[quote=@Balthazar007] If the shrine were larger and not made of wood, Eden surely would have heard an echo. As it was however, she was greeted by nothing more than silence. And so, after an appropriate moment of silence, she continued her way into the shrine to get her things settled. It was a dull and lonely first night, as Eden had nothing else to do than wipe dust off old furniture and sweep up. She was getting ready for bed when the distant sound of thunder began to rumble the small shack. [i]Would the shrine hold up if it rained hard?[/i] She had to wonder. But strangely enough, the rain never came. Even as the sound of thunder and flashes of lightning become more frequent and intense, not a single drop fell from the sky. Then, with one final crash and blinding flash, it all stopped. Naturally, Eden went out to the front door of the shrine to look, to make sure everything outside was okay. Luckily, all seemed well. Besides a few small tree limbs that had fallen in the wind, there wasn't much damage to be seen, not in the dark of night at least. Most importantly, there were no wildfires due to lightning strikes and no rain. As Eden walked back into the shrine, a soft glow caught her eye, a glow that wasn't there before she stepped outside. It was her grandmother. She stood in the corner of the main sitting area. A pale-gold light emanated from her body, as she wore the same robes that Eden had last remembered her in. She wasn't see through like some sort of ghost; she was solid, unmistakably there. [b]"Welcome back, little one."[/b] 'Little one', that was something Eden hadn't heard in a while. It was what her grandmother had always called her, even after she'd outgrown the small woman. [/quote] [center] [h2] [color=D87093] Eden Tal [/color] [/h2] [/center] [hr] As Eden looked around outside she looked a bit confused, she had rarely ever seen thunder without storms here and it would most always end in something nearby burning. She didn't put much thought into it though, it was best not to question gods gifts. She looked up at the sky for a few moments more, seeing nothing out of the ordinary she turned and hurried back inside. She was about to return to cleaning up the shrine, when she noticed the strange glow out of the corner of her eyes. She was never one to be scared of unnatural things, she was a shrine maiden for christ sake. Her lack of fear for the supernatural and the calmness in her that could never seem to be disturbed brought her towards the light, hoping to figure out what was going on. The figure became clear as soon as those words exited her mouth, the towel she had been holding fell to the floor as she stared in disbelief at the woman she recognized to be her grandmother. Trembling fingers reached towards the old woman, Eden couldn't believe what she was seeing. "Ma? Is... Is that you?" Her breath hitched in her throat as she began speaking, then, the first tear rolled down her cheek, all the others came flooding out like a tsunami. She knew she didn't look pretty right now, but she couldn't care for her appearance in such a moment. She rubbed her nose with her sleeve to try to stop the snot that was beginning to leak and forced herself to smile at her, this might be the last chance to see her, and Eden most certainly didn't want to leave her the image of a sniveling mess with snot running down her face.