Fire And Water | Ninjago AU

Chapter 8 | Afraid To The Core

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

"Nya!" Kai's voice crackled with overuse, scratching his dry throat. He gulped, trying to force saliva down to moisten it up. "Nya! It's me, Kai!"

He'd spent the good half of the night searching for his sister but found no trace of her. The pack of salvaged items from his house seemed to grow heavier with every passing hour and exhaustion was taking over.

Now that his anger had ebbed a little, reason returned to him. He should never have let her run away like that. What she'd done was going to cost them but she was just a child. Her intentions were pure. Kai had overreacted and now Nya was missing.

I let her loose for a few minutes and she disappears off the face of the earth, Kai grumbled internally, plopping his load onto the ground.

Nya wasn't the type to get lost, however. She knew the streets of Ignacia better than she knew herself. The only explanation that she wasn't found yet was because she could be deliberately keeping out of sight. Kai didn't blame her. He had been too hard.

"I'm so sorry," he muttered uselessly to himself. "I shouldn't have accused you for mom and dad."

Kai slumped against the brick wall of a cobbler's store, almost on the brink of sleep. His sight became blurry and his head drooped forward. He didn't care if it was chilly and he had no shelter. He was completely drained and he just wanted to-

"Gotcha!"

His head jerked up at the noise, drowsiness slipping away. Instinct nearly made him conjure up a flame but he snubbed it out quickly when he found no one around. The voice had come from around the bend in the road. Sounds of struggling followed up a few raspy sentences.

Then someone screamed. A muffled sound but a cry for help nonetheless. There was no mistake about it.

"Nya," Kai gasped, scrambling to his feet. He left his belongings tucked between old shoe crates beneath the awning of the store. He rounded the corner, eager to get to his sister. He stopped and backtracked at the sight before him.

Skeletons clothed in armor stood in the middle of the street. Their pale bones stood in sharp contrast against the dark night. And even though one of them had Nya held tightly in its bony grasp, Kai couldn't bring himself to move. Petrified, he ducked out of sight.

Where did they come from? What do they want from her?

Kai's mind raced, desperation mixed in with fear. Afraid or not, he had to save his sister. He looked around for something to use as a weapon but soon remembered the few blades he'd brought from the destroyed forge back home. Before he could run, however, there was a surprised shout.

Kai turned back and saw the skeleton release Nya. She got to her feet and immediately inched away. Kai silently screamed at her to run or hoped she'd look his way and run towards him.

The big skeleton rushed at her but tripped on something, his head detaching from his shoulders. Kai winced.

"Whoa! Did you see that? That was amazing?" The other skeleton exclaimed.

Kai frowned, squinting at the scene occuring before him. He hadn't seen anything. Either he was too far away and it was too dark to see or the skeleton was praising the other's trip and fall.