February 6, 2021
ᴡᴏʀᴅꜱ ▬ 5738

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Skylar's voice bounced off the monastery walls. "Okay, final count?"

Harper held up two hands with her palms up. "Ten kills."

Zap eyed them nervously. "They're not technically kills. We don't kill because... that makes us sound like murderers. But I got seven."

"I got... eight," Realm said, re-counting in her head.

The first Ninja mumbled, "Three for me. I can't believe you got that many, Harp--"

Wu slid open the shoji paper screens and stepped out into the training compound. The Ninja were gathered in a loose circle, scraped and scratched but in overall good condition, chattering excitedly. Their Golden Weapons were strapped onto their backs, and he distantly heard the content snuffling of the dragons in their cabinets. The Ninja noticed him and each greeted him with a short bow.

"Salutations, Sensei," Harper waved. "Is everything alright?"

He scanned them for a moment. "Yes. I thought you had been playing games instead of patrol, but I admit that I am surprised."

"I mean, we're planning on playing after we get cleaned up," Zap put in. "But yeah, we ran into a little bit of trouble on patrol. The mission was successful, though!"

Realm noticed the red-haired team member staring off into space quietly. "Hey, don't beat yourself up about it, okay?" She nudged Sky, who snapped back somewhat and gave the leader a distant smile.

"The mission was successful, but a few Hypnobrai escaped," Harper explained to Wu. "Skylar wrongly believes it is their fault."

"Yeah, because it is my fault."

"No it isn't. You can't blame yourself for everything that goes wrong."

"But this time it was my fault. I thought they were out, but they were still conscious. They've probably notified Ally by now."

"She would have gotten word of us anyway." Zap gave them a smile. "Sky, don't worry, okay? It's over, it's done now. This happens all the time, remember?"

"Yeah," she said unconvincingly but returned the gesture. "It's fine. I'm just- I don't know. I'm fine."

"Good. Let's go heal ourselves up, then how about some chocolate cake?" Realm offered. "We still have some left."

Without warning, a loud gong echoed-- the doorbell. And the Ninja knew only one civilian who was crazy enough to climb all the way to the Monastery of Spinjitzu.

"Mail!"

The postman, clad in his purple uniform, carried a massive bag on his back which he removed when they opened the door. "Let's see," he said, ruffling through the countless papers and handing them out as he read the labels. "A letter for Zap, Harp has a package, and there's something from Realm's father?"

"Isn't there a package?" Realm asked. "I'm supposed to get something from Creatures, Beasts, and Beyond for my dragon."

He dug back through the bag. "No, nothing from... oh, here it is." From its depths, the postman pulled out a plastic box, and read aloud with disguised disgust, "'Liver and Toads'. This must be it."

"Yeah, thanks!" She took it from him and left for the cabinets. "Rift's going to love this!"

Zap finished reading their letter and folded it back into the envelope. "Hey, Sky? How come you've never gotten anything from your parents?"

"I don't w- I... don't remember my parents. Or my past for that matter. As far as I'm aware, I've been an orphan all my life."

Harper tucked their package, which was full of sweet treats from her hometown Ignacia, under their arm. "You mean, you've never had a home?"

"No. I don't... I don't think so, but I have a faulty memory sometimes so mayb-"

Wu interrupted, "The Monastery is your home now."

Skylar smiled, but they couldn't look the others in the eye. "Yeah. I'm, I'm going to find Morro," she said and left the compound.

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Realm put on her Ninja hood, functioning as an air filter, then opened her package. "Here we go... liver and toads. How appetizing," she muttered sarcastically.

Her dragon, Rift, snorted dust in disagreement.

"Okay, okay-- just eat it," she laughed, holding the meat out for the dragon to take.

In the middle of the Wildwood Forest, a certain Hypnobrai was watching the black Ninja through his own eyes. One of his comrades passed by, and he grabbed his wrist. "Rattla. Look at thisss," Skales said quietly. Constricting his grip slightly, the firm contact was enough to share his view with Rattla so that both Serpentine were watching through the Ninja's eyes.

"I can't believe you hypnotized one of the Ninja," Rattla mused. "Doesss the General know?"

Skales scoffed. "Of courssse not. He'sss been put under the control of Ally. But I plan to use it for... my bessst interessst."

The snake general approached the pair, and Skales quickly withdrew his arm in the least suspicious way. Rattla went on his way, pretending to have simply stopped for a quick chat, and Skales noticed to his relief that the older general's eyes were still faded, indicating the hypnosis still binding him to the young girl.

"Everyone works while you slack," Slithraa growled. "As my second in command, I expect more from you, Skales."

"Yesss, yesss General," he agreed, then pressed another topic. "Sssir, you know I am mossst loyal to you- only a fool would believe otherwissse!- but I must question thisss... childish agenda. The Ninja have ssstolen our ssstaff yet you inssstruct your army to make thisss playhoussse for Ally? Sssnakes don't belong in treesss."

He read through the slight sarcasm, and Slithraa's fangs looked a lot more noticeably sharp. "You know better than to quessstion my judgement, Ssskales. I'll pretend you didn't asssk."

From atop the treehouse, Ally was watching her fortress come together. It was rather shoddily built, given that she was rushing for it to finish, and the wooden plank types didn't really line up.

In her mind, she tried to recall the lessons from Darkley's. If you want something, you take it. Use force. If you want something, don't let anyone or anything stop you. What was she doing wrong? She wanted candy, so she took it by force. She wanted a home of her own, she makes her snake warriors do it for her. Ally was following everything she had been told, yet it still felt wrong.

Oh!

She knew what was wrong.

"Booby traps!

"That's what we're missing!" she shouted. "Hey, Slithraa! We need more booby traps, everywhere! In that elevator, on the stairs, on the rails. Everywhere!"

The Hypnobrai general nodded, then repeated the order to his less-than-pleased tribemates.

I did everything I was told, she reminded herself. There isn't anything I could be doing wrong. I've done more in the past week than the other students in a year. I'm not wrong.

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In the week, there was a specific schedule for who cooked dinner, when. One of Wu's rules was that each week, dinner had to be cooked by a different person per day, leaving the seventh dinner of the week to be for leftovers.

It was leftovers day. And after a long day of not seeing the others, Morro took that opportunity to dump a bowl of tomato curry onto Harper's head.

The team had just sat down for dinner when Morro stood up from the bench, grabbed the entire bowl full of curry, and in the blink of an eye, completely drenched the red Ninja in food.

The others gasped. Zap reached for a towel to help clean up, but Harper ignored it. Her fiery gaze was focused on her brother, who was grinning as if he had done nothing wrong. "What?" Morro asked innocently.

She didn't say anything and took off the bowl, setting it down on the table. Their flat stare remained strong in her resting bitch face, and without further ado, Harper flipped them off and walked right out of the room.

Morro didn't look surprised at all. He sat back down, ignoring Wu's angry glare, and helped himself to a few potstickers. "What?" he asked indignantly when he noticed the others staring.

"You just dumped an entire bowl of curry onto Harper's head," Zap said, dumbfounded.

"So?" Morro smiled angelically. "Is there something wrong with that?"

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Skylar threw the trash bag into the dumpster, hoisting it over her shoulder and slamming it into the bin. Lost in their thoughts, she didn't notice the black falcon perched on the thick tree branches above them.

A loud chirruping sound came from the bird and she whirled around. "Oh. Hi," they said automatically, stepping back a bit from the falcon.

The bird shuffled back slightly on the branch.

Skylar tilted her head to the side to get a better view of it, and as she did so the falcon copied her movement, tilting its head to the side as well.

She crouched down, and the bird leaned forward. She started to walk away, back up the steps, and the bird shuffled down the branch in the same direction.

"The fuck?" she whispered to herself.

The falcon suddenly flew off the branch. It landed in another tree, looking at her and waiting, almost. When Skylar walked towards it, the bird flew off once more, stopping to make sure they were coming before continuing on.

The white Ninja followed the bird around the forest and up a dried river. A clearing opened up ahead, revealing a fortress-like treehouse under construction in the center. Blue and grey specks moved around in the distance, and Skylar realized that they were Hypnobrai.

"If I see one Ninja in here..." a muffled, slightly familiar voice cursed. Ally continued to remind the serpents of why the Ninja weren't allowed in.

Skylar turned to the bird, who chirped once more and inclined its head like a person bowing. It then fluttered off, lost in the canopy.

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Skylar sounded crazy to the others. (But what else was new?)

"Where... are we going?" Zap asked. "How did you find Ally's secret headquarters?"

"I, um, followed a bird."

"What?"

"It was copying me, and then I followed it, and... " Skylar trailed off. "It led me here. I don't know what this bird is, but-"

Ally's voice came from ahead. "Hey- no no no, make it bigger! Mezmo, why are you eating lunch?!"

"Aw shit, I'm hungry now," the white Ninja muttered.

The team approached the open meadow. Overnight, the fortress had grown, and many interesting additions had accumulated.

Realm blinked, barely believing her eyes. "Woah."

A quick scan of the building showed enough dangers to Harper. "We have to destroy this before it becomes operational. It's large enough to fit about two entire tribes of Serpentine, with room to spare. And there are many hidden defense mechanisms, such as cannons, rock slingshots, bombs, the list goes on. None are working right now, but they will be if we don't stop it."

"Yeah, you're right," Zap agreed, surprised that Harper spotted so many things with one glance. "Though it looks like a pretty cool treehouse, Ally's sure got style. There's a ropes course... and a massive tree swing! I bet all of us plus Moreo and Wu could fit on it-"

The team leader cleared her throat. "Remember whose team you're on," she teased. "Okay. It looks like the entire place is being supported by those three trees-" she pointed. "Harp, does that look right?"

"Yep. Once those ties are severed, it'll collapse. The poor workmanship will crumble without the tension from the ropes attached to the trees," the red Ninja nodded.

Realm pulled on her hood. "Alright then. Travel in the shadows-- remember, we have less cover because the sun's out."

The disadvantage to launching attacks in the daytime, more specifically midday, was that it was very bright and the amount of shade was minimal. As Ninja, the abundance of shadows are incredibly important, for it was the best way to hide. But in the bright sunshine, they had to be extremely careful not to get caught.

Harper scaled a tree across from the treehouse and found a spare rope tied there. Slashing the knot, she swung across the expanse between the trees and roof, jumping off when approaching the rooftop.

When one of the elevator pulleys brought up a pair of Hypnobrai, Realm hid underneath, getting off once the snakes had dismounted. Skylar and Zap took to the trees, splitting up to reach two of the three ropes.

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"It's almost finished!" Ally cheered, grinning maniacally from the main room. The treehouse was coming together and at this point, the snakes were just adding the finishing touches to make it look as nice as possible. "Soon, my fortress will be complete. Put up that sign for me!"

One of the soldiers guarding her room picked up a wooden sign and hung it on the wall:

NO BOYS OR NINJA

A very good sign to have.

Once the sign was in place, Ally tapped a button on the conference table and suddenly, the floor underneath the Hypnobrai opened, dropping him down three stories.

"Oh, the booby traps work, great! That must have hurt, sorry," she called down the hole where the snake had fallen. "At least we know they'll work now. We're going to need something else- fire ants!" she exclaimed.

"Fire antsss?" a soldier questioned.

Ally shrugged indifferently. "Yeah, that's what my fr- a classmate did to me. He put fire ants in my bed once and it was horrible. I think I still have the scars. Anyway, we definitely need those, then all we need is to load up the ammunition... and then we'll be ready for anything!"

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"You go right, I'll go left!" Zap shouted to Skylar over the ruckus of the construction. They split up, ducking from tree to tree, disguised in the leaves as they made their way to the platforms. A breeze rustling through the forest was just enough to cover up the creaking of trees as the two Ninja raced through, leaping branch to branch.

The blue Ninja reached her stabilizing tree first. Just as she stepped forward, a loose board under her foot adjusted and fell out from underneath her.

"Aah!"

Zap lunged out and desperately grabbed onto the platform's rim, her feet dangling over the edge. Wind whistled around her, covering up for her sudden commotion, and with a gasp she pulled herself up, shaking off her fear and stabilizing herself on the platform.

"Here goes nothing," she said to herself. "Ninja-go!"

She activated her Spinjitzu and broke the first rope, the electrical tornado slicing cleanly through it. Free, the rope danced in the air as it fell, collapsing part of the treehouse with it as the slack adjusted it completely to the side.

Just as it settled, Skylar made it to the second tree. She too used Spinjitzu, slicing through the rope and breaking the fortress even more. All the snakes on the treehouse went flying, leaving just Ally inside. The girl looked up and spotted Harper leaping towards the final stabilizer, her Sword of Fire drawn.

"You've got to be kidding me. I said no Ninja!" she yelled. "Attack!"

Skales shot her a disdainful look. "Everyone, retreat!" he shrieked.

The Hypnobrai didn't need to be told twice. They began fleeing, abandoning Ally inside the collapsing building.

"Wait! No- come back!" she cried, sliding as the treehouse trembled. "Help me, please!"

They didn't look back.

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Waiting for the others, Realm unsheathed her scythe, spinning it in her hands and enjoying the heavy weight of it. It was quite the unusual weapon, but proved rather effective in combat if trained correctly. And artistically, its design and use in battle was quite beautiful--

"Realm!" Harper's voice snapped her back to reality. "Wait until we're off, then cut the line!"

The black Ninja flashed a thumbs-up to the red Ninja and was about to duck behind part of the tree to conceal herself when someone else called out to her. Someone with a much more menacing voice.

"You!" A Hypnobrai- one she recognized from Jamanakai- pointed at her. Even from afar, Realm could see and hear him oddly clear, as if he was speaking from merely a few meters away. His mouth pulled into a grin. "You will obey my every command, Ninja."

Almost instantly she felt as if a warm, heavy blanket had settled over her. Realm felt herself losing consciousness in the same way that one would fall asleep, but this one she couldn't push off. With growing terror, she lost control of her body, froze up, and she heard herself repeating his words in a voice that wasn't hers.

"I will obey... your every command."

Her words were like a final weight, securing the comfortable darkness around her. The blankets tugged, and the world went black.

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Zap and Skylar caught up to Harper. "Where's Realm?" the blue Ninja yelled over the din.

Harper shook her head. "I don't know, but this place is on its last legs. We have to go!"

"No one goes anywhere," a familiar voice said from behind them.

The three turned around. Realm was there, her scythe lifted in a battle stance, and was glaring at her friends. "No one goes anywhere until you deal with me," she snarled.

Her voice didn't sound right. The S's were drawn out in an almost indistinguishable hiss and there was a deeper, more masculine undertone present, as if someone else was controlling her.

"What's gotten into her?" Zap cried.

Harper felt her stomach flip, the sensation made worse as the platform shifted under their feet.  "Fuck. She's under their control."

Their leader didn't notice the language, which was definitely very un-Realm-like. Skylar grabbed her shurikens and made sure they were secure, glancing around nervously. "She better snap out of it real quick, 'cause this place is about to go down. If we don't get off, we're all going to get crushed."

"Don't go!"

Skales turned around to see the black-clad girl standing hands-free in the treehouse, somehow keeping her balance amid the shaking. "We have to protect the fortress!"

"Your treehouse?" he scoffed in disgust. "It's about time we did this."

"W-what?"

He slammed down a button on the wall, and a trapdoor abruptly shot out from under Ally's feet, dropping her into a cage. Her shouts were lost to the escaping Hypnobrai. "Now, to get the staff!"

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Zap backed up against a tree trunk. "Okay, Realm, snap out of it! Friends don't hit friends- ow!" Their hands flew to their jaw, where the black Ninja had just kicked them. "Realm, please!"

The treehouse was slowly but steadily collapsing. The remainder of the roof tumbled to the forest floor, nearly crushing one of the Serpentine fleeing the scene. Harper unsheathed the Sword of Fire, but stopped herself. "I can't use my sword. Everything will catch fire immediately. What can we do?"

"I don't know! This is why Realm's the leader!" Skylar yelled. "Isn't the antivenom in the staff?"

"Said staff is back at the monastery!" Harper stopped, noticing the Serpentine tribe's getaway. "The Hypnobrai must be headed for the staff... they're going to attack the monastery!"

In the split second that she had her attention diverted from Realm, the flat of the scythe struck the red Ninja square in the chest. With a cry she fell, but Skylar grabbed onto her wrist in time and yanked her back up.

"Zap, use lightning and try to shock her out of it!" the white Ninja urged, glancing at Harper to make sure she was okay. "I- I can't think of anything else!"

"I'm so sorry Realm, this is going to hurt but we have to try," Zap apologized, whirling her nunchucks in the air. Striking the blade of the scythe, the electricity transferred down the handle and shocked Realm hard enough to throw her backward.

For a second, she laid there passed out, and a spark of hope kindled in the Ninja. But almost immediately after, she leaped up, and her usually friendly eyes pulsed a deep red. Now angered, she swung at Zap and landed a blow, throwing her off the roof.

With a grunt, she twisted her body mid-air towards a hanging rope from the treehouse's support. Grabbing on and using her momentum to swing her back up to the rooftop, she crashed onto the crumbling treehouse beside her shocked friends. "That was unexpected" was all she had to say.

Realm, on the platform connected to the tree, lunged for the last rope, which would cause the rest of the treehouse to fall-- taking Harper, Skylar, and Zap with it.

"No! Realm, don't!" Skylar screamed.

She lifted the scythe back, calculating where the rope was weakest.

Zap yelled, "No, no, no, Realm, stop!"

An unusual sound rose over the thundering of the treehouse, startling the four of them. The terrifying rage in Realm's eyes faded and with a soft gasp, her knees gave out and she stumbled to keep upright. "How did I get here?" she asked in confusion. "I... Sensei Wu can play the flute?"

A red, black, and orange dragon soared through the air, flapping its wings to slow down as it approached the Ninja. On Ombra's back was Sensei Wu (who was playing a flute, of course he was) and Morro, who held a long rope coiled in one hand. Harper, Zap, and Skylar all were staring in shock, struggling to process what had just happened.

Realm felt her consciousness still wavering, but she was back to her normal self. "I feel dizzy... what are we doing?"

"Getting the fuck out of here because this is going to crash any second," Morro announced, throwing out one end of the rope to the Ninja. "Grab on!"

Using the rope, the Ninja pulled themselves up onto Ombra's back as Wu spurred the dragon forward. "The flute," Harper noticed. "It cancels their powers!"

Their sensei nodded. "It is as old as the Serpentine themselves. But we must hurry. The monastery is unguarded. We must reach there before it's too late!"

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"We're too late."

Their home, their monastery, was roaring with flames. It had been burning for long enough that it was no longer a structure, just weak beams in the vague outline of their place of peace.

Another roar- three, actually- came from the side of the mountain. The dragon cabinets had just caught on fire, but Void, Shard, and Wisp were trapped inside. Realm, having regained her senses from the hypnosis, jumped off Ombra and opened the doors, freeing the dragons from the fiery cages.

The team dismounted the dragon, anxiously scanning the burning mess.

"No," Zap whispered. "Our home..."

"The cats!" Morro suddenly realized. "They're probably fine but- still-"

Skylar whistled to her dragon. "Shard! Put this out!"

In seconds, the blaze was stopped by spears of ice. The six picked through the wreckage, searching for- and failing to find- anything salvageable.

"It's all gone," Realm murmured. "All of it, burned to nothing."

Morro was searching for any trace of their cats. A soft mewl came from the mountainside and three cats, completely untouched, trotted up to the group.

"Bread Cat, Herc, Eliza!" Harper ruffled Herc's ears.

Once the cats got some love, the team returned to examining the scorched remains of the monastery. Zap found their phones, screens burnt black and the glass twisted. "You think the repair warranty will cover this?" she asked, clicking the buttons in hopes that it might still work.

Skylar picked up a phone and threw it back down. "No more internet because we live on top of a fucking mountain," she muttered.

Sensei Wu found the lump that used to be the cabinet holding the Hypnobrai staff. "They have taken it back," he said solemnly. "We are too late."

"You think?" Morro tried to pet Hercules, but the cat hissed at him and ran to Harper. "The entire monastery burnt down. And we live on top of a mountain, so there's nowhere else to go."

"I'm sorry."

Realm turned around in confusion. "Sky, why are you sorry?"

The white Ninja flicked a throwing star around her finger then hurled it at the ashes, the weapon embedding itself deep in the pile. "I made the stupid mistake of following that bird. Everything is gone and destroyed. Because I fucked up."

"That's not true. We found and took down Ally's headquarters and delayed the Serpentine!"

"Another home," she whispered to herself. "I destroyed another home."

Realm looked back to see if the others were near, but they hadn't noticed. She turned back to her friend. "Wait, Sky, what do you mean by another- Sky?"

The Ninja was gone.

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"Let go of me!"

Mezmo sighed, "No."

"Do you missstake usss for idiotsss, child?" Skales sneered. "Absssolutely not."

The Hypnobrai tribe had tied up the little girl and were heading back to the tomb. Though the general Slithraa took the lead, Ally felt uneasy with Skales carrying the staff. He held a bit too much power for her comfort.

She tried to kick her captors, squirming against the ropes. "Do something, General!"

Slithraa stopped the procession, approaching Skales. "Enough. I am the General! You will return my ssstaff at once!"

"No."

There was a deathly silence, then Slithraa spoke up in a dangerous voice. "You dare challenge my command?"

At that, the tribe started chanting like an eager group of teenagers high on soda, surrounding the general and his right-hand man. "Slither Pit! Slither Pit! Slither Pit! Slither Pit!"

Skales ran his fingers over the golden engravings, smiling coyly at the general. "I guessss we'll have to fight for it... in none other than the Slither Pit."

"Winner gets the ssstaff and leads the tribe," Mezmo declared. "You know the rulesss: there are none! But in the Slither Pit, whatever I sssay goesss. Alright, fight!"

Ally was torn between watching the battle and looking away. She was used to people beating each other up, as it was a regular occurrence at Darkley's Boarding School, but that didn't mean she enjoyed it as sport.

"Next round. Two weapons!" A stalactite weapon rack descended from the ceiling, revealing an array of ice weapons.

Ally couldn't watch. The sound of blade meeting flesh and ice crashing against ice was too much, and instead looked around the stalagmite she had been chained to. On an opposite side of the rock was a thin crevice. Curious, she stuck her hand inside and was surprised to feel paper. Whoever thought it was a good idea to chain Ally there didn't think it through, as it seemed that she had just stumbled upon a secret compartment.

"Sssidewinder!" Mezmo shouted. The arena made a sickeningly loud creak and the icy floor tiled to the side, sending the two snakes sliding across the surface.

She turned her attention back to the ice block. While the Hypnobrai were distracted, she grabbed the scroll and stuffed it under her belt, fixing her hoodie over it to disguise the stolen item. A roar came from the spectators; something had just happened in the arena, but she didn't have a great view (not that she wanted one). Pretending that nothing happened, she cheered along, "Go General, go!"

One of the Serpentine in front of her moved just in time to show Skales pin Slithraa to the ground. "He usssed Fangkwondo," someone gasped. The crowd fell almost completely silent for a moment, but when the general didn't get up, everyone erupted into shouts.

"No, get up! Get up!" Ally cried, but her words were lost in the din. Slithraa struggled for a moment longer, but he remained down.

He was her last hope. There was no way she could get Skales on her side-- the general's right-hand man didn't understand her and was irritated with the little girl. Slithraa lost, and with him, Ally lost as well.

"We have a winner!" Mezmo approached Skales and handed over the antivenom staff. The staff glowed and so did Skales, his legs morphing into a general's tail while Slithraa's tail returned to legs. The former general stumbled on his feet and fell to the ground. Nobody stepped forward to help him.

The crowd chanted Skales' name. He pointed the staff at Slithraa smugly, who avoided eye contact in shame. "You will be loyal to me now. And you," he pointed at Ally at the back of the crowd, "leave and never return. If you come near our territory again, we will find out how well you fare in the Slither Pit."

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The sun was setting. With the Sword of Fire, Wu created a fire to keep warm and set up a temporary camp in a crevice in the mountain. The dragon cabinets might have made a good shelter, had they not been filled with ash and smoke.

Zap was hungry, but she could wait. It was too late to go out to the city or search for Skylar, leaving the team to hide out on the mountain. The blue Ninja was a vegetarian, which meant she had to wait until the next day to try to get food-- either that, or she could eat some grass.

"What is this, again?" Harper asked, inspecting the mystery meat.

Realm took a bite. "Mud newt."

"Oh."

"Yeah, um... 'oh' is about right."

Morro, Zap, and Wu weren't eating. The latter spoke up, "Remember we must be thankful for what we still have."

Morro twisted the bracelet around his wrist. "Do we even have anything left? The entire monastery is burned down."

"We have each other," Realm said halfheartedly.

Harper ground the end of her stick in the dirt, having lost her appetite. "But it's not everyone."

"Sky," Zap said suddenly.

Wu glanced over in slight confusion. Morro frowned at her. "Yeah, Sky's been missing this whole time-"

"No, look!"

A familiar icy-white dragon flew over silently. Shard landed on a platform a bit above the group's campsite, and from the dragon's back, a pale blue Ninja pulled off her hood, ruffling her red hair as it was loosened. All she got out was "Hey, I'm sorry-" before getting cut off.

"Skylar! You're here!"

"What happened?!"

"Don't worry about the monastery, are you okay?"

"Where did you go?"

Skylar responded from the back of her dragon, not getting off. "I saw the falcon again and I was feeling impulsive. So I followed him."

"Where did he take you this time, if at all?" Harper asked curiously.

"I'll show you."

Ombra and Shard had been flying for several hours. The sky had darkened to an inky black, and the only light came from Sensei Wu (somehow?) and the dragons' ethereal skin. Harper, Morro, Wu, and Realm took to Ombra, while Skylar and Zap rode on Shard, the smaller of the two dragons. Morro scanned the vast desert that they had been flying over. "Oh- this is the Sea of Sand."

There was a beat, then it dawned on them. "Wait, the bird led you to the Sea of Sand? How is that even possible? This is just a giant desert in the middle of nowhere!"

"I don't know," Skylar said. "He seemed to know where he was going, though, like he was trying to show me something-- which he was. Look ahead!"

She landed her dragon atop a sand dune, which Harper pulled Ombra down to do the same. Once her teammates had dismounted, Skylar pointed at a darkish shape in the distance. Small warm lights emitted from round ports, and pinpricks of light were lit throughout. In the pitch darkness, the glow of light was more than welcome.

As the group drew nearer, the shape became clearer. It looked like a ship of sorts that had made a hard landing on the sand. Booster-like fins, almost, streamlined the back of the ship. Huge sails were folded and tied around tall masts, and lanterns had been placed around the ship. It wasn't a recent crash, but the ship was in good condition.

"The Bounty. That's the name that was written on the hull." Skylar looked at the peeling paint. "I think there was a word before it, maybe started with a D? But it's been worn down so much, I can't read it."

Zap's jaw had hit the floor. "How did you find this? In- in the middle of a desert?"

"I have no clue. It's not haunted," Skylar added quickly, "it's in pretty good shape, so I figured it could be our temporary base 'till we get the monastery back."

Morro opened their mouth to speak but was cut off by Realm. "Wait, is that- do I smell cookies?" she asked.

The four stopped and took a deep whiff, Skylar watching in amusement as realization dawned on their faces.

"You made cookies!" Zap cheered.

Harper nudged Morro's arm, grinning. "Race you there. First come, first serve." She suddenly broke into a sprint, stumbling and struggling to run through the loose sand. Morro yelled a colorful threat and followed, Realm and Zap coming after them as well.

Skylar was about to head after when Wu tapped her on the head lightly with his staff. "You have done well, Skylar."

"Oh- I didn't really do that much. I just followed a bird and found a new place for us to stay in. Really, you should be thanking the falcon."

He observed her for a moment. "Someday we'll find your family."

"Why?" Skylar grinned, watching at the ship they were approaching, her friends calling her name and shouting with glee. "I already have."