The Wind || Genshin Impact

Chapter One: The Song of Freedom

It was warm outside.

Mondstadt typically had fairly pleasant weather, but the wind today was nicer than normal. It kisses her face with a soft touch, as if her cheek was being caressed by the Anemo Archon himself. The gentle rays of sunlight blaze across the sky, painting the rolling hills in colors of honey and gold. Butterflies flutter about, their wings being carried by the soft melody that the woman hums. It's as if she could hear an orchestra as she gracefully wisps across the field of grass, her toes sinking into the damp earth. She could feel every prick of the air as she follows the mesmerizing breeze into a dance.

Her connection to the wind, despite not having an Anemo Vision, is the type of familiarity one would have with a parent. After all, it is always around. And through the toughest of times, she was always able to hear the song of freedom that Mondstadt's gale performs. It reminds her that she will never truly be alone.

Here, where the largest tree she's ever seen grows, Lotus feels the most free. The Statue of the Seven depicting the enticing vision of Barbados looks out to the land he helped protect. The land he stripped his reign of power from and encouraged the people to discover their own will. To be their own people. And she falls deeper in love with Mondstadt every day because of it. The city is her home.

She couldn't help but get lost in herself as she twirls around with the wind. She closes her eyes and allows her senses to hyperfixate. Every chirp from the birds, every splash from the river, every snap of a twig-

Her voice ceases its melody as her eyebrows furrow, body spinning toward the foreign noise. Someone was with her; which was strange considering she has never run into anyone while out this far from the city gates.

She summons her bow and reaches behind her, arming an arrow between the wood and string, drawing the weapon and pointing it to the suspected intruders.

"Who's there?" She chants toward the tree where the disrupting sound had echoed behind its bellowing bark.

A timid man steps forward, arms up in surrender with an awkward smile resting on his lips. His long, blonde hair is seemingly braided behind his back, being pulled with the breeze. His cropped top is tight on his lean frame, exposing his stomach before the pale of his skin hides behind the similar fabric of his bagged pants. A singular earring dangles off his left ear. And along several points of his outfit, a soft teal glow emits off his person, a color similar to the luminosity of Anemo.

Beside him is a small floating Faerie looking creature. She has white hair and wears some sort of baggy romper. Her right leg has a sock tugged all the way up to her thigh and strange knee high boots on both legs. Her eyes shine a celestial hue, as if one could see the stars in them, which match the cape swinging behind her back. Atop her head floats a halo.

Lotus doesn't know how to describe either of them. She would rack her mind for any possibility on what nation their garbs could resonate with, but comes up blank. These two scream 'outsider'.

Her green eyes narrow in on the pair, keeping her weapon aimed at the boy, who seemed like a bigger threat than the Fae. "Who are you, and why are you here?" She asks the strangers.

"Woah, no need to get hostile! We just happened to be coming to see the Statue of the Seven!" The Fae responds. "Paimon is Paimon and this is the traveler!" Paimon greets, introducing the two by their respective names.

Well, kinda.

"Traveler?" She asks, raising a brow at the boy as she lowers her guard, releasing tension from the string and pointing her arrow to the ground. The two, in return, lower their hands and let out an audible sigh of relief. "Is that really what you go by?"