NINJAGO: The Beastmaster

CHAPTER SIX - From The Mage's Cavern

 "Ew, a snake cave?" said a disgusted apartment woman. "Why would I go there when my five-star apartment suite has a built-in button operated survival bunker made out of concrete, complete with an automated salad bar?"

Kai looked at Nya as he sighed out of aggravation. He felt like all he was doing was repeating things he already told other people. Nya set a hand on Kai's back after he slouched forward and put a smile on for the lady.

"Well, you see, the Griffies eat things like that so you'd just be locking yourself into a cage and--"

"Nothing could just eat this apartment's survival bunker! The engineers who worked on it stated--with a guarantee, mind you--that not even the Great Devourer could destroy these safe rooms!"

"For the I-don't-even-know-how-many-times-its-been-that-I've-had-to-explain-this time! The Griffies are nothing like the Great Devourer, okay?! They're tiny, vicious birds that have beaks strong enough to break through freaking metal and stone! The Great Devourer--sure it ate things--but it never tried to wrap its mouth around a building like some kind of hamburger! It ate whatever it could fit in its mouth! But the Griffies are like termites! They will take tiny bites out of everything and anything they find appealing until there's nothing left of it but dust and dirt! Why can't you people--"

"Okay, Kai, I think you've said enough," Nya said after she elbowed Kai hard enough to get him to stop in the middle of his meltdown. "I'm really sorry about that, he's just sensitive to how important evacuating will be to your wellbeing and safety. We understand if you don't see things the same way, so we're just going to leave now."

And the apartment lady just stared at them, mouth open and so shocked that she dropped the remote to her survival bunker and didn't even realize it until a whole moment later after they had already left.

After they reached the crosswalk on the ground, Nya stepped in front of Kai and set her hands on her hips.

"What was that about?" she asked him.

"Nya, how can you not be a little tired of this? We've been doing this for hours, telling different people the same things we've told them before, we're just using different words to describe it to them. It's insane!" Kai remarked. "And they always give us the same responses. All the rich people bring up their fancy 'Devorer-proof' bases because they think this is gonna be the same thing as it was back then. Everyone's so stuck in the past that they can't even think of new ideas anymore."

Nya stopped and just stared at Kai.

"You good, bro?" she asked, and Kai sighed.

"It's frustrating. I'm frustrated--and hungry... and I'm also tired," Kai explained.

"Oh poor you," Nya laughed. "Let's go, there's a bento machine down the street from here."

"That... that actually sounds really good right now," Kai agreed as they started walking.

"I don't think that Ninjago is stuck in past ways," Nya explained. "I think they're afraid because they don't know what's next. So they look back on what's already happened and try to predict the future with it. Some people are just better at changing under circumstances than others."

"But I don't want them to get hurt because they believed in the wrong ideas," Kai replied.

Nya looked down and frowned.

"Danger isn't something that can always be avoided, Kai," Nya explained. "Master Wu didn't think Garmadon would get bit by a snake while retrieving their father's sword--who knows? Maybe we're wrong for thinking we could evacuate without anything going wrong."