mist in the moonlight (open)

It was one of the nights where Brynja awoke screaming and thrashing. The images of chaos and darkness in her dreams were too much tonight, the jumbled visions from the gods awakening a sick despair in her chest. The walls of the small house she shared with her sister were closing in on her, squeezing the breath from her, and she absolutely couldn't stay inside. She shoves her feet roughly into her boots and fastens a cloak over her nightgown with shaking hands before running outside. The dark feels like home to her, the full moon bathing everything in silver, and she drinks in great gulps of the cool, crisp night air. The dreams are still dancing behind her eyelids every time she blinks, and Brynja walks through the fields toward the woodline in the distance. She can hear the wolves howling, probably closer than most people would be comfortable with. Brynja wonders if tomorrow she's going to tend someone covered in bitemarks, and she sighs, following the song of the wolves. She's unafraid--wolves are a common thing she sees in her terrible dreams, although they've never harmed her.

Brynja loves the quiet and solitude of the middle of the night, although she hates the dreams that wake her to see it. She's been wandering at night since she was a small girl, and sometimes she feels more at home here than she does in the light of day. Sometimes her twin sister Redra follows her out into the night and tries to get her to come back to bed, but at this point she's mostly given up on it. Their days are busy, tending to the sick and wounded, gathering herbs, making medicines, and tending their small farm. Sleep is a precious commodity, because there are times patients keep them up all night. Besides, Redra knows that Brynja is fine at night, more at home in the darkness, and that the creatures that lurk in the nearby woods do not come so close to the village. The pounding of her heart is finally starting to calm, and Brynja sinks to the cold ground, holding her head in her hands. At night, she allows herself to feel, when there's no one to see the weakness in her.