Legends of Ninjago: Book 3: The Four Fangs

Chapter 7: Home

Keaton stared down at the silvery blade in her hands. Rather than being straight and practical, it curved and glistened with ornate decoration. A blade like this belonged in a museum, she thought. The bigger question pressing on her mind, however, was why the Serpentine wanted it in the first place. What dark secrets did it hold?
The Treehorn screeched again and she was brought back into her surroundings. Especially Ann who was now splayed out like a starfish next to her.
"What exactly happened to Ann and Kai?" She asked Zane.
"As far as I can tell, Venomari spit," he replied, keeping his eyes forward.
She knew the name well enough. Wu had taught her about the Serpentine on several occasions. Still, no text book in the world could have prepared her for the strange sight in front of her now. Ann had always been the better fighter, always had a better sense of her surroundings. It baffled Keaton how she could have been caught off guard like this. That was usually her bit.
Speaking of the Serpentine, they were still trying to chase them through the forest.
"Are you sure that going back to the cave is a good idea?" She asked, watching the horizon.
"Do you have a better alternative?" He countered. She did not. But this whole mess better turn out well or else they were in some serious trouble, not just with the Serpentine, but also with Wu when he got back.
"Is there anything I can do?"
Zane thought for a moment. "We're going to need someone to help get the ship out to sea."
Keaton gulped. This had better work.
With the Treehorn at their disposal, the trip back to the coast was considerably shorter. By the time the caves were in view, the Serpentine were decidedly not, but Keaton knew it was only a matter of time before they caught up again. They needed to move fast.
"Cannonball!"
Keaton's head whirred around, and at the last second, she saw Ann jumping from the Treehorn's back.
"Ann Jing!" She shrieked, and sprang up at once. By the time she had made it to the edge,  Ann was already free falling toward the ground, so she jumped after her, hoping that her air powers would speed her along. It all happened so fast, but from what she could recall, she grabbed on to Ann and let out a burst of air just before hitting the ground, causing an explosion of snow beneath them. When everything settled, and they were laying on the cold, wet dirt, she heard Ann shout,
"Wipeout!"
Keaton felt her jaw go rigged.
"Ann," she sat up and grabbed her sister's arm. "You are coming with me, now!"
With some effort, she dragged Ann to her feet and started pulling her forward. Up ahead, she could see the Treehorn slowing down.
"DON'T STOP! KEEP GOING!" She shouted into the wind. They would be able to catch up quickly enough. Probably. The Treehorn lurched to one side, then continued on its way.
"Come on, Ann! Let's go!" She said, trying to pick up her pace. To herself, she said, 'Come on. You can do this.'
The caves were roughly four hundred yards away, give or take, so it's not like it was a particularly lengthy run, but having to wrestle with a hallucinating Ann Jing seemed to stretch out the journey by a mile. Every two minutes, it seemed, Ann would get distracted, or trip, or start seeing goodness-knows-what and just stand in place, leaving Keaton to helplessly tug at her arm.
"Ann Jing! Come on! We don't have time for this!" She yelled after a certain point, when Ann had started yodelling. "The Venomari spit is messing with your head! You need to try and focus! Please!" The tense sound within her voice agitated her. Everything about this situation did, actually. If she couldn't so much protect her own sister, then what kind of a ninja was she? "Come on!" She yelled again.
Then, one of the worst possible sounds in the world reached her ears. The sound of an angry crowd of armed snakes slithering toward them. They were still out of sight for the moment, but if they waited around much longer, that wouldn't be an issue.
"Time to move!" Keaton cried, and this time she brought a gale of wind with her, pushing both herself and Ann along.
The caves were so close now, they just needed to not have any more interruptions.
Just then, the ground seemed to tremble. She was sure that, had Cole been present, he would have been able to sense it a lot sooner, but unfortunately for her, she didn't feel it coming until it was too late.
Five black Constrictai dug themselves out of the ground in front of her, blocking their path, and forcing Keaton to reverse her wind so that they wouldn't be sent crashing into them. Ann, of course, fell face first into the snow.
In one smooth motion, she whipped out her tessen and locked eyes with the first Serpentine to move forward. She threw the first metal fan with a gust of wind, and it sliced through the air like a boomerang. The Constrictai it was aimed at managed to narrowly pull his head out of the line fire, but Keaton was counting on this reaction. While he was busy dodging, she was busy flying up to him and kneeing him in the face. Then, with her body and legs still airborne, she wrapped herself around the snake's stubby neck and pulled him down to the ground. She rolled out from underneath him before she could get crushed and called her first tessen back to her as she used her second to cut a nice, big gash in the tail of the closest standing Constrictai. The flying fan hit two snakes in the head before it returned to its master's palm.
Unfortunately, her attacks were simply just not enough to deter the large, lumbering Serpentine. The fifth Constrictai, who hadn't been hit yet, had moved in then and easily wrapped his scaly self around her tiny body, squeezing her with a demented sort of glee. Keaton struggled to wriggle free, or to use her powers, or do anything useful, but the burning, squeezing pain was filling up all her thoughts. Then the air left her lungs.
"Hey!" Ann yelled from behind them. "Splish splash, Serpentine trash!"
The next thing Keaton knew, she and her attacker were being flung into the air by a jet of water. The snake screamed in terror and his grip loosened just enough for Keaton to—well, breathe for one thing, but also—launch herself up and then used a powerful blast to punch the Constrictai down into the ground. He landed on top of three of his friends, and the other two Ann blasted back with two short water bursts.
As Keaton watched her sister down beneath her, she felt something tugging at her heart. Even when she was mentally compromised, Ann was able to hold her own. Meanwhile she... well, she had nearly just been squeezed to death. For the second time that day. Still, in the moment, it was all just an uncomfortable feeling that she could easily shake off.
"Ann! The Venomari spit must be wearing off!" Keaton cried when she landed.
"No problem, maestro! Play on!" She replied, and then started walking in the wrong direction.
"Okay, definitely not wearing off," Keaton mumbled. "Come on, no time to lose, Miss Splish Splash!"
The Constrictai were hot on their heels as they ran the rest of the way to the caves. Keaton tried her best to blow them away, but all she did was delay them a little while. By now, the ocean was clearly in view, and she could see the Treehorn wobbling off into the hills, which meant that the others were already safely underground.
With her hand still firmly clasped around Ann's wrist, she led them down the slippery sloped path that led to the cave's mouth, only to have her heart explode when she heard a deafening—
KABOOM!!!
—directly behind her.
She had one hand on her tessen as she snapped around to face the sound, seeing chunks of rock flying from the hillside into the ocean. The salty water began to pour down into the large opening the explosion had created, and after a moment of staring—half wondering what in the name of the First Spinjitsu Master was going on—she saw the hull of an old ship appear. It was struggling against the current, and it was slightly listing, but it was managing to stay afloat.
Keaton ran up as close to it as the crumbling path would allow, careful not to lose sight of her sister for even a second. There, on the deck, were the four boys and Nya, in various stages of panic.
"Ann, hold on to your ponytail!" She announced as she started to run, and then, with a final push from her wind powers, launched the two of them onto the deck of the ship as the waves pulled it out to sea. She may have gotten a few splinters from the bumpy landing, as well as a bruise or two, but she was just relieved that they had actually made it.
"Ann! Keaton!" Cole cried as he rushed over to them. "You guys okay? You didn't get hit by any rocks, did you?"
"We're fine—" Keaton breathed.
"You got iiiit!" Ann sang.
"—more or less."
Keaton helped move them further out to sea, but it took the very last of her strength to do it. She was left clinging to the railing, watching the shore line get steadily smaller and smaller. Interestingly enough, all the panic and adrenaline from just a few minutes ago had mysteriously vanished. She guessed that the Serpentine must not like the water very much, but that was one thing they actually had in common. The big ocean waves churned up the water and made the boat slowly sway from side to side, and now Keaton clung to the railing for a different reason. It usually took her a while to find her sea legs.
"Okay, role call," Cole announced, walking along the deck. "Everybody here? Everybody alive?"
"More or less," said Jay as he eyed Kai who was halfway down a barrel. Nya just stood by watching.
"Yeah, when is this Venomari spit stuff supposed to wear off? It's starting to get annoying," she said with a frown.
"Tell me about it," Keaton moaned, and glanced at Ann who was leaning over the railing next to her, staring down into the water.
A large wave went under the boat, making everyone stumble and cling to the nearest rail or mast. Keaton could already feel the motion sickness attempting to settle in. She wasn't built for sea travel, she was built for flying. Still, she didn't look nearly as green as Cole who was starting to  look almost dizzy.
"Alright," he said, trying his hardest to breathe and appear put-together. "What's the plan now, Zane?"
Everyone looked up to the steering wheel where Zane was standing, both hands keeping the ship steady. His eyes were scanning the shoreline, and for a little while Keaton wondered if he had even heard Cole's question.
"The Serpentine..." he said, as if to himself. "They have stopped pursuing us."
Keaton turned to see what he meant and realised that the land was surprisingly Serpentine-bear. They weren't even trying to look for them anymore, they were just gone. Surely they'd still be after their—
She blinked.
The knife. Did she still have it? She frantically felt all over her person for it, but all she found were her tessen.
"Zane, did I leave the knife with you?" She asked frantically.
He looked just as worried as she felt. "No, I assumed you took it with you."
Either she was really starting to get sea-sick, or there was a really bad feeling of dread seeping into her stomach. The only place she could have lost the knife was back in the forest when she went to catch Ann, which meant that she had dropped it back into the hands of the Serpentine.
"Hold on, what knife?" Cole asked.
Keaton took another breath and explained everything—regretting almost every word—and when she was done, everyone seemed to be deep in thought. All except Jay, that is.
"Well, you can't exactly blame yourself," he said casually. "It was captain cannonball that caused the whole mess."
Keaton looked over at her sister and felt a bout of secondhand shame come on. She really, really hoped that Ann wouldn't remember most of this.
"So what do we do now?" She asked, trying to redirect everyone's attention. "I mean, do we just go back to the cave and wait for Sensei Wu?"
"No," said Zane. Everyone turned to him again. "Whatever those Serpentine are doing, it must be a threat to Ninjago, and therefore we must stop them. We must protect the people."
"How? We could barely protect ourselves," said Jay, folding his arms. Another wave jostled the boat. "And how much trouble could one blade cause, honestly?"
There seemed to be a moment when Zane stared down at Jay, scrutinising him, but it was cut of when Cole asked, "What did the blade look like exactly?"
"Well," said Keaton, "It was about this big, with a curved, silver blade, twisty carvings on the cross guard, and a ruby butt." Jay stifled a chortle. "Hilt," she corrected herself. "It was most likely made by the Serpentine, a long, long time ago." Cole's eyes seemed to drift away in thought. "What is it?"
"Well... maybe nothing," he said cautiously.
"If you have anything to share, by all means, share it," said Zane seriously.
Cole sighed. "Look, it's probably just a coincidence, but..." he sighed again. "There's this... trophy. It's called 'The Blade Cup' and... well, I know it sounds stupid, but it kinda looks exactly like what you're describing. Just, gold instead of silver."
Zane seemed to think about it thoroughly. "It could be worth looking into."
"'The Blade Cup,' huh? I think I've heard of that. What's it for? Fencing? Mixed martial arts?" Jay asked, using hand motions for emphasis.
Cole coughed. "It's not important. It's probably just made to look like a Serpentine blade. I don't even know why I brought it up."
"Well, how many times a day do you say, 'hey, that looks like a specific, ancient Serpentine weapon?'" Nya pointed out. "Doesn't sound like a coincidence to me."
There was a sudden groan from a nearby barrel. "Guuuys?" Everyone looked over at Kai's legs jutting out from the wooden thing. "What's going on?"
Jay and Nya were the first to peer into the barrel. "Hey, look! He lives!" Jay quipped.
Keaton came over on wobbly knees and saw a tired, grumpy-looking Kai glaring up at them. "Get me out. Now."
"Well, this guy's a barrel of laughs," said Jay with a massive grin. Then proceeded to cackle at his own joke.
"I will burn your eyebrows off," Kai said darkly.
"Okay, okay."
They all helped Kai out of the barrel, but he remained in a sour mood for the rest of the day, and was constantly rubbing his temples. Ann took a little bit longer, but eventually followed suit, much to Keaton's relief. She mostly sat, though, leaning against the railing, for a solid thirty minutes, not moving while everyone else discussed where they should go now that the cave was compromised.
The day was beginning to wane, and they were all cold, damp, hungry, and sore, but at least they weren't being followed by the Serpentine anymore. The ship was definitely not ready for sailing, though, as they found—when they went below deck—several inches of water sloshing about on the floor. With help from Ann, they were able to steer the ship to a small, nearby island—a rocky, deserted lump of land with one patch of grass and a couple of pine trees in the middle. Hardly the Ritz, but nothing these days ever was.
Cole created a strip of earth for the ship to "dock" at, and around sunset (though you could barely tell through the thick cloud cover) they all sat down on the grass, grateful to be on solid land once again.
In the end, their makeshift camp turned out quite nicely. Cole provided protection from the elements by making a stone tepee, Kai created a fire in the center of it, Ann gave them clean drinking water, and Keaton and Nya caught two small fish which sounded like a good idea at first, but then it quickly turned into more of a hassle, what with the scaling, the de-boning, the organs, the cooking, and in the end there was barely enough meat to go around. They may have had a cozy place to sleep, but that was about the only thing keeping them from slipping into complete misery after their long and rather tiresome day. Either that, or Ann and Kai were just doing a good enough job at being depressed for them all that no one else felt the need to share their feelings.
Once the fiasco of dinner was finally over, Keaton rested against the stone tepee wall and watched the smoke from the fire float up to the open hole at the top of the tent. The ground was still damp, but the fire was doing a good job of making everything toasty. Still, sleeping tonight would be miserable. Even though they had the fire, all their blankets and pillows got soaked, meaning the only thing they'd have for physical comfort was the lumpy ground.
Just then, she thought about her bed back at the monastery. It had been so long since she slept in it. Ever since the IBI drove them out... things had been tough. She made a point to never complain, but to herself, she admitted that this whole spontaneous camping business was nowhere near as fun as it had first seemed. She missed her bed and blankets and stuffed animals. Sometimes she wondered if the IBI had confiscated those, too.
"So we'll need to patch up the ship tomorrow," Zane was saying pragmatically. "Any good ideas on how to do that?"
Jay gave a long, drawn out sigh. "Well, there's always more wooden boards, but there's no guarantee that that'll work. I mean, this is like trying to fix a crystal chandelier with duct tape, you do realise that, right?"
"It doesn't need to be pretty, it just needs to keep the boat from sinking," Zane said flatly.
Jay sighed again.
"Well, that bunker was quite the find," said Nya after a while. "You're father must have been a brilliant inventor, Zane."
"Yes," was all he said in reply. Zane's face was often hard to read, but here it truly seemed blank. "I am sorry, though. If I had not been so rash, none of this would have happened." He stared into the fire and for a moment Keaton wondered if his gaze was going to freeze it.
"Don't beat yourself up. If you hadn't led us out there, we wouldn't know what the Serpentine are up to," Cole pointed out, plopping a hand on his shoulder. "I'd say things worked out okay in the end."
Kai squinted just then. "How did we get out of there, by the way?"
"Zane wrangled a Treehorn," said Keaton without hesitation.
Kai squinted again. "So I didn't imagine that? Weird." Then after a moment he added, "How did you control it?"
Zane opened his mouth, but then he seemed to stop and think about his answer. "I... grabbed its neck."
"And you knew that would work because..?" Kai pressed.
"I'm... not... sure," Zane said slowly. "Perhaps I... read it somewhere?"
It seemed odd, but then again, everything about him seemed odd. His wide array of skills and hobbies, his slightly sophisticated way of speaking, his tendency to get lost in thought—the more you put it all together, the stranger Zane began to seem. But what did it matter, really? In the end, Zane had saved them, so Keaton couldn't really complain.
"So after the ship is ready to sail..." Ann suddenly said from her corner of the tepee. Her voice was thick and quiet, weighed down by the events of the day. "What's our next move? Regarding the Serpentine, that is?"
"Cole mentioned something about a possible lead," said Nya.
Ann's eyes turned to Cole.
"Well, uhh, you know," he stuttered. "Just some dumb trophy that kinda might look like the blade the Serpentine found today. But it's probably just a coincidence."
"Well, let's see..." Keaton said, rising to her feet. She took out one of her tessen and, using one corner of it, carved out a rough design into the stone wall. She was no artist, and this was far from a masterpiece, but it conveyed the general, squiggly idea of what the blade had looked like. "This is what the knife looked like."
Cole seemed to lean forward as he studied it.
"Well?" Ann asked.
"That's definitely it," he said quietly. Almost reluctantly.
Ann seemed to think it over. "So either we track down the snakes on foot... or we investigate the thing they're after..."
"I bet the trophy's someplace warmer... and safer," Jay piped up. "...and warmer."
"Agreed," said Zane.
"Do you know where this trophy is?" Ann asked, rubbing at one of her eyes.
"Well, no. But I know where it's going to be," Cole said, still sounding unenthusiastic. "The competition happens every Winter Fest in Brookeside."
"What competition?" Jay leaned forward just a little bit.
Cole rubbed the back of his head and stifled a frustrated sigh. Then, hiding his face under his loose, shaggy black hair, he said, "...a performing arts competition. Specifically, the  National Performing Arts Competition."
"Performing arts?" Nya echoed. "As in..."
"Singing and dancing?" Kai scoffed. "Wait, so how do you know about this?"
"My dad—might have—competed once or twice, okay?" Cole stammered, not meeting anybody's eyes.
"Your dad is a performer?" Keaton blurted, picturing an older version of Cole playing piano or dancing on a stage in front of hundreds of people. It sounded exciting—and the good, non-life-threatening kind of exciting. "What's he do?"
"Umm... he's, uhh, a Blacksmith," said Cole slowly.
"A blacksmith?" Kai repeated, squinting again. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that blacksmithing doesn't count as a performing—"
"Well, he's not a 'blacksmith' blacksmith, he's a... a Royal Blacksmith." Cole seemed to be bracing himself for some kind of negative response, meanwhile Jay looked as though he was really struggling to understand what on earth Cole meant by "royal blacksmith."
"Wait, wait, wait, 'Royal Blacksmith,' as in, the Royal Blacksmiths?" Nya asked. "That old-school quartet group?"
Kai turned to her. "Who are you and how do you know so much about old people quartets?"
"They did a show in Harper Vale when we were in elementary school, don't you remember?" She stared at him and he squinted back, both of them bewildered at the other but for opposite reasons.
"No," Kai finally said. "Why would I ever remember that? Why do you even remember that?"
"You have a mind like a steal trap, Sizzle Fingers," Nya muttered.
"What was that?"
"Nothing!" She suddenly squeaked. "So! The Royal Blacksmiths! They're one of the premiere performing acts in Ninjago! You're father is really one of them?"
Cole sighed and reluctantly said, "Yeah, well, he used to be anyway. The group hasn't really performed since... well, for a while. Anyway, he's won The Blade Cup a few times, so maybe he'll be able to let us see it."
"It's worth a shot," said Jay. "Just so long as we can get some takoyaki while we're there. I haven't had any good festival food for aaaages," he moaned.
"We're not going to stick around for the festival," Cole said firmly. "We just need to get in and then get out."
"Cole's right. The IBI are still looking for us. We can't just go wandering around the largest Winter Fest in all of Ninjago," said Ann, this time rubbing at her temples.
"A-are you sure?" Keaton suddenly asked. "I hear they make giant snow castles and snow sculptures for the Brookeside winter festival."
"And there'll be yakisoba, and hot cider, and taiyaki," Jay went on, his mouth watering.
"And we've never really been to a festival before," Keaton added, becoming more and more attached to the idea.
"You've never been to a festival before?" Nya suddenly asked. When Keaton shook her head, she gasped and said, "Well now we have to stay for the festival!"
"Does the phrase 'being hunted by the government' mean anything to you?" Ann countered, a surly growl entering her voice. "We need to be seen in public as little as possible—preferably not at all, if it can be helped. Plus, Sensei Wu expects us to be waiting for him like responsible students."
"Tsh! Okay, mom," Nya sneered.
"I'm sorry if my sense of responsibility is... the thing that... is..." she faltered then, as if looking for the right word.
"Yeah?" Nya goaded.
"Grr! Can't we just—not get into trouble for a change?" Ann blurted. "Ever since you all came along, it's been nothing but one headache after another! The canyon explosion, the IBI arrest, running off into the woods to follow a magic bird—"
"Robot," Jay interjected.
"Whatever!" Ann snapped. "It's just... is it too much to ask that we all simply follow the rules for once?" In the firelight, there seemed to be massive bags forming under her eyes which gave her a haggard sort of look. Everyone began to poke at the cold, damp ground sullenly. "Maybe one day, when the IBI aren't chasing us, we can go to a festival. For now... let's just try to keep a low profile, okay? We'll set out as soon as the ship is ready. Now I'm going to bed before my head explodes," she said, rubbing her temples again. "Goodnight."
She fell onto the ground, back to the fire, and the camp went quiet. One by one the others went to sleep, but Keaton kept her eyes open for a long time. She was curled up into a ball, hugging her knees, listening to wind whistling above the tent. The heat from the fire was turning into fog as it left through the hole in the roof.
Some time during the night, she felt her eyelids open, disturbed by the sound of someone getting up. They carefully walked over to the small entry/exit hole of the stone tent and disappeared into the dark of the night. Feeling curious—and restless—Keaton followed them.
Outside, the world was an invisible, cold blackness. The ocean splashed sea spray all around, though she couldn't see it, leaving her lips tasting salty, and the air smelling scummy. It gave her the ominous sense that, at any time, the water could rise and wipe them all away. Or the wind could pick up and blow them into the darkness. Or a strange sea creature could come upon them in the night and eat them. She almost went straight back into the tepee right then and there, if she hadn't seen that soft, white glow.
It was coming from just a few feet away. A small orb of light floating in the blackness.
"Keaton? Is that you?" Came a voice from the same direction. It was Zane.
"Yeah, it's me," she said, carefully feeling her way over to him. "What are you doing out here?"
"Well, what are you doing out here?" He countered.
"Asking you why you're out here," she said, hoping he would just answer already. It was absolutely freezing out tonight.
He breathed a short laugh. "Just thinking."
Keaton stared out into the darkness, imagining the ocean out in front of them, and the cloud covered horizon beyond it. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw that little orb of light again. If she was imagining Zane's proportions right, then it might have been attached to his wrist.
"What's that?" She finally asked.
"Hmm?"
"That light, just there," she clarified. "What is it?"
"Oh, yes. My bracelet." Zane paused. "It was one of my only possessions when I was found in Sakana Village. One of the only links to my past."
"How does it glow," she pressed, staring at its almost cloud-like appearance.
"I'm not sure. Perhaps the marble pendant has some kind of man-made luminescence inside of it."
Somehow, Keaton doubted that it was the same as a glow-in-the-dark necklace. It looked too... natural.
"Well... it's really pretty," she said kindly.
"Yes... yes it is..."
She listened to the waves again for a long while.
"Hey Zane? Do you ever... do you ever think about all of this? How weird we must seem to other people? The way we live, the skills we practise, the danger we face on a semi-regular basis... not having a permanent home... do you ever think that it's... weird?"
...
"...As far as the average Ninjago citizen goes, it's definitely unusual. However, I believe what we do is... exciting. Unique. An opportunity."
"An opportunity to do what?"
"...To protect those who cannot protect themselves."
Keaton stared into the darkness again. "But... do you think we'll ever have a home again? Like, a normal home?"
"Sure. It's possible," he said simply. "You're feeling homesick, I take it?"
She nodded, then realised he couldn't see her and quickly mumbled, "yeah."
...
...
...
"Me too."