wandering woman

Part 1

Birth

When Akiko was born, she is born to Tamaki Reko a women from the small village of Forest country. Her father is Mizuk Reko of the Reko clan known for it's wandering memebers. The two had married out of circumstance rather than love but that had come later with Akiko. Akiko who is born head first and is promptly deposited into the arms of her mother, crying after they've cut the umbilical cord with a small tuffet of burnt orange hair resting on the top of her head. Akiko is born in the season of Autumn during the festival of Autumn when the winds had blown through the town bringing the sounds of cheers and happy cries into the birthing room. With a coincidence like that her parents couldn't help but name her their Autumn child, Akiko. Like any other baby, she is small and wrinkly and pink and like any other child, with the passage of time she grows.

Age 5

Tamaki knows her child is different from the other children that play in the village. Akiko is quiet and reserved, that she has always been but it is the look in her daughter's eyes when she looks at the other children. Like she has been a mother herself and fondly remembers them but these looks leave as quickly as they come. Other times it's the wandering. Akiko wanders alot, Tamaki knows that Akiko wanders through the nearby forest and on the paths through the village, simply going where her feet take her. Her husband says that it is normal for the women in his family for they have the blood of nomads running through their veins. The more Tamaki see the more she believes it is true. But still she forbids her daughter from wandering too far for there is a war brewing on the horizons. Her daughter merely agrees with her had Tamaki notices that knowing and wised look of an elder who has lived a full life in her eyes but it leaves just as quickly as it had come.

Age 12

Mizuk knows his daughter is more like his sisters than himself. She has the wandering look, as his mother had called it. Something that in all women of the clan had, something that they had to do, to find. He had never understood the urge himself since he had a home and a wife but the women of his clan, they were said to leave their homes at the age of 16 and wander the lands looking for a place that their hearts may call home. The scrolls had been passed down for generations, showing their scattered linage and holding the stories of the past. They were called the 'Wandering Women of the open plains'. His mother had been the same, she had wandered the lands until she had met his father where she finally settled and for all he knew his sisters were still wondering.

Mizuk knows that his daughter will leave the home to become a wanderer herself, he can already see it in how she travels the roads and the fields around the house and village and he knows that he will not be able to stop her. But he loves her all the same.

She plays with the children, still laughing freely even through the third ninja war rages in the peripherals of the minds, and it seems at times that Akiko is more aware of this than the people of the village, blessed by luck that it has not touched their boarders. But even so, he can see the knowledge his daughter holds in her eyes as she stares into the distance. There may not be a war to see but his Autumn Child has always been more aware then most so it comes as little surprise when she starts learning odd tricks and trades, from carpeting to medicinal herbs and the many in-between that she can learn and Mizuk knows that the time of when she will leave is coming, more faster than he would like to acknowledge but he can only watch as the changes take place and pray that she finds what she will be searching for among the plains.

Age 15

Akiko knows she is different from the other children. She knows this truth like she knows the sky is blue and the grass is green. She knows this from the growing urge that tells her to search, to move and to wander. She knows this from the memories that she carries from a life time ago. Memories of a fulfilled, happy life and a peaceful death, one filled with peace and children and a sense of content that follows her to the next. But Akiko is still wary, just as she knows she is different, she knows to be wary. Akiko knows of the times she lives in and the future to come and with all this knowledge she chooses not to interfere but even this Akiko knows will not always go her way, that circumstance or fate may interfere and she will have no choice but to interact with the very people she hopes to avoid.

She plays with the children but there is always the sensation in which feels more of a mother to them than a fellow child. But this does not stop her from being childish, from dancing in the rain, rolling in the mud. None of it stops her for she is stubborn as an Ox, even more so and set in her ways from a time long past. Akiko lives in Forest country and even though it is a small land with little to offer but trees and wood, it borders swamp country and the Land of Earth and even from where Akiko is, she can still see the effects of war. The third war may have been affecting her small country but this didn't mean she was ignorant, nor did it stop the laughter of the children untouched by it claws. And through all this Akiko prepares from her journey to find her place, a place where she can gladly call home.

Age 16

Her parents know the time has come as has she. Akiko knows her time to wander is here. Throughout the years here she has been gathering different skills and learning different tricks to help her on her journey. Her mother is teary-eyed and wishes that she could stay and be married like many of the other village girls, her father hurts silently knowing that she will face dangers that he cannot protect her from but his heart also swells with pride that she is carrying the legacy of his clan. Both of them worry and bid that she write to them, even if they cannot write back. Akiko smiles in agreement, just as teary eyed as her parents but determined to follow the strange aching in her heart that she knows will lead her across the lands just as it has done with her ancestors.

With the open road before her, the sun at her back and the wind by her side and the many possibilities laying themselves before her, Akiko sets out placing one foot in front of the other wondering what the future may bring.

There you go! Yup, Akiko didn't die a horrific death to be reborn, rather she lived a full life!

So please review and let me know what you think! And since this is pretty much unbeta'd, please let me know if I've made any mistake with the spelling!