Arawyn Creilayl Arnaen "Rainfire"

"She is the One. She has been prophecized."

Arawyn ran. She ran harder and faster than she ever had. She raced past the Creoul priests, all of them wrapped in dull gray robes and ignoring the girl racing like hell through the stone corridors.

She had lived in this Abbey all her life, and now she was running from it, for the same reasons that she had come.

The Abbey was an enormous castle, housing over 3,ooo priests. And Arawyn. It's numerous stone passages and halls were well known to her, as she had explored them several times when she was younger.

The Priests did not like to venture out of the castle, and so they seldom did. Whenever she played inside, there would always be a priest willing to spend some free time entertaining her, but when she was outside she was sure to be on her own. The only people outside in the pastures were the farmers and animal caretakes hired to provide food and other neccesities for the Abbey.

The Abbey of Nine, as it was former called, or Abbey de Ornain. She was the only child in the entire place. It was often very lonely, as all the priests were busy with their work and their writing and their memories, and over time they played with her less and less. She began to hate the solemn stone walls and venture out often into the fields, where she knew she could get away.

The Abbey Lands were enclosed by high walls, and the fields stretched out for miles. Yet not everyone heeded the walls, which served as heavy warnings. Many gypsies and nomads camped by the farthest edge of the Abbey Lands, and every now and then she would see one or two of the children. They were very good at hiding.

When she was nine a group of gypsies had kidnapped her. It had been the first time she'd been out of those high walls. But it was not going to be the last. The priests of Ornain would not come get her, of course, they hardly noticed her disappearance. They figured she was staying outside for a time. While staying with the gypsies, who were very nice, she learned that her name, Arawyn, meant "Rainfire", and that there was a prophecy about her. But the gypsy woman did not tell her what about. A young gypsy boy about the same age as her gave her her first nickname. Arie.