Breeze through willows has the tendency to bring back old memories. The summer heat didn't roar that day, it was still spring and the cool wisps of wind ruffled their hair as daughter endulged in a fanciful tale recited by her mother,

"They ride on broomsticks, soaring through the sky playing a dangerous game where you have to throw a ball through a hoop or catch a tiny little ball to win." Pretending her fingers were tiny figures, the mother made them soar through the sky and toss a imaginary little ball. Both mother and daughter's heads were crowned with a mane of snowy white blonde, and as the young girl leaned her forehead against her mother's, their hair became one flowing avalanche of snow. Looking as serious as she could, the tiny girl peeped,

"I wanna fly too, Momma. Please?" With a soft smile, the mother rubbed noses with her daughter and wrapped her arms around the girl,

"Close your eyes, hold your breath and wish as hard as you can for it. If you wish something hard enough, then it'll come true." The sun tickled their skin and in the gentle spring weather, the little girl wished as hard as she could...

Sweat gathered on her brow and trickled down her face. The summer's heat brought her back from her revelery and she hastedly wiped her face with her sleeve. Around her the quaint farmland had managed to be sacrificed from the relentless heat. Still the heat made the young girl's daily chores more tiresome than usual.

Standing at least a head shorter than most children her age, it was hard to tell that the skinny girl was actually only a few weeks away from her eleventh birthday. Her stature had never bothered her, since usually children are the most teased in school and the girl had never once stepped foot in a primary school. Instead her days had been spent with home tutorial and chores. Summer released her from studies, but she had found herself pitching hay into the horse's paddock.

Grumbling that her day was slowly being eaten away by horse fodder, the young girl prayed for the lunch bell to ring. It wasn't long before the clanging bell echoed out to the paddock from the main house. In eager excitement, the girl nearly pitched her fork into the paddock. Setting down the tool properly, she apologized to the rilled mare and ran over the sloping lawn to her kitchen. Racing over the soft grass, the girl caught sight of her mother's pet owl racing by overhead carrying a limp mouse's body in its beak, food for the owl's growing hatchling. The young girl blanched at the sight and entered the kitchen, still holding the disgusted look. It was about this time that the girl's mother turned and caught sight of the look,

"Well, if that's how you feel about dinner, you can make lunch of a peanut butter sandwich." The girl's look faded into a broad smile and she shook her head quickly,

"No, Mum. It was I saw Mica carrying lunch to her chick. Hope we aren't having the same?" The girl's mother responded by placing a large bowl of soup along with some finger sized sandwiches on the table.

The girl heard nothing over the slurping of her hearty homemade soup and sandwich, until the loud boisterous voice of her aunt called out to her,

"Excited to see your friends, Sweetie?" Looking up with soup dribbling down her chin, she excitedly nodded. It was only the look from her mother that slowed the nod to a halt. Looking down for a minute, the girl spoke up,

"They're not coming, are they, Mum?" The mother gave a solemn shake of her head,

"Afraid not. Mrs. e'Khushrenada left me word that they had to go to London and wouldn't be back in time." Both young girl and aunt looked disappointed. The girl's mother took a napkin into her delicate fingers and dabbed away the soup from the girl's face,

"What a little animal, eating like that. Maybe, it you wouldn't dally so with your chores, you'd get back in time for an earlier lunch." The girl pushed the napkin away with a frown,

"Oh come on now, Mum. I'm too old for that, now. I'm to be a secondary student this year." The aunt laughed and put a hand on the fellow adult,

"Oh yes, better be careful. Our little girl is all grown up. Soon she'll be starting her own family."

"Oh heavens, I hope not if she can't even take care of her own pets." Both women started to giggle, though the mother's giggle held a strained tone to it. The girl pushed her bowl away with a pout,

"Come on, it's not that funny!"

While waiting for her family to stop giggling at her, the girl took a moment to study the women in front of her. Her mother was short and slender with eyes the most exotic shade of violet, framed by a flowing mane of snow blonde. Around her shoulders was draped a dazzling shawl in the pattern of a rare blue butterfly, a tradition carried down from mother to daughter of the Rainflower lineage for generations. The youngest Rainflower, carrying the name Rika, had not yet been given a shawl yet. This suited Rika fine, since it seemed silly to her to want to wear a shawl all the time, no matter how pretty it was. Her aunt, adopted as she was (in truth, she was actually Rika's mother's best friend), was a round faced woman named Lana Laney. Her short rounded bob cut hair was black and contrasted neatly with her dark blue eyes. Auntie Lana had the unusual tendency to toy with the bottom of her frilled white apron as she spoke and it was this habit that brought it to Rika's mother's attention that something was on Lana's mind. Rika's mother, whose name was Reia, pressed her lips thin for a moment before waving her hand, urging Lana to speak up,

"Well, Dear. I was wondering, if you think it's about time for school papers to start coming in. Seems about the time."