Ninjago's Shadow

15: More Shadows

For the next month we fell into a routine. Nya works on repairing the main deck of the bounty. At sun rise in the mornings I meditate with Sensei, except for Wednesday mornings when we had sunrise exercises. Then after breakfast I train with Kai, Cole, Jay, and Zane. We run through drills and how to jump from shadow to shadow. Then after lunch I train Lucy in magic, she learns quickly and her magic is like no other I’ve seen before. It is more pure and brighter, even more so than The Counsel's. Then after dinner we play pranks or a video game, and occasionally a board game. I still fail when we play the video games, but I excel at strategy board games like chess. But as the days roll by, Lloyd and I drift further and further apart. He never trains with us, me really. Most of the time he trains on his own, or helps with fixing the main deck.

After breakfast today Jay tells me that we are going to spar today but he is going to help Nya in fixing the rocket boosters. By now the main deck has been completely repaired so we don’t have to practice in the sand.

Kai hands me a wooden sword, he holds a wooden sword of his own. I raise an eyebrow at him. “I’m not a beginner.”

He nods, “I know, but the first time we met you nearly killed me.”

“Good point.” I say taking position.

Kai slides into a fighting stance across from me and we circle each other for a minute. I make the first move, I lung at Kai and side step as he sings his wooden sword at my side as he doges my blow. At the last second I shift my wooden sword to my left hand and swipe at his exposed back. He turns around to face me, “OW! This is training not battle.”

“In battle your enemy fights you with powerful blows. When training I am your enemy, so I will fight with powerful blows.” I tell him, then take up a fighting stance.

I wait for him to make the first blow. Kai comes at me quickly, I do a flip over his head and land with my back to him. Before I can turn to meet him, he jabs at my back and side with, not hard but also not soft, blows. I spin around and our wooden swords clash together. “I am your enemy, are you going to fight like a kitten or like the fire that burns in you?” I ask him.

In response he shoves me back and I stumble a bit. He lunges at me and I side step jabbing his side as he slides to a stop. Whipping around he swings his sword at me and I shift my sword from my left hand back to my right. Our wooden swords clash together. We both grip the hilt of our swords with both hands and push the wood blades together trying to overpower the other.

With a crack the blades brake and our sparing becomes a hand to hand combat. I kick him across the face and he catches my ankle. I am very thankful that I am wearing my black ninja suit and not my dress. Kai flips me and I summersault to a stop to decrease the impact. Springing up I do a backflip over his head and he twirls around to meet me. He blocks my punches and uses his Spinjitzu. I knock him of balance and at the last second he moves so that he falls on me and pins me to the deck. “Fire.” He smirks. “I win.”

“Really?” I ask him. Grabbing his sides I flip him and his back hits the deck. I kneel by his head and press I shard of wood from the wooden swords to his throat saying, “Because I think I won.”

Standing I pull Kai to his feet. We are breathing hard and some strands of my hair are loose from the bun I put it in this morning. “My turn.” Cole says and tosses me a real sword. He pulls his scythe and we take up position. We swipe and dodge each other’s blades in a deadly dance across the deck. In the end I end up with my sword pressed to Cole’s chest and his scythe pressed to my neck.

Cole moves his scythe away from my throat and leans on it. Once I catch my breath Zane and I face off. By now I am sore and tired, so the match ends quickly with both of Zane’s shurikens pressed to both sides of my neck and my sword on the other side of the deck. “Well that was exciting.” Zane says calmly stepping away.

I nod and Cole rubs his hands together. “How about lunch?” I nod again and then collapse on the deck panting.

After we eat lunch Nya and Jay go to the bridge, and as Lucy and I sit across from each other on the main deck with a spell book open between us, the bounty lifts up into the air. Lucy gasps and jumps up running to the railing of the deck watching the ground get smaller and smaller as the bounty rises.

“Lucy come here and lets begin.” I call to her.

She comes back and crossing her legs, sits across from me and we begin. “Am nraw-tha.” I point to the symbol in the book. “Say this and water well come to you.”

“Am nraw-tha.” Lucy repeats and the clouds above us thicken and a light rain shower starts.

“Good, now cut off the flow of magic to the spell and release it.” I instruct her. but the clouds only thicken and grow black. The rain pelts us harder. “Lucy, end the spell!” I shout over the ping of slushy rain.

“This isn’t my magic!” Lucy shouts back at me.

A coarse laughter fills the air, “No..... it is…… ours.” I know that voice anywhere. The shadow men are here.

“Lucy run!” I sweep my arm in front of me signaling her to run. Lucy bolts to the door closest to her. I pull on my hood-mask and then spin around in a slow circle looking for the shadow men. I can feel their presence. There are three of them, not any three, but the three. The tree shadow men who hurt me, the fathers of Xavier.

“Leray!” I whip around and see the shadowy shape of a shadow man holding Lucy tightly. The door behind me that leads below deck bursts open and Kai, Cole, Zane, Lloyd, and Sensei come out. Kai, Cole, Zane, and Lloyd pull on their hood-masks.

Lloyd says something to the shadow man holding Lucy. But all I hear is him shouting at me, “Your fault! This is all your fault! You should have never come back!”

Hurt flickers across my eyes. The shadow man sees and then he laughs at me. His laugh is cold and scratchy.

Jay and Nya burst out of the bridge room and rush to grab the closest weapon. Jay pulls on his hood-mask as a second and a third shadow man materializes. One in front of Kai, Cole, and Sensei and the other in front of Jay, Lloyd and Nya. Together all three of them hiss, “One move… one step… one… word…. is all it takes for this little girl to see what is… left… of your precious….. Spirit Realm.”

I so wish to strangle them but instead I get down on my knees and bow my head. Kai, Cole, Jay, Zane, Nya, Lloyd, and Sensei do the same. So many questions run through my head, like, what happened in the Spirit Realm? What did they do to the Spirit Realm? What are they going to do to Lucy? Are they going to kill her? Are they going to torture her? Can’t they take me instead? How can we get through this? Well we……. live?

With a burst of blinding light and a crack of thunder the shadow men and Lucy disappear into the clouds. Then the clouds part and the sky brightens as rough winds tare through the air rocking the bounty violently. The winds push us for miles, then they finally calm. I stand on wobbling legs. “Lucy.” I sob tears running out of my eyes then being soaked up by my hood-mask which, surprisingly, it didn’t come off in the wind. I turn and head for my room. All I want right now is to be alone.

Lloyd catches my hand in his and I look at him. His green eyes are hard, but it is just the spell that is over me to make me see that. I know that he is sad and wants to comfort me. A hard gust of wind hits the bounty and I am flung over the side.

At the last second Lloyd is on his stomach and reaching his hand out to mine. Our fingertips brush and then your eyes lock. Panic flares up in my heart and I plunge to the earth below.