Naia Rosewood [APPROVED, 2-4]

Prologue: The Unborn Child
Naia was born with a mutation, which is believed to have happened while her mother was pregnant with her. Her mother was pregnant with her while in the forest outside Karakura town, when there was a sudden attack on her by some hollows. The hollows had injured her mother, and had sliced her body up. She was injured and bleeding, but knew that she had to continue on for her unborn child. She ran as fast as she could, but the hollows were faster than she was. They had caught her and continued to attack her. She had thought this was the end for her and her unborn child. There had been shinigami that protected this area that happened to be following this particular hollow. The shinigami happened to make it in time to save Naia's mother and slaughter the hollows. She was injured and unconscious, so the shinigami had healed her, and taken her to her home that was currently being built in the woods. She had awoken some time later near her home with her wounds (temporarily) healed, but she was tired from her encounter so she slept. But the following days, whenever she bled, her blood was an odd shade of purple. This was frightening because she didn't do anything that could affect her unborn child.

Chapter One: The Perfect House In The Woods.
A few months had passed and the house that was being built in the forest was completed. The building was huge with 5 bedrooms, an entire garden in the back, and there were a few extra rooms to spend time in. Everything seemed like it would be perfect, but not too long after the house's completion, Naia was born. Naia was born with deformations on her back which scared her family. She was never given a name from her family as they never talked to her. She was very young, and she didn't know what was wrong with her. She was very often ignored. Soon, outside family stopped coming to visit the house, as they grew afraid of what seemed to be forming on Naia's back. She was very young, and understood nothing at the time. Everyone that lived in the house also left except for Naia and her mother. Naia was often beat by her mother, who called her a monster because of the deformations growing on her back. Naia would be hurt and injured often, and left with scars. Naia's mother was afraid to touch, or even be near her. If Naia tried to approach her mother, she would attack her. Often times, when she would attack her, she would throw whatever object she could get her hands on and throw it at Naia. Once that had happened, she’d force Naia to clean up the mess that she had made. Naia would often cry while cleaning up her own blood and the broken object that would now exist on the floor. Her mother believed that little monsters shouldn't have the right to cry, so she would throw another object at her to shut her up. Naia would hide her tears, and clean up everything, then quickly get out of her mother's sight.

Chapter Two: The Coming Changes
Once Naia was 6 her mother had become quite ill, and died. She started off with a simple cold, but her condition had gradually worsened, to the point where she was bedridden, and had to ask Naia for help with things that were simple, but held a great detest for having to do so. Sometimes she couldn’t swallow food, sometimes liquids. She had an extremely high fever, and Naia was scared that her mother would attack her while she tried to help her. Naia’s mother would continually refuse any help from “the monster” after some time, since she believed that it was Naia’s fault that she was dying, and continually blamed her for this. On her final day though, Naia was coming into the room where her mother was, and her mother appeared completely pale and seemed close to death. Naia’s mother had called her over and, in a whisper, asked her “Why the hell were you born? Why have you cursed me so? You monster. You aren’t my daughter. I’ll never love a monster like you.” As she said these last words she pulled out a small piece of glass that she’d been keeping hidden till Naia was close enough, and attempted to stab her with the last of her strength. She had sliced Naia across the chest and died afterwards.

The Self-Proclaimed Herbologist.
Naia was now all alone in the big house. Naia spent most of her time in the garden tending to the plants. She cared for every single individual flower in the garden. She taught herself everything about the plants, and how to tend to them. She spent so much of her time growing different types, and making her own hybrids. She grew her own food to survive, and went out to the forest to gather more plants in order to have the upper hand in helping treat different ailments. She carefully grew these plants, to provide her with a strong constitution. She used plants to make tea, and used fruits as sweeteners, so she could have meals that could give her the sustenance needed to survive.

The New Tea.
Naia had studied the plants that were contained in her house's huge garden, and the house’s library with it’s collection of books. She read them as often as she could, and loved to read and learn. Her library contained books that had helped her learn a lot of new information. By this time she was 8 years old. Naia’s deformation had now formed to become something that looked like wings. It was believed that it was due to the hollows negative influence that had caused this mutation in her. One day, Naia had headed out to find a specific plant in order to try to make a new type of tea. She was running out of tea, and wanted some variety, so she wandered the forest looking for the new plant, avoiding the insects and other plants that seemed to be growing in the forest. She had spent most of the day in the forest, searching for the plant. When she had finally found it, in the moment she reached out to grab it, a mysterious, black, water orb landed on it and crushed the plant.

The Orb.
She panicked and backed away from it. She then figured out that it was harmless, so now it had piqued her interest. The orb seemed to be very dirty, like it had been rolling for a while. She took a huge interest in it, but worried more about the plant, since the leaves on the plant which she wanted to use for the tea were damaged. She carefully grabbed the leaves and ran home with both the leaves, and the orb. She was worried that the leaves would be rendered useless to make the tea, since she really wanted to try it. But when she got home the leaves seemed to have been crushed by her holding them too tightly. All she had left with her was the orb, so she cleaned it and placed it in her garden. She marveled at the beauty of the mysterious, clean, black, watery orb.

The Pattern.
For the following days, Naia had went into the forest to gather new plants to add to her garden. She returned to the spot where she had previously found the leaves, which happened to get crushed by the orb at the time. All that remained was a small stub of the plant. She knew if she took back the entire plant with her this time, and carefully avoided damaging the roots she could possibly regrow it. She dug the plant out, and placed it in a small pot she had brought with her. She walked around the area for a little bit before leaving. She wanted to make notes of what other plants existed in this area, so she could return the next day and gather more of the plants. Naia would return to the same area in the forest for a few days to gather the remaining plants in the area. As she gathered the plants, she began to notice a strange figure that seemed to appear while she was gathering the plants. The figure had frightened her, and she left when she had seen it. The next day she returned to this spot to gather more plants, and once she did, she’d spotted the figure once more. She wanted to know more about the figure, but she was afraid, so she moved a little bit closer but still stayed away. This same process continued the next day where she attempted to get closer to the figure, but was still fearful and stayed away from it.

On the third day, she returned to the same area to gather the last few croppings of an herb she had found. She had gotten too close to the figure while gathering the herbs, so that she could see that the figure was a male. The male seemed to have silver colored hair, and also seemed to be around the same age as her. His hair didn't seem to be a natural color, and the male had a strange stare which frightened her. The male had positioned his legs to sprint. She grew fearful of who the male might be after, so she ran away from him, but it seemed that the male was following her. She cut through trees and other obstacles, but the male seemed to have been much faster than her, because the obstacles didn't seem to slow him down, and he was right behind her. She had fallen over on a root, and the male had also fallen on top of her. She was frightened and was struggling to escape. The male was on top of her, restraining her, asking her about something which she didn't hear, nor did she want to hear. She just wanted to escape from his grasp. She squirmed and squirmed and struggled, until the male could no longer restrain her. She didn't answer to anything he had said. Once she had broken free, she ran as fast as her little legs could carry her till she got home. She was tired and afraid, so she spent the rest of the day sleeping. The following day she returned to gather herbs she had dropped, when she had spotted the male once more but could hardly see him. She was still scared of him, but wanted to know what this boy was up to. So day after day, she returned to the area hoping to see the boy to try to get closer to his location. After every visit, she would appear at a closer location to the boy. Then one day she came to the spot at a later time than usual and saw him all alone, sitting on a tree trunk. She wondered if he was waiting for her. She had taken the orb she had found not too long ago and decided she would give it to the boy, since she had no need for it, and thought the boy might like it. She sat beside the boy without him noticing, and placed the orb on his lap. This seemed to startle the boy as she silently placed the orb on his lap and sat there looking at her feet saying nothing. As she sat down on the same tree trunk that the boy sat on the he looked at her and told her that she had found his orb and asked her why had she ran away when he asked for his orb. Naia continued looking at her feet, struggling to answer. She tried to forced herself to give the boy an answer. “You’re scary", she had remembered how frightened she was when she saw the boy chased her. It still bothered her but that was what she thought of him, since she believed that the boy had no reason to chase her. The boy asked why he was scary to her. She had replied in a voice much more quiet than before, as if someone was listening and watching them as they spoke, that he had both hurt her, and chased her. It had appeared that the boy began laughing at her. Naia wondered why he was laughing. He told her that she had stolen his orb. The boy had folded his arms and exclaimed that they were even. Naia had no idea what the boy meant by that. She had stolen his orb? She had never stolen anything in her life. She had found the orb when she was gathering herbs and plants. How could she have stolen it? She pondered this as she looked down at the tree stump, and began scratching it with her nail. She tried to speak the first time, but stopped herself. She then muttered to herself for a moment, and then calmly stated that she had never stolen the orb, that she had found it while gathering plants, and that it had crushed her plant. She was really nervous while speaking to the boy, and was shaking a little while avoiding eye contact with him. The boy continued to question Naia, and asked her if his orb had crushed her plant. She responded by explaining that the orb did indeed crush her plant, but the orb had caught her eye with its beauty, and how it was also covered in filth. While she said this she had placed her hand on the orb where the boy’s hand was, which she didn't realize until shortly after, and her words became more stuttered as she spoke. The boy was quick to pick up on this, and mentioned it. He stated that it could be because of prolonged physical contact with him. It was strange that he simply said exactly what had just happened, as though he could read her mind. It seemed that the boy was staring at Naia’s wings. He told her that they weren’t normal, and asked her why she had them. Naia had turned her back away from the boy and looked directly at him. She was scared, and she didn’t know why. She asked him why he’d asked her, then paused out of fright for his answer. She truly was frightened. Finally, she continued her question, again asking why was he asking about her wings. She seemed to be bothered by the question and then asked him why his hair was an unnatural silver color. She had never seen anyone with this type of hair color, it just seemed unnatural to her and she wondered if this boy had dyed his hair this color. It seemed that the boy had grabbed some of his hair and began messing with it for a bit when he finally responded with how his hair was always this color.

The boy had asked Naia for her name. Naia had never expected to be asked this question. It completely came to her as a surprise. All she could remember was being called a monster by her mother. She didn't remember anything that could be called a name. She responded with that her name could be monster or girl since that was all she could remember being called growing up. She had taken some time to think about it. The boy responded with how she didn't seem like a monster, and that she just seemed to be shy, despite the fact that she had abnormal wings growing out of her back. The boy had stated that he could help with her name issue. Naia grew excited but was curious how he was going to help. Naia also asked the boy to introduce himself but he just laughed and told her that that only counts if the other person has a name to begin with, and didn’t tell her his name yet. The boy had asked her if she had a family name of some sort. Naia pondered once more to remember a name of some type but none of her family’s names came to her. The boy began asking about names that Naia might like to be her name. First he had asked if she would like the name Lydia. Naia stated that she didn’t like that name since she had heard it a lot and didn’t want to have a common name. The boy had asked if she would like the name Elizabeth. Naia hated this name because this was more common than Lydia and she wanted something different. The last name that the boy had asked Naia was the name she would keep for the rest of her life. The boy asked if she would like the name Naia. Naia was content with the name she received, and asked if it had a meaning, because she had never heard a name like this. The boy had stopped and pondered for a moment, and said that he believed that it meant either water nymph, or water faerie. Naia was excited, and wasn’t as shy around the boy any more. He had given her a gift no one else had given her, a name, something she can call her own. Something that would be part of her. Naia had then asked what they would do about her last name. The boy had asked her for her favorite flower. She couldn’t remember any of her favorite flowers, which saddened her, but then she had spotted a small red rose growing from the tree trunk. She responded with that her favorite flower was a rose. The boy had grabbed the flower, pulled it out of the trunk, and said words which surprised her while giving her the rose. The boy had told her “Rosewood, Naia Rosewood”, and said that it was a pleasure meeting her. He told her that his name was James William Caldwell. He told her that she could call him James.

After the encounter James went home. Naia had secretly followed James home, to learn where he lived. She had worn a robe with a hood to cover her face and wings. She followed him, taking the path where she would encounter the least number of people. Once she found out where James lived, she returned home as quickly as possible and placed a flower in a pot and rushed it over to James’ house. She snuck inside and left the flower somewhere where he would see it.

Naia was glad she finally had a friend. She happily greeted James whenever she had seen him. After a while she decided to show him her home, and gave him a tour of the garden, rooms, and library in the house. She was quite quiet and so was James, they had a strange bond, but, since they both were the quiet type, this seemed to have strengthened their bond. Rarely was there an occasion where something wasn't happening. There wasn't much noise in the house but on the rare occasion where James’ plans had failed, there was often a loud noise an associated with it. Naia would often disappear into the forest and would drag James along with her. Naia would inform James of all the wonders in the forest. Talking about this would bring a huge smile and excitement to her.

8 years had passed since then, and Naia continues to teach James about the wonders of the forest. The forest is filled with the hidden life of plants and animals. She was curious about how a person could not like the story of the forest and its plants. She would lecture him about every encounter they had with a plant, and its properties. There was no way a person wouldn't like that.