Searching For My Soul [Flashback]

[Kaiya]

Winter, 502 AV

Fifteen years old, Kaiya thought to herself. It's unreal. Kaiya was distraught with emotional turmoil. Her father just died, and she was about to embark on one of the most important journeys in her lifetime, and she wasn't ready. At all. She was scared, and she knew that she could not cling to her mother. She had to face this. Alone.

It was just before daybreak. Kaiya hadn't slept all night; she just sat outside of her tent, wrapped in an animal skin pelt, and watched the stars. She thought about her life, and what she wanted to do with it. She hadn't a clue. She felt useless; she felt like she would amount to nothing, and would bring shame to her family, and her tribe.

Tears welled in her eyes when she thought of her father. Why now? Why did you have to die now? She began to sob heavily, and wrapped herself even tighter in the pelt, trying to quiet herself. "Why did you take him from me? She said aloud quietly, still sobbing. She wasn't sure who she was talking to. The Divine, the sand, the trees, the wind, or maybe even the Universe itself. She wasn't sure. She didn't care. Whomever would listen, she was sending her pleas. "Why now? Why me? I just want my father back!" She fell over on her side, wrapped in the animal skin, and sobbed until she had no tears left to shed.

Dawn was breaking, and she new it was time. She felt, with her extra sense, the men of her tribe coming to take her to the tent of the Wayhali, and begin her searching. She knew her journey was about to begin.