Terra used to be quiet and observant. Her mind was louder than her voice, so to say. She never stayed too long at one place and was constantly on the move. It wasn't fear that made her who she was, but rather the thought of growing fond of places and people. People die… and places will change.
One starlit night, when Terra was but a child, something happened that changed her. The sky was dark and the air turned your breath to frost. Terra had been so captured by the glistening stars that she wasn't aware of how cold it had gotten. It wasn't until snow started to fall that she snapped out of her trance and quickened her pace to reach the next town.
Terra stopped in her tracks, eyes wide with surprise and fear. The town that was her destination was nothing but ash and embers. Burned corpses were scattered everywhere - on the road, inside the burned houses and some were simply turned to ashes. The smell of burning flesh was metallic, mixed with the smell of meat being roasted on an open fire and it made Terra want to vomit.
She took a small breath and started walking through the debris. Maybe.. She thought, there could be survivors… "Hello?" She called out, but there came no answer from within the ruined homes.
Her skin was coated with sweat and dust - so much that it had turned her pale beige skin to a sickening grey hue. There. A small form was trapped under a log. Terra threw the log off, turning the small body around to its back. Terra covered her mouth with her hands to prevent herself from screaming. It was a little girl, no more than five years old. Her eyes were open wide, but only because her eyelids had been burned away. Her lips looked like they had been skinned and blood coated the surface of the flesh. Her little nose looked like it had been melted and had left a big hole. Large dark burns covered her small frame. She looked like a melting doll.
Terra fell to her knees, tears falling uncontrollably. She wailed loud and long - so long that rays of lights peaked over the horizon and cast a light over the still sobbing girl.
In that moment as she kneeled in front of the charred body of a girl she had never known, Terra had never felt more lonely. It was so strange and sorrowful, to miss something that you never knew.
When help arrived they only found one freshly dug grave, just the size of a small child.