15Hey, friendly people! You know that episode in Season 9 where Iron Baron's like "they know the ways of the First Spinjitzu Master!" and we're all like, heck yeah they do! Well, the thought came to mind: why did he say first? Does this mean others practice Spinjitzu in the First Realm?
Hence, this. Enjoy!
It was turning out to be a very, very bad day for Cole. A bad day on top of a bad week. Or had it been two? A month? The constant, unchanging rolling of the desert sun over his head, ever since he'd arrived in the First Realm, made keeping track of time nearly impossible.
Then there had been the sandstorm. They'd only escaped the Dragon Hunters a few days before a roiling wall of gritty earth swept over them from the desert, and Cole didn't know how long it had been since.
Cole was the master of earth, he could control the sand and rock at will, but he couldn't control the wind. Despite his best efforts to keep the storm off his friends, the violent gusts had swept poor little Wu off his feet. Cole was concentrating so hard on keeping the debri away, he couldn't do anything as Jay ran off after Wu. He'd lost Kai and Zane soon after, and for endless hours all he could do was protect himself. Protect himself when he was supposed to be protecting his friends.
Yeah, he really needed to stop beating himself up about that, but these days life was pretty miserable anyway. Might as well kick himself while he's down.
Stumbling into the shade of a tall rock face, Cole wiped the sweat off his brow and leaned up against the warm stone for a rest. He'd rather it had been cool stone, but beggars can't be choosers, can they.
Cole stood there for a moment, relishing the relief the shade provided for his sun-scorched skin. After a moment he took a deep breath and stood straight, rolling his shoulders back as he squinted out at the blinding sand.
The way he'd come, where he'd lost his friends, offered only empty desert. When he looked the other way, along the cliff wall, he could see a series of canyons beginning maybe two miles away. The walls weren't very high, but they offered more shade than the desert, and maybe water.
Cole looked back at the windswept dunes. His friends were probably still out there, along with child-Wu. Who knew how long their pint-sized master would last against the elements. He looked up at the sky. The sandstorm must have lasted into the next morning, because the sun was definitely not where it should've been right then.
He shook his head and let out a heavy, exhausted sigh. Alright Cole, he told himself, trying to summon energy to his brain. You're alone in a hostile realm, separated from your friends. What do you see? What can you do?
The master of earth glanced toward the shallow canyons again. If his friends were still in the dunes, Cole would have to find them, but finding them would do no good if he didn't have a safe place to bring them back to.
Jay had been complaining about the sun for days, if he had Wu with him they would both beeline to the first shelter they saw.
Zane was logical, he would assume they would regroup at the nearest significant landmark.
Kai was the master of fire. He would be fine.
Nodding to himself, Cole began to follow the cliff line toward the canyons. He would find or make a safe place to hide, somewhere the Hunters would hopefully be able to overlook. When they had a base of operations, if the others hadn't shown up by then, he would look for them. He could trust his teammates, and he was pretty sure he could trust Wu, even if his master had been reverted to childhood. He was still a thousand years old or something, surely he'd be okay.
It was wonderful to be walking out of the sun, but Cole still felt it was taking longer than it should have to reach the canyons. If he was at full strength, two miles would have been a breeze, but right now his heels dragged and his ankles threatened to roll every time he put his weight wrong, which was every step.
Groaning, he stopped in the shade again only a little way into the maze, breathing deeply and trying to force oxygen to his muscles. Trying to fight a sandstorm really had taken more out of him than he'd originally thought.
Suddenly there was a high-pitched SCREAM echoing through the corridors. Cole's head shot up! It sounded like it had come from a child! Wu?
As the black ninja ran there was a rumbling groan that followed. Definitely a dragon. He'd told Wu that dragons were friendly, but that was before the whole dragons-are-hunted-and-apparently-don't-like-us bit of info had been dropped.
I wish we were back in Ninjago. Cole groaned inwardly.
Cole could hear huge feet shifting the sand and the whimpering and occasional shriek of frightened children. Children? More than one? No time, when he was close he dove behind a rock formation and and snuck in the rest of the way. Quietly, hidden in the thankfully deep shadows, (he was not about to give the burning sun credit for it,) with his mask pulled down Cole assessed the situation.
There was indeed a dragon, an earth dragon only a little larger than Cole's own dragon, Rocky, used to be. From Cole's position he could see it investigating two squirming children between its feet. Neither of them were Wu, which both relieved and concerned Cole.
The earth ninja, like his companions, had spent plenty of time around dragons. He knew how to read them, and he especially knew earth dragons. He could see that the dragon wasn't aggressive, nor was it hungry (he could remember Rocky's lunch rushes vividly.) If anything it was just curious, but the kids didn't know that.
Cole stayed hidden for the moment, observing. Most likely the dragon would get bored and go away, but he waited in case it became aggressive, or worse, playful.
With one eye on the dragon Cole started taking notes on the kids. They were Hunter children, which both puzzled and scared him. He could tell enough about life in the first realm that kids probably shouldn't be out alone, and in that case where were the adults? Worse, if there were adults around, had they caught his friends? Were they hunting him now? Was this all a ruse, were there scarred men and women with chain guns surrounding him at this moment?
A quick glance around didn't provide Cole with any immediate conclusion, but he was even more wary than before now.
A war-cry broke and nearly made Cole jump out of hiding and reveal himself. It was a throaty "Yaaaaaaahh!" and came from the direction of the dragon, but it wasn't a dragon's voice.
There was a teen Hunter, a little younger than Cole himself, swinging a very shabby sword at the dragon's foreleg. Cole grimaced and cringed into his palm. That was not going to help.
The dragon was surprisingly unconcerned by the aggressive kid, which Cole found odd. Even he knew by now where there was one Hunter, there were a whole lot more. Even so, this couldn't end well, and Cole began to run scenarios through his head.
If he intervened now, he would be caught by whatever Hunters were on their way. If he didn't, the dragon might decide to leave, or it might decide to retaliate and end up hurting or killing all three of the Hunter children.
"HEY!" Said a female voice. Cole looked over to see a woman hunter aiming a bow at the dragon. "Leave my son alone!" She shouted. Cole dragged his fingers over his face and grit his teeth. This just gets better and better. The dragon's not mad people, YET.
The arrow flew, and buried itself.
Right under the dragon's frill.
Ouch. Cole thought. That particular spot could determine a dragon's whole demeanor. Good for scratching, really, really bad for hitting. This was about to get ugly.
The dragon stumbled back, nearly treading on one of the Hunter kids, and let out a SCREECH that shook the walls of the canyons. Snarling, it flapped its wings and raised a clawed hand to swat at the teen hunter.
"NINJAAA-GOOOOO!" Cole was there in a flash, a whirlwind of brown and black as he spinjitzued the hunter out of the way. The dragon missed them both by an inch, and Cole didn't waste a moment getting between the creature and it's quarry. His brain was shouting NO you fool! What are you doing? They'll capture you, if you're not dragon chow first! Cole remained firm despite the rampant protests from every logical part of his brain. He had a dragon to stop.
The earth master caught the looks of absolute astonishment on the kids' faces out of the corner of his eye, but he ignored it. Yeah, hi, just your average Master of Earth from another realm here. Don't mind me. Instead he whirled into another round of spinjitzu, and threw wave after wave of sand into the dragon's face. If he was lucky, he could drive it away without hurting it.
Or getting hurt. The thought came as the dragon's tail smacked Cole out of his cyclone, but his adrenaline was pumping, and he was right back up. This is exhausting, Cole realized even as reserve energy pumped through him. He'd been out in the desert without food and water for too long. As he faced the dragon, he saw past it and realized that there were a lot more hunters than before, all watching him. Probably waiting until the both of them were worn out.
The dragon could see the growing number of Hunters just as well as Cole could, and he saw its tail quiver. It's taking off. "Wait!" He cried, and he raced toward it. If the dragon was leaving, he wanted a one-way ticket with it. As the creature flapped and took off Cole summoned the foreign soil to him, and began jumping from spire to spire of rock, growing progressively higher as he leaped.
It was too late, the dragon was out of reach even as Cole faltered and fell an impressive distance back to the hunters below. He landed with a thud and a groan.
Cole could feel the hunters around him, see them move from the corners of his eyes. He struggled up, but only made it to one knee, bent over breathing heavily in the sand. His adrenaline was gone, and it was so hot and he was so thirsty and why did his gi have to be black!? His throat was tight, he couldn't breathe, couldn't get enough air into his lungs. He clawed at his hood and pulled it off, throwing it down in the sand as he sat there, watching the hunters warily with his head hanging.
He was totally a goner.