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A small girl, alone... frightened... wandering by herself in the dark  wilderness that surrounded her. Spruce trees towered before her, letting  in only sparse dots of light that managed to touch the brown forest  floor beneath the girl's feet. She was crying, her one small hand up to  her small eyes and rubbing them gently. She was only 3 years old. A  toddler, barely even able to walk on her own two feet. The sounds of  howling and ominous bird calls had filled the air as the child trudged  on into the growing darkness. She gasped when a flock of birds had  screeched and jumped out of a bush to take to the skies, her dark green  eyes flickering with the painful fear and terror that welled in her  chest. She really was alone out here...

For  several hours, the young toddler had tripped and stumbled over the  ground as her strength started to dim, and eventually, she passed out.  She collapsed onto the ground with a harsh thud, and even with the  darkness and the rising moon peeking through the branches of the trees,  her own mind slipped into a deeper abyss that lead to her the dark world  of unconsciousness.

A man in his mid-thirties was making his  way through the forest, the light of an oil lamp illuminating just the  upper half of his body. He was carrying an axe of some kind as well, his  dark eyes scanning the misty horizon. It was awfully quiet for a forest  as dark as this, and even the man had come to notice this. He had lived  in this area for years, and never had it been this quiet before. A  sneaking sense of dread was starting to creep its way into the man's  mind, but as he continued to walk, he had suddenly hit something with  the front of his boot, gasping out in surprise and eyes wide. When he  took a swift step back and lowered the oil lamp just a bit, what he saw  send a sharp chill to shoot up his spine and his heart to just drop to  the pit of his stomach.

The young girl laid there on the ground,  weak and incapable. Her dull green hair was matted and decorated with  sticks and leaves that were sticking out, and her breathing was  extremely slow. Her once soft face was relaxed though, as if she had  found some kind of peace in being able to escape from the reality of  being alone. Her eyelids shifted a bit. She was dreaming.  

At  that, the man quickly dropped his axe and leaned down, scooping the  toddler up in one arm and holding her carefully. Even if he was afraid,  it wasn't because of finding this child out here. It was because he was  worried of what might happen to her, what monsters had left her out in  the woods alone. A welling of both irritation and concern was rising in  the man's chest. He quickly tried to readjust the limp child in his arms  so he could carry her easily, his breath shortening just a bit as he  watched her with furrowed brows.

"Hey... Hey, it's alright... I have  you............. It's okay... I'm here for you now..." He whispered to  her tenderly, before making a turn back to where he had come from. The  poor thing... He didn't want to just up and leave her out here by  herself... What creature could do such a thing? Abandoning their own  child... It made the man sick to his stomach just to think about it. He  had to get home and take care of this girl. He just HAD to.

As the man's footsteps were swallowed by the darkness and expansive forest, his axe was to be forgotten.

"Emilia!  Emilia!!" The man's voice echoed across a grassy hill top as he came  running up. Heavy panting and sweat were mixed in with his harsh  footsteps, the child still unconscious in his arms. When the man finally  arrived at what appeared to be a quaint little log cabin, he bursted  through the door and caused his wife to gasp out in surprise. She was  standing in the small kitchen area, eyes wide as she looked over at the  duo.

"Good heavens, Laurence! What's the-" But she gasped once  again when she saw the child, and she instantly ran over, her hands  holding her long skirt so she wouldn't trip over herself. "By the gods!  Is this a child!?"

The man nodded quickly and ran over to put  the girl on a nearby couch. "Yeah! I found her out in the woods! Damn  lunatics leaving a kid out there...! Who would do such a thing?!" He  hissed.

Emilia gave a worried look to her husband as she hurried off towards a shelf and picked up a couple of spare blankets.

"It's  harsh to believe, but there really are people like that, Laurence...  Let's just be glad that we managed to find her before any of the wolves  or bears got to her." She said, hurrying back and wrapping the blankets  around the child.

Laurence just let out a heavy sigh and rubbed  his temples, before he stood up. "I'm going to make her something to  eat." He murmured lowly, walking over to the kitchen, his boots thudding  against the wooden floor.

Emilia glanced at him before looking  back to the little girl, stroking her head gently. The child squirmed a  bit and inhaled with a shudder, before she sighed and relaxed again,  still asleep. Emilia watched her with a small smile. For a while, the  two had never had any children. They had always tried so many times, but  there were never any results. Emilia knew that Laurence always wanted a  son, but... for Laurence to bring her back must have been a sign.  Emilia was grateful that her husband was such a caring man, and with  that now, a caring father. She too, however, wanted a child, and with  this little girl's appearance, she knew that they weren't far off from  having one now.

The next morning, the young girl  awakened, inhaling slowly and catching the scents of smokey wood and  some sort of food from the kitchen. As she rubbed her dark green eyes to  clear up her vision, her stomach let out a loud growl. Whimpering  gently, she held her stomach and started to look around.

The  cabin she was in was very cozy and small. With the kitchen on the  right-hand corner from where the toddler was laying on the couch, it was  only a good 10 or so feet away from her. A fireplace was placed against  the wall that was close to the couch, and it was lit, the warmth  illuminating and resonating throughout the cabin.

The rest of  the area was just closed but spacious, with a few tables here and there  that had various items placed on them. There was a single door that was  directly across from where the front door was. Possibly a way to the  back yard or something. There were other doors here and there along the  walls, possibly bedrooms or a bathroom. The air, though a bit humid, was  still warm and cozy for the little girl. The walls were all made of  full logs, untouched by human hands, for the most part. Some of the bark  was still peeling off of the trunks, but none of the residue was on the  floor. One of them must clean very often, for even the hardwood  flooring of the cabin was neat and shining. To the little girl, this was  like a form of heaven. She had never seen a place such as this, nor has  she ever been in such caring hands.

As she looked around in  awe, she heard a small gasp come from Emilia, who stood in the kitchen  nearby and started to make her way over to her, a bowl of soup being  carried in her hands.

"Hello there, dear... Did you have a nice rest?" She asked, smiling tenderly at the little girl.

The  toddler blinked for a moment as she watched Emilia, taking in her  features. She was a woman of about her mid-thirties, with short, dark  brown hair, and bright, green eyes. She seemed to have an amount of wear  on her skin, rough callouses forming on her knuckles and even her face  had a few small scars. Though with that said, just from her gentle smile  alone, she was a mature woman, who still had a ways to go before truly  showing her age.

The  young girl simply nodded when she was asked that question, before  rubbing her eyes once again. Emilia smiled lightly at the girl, before  sitting down beside her and taking a wooden spoon out.

"Here... I made you some soup... Drink up, alright? You must be hungry.."

The girl looked at the soup and her stomach growled once again, causing Emilia to lightly chuckle at that.

"Aww... here, I'll feed you." She said, dipping the spoon in the soup and starting to feed the toddler.

The  little girl smiled lightly as she opened her mouth and drank the soup,  already feeling her stomach ease and warm up from the food. Emilia  smiled lightly as she fed the young child, before hearing her husband  coming in through the front door, shuddering a bit and leaning a shotgun  against the wall. He took his coat off and sighed, before he rubbed his  hands together and looked over at his wife and the girl. The duo both  looked over at him, the little girl staring and taking in his features  as she was still being fed.

This man was rather tall and coming  through the years as well, and his build was somewhat expected of a  woodsman. His hair, though light brown in color at the tips, was shaved  down along the sides and back of his head, giving it a darker shade.  Either way, it was rather short. His eyes were a dark brown and his jaws  and cheekbones were subtly defined against his face. He looked like a  robust man, but still had a softness to him, especially around his eyes  and mouth. His hands looked roughly calloused, and a bit of stubble was  shading his jawline.

"Cold out there, Laurence?" Emilia asked, returning her gaze to the girl.

"Awfully  cold. I should have worn my gloves." He said with a gruff voice.  Though, when he spotted the little girl, his expression softened a bit  and he approached, his heavy boots thudding against the hardwood  flooring. "Hey there little one... You doing okay?" He asked, his  gruffness still a bit present, but now subtly having a bit of tenderness  that he displayed when he found her out  in the forest.

The  little girl nodded shyly at him, her dark green eyes shimmering a bit as  she watched him with a lowered tilting of her head. Laurence gave a  gentle smile to her and chuckled, walking over beside his wife and  kissing her on the cheek. She gave a subtle blush and smile to him,  before continuing to feed the girl.

"So... Do you have a name, little one?" Laurence asked, raising a brow at the little girl.

She  took another drink of the soup as she listened to his question, before  she leaned back a bit and tried to think. She didn't remember much, but  she did remember the man who left her out here. She remembered his dark  smile, the way his glasses would blind her in the artificial lighting...  the way his piercing olive-green eyes would paralyze her small body...  The way his hands would grasp onto her wrists, never letting her go...

With  a visible shudder that both adults caught, the little girl shook her  head, and a small, strained frown coming to her lips. Emilia and  Laurence both looked at one another with slightly worried expressions  for a moment, before they looked back to the frightened girl. Emilia  gave a warm smile and put her hand against the little girl's shoulder.

"Well... if you don't have one... We can come up with one for you, okay?"

The  girl looked at them for a moment as her eyes glimmered with a ray of  hope, and both Laurence and Emilia for a moment, had that caring aura to  them. The girl had never really experienced such a thing in her life  before. Then again, being as young as she was and still unable to  process many things, she still had that primal instinct flowing within  her. These people cared for her. They wanted to protect her, and the  little girl could feel that. For a moment, the toddler gave a smile back  to them and nodded, feeling a happiness flood her chest. She knew that  this was going to be a family that would love her, she could just feel  it.

"How does... Quetzia... sound?"