The True Green Ninja

Fifteen

Y/n's POV

After taking the Traveler's Tea, I end up right back where I started; in the main writing hall. I look out the window, and judging off the rising sun, I probably have about ten minutes before the fully trained writers arrive.

"Y/n! Where have you been?" My friend Sarah asks as she comes in. Dang it, I'm too late.

"Yeah, you've been gone for days," Marco adds.

"I, uh... just needed some time off," I reply. "I had writer's block."

"Are you serious? The one time you take a break just so happens to be during the week of our trial?" Sarah questions.

Oops. I forgot that all the writers in training were having their assessments this past week.

"I'm guessing you guys both passed?" I ask. If they're both allowed in here, they probably are now classified as fully trained writers.

"Yup," Marco says proudly. "But you only showed up for the first day—I doubt you'll get a second chance."

"What's going on with you, y/n?" Sarah wonders. "This is what we've all been training for our entire lives. What could possibly be more important than taking the assessment?"

"Oh, I don't know, saving an entire realm from disaster, maybe?" I mutter, so quietly that neither of them could hear me. "Look, I kind of got myself into some trouble, and I need you to buy me some time."

"What kind of trouble?" Marco asks. "What did you do?"

"I may or may not have interfered with a story..."

"You did what?!?!?!" They both yell.

"I know, I know! It's against the rules! But something went wrong in the realm of Ninjago, and I felt like I needed to do something!"

"You went to Ninjago? When?" Sarah asks.

"Early in the morning before the second day of our trial run. I had this feeling like something was wrong, so I went down to the library of scrolls to see if there was a problem. Sure enough, Ninjago's destiny scroll had an error."

"An error?" Marco repeats. "What kind of error?"

"Do you remember the prophecy of the green ninja that we learned about in class?" I ask.

"Yeah... wasn't that guy named Lloyd supposed inherit it?" Sarah clarifies.

"Well, that's what the scroll originally said, but now Lloyd's not the green ninja anymore."

Sarah and Marco exchange confused looks. Things don't normally change from the way they were written.

"The ninja of fire has a sister, remember?" I continue.

"Yeah, her name's Nya, isn't it?" Sarah asks.

"Yep, that's her," I say with a nod, then I decide just to blurt it out. "She's the new green ninja."

"You're kidding," Sarah say, dumbfounded. "But she was never meant to be a ninja in the first place! Or at least, not yet."

"I know! And that's why I thought I had to do something! I don't even know what went wrong; the first change in the scroll I found somehow offset everything else in the timeline."

"What was the change?" Marco asks.

"It was barely anything! Everything was the same up until after Nya told Sensei that she didn't want to know if she's destined to be the green ninja or not. The first change was simply when Nya went back to get the weapons instead of leaving them in the room."

"Did they glow for her?" Sarah wonders.

"Uh-huh," I nod. "But they were never supposed to do that for her."

"Y/n," someone says behind me. I turn around to see the head master writer.

"Master Fenwick!" I exclaim nervously.

"I know what you've been up to," he says.

"Uh oh," I mumble. "I'm sorry! I know I wasn't supposed to interfere—"

"Actually, you were."

"Wait, what?"

"Can you excuse us for a moment?" Fenwick asks Sarah and Marco. They nod, and leave us alone in the room.

"Tell me why you came down to the library just before dawn on that particular day," he asks.

"I just had a feeling in my gut that something wasn't right."

"And where do you think that feeling came from?"

"Um... indigestion?"

"No," Fenwick laughs. "It was written."

My jaw drops. "You mean... I was supposed to... I don't understand."

"Allow me to explain. You've probably noticed the lack of logic in Ninjago?"

"Ohhhhhh yes," I agree.

"Well, that realm has never been good at following the manuscript we've written. So, we've made—and are still writing—many versions. In the most recent edition, which was written shortly after the incident with Nya, you are a big part of it."

"I'm a big part of it?"

"Yes. The ninja need someone who knows the original story to keep them on track, otherwise, they're going to put themselves and their realm in danger."

"Why was I chosen to do this? I'm not a very good writer; everybody knows that."

"And that, y/n, is precisely the reason why you are the most fit for this task," Fenwick says. "In a realm of no reason, a writer's brain is useless. But you don't think like the rest of us; you aren't afraid to bend the rules for the good of others."

"You want me to go back, don't you?" I ask, picking up by his tone of voice that my job isn't complete.

Fenwick nods.

"But I don't know what comes next! I don't know what to do, I don't have a plan..."

"Like I said before, Ninjago is a place of no logic," Fenwick says. "You don't need a plan."