The next morning Cara set out early to spend some peace and quiet at the upper river, she had a spot where a large rock leaned over a small waterfall. Her aunt had been sneezing through the entire night, she might be getting sick, not that the woman would ever acknowledge the fact that could ever happen.

The morning was still cold and a faint crust of ice covered the vegetation, the ice in the river was luckily gone but in a couple of days the water would rise high enough for her spot to be completely covered with it.

She sat down and listened to the calming noise of the river, water and the wind brushing through the world ever changing it with their force.

It was calming to know nothing would ever stay the same, she wouldn’t always be here, some day in the future she might be gone and have not even left a trace for the remainders of the world to remember her by.

As she sat on over the river her thoughts circled to the same thing she had been thinking about once she got back home.

Cara was more worried about the changes of Erik than Alaric, not to say she wasn't glad he was still alive. Still, Erik had changed more than just physically, he was quieter, moved without making a sound and did not wear any shoes even though snow was still everywhere.

Early spring passed as the village turned to life again with the sounds of working people. Alaric had less and less time to spend with the other two and Cara had to figure out a way to dodge marriage proposals in the coming week when she turned sixteen.

She was not the best match in the village or even a decent one but she was the first girl in ten years to turn sixteen and there were five men waiting for someone, anyone to propose to.

Alaric would turn sixteen a week before her, but the two of them were friends not lovers. Even though she would need to talk to him about it, he was the only one she actually liked out of the options presented to her.

Maybe she could get him to postpone his engagement to the miller girl for a while until Cara either managed to get away from the village or something else happened.

She hated the idea of marrying, so far all the women she had seen married were either miserable or bitter about it. The only one that seemed happy with it was Erik's mom and she had frozen to death because her husband had failed to provide enough food for the winter.

Cara was angry, not because of anything in particular but rather angry on the world itself. Sitting on her little rock over the water she was trying to figure out a way to dodge marriage altogether that did not involve either killing people or disfiguring herself.

The snap of a twig behind her nearly sent her into the water as she shot up. Erik was leaning against a tree with his bow strapped across his back and an axe to his side. His eyes were closed, and his ears slightly twitching.

“You do realize sneaking up on a girl could get you hanged right?” She regretted the words almost immediately, why was he startling her like that.

“Yeah, I guess so.” He replied absent minded, “I like the river here, reminds me of other times.”

Cara crossed her arms in front of her chest, Erik was still not looking at her, his eyes closed he just leaned there wearing the vest of his father, barefooted in the snow.

“Why are you not wearing any shoes?” silently she added, ‘why are you not freezing right now?’

He shrugged “No need for them anymore” she could tell he wanted to say more but he stopped himself.

“Have you decided who to marry yet?” Cara was not surprised too easily, but she had not expected this question from Erik, a bad feeling started spreading from her stomach.

Her thoughts must have been pretty obvious because when Erik finally opened his eyes he smiled at the sight of it. “Don’t worry, I am not proposing. I do however have another way for you to stay single and leave the village all at once.” The last part hung in the air between them, Cara swallowed, her mouth was dry as sand.

“How do you think i could manage that?” something dawned on her, a reason for Erik to be carrying his father’s bow and axe.

“You are not out here to hunt are you?” The army, she thought, he was going to join the bloody rebels, or worse yet the king.

“Sharp as always, no I will not be hunting for a while now. Not animals anyway.” his voice was so calm, so horribly composed.

“Listen Cara, I still believe you can get away from here without a drastic step like that. You know Al would help you if you just asked…” he did not have to finish, Alaric had always thought of himself as their protector. First for Cara when she had been treated as an outsider then for the Jotunns when they had arrived.

“Yeah, like that is going to happen. We both know how his father will react, Al will be lucky not to die. Which is why you are leaving in the first place right?” It was only a suspicion, not that there were an awful lot of other reasons he might join a cause like the rebellion.

“We both know he can’t use me around if he wants to stick with his family and as far as I can tell neither of his parents likes the fact he spends time with me.” as much as Cara would have liked to deny it, he was right. If she had been the daughter of his aunt she would have been locked in her room until she came to her senses.

“You can’t just leave either, he will be devastated and as much as we fight, I don’t want you to leave either.” Erik was acting rushed, he might not be the most favorite guy in the village right now but joining a war that had raged for three generations would only get him killed. If not the armies then the peacekeeping dragons.

“No, I think i won’t die just yet. Where would be the fun in that? I think someone needs to end the war.” Erik took a step backwards, his eyes gleaming yellow.

Cara was not going to let this go so easily, Erik could act stupid all he wanted until he decided to get himself killed.

“Get your head out of your ass, a single scrawny boy will not sway the fucking war! If you are going, I will be coming with you.” Before she thought about it she had said it, not like there was much to come back to here. She hated weaving, and even more so marrying some idiot in the village.

“Oh sure you two numb nuts get to throw your life away but I am supposed to rot here?” Alaric’s voice sounded from the other side of the river.

Cara turned around, Al was wearing his leather clothes, a leather sack strapped around his shoulders.

“You told him? You bloody moron asked Al to come with you?” anger rose in Cara as she turned back to Erik, who had disappeared in the forest and did not make a sound.

“Don’t you run away now! You will wait here until i got my shit together and then you will carry it for me you little runt!” at this point she didn’t even knew why she was shouting anymore, they would be going either way.

With a smile on her lips she raced back to her house, gathered some of her clothes enough food to last a couple of weeks and gathered some string and a large pair of scissors, she was not sure if they were supposed to bring their own weapons or if they would be supplied.

After a quick assembly of her things she left her home for the last time.

Outside her friends waited, Erik with his bow and axe and Alaric with his way to big leather sack and a walking stick in his hand.