-Prologue-

Edited by Etherdrone

The trees' leaves shake to the wind carried by the by-the-books perfect sunny day.

Soft grass, enriched by its dew, shines like gems in the light that was being cast down upon it by the eternal globe of life that hanged over the world of Avalice, making the calm plains of Qin, with its scattered, spread-out rocks and boulders of varying shapes and sizes a place rich enough for farming. The expanses of the plains reached as far as the eyes could see far out in the horizon, giving the expanses a glory and reach all its own.

Laying down against one of the larger boulders with her eyes set on the clouds above her as if she was in a daze, was a young girl. Hypnotized by the beautiful swirl of the few clouds that made their presence in the skies, the scattered rays of the sun that pierced through them creating a pattern of lights in the sky that only few people realize it's there. However, even with the spectacular beauty of nature itself in full display, nothing can compare to the beauty of the Avalician night sky, with the spiraling blue spark of energy that adorned it like a swirling carpet of stars, so bright and beautiful that one can't help but be amazed at the catastrophic events 2 years ago that led to its creation.

Almost two years, thought the lonesome girl, her eyes lost in the clouds above her almost as if she could see through them. I wonder how Lilac and Carol are doing.

Taking a deep breath, she quietly picked an apple up from her backpack. I hope they're not worried or angry for me being gone for so long.

The girl's mind seemed to wander, reflecting on the events from two years ago that changed her life forever, a mixed feeling of happiness and depression filled inside her like a creeping addiction. She not only remembered the fun she had with her new friends, but the horrors that followed still ringed fresh in her mind.

Shade.

Ever since the "accident", that word has haunted her thoughts and nightmares. If she closed her eyes and focused hard enough, she could still feel the blade at her neck, the screams of her friends, begging her to come back to them. The creeping voice of their enemy reaching out inside her mind, telling her, ordering her, to kill and butcher the friends she had made.

...Nightmares were all she had these days.

Trying to shake off the thought with a physical motion from her head, the girl sprung up, grabbing her backpack on her way to being vertical and begun making her way to the nearest village, stuffing her apple in her mouth as if it somehow prevented it from making her think too hard. Whatever it takes to make her feel better, she'd justify.

Slowly, but surely, she made her way through the beautiful Avalician plains. As the girl made her way to the village in question, a small family took notice; driving by the road on some kind of vehicle. "Hey, little girl! You need a lift?" asked the father of the family, though the girl made no response, her mind still working on ways that didn't make her very happy.

"Hey! You there?" he attempted once again, this time being much more successful at snapping her out of her thoughts, looking at him as if he had just teleported next to her on a small vehicle, carrying not only the father, but three of his... children? She couldn't tell at first glance.

"Uh... Sorry. Um, no, thanks."

"Don't be ridiculous! What, you plan on walking all the way to the village?" the paternal hare argued, his arm resting on the door of the roofless vehicle. "Come on in, it's no trouble at all. We'll take you there."

The girl took a quick glance at the vehicle and simply shrugged her reservations away. The father smiled wide as she quickly hopped into the back seat right next to a younger boy, around eight years old, as he smiled a very similar smile to the one the older hare had.

"My name is Zhan!" he introduced himself with a toothy grin. "What's yours?"

She smiled back at him. Somehow, talking to others seemed like an experience she didn't have in quite some time.

"Nice to meet you, Zhan. I'm Milla."