Ninjago's Shadow

7: HELP!

I must take her to Sensei Wu, she is the one mentioned in so many prophecies. “There is someone I need you to meet.” I tell her, as I help her to her feet.

“Who?” She asks swaying a bit.

“The son of the Creator of Ninjago.” I smile as her eyes widen at my words. Then her head turns and she scans the forest. “What is it?” I ask her.

“They speak." She says.

“Ahh. So you can hear the voices of the earth.”

“Yes. They are urgent, worried, they want us to leave.” She whispers.

“Then we shall go. Can you shape shift?” I ask placing my hands on her shoulders.

“No.” Lucy shakes her head. “But I have wings of light.” As she speaks light swirls at her back and brilliant wings take shape.

“Then we fly!” I say and shift into a snowy owl. We take flight, the wind whirls by ruffling my feathers the opposite way and pricking my skin. It urges us forward as fast as we can.

The sun starts to rise, tinting the sky with a dark blood red color. The bounty appears below me in the sand of a desert. The rising sun makes the sand red like blood. Something bad is upon us. I can feel shadows rising and in the shadows something lurks, it is waiting for the right moment to strike.

It must be Wednesday because Kai, Cole, Jay, Zane, and Lloyd are slowly moving through the sunrise exercise warm-ups as Sensei Wu sips his tea and gives them pointers. They stop and watch me land with a soft *thunk* as I fold my wings and drop to the ship’s deck in my own form with Lucy beside me. The ninjas slide into a fighting stance and Cole opens his mouth.

“Who is you?” Sensei Wu asks.

"I'm Lucy." She says

“The daughter of light and the fallen star.” I inform them.

“So the prophecies are unfolding.” Zane says.

She stands in front of me and I place my left hand on her shoulder. Nya walks out of the door that leads to below the deck, she yawns blinking her eyes then comes forward fishing something from a pocket in her bathrobe. Her hair is slightly ruffled and she has on a thick cream-blue bathrobe. “Look at who made the front page of the newspaper yesterday.” She hands me a stack of folded papers, on the top page is a picture of me kneeling by Lloyd as I kissed him on the cheek.

I shrug and push the papers away with my right hand. Something in the picture catches my eye and my skin prickles. I snatch the papers taking a closer look at the picture. Behind me in the shadows are two blue-white eyes. “They know where we are.” I whisper.

“Who?” Kai asks quietly.

An earsplitting sound rips through the air as the ground opens up beside the bounty. “Them…” I trail off as shadowy black hands reach out from the tare in the sand. “Quickly! Get this ship in the air!” I tell Nya, she nods and runs up to the bridge room. I kneel by Lucy, “No matter what happens I want you to stay put. Do you understand?”

“B-” She starts.

“Do you understand?” I repeat to her, she nods and I stand up. “That is the same for all of you.”

“We can help.” Jay says kind of begging.

“No.” I give them a stern look.

“Don’t try to be the hero! You’ll get yourself killed!” Lloyd exclaims.

“I’m not. You don’t know what you’re up against. This is a dark, dark magic.” I turn and leap of the bounty. My feet hit the sand and I take off running. As I run I shift in to a dragon with a gold underbelly and blue sides with gold wings.

I race to the tare and the shadowy black hands reach to me, eager to pull me into their depths. I unfold my wings and take flight spitting fire on the hands. It’s no use. The hands reach through my fire and grasp me, their touch is icy cold. I squirm trying to free myself but their grip only tightens. I turn my head the bounty, it is up in the air now, “FLY! FLY AWAY!” I shout to them as I am pulled into the black depths of the tare in the sand. The tare closes and more shadowy hands cover me. I pass into blackness.