shield_maiden:

They were gathered at the gates to the city at the foot of the newly repaired Bifrost Bridge. Tryggvi stood behind Svalin and pawed at the ground with a hoof. "Stop that," she said to her mount. He responded by headbutting her arm. Svalin new he was eager to go. He was always like this before a trip.

Svalin was not so eager to go. This would be the last time she saw her siblings for awhile. They would return to the Defenders and she would be going to the Avengers. Father's idea and Svalin had thought it a good one, but it didn't mean it would make this any easier.

She stood a little distance away from her siblings and waited for her chance to say goodbye to them and her parents. Father and the Mothers were saying their goodbyes to the other three.

Hrimhari, Lady Rahne, Moira and Danielle were a little ways off saying their goodbyes to each other.

Amorason stood off to one side.

shattered:

Melinda has been cleared for getting up and walking around, and wants to see the grounds. She's walked through the living areas, the kitchen, all the areas where she has clearance.

She steps outside. The jumpsuit they've provided her helps cut down on the late-winter chill, but she doesn't notice anyway. She still feels frozen through to her soul.

If she still has one.

She walks through the frosted ground, hearing the grass crunch under her feet. And it reminds her of the sound of her own body, turned to glass, shattering into deadly shards... and the blood running over it...

She stops walking, realizing she's come to a small lake on the edge of the grounds. And she stares at it, a thin sheet of ice, barely more than frost, covering it. And she considers...