The hour is close to midnight but, as I've come to experience during my stay here, the night of Greenlandic summer is never dark. Golden sunlight illuminates our steps as Mikk and I trod toward the place where we will play our parts as a journey of six-hundred years reaches its final destination.

Scattered rocks can be hinted beneath the grass. The symbols risen for the long-ago departed are still here, hundreds of years later, although hidden under layers of time. The chapel--which is marked by a rain-damaged sign to show tourists the way--is the only structure still somewhat standing from the era of the Vikings. The roof has caved in and the walls have fallen but the outline is still there, in the form of uneven rocks covered in moss.

This is where Gudrun left Björn six-hundred years ago and this is the place where I need to perform the ceremony which she failed at that time.

My confidence in succeeding where she--the expert at magical matters--failed, isn't super high. I'm a software developer after all, not a mysterious Viking witch.

Hopefully, Gudrun can somehow guide me through it. Björn has told me her voice should be able to reach me easier in here, where she once stood, so that's why Mikk and I have climbed high on this rocky hill, which overlooks the endless polar sea below. It's so blue it seems impossible as if the saturation of the landscape has been turned up beyond max.

On the way here--after a detour to Mikk's place to eat, shower and dress in were-bear curse-breaking appropriate gear, which is apparently hiking pants and a fleece hoodie--we drove through downtown Nuuk, which was abuzz with people gathering for the oncoming eclipse. At least that's what Mikk told me, as buzzing downtown Nuuk looked like a regular day crowd on Drottninggatan in Stockholm to me.

Little do any of the visitors drawn here by the eclipse suspect that the phenomena is tied to a love story six-hundred years in the making.

They probably wouldn't believe me if I tried to tell them anyway. I don't blame them. Mere days ago, I would have laughed in my own face as well.

Mere days ago I knew nothing of Björn and his centuries of struggles. Mere days ago I hadn't met Mikk. Mere days ago I couldn't see my own future clearly as Stefan's infidelity had me questioning everything.

Now, I see both the past and the future as I currently stand right in the intersection.

Taking Mikk's hand in mine, I enter the field filled with bones from those who were. Some of them are his ancestors, we know that now, and some may be mine as well. Because who knows the ways of time and space? Perhaps someone made it back to the old lands eventually.

"I guess we wait now," Mikk says, sitting down on a fallen rock and patting for me to sit beside him.

"I guess that's all we can do," I respond, feeling the weight of the dagger in my pocket as I curl up beside Mikk's warm frame. He wraps his arms around me to protect me from the Greenlandic winds, which blow chilly even in the height of summer, and presses his lips playfully to my cheek.

I turn slightly, catching his lips with mine in a full-on kiss. "You believe I can do it?" I ask, articulating the question that has been plaguing my mind. "Do you believe I can save Björn?"

"Of course," Mikk replies, without hesitation. "It's what you came here for. It's meant to be."

"Maybe it is..." I mumble into the fabric of my jacket. "Or maybe I came here for you?"

"You didn't know me when you traveled here."

"I didn't know there was a six-hundred-year-old were-bear waiting in a cave for me to save him from a curse either," I retort.

"Touche." Mikk chuckles lightly while twirling a strand of my hair around his fingers. "But maybe it can be both. You didn't know me, or Björn, but you came here for us anyway."

"Maybe it was all meant to be," I mumble, trying to believe the words.

Mikk replies by hugging me closer, making me forget I'm in Greenland as the heat rises within me. But we probably don't have time to engage in shenanigans atop these historical remains, while we wait for another historical remain to appear.

Björn has told us he'll come when the eclipse is near since he doesn't want to be close to us in his bear form. As soon as the moon shades the sun, I should be able to break his curse according to Gudrun's instructions.

Easy peasy... just stab the were-bear, perhaps chant some forgotten spell, see Gudrun step out of the shadows and reunite with Björn, and then go home to canoodle.

At least I hope that's how everything will go down. But a lingering fear in the pit of my stomach tells me it probably won't be that easy.

With Mikk's arms around me, I watch the sun sink toward the horizon. Its red sheen reflects in the dark waves below, making the distinction between heaven and earth unclear. Everything blurs together here, at the end of the world, sky and water, night and day, past and present.

It makes sense that this is where wondrous things such as Björn's transformation and continued existence can happen. Surrounded by the beauty of the Greenlandic landscape it feels natural that magic can be real, as the island appears to be created out of supernatural forces itself.

Björn believes his curse comes from the old gods but perhaps it's actually a blessing from the new lands to which his ancestors came. It was granted to him by the entities Mikk's people believe in, the protectors of these lands.

"Look!" Mikk's exclamation brings me out of my philosophical quandaries, which probably don't matter anyway. Regardless of the cause of the curse, I'm here to rescue Björn.

Following Mikk's pointed finger, I look toward the sky. A sliver of darkness covers one corner of the sun, making it look like a cookie someone has taken a bite from.

The eclipse is near. The startling realization makes a flurry of nervousness stir in my chest. This is actually real. I will have to do this.

The crack from a branch makes me turn toward the surrounding woodlands. The sight of a white fur hiding among the low trees is startling, even if I know who it is. Björn walks slowly toward us, a hesitant tilt to his gait betraying that he doesn't quite trust his bear self to come too close. But once he turns into a man, we may need to hurry as we don't know exactly what unbreaking the curse entails.

I grab Ivar's dagger from my pocket as I rise from the boulder, leaving the nest of Mikk's warmth behind.

The golden sunlight grows darker as I stride between boulders and bluebells. Björn is right in front of me. His shape fluctuates before my eyes, stuck somewhere between bear and man while the sunlight fades.

I reach my hand toward him, stroking soft white fur. Björn growls at the touch by remains in control.

That's when I hear my name in the icy winds. "Saga," a voice calls, as clear as arctic water and as mysterious as the lands around me. "Are you there?"

"I'm here," I reply, realizing that the blue runes have once again started to glow on my cheeks. Their sheen tints the world in a light shade of blue. I can sense her presence around me, or perhaps within me. "Gudrun?"

The world turns dark as the last rays of the midnight sun are extinguished by the oncoming moon. The beast before me is no more, instead, I meet the eyes of a man. A man who hasn't felt arctic winds tousling his hair and chilling his skin for many hundred years. The eerie muted lights turn his features even more hollow and his gaze even more desperate. Scars on his bare chest reveal where the dagger which I now hold pierced his skin when it was held by his father's hand.

Right to the left of his breastbone. Right in the heart. That's where I need to aim.

"Is she here?" Björn asks, looking around for Gudrun. She did promise to come for him, after all.

"She's here," I reply, pointing toward my head. "She's speaking to me."

"What is she saying?" he asks impatiently. He's waited so long for this moment and it seems he can't wait a second longer.

I put my hand to my lips to urge him to be quiet as I listen to her message.

"My daughter in time," Gudrun chants in tune with the wind. "Blood of brother. Hand of the saga. The runes will guide you."

I understand the words but I can't decipher them. My mind is frazzled and not in the mood for riddles. Why can't Gudrun just tell me what she wants me to do?

"What is she saying?" Björn repeats.

"Blood of brother. Hand of the saga," I repeat, hoping that taking the words between my lips will make them clear.

It doesn't help.

"My blood, your hand." Mikk is suddenly beside me, grabbing the hand that holds the dagger. Before I can react he's put the dull blade against the pale skin of his lower arm. Drops of blood trickle over the old metal as he cuts a shallow incision.

"What are you doing?" I gasp, aghast at the injury he's caused himself.

"I'm the closest to his brother we'll find these days," Mikk explains, handing back a blood-soaked knife. "Remember his story..." Mikk nods toward Björn. "His curse was drawn in bear blood. Now it needs to be drawn in human blood, the blood of someone closely related to him, to be broken. I guess perhaps the curse needs a template for what he should be. Not bear but man."

I nod because it kind of makes sense. Although nothing really makes sense at all. "You need to wrap that up," I tell Mikk, concerned about the blood still streaming from his arm.

"I have some bandages in my backpack." Mikk heads back toward his bag, which is settled against a stone next to where we just sat.

"Hold your arm high," I tell him, getting flashbacks to the first aid course I took at work.

Mikk rolls his eyes at me. Perhaps I remind him of his nagging mother. "I know how to take care of myself," he mumbles. "You only need to worry about him right now. " He gestures toward Björn. "I won't bleed out, I promise."

Hopefully, no one will bleed out today. That's what we're all hoping for.

When I hold the blade up against Björn's scarred skin, blue glowing runes--just like on my cheeks--appear across his chest. Björn closes his eyes, bracing himself for what is to come, while I trace the symbols with the blood-tinted dagger, painting a pattern across his ribs. The Viking forgotten by time flinches slightly as the blade tickles his skin but remains mostly still, awaiting his destiny.

Once the pattern of five symbols is finalized--I believe it spells out BJÖRN, which I supposed makes sense as it's both the name of the man and the beast that will be chased away from his body--I lean back, admiring my work. A new symbol suddenly glows underneath. A circular marker right to the left of his breastbone.

Right above his still-beating heart. A heart that has been beating for six-hundred years.

"Now..." Björn whispers, his voice trembling in the wind. "Now, you need to do what I told you. You need to stab me." He presses his hand to the middle of the circle on his chest, smudging the blood-drawn symbols. "Right here."

"I may kill you," I stutter, unsure of whether I can do what he asks of me.

"I've lived long enough," Björn replies, a bitter smile on his lips. "Death is preferable to this cursed life anyway. I want death or salvation, nothing in between. I'd rather die than go back to that cave."

I believe him. He's lived too much already. I would probably feel the same if I'd hidden for many lifetimes, with no possible escape from the place he hated even during his first lifetime.

Determined to free Björn from his cursed existence, I put the blade to his chest, right in the middle of the circle, and take a deep breath to prepare for what I need to do. Our eyes meet in the silence of anticipation. I see everything in his gaze. Years and years of hopeless waiting.

It's time to put an end to Björn's wait.

Björn gives me a slight nod as if to tell me that no matter what happens, it's alright. This is what he wants. "Do it," he commands hoarsely. "Before the sun comes back. Before it's too late. I can't wait another six hundred years."

I can't deny his wish. So with all the power I can muster, I press down on the dagger, nestling it between Björn's ribs. There's some resistance at first, as the blade hits bone. Then, the runes on his chest start to glow in red, like the midnight sun, and the rest of the blade slides in easily.

"Gudrun..." are the last word, barely a whisper, that escapes Björn's lips before he slumps down on the ground, blood pooling across his chest.

The blood soon cascades across tufts of grass and dainty bluebells, speckling their petals with red.

There's so much blood.

"Björn!" I yell, afraid of what I've done.

Before I can kneel beside Björn, trying to aid him in some way, a roar cascades across the clearing. The next moment, a white bear rises from the body before me, growling and snarling in fury. Its eyes glow in vibrant red, just like the runes of Björn's chest did a moment ago.

I back away but not fast enough. A paw swipes away my feet from underneath me and I tumble to the ground. All I can see above me is the bear. Jagged teeth. Sharp claws. Furious eyes without mercy.

The bear from within Björn has finally been let loose, with no human empathy holding it back anymore. All it knows is the primal instinct to kill. An instinct that has been kept at bay for six-hundred years.

With teeth bared, it lunges at me. I'm paralyzed in fear. I'm not sure moving can save me anyway. The bear is too fast and too furious.

Like a race car.

Great, a stupid movie reference will be my last thought. Just my luck.

"Saga!" At the last moment, Mikk dives in from the side, covering me with his body and rolling us both away from the danger. For now.

From underneath Mikk's protecting body, I see the bear approach rapidly. A paw rises in the air again, getting ready to tear into the man on top of me.

The man I love. The realization pops into my head, clear as arctic water. I love Mikk. But he's about to be crushed by a wild predator.

I can do nothing but press my lips to his, whispering the words on my tongue so he can hear them out loud. "I love you," I tell him, something I didn't declare to Stefan until after several months. Perhaps it wasn't true then either, because it never felt like this.

"I love you too," Mikk responds, just as the paw falls toward his back. Those may be his last words.

But the paw never hits its target. Instead, a wild roar rises from the throat of the attacking beast. A roar so guttural and primal it brings tears to my eyes. A last roar.

The bear falls to the ground, disintegrating into dust as it hits the grass. Nothing remains of the predator. The curse is broken.

In its place stands Björn the Bearslayer, blood-soaked dagger in hand. The wound on his chest, inflicted by its blade, appears to have magically healed.

He's slayed the bear once again, and now he's free.

Author's Note: I apologize if this story seems a bit messy or rushed at this point. I'm just excited to get to the end of it and to finally get to tell these last few chapters. I do plan to go back and edit eventually to smooth out issues.

Not much left now... but where is Gudrun? She's supposed to come for Björn, isn't she?