Juniper Devices
By PyroManiac🔥 - bronze member
Submitted on May 25, 2025
Prologue
Fin was in tears as his mother, May, clutched his small hand and coughed out her final words while lying on the soft bed where she had been stationed for days, unable to get up and unable to sleep due to the vile plague that had been spreading like wildfire. May was dying. Fin struggled with panic, wishing that his father was here to help him, but he had left for the city in the morning to find medicine. Fin did not know how to help being only a five year old who just wanted his mother to live. He bent down sobbing into her neck as he listened to her voice one last time as she asked to be buried under the juniper tree she loved so much. Then her voice broke and faded. Fin pulled away from her and looked into her glazed eyes, not accepting this frightening new reality that his mother was dead. Though Fin subconsciously knew there was nothing he could do, his mind was racing overtime trying to figure out how he could save what was lost. Heartbroken he fell asleep weeping on his mother's body that was slowly growing colder.
Comments for this chapter
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oh my god... I literally almost cried after reading that. Just reading about a child's grief brought up so many emotions inside of me. it was heartbreaking to be honest and I'm excited to see how this affects Fin when I read the rest of the story. my only suggestion would be to put some spaces between the lines. (I've heard this is a problem for some people but i think the creator's working on it - but u can email them im pretty sure)
Comment by rose on May 25, 2025Liked by 0
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Chapter 1, 4 years later: Fin
Fin dodged past the officer guarding the west entrance to town and ducked under the small mechanics stall nearby trying to remain hidden so as not to alert the guard. If he knew Fin was entering the town, he would waste a lengthy amount of time checking him for weapons only to discover the eleven year old was not carrying a poisoned dagger gasp! What a shocker. Fin generally avoided the guards to save time. As he whisked into the street, eying the many colorful stalls filled with diverse wares, he tried to locate his target. Fin was searching for the items on the list his father had given to him demanding that he bring back all of them, but especially the item in bold at the top, A Mini-Knupae-Joint(Juniper Co.)... whatever that was. As usual the only way he could possibly find it would be to walk to any and all parts or mechanic shop and ask about the item… which complicated things and made it take 3 times as long with 4 times the haggling and half the time only to find wit was the same object as the one he saw in a window an hour ago! It was inconvenient and he wished his father could just come with him and tell him everything about the things they were buying and seeing like he used to, before Fin's mother died, before his father threw himself into his tinkering. His father was always engineering in his workshop, designing new things and pulling himself away from everything.
A sudden break in the loud mix of yelling, clattering and stomping that was the recognizable noise of the market pulled Fin out of his knotted thoughts. Quiet excited murmuring and two voiced shouting filled the place and confused as he was, Fin knew that it had to be important to silence the unbridled chaos that was the marketplace. He peeked around a bejeweled lady with the latest version of a portscreen recording the disturbance who was almost definitely going to be pickpocketed before she left the crowded, crime-ridden marketplace. What Fin saw in the town square that had silenced everyone had the same effect on him, he could barely breathe as he took in the scene before him. The old woman with her face twisted up in a sneer was Fin's kind grandmother who he had never even seen frown. Facing off against her was her granddaughter Fin's best friend and cousin, Marleen, who should have been in school at this time of day.
Fin struggled to shove past the swarm of people watching the shouting match only to find the people in the front had no intention of moving. He could only listen to the torrent of dreadful words that spilled out of his relatives mouths.
“-and it was your fault! Yours! You made him leave, You killed her. You killed her!!” His grandmother screeched violently.
“I can’t exactly change that I was born! Or that I was abandoned!” Marleen replied furiously. “Why are you blaming me!?”
Ah, now he knew what they were arguing about: Marleen’s mother, Sadie, died while giving birth and her father left soon after. No one really knew why. Marleen went into her grandmother's care. Fin had always thought that they had a strong relationship, clearly he was wrong… his grandmother blamed Marleen? Surely not, was she losing her memory? She seemed perfectly healthy and clear-eyed… why would she say those things? It was only a year ago that Marleen had finally come to terms and realized that what had happened was not her fault. Fin could see how distraught his cousin was because of bile pouring out of his grandmother's mouth, but did not know how to help. Suddenly Marleen whipped around and shoved her way through the crowd clearly trying to escape the torture she was being put through. Fin caught a glimpse of her face as she passed by, not noticing him. He could see the hurt etched into her features and heard her labored breathing as she was clearly holding back tears. He fought through the crowd trying to follow her and find out what had happened to console her.
It was a while before Fin caught up with Marleen, she was quite a fast runner, but when he did he saw that she had calmed down a bit: still sad but not distraught anymore. She was finding her way to the house she and their grandmother shared when he tapped on her shoulder, she stopped and turned around glaring, only to relax when he saw it was him.
“I’m sorry about that.” Fin started, trying to console her. She looked at him with watery eyes for a moment before answering.
“It’s not your fault,” She sighed “Grandma is just like that sometimes.” This took him by surprise as he had never seen the seemingly kind old women in such a state before.
“Really? Why?” He questioned, quite confused.
“She thinks it is our fault that our mothers died.” Marleen replied tiredly
“Surely not!”
“How did you not know? Does she not talk to you about it?”
“No, I never knew that she was so upset…”
“Yeah, well, she tells me about it all the time.” She muttered bitterly.
“I am going to go talk to her” Fin declared, and started walking towards the way he had come. At his words, Marleen's eyes flashed with panic, and she grabbed his arm.
“Don’t! She will only turn her poison on you, you just have to wait when she is like this.”
“It’s okay, Marleen.” He responded, shrugging her off. “I can help!” His cousin's green eyes followed him as he walked away.
* * *
“Grandma!” Fin called out as he ran to his grandmother and she turned around to look at him. It had taken half an hour of searching around the crowded marketplace before he found her looking through the beautiful apples genetically modified to form the vague shapes of different animals. He stumbled to a halt several feet away from her when he saw the hateful glare she turned on him. “You!” She cried, “What do you want, you little killer!”
“Nothing, I just… I’m not… I wanted to know what happened with you and Marleen." he said.
She seemed to calm down for a moment “Oh, Dear… It’s just… nothing dear, why don’t I buy you an apple to make up for hearing that?” She offered. Fin was rather suspicious as she had just been outraged a moment ago and had suddenly switched to ‘kind grandma mode’ with no provocation, but he took her offer of an apple. She gestured for him to follow her into the back room of the shop that had a strange metal sheet on the wall. Confused, he turned to his grandmother in question and saw her push a button on the wall. To his surprise the shiny metal sheet on the wall lifted so quickly it seemed to blur to reveal a shelf of delicate, bright red and purple apples grown in intricate shapes, such as books, skulls, flowers and more.
“Wow… Can I pick one?” Fin asked, awestruck.
“Of course! These are the special ones.” his grandmother replied pleasantly. He reached out towards an apple shaped like a balloon dog, only to hear a click and suddenly, blinding pain. Fin stumbled away from the remote door screaming. His hand was severed at the wrist and all he could feel was the agony that was traveling through his body from his bloody wrist, and then he blacked out.
Comments for this chapter
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His grandma seems super mysterious and probably has great backstory but somehow a very sweet person at the same time. I'm so excited to see how you build out her character. And I really want to know, why did she think fin was somebody else at first? Or did she think that at all??? And by the way... this line made me laugh lol "he would waste a lengthy amount of time checking him for weapons only to discover the eleven year old was not carrying a poisoned dagger gasp! What a shocker." again just a couple grammar stuff to fix but very minor.
Comment by rose on May 25, 2025Liked by 0
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