A day in the rain, something never to forget. Not till the day she took her last breath.

Rain pelted down on the cold earth beneath her, the light pitter patter resonating somewhere deep within her soul. It drenched her long auburn hair and made it cling to her body like glue.

This rain never faded, it never stopped completely. Perhaps some days it grew a little better, though others would rear their head to torrential downpours. But she had to keep going. This was her decisions to venture out past her home town. It was awful, it hurt her right down to the bone that she needed to constantly be on the run. On the run from her own insecurities and fears, and on the run from her memories.

But even the bitter cold and damp mist was better than being reminded of him.

Everything still reminded her of him, even her clothes, still had the weak, lingering smell of smoke to them. But she couldn't bring herself to fully accept the fact that he was gone She just couldn't stand being in that house anymore.

It was now three months time since she left her home. Since she abandon everything she knew and cared about. She had left her mother a goodbye note, and all the money she had saved so the woman could continue to keep their shack of a house. at least for a little while. The note simply stated that she couldn't linger in that town anymore, and that she would try to visit someday, but would keep in touch. And with that she fled like a wild bird.

All her life, Lotus had been denied the knowledge of alchemy. not because her parents didn't know the technique, but because they knew the dangers it possessed. Especially for the Arashi heritage. She was banned from this at least until her father died, abandoning his research to a desolate wasteland of papers in the attic. While there had been tales of fire alchemy, tales of alchemy with ice, and mist, even alchemy using the ground itself. Not enough people even knew of the Lightning alchemy the Xingese bloodline had passed down from generation to generation. Her father had seen how many people it could hurt when he joined the military. He had planned on keeping the secret till his death. But much to the family he abandon at home's demise. He failed when he was shot in the line of fire. It was then that she learned just what her family kept for secrets

She began learning when she was 12. Just after her father had died. Ethmeralda, her mother, had been so bussied by trying to maintain her job, and keep their small home in Voltica that she couldn't stop her from learning. Of coarse Ethmeralda, though close to Saeth, still didn't understand the exact magnitude of the danger of the rarely practiced alchemy

What she Lotus didn't realize until later in her life, was how her knowledge and how her family's alchemy affected the chi of the land, or the sky for that matter.

Along with her knew found obsession, came the ability, or rather inability, to control her outbursts of anger. When Lotus would get angry, skies would in all literal meanings, darken. ranging from bloody overcast, to downright downpours.

But now she was on the road.

a few birds chirped in the trees above her as lotus walked, the only time she could bring herself to interrupt their whispery songs was when her stomach growled in plea for food. Of coarse just when she had ran out of recourses and money.

"This sucks..." she groaned to herself. She could feel her body starting to tremble with weakness. weather she wanted to admit it or not. Lotus was a human, and humans are weak after all. She couldn't remember the last thing she had eaten or when, all she remembered was that she was now regretting it. Taking a few more feeble steps forward, she felt the world spinning around her though she stood still. Her emerald eyes dulling as her vision blurred.

And there she fell, like a dead branch in a sea of trees. It would likely be hours before anyone came down this path, much less to her rescue.

Thankfully though,,,eventually, it happened

cat purring at her side, a chubby brunette strolled leisurely down the road, her arms filled with groceries, though most of which looked like cat food and various other pet supplies.

Seeing the crumpled and sodden teen on the path, the girl shrieked. Abandoning her bags to the wet earth and rushing up to help.

Dropping into a kneeling crouch, The girl placed the back of her clammy hand on Lotus's forehead, retracting it quickly and wincing to feel her skin was practically on fire.

"Someone! help!" she screamed begging for anyone to hear her and come to this stranger's aide.