Word: evanescent - adj - tending to vanish like vapor
Rydia loved the mist that clung to her valley, her entire world. Her mother had told her that living in this valley was like living in a cloud, one of those floating white things visible in the sky during midday. But to Rydia the clouds held more beauty for her than the sky. Each wonderfully contained and cool, all soft edges and safe. But she didn't need to see the other clouds. She preferred when the sun hid itself once more behind the mountains and her mist once more covered the valley, keeping her world small and dark and safe.
She resented the sun for burning away her mist. It left her rankled and exposed, just as it did the valley, turning her beautiful dull colors and quietly dissolving edges harsh and bright. Her mother would laugh when the green-haired girl wrinkled her nose at the light and run inside, telling her of places beyond the valley where the sun shone brightly every day and the only mist was the clouds in the sky. And Rydia would scrunch her face even more; she couldn't think of anything worse.
So when that night the mist had thinned and then disappeared entirely, she'd known immediately that something was wrong. And when the fire had come to chase her mist away forever, she though of her hated sun, come to burn her cloud and banishing her to the harsh world for good.