We've Got Training To Do

12: The Royal Blacksmiths

TW: Jade talks about being abandoned by her father, and about being raped when she was in high school

Previously on WGTTD:

Jay found his full potential. The Serpentine have the first Fang Blade. Jade can read minds. Enough said.

~0~0~0~

This. Is. Stupid. My brother is missing! He's been missing for weeks! Yeah, we know where he is, but we've got no way of getting him back! How about instead of wasting our precious time, we devise a devious plan to get him back, hmm?

In my head, I am screaming at Nya. In real life? I'm silent. Like a mouse.

A bronze-and-silver clad mouse who is doodling a tyrannosaurus.

No, I'm serious.

"Jade, are you listening?" Nya snaps. I look up from my doodle.

"Nope," I say.

"Well you should be, because out of all of us the Serpentine have definitely affected you most," says Cole. "Do you really want them to unleash the Great Devourer?"

I cross my arms and looked Cole in the eye. "Look, you should know me enough by now to know that I care too much about everyone I know to want that. Or have you been too busy staring at -"

"Whoa, let's not go there," says Jay, stepping between me and Cole.

"Shut up, Jay," I snap.

"We cannot afford to turn on each other now," says Zane. I glance at him. Since finding out about his father's death, Zane has seemed rather distant. But I know he's still right about pretty much everything. Including this.

"Okay, about this map of yours," Kai says, addressing me. "Do you have any idea what it says?"

I stare at the snakelike writing, but I have absolutely no idea what it says. "No," I sigh. "I wish I did. But unfortunately, I am not a snake."

"Well, someone's a little hot under the collar," Jay remarks.

"Perhaps her impatience is due to the fact that she has not unlocked her full potential and found inner peace like you and I, Jay," Zane suggests.

"Great observation, Mr. Roboto, but Kai and Cole haven't found it either," I snap.

"I've got it!" says Cole suddenly, snapping his fingers.

"Wait, you've unlocked it?" I demand. "What was blocking you? Tell me everything!"

"No, I know where I recognize the Fang Blade," he says, sprinting out of the bridge. "I have a picture of it!"

"Oh, that's it?" I say aloud. I suddenly realize that everyone was staring at me. I laugh uncomfortably.

Cole comes back in, holding his old faded photo album. "Right here," he says. He sets the book on the table with a dull thud and opens it to a picture of a trophy. The shape of the trophy seems familiar... it is the Fang Blade!

"That's it!" Jay says excitedly.

"Back where I grew up, there was this really big competition every year, where the winner would get the Blade Cup. My dad's won it multiple times," Cole says.

"You never told us your father was an accomplished athlete," Zane says, obviously impressed. I choke on my coffee.

"Oh, uh, he isn't," Cole admits. I start laughing uncontrollably.

"What's your problem?" Jay asks.

I sober long enough to answer. "His dad-" But then I start laughing again.