balder. He knew Frey must have done this to him. If Yvar couldn't continue his journey, Una would be vulnerable, and he would kill her as he planned early on to get her sword. Yvar couldn't allow this. Yvar wasn't thinking clearly, how he could ride with Una or Frey with them on their horses. He didn't even consider the fact that a Saxon could have impaled his horse. All Yvar saw was death, and all he wanted Frey to do was die like his horse. The reason was not with him, only rage.

Una panicked. Yvar was squeezing and pushing into Frey's neck so hard that his face was turning purple and white. Yvar was trying to kill Frey, but if he hadn't had his neck snapped by now, Una knew that he was hesitating. Frey was much too frail to have his neck withstand such strength from Yvar's grasp. There was something in Yvar's mind telling him not to do it. Una took this hesitation as her cue to come in and separate them. Una ran up and reached over, trying to pull Yvar off of Frey again, but it was no use.

"Yvar, you're killing him!" Una cried.

Una could wait no longer. Pulling Yvar away from Frey was like pulling out a wolf devouring the flesh of a wounded lamb. If Una didn't stop him, he would surely kill Frey. This was something that would end their journey and potentially Una's life if Frey's father knew of Frey's murder. This was in the back of Yvar's mind too. He thought this through as he wanted to crush Frey's windpipe and break his neckbones. Yvar knew, though, that if he killed him, he would inadvertently kill Una too.

Una could not watch this come to pass. She had to do what was best, and she jumped on Yvar's back and locked her arms around his neck. She pulled back as hard as she could in that chokehold. Una was amazed that Yvar would not let up. Finally, after a few seconds of him fighting it, she felt Yvar go limp, and she quickly released him. If she held on too long, he would die. She slowly set Yvar down on his side, and Una rushed next to Frey. Frey laid limply on the ground. Una was terrified that he had been passed out for too long, and death was at his door.

"Gwahh!" Frey expelled his breath out in a mighty cough.

"Stay on the ground, don't speak!" Una urged him, pushing gently on his chest.

"Thank the Gods. You're alive!" Una said with relief.

Frey's eyes slowly opened. There was dark red splotched all over the whites of his eyes, and his cheeks were blistered purple and red.

"Take slow deep breaths. I know it will hurt but lay there and don't move!" Una said, patting him as she ran over to Yvar, who was already regaining consciousness.

Una crouched down behind him. She locked her arms around his chest and had her hand on his head, ready to choke him out again if need be. She wouldn't let him get near Frey also. She felt him look around, disoriented. When Yvar locked eyes on Frey laying there, motionless, he felt terror and remorse. This caused him to want to get up and see that he would hopefully still be alive. Una thought him moving was another advance to strangle Frey again, so she pulled on Yvar and held him in the position, ready to choke him at the next move.

"You damned fool! It was not Frey who slew Balder. It was a Saxon with a longbow across the way!" Una said, tightening her grip on him.

Una was shaking violently. She was so angry, disappointed, and scared all at the same time. Yvar looked at Frey. His vision was still blurred. He thought surely. He was dead. He tried to talk, but Una pressed harder into his neck with her elbow. Yvar couldn't believe what he had done. Yes, at the moment, it felt good to kill him for killing his horse, but where was the evidence? Yvar honestly doesn't know why he blames him. He knew it wasn't Una, so it had to be him. Yvar couldn't explain his outrage. Yvar wonders if it is lack of sleep and frustration. Maybe in truth, it was that he always thought Frey was secretly going to kill Una and him in the middle of the night. It was a subconsciously fabricated thought, brought out by exhaustion and the adrenaline rush of seeing death. Most become sad. A few like Yvar become monsters.

"No..." Yvar barely whispered as he gently grabbed Una's arms in his hands.

Una could feel him silently begin to weep in her arms. She wanted to let go, but how could she. She thought he was crying for himself, at his significant loss. She couldn't let him go near Frey.

"No, Yvar. I won't let you do it!" Una shook as she said those words.

She felt Yvar tremble, and he sobbed even harder. Una finally realized that he wouldn't advance anymore, and she released her grasp on him. Yvar fell forward on his side, and then he turned his face over to Una. His eyes were red like Frey's, and his splotchy skin red. His nose was pouring, and his eyes. The look of anger in his eyes was gone, and all Una saw was fear and pain.

"I...I didn't...mean... mean to." He choked on his words.

Una bowed her head and looked up again to stare into his sad eyes. A single tear ran out of her sight, and Yvar saw it. His demeanor changed instantly, and he turned over and looked at the ground. He grabbed the sand and grasses hard in his hands.

"I am a fool." He said with tears staining the dry earth beneath his bent over the face.

Yvar felt terrible. He had made Una cry. How could he do such a thing? It made him feel even more terrible. How could he make Una cry? How was that possible? She was not soft, and yet he saw the tear fall from her cheek? He had broken her somehow. She was sad, and this made Yvar even more regretful.

"If you hadn't been here, Una, who knows what terrible thing I could have done." Yvar hesitated.

Suddenly he felt Una's arms gently wrap around him from the side. This made his eyes swelter with tears again, just as he was regaining his composure. Her warm embrace made him lose himself entirely, and the tears came harder and would not stop.

"You couldn't have done it. Your heart is too good." Una whispered as she wrapped her arms around his chest and buried her neck over his shoulder.

Una held him close as he cried it all out, whatever he was crying for. Una knew it was more than his horse, more than Frey, even more than her. Yvar always seemed to keep his emotions in check, just like Una. Yvar had far greater laments than Una, though. Sometimes Una forgets that her life wasn't all that bad. She wasn't abandoned and unloved at birth and then sold as a slave when her grandmother died. Una gently stroked the side of his arms as she held him tighter. It was almost comforting to Una that Yvar was crying, as odd as it was to her. Una hated how he lost his horse, but he could have lost her if he did kill Frey. His father would come for her head personally.

"I know how it feels, Yvar. Do you remember the wolf?" Una whispered to distract his mind away from death and to bring him back to reality.

"My hound, Selene. Remember, she had white hair and yellow eyes. She was abandoned by her pack, just like Balder. Remember how she ran with us in the Barley fields? She protected our sheep and our horses."

Yvar's tears still fell warm across Una's arms, but his breathing slowed.

"Yes. Selene, she was magnificent." Yvar trembled.

"And she was a wolf. Remember how scared we were of her? She was snow-white, and her temperament was even purer."

"Yes." Yvar shook in Una's arms as he watched Frey in the distance, unaware he was still alive.

"And you remember how my father hated her. He wanted to kill her and use her pelt since her color was so rare. That was until that one day. Those other bad wolves came to pick off the weak links in our herds. Remember, we saw it happen?"

Yvar opened his eyes, and he took a deep breath and thought back. Selene was to Una as Balder was to himself. He remembered when they found her. Her leg had been torn open so that she couldn't move. Every day for a week, until she healed, Una brought her food and water. Eventually, the Wolf began to trust Yvar and Una. So long as they gave her meat, she wouldn't touch the herds. She was timid and hid in the forest, waiting on Yvar and Una to approach. They became the best of friends. What they thought was a bloodthirsty beast was the most docile puppy-like dog underneath.

It was years later that one day, her pack came back, but not for Selene. The wolves had come for blood. They tried to pick off the herd's calves and lambs, but Selene had stepped in. Yvar came and got Una's father to come to see the fight. Selene was slaughtering any of the wolves that trespassed on her master's land. Yvar and Una were her masters, and she knew she had to protect them from the family that abandoned her.

Una was asleep in her chambers when Selene took her last breath. In the process, one of the wolves broke her leg, and one ripped her neck open. In the end, she limped over to Yvar and died in his arms as she defended the herd and scared off the wolves. Cynan knew he could do nothing but watch as Yvar and Selene cried together. What Cynan thought was a beast was the best thing the herds ever had as a guard. No Sheppard could keep those wolves away. Ever since then, those wolves have never returned.

"Yes, Cynan hated her until Selene proved her worth with her life." Yvar wept quietly now.

"You see, Yvar? Frey is like that wolf. You may think he is out for blood, but he is just scared. If you showed him kindness, like our wolf, he would grow loyal. Frey is Selene in the woods, wounded right now. You can't hurt him anymore, or he will bite back. But if we care for him and nurture him, he will become our loyal friend. Were you not the one that told me that we are doomed to repeat lessons until they are learned? Look at Frey and look at yourself."

Una gulped and had to recompose herself.

"Are we not given another chance at saving Selene, something we couldn't do because a higher power would not allow it? Cynan would not allow you to bring Selene in the castle, and she died in the cold snow, bleeding out and howling for us? There is another higher power threatening us again, Frey's father. Lessons are not limited to one form. They come in many versions. Would you be willing to witness the death of an innocent animal again?" Una said calmly, but her words cracked.

Yvar realized that Una was crying this whole time, but he was so absorbed in his emotions that he neglected even to turn around and acknowledge that Una had made Una cry. Yvar bit his lip so he would stop crying. His sadness turned back to anger, but anger at himself. Everything Una had said was true. He felt embarrassed, and he broke out of Una's embrace. He stood up and walked over to Frey. Una herself felt ashamed, she was crying for Yvar, and she thought he didn't reciprocate.

Una watched as Frey sat up in terror as he thought Yvar would try to strangle him again. Instead, Yvar began to apologize to him in his Norse tongue. Una knew all was well when they hugged each other. They all had cried this day. Something Una hoped would not happen on this journey. Now she sees how close it has brought them together. Una still wonders what will happen now. She turns around and gazes at the dead horse. Balder did live a great life, so it wasn't so terrible of a fate as it was with Selene, and a few moments ago, Frey. Things could have gone very wrong today, but Una couldn't help but feel that the Gods were observing over them. Even if Frey were meant to die, if Yvar or Una didn't do it, the Gods surely would.