Where the Juniper Grows

Parts 0/I, "Dead to the World"/"I Am a Stone"

Part 0 – Dead to the World

20 years ago

Far, far away from Ninjago

"The child has been born, Your Grace, but I regret to inform..." There was no easy way to get this over with. "Well, you know what we must do when the head is as of fire...when the child is cursed by Fate..."

"Yes, yes, now get on with it and do not trouble me with this. The mother will receive the usual compensation." The Matriarch didn't even turn around. The truth of the matter had been passed from Matriarch to Matriarch, but these must not know.

The first woman looked at her young assistant, "You heard her! Dispose of it! Take it to the Anvil!"

The assistant bit her lower lip. These two wouldn't even refer to her as a her, but an "it." How dehumanizing! "As...as you wish..." She had never been tasked with such a foul chore before, but she knew right away that she couldn't do it. How to save the child, though? How to defy Fate? Wise women, sages, she thought bitterly. Where is the "wisdom" in this foul thing??? Perhaps it was deserved, that the Folk were on the verge of extinction. Maybe the Fate they loved so much was making its decision known. But Fate and tradition ruled all, didn't they?

Some time later, she approached her mistress, saying timidly, "It is done. And with your leave, I need...some time...to process..." She felt nausea in wave after wave, but held herself still, containing all within herself as she had never had to before.

"You're too soft, Amea. You may have the time you need, but only this time. Fate waits for no one." The woman would never admit how sick inside she had been after the first time she delivered a child to the Anvil. She had gotten over it, and Amea would as well, in time. It was high time Amea learned to deal with it!

"Thank you, ma'am." The young woman, Amea, raced back to her meager hut and grabbed a small backpack. The contents started to whimper and squirm. "Shhh...shhh... I promise I will save you, because I refuse to punish you for something no one could control. This red fuzz wasn't worth turning away an Outsider, but it's worth the end of your life? No! I refuse! Fate can do what it wishes to me. But, little one, you must be as silent as the grave, or we'll end up sharing one!" She knew the journey would be long and challenging, but she would not turn back until the newborn was safe. She knew she could keep the child quiet at least until they left the mountains. Amea had packed little else besides the Fire Tongue herb she would use if the rumors and legends of other places with different tongues proved true. She had no faith in her society, but tried to summon faith in there being a world outside of it. The Odes implied as much, did they not? As she set out, the woman muttered, "Dead to the world, alive for the journey, no?" Amea was intensely focused on the way forward and didn't notice the pair of ravens that followed her when the entrance to the mountains was opened for the first time in almost a year.

***

Elsewhere in the mountains, a young man stood in shadow. "You will give it to me, in exchange for my daughter's life, or I will bring a force like you have not seen in centuries and level this whole mountain. I will not leave quietly." A large sack, nearly his size, was dropped before him, moonlight glinting off of a tooth as a smirk spread across his red-framed face. "A fair trade, truly befitting a woman so wise. Your reputation precedes you."

"Go. And never return. I had no choice, as Fate declares a very specific outcome for your daughter, and Fate cannot be changed. Your threat is empty, but we will not be so trusting of you a third time. Our debt is paid." The Matriarch wished him gone and yet there he stood, because Fate declared it so.