This story will contain mature and controversial themes such as transphobia, arranged marriages, violence and murder.

Let me start from the beginning, all the way to my childhood days when I still used the name Miranda Mortem. (This may be a shock to most but I am indeed transgender.)

The family I was born into was a very rich family, the Mortem family. The Mortem family was very closely affiliated with the Skulkin before Lord Garmadon took over the underworld. To cement that bond, I as the family's youngest and only daughter was supposed to marry that bonehead Samukai, however there were three problems, of which only one did my family care about.

1. A skeleton and a human couldn't have children

2. I knew deep inside that I was sure that I was not a woman

3. A romantic relationship (to this day) seems just pointless to me.

You can probably guess which one my parents were worried about, but alas it was not enough for them to call off the wedding that would be taking place a month after I turned fifteen. Yes fifteen. Those times were different.

However, on a faithful day my mother decided it would be a great idea to snoop around my room, where I was keeping my four feet tall transgender pride flag… yikes.

As you can imagine, my mother wasn't happy when she found out what the flag symbolised. As such my wedding with Samukai was rescheduled to the day of my birthday, as if that would change anything.

But knowing I had no choice in the matter, I packed my bags and got the hell out of there.

Luckily I wasn't on my own for long. I was taken in by a lovely family of three, they treated me the same as their own son, eventually adopting me, giving me the opportunity to change my name to the current one which I love and fully embrace; Icarus Jamison Julien.

Then that fucking Samukai decided to do something that I will never forgive.

-this next part gets a bit gory-

The image is burned in my brain. I walked home, he was there, blood was everywhere, like someone had taken a bucket of it and flung it around wildly, Mrs. Julien's body was wrangled and her gut had been sliced open, her intestines spilling out to the floor. Mr. Julien's body was barely recognisable, his skull smashed in and all the bones in his arms were gone. My adoptive brother's lifeless headless body had been propped down so that Samukai could sit on top of it, he had acquired a second pair of bloody bone arms and in one of the four he was holding a detached head, my brother's head. He was smiling. That worthless pile of bones was smiling.

At that moment I lost all control I had over myself, I flung into an indescribable mix of rage, sorrow and fear. I sliced my trusty ink-pen through his face, leaving quite a nasty scar that he held all up until his death.

Then I ran, only the First Spinjitzu Master knows how many days I ran but it felt like an eternity. Eventually I found myself in the midst of a forest, a birch forest, the ground was covered with white fresh snow. I remember the grip of fear that tightened in my chest when I tripped over my feet and collapsed. I tried to get up, I truly did, but I couldn't. It was so cold I believe I got hypothermic and passed out.

I remember waking up in a hut. A small, wooden hut, I remember seeing two people cooking food, one of them noticed I was awake and spoke softly to me:

"Good morning. Well, evening to be exact."

I remember how I was too cold to even reply, I was shaking in the thick blankets I was tucked under.

"We found you in the middle of the forest. You're lucky that a treehorn didn't find you and take you for an easy meal." The other stranger quipped.

A sneeze was the only reply I could give.

"Bless you." Was how she replied with a laugh.

The two strangers introduced themselves as Neila and Whistle. I am aware that Whistle's name is quite an odd one but I'll write that story another time.

Neila was a courageous hothead who didn't seem to know the word impossible.

Whistle was a kind-hearted gentle woman with a taste for spells and potions.

They were opposites of each other in every definition of the word, but I suppose opposites attract.

Anyway, they both nursed me back to health, they heard my story and gladly joined me on an adventure of a lifetime, you see dear reader, back then being two women in a romantic relationship wasn't quite seen as… acceptable. It also didn't help that (as I mentioned) Whistle had quite a bit of knowledge in the world of witchcraft.

I myself had quite a bit of knowledge when it came to travelling between the sixteen realms (one of the only things that I can thank the Skulkin for.) With a bag of travelers tree's leaves and way too much confidence we made our way to a whole another realm.

And thus our adventure began.