Ninjago: Purpose and Meaning

4. A Different Point of View

Nearly 2 months earlier...

Tierney sat on his knees before the altar. He kept the palms of his hands against his knees and took long deep breaths. He relaxed while sitting there, breathing in the smoke from the incense. Their scent was strong and acrid. Some had problems breathing in the smoke but not Tierney. He felt at peace when he breathed it in.

Today is the day, he told himself as he slowly opened his eyes. He drew one last breath of the incense before he rose from his kneeling position, sighing with relief as blood rushed back to his feet.

He had sat there for a while and his feet had numbed. But it was a small cost and he was more than willing to pay it, especially today.

The Day of the Departed was special to everybody since it was a day where all could honor and remember those they had lost. And it was a great need for a day like that after all the suffering Ninjago endured. 

After everything that happened, - The Overlord, the Stone Army, and Samukai - almost everybody had lost someone. Before that, the people had lost even more of their loved ones in their old worlds.

They had all been through a lot.

But there was one thing in common for all of those events. One thing in common that fixed it all. And that one thing was a person. The First Spinjitzu Master had saved them, first from their old homes and then from all the threats they faced in Ninjago.

He had fought the Overlord by himself, even though the Overlord had an army of indestructible warriors by his side, and he won. He defeated the Overlord and celebrated his victory and was celebrated by the people. And then, when the Stone Army came back, the First Spinjitzu Master didn't waiver. He gathered a group of those he deemed worthy, granted them powers, and created the Elemental Masters. Together they defeated the Stone Army and Samukai and his armies when they rose.

That was about the last anybody saw of the First Spinjitzu Master. It had been peace since then, with only some smaller dangers for the Elemental Masters to take care of like the pirates plundering the villages along the coasts. 

But every once in a while, somebody said they had seen the First Spinjitzu Master. Especially during the first two years of the peace he had fought for. But then he vanished.

It had been ten years since he fought Samukai with the Elemental Masters, and if he was a saint before that it was nothing compared to now. People prayed to him and his spirit for health, prosperity, and fortune.

But Tierney was different. When he prayed, he didn't pray for himself. He prayed for the First Spinjitzu Master. He had never met him but knew he was still out there. Tierney prayed for his safety, prosperity, and fortune. After everything he had done for them, it was what he deserved.

But differently from most, Tierney not only prayed to the First Spinjitzu Master, but he also believed that he would come back. He was convinced that the First Spinjitzu Master wasn't gone for good.

During the past decade, people wondered where he had gone and if he was alive. Some theories said he had returned to his old home to live with the dragons while others said he had fled in fear of what was coming. 

But those theories fell apart a few years back when two children stopped an uprising in one of the serpentine kingdoms. That was odd enough, two children capable of fighting grown serpentine that had trained their whole lives to become great warriors. But it was what those two children could do that changed all of the First Spinjitzu Master's followers' beliefs.

Those two children could do Spinjitzu. The sacred combat technique that only the First Spinjitzu Master knew how to use. This was revolutionary. It was a confirmation not only that the First Spinjitzu Master was alive, but that he had children!