Finding the Fallen

Prologue

She never intended for this to happen. Kala believed that sentiment even if no one else did. The Cleansing was meant to bring peace to the human world, despite the harsh nature of the event...and return natural order to the planet. Her Servants were presented with unparalleled power so they could accomplish Her goals and set the world back on the right path. But the Darkness that had taken so many of them was hiding in the shadows all along...from the very beginning.

-The beginning-

Kala Monroe was like every other human on planet Earth...she ate, slept, worked, loved...and sinned. But Kala sinned in a different way than most. She did not consider herself a religious woman despite her fairly strict upbringing. She did, however, happily embrace her Native American heritage. For her, it was a matter of choice for one and chance for the other.

If you looked close enough, you could see Kala's ancestry in her high cheekbones and long, black hair. But she also had a considerable dose of Irish in her blood from her father's side of the family, making her a genetically conflicted individual. Her hair was the black of her Native people, but so full (from the Irish side) that people often didn't see the other half of her ancestry at all. To most, she was just another mixed breed American.

Kala grew up in a typical Christian family. She went to church with her half-Cherokee mother and listened politely to what the pastor said. In high school, she was a loner...too smart for her own good. Being extremely unpopular was the cross she bore for 4 long years until she graduated and headed south to a new world: college. It was only then Kala realized her true calling...conservation. She wasn't so naive that she believed she could change the world on her own, but she hoped to make some small strides that might lead others to make the bigger changes. She chose education as her medium.

As she studied and advanced step by step, she discovered Paganism. It didn't take her long to realize she had always been a Pagan at heart, even all those years when she sat quietly in that tiny church back home in Oklahoma. She studied the teachings of Gaia, her Native American ancestors, and even Hinduism. Within 4 years, she had garnered a Bachelor of Science degree in wildlife conservation and was ready to enter the real world and make her mark.

She took a job at a state park in mid-Missouri and moved to a small town nearby. The town was a tiny speck on the Earth, and most of its people were of the Christian faith. Kala respected their views, but was often mildly annoyed when she found herself drowning in gossip on such a scale as to put her Aunt Liza to shame. Liza was the Queen of Gossip back home in Oklahoma, and although the constant chatter could be hard to take at times, it did often remind her of family.

Living in that pool of waxing and waning Christianity was not her choice, but Kala was a park naturalist, and she had to go where the parks were. Although her own Pagan studies and worship never waned, she kept her personal life to herself. As a result, she lived alone by choice, not just because she would likely be branded as a witch or worse if the locals discovered her secret, but also because decent boyfriends were hard to find in that particular neck of the woods.

Despite her non-existent personal life, Kala was very good at her job. She was often recognized in the local grocery store by children who had come to the park for a school field trip and learned about frogs or caves or trees or bats. She was the "Frog Lady," the "Cave Lady," the "Tree Lady," and the "Bat Lady," her personal favorite.

Regardless of her popularity in the public eye, she never revealed her true personality or her Pagan tendencies. Her job was similar to that of an actress...only she also strived to plant seeds of hope in the young minds of her visitors. Kala was young herself, and she was a firm believer in education for the future. She was certain her teachings would help the next generation come to understand the plight the planet faced and find solutions to make everything right with the world.