In one records of history, it was recorded that to the north was a village, that went into ruin after the death of their sołtys1. The same records spoke that the cause of it was an strzyga, who was then sealed away and that his wife run away.

Most said that it was merely fantastical spin on tale of jealousy, in which peasant was jealous of possessing the wife and she run away for safety. Shivane knew, that it was her savior, who set her free after her feathers got stolen and forcefully wed. This time, she wanted to be that savior, to others and to that strzyga, but where in the world was she put?

Besides coos of the owl froms the nearby forest, the black car was the only other thing thing breaking the night's silence. The driver constantly had to tell her passenger to stop quiet, so she could concentrate on the road. The passenger in question was constantly scribbling something down in her notebook, with the list of things needed, if this exploration turns out to be successful. She would try to ask driver for her input, with no success. The constantly expanded over the years, reaching idea number 102424 on this night.

"Are you sure this time?" Driver suddenly asked, keeping her gaze on the road. The other woman held back her tongue, from pointing out that it wasn't fair that she was allowed to speak.

"I'm one hundred percent sure." She answered instead, thinking that the conversation will end on that.

"That's what you said last time, and then we had to apologize to Transylvanian vampire for invading her home."

After mentioning the awkward last travel, the rest of the ride was silent, until they came to the restricted arena. The entry was easy, with the workers being on holiday leave. The human security system couldn't detect them, and with the fact that there was no scent of any myth being around, it was safe to say that no precautions nor traps for their kind was put.

"Did you bring the crowbar?" The woman with black and white hair spoke, turning towards her driver. The other just sighed, grabbing it from the car's trunk and handed it unceremoniously to her. With that, they went on the search. Specifically looking for the coffin.

The work site was an archeological one, due to the arena being where an old village stood once. Among them, they found various objects, including coffins, but before they could explore more, the holiday season came. Shivane knew what village stood in here once, so her hope rose with every step she took. It took some time, but they finally found the room where the coffins were kept. Some were in better quality, while others were in terrible, signifying the status of the deceased. None of them interested them, no, the one that catch the eye was the coffin, who was formerly chained. It looked like a box made out of wood, shorter and smaller, as if the person in it was forcefully put in it.

Without hesitation, the black-white haired woman moved towards it.

"Shivane, this won't turn in disaster, right?" The accompanying her woman spoke, as she followed in safe distance, in case this turned out to be a monster sealed.

"Maria, you need to trust me." Reply came from Shivane, as she prepared the correct angle for the crowbar.

"Even so, don't get your hopes up." The woman refereed to as Marina spoke, with a light frown. She had been dragged by Shivane to all of her recent expeditions and each time, she was there when the swan maiden was left disappointed once again.

The silence rose again, after that concern framed as warning. Shivane knew what she got herself into in her years of searching. She lost count of how many times any time of lead turned out to be false and how it got her into danger. Even so, she refused to give up, as long as she had even the smallest hint of hope. With one, hard step on the crowbar, she finally got the lift off.

Inside the old coffin was a person intact, forced to lay with her legs to herself. Over her neck was an sickle, an old ritual part, of how to keep the 'vampires' down in the polish region. Her clothing was ragged from years in the dirt, a miracle that huge amount of it still clung. She looked like if she was sleeping, because she was. Swan maiden didn't need to think or look twice to see that her seeking came to the end, and she found the one she had been searching one, her old savior.

"It's her." Shivane spoke, staring down, tears forming in her eyes, "Goodness, it's finally her."

While slowly regaining her senses, Jadwiga started to feel that her surroundings weren't the cold and hard dirt. She almost could believe that her soul somehow passed on, but from how soft and warm the surface surrounding her was, she knew it wasn't the case. An afterlife for being like her would be the furthest thing from nice.

Stirring from her sleep due the loose sunrays on her closed eyelids, she started to want to see her surrounding. When she had regained enough strenght to open her eyes, the strzyga had met the view of an odd room, nothing like the ones she saw.

She could make out the more generic shapes, as the room was dimly lit, the strong sunrays were stopped by fabric. The walls weren't wooden, like how huts had. hey resembled some kind of smooth stone instead, with various decoration hanging on them, almost looking like it was floating. In the center, hung weird clear oval shape. The string that kept it up went into the ceiling. That's all she figured out about her environment, until strong headache came over that Jagwida had to close her eyes and drift off to sleep again.

When she woke up again, it was sundown. This time, what woke strzyga up was the sounds of jingling, followed by footsteps from outside the room.

With a slight head tilt to the side, she noticed the smooth door, and the familiar figure that had just now opened them, upon hearing Jadwigae wake up. While the face hadn't changed since their first meeting, everything was new and different. The dark eyes shone with something new in them, a change for the better. The body gained healthy look to it. Her hair gained white streaks from dye, with the black roots visible. Overall, she looked healthier, better and, most importantly, happier.

Jadwiga's eyes widened, as she processed this fully, and immediately tried to stand up, to see if this wasn't a cruel dream made by her own mind. She nearly fell of the couch, stopped only by the other woman's hand on her shoulder, keeping her up.

"Now, now, be careful." The woman chastised, with a hint of amusement in it. Jadwiga didn't listen, as her strength went to putting her own hand over the other's. It was warm, nothing like from the last handshake their shared.

"S... Shi.. vane?" It took all of the strzyga's strength to speak, to question the one good thing that happened to her. If it was truly the swan maiden she knew in front of her, then she wanted to remain awake forever.

With thousand of questions on her tongue, one remained in the front; just for how long was she asleep?

1. Sołtys is how the leader of village was called in polish.