The village was well hidden. A glade of trees surrounded it and seemed to form a sort of sound proof barrier around it.
To Nya it looked like a typical little country medieval village, the sounds falling on top of each other like the murmur of the ocean. People talking, doors slamming, the hum of machinery and the clopping and creaking of horses pulling carts.
Pat led her around the centre plaza, where there seemed to be a market going on. People were wandering around browsing, haggling for prices, and some small children chased chickens all through the stalls, laughing. Their parents and the stall owners weren't as happy, and neither were the chickens.
Every adult and older child seemed to be carrying some sort of weapon, all made from the same shiny, silvery metal that Pat's was. He noticed her looking and started to fidget with the strap on his belt that held his dagger in place.
"It's a precaution. Just in case the Umbra come." Even though Pat tried to hide it, Nya knew he was scared. In fact, when she looked around the village again she realised that it wasn't the happy little fairyland she had thought at first.
Most market stalls sold weapons and protection charms. People looked weary. One of the chickens ran off into the forest and the children didn't try to follow it, looking like they somehow knew it was never coming back. Everyone kept glancing into the trees, as if expecting a giant shadow monster would crash through them at any moment.
Which was very true. Too true.
The atmosphere was bleak, and once people had payed the stall owner they quickly went back to their houses, slamming the door shut. Fear was in the air.
~
Pat's house was on the outskirts of the village, just metres from the shadow of the forest. The wooden planks were painted green and a rusted mailbox threatened to fall over out the front. Pat knocked the door and Nya noticed the knocker was in the shape of a very familiar bear.
Before she could ask Pat about it, a bald man wearing a green checkered shirt to match the colour of the house threw opened the door and swept Pat up into a bear hug.
"Daaaad..." Pat's voice was muffled, his face being squashed into the man's chest.
"You're back! And you're early! I don't believe it! It's like a miracle star was watching over us and told your conscience to come back sooner! I -" Pat's dad stopped his rambling, suddenly noticing that his son's clothes were almost blackened with burns everywhere.
"Pat? What happened? You, you didn't have a run in with, with one did you? Tell me, Pattycake." He held his son tighter. Nya put her hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh. Pattycake.
"Dad I can't breathe."
"Oh, right" Pat's dad let go of him and stood back, a bit flustered. He finally tore his eyes away from his son and rested them on Nya. He smiled, if a bit sheepishly, at her.
"And who might you be, eh? I haven't seen you in the village before." Pat's dad squinted at her, as if doing that would magically make him able to recognise her.
"This is Nya. She's from the outside, Dad," Pat answered for her, looking at his dad meaningfully.
"Is that so?" Pat's dad squinted at Nya some more. It was a miracle he could still see all his eyes were so narrowed.
"Yeah, I sort of went into an attic, came back down was in the middle of your forest here. I almost got run over by an Umbra but Pat saw me and told me to run. If he hadn't happened to be there I would've been ashes by now."
Pat's dad looked at his son, who blushed a little at his father's expression of pride.
"Well things here don't happen by coincidence. I'm Al, nice to meet you Nya. Like the Ninjago ninja, eh?" Al chuckled. Nya smiled. It seemed that no matter how far away from home she was, she couldn't get away from Ninjago. They were in the middle of a forest in a village were they still used horse and cart, and people still connected her name to it.
"Come on in and we'll tell you everything you need to know about this world here."
~
The first thing Nya felt when she walked into the house was deja vu. Maybe it was the homely smell, or even the wallpaper which was so like her's at home, but she definitely felt like she'd been here before.
Suddenly a memory flashed before Nya's eyes. People were screaming, she was crying, smoke filled the air and a red wall of flames flickered around her. A sense of doom was in the air. Strong arms carried her away, trees towering above. She was so tiny must have been only a toddler. Coughing, she was suddenly surrounded by the walls of what she now recognised as Pat's house.
Opening her eyes she found herself staring at the same walls. She had been here before. Even if it was just as a toddler, she had been here, in this hidden world before, possibly with her mum. Those strong arms had been so familiar. Maybe, just maybe, her missing mum could be in this world.
"Nya? Hello, anyone home?" Pat was talking to her, she had stopped in the middle of the hallway, Al already gone on.
"It's nothing, it's fine." She'll tell him later. For now, there was a lunch to be eaten, and Nya was starving.
~
After a lunch which left Nya bursting to the buttons, and an explanation of Nya and Pat's adventure, she sat at the table contently.
Nya had noticed that there was no mother or siblings present at the table, and not in the house either, but she thought it was better not to say anything. Al had began to fill her in on the world of Lar.
"I'll tell you the story we tell to all the children of Lar. Pat's obviously heard this one before. I myself was told it by my mother, who was told by her mother, who was told by her father, who was - well you get the idea. We've updated it a bit in light of recent events," Al sighed, as if recalling painful memories, "but the rest is generally the same. Okay here we go." Al cleared his throat and sat up straighter as if getting ready to recite. Nya sat on the edge of her seat in expectation.
"In the time of the birth of the forest, life came. Trees as tall as the sky grew out of the empty dirt and animals of all shapes and sizes came to the forest and helped it grow. The forest became alive with being.
But with light comes darkness. Something else was growing along with nature. Pain and destruction hid in the shadows, waiting for the right time to reveal themselves. A magic so black that night couldn't compete with it, was watching the forest grow, hidden in the shadows, hungry for power.
One day the shadows thought the time was right. Destruction was let loose, darkness overcame the forest, and the black magic ruled. But the shadows had underestimated the forest and the will of life. Life and nature grew back, stronger than before, and took back the forest, bathing it with light once more.
The shadows, unable to be destroyed completely, were sealed into a cave in the deepest centre of the forest, locked away and unable to unleash their magic. Light and life reigned the forest.
Than the humans came. They came with almost as much destruction as the shadows, but no magic, believing themselves to be superior to life and nature. The forest could not fight against them. Life was being lost.
Suddenly, a stranger came into the forest. No one had ever seen her before. She said she came form another world, the outside. She told them to stop destroying the forest, to rebuild it, to live in peace along side the forest. Otherwise suffering would havoc.
The humans stopped. The ones who put down their weapons first were soon followed by the others. They built small villages all though the forest, using only the essential resources. They named the forest Lar, because the whispering of life in the forest sounded like it was repeating that word, again and again.
The stranger lived among them for many peaceful years. One day, she heard from the forest the tale of the shadows. She went to the cave, set on destroying them. The group she went with came back. She did not.
Some say she was killed by the many dangerous animals that roam the deep of the forest. Others say her soul was taken by the shadows. The people she went with wouldn't say, only look on with sorrowful eyes.
Recently the shadows have begun to slip out of their cages. Their locks are becoming loose and they are beginning to roam again. The centre of the black magic is still kept in the cage of the cave, but shadows are forming, and darkness is spreading.
The Umbra are rising once more."