The Lotus Beetle

Prologue

Warnings: Fall of an empire and what comes with it. Attempt murder of an infant.

***

Before the absolute monarchy, various castles were erected throughout the land. Some grand and some homely. In the beginning their attention was inward, focused on developing and establishing what made them unique.

Through the progression of time eventually the self made powers toppled over one another one by one. Their drive to become a great singular glory destroyed many beneath them.

Four kingdoms reached out to one another temporarily joining their power to quell the significant giant that had threatened them. With their combined resources they were able to establish a long spell of safety.

Of these 4 kingdoms, one is where we called home. We were servants of our lords, we tended their gardens and grew herbs for medicine. At first we were only a collection of strangers who worked together, but we started to care for each other like family.

We worshipped our lords like our own elders, and they valued our service and bestowed gifts for our good works. Eventually our family grew, and with the new skills that were born were we able to produce higher quality goods, build complex contraptions, and finer quality medicine.

When our young prince became critically ill, with our knack for medicine we were able to bring him away from death. We were rewarded for that good service and were finally bestowed our name. That is how we became known as the Miyahara clan.

Happy we were for 2 generations, before the south attacked and our kingdom was left to rubble. Our clan had fled in fear after our lords were murdered and hung on stakes for all to see. After the enemy left, we were finally able to return home only to be welcomed by ruins and rotting corpses.

We buried the dead, and performed a ritual fire for what was left of our lords remains. A week was spent in broken mourning, and after our tears had finally dried we pack what little we could find. All of us recovered what seeds remained in our garden, and each of us picked one stone from the piles around us that used to be of the castle.

From the ruins of our village we ascended up the mountains, leaving the outside world behind, we promised ourselves never to return to the world below, for there was nothing left to keep us tethered.

**°**

The journey to our new home far up in the mountains was when we evolved to become who we are today.

With the birth of our first clan head, and her mother who left her to die, was the catalyst that gave us our unique power.

She was with child and had given birth prematurely due to the strain of traveling and the stress we all felt from losing our home.

Unknowing to when and if the individuals we sent out would return from their hunt, there became a scarcity of food and supplies. The environment was unpredictable, and the mother was forced to make a difficult decision, and took her child away from the group and deeper into the woods alone.

She came across a pond. As she stood in it's stagnant depth she quaked with sobs and nestled her nose into her baby's hair. She whispered her sorrow to the child, and then she lowered the babe, and drowned her.

As the child desperately flailed in her hands below she made the mistake of looking down. The mother's cries ripped through the forest, haunted echoes like the call of death. The child was barely moving when she lifted her from the water, the mother frantically tried to help her baby breathe again.

When the child finally was able to breathe she let loose a wail for the second time since her birth. As the baby screamed the mother noticed a greenish glow the child's figure was giving off, and her eyes widened as a pinkish birthmark grew between her child's brows. It was the shape of a flower bud.

The mother held her baby close to her chest, placing her head in the crook of her neck. She stood there for a good while until her trembling grew faint, and she whispered,

"I will name you Midoriko"

And thus our beginning.

**°**

Thanks to my wife for helping me adjust my Yoda speech and being my beta reader.

I hope the opening was interesting and y'all continue on with the rest of the story.