It had been what seemed like hours since Alena had heard from Damari last, the sounds of the hippocampus' being the only things that she could hear in the camp along the long and lonely path.

She rubbed her hands up and down her arms to ward off the chill that seeped through her bones, situating herself further into the blanket Damari gave her to maintain some kind of warmth.

Light began to fade from the sea as the sun set above its watery surface, the oranges and pinks of the sun's magnificent glow no doubt reflecting off the waves as it sank beneath the horizon.

However, as the light began to fade, Alena couldn't help but feel uneasy, as if something were off, yet she wasn't quite able to place it.

Shaking it off wearily, she opened the bag that Kaiya had given to her a few days before, wrestling through its contents in search of the paper and the spy glass that had been thrown into it quickly along with the pink vial that allowed Damari to breath underwater.

She couldn't think of a reason she'd need to look through the spyglass, but perhaps reading the prophecy would help distract her from her overactive imagination.

Withdrawing the thick parchment, Alena unrolled it gently to read through its contents, running her fingers over the scrolling black ink miraculously as she saw that the paper was unaffected by the salted waters.

Reading closely, it was obvious that the prophecy was as it had once been after reading it countless times over again. It still spoke in riddles that she couldn't understand and it frustrated her to such levels that she dug her nails sharply into her skin without realizing it.

She threw the paper down with the bag's other contents and swam a few feet away from the camp in the direction Damari had left, her worry growing more fierce as the waters around her became darker with still no sign of him.

Her nerves started getting the best of her and she could feel her hand as it twitched at her side, fearing the worst that could have happened to Damari in the unknown terrain.

She had decided to sit down and try to sleep off her anxiety when a searing, hot burn raced through her wrist, causing her to cry out in pain, dropping the blanket she had picked up to cover herself.

Lifting her wrist closer to her face, she could see that it was red and burning to the touch, sizzling as it curled in agony on her skin.

Her wrist shook with the control she tried to maintain in not crying out again as she instead gripped her arm tightly and groaned quietly to herself. "Oh Damari, where could you possibly be?"

Almost as if in response to her question, the silver symbol in her arm shifted, struggling to move itself toward the southern part of the camp.

Alena couldn't believe what she was thinking, staring first at her wrist and then in front of her into the shadow covered darkness.

"What are you getting yourself into?" she muttered. "Have some common sense to at least take something to protect yourself with."

She searched over the bags and decided to take Kaiya's bag, holding everything she could use if the time arose. But as she gradually began to swim away from the camp, she couldn't help thinking that something was wrong.

She had only swam a few paces farther from where she had sat when she heard a loud snapping sound directly behind her, alerting her to either someone or something following her.

Spinning around quickly, she saw that no one was there, only the abandoned plains that were laid out before her along with the hippocampus' sitting next to their supplies.

Inhaling a shaky breath, she shook her head, chastising herself for being so paranoid as to let fear instill itself in her heart.

If something were to be following her, she would soon as turn around and strike it dead before it were even able to lay one claw on her.

But as she continued to swim farther and farther away from the camp, she couldn't help but begin to feel disoriented, the sands beneath her body swirling as she struggled to quell her dizziness.

The world could have been spinning in millions of circles, or maybe it was her, but she grappled for anything to steady herself, only to grab at empty space as she felt herself falling to the ground.

Upon impact, she still could feel the ground beneath her shaking, spinning, and it made her sick to her stomach, creating such a migraine that she couldn't think straight.

Lifting her eyelashes up sluggishly, she wondered why exactly she couldn't see and why she happened to be laying on the ground. A cough rattled through her, causing her to lift her hand up to cover her mouth, to find a strange flash of silver dancing across her wrist.

The silver puzzled her, the way in which it gleamed against her pale skin, becoming so bright that she felt the need to close her eyes in exhaustion. However, what concerned her the most about the silver was that in looking at it, a faint whispering had begun to echo in the deep parts of her mind, calling out to her with constant persistence.

"Alena.." It whispered quietly, nudging her consciousness with ease. "Alena, can you hear me?"

Her low grumble of annoyance only encouraged the voice to come closer, to the point where it felt like someone was breathing on her. "Alena, you know if you sleep any longer Mother is going to come after you with the bucket again."

Alena let out a groan, rolling over to lay somewhat comfortably on the gritty sand, but instead she felt her skin come into contact with a soft yet scratchy surface, pressing against her body with careful resistance.

Her eyes opened slowly, blinded at first by the bright light that streamed in through a window that sat off to her left along with a tiny rocking chair, the faint smell of hay reaching her nose as she stifled a yawn.

She rubbed her hand over her eyes and tried to peer through them again, wondering how she had somehow managed to find herself above sea level, in a bed no less, without someone threatening to kill her.

"Mother?" Alena asked, stunned, not thinking the word to be found in her vocabulary when associated with her specifically.

A blonde young maiden stepped into her view from a doorway not too far off, giggling like Alena had made a joke. "Of course Mother, who else would you think? I don't believe Father really cares if you sleep in or not as long as you are able to make breakfast on time."

"What do you mean? Who are you? And how did I get here?"

The blonde narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest suspiciously before bursting out into laughter again, making her way towards the bed Alena lay in while trying to contain her amusement. "Alena, honestly, your jokes are getting a little old. After about the fifth time it starts to get annoying."

Alena felt her brow furrow with confusion, staring at the girl and trying to understand what she meant. "Where am I?"

"Oh if you just want to be stubborn I'll go and get Mother." The blonde joked, heading back towards the open door, looking quite intent on getting her mother.

"Klari, no!" Alena shouted, the name rolling off her tongue so easily she hardly realized she had said it until the blonde turned back around with an exaggerated flourish and cheeky grin.

"Gets you every time now, doesn't it?" Klari spluttered, laughing under her breath before holding a hand out to Alena. "Now are you going to get up before Mother comes? Because we both know she's never pleasant when she has to get out the bucket."

Alena looked at Klari's hand questioningly before stretching out to grab it. "Please, for my sake, Klari, tell me where we are."

Klari looked at her for a moment then walked over to the window, gesturing for her to come closer so she could see out of it.

"Where we've always been since we were little kids, Lena. We're in Sicily, at the heart of Father's wheat fields. You know how him and Mother love coming here during the summer."

"But where do we go during the other seasons then?"

Klari placed a hand on Alena's forehead. "Are you sick or something? You never act like this even when your kidding around with me."

"I'm not sick!" Alena complained, swiping the girl's hand away quickly. "I'm simply asking."

"We stay here in the spring and summertime and then we head farther in land during the fall and winter, so that Mother doesn't suffer anymore of her ailments."

"Her ailments?"

Klari sighed aloud, throwing her blonde hair over her shoulder in a hurry. "Just come with me if you are going to be such a bother, you have yet to make breakfast as Mother wishes."

Grabbing ahold of Alena's wrist, Klari tugged her out of the room and through the doorway Alena had yet to see completely out of.

The sight that greeted her only caused her confusion to grow higher as she saw an older looking man sitting at a wooden table with a knife and piece of wood in hand.

Shavings of wood decorated the floor at his feet while an older woman bustled about him in a hurry, her complaints stinging the air as she went past him with a bowl held tightly in her hands.

"Oldrick! What did I say about you not leaving your shavings from that ghastly thing you call a hobby all over my kitchen floor?!"

"I quite imagine you said something along the lines of me not leaving them there in the first place, isn't that right, my dear?"

She slammed the bowl down on the table and rubbed her temples. "Oh Zeus give me strength."

"Shouldn't you be asking Kratos for that?" Her husband called out softly, his deep chuckle becoming louder as his wife muttered under her breath; words such as "troglos" and "koprophage" finding themselves all in the same sentence.

Alena's eyes widened at the statements, surprised the woman could say such things, and to her husband no less.

Klari held back a snort and entered the kitchen somewhat gracefully, planting a peck on her father's cheek and pulling out a chair to sit next to him contentedly, watching his hands at work as he whittled away.

The woman looked up from the bowl she set on the table to find Alena standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. "Well, what are you standing there for?" she asked.

Alena coughed and looked around the room, anywhere but the woman's eyes, "Klari said I had to..make breakfast this morning?"

"And she's most certainly right! Come now, Alena, it's your turn this week, I'm surprised you forgot."

"She's been forgetting a lot of things as of late." Klari chimed in, standing back up from the table and making her way towards the door leading outside. "I can help her, Mother, if that's all right."

Their mother nodded her head wearily, gesturing for the two to go out, but as Alena went to make her way to the door, she turned to ask her mother a quick question only to find that it wasn't her mother.

Her scream startled Klari, but Alena couldn't take her eyes of the creature that had taken the place of the woman who had been standing there moments before, she dared not even blink for fear it would attack her.

Saying it was a creature was putting it mildly, she thought earnestly, staring at it further. She realized that its frame had been hunched over, giving the appearance of claws and jagged teeth; now standing at its full height she could see that it was no creature at all, but a woman instead.

Alena couldn't immediately tell whether the woman was there or not, she thought perhaps it was her eyes playing tricks on her for the woman's frame was visible one second and gone the next, but peering closer, she could see that the woman had a cloak wrapped tightly to herself.

Her hair was in snarls, long and gray as it twisted around her shoulders, framing her face that she hid deep within the shadows of her hood.

Looking even closer, Alena saw that she appeared almost like an apparition, changing forms as she came in and out of focus. One version of the woman was hunched over and staring into a strange pot of sorts while the other was tall and almost regal looking, dark curly locks flowing down her back as she held two torches tightly in her fists.

Alena looked back at Klari with concern. "Klari, do you know what happened to Mother?"

Klari raised an eyebrow and looked over Alena's shoulder. "I don't know what you mean, Alena, she looks fine to me."

Turning back, Alena saw that the ominous woman was gone and her mother was back to bustling around the kitchen again, having been able to wave off the air of exhaustion that had bothered her moments before in order to prepare the table for breakfast.

"I thought..it must have just been my eyes playing tricks on me." Alena reassured herself with a nervous laugh, dread and unease filling her mind as she followed Klari outside into the scorching sun.

The fields of wheat grew in plenty, a faint breeze rustling through the boiling landscape, causing Alena to sigh as the coolness rushed over her briefly, wishing it would stay longer if just to rid her of the sticky heat that clung to her skin.

Klari had walked over to the side of the family's old palomino horse, stroking her hands across its mane with a smile before moving towards the back of the house with no further discussion.

"What exactly are we suppose to be making for breakfast?" Alena shouted to her.

"What we always make for breakfast, Alena. You know if you keep acting like this I may be keen enough to dump that bucket of water on you myself."

Klari's laugh reached Alena as she followed her along the side of the house, her fingers running across the rough stone that made up the left side of her house, cracks spreading from one corner to the other from years of use.

The countryside air filled Alena's lungs in a quick inhale, the blue skies vibrant and the clouds a fluffy white, but a sigh quickly followed her thoughts; she knew something was off, and not just the woman who had been in the house, but she was forgetting something that she couldn't place her finger on.

"Alena!" Klari shouted, poking her blonde head around the corner, holding up two brown baskets in her hands. "Are you coming or what? These eggs aren't going to collect themselves."

Alena shook her head quickly, hoping to rid her mind of the negative thoughts, reassuring herself that whatever was bothering her had to be a side effect of waking up on the wrong side of the bed.

She moved around the house and smiled at her sister, taking one of the baskets and moving with her towards a shed that sat not too far off from the house.

Memories of coming out to the white worn down shed too many times to count filtered through her mind, feathers stuck on not only the plank she had to walk on to get inside, but on the gown she wore almost everyday.

Puzzling over the concept for a moment, she couldn't understand why she had been so confused to come out here to collect eggs for breakfast.

A genuine smile spread across her face as she reminisced with her sister, mentioning once when Klari had somehow managed to get feathers stuck in her hair, reminding them both of when they had tried to sneak into the shed as children to see what chickens really looked like.

Their laughter rang out through the air, but as Alena talked on and became distracted by what they were most likely suppose to do in the day to follow, she failed to see the markings on her wrist let out a bright flash of silver as a sickly black sludge spread across them like a disease, moving slowly across the surface of her skin nearly inconspicuously.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~