“Storytellers know this, for they choose their first words with care. If I began this story with the words “Out of the mist of time comes the story of Jade Moon, the Fire Horse girl,” you would expect it to throb with adventure and end with heroics. If I began it with “It is said” or “There is an old saying,” you would search the story for wisdom. But this is not a story of heroics or wisdom; it is my story. There once was a girl, a Fire Horse girl.”
