Shifting Sands (Ninjago AU)

Chapter 18- Unknowns Within and Without

'Well, this is different.' Kai looked around the room. Couches and low tables were set in the middle of the room. Along the far wall stood four closed doors. A moderately sized window overlooked the eastern courtyard. While not showered in the splendor of the throne room, the rooms far outshone anywhere else Kai had ever stayed. Granted, when one lived in a decrepit building everything was an improvement.

"What were you thinking saying we'd leave like that?" Nya hissed at Kai as soon as the door shut behind Sky- behind the princess.

"I was thinking that it would look way more suspicious if we tried to fight to stay when the king obviously is not sure what to think about us." Kai shot back.

Shoulders slumping, Nya slowly nodded. "Fine, alright. You've got a point, but what are we supposed to do now? Even if we are 'traveling dignitaries' there's no reason for the king to talk about his prisoners with us, and even less reason for us to ask about any."

And that was the crux of the matter wasn't it? They'd managed to get behind the castle walls, but really were they any better off than when they'd started? The meeting with King Chen, and his freaky advisor, had raised all sorts of red flags within Kai's intuition. Likely they wouldn't be given much unrestricted access to anything in the castle, at least not any time soon.

A small tug on his sleeve broke Kai out of his thoughts. He looked down to see Nelson stepping back - well out of arm's reach- gesturing to his ears. Immediately Kai nodded, and pretended not to notice the naked relief that flashed across the boy's face before he turned to remove the earplugs. Another rush of fury raced through Kai at whoever had treated Nelson like nothing more than a tool to be used.

Shaking away those thoughts, Kai returned to his previous point. "We have to be smart and not draw attention, well more attention, to ourselves."

"But we need to find Jay." Nya clenched her fists. "You know how the guards. . ." She trailed off looking at the younger boys. Both were edging away from the older two.

"We'll figure it out." Anything less couldn't be an option. "Come on," Kai reached a hand out toward Cade, "for now let's look around at our rooms."

Cade perked up. Ignoring Kai's hand he dashed toward the nearest door. "Bedroom. And take a look at the size of the bed!"

The others followed Cade and indeed a bed larger than the floor of their usual residence took up half the room. Two of the other doors led to similar bedrooms. The last door opened to a washroom with a bathtub. Instead of a well or buckets to draw water, metal tubes ran up the side of the bathtub. Nya poked at a lever experimentally and jumped in delight when warm water burst out the tube.

"That's it, I call this first!" In a matter of seconds Nya all but shoved the boys out of the room and shut the door behind them.

Kai snorted but didn't blame her. After the last couple days he'd had, let alone spending time in the dungeon (of the very castle he had come back to and that made his stomach twist), Kai looked forward to feeling clean. Settling himself on one of the couches, Kai kept an eye on the two younger boys as they continued to poke around the bedrooms. After an extended amount of time Nya emerged.

"My turn!" Kai nodded toward the boys. "You two are in line once I'm done."

Cade let out a high pitched, "Do I have to?" but Nelson looked surprised. Sighing internally again at the messed up childhood that was Nelson's existence, Kai ducked into the washroom.

When he returned to the main room he felt more refreshed than he had in a long time. "Cade, you're up next."

Whining, Cade dragged his feet but did as Kai instructed. Less than five minutes later he reappeared. Kai narrowed his eyes at Cade's dripping form, but the younger boy crossed his arms. "You just said to wash up. You didn't say how long for. And I scrubbed all the dirt off."