Ylva wakes to the sound of waves crashing and gulls crying. With a groan, she forces her sand-crusted eyes open and stumbles to her feet, head reeling. When the world stops spinning, she finally registers her surroundings and is momentarily surprised to find that she is on what is little more than a large rock in the middle of the ocean. For a moment she is frozen by fear, while the events of the previous day return to her in snippets and fragments. She considers her options. Her throat burns with thirst, and her stomach moans with hunger, but there is no grass or water on this tiny rock. Out in the distance rises the island she had failed to reach last night. Ylva still aches all over from exertion, but she has no other choice. She steps into the ocean and swims.
By the time she has reached the island, the shy winter sun is already edging back toward the horizon, and Ylva is faint with hunger. She hauls her soaked body toward the nearest patch of stunted tundra grass and, though it is tasteless, eats as much of it as she can stand. Her stomach aches with the sudden influx of food, but a little of her strength returns, and Ylva forces herself further inland before it gets too dark.
Though her winter coat is thick and fluffy, it is not equipped for the arctic temperatures - especially not when wet - and soon Ylva begins to shiver violently, the wind cuting like a knife in her side. The tundra sprawls barren and bleak before her, with an alien kind of beauty that simultaneously fascinates and frightens her. She thinks of her family, and though she knows they would hate this place - as they hate most things that are new and unfamiliar - thinking of them brings her a mixture of comfort and sorrow. Before she knows it, her throat is tight and her cheeks are stained with tears, her vision so blurred she can barely see the darkening landscape before her.
Eventually her grief is too much, and she collapses to the ground and sobs openly, her wails carried away on the wind. She is alone, and it is all her fault.
2; norwegian fjord; red dun pangare; 14hh
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