Chapter 1
Rinoa turned sixteen on that cold night. It was suppose to be "sweet sixteen," but all that day and most of her recent life were just bitter memories. She was shut up in her room again for her defiance. She yelled at her father, a general of the Galbadian army, for being a cold, uncaring father: "You don't even know me! How can you decide what's right for ME?!" It was true that having no mother figure in her life did not ease the connection between daughter and father. She had died from a disease a few years ago. Life wasn't kind or fair. How could there be trust in strangers, or even family, when there was no trust in life? Why did her mother have to die? (It just wasn't fair!) Rinoa thought. Rinoa was a bitter, angry teenager, she had almost the exact opposite traits she would possess a year later …except devastating beauty and fierce determination. With shimmering ebony black hair that framed her heart shaped face perfectly, skin of the color of moon glow, and almond shaped eyes in between the color of a night with stars and a warm, soft chocolate brown.
She decided it was time to leave her father for good. (But where will I go?) she thought to herself. (If only I wasn't so damn helpless!) She thought for a minute longer. (That's it! I'll train myself with weapons. I'll become stronger, and I won't ever have this helpless feeling again. Not for anything or anyone …) Rinoa would become SeeD. She decided to go to a garden that would be farther from home, out of the influences and range of her father: Balamb Garden.