Ninjago: Yin and Yang

The Tomb

Ari can't feel anything. She doesn't know where she is, but she doesn't panic. She looks around, to see a long stretch of desert and blue sky in every direction. Looking down, she finds herself hovering over the ground, yet she has nobody. Every time she moves her head, it takes a minute for her eyes to unblur.

In front of her stands a strange structure, but she does not question it. It looks to be a gigantic fang, balanced carefully on a small structure of rocks. There is even to be a small cave, letting anyone who wishes to enter or exit. Ari drifts towards the mouth of the cave.

She watches as a man steps out. His features are concealed by a cloak, yet Ari knows she recognizes him. Her face twists in confusion, how does she know him if she can't see him?

"Ari," Her name echoes through the barren landscape. Ari turns around frantically to see where it came from, to find no answers. She knows one thing, the man standing below her did not call out her name. It was not his voice.

"Ari!" This time, the voice had a sense of urgency. The winds of the desert pick up, sand being pulled away from their dunes. The sky darkens, and the wind howls.

"Ari!" She can barely hear the voice this time, the winds seem to eat up the words as they are spoken. Lightning lights up the landscape for a split second, and Ari can see it: the darkness.

It is almost like a cloud of mist, it's pitch black. As lightning strikes more frequently, she watches in horror as it moves closer. Black tendrils arise from the vapor. Ari feels her stomach drop. They're reaching for her. They're going to get her. Panic fills Ari's chest.

"Ari, go!" The voice echoes tenfold, Ari tries to move, but she can't. She is frozen in place. She looks below her to see the tendrils of smoke rising for her. They cling to her legs and crawl up her body. It's cold. So cold, Ari wonders if she'll ever feel warmth again.

She tries to scream, but no sound comes out. The smoke enters her mouth, her vision starts to fade.

"Ari." the voice is in her ear. "GO!"

A scream finally escapes her lips as Ari sits up in bed, shaking. Her whole body is drenched in a cold sweat, and she can feel the adrenaline coursing through her. She looks around to find she is in her room again. No desert, no sand. No black cloud. She was safe.

Ari let out a sigh of relief as she fell back into her bed. Her eyes stung with hot tears. She was going to be okay, it was only a bad dream. She rubbed her eyes and pulled the blankets tightly around herself.

And yet as she lay nestled safely in her bed, she couldn't shake the feeling of dread she had felt. The same feeling she had felt last night. She turned over to look at her bedside table to find it was 2:47 A.M. She didn't feel tired at all.

It was like someone had turned on an alarm in her head she couldn't shut off. The man, the strange structure, the voice, it didn't seem like a normal dream. The voice had told her to go, but go where? To the desert fang place? She stood up and stretched.

Saying it in her head felt right. She shook her head. Trekking through the desert to find some old man who felt vaguely familiar wasn't exactly her idea of a fun time. Ari chewed on her nails nervously, rocking on her heels. The alarm in her head still nagging her. Maybe this had something to do with her... quirk.

Ever since Ari was about eight or so, she figured out she could do things, other people couldn't do. When playing with her brother, Din, she had gotten angry, and had caused a lamp to explode, and set the table where it was placed, on fire. They had managed to clean the mess before their father got home, Din telling their father the lamp had overheated and caused the fire. But Ari knew that wasn't true. She knew it was her fault.

Their father had reprimanded them both for horseplay but sent them on their way. Din had pulled Ari aside after that and told her she couldn't do that again, or else their whole family would be in trouble because she was too dangerous. At the time, Ari didn't question her older brother, and went along with it, too afraid to put her family in danger.

When she was about 9, she had slightly disregarded her brother's warning. She never practiced her power in front of anyone, but she didn't entirely get rid of it. Sometimes, when Ari was home alone, she would practice in the bathroom, as she believed it to be the least famible part of their apartment.

Over the years, she had figured out her power's abilities to exploding things (and sometimes catching them on fire) and being able to melt things in her hands. She may not have mastered it by any means, but she could probably defend herself if need be.

In school, she learned about the ninja who saved Ninjago over and over again. She learned about their powers, and almost felt connected to them in a way. There was a point in time where she fantasized about running away to join them, even if they were, like, 20 years older than her. They were probably the only ones who could help her with her power, and she just wanted to understand it.

But this dream, the strange man, what if he could help her, and she helps him? Surely she had gotten this dream (or maybe vision?) for a reason. Maybe the man could help her stop the black cloud.

She shivered, trying to shake the memory from her head. The only problem with this plan being, she had no idea where he was. She ran over to her small bookcase and ran her fingers over the spines of the books trying to find something, anything that could help her. She stopped at a book entitled The Explorer's Guide to Ninjago's Landmarks, by Clutch Powers.

She pulled the book off the shelf and began flipping through the pages. She stopped on a page with a large painting of the exact structure she saw in her dream. The Anacondrai Tomb. Her eyes darted across the page as she read it.

Once known for holding the extinct species of fearsome Anacondrai snakes, the Anacondrai Tomb remains vacant to this day. Although the true location is not known, it is known that it is located in the Northwest Region of the Sea of Sand. It is PROHIBITED that the public enter the tomb. While this might be a sight to be seen, it is not accessible to the public.

Ari decided to ignore the last two lines. She quickly scavenged her room, finding light linen clothes from the mandatory school play (She had played a desert merchant and gotten a solo. Not that that mattered, she was just saying). She stuffed it in a bag while running into the kitchen. She ransacked it for food, stuffing it in her leather bag along with a large canteen of water.

Running back to her room, she changed into a pair of light, pale brown pants, her black hiking boots, and a thin, white long sleeve tee-shirt. She matched it all with a chestnut hijab and turned her attention to her travel map of Ninjago she had gotten when she was little. She uncapped a red Sharpie and marked her path on the map. The Northwest part of the Sea of Sand wasn't that far from Ninjago City. She could easily take a bus and find it within a day. She sighed in triumph, stuffing the map in her pocket.

Just as she was about to walk out the door, she was overcome with a what the hell are you doing? kind of feeling. She paused, turning to look back inside the house. Her father was away most of the time on business trips, but her brother would worry. She returned to the kitchen and scribbled down a note.

I'm going to stay with Ellie for a while, her family is going to their beach house. -Ari

She stuck it on the fridge with a magnet and pulled out her phone to text her brother the same message. She didn't like lying that much, but she didn't want Din to worry.

She walked out the door, closing it behind her, there was no turning back now, no second thoughts entered her mind. She was off to find the Tomb.