[center][h1][color=bc8dbf]Nora[/color][/h1][/center]

Nora closed the stable doors behind her, and lowered the bar to secure them. Picking up the bucket with a sigh, she made way towards the well, just behind the inn. The wind gently brought tiny snowflakes all over her reddening face. She tossed the bucket into the blackness of the well in which stars were mirrored, hearing the splash ring and echo between the shaft walls. She left it fill, remembering how she used to fill it with her father when she was but a child, weak to even carry the empty bucket. Then she pulled it back up, her lower back starting to ache after a full day of hard work. Nevertheless, she brought the bucketfull of water up, spilling only a bit over her fingers. She wiped her forehead off cold sweat with her sleeve, and went back around the stables. The horses withing neighed nervously, banging their the walls with their heads and stirring the hay with their hooves. Nora knocked on the stable wall thrice, whispering: [color=0072bc]”Easy!”[/color]

From in front of the inn she could see the crossroads where that poor old lunatic hung the day before.
[color=39b54a][i]Poor fellow... I guess that's what you get for stealing a wizard's staff. I would have turned him into a swine. [/i][/color]
She looked at the sky, took a deep breath. [color=39b54a][i]Lovely night. I wonder what happened to him. He ain't in the cage no more.[/i][/color]
She rubbed her hands on her apron and picked the bucket up. When she reached the inn door, she turned around to a whisper behind her back. The bucket fell down, the icy water spilling over her feet. But after a moment she didn't feel cold. She turned, silent and grave-faced, slowly right into the inn, ushered by the night that followed her inside and lingered at the open door. A drop of cold blood from her mouth fell on her bosom, and then she collapsed at Aelin's feet, frigid and lifeless.