Chapter 1
~The Beginning~

One unusually bright evening, I sat, with a book in one hand, and my mp3 player in the other. I always did this on Saturdays, reading in my favorite park, the Tomaki, it’s the only time I get to myself. Tomaki Park is the most beautiful park I’ve ever seen. It has so many trees and so many flowers that you can smell them from miles.
Spring is just around the corner, so the park is more sensational than usual and I love this time of year. When the snow is just starting to melt and the flowers are peaking threw. It’s so rejuvenating; makes you feel like a child again and that is special to me because it reminds me of how great my childhood was and how much I was loved… But that was then, and this is now.

My name is Nakashima Linikoko, but my friends just call me Lin Ling. I live in a small city, named Tamyoko, in the country known as Yamoniku. Tamyoko is just the east of the bigger cities, like Mamiha, and Niniro, which is all on a little island south of Japan. We are small, so we don’t get to much notice, but we have a nice life here.

As I turned to look at a bird that was on the ground, I caught a glance at my watch. It read 13:02 p.m., which is about noon. I made plans with my good friend Ayu. We were to go eat lunch at the Kami Oka, which is a well know restaurant here in Tamyoko.

While I was walking by the Fokiko market (which Ayu and I call the “Fu Fu market”) Mr. Timiha called me over. He is a good friend of my fathers and he has known me since I was very little. “Mr. Timiha, you called me.”…
“Yes, my dear, I want you to take this to your father, it is very important. Please make sure he gets it, and please be careful with it.”
“No worries, Mr. Timiha, I will make sure he gets it.”
I continued on to my lunch with Ayu. Though I wonder what is in the package…? It mustn’t be that important for Mr. Timiha not to send it with his errand boy.