The longer Alena thought about the peculiarities of her morning, the more she couldn't remember why she had been so puzzled in the first place; her earlier confusion disappearing as the memory of the old woman began to fade away into the background.

Life seemed to flow out into a normal pattern, one that wore away at her mind with its familiarity as she placed a brown speckled egg into the hay filled basket in her hands, the strands poking away at her skin while Klari bustled around behind her on another shelf.

"I got the last of them." Klari called out, opening the fenced door of the shed carefully as she held the basket tightly to her chest. "Mother really only likes if we have the eggs freshly picked and don't take hours doing it."

"I know, Klari." Alena said laughing. "I have lived here too you know."

"Okay phew." Klari uttered under her breath, holding a hand to her chest in fake worry. "For a second there I could have sworn you had lost it."

Alena scoffed and moved out of the shed, trying to get used to the feel of her bare feet against the rickety old wood.

"For a second there, so did I."

Klari shrugged her shoulders and sidled up next to her sister as she lifted a hand to block the blinding sunlight. "You know I was thinking, maybe you and I could go down to the shore sometime this week, whenever we're done with our chores. I'm sure Mother and Father wouldn't mind."

"The shore? But I thought you've always had a fear of the water," Alena said, quirking an eyebrow before shoving Klari into the side of the house with a laugh, "you know after I pushed you into the tide."

"And dumped an entire handful of seaweed on my head!" Klari screeched, slapping Alena over the arm before laughing at her own childishness. "You know I miss those memories."

The soft dirt of the ground molded itself to Alena's heel as she slowed down, approaching the front door of her house more cautiously then she usually would. "Why do you say that?"

Klari looked thoughtfully at the house. "Ever since we were little I can always remember wanting to be older, growing up, moving away from the fields and living my life the way I wanted. But now that we're both older, and we're almost of age, I find myself wishing I was a little girl again."

Alena smiled wistfully and put an arm around Klari's shoulders. "Well I suppose that means that we're just going to have to make the most of our last few weeks of childhood."

Klari smiled back, opening the front door. "I suppose it does."

And as the pair moved inside to take care of breakfast for their parents, Alena couldn't help but feel treasured, to have worth to someone else, someone who loved her.

A bubble of delight and happiness welled up inside her and she couldn't help but smile, throwing herself into routine and forgetting anything that could bring her down.

After that, the day flew by, filled with chores such as feeding Ralph, her father's old palomino, along with the chickens, washing the clothes then setting them to dry outside and preparing dinner from the leftover meat that her family had preserved during the winter months.

The end of the day rushed up to meet them and Alena returned to her room with a soft sigh, her feet aching from walking on them all day and her temple throbbing as she plopped down on the bed to curl up into its comforting embrace.

"What are you doing, Lena?" Klari laughed, moving into the room in a white gown that reached down to her ankles. "You know that's my bed, yes? Yours is in the corner along with your night gown."

Alena grumbled under her breath and poked open an eye in Klari's direction. "You know I'm tempted to find myself some seaweed right now and dump it on your cocky little head."

"I'd like to see you try, but honestly I'd like to get some sleep so I don't wake up at the crack of dawn looking like I crawled out of the pits of Tartarus itself, so kindly move out of my bed and our problems as of right now are solved."

Muttering some more, Alena rolled off the bed and stumbled towards hers that sat in the corner of the room, throwing her day gown off in a hurry to replace it with the cool cloth of her night dress.

Goosebumps lined her skin as she slid under a scratchy blue blanket and pulled it up to her chin, staring out the window at the moon while Klari blew the flickering light from her bedside candle out.

As Alena settled herself further into the blanket, she looked over at Klari who had buried herself deep into her blankets and mattress.

"Klari," Alena called out softly, "Can I ask you something."

Her sister's voice replied through the darkness. "Of course, what is it?"

A sigh left Alena's throat, her head falling back against the pillow as her black hair fell down her shoulders in waves. "What exactly is wrong with Mother?"

A long, heavy filled silence filtered through the room, the sound of Klari's bed squeaking every once in awhile with her movements until she finally spoke.

"You know what's wrong with her, Lena."

"No I don't, Klari."

"Why do you make up such nonsense?" Klari muttered, her voice muffled by the pillow which she had buried her face into. "You know how it upsets Mother to speak of it, she hates appearing weak."

"But Klari, I want to know. I'm not speaking nonsense, it is only a simple question."

Klari sat up with a start from the bed, her blonde hair flowing around her like a curtain. "A question that has long brought suffering to our family."

Alena swallowed the breath she was holding and rolled over onto her side, "I'm sorry to have bothered you then, Sister. Forgive me."

Klari grew silent again, finally releasing a sigh of her own. "She forgets."

A quaking breath rushed into Alena's lungs as she chose her next words carefully, not wanting to push her sister too far. "Forgets what?"

"Who she is. Who we are. She can't even remember Father if the ailment is bothering her enough."

"How is that possible?" Alena asked quietly, a tightness finding itself deep in her chest. "I've never heard of such a thing."

"Neither have our local physicians." Klari gasped out, like she were out of breath from merely sitting up. "They said that there is nothing they can do, that this disease will only get worse until she..."

"Until she what?" Alena gently prodded.

Klari lifted her head up, the reflection of tears streaming down her face causing the feeling in Alena to grow even tighter.

"Until she can't remember us anymore."

Her sister's quiet sobs reached Alena's ears and she couldn't control herself anymore, throwing off the blankets from her lithe and pale legs to cross the room over to her sister.

Holding her by the shoulders, Alena gradually eased her into her arms, rubbing her back in circular motions to ease her suffering in anyway that she could.

"It'll be all right, Klari, I promise."

"How can you say that?" Klari sniffled out, running her hand under her nose quickly before sitting up quickly to brush the hair out of her face. "You don't know what's going to happen to Mother, how she'll change from what she is now. She won't even remember us, Lena." she spat out brokenly, her shoulders hunched over. "What're we going to do?"

"I don't know, but what I do know is that we're going to get through it one step at a time. Together, okay?"

Klari looked at her with fear in her eyes, the same fear that Alena knew she was hiding deep inside herself, but had to control for the sake of her sister.

"Okay? I promise that nothing will happen to you or me, no matter what, and even if Mother does forget us, we will just have to make sure that the end of her days were the best that anyone could ask for."

A blurry smile stretched across Klari's shaking features as she nodded her head. "Okay, Lena. Whatever you say."

Alena smiled and pushed her sister down to lay on the bed, bringing the covers up to tuck under her chin.

"Now get some good sleep." she chuckled, bopping her sister on the nose. "We have a shore to go to tomorrow."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning went as the day before had gone. Alena arose from her bed, went outside to collect any eggs and then prepared breakfast for her family.

Klari helped her with her chores as she was trying to get a hang of it, while she still managed to find feathers from the chickens in her hair wherever she went.

The sun shone high above the girls heads as they finished up the chore of sweeping the house of as much dust as they could, making sure that it was nearly all gone, for if it wasn't, their mother would make it her duty to tell them so.

The rasp of the bristles of the broom against the floor slowed to a halt as Klari moved to place it back behind one of the wooden chairs near the dining table. Alena stood nearby and wiped any of the bothersome dust off the table with a small woven cloth.

They had both asked their parents if it would be all right for them to visit the shore after their morning chores had been complete, assuring them they would finish their evening chores as soon as they returned.

Their mother had been opposed to the idea at first until their father had whispered something into her ear, causing her to roll her eyes before allowing them to go on the exception of them returning before sunset.

Agreeing wholeheartedly, they set out shortly after lunch, walking down the foot worn path that led to the sea.

Not much was discussed between the two as they travelled, the only sound that was heard often was that of their daypacks clanking against their backs.

After about a two hour walk, and two pairs of extremely dusty feet later, Klari and Alena finally made it to the shore, laughing and giggling as they made their way through the sand dunes, the air leaving a salty taste on their tongues.

Grabbing ahold of her daypack, Alena brought it over her shoulder to reach for the sandwich she had prepared as a snack.

Klari, however, was bouncing with excitement, rummaging through her bag to fit her sandals in adequately so as not to have a bend or crease out of place.

"Alena! Are you coming yet!" she shouted at her sister, tying her daypack before skipping through the sand, kicking it up in clouds as she went. "Hurry up! You're going to miss all the fun!"

"Says you! I'm taking my time, I'll be there in a minute."

Klari rolled her eyes and tossed her hair over her shoulder with a huff. "Fine then, I'll just enjoy this brisk water myself."

"You do that, Klari."

"I will! And I'm going to have a wonderful time."

"I'm sure you will."

Placing her hands on her hips, Klari turned and proceeded to back up until she felt the icy, cool water enveloping the skin at her ankles. "You're taking all the joy out of this free time we have finally acquired, you know that? What happened to acting more like children instead of adults?"

This caught Alena's attention, causing a bubble of laughter to escape her as she looked up at Klari from where she sat on the sand.

"You know you're going to hurt yourself walking backwards like that, you could fall in."

Klari walked farther into the surf. "Oh that's foolish of you, Alena. Besides, I'm purely embracing the moment."

She began to demonstrate her point by throwing her arms out and spinning in a large circle, dancing in the water like the child she was struggling to become again.

The water splashed around her ankles as she moved back, watching it swell in bursts up to her waist, staring her sister down as she waited anxiously.

Alena continued to blatantly ignore her, eating her sandwich even slower as she flicked a grain of sand off her knee.

Sitting in the sand so close to the sea seemed peculiar to her, but she wasn't able to place why or how, it felt almost like home to her, calling for her to return.

She shook the thought out of her head, blaming it on sun madness when a sharp pain stung her wrist, making her wince and grab her wrist, trying anything to make the pain go away.

As she pulled her hand away delicately from the wrist, she saw that there was a strange emblem on it, giving off a brief spark of silver before disappearing in the cloud of black that had overcome it.

Staring at the symbol longer, she felt something snag in the back of her mind, trying to draw itself up as something pushed it swiftly back down.

She frowned before trying to remember again, only to have something push it back down, somewhat stronger than the last.

"Alena, are you even listening to me?" Klari called out.

Alena lifted her head up, meaning to direct her gaze at Klari. "Of course I am, Klari. I was just going to say that--"

But before she was able to finish her sentence, she caught sight of a large wave barreling towards her sister, giving her no time to warn Klari until she had been knocked over by its strength.

"Klari, no!" Alena screamed, sprinting as fast as she could towards the onslaught of waves barreling Klari into the ground.

Her feet splashed in the frothing foam as she fought to make it to Klari, pushing herself through the wake as shells bit into the bottoms of her feet.

"Klari! Klari, where are you?!" Alena screamed louder, panic rushing through her system as she searched through the water for her sister, refusing to think of anything but having her safe and sound on shore again.

"Alena!" Klari shouted hoarsely, her blonde head bobbing up out of the water briefly before being tugged down again, garbling the words she had tried to spit out.

Alena quickly dove in the direction of her sister, swimming and searching through the water desperately when a sharp twist ran through her wrist again, making her cry out in pain.

Looking down at her wrist, an image rushed up to her, a young man. His blonde hair crisp and blue eyes cutting through her to the core, leaving no room for her to think or speak.

The air rushed out of her lungs as she was tugged under the water, her eyes wide as she barely had time to inhale.

The man's face flashed through her mind's eye again as she twisted and squirmed, clawing her way back above the racing current.

Her gasp for air came out jaggedly as she saw her sister being dragged farther out to sea, but this time, she knew it wasn't the ocean that had ahold of her, instead it was a clawed hand that Alena could see just barely above the surface.

"Klari!" Alena cried, swimming over the waves, before another name came to mind, one that gave her a sense of protection, one that she knew wouldn't hurt her.

"Damari! Damari, help me!" she shrieked helplessly, yanking at the symbol on her wrist while grappling through the merciless waves. "Damari!"

Alena could see Klari's head as she came up for air, her cries growing more distant as she was pulled farther away from her, her blonde hair soaked to her scalp as she fought with the creature that had ahold of her.

Klari tried to swim away as Alena swam towards her, her eyes wide with fear. "Alena! Please, help me!"

And as Alena swam faster, feeling her muscles burn and ache as she gave everything she could to reach her sister, another voice screamed out to her.

"Alena! Help me!"

Alena shook her head, trying to forget the words, but her fear overwhelmed her and the screams only became louder.

"Alena! Mother! Help!"

Alena's eyes flew open and instead of her sister being dragged away to sea, she could see Persephone again, being taken to the deepest depths of the earth in that acursed black chariot.

Alena couldn't take it anymore, her screams along with Klari's and Persephone's filling her ears as her wrist burned like an inferno, scorching her skin as she floundered in the water.

A scream rose up in her throat as her body began to shake, tears coursed down her cheeks reverently and another woman appeared before her, the same elderly woman she had seen in her house the day before.

"Klari!" Alena cried out. "Damari! Save me!"

But before she could scream anymore, she was assaulted by a rush of waves, sending her spinning in all directions before she hit her head off a hard surface, rendering her unconscious and adrift through the large, spaceless ocean.

~*~*~*~*~