Othella curled up in the center of a burnt-out tree hollow full of embers, surrounded by darkness and silence, with only the crackling sound of residual flames burning.
Time seemed to have passed for who knows how long, but perhaps duration no longer mattered.
She never really knew why she was alive.
From the moment she had memories, she lived with her Fire Spirit companions on an island destroyed by a volcanic eruption. After her parents left, they never returned, and she didn't know how to find them.
As time passed, when she was no longer so timid about the outside world, when she finally accepted the fact that her parents had either completely forgotten her or were dead, she was persuaded by the Fire Spirit companions to leave her homeland.
To find family, or traces left by them, to meet new friends and partners—the Fire Spirit friends said so. Othella was bewildered, but she once held hope with their help.
Yes, she once did.
