There was nothing special about this place. It was like all the other spots on this planet. Quiet, old, organic. Crawling with life. But there was something in the air here. I could see it.
The trees were thick and hard, tangling into a canopy that blocked out most of the sunlight. The river was sluggish and clear, the sound of running water cutting into the otherwise relative silence.
The humans were unremarkable dwellers: soft forms who spent their days crouched by fires or laboring away in the trees for their daily sustenance. Their lives were short and nearly meaningless: wake up, eat, survive, die.
But the girl in front of me…she was going to change everything.
She was small and unsure, not quite old enough to have a path laid out for her yet. But there was something about her.
I could see it all around her frail organic form: a soft white haze, moving in flux with the winds, shifting and curling protectively around her as her life expanded out far into the future…
Exactly what I had been searching for.
"You…" Her head raised, large eyes gazing at me with fascination and awe. "What is your name?"