I got this idea from a chinese kid cartoon that I used to watch called Huluwa. If someone else has watched this cartoon as well, please let me know if I got a detail wrong. It's been years since I watched it in China. I will only be following this cartoon loosely though, so don't be too critical if you have indeed watched it.

"Are you okay with this, sis?" Ashley asked, fearful of what might happen in the small town of Forks that I was now exiling myself to.

"I'm fine, Ash. Tell Renee 'Thank you' for me, will you?"

Renee was our adopted mother, although when people assumed that she was my birth mother, I didn't correct them. There was too much hassle and the more lies we weaved, the harder it would be to keep them up.

Ashley was my sister of sorts. My six other siblings, including Ashley, and I weren't born the typical way, but I won't bore you with those details yet. Ashley had waving black hair that tumbled over her shoulders and bloodred eyes. When people asked about our eyes, we told them that our whole family loved to wear colored contacts, but we knew that that wasn't the truth. Her eyes indicated her ability to control fire.

Now boarding, flight to Seattle, Washington. Please have your ticket and passport ready at the terminal indicated.

A voice chimed over the intercom.

"Guess that's your sign to go, huh?"

I turned to the owner of the voice, which happened to be another of my sisters, Sophie. She also had black hair, but had light blue eyes instead of red. She controlled water.

"Yeah. Tell everyone that I'm sorry they couldn't come and that I already miss them. I promise to call or e-mail you guys with updates every chance I get."

I also had black hair and white eyes, but for the sake of my disguise I dyed my hair brown, bought brown contacts, and changed my last name from 'Orbis' to 'Swan', which was my supposed father's last name. I was being hunted. I had the ability to absorb other abilities like a sponge and use them at my will, although the same drawbacks applied once I absorbed them, if the original owner of the power couldn't turn off the power, then neither could I. That was why I was being hunted, they wanted my power.

0~0~0~0~0

An elderly man who went by the name 'John' hiked up a steep mountain behind his house alone. He was searching for something that he had caught a glimpse of the week before, a leaf. This was no ordinary leaf though, he knew that for certain.

With a shaking hand he reached up to grab hold of another rock, but when he went to hoist his weight up, the rock came loose and plummetted to the earth beneath him. John gulped and regained his footing, reaching for yet another rock. He repeated this movement many times, until he finally reached his destination, a cave. Scrambling inside, he continued his search and after many close encounters, came to the very center of the mountain. There, in a circle of pillars, lay the lone leaf that John had sought out.

He ran forward carefully and snatched the leaf up in a gentle hand. He ran back the way he came, more alert and ready for the more unstable places in his path. Once he came to the mouth of the cave, he balked, unsure of how to climb down without the risk of losing his precious leaf.

"Would you like a refreshment or pillow ma'am?"

I looked over blearily at the stewardess that stood at my side with a polite smile.

"No. Thank you for asking though." I said shortly, trying not to sound bitter toward the girl who had jerked me from my dream state of sleep.

The girl nodded and walked off to ask the person in front of me and I leaned back to regain my state of unconciousness.

The old man climbed down carefully, yet more care free than before. He had found the solution to his problem. He had merely tucked the delicate thing in the book that he carried in his knapsack. He felt stupid for not thinking of this solution faster.

After an uneventful climb back down and trek back to his house, John strode to the base of one of the poles that he used to dry his clothes out on the line. Digging a shallow hole, he placed the leaf in and buried it in a thin layer of dirt. He then watered the spot like he would any other freshly planted seed and sat back on the balls of his feet to examine his work. With a satisfied smile he went inside his small cabin and turned in for the night.

The next day John walked outside and looked on in shock and awe at what he saw before him. A vine stretched from the base of the pole that he had planted the leaf the day before and and crawled along the wire that attached the two poles and wrapped itself securely around the opposite post. Dangling from the vine were 8 gourds, each a different color.

As he watched in stunned silence, the red gourd started to wiggle and a crack appeared in the middle. Then in a bright flash of light appeared, then it faded and disappeared. Where the red gourd once hung, there was a young girl around the age of 7 standing under the vine with the red gourd in her delicate hand. A ring of fire appeared around her and a thin stream of flame poured from the tip of her gourd.

"I'm Ashley." The girl spoke.

Please put on your seatbelts as we begin our decent.

The voice of the pilot stirred me once again from my sleep. I sighed.

My new life was beginning.