Background

Dahlia grew up with her parents in Romania. her parents traveled in a wandering caravan selling flowers and anything they could make while on the road. Dahlia grew up on the land going out picking wild herbs for medicine and wildflowers she found pretty. she would bring them back to her mother who would always hold onto them for her. Her father would take her out hunting with him. teaching her the ways of the land. how never to take more then she needed. dahlia would take these lessons to heart. she was always running around camp playing pranks on the adults with the other kids almost like she was living in her own world she created. when she turned 10 her father developed pneumonia. being as they didn't have a normal way of treating it there. dahlia would start bringing her father the flowers instead. he would die later that winter. he was tired man in the end. dahlia refused to see him in another way then the man who smiled at her. they would have to pack up their belongings and move to America. when the revolution began in Romania. they would board a ship where dahlia would help out a tailor on the boat sewing pretty flowers into the sailors' hats. none of them had the heart to ever take them out. dahlia hated the sea there was nowhere to run no forests to get lost in. she would find her own fun like she did in Romania when she was a kid. playing pranks on sailors. hiding their equipment or drawing on their supplies. still, nobody wanted to take this girl out of her own little space of joy. when they finally arrived in Boston, dahlia and her mother started to do what they always did. her mother would set up a flower stall. selling bouquets. dahlia would run around the city patching up peoples clothing mainly the homeless. they made enough to get by and survive. although they were very poor dahlia never cared about money, she just enjoyed life. when the rifts happened, dahlia was scared. no longer was her little world so simple anymore. making her way out of Boston. dahlia her mother and a small group of survivors started making their way towards Kentucky. someone mentioned they had family there saying there was a cavern system in a mall where people could be safe. for a month they traveled on foot with this group. dahlia helping where she could patch clothes, wound, or getting herbs. when the unspeakable happened. days away from Knox a huge rift opened leading tons of rifters through even one they never seen before. it tore through there group. dahlia frightened grabbed her father's hunting knife and hat ready to fight but her mother shouted at her to run. dahlia froze not knowing what to do. her mother started to be overrun yelling the whole time for dahlia to run. she finally nodded in tears. she would grab what little bags she had and ran. she would flee for days and days. only resting when she knew it was clear. when she finally arrived at the mall's gates, she would fall too her knees. crying she would pick up a wildflower and stare at it. her new life was about to begin.