The storm came without warning. The sky darker than midnight, the fog in the forest was getting thicker and harder to see through. The rain, spilling as if filled with rage, but somehow the forest felt alive, filled with warmth.
"Hurry, Fredrick. If we don't move faster, the path will flood," said Anna, holding onto a worn out lantern that may go off at any moment.
"I am moving," he muttered, shielding his face from the rain. "You think I like it here?"
Anna shot him a glance. "You always say that, but somehow you're slower than the storm itself."
He huffed. "Maybe because of someone who insisted we take the river route at night."
Before Anna could reply, something faint broke through the storm — a cry, soft and distant. Both froze.
"Did you hear that?" Anna whispered.
Fredrick frowned, scanning the dark forest. "Hear what? The wind?"
"No," she said firmly. "That was a baby. A child's cry."
Fredrick's grip on the lantern tightened. "Anna… don't. You know what people have been saying — about strange things in these woods.
Anna took a slow step forward, What if it's real? What if someone's child is out there, dying in the cold?"
"Or what if it's a trap?" he said, his voice low.
She turned to him, her face lit faintly by the lantern. "Since when do we let fear decide who we are, Fredrick? I won't walk away from a cry for help."
He sighed heavily, "why don't you ever listen to me."
well it's not like you didn't know this before you married me she said, already stepping off the path.
Fredrick cursed under his breath, then followed, the light shaking as the wind passed by .
"Anna, wait! Please wait, fredick said trying to catch up with her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"There! Honey," Anna said. Behind a tree in a dark corner lay a child, wrapped in silk as dark as midnight. Her pale skin, almost turning white because of the rain, still it glowed.
"Goodness!" Anna gasped. "How could a child be out here? In the storm?"
She walked straight towards the baby without hesitation and took her in her arms.
"Fredrick, look, it's a girl," Anna said, holding out her arms so he could see better.
For a moment, her eyes opened — a piercing shade of black with deep red — then, in a moment, faded and turned golden red.
Fredrick, who saw this, hesitated for a moment. "She's not human, Anna. We should keep her back to where she was found."
As they were debating whether or not to take the child, a soft cry came from the corner where the baby was found — a woman with a silver horn on the side of her head, covered in white silk. Beneath was a skin as white as snow, but part of it was bathed in red.
"Blood," Anna gasped.
"She is not human! We should get out of here," Fredrick said.
But before they could take a step, the woman cried again — this time more human, more desperate, and hopeful.
"Please… the child… please take her with you,she has done wrong, yet is being punished like this.Can fate be less cruel? Please… I know i can't be saved, I'm dying, I know… but please, give the child a chance to experience love, because what the future holds for her, who knows, who knows…"
Then at that moment, there was no movement, no heartbeat — only a pale, cold body lying on the muddy ground and the sound of the fierce wind passing by~She was dead.
Quickly, Fredrick covered Anna's eyes.
"Dear, let's get out of here," Fredrick said, taking the baby from Anna, about to put her back when the wind blew again, causing the baby to shiver — weak, hungry, and helpless.
Anna, not caring about whatever decision her husband had made, took the baby from her husband's hands into hers protectively.
"No, don't leave her," she said. "She would die. She's ours now," she whispered, clutching on to baby a bit more. "Whatever she is, God brought her to us."
Her name would be Lila.
And so, that was the beginning of the child found beneath the raging storm — she became Lila Fredrick Azael, daughter of the village chief.
And for sixteen years, the night of the Rain was just a story…
Until the storm returned.
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