"What is he doing?!" Jay whispered, acknowledging the Fire ninja, walking towards Chen to give him a piece of his mind. Chen had stopped talking, and Kai had taken the opportunity to speak to him with what were probably going to be some very choice words.
"Ah, hello, Master of Fire!" Chen drawled as Kai drew closer. "Come to bargain?" Kai exhaled.
"No. Not here to bargain." Kai said. He stepped closer and reached for the baby anacondrai on Chen's headpiece. Grabbing it gently, he said, "Why do you have this?"
Chen laughed. "Why not?" He did a quick whirl on the spot, causing Kai to have to let go of the headpiece. "It's fashionable."
"It's a baby," Kai said. "It's not fashion; it's horrible." He tried to dislodge the poor thing, but it seemed to have been embedded into the sizeable bone-esque shell in which it was being held. "I'll have you know that there are only two anacondrai left in the world, and that is just distasteful."
"Two?" One of the other Elemental masters whispered. "I thought Pythor was the only one.
"And he's in Prison for all eternity," another said, "so there can't be a kid running around... can there?"
"Kai...!" Cole whispered loudly. "Get back here!!"
"And, not to mention, there's no reason you should have a baby on your head," Kai added, "because it's impractical and pointless, and doesn't look very good in general. In fact, the same goes for any size of serpentine! They're impractical, ugly, pointless, and disgusting. And that's just adults! Using a baby as a headpiece is just gross." His voice got louder with every sentence until he was practically yelling.
"Kai, get back over here!" Jay said, almost not whispering.
Kai continued reprimanding Chen for his choice of headscarves for several more sentences until Garmadon finally yelled, "KAI!," which got his attention, along with everyone else in the Grand Hall. Said Fire ninja glared heavily once more at Chen before sulking away to his spot in the semicircle.
"Ahem. Anyway, this symbol before you is for the Anacondrai," Chen said, addressing the monshō. "Its creed: 'Only One Can Remain.'" The elemental masters gasped in awe while Kai just rolled his eyes.
"It's not that," he muttered to himself. "It's 'Unus Oritur in Multis.'" Jay rested his hand on Kai's shoulder.
"Chen can say whatever he wants." Lloyd said. "If he's wrong, so be it, but this is his island; we play by his rules. You don't wanna be kicked off, so please quiet down for now."
Chen clapped his hands, summoning Kabuki, who then carried the elemental masters away into their rooms.
***
On the balcony, Kai stared out into the gentle water and quiet forest. The wind was mild, only blowing his hair as he contemplated. On the veranda next to his, Skylar sat between the railing and the ledge, doing the same.
"The wind feels nice today," he said. Skylar hummed in agreement.
"You were correcting Chen on a lot of Anacondrai lore," she said. "Do you know a lot about them?"
Kai nodded. "You could say that. My family was... really into them."
"You said their creed was something else, and now I'm curious. What is it really?"
Kai looked down, fingering his Jade Blade rosary. "Well, the version my parents told me was... Unus Oritur in Multis."
Skylar hummed. "Unus Oriter in Multis; one rises amongst many." She nodded. "It's similar, but not what Chen said."
"No, 'only one can remain' is probably just some poor mistranslation."
"It sounds pretty metal. Though," Skylar chuckled. Kai nodded, smiling.
Suddenly, the fanfare began again from a speaker above the two's heads.
"There are enough Jade Blades on this island for every contestant except for one!" Chen's voice called, crunching with the poor quality of the speaker. The wind had picked up by now, and Kai's Jade Blade rosary was jingling softly against his chest. Skylar gasped.
"Is that a Jade Blade? How did you get it onto the island?" She asked, pointing to the miniature dagger. Kai sighed.
"It's just a rosary. Jade Blades are sacred to the Anacondrai." He glared. "You're not really supposed to use them as weapons -- or capture the crown game pieces." He clenched his fists till his knuckles turned white. "Who cares if I'm kicked out of the competition early -- I'm not going to disgrace my fa-- I mean, the Anacondrai." Skylar nodded.
"If I could miss the tournament, too, I would, but the reward is just too high compared to the risk." She smiled. "I respect your choice, though. When I get kicked off, I'll defend you in the losers' dungeon."
SageNotes, as the co-writer, I need your input on this
