A slow rumble of water was heard flowing down the river bed, beautifully woven with sun rays, that were warming and blessing the body of the Old Daddy Earth, reminding the river and nature that a new day has just started while the clear light of the sky was kissing the forehead of the trees, of the blades of grass, or the colored petals of the flowers. Also, a gust of a playful wind trembled the glittering, blue mirror of the water, in amazement, producing a few, small waves on it, waves that painted a wonderful image on the water's surface.

  Even so, with all that beauty around, the river was still lazy, slowly moving its body through the winding path of stones and looking in amazement at the sky, with its multiple, watery eyes, at those small forms of white clouds that seemed to have a milky or foggy shape.

   With the river, the whole nature was also awakening, and its calm voice was heard rumbling around, thanking the Spirit of Life for that Blessing Day, and their prayer was heard in the ancient voice of the trees, in the fairy-like music heard from Aeon, a piece of music whose notes were floating around, sang by Gaea's flute, who was sitting on the ground at that moment, with her barefoot feet touching the river's water while so beautifully blowing her flute.

  Thus, following the rhythm of her music, the small waves of the river's water were quick and slow at the same time, as if changing their rhythm in seconds or as if an imaginary hand was painting, on the water's surface, the beatings of the Life's heart along with the dancing of old times and the magic of the world.

  And Gaea could see that dance on the water's surface while blowing her flute, for she loved to watch the beauty of nature awakening in the morning while lazily stretching their bones, hearing, with her inner ear, how the branches of the trees slowly crackled while towering their limbs toward the sun, trying to chase the numbness out of their bodies that way, a numbness that they gathered in them over the night.

  And, in that water, has also been reflected, so suddenly, the life of the woods: the creatures that barely started their daily routine and their lazy and quick movement made Gaea's heart wince somehow, for she saw, in their movement, the blessing of a mother to her children.

  But Gaea's music suddenly became sad, and the voice of a woman started to sing her lamentation while being next to Mother Earth - Samandra.

  „The world is dying, don’t you see this?

While it's slowly taking my life with it,

My sorrows and my restlessness, my pain and my desert,

That is awakening now inside of me.

Tell me, Father, please, tell me:

Why should my life end here and now?

I still didn’t finish what I was dreaming of:

And my heart still loves this taste of life.

Please, Death, please, have some mercy:

I don’t want to go or leave this world.

For my heart is still here and here is my present:

My children, my love, and here’s my home...”

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***

  Samandra kept silent at the moment Gaea stopped blowing the Magical instrument. Then, the two women kept sitting one next to the other, but each of them felt as if she was alone on that river shore.

  Yet, Gaea’s sadness has been taken from Samandra’s heart while she was crying in silence, with her eyes full of tears while looking in the distance at the trembling of the trees that were growing on the other side of the river.

  „She could see my death,” Samandra finally said to Gaea.

  „I know,” the Titanide answered. „It was me who gave her this gift.”

  Samandra only looked at Gaea, but no trace of amazement or hatred has been seen in her glance. „Why did you do this, Mother Earth? She’s still so young to face such a cruel truth.”

  „Yes, she’s young, but she has been born to face this life and, in her blood, the prophecy of times is also flowing. Thus, as she has to face Eris one day, she must prepare for this."

  „What about the Clepsydra of Time?” Samandra asked this time without taking her eyes from Gaea, who was avoiding the woman’s glance.

  „I don't have such a power and you also know it, Samandra. But you had this power, flowing through your veins, and you gave it to your daughter the day you died.”

  „But… how could this happen when I have been only a simple woman?”

  Gaea smiled: she has been once again astonished to find out that human beings were still living in ignorance, even if thousands and thousands of years have already passed since they have been born from her body. Yet, she decided to tell Samandra the story of the times:

  „When this world has been created, Yggdrasil gave a gift to humans: the Balance of Time and Space, and I’m not talking about the same Balance that was formed by Eris and Chaos at the beginning of all times. That Balance is still in Cosmos, somewhere there, I think, but, with the First War, it split into many more Balances, and one of these has been given to your people and only one girl from your people could control the Balance's power. But you couldn’t do this just because your inner eye was blind and you didn’t want to open it and face the truth”.

  „To face the truth? What truth, Mother Earth?”

  „The only one that has existed since the creation of the World and that'll exist till its end: the fight against Evil is not only in the power of Titans or of those who can control Magic. Humans have an inner power that we can’t control, and if you accept that power, you can change the World, and Evil itself will shudder, with all its body, only with thinking about the possibility of being dethroned by humans, for Evil knows that his power is limited in front of the humans."

  „But humans are weak. And they are Avars. They want more than they can have or than they can get and, because of this, so many wars took place on these lands, taking its beauty and chasing its silence away.”

  Saying this, Samandra crouched, hugging her knees with both hands, and an unseen power moved her closer to the water. Then, she stretched her hand and, touching the water's surface, she could reveal her memories on it: memories related to the times when she was forced to fight when she was forced to kill and she was forced to run.

  „The day you died, Mannar took something from you. Do you remember what it has been?” Gaea said while watching Samandra.

  This made Samandra turn her head and look at the Titanide, wondering about what Mannar could have taken that day from her. Suddenly, a revelation could be read on her face: „A strand of my hair. But, why? What could he do with it?”

  „Follow me! I’ll show you what has been born from your hair that day,” Gaea said, stood up, and took a few steps to the woods. But she stopped when she felt that Samandra wasn’t following her.

  „Why don’t you follow me?” Gaea asked.

  „Because I can’t leave this place where that Evil took my life that day. He cursed me to be a captive here and in the sky. If I take a step only out of this territory, then I’ll vanish like a fog blown by the wind.”

  Hearing the woman talking like this, Gaea shook her head in denial: „no, Samandra, the curse has been broken the day Samaya touched the Clepsydra. And when she touched it, she released your soul. But even so, you still can’t reveal yourself in front of the others, if it isn’t in their sleep, because the prophecy hasn't been fulfilled yet, but you can follow the one who closed your eyes when your soul left your body and raised to the sky, and that person it’s me,” was Gaea’s answer and Samandra followed her, slowly stepping behind Mother Earth.