A Juniper Tale for those who walk in circles, and those who dare to break them.
Remember well that which I am about to tell. For what happens inside a circle stays inside a circle.
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One day, as it happens, a young woman—who’d been secretly watching for months—approached a haggard old crone picking her crooked teeth beneath the juniper tree.
“You evil old witch!” she spat. “You thought you had gotten the best of me. Charming me with a dance… you have no idea who I am. I’ll destroy you so thoroughly even the maggots won’t have at you!”
The Haggard, not looking up, continued drawing in the dirt with her long, twisted stick.
Enraged, the young woman kicked the dirt toward her. “Do you hear me?”
The Haggard chuckled softly.
“What’s so funny? Are you insane?” the young woman barked, hands clamped to her hips, eyes alive with thunder.
Finally, the Haggard set down her stick and slowly stood.
“Come, young one. Walk with me,” she said, eyes fixed not on the girl, but on the sunset ahead.
Curious despite herself, the young woman followed.
“Do you remember that day in December?” the Haggard asked. “The one you call the ‘charmed dance’?”
“Yes! You bewitched me. I was young and dumb and you took advantage.”
“I remember it differently,” the Haggard said.
“Do tell, then!”
The Haggard spun on her heel, stepping close, eyes locking like magnet to steel.
“I’ve allowed your display of plumage long enough. Step back and remember your place, or so help me, I will make you bow.”
The young woman stepped back, her tone softening. “I’m sorry. I just don’t understand.”
The Haggard’s shoulders softened. She turned and continued walking.
“Well then, we shall help you understand better.”
After a pause, she continued.
“There was no spell. No charm. Only a reaching out to someone in need. I am old, and these days draw to a close. But your plight—I knew it well. So I opened a gate.”
“A gate?” the young woman asked.
“Yes. One that led to two paths. One toward what you said you wanted. The other, back to where you began. You chose the latter. And now, here we are again. Only this time, I have no gate to offer.”
The young woman frowned. “So you tried to help me?”
“Yes.”
“But why? I didn’t ask. I only learned from you so I could one day become your master. Do you not remember that?”
The Haggard spotted a pine grove, nestled in needles and acorns. She sat.
“This will be a nice place for a long nap,” she murmured.
“A nap? Now?”
“No, not now. Soon. Our journey together is ending. I’ll nap before moving on to a new land.”
“May I sit too?”
“There’s plenty of room. Pick a spot.”
The young woman sat beside her.
“The day you said you’d master me,” the Haggard said, “I hoped for more. That the journey would lead you to revelation. I was never here to master or be mastered. That’s the world you know. I come from a different place. Those concepts have no space.”
“I’m so lost,” the young woman whispered.
“It’s okay. You’re not ready. I don’t know how many more times you’ll repeat this path before choosing the other. One more, ten more, ten thousand more—I do not read the future. And if I did, I would not tell it. My part is not to control you. It’s to show you the gate.”
“But I don’t know how to let go. This is all I know.”
The Haggard gently lifted her chin, meeting her eyes.
“I know. I know.”
Tears welled in both their eyes, but did not fall.
“How isn’t how at all. You know how. You’re afraid. And what you’re truly seeking isn’t what you say—it’s what you feel. And only this path gives you that.”
“So… what do I do?”
Just then, a great wind blew. The junipers danced. The wolves howled.
The young woman looked away for a moment.
When she turned back, the Haggard was gone.
She rose to leave and saw two paths: one she had come from, which would lead her here again, and one she had never walked, whose end she could not see.
