It feels like flying as my Da tosses me high in his arms.

The child I am takes flight. I laugh out loud and tumble through the air, a grin on my grubby face.

My soul soars beyond the mountains surrounding me and I feel the power of my imagination and my freedom. This is my gift. Somehow more than the strange magic my sister balances on her finger tips, or the brute strength commanded by my brother. I am the dreamer, my Da tells me. My power is to imagine a better world and to make it a reality. My power is responsibility and duty. This is his charge and my purpose. But I laugh, and get distracted by the fireflies in the evening glow, my face all innocence and childish glee.

Years have passed since then and my Da has gone. Left me in his place. But I am not my father...I try to fill the place he left in our lives and fail to prosper...and my mother hates me for it.

Blindly, I set my feet upon a road that will change my life forever, never guessing it will take us away from the land of my childhood. We flee the fire and the death, my only thought to protect the family my Da has left behind. We run with nothing but our memories and our lives to preserve. Without the strength of my brother or the magic of my sister it is my responsibility to keep my family safe. I am uniquely Rose. A barbed flower. My own weapon is deadly resolve.

The path is arrow straight. No twists or turns. No opportunity to turn aside. A never ending journey into horror. Creatures beyond my nightmares assault us and my brother falls at my feet. His life ripped from him before I can comprehend what has happened. In the silence that follows my mother's eyes tell me I will never find retribution or forgiveness. I am responsible for this. I think it happens then, as I look down in heart broken horror at the broken body of my brother; as my sister gazes at me with misplaced hope. My childish dreams burn, the ashes fluttering a farewell and wistful dance in the wind.

I turn away from the two women beside there and then and forever. Never again will my heart rule.

Cold, hard, silence.

I am a blunt weapon.

I am hollow.

I feel my sister's hand on my shoulder and wince against the touch that forces me back to myself. I'm still needed. I still have purpose. I look into my sister's eyes and taste her fear. Such power – yet she can't release it without me. She can command the elements, whisper to the powers of the universe...but not without my say so...she needs the strength my father left in me...my inheritance and my burden.

I am the vessel of my mother's hate...and my sister's touch stone. I exist for their sake and no longer for my own. I turn from the shell that was my brother and set my feet upon another path, just as unrelenting as the last. I see a world ahead of us and I turn my eyes towards it, and I am remade.

I am Hawke, and Rose no longer.

XXX

Thanks to Mephy for reminding me of something, and to Setrus for everything else.