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Name :

Zia Reidens

Age :

14

Gender :

Female

Power :

Control of Nature and Access to their Life Force

Power Description :

Zia's power stems from the life in trees and in other plants. When she is around the trees (also other plants, but I don't really want to right that down, it's long) she is able to manipulate them. Her manipulation has no negative effects on the trees, unless she uses them in a way that could cause them harm (such as for firewood). The only limitations on her powers over trees are that the trees have to be very alive, therefore she is stronger in the springtime, when the trees are blooming and blossoming. The life in the trees is the source of all of her power, so in cold climates or in areas with few trees she is practically powerless. It is for that reason that it took her so long to realize that she had a power. The other aspect of Zia's power is her ability to heal. Her healing is also directly related to the life in trees (and plants, again); when she heals an injury or cures someone of an illness she is restoring their health by transferring the trees life directly from it to the person Zia is healing. The transfer of life and energy, however, will either completely kill or age the tree to the point where it is barely alive. Zia hates using the healing aspect of her powers because of the sacrifice of the trees and plants. She has only used her manipulation powers a few times, in most cases without meaning too, and has only used the healing power once.

Apperance :

Zia slight, but she is fairly tall, approximately 5’ 8’’, even though she is only 14. Because of her height many people mistake her for being older. She is often asked what grade in high school she is in, even though she is only in 7th, and on one notable occasion she was mistaken for an under-grad. Despite her height , Zia looks very young. She has big brown eyes, and she has a small mouth with unusually pink lips. She has a few freckles across her nose and cheeks, but they are so scarce they are practically invisible on her face. Zia has long brown hair that waves down past her shoulders. The ends are ragged, because she gave herself a short haircut 4 years ago and hasn’t cut her hair since. Her parents try to insist that she trim it again, but Zia sees no problem with the unsightly ends, and many don’t notice because the rest of her hair is much healthier looking. Zia has small feet calloused feet, the result of constant dancing for the last 11 years. The soles of her feet are also hard because she spends most of her extra time walking in the woods, barefoot, when it is warm enough. Zia is very self-conscious about a scar at the top of her right leg. The scar wraps around the outside edge of her leg, and cuts downwards about two inches on her thigh. The scar is fully healed, but it is very red, and it pulls the skin around it down, forming a small valley on Zia’s leg. As a result, she never wears short-shorts, or any other kind of clothing that would show the scar. Zia usually wears boots with a fleece lining, in cold weather, and light sandals when it is warm. She has a massive collection of rope bracelets on her right ankle and left arm, the result of lots of time spent indoors with little to do but crafts. She usually wears jeans with long underwear underneath, and long-sleeved shirts with sweaters and hoodies, or shorts and light long sleeved shirts in good weather. She had a scarf, hat, and glove set that she is attached to and always wears in cold weather. Each piece of the set is purple with a green stripy pattern wrapping around.

Personality :

Zia is a quiet, shy girl who has difficulty getting close to people. She is easy to talk to, and she could spend hours talking to a complete stranger. After the conversation, however, whoever Zia is talking to will walk away knowing no more about her than when the conversation started. She chooses to isolate herself from others out of fear of losing people she cares about. It wasn’t always that way though; before Zia’s powers showed themselves in the incident when she was 13, she was an incredibly outgoing and social person. Zia used to have plenty of good friends and a small group of best friends, but she began to push them away and turn down invitations until they stopped inviting her. Over the period of six months Zia changed from a social butterfly to a complete loner. At times Zia still acts like she might be willing to reach out, but at the slightest hint that the relationship or friendship might lead to sadness, Zia quickly gets cold feet. Zia’s only solace is the outdoors, and, whatever the weather may be, she can be found walking through the forest. The woods are the best place for a loner like Zia, in her opinion, because the trees won’t leave her. They are the constant in her life.

History :

Zia lives in Yukon, Canada with two sisters, Peri and Shannon, and her parents, Nathan and Donna. They have lived there since Zia was four years old. Before they lived in Yukon, the Reidens’s lived in Sacramento, California. They left the state (and country) when Zia’s powers were revealed at three years old (though they weren’t recognized as powers, just an unexplainable incident). The Reidens settled down in Canada, and they never left the country since they arrived. Occasional trips to other provinces were the extent of the children’s trips and vacations. Zia went all the way through elementary school and into the beginning of middle school before she discovered her powers. Throughout her childhood, Zia noticed a few strange occurrences; plants looked a little bit greener when she walked by and she was always able to grow plants in science class with ease. Until she turned 13, when her powers showed themselves in a horrible way, was she aware that they existed. (She learned later that, for some reason, the cold climate lessened the vitality of the trees and plants, diminishing Zia’s potential power sources). When Zia was 13 her family finally left Canada for a vacation with another family, the Walkins. Walkins had a son who, behind the backs of both sets of parents, was dating Zia. The families went back to California and decided to spend on night of their vacation camping in a forest. Zia and Brad, the Walkins’s son, snuck out one night and met deep in the woods to talk. After a few hours, the two decided to walk back, but, just before they left, Brad leaned over and kissed her on the lips. Zia didn’t know what happened. She was kissing Brad. She felt alive, then she felt the life around her, then, right in front of her, Brad became a tree. Zia shrieked. In front of her, where her boyfriend had been minutes ago, was a small tree. Zia whirled and ran. She sprinted back towards the campsite until she tripped over a log and fell, tumbling, to the ground. On her leg was a huge scratch. It was bleeding profusely, and for a second Zia thought she would die then and there. Then the cut puckered, sealing itself on her leg. Where the was a huge cut moments ago, there was now a scar. Zia looked up, surrounding her was a ring of dead, blacked trees. When Zia returned to the campsite nobody believed her story. Her parents and Brad’s parents thought that she had been terrified so badly that she had covered the actual memory with a scary story. She never showed them the scar; after their dismissal she thought they wouldn’t believe her. Over the next year, Zia tentatively explored her powers. She could manipulate trees, but she had transformed Brad forever. She could heal people and animals, but her efforts killed the plants around her. Zia vowed never to use her powers again, their destructive potential scared her too much. When Zia turned 14 she ran away from home, and has been living on her own ever since.