Chapter One

I never really thought about leaving the beach. It was my home, a place where I could feel safe. I didn’t know much about tradition, but somehow I knew that you simply don’t leave home. It’s your safe house, your refuge, your own little corner of the world. Outside, the world is a different place than you’re used to at home. So why leave?

Of course, home is just as safe as the rest of the world. The imaginary barriers we place around the place we call home are just as strong as those around what someone else considers to be their home. If our home provides for our needs, we’re content enough to stay with it. Why leave when everything you need is at home?

The small stretch of beach was all I really needed to survive, and maybe even lead a happy life. The trees grew food for me, the ocean gave me a place to bathe, and the soft sand gave me a place to rest. My days were spent sitting sand, looking over the ocean and simply thinking. When the mind is a place of endless possibility, an empty mind such as my own finds it very easy to lose itself in thought.

My name is Elza. I named myself after I found it written on a note which had been tossed on the sand by the ocean. I don’t have any memories of the past. I don’t know if I’ve simply forgotten, or if I don’t have a past to tell about. My earliest, and possibly first, memory is slowly opening my eyes and gazing up at the blue skies above me. In that instant, I knew I was alive. From there, it has been a life filled with questions without answers.

But no one can lead a life without answers for long. I soon began to desire to leave the beach, my home, my refuge. While the sands and oceans around me would always be my home, they could not provide the answers for the questions I had. The world around me was large, but it certainly held answers. The jungle beyond the beach called to me, speaking languages I had never heard before. I was determined to answer its call. Standing up, I brushed myself off and began to walk.