Fly High (Ninjago Dragon AU)

Chapter 4: New Friend, New Life

Today, I found Echo up a tree outside. His wings have been getting stronger day by day, so I suppose it's only natural that he'd start trying to learn to fly. However, I won't deny he gave me a scare when he fell. He was mostly unhurt, just a dislocated wing-shoulder that I put back in place, but both of us were badly shaken. Listen to this. Anyone would think I was writing about a son... which I suppose he is. Tomorrow, if he tries again, I'll make sure to keep an eye out to catch him.

- From the journal of Professor Julien, noted dracologist (current whereabouts unknown)

Kai woke up to the usual drone of conversation from down in the main hollow. Scrambling to the edge of his cave, he watched for a moment before flying down for breakfast. Everyone was up before him— again. For a moment, he didn't recognize the emerald scales, new among the black, blue, silver, and white, then he remembered the events of the previous day. The town. The mob. Lloyd. He blew twin jets of smoke from his nose, remembering how scared the green dragon had looked. Spreading his wings, Kai swooped down to the center of the cavern.

"Look who finally woke up!" Cole joked. "Good morning." 

"Ha-ha," Kai retorted. "Do you guys all conspire to get up before me?"

"Nope!" said Nya cheerfully. "You just sleep late!"

"Hold still!" Pixal exclaimed. She was trying to trim Nya's hair with a sharp flint. "Unless you want to grow it out, you need to let me work!"

"I like it short!" Nya replied, a tad defensively as her webbed ears twitched. "I just don't like waiting!" 

"Sleep well?" Lloyd asked, holding out a handful of bread for Kai. 

"Yeah," Kai took it and settled next to him. "You?" 

"Better than I have in a long time, actually."

"How are your wings?" Kai noticed they were still covered in bruises, and Lloyd was holding them a little awkwardly. 

"Better. Still pretty sore, though." 

Kai remembered yesterday, how he'd said almost the exact same thing and ended up falling out of the sky. It was a good thing Kai had been there to catch him. "You might wanna avoid flying for a few days."

"Says the dragon who tried to fly with a broken wing!" Jay cut in, flapping his wings so sparks of electricity ran along the edges. 

"Shut up!" Kai wasn't quite sure why Jay's comment embarrassed him— everyone already knew about that. Well, everyone but Lloyd. Was it because he was new? Did Kai want to seem impressive? It was a bit of a conundrum. 

Lloyd blinked. "You tried to fly with a broken wing?"

"I was ten, Jay! Sheesh." Kai flicked his tail in embarrassment. "Yeah, I did. It was almost healed, and I'd been stuck inside for weeks, okay?" 

"It was rather counter-productive of you," Zane pointed out, "as you had to wait another two months to leave the Den after you re-broke it." 

Everyone laughed, and Kai felt his face burn. "Can we talk about SOMETHING ELSE PLEASE?"

Naturally, this made everyone laugh even harder. Lloyd dipped his head, one hand covering his mouth as he giggled. It was funny, how different he looked from the scared dragonet in the village now that he was smiling. 

He won't look like that again, Kai decided. I won't let anyone— dragon, human, or any other being— hurt him like that. 

I'll protect him now. We all will.

He's one of us now. 

Heeeeey I finally updated! *insert fanfare* Just gonna warn y'all, the action is really gonna pick up in the next chapter. Time to see if I'm any good at writing fight scenes...

Also, a note about eyes:

In most cases the eyes in this story do not represent my actual headcanons on the characters' eye colors. I've changed them to make them seem more draconic. For instance, Pixal's canonical green eyes have been changed to purple.

See ya in the next chapter!