The Moonlit Odyssey CH. 1/ Prologue

 

Naomi is an 20 year old Native American woman who lives in Japan during the Edo period. Her parents moved to japan before she was born and opened a small shop where they sold flowers and seasonal fruits. Her parents were able to acclimate relatively well to japan despite their challenge with the language. When Naomi was 16 her father died and exactly two years after that her mother died. 

Naomi is now 20 years old and running her family shop and tending the crops on her own.

CHAPTER 1

The sun is high in the sky and the sun beams down warming the skin on Naomi's face. She tends to the flower bed filled with asagao when she notices a flower that had sprouted outside of the planter. She leans towards it "A kikyo? We don't have these anywhere in our field. How did it get here?" she thought. "For some reason this flower reminds me of my parents." Naomi recalled the last time her parents found a mysterious flower. Her father saw it as a bad omen and burned it. This was shortly before he became gravely ill. Before he died he told Naomi "I messed up. Next time you see it burn it from the root."

Naomi recalled such a memory whilst thinkin of what to do with this flower. She looked at it, realizing that it was familiar, she was hit with a memory. "Look Naomi! A new flower that we don't have! Lets take the seeds out so that we can make more. I bet they'd sell for a lot!" she remembered the voice of her mother and thought deeply. When her mother tried to get seeds from the flower she found that the inside of the flower was filled with water and there were no seeds. The flower slowly melted into water before their eyes. Her mother was disturbed by the sight and said "Perhaps I don't know enough about flowers. I think I'll go lie down." Naomi's mother was struck with the same illness as her father had been.

With all the information that Naomi had about this mysterious flower she then decided to just relocate and replant the flower in its own planter. She watered it and handled it gently as she did the other flowers. She then continued to take care of the rest of the flowers and fruit bearing plants in her field. 

As usual she worked until late in the field so she went to bed exhausted with thoughts of her parents almost completely forgetting about the strange flower. In the early morning she slept soundly until she felt an eerie presence like a person was standing over her. The presence grew more intense until she was fully awake with her eyes still closed fearing what she would see until she inadvertently opened them to see nothing.

It was morning around the usual time she woke up. She decided to brush off the odd sensation and continue her normal morning routine.

                                                    END OF CHAPTER 1