A/N: Hello to one and all! I would like to welcome you to my story. It's my first real fanfiction, unlike 'Say What Now!' which is a collaboratively written story with my good friend, Da KeR MySteRr. This however, I wrote all on my own! I hope you all enjoy it, so without further ado, Here's my story!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that has anything to do with Final Fantasy, well… except a few of their games… I do however own any OCs that make an appearance in this story.

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"Get up!" the old and dilapidated woman screamed while poking an old and dilapidated broom at the sleeping girl.

"Guddibay," was the only sound that the young girl could produce with her face half buried in her pillow.

"Oh, don't give me that, it is nearly four and there is a lot of work to be done!" she yelled in her ear. The girl shifted positions so that she faced the wall, much to the annoyance of her human alarm clock. She then let out a rather loud yawn and proceeded to go back to sleep.

"Oh, that's it!" The old woman ran out of the room for about 30 seconds, and returned carrying a large rusty bucket filled with water. "I didn't want to have to do this, but you have pushed me thus far yet again," bellowed the old hag as she made her way over to the bed. She heaved the bucket up to her face and turned it upside down over the girl's head.

"AAAHHHHH," she screamed as she jumped out of bed. "What in the name of all that is good and holy is wrong with you, woman?"

"It's your own fault for refusing to get up when I called you. Let that be a warning to ya."

"I would hardly call that a warning. That was completely unnecessary, your breath alone would have done the trick," she sarcastically replied. Her teeth chattered as she spoke and her lips began to turn a remarkable shade of blue. "And now I'm going to get sick, thanks a lot!"

"Oh calm down its just water, next time it will be much worse, you horrid little twit!"

"It's 22 degrees outside!" she snapped back "If you weren't so old and senile I would have my friend Mr. Fist teach your face a lesson or two!" She cocked her head and pondered with regret her incredibly bad threat.

"Just shut your trap and get to work missy or else I'll get the master and he can throw your ass out of here faster than you are able to come back with those witty remarks of yours," the old woman said with a sneer.

"Oh man, you are so funny. If I don't die from hypothermia, I think I might from laughing so hard. Either way, you should be glad to know that you will ultimately be the cause of my demise." She grabbed her wool cloak and ran out the door before her counterpart could respond. She shuddered with relief as she was welcomed by the cool, crisp air of that February morning.

Her name was Corinthia Vledin, and her living situation was almost as unfortunate as was her having to live with such a name. When she was very young, her parents sent her to work in Mr. Broswell's home as a maid with her grandmother. Mr. Broswell lived alone and was a very wealthy landowner. Her parents' names were Yuna and Tidus Vledin. Corinthia, or "Rin" as she liked to be called, knew very little about her parents. She only knew that they had to give her up because they couldn't afford to take care of her as they wanted, and they believed she would have a better life in Mr. Broswell's home. Up until she was about 7 years old, her grandmother used to tell her stories about how her parents were heroes who saved the world on numerous occasions. She told her about the many adventures that her parents went on and what amazing people they were, but Rin refused to believe any of it. She knew even at a young age that her grandmother's stories were mere fabrications that were told just to give Rin positive images of her parents.

Rin used to spend most of her time with her grandmother, but she passed away three years ago due to a sudden heart attack. She loved her grandmother very much, but never seemed much affected by her death. She must have been devastated, but almost never showed any signs of emotional pain. But, that was just her nature. For as strange as it may sound, Rin never once in her life shed a tear over anyone or anything. Even when she was a newborn child, her grandmother told her that she never once cried. The apothecaries and her parents couldn't get over her constant serene temperament. True, as she got older she certainly showed emotion in almost everything that she did, she just never found the need to cry.

"Hurry up and get those logs from the backyard so I can feed this fire. It's like the North Pole in here!" screamed Brunhilda from the kitchen window.

"Right away, your highness, let me just scrape the icicles off of my face!"

Rin stood to be about 5''7' and though she wasn't extremely tall, she was very uncomfortable with her height. In order to make herself appear shorter, she hunched over somewhat and always kept her head down. Years of doing this resulted in very poor form and posture, not exactly giving her a more pleasing physical appearance. She had very fine dark brown hair that she often pulled back, except for a few loose strands that always seemed to fall around the contours of her round face. She wasn't particularly thin but wasn't deemed overweight either. She was very average with a figure that was neither breathtaking nor repulsive, and was awfully pale for a girl with such dark features. She had small dark eyes and small round nose that turned slightly upward.

One of the only things pleasant about her appearance was her mouth, as funny as that may sound. She had full lips that had a very delicate and flattering shape. Her lips were one of her only features that seemed to stand out, except during the winter months when they often became dry and cracked. She also had very nice teeth. They were comparatively straight and pearly white, allowing for a decent smile.

What Rin lacked in physical beauty, however, she certainly made up for with her bright personality. She always tried to find the best in people, even though she mostly ended up finding the worst. Especially in Brunhilda, the old woman who took over for her grandmother after she passed away. She was cranky and stubborn and didn't like Rin in the least, and felt no reason to keep her feelings hidden from her.

"Ok, jjuusstt aaa littllee cccooolllddd."

Rin ran out to the back of the house to get some logs to put in the fireplace. However, this proved to be no easy task, for she made the discovery that the entire backyard was covered in a sheet of ice. Not having much grace or agility, she knew that she wouldn't be returning to the comforts of the warm house anytime soon. She started off walking very slowly and carefully, but became impatient and decided to move at a quicker pace. She finally reached the stack of logs used for the fireplace and piled 3 of them into her arms. She wasn't walking for long before her foot stepped on the bottom of her cloak causing her to loose her balance. She took another step to regain composure, but the franticness of her motion resulted in a massive slip. Her feet flew up above her head causing her to fall on the cold, hard ice flat on her back. She dropped the logs and all three of them slid on the ice into the trees nearby.

Rin lay there for quite awhile just staring at the sky because she feared that if she moved or made any attempt to get up, she would find that she had broken her back or worse. Eventually, she began to feel the all too familiar tingly feeling of the beginnings of frost bite, and so she decided that she'd better move.

She got up and luckily found that all of her bones and organs were in proper working condition. After examining herself, she made her way over to the area were the logs landed.

In order to find the logs, she needed to push through the branches of the trees. One tree supposedly was unhappy about her actions, and one of its branches smacked her right in the face after she pushed it back to get a view of the forest floor. "Ahh!" she screamed in pain as she put her hand to her face now warm and red where the tree had hit her. "Stupid tree," she yelled as she went to kick it.

"Ouch!" cried an unfamiliar man's voice.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH, the tree is talking!" She started to run away in horror when the man's voice was heard again.

"What? Is someone there?"

Rin stopped in her tracks, and answered nervously to the mysterious voice. "Yes, I am here. Who is that?"

"I, I need help," replied the voice.

"Where are you?" she called out.

"I'm over here." The disembodied voice called back to her.

'Well that's helpful' Rin thought to herself.

She walked in the direction of the voice, and noticed a figure lying on the ground. She walked toward it and found a man lying on his back with his clothes torn revealing a chiseled physique. He had dark curly hair, and she couldn't see his face because it was turned away from her. He seemed to be holding his side. She ran over to him and he turned and looked up at her with deep blue eyes. He had a very handsome face, and Rin was very much in awe of his appearance for she didn't have much contact with members of the opposite sex. They stared at each other for a few moments and both felt as if they had met some place before.

She then noticed that his side was bleeding profusely. "What happened? Are you all right," Rin inquired. She was suddenly overcome with an intense desire to help the man in any way that she possibly could.

"I'm sorry to trouble you miss, I was attacked while I was taking a walk in the forest. I tried to fight back, but there was too many of them. One of them took out a knife and….I don't think it's very deep."

"Let me take a look at it." Rin began to examine his wounds when something amazing happened. As her hands neared his side, silvery blue strands of light came from her fingers and traveled to the area where the man was stabbed. Both the man and Rin looked on in astonishment as the wound appeared to heal itself.

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A/N: Well, I do hope you all enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it! I'd really appreciate it if you guys review, so you see that little button down there next to the words 'Submit Review'? Press it and type a few nice words! Thanks! Bye!

-Cee Crow