„Dike! Dike, wake up! The Sun is high in the sky for a long time already, and you are still sleeping. Wake up, lazy lover! Or I swear that if you don’t wake up, I’ll…”

A sudden kiss on her cheek made Samandra keep silent. She smiled and looked at her husband, who hugged her with all his strength and was kissing her repeatedly.

„What did you say that you'll do if I don’t wake up?” Dike asked Samandra, who was still staring at him with her green, beautiful eyes. She wanted to look surprised, but her lips were trembling in a laugh, and she couldn't pretend to be surprised anymore when Dike’s ears slowly became the ears of a rabbit, and he moved them in a funny way above his head.

„Stop it! Stop it, immediately!” Samandra ordered him, but Dike wasn’t a man to be submitted so easily, and, through an avalanche of cuddles and kisses, he said „I love you”.

This made Samandra’s heart melt, for she loved so much to hear those words that brought them together and, also after such words, they became a family, they had two beautiful children, and she was absolutely fulfilled now.

A sudden thunderbolt pierced the sky and, rumbling down the valley, had been heard in the distance. „It’s raining somewhere,” Dike said, turning his head toward the door of their dwelling of rods, but, when he looked again at his wife, she wasn’t next to him anymore.

„Samandra? Samandra! Where did you go?” and Dike stood up, looking all over for her, but Samandra wasn’t inside, she wasn’t outside either, where the sky had spilled over the ground, drowning him in tears. And that heavy rain was flowing all over his body, too, wetting his clothes and cooling his fear, but it wasn’t enough. Dike was so afraid because he couldn't find his wife and he started to run through the forest.

He found her, eventually, in a glade, deep-deep in the heart of the forest. She was lying on the ground, in a pool of blood, with a dagger stabbed in her stomach, with her eyes closed, and with the rain that was washing her face, making her be as beautiful as the fairy of the waters herself.

„Samandra, no!” Dike yelled, taking her cold body into his arms, but another thunderbolt brought him back to reality, awoke him, and Dike understood that he still was in his house, safe and where it was warm, and, breathing a sigh of relief, he looked around, but there was nothing changed: Hestia’s fire was still calmly burning the beechwood logs, which were filling the room with a special aroma. Next to the pyre, Fenrir and Samaya were still asleep, in a sweet hug of innocence, and, this view, made Dike smile. „At least they don’t have such scary dreams,” he thought and he lay back to sleep.

After the titan fell asleep again, Hestia's flames started to beautiful dance. And it was looking as if an imaginary painting brush was coloring the air of the room in red, with sparkles of light and of hope thrown all over, reminding those who could see it about the passing of times, the times that'll come, about old loves and about broken friendships.

***

Hestia was the only Titanide who didn't have a human body. At least she didn't have it at that moment, but she used to be a wonderful woman, once, until she has been killed by the same love from which she had fled so much. Now, she could just reflect her beauty in her dancing flames, reminding the world about her past human existence, and, this way, she became, in time, the Holy Symbol of the unmarried girls, of the wives and of the widows, the pylon on which a home was established, protecting it from Evil and from Shadows.

„Mama,” Samaya mumbled, moving in her sleep and, turning her face to the fire, she smiled. „I miss you so much,” the girl said again, and a fleeting tear ran away on her soft cheek.

„Shhh, your mother is with you,” a whisper was heard, coming out from the fire, and the flames slowly increased in volume, and, from their dance, a woman’s shape was revealed to the world, like a shadow, like a projection, as a beautiful sculpt of all times - Hestia.

She was a beautiful young lady about 30, with red eyes and red hair, white skin, and wearing a dress with a form unseen before. The vestment was changing its color when the color of the flames was changing: from bright-yellow to dark, to red, to black, and again to dark-yellow. The material used for making such a vestment was something similar to the wood. It had short sleeves, till half of the shoulder, with a knee-length and with a brown belt at her waist, made from young tree branches, and this made the tails of her dress seem as if somebody had grabbed it and forced it to break its edge, giving a wild look to it.

Suddenly, Hestia stepped out of the pyre, and her barefoot feet barely touched the ground, producing no noise. She approached the girl, then she squatted next to her, and, stretching her hand, she moved it above Samaya, as if caressing her body, and the warmth produced by her skin was warming the girl's body, too.

„Mama,” Samaya whispered again. „Mama, I miss you!” and again a shed tear had been seen on her face, a tear that touched Hestia’s heart. The Titanide stood up and, looking up as if she raised her glance to the sky, she whispered: Tamil: „Maṉita uruvam koṇṭa naṭcattiram vā! Uṅkaḷ āṉmāvai uṭaikkum cāpattai nāṉ viṭuvikkiṟēṉ, appāviyiṉ neṟṟiyil muttamiṭa uṅkaḷai aṉumatikkiṟatu.

EN: „Come, star, with a human shape! I release the curse that breaks your soul, allowing you to kiss the forehead of innocence” and, accompanying her words, a small noiseless tornado has been formed next to the fire, revealing, from its shape, Samandra's body.

Now Samandra looked different. She had golden hair instead of the black one she used to have while being alive. Her green eyes were dark-brown at that moment, with blinks of sparks in them. Only her skin still had in it the same shade of dark, as she had while being alive.

Opening her eyes, Samandra slowly bowed in front of Hestia. Their lips said nothing, but their eyes were talking: „you have only a few instants to touch your cubs, Samandra, and then you should go back to your cold kingdom, because if you stay for long on Earth, the carriage of Ursa Minoris will stop its movement, and bad things will happen then on Earth,” and, without waiting for Samandra’s answer, the Titanide stepped again in the middle of the fire, and her body suddenly became a big flame, decreasing its size.

„Thank you, Hestia, for this blessing present,” Samandra whispered, bowing again in front of the flames. „Only for a moment, looking at them, nearly to their little bodies, means an eternity for me.” Then Samandra approached the kids, gently touching their heads, and she smiled, with that sad smile that could only a leaving mother have, who knows that she won’t have the possibility of kissing the soft skin of her cubs again, that she won’t ever smell the saint scent of their bodies again, and that she will hear them calling her „mama” only in their dreams.

Samaya suddenly opened her eyes and looked at her mother, who was stroking her head and touching with the other hand Fenrir’s chest, making the boy’s breath seem so calm. The girl smiled and stood in a sitting position, and the fact that she smiled meant that she wasn’t surprised to see her mother there: she was just happy to see Samandra one more time.

„You came,” the girl thought while her eyes were blinking with happiness. „I thought I won’t see you again in this life, mother, but you are here.”

„I came only for a moment, to kiss your foreheads and to bless you with long life in happiness, my sweet children, but I can’t stay for long,” Samandra answered.

„I know. Where you came from, they are feeling you’re missing them already, and they are also waiting for you,” Samaya said while looking at the sky through the open door. „Even if today it’s a cloudy sky, I can see the stars of your kingdom, weakly blinking in your absence. And they need you too, mother.”

Samandra stretched her hand and touched the girl’s head again. „When did you grow up so much, Samaya? You were just a cub when I left this world. I have lost so many things since then.”

„Don’t be sad, mother. We are fine. And we will continue to be ok and from now on. Just being aware that you are there, somewhere, watching us sleeping, it’s enough for us. But I won’t say that we don’t miss you, mother. Can you just show up, in such form, at least from time to time?”

„You know, my sweetheart, that I don't have such a power,” Samandra said with tears in her eyes. „You know that if I could, I'd been here every night, watching your sleep. But I can’t, and this still breaks my heart.”

„I know, but it doesn’t mean I don’t miss you, mama. I just…,” Samaya said through tears. „... I just want you back, with us. Papa and Fenrir miss you too. We want our family back, that family which the Evil took from us, that day when he killed you on the river shore.”

The hatred heard in Samaya's voice made Samandra wonder. She grabbed the girl’s hands, looking deeply into her eyes. „How did you find that out? Who told you this? Tell me, Samaya! Who told you about my death?”

While asking her little girl about the past events, Samandra was shuddering with all her body. She was afraid that the girl had met Mannar in the same place where she has been killed.

„It’s time already, Samandra. It’s time to leave,” the flames talked to her.

„I know, Hestia, but I still need a moment. I need to find out what…”

„If you don’t go, you will turn the time upside down, and the hourglass will work against your girl. Is this what you want?” Hestia yelled, with a demanding voice. „I gave you a few moments only, but you are breaking your word. Don’t make me vanish you into nothingness for disobeying me.”

„She will go,” Samaya calmly said. „The few moments you gave her haven't passed yet, because the hourglass is frozen and the time has stopped, and this means she still has time to talk to me.” The little girl said, and her words surprised both the Titanide and Samandra, who eyed her.

„Samaya, do you see the sandglass of time?” Samandra asked her daughter.

„Yes. It’s just behind you … above Hestia’s fire. Why? Don’t you see this too?” the girl asked, amazed that she was the only one seeing all this.

„She has the power of stopping the time,” Hestia whispered in amazement. „Only Father Chaos has this power and he was blessed with such a gift by Yggdrasil when he revived the world. Why is she seeing this? How could she … control the time?”

„I did nothing,” Samaya said. „I just looked at the huge clock that the clepsydra is reflecting in its shape and its needles just stopped. But I think they are also broken because they are showing that it is midday, while it is late at the night right now.”

The girl looked in amazement at her mother while Samandra was staring at Hestia, who again showed up above the flames, in her human shape. But Samandra and Hestia couldn’t see what the girl was seeing: a Clepsydra of human size to Hestia’s right and, one round, golden clock reflected in the hourglass's mirror.

Tamil: „Cāmantirā, itu uṅkaḷ maraṇa nēram, Samandra. Itai avaḷ eppaṭi pārkkiṟāḷ?

EN: „This it’s the time of your death, Samandra. How is she seeing this?” Hestia spoke to Samandra, who just shook her head because she didn’t know the answer.

„I saw it first, there, on the river shore, when the Magic Bubble surrounded us when papa and Gaea had a long talk. This clepsydra was left on the sand, next to the river. I was curious to find out what this was. So, I touched it, but it has probably been broken since then, I think. And … it had something more on it … some red stains, but I could clean those stains so easily, with my hand when it tried it.”

Tamil: „Uṉ irattattiṉ kaṟai, Samandra. Avaḷāl kiḷepciṭrāvaip pārkka muṭintatu, ēṉeṉṟāl avaḷuṭaiya irattam avaḷuṭaiya narampukaḷil pāykiṟatu. Avaḷ pūmiyil kēyās vaṭivam.

EN: „The stains of your blood, Samandra. She could see the clepsydra because your blood is flowing in her veins. She's Chaos' shape on Earth.” Hestia whispered. „It can’t be. Chaos sacrificed himself. Why? Why did the Saint Father do this?”

„Because he’s afraid,” Samaya continued her thought. „Something is approaching. Something bad I think, but he doesn’t talk to me about this evil. He’s just frightened while looking at the Earth. But even if he says nothing to me, I still can see, behind his burning eyes, someone’s shadow, but I don’t know who that person can be.”

„Eris,” Samandra growled. „That Evil, who took my life, is again lurking the Earth. She won’t stop until she won’t have what she wants.”

„What is this, mother? Who is Eris?” Samaya asked her mother, but Samandra was too afraid to say loudly the Evil’s name.

„She’s just somebody you should stay away from, Samaya and if you can’t do this, then you should be prepared to face her.” Shuddering with all her body, Samandra squatted again, and, taking the girl’s hands in hers, she looked into Samaya’s eyes. „Listen to me, Samaya! Listen to me carefully: no matter what, you should prepare for what is coming. And, to do this, you should listen to your brother and your father. Only this way, you will have the power to face the Evil that is coming,” and, Samandra’s shape vanished in the air, Hestia’s flames slowly became normal, and Samaya fell again asleep while the first rays of the East were illuminating the dwelling from outside and, at the same time, those rays were warming the forest’s soul, too.