Waging War | The Amber Duology #1

16 | Perks of Being Educated

Pixal woke up with a jolt. She had been dreaming again, dreaming of how one day her father's secrets would catch up and take him away, or worse, her. She often found it illogical to fear the things she couldn't understand. Everything has an explanation, a mere reason—no matter how valuable or pathetic it was—for its existence.

So what exactly was her father trying to get her away from?

She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, blinking away the remaining parts of the dream. It was rare that she remembered what she had dreamt of, often focusing on the things she thought about while she was awake. But somehow, the image of her father being killed by an Oni stuck in her mind.

Of course, she didn't have time to dwell on such things when the familiar blare of an alarm had entered her ears. It was time for training, again.

With the slight delay of their training due to the lack of instructors, Pixal found herself working on different projects in The Lab during her free time. She often waited for Zane to come and help her, the boy was never late after all, but on the third time he had failed to show up, Pixal knew something was wrong.

For hours she searched the camps, North to South, East to West but he was nowhere to be found. He didn't dare ask her superiors, her relationship—whatever it was—with the boy had been kept secret for a fair amount of reasons and Pixal didn't have time to come up with excuses on why she helped place them in the infirmary.

She never doubted Zane, not one bit. Which is why when he went to ask her for help, Pixal felt honored. For the first time, someone had finally recognized her own talents. And not just because they know she's a great inventor but also because they believe that she is one.

Despite the task being easy—even a determined child could create a flash bomb—Pixal placed all her efforts to perfect her job. It was her duty, after all, to follow the orders of her superiors.

But now, knowing that the General had probably discovered about Zane's little attempt, she was worried something must have happened to him. She wasn't entirely familiar with the punishments they established here at camps, however, she knew about one thing.

The brig.

It was located underground, constructed like a dungeon of some sort, where they kept the disobedient and rule breaking soldiers—and sometimes even the prisoners of war. Although Pixal doubted that last part, there was no way they would keep captured Oni—if there were any—very close to camps.

Only a psycho would be brave enough to attempt such a thing.

The exact location of this place, however, she did not know. Perhaps I could get myself in trouble. She shook her head, that would be stupid. Her eyes had scanned around the camps for an answer, luckily, her search was not a waste.

Pixal followed the guards who led her straight to the location of the brig. She had a plan in her head, a very intricate and fool-proof plan. And if not carefully followed, she would find herself inside her own cell.

She didn't dare question the soldiers when they entered the forest of Primeeval's eye, choosing to fix the tray in her hands instead. The place was dangerous, filled with death at every turn and different creatures lurking through it's thick trees. A shiver went down her spine when they stopped in front of a large tree.

It was natural to the untrained eye but to someone who had spent hours and hours reading about the history of Ninjago, she saw something else. One of the soldiers approached it, placing his sword back into the holster to get a good grip of the tree. Using three fingers on his left and two on his right, he simultaneously pressed down onto the side of the bark.