Disclaimer : Saint Seiya doesn't belong to me, nor does any of the characters from it, may they be minor or major, who might be here stated. All mythological characters belong to the Greek culture. Only Claire and the plot of this story are mine.

The orphanage of Codgnan, near Nîmes does exist. There was once a Benedictine order of sisters there though it is no longer the case. The fire in Tanneron mentioned in the story also occurred in October 1970.

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CHAPTER I

CORA

The morning sun crept its way across the face of a little girl through the cracks of the shutters. She could hear the birds chirping already and guessed it must not have been more than seven in the morning. A woman quietly made her way into the room and opened the curtains in a quick gesture and made her way to the child's bed.

"Wake up, dear" she whispered. "Breakfast is soon to be served."

The little girl did not reply and looked away from the kind elderly woman's face as though she had not heard what she had said. The older woman sighed before making her way to the other beds in the room. Kneeling by each of them, she repeated the words already whispered in the first child's ears, and once each of them awoken, she left the room and headed towards another one, surely about to proceed to the same ritual she had just done.

All the children in the room were by now out of bed and quickly putting on the clothes prepared for them, hurrying to go to breakfast, only the little girl remained in her bed, forgetful to all the havoc going on around her. Once the room was empty, she quietly came out of her bed, tidied the sheets and slowly gazed upon the clothes neatly folded at the end of her bed: a little sleeveless black dress of cotton with a large square white collar and a little white cardigan in case the air should be cool outside. Someone knocked on the door softly and told her to hurry before breakfast was over. She did not reply and the person on the other side seemed to take her silence for a yes as she soon heard footsteps going down the stairs. She gave one last critical glance at her 'uniform' before slipping it on and once her small sandals at her feet, she made her way to the stairs. Dragging her feet while coming down, she seemed to take a certain pleasure in the noise she was making until she finally reached the dining hall.

"Ah, Mademoiselle Claire, vous êtes enfin debout!"*

The one speaking was another woman dressed in black with a white vale covering her hair. She was not as old as the one who had awoken her in the morning but her face was half hidden by a large pair of glasses. Had the situation been different, the child would surely have laughed at such a sight, but now she simply gazed blankly at the one addressing her. The woman sighed before taking her hand and leading her to a table where one seat had remained empty.

"Installez vous ici."

She did as she was told and took a seat without looking at those beside her. The woman with the large glasses gave her a last glance before turning around, shaking her head, sadly.

All the other children were talking and babbling around her and she begun to feel annoyed. She had barely eaten one piece of bread when she decided to leave her seat and run outside unnoticed.

The air outside was warm, even for a morning in the south of France. The delicate smells of thyme and lavender came to her nose and for the first time since she had first arrived in the orphanage, she managed to crack a smile. It had been three weeks now since she had arrived in Codognan's orphanage, held by the Benedictine sisters. Since then, she had not spoken to anyone, nor tried to befriend any of the kids living around her. At first, they had attempted to talk to her but she had simply answered with a blank stare. After a week, she had been officially declared a freak and was called "pas Claire"* when they thought she wasn't listening. But although she knew, she simply shrugged it off. She didn't care. They could think what they wanted of her; it was none of her concern.

After a few minutes, the other orphans started to come out into the garden as well, and slowly her smile faded to her usual expressionless features. She quietly came to her feet and brushed her clothes absentmindedly, gazing from time to time at a group of boys, slightly older than her, playing football in the field close by. The sisters had come outside as well and were talking together, while looking over the group of children under their care. The bell soon rang nonetheless, and the children dashed to make their way to the various classrooms of the building. The child started to make her way towards them before stopping dead in her tracks. She seemed to consider for a while and finally turned her heels in the opposite direction, running as fast as she could to avoid being seen. Once she had reached the shadow of the nearby stable, she came to a halt and caught her breath. She was not used to running away from school but today, she did not feel like wasting her time listening to the monotonous voice of the head sister. After a while hiding in the stable, she started wondering what she could possibly do to occupy herself before the next bell rang. When she had decided to skip school, she hadn't thought breaking the rules would turn out to be so frustrating. It ended up being as boring as school itself. Not that there was much to life here anyways, she thought. She turned her attention to the grass, and watched as the sun and the wind played amongst its blades. She smiled forgetfully, letting her fingers twirl around a few sprigs, and before she knew it, she was fast asleep.

"Réveille toi! Hé! Je te parle! Réveille toi! »

The voice was annoying and persistent. She realized it must be a young boy's voice, perhaps about her age, and it reassured her to think it was not one of the sisters who had found her. But suddenly, her eyes snapped open. Did this mean another child was next to her?

She turned around brusquely and tried scrambling to her feet, but she was still taken over by sleep and only managed to fall back on her behind.

"Hmf, you are still drowsy with sleep! You shouldn't have tried to get up so fast!"

She couldn't believe it. This boy was not even making fun of her? Whoever could he be?

Slowly, she raised her eyes from behind her dark bangs and looked him over. He must not have been much older than she was and had a strange color of hair. It was some sort of aquamarine hue that matched his eyes, roughly cut at the height of his shoulders. It gave him a strange look and she couldn't help to look at him quizzically. She didn't recall seeing him before, but at the same time, she never interested herself in the others around her.

He must have sensed her uneasiness and turned his gaze to the ground.

"Go on, say it," he said bitterly.

"Wh…What?" she stuttered, startled by his reaction.

"That I'm a freak!" he snapped, angrily.

Now, she was confused. First, he was talking to her and now, he was attacking her for no reason. What was his problem anyway?

"You don't look like one, like a freak I mean," she added quickly when he glared at her.

"That's because you haven't seen what I can do. I scare the hell out of them. That's why they won't come near me. And the sisters neither. They'd rather have me out of their sight than risking causing havoc amongst them!"

Now he was yelling. What was going on with him? She'd only tried being nice. And he should at least have felt a little thankful for her kind words; he was the only person she'd spoken to since her arrival. And that was no little honor.

Suddenly she felt a cold wind settle around her, making her slightly shiver. The boy turned towards a bunch of daisies that were growing next to the brick wall of the stable and 'launched' all his fury towards them. She could not have thought of a better way to describe the scene than in such words, and the daisies, seemingly object of his anger, froze on the spot, to her outer bewilderment.

The boy gazed at what he had done horrified, switching his attention back and forth between her and the frozen flowers. The girl thought he was about to cry or yell out again but nothing happened of the sort. Slowly, in despair, he let his arms fall to his sides and lowered his eyes, his bangs hiding his eyes before he turned around and yelled back at her, while running away:

"See, I told you I was a freak!"

For a while, she remained motionless, still gazing towards the direction in which he had disappeared. She couldn't help feeling sorry for him, even if she wasn't truly the type of person that cared for the others. Well, in this place, anyways. She finally switched her attention to the unfortunate daisies, kneeling before the frozen patch. The ice burnt her fingers as she ran them across the sprigs, but to her astonishment, the contact of her hands made the ice melt away. Soon, the flowers were as they used to be and no traces of their previous frozen state were detectable. She wondered what could have happened, gazing at her fingers in wonder. Wherever could this have come from, she wondered?

Then, she heard it: the bells for the mid day break. Without thinking, she cut the bunch of daisies and ran back to the orphanage. As she ran, she wondered who that boy could be. He had frightened her with his strange powers, but he seemed to be as frightened about them as she was, if not even more. She needed to know more about him. She didn't know why she wanted to speak to him, she who had decided to not make any attempts of befriending people in this place she would never call 'home', but somehow she felt she needed to. After all, couldn't two freaks get along together?

When she arrived to the main building, the sister with the large glasses was causing a whole commotion, trying desperately to know where she had gone. Then, she saw her and the child felt as though she would be burnt right on the spot. Just after seeing someone freeze a whole bunch of flowers, this impression gave her a strange feeling.

« Mademoiselle Claire, où étiez vous passé?"

The woman was clearly upset, but the little girl only responded with a blank stare, which finished cracking the poor sister.

"You have broken the rules, mademoiselle. Because of this, you will be consigned to your room until tomorrow morning."

She held the child by the arm with a firm grip, though the girl felt the older woman did not wish to hurt her. She seemed to have genuinely been afraid something might happen to her and she could not help feeling slightly guilty for her careless behavior. Still, she reminded herself, it had been worth it after all. She'd seen flowers freeze! Once the door slammed behind her, she carefully took out the flowers from her large pocket. She had not ruined them, thankfully, and she set them on her bedside table before drowning into a dreamless sleep.

When she awoke, the others had not yet come to sleep and she could hear voices downstairs giggling. A tray of food was lying beside her: one of the sisters must have brought it up for her to eat but the meal was now too cold to be eaten. Still drowsy, she made sure this time not to get up too quickly and slowly made her way to the door, not forgetting to take the flowers with her. If the boy she had met had also been found by the sisters, he was surely punished and consigned to his room as well. She crept all the way to the boys' dormitory and laid the flowers in front of the door. She hadn't forgotten to scribble a note in the smudgy hand writing of a three year old, remembering how to form letters the way her mother had taught her before the fire, and set it on top the flowers before knocking briskly on the door and running off back to her room. She did not turn around to see if someone had come to take the flowers but had she done so, she would have seen a blue haired little boy of around four pick up the daisies with a small grin on his face. And on the note, he read with the little knowledge of letters he had: "You are not a freak. Cora."