NINJAGO: The Beastmaster

CHAPTER EIGHT - Sunstone Quarry

 Zane looked around his surroundings. If his judgment was right, then they weren't too far from Ninjago City. He glanced at the little Griffie named Taiki that he was carrying, and then he looked around into the vastness of wilderness. Sure, he could take it to the Ninjago Masonry where it would have more than enough to feast on, but then that led to two problems. One, he was being followed by a massive crowd of other hungry Griffies who would eat more than just the stone there. And two, it was much further than he thought Taiki would be able to travel for.

"Come in, Pixal?" Zane spoke into his communicator. "Come in. Anyone?"

Zane then turned his arm over and saw what was wrong. He nearly forgot that the Griffie who brought him here did take a bite out of his arm panel. It wasn't bad, but it did damage his communication circuit. No way he was getting a hold of the Bounty until he got it fixed.

They headed down a hill into forestry, and Zane took a seat next to a tree. As he did, his amulet of Sunstone dangled, and then he had an idea. He took the necklace off his neck and grabbed it by the charm on the end, giving the falcon a long look before he let it hang in front of Taiki's snout.

Her weakened breathing slowly sped up, and her eyes opened softly to lock onto the sight of the delicious treat. She reached for it with her beak on weak talons and grasped the charm in her mouth, biting down on the stone and Sunstone with a satisfying crunch. After she finished the snack, she flapped her wings and cooed, getting down from Zane's lap and running in a circle.

The other Griffies looked at Taiki in amazement, and a clamor of chirps arose from the crowd. Taiki stopped prancing to look at Zane, who was just as surprised as the rest of the Griffies that his idea had worked. She gave a wag of her tail to show just how happy she was to feel better, and Zane gave her a pat on the head feathers.

The crowd of Griffies then began to bow their wings forward to Taiki, and as they did so, they slowly started to become translucent and disappear into feathers. Taiki became shrouded in a blinding light that even Zane had to shield his eyes from, and after the whole swarm of Griffies that followed them to this point had disappeared, the bright light subsided.

Zane moved his arm away from his face, and Taiki the little Griffie had become quite the astounding size. She even sprouted an extra set of wings to wear with her jagged stripes. Taiki was laying down, fast asleep. There was a gentle, yet hearty, purr coming from her, and her feathered tail gently swayed in her slumber.

Zane went from amazed to astonished. He never thought a creature could transform like she did in the moments before. He got up from beneath the tree and walked over to her, he set a hand against her fur and awed at its touch. Soft like cat's fur, but textured like horse's. It was also remarkably warm.

Zane glanced back and noticed that the evening sun was settling on the land, and then he turned to Taiki and crawled under one of her wings, using it like a blanket to stay warm for the night.

ᬏࠃᰛ〞

"I can make these adjustments," Unagami said sure heartedly. "Just one thing, I'll need the floor plans for the buildings so I can recreate them in-game accurately."

"Pixal can upload a database to Prime Empire's file center so Unagami can access the files," Kai said to Nya. "See if you can get her on coms."

"After I receive those blueprints, I can implement them into Terra Technica," Unagami said, dashing from one side of the room to the next as he grabbed a pencil, then walked over to a desk with a paper on it. From the looks of it, it was a drawn map of Terra Technica, and Unagami set his hand on the paper and scrolled to the other end of the city where there was space for him to draw.