Birthright | Ninjago

𝐈𝐗. CLOSE CALLS

CHAPTER NINE

AS THE DAY PASSED THEM, Hiro became increasingly aware of how little time they had. The Ninja were surely near the Wind Farms Power Station, getting ready to complete their mission of shutting off all the power in Ninjago. That left little time for Hiro, Lloyd, and Garmadon to get to Nya's secret base—good on her for having one, but Hiro wondered what else she was hiding, and how cool the base really was—and get a car to help them travel as far as they could.

Plus, there was a lingering question in Hiro's mind about whether or not one of Nya's inventions would work if the power got shut down, but he wasn't willing to voice his fear when they were already so close to the base.

At least, they would be close to the base, but they were going on foot. Lloyd had wanted to use his dragon, but Hiro had pointed out that he hadn't had enough sleep in a while to use it—low energy could lead to being distracted, which would lead to all three of them falling out of the sky should the dragon disappear. Reluctantly, Lloyd had agreed to go on foot.

Now they were hopelessly running out of time. Who knew how much further they had to go? It's not as if the Falcon could talk to them to answer that question.

By the time they finally reached the Sea of Sand—which, yeah, Hiro still hated the name. He wished it was called something else, like the Sea of Something-Easy-To-Cross, or Sea of Somewhere-That's-Not-That-Hot—the sun had already set, the night sky glittering with stars that Hiro hadn't seen for weeks since leaving the Island of Darkness. His mouth felt dryer than sandpaper and his stomach grumbled, but he wasn't yet willing to eat the food they'd stored for the journey, much less drink the scarce water they had decided to bring.

They could have prepared better if everyone hadn't been on edge and wanted to get away from innocent civilians to save them from the Overlord, so this is what they were stuck with. It would have to do.

Hiro didn't know when he started to fall behind. They'd been running all day—barely any breaks, and when they were given one, they were too short to fully rest. At some point after entering the desert, his pace had slowed to a jog, then a speed walk. The other two were a good few yards in front of him; Lloyd kept looking over his shoulder, sending Hiro worried glances that he didn't receive, too busy focusing on his breathing. He had no idea how the Ninja, or anyone else for that matter, managed to run for so long—he was ready to collapse into the sand and let the grains take him away. But Lloyd and Garmadon were effortlessly keeping pace with each other as they headed for Nya's hideout.

Eventually, Lloyd slowed to a jog, falling behind to talk to Hiro. "You okay?" he asked, seeing that Hiro's eyes looked glazed over. Hiro shook himself from his daze, focusing on Lloyd's voice. He nodded quickly, but Lloyd looked unconvinced. "Are you sure?" he insisted, his pace turning into a walking speed. He didn't like how Hiro's skin looked paler than usual. "We can rest for the night. None of us have slept in over a day and we've been moving for hours. It's probably for the best," he offered.

"Don't put yourself in danger for me," Hiro told him, finally stopping. He put his hands on his knees, taking a few breaths, which only served to dry out his throat even more.

"That's kind of my job, isn't it?" Lloyd teased, coming to a stop. He was surprised to see that Hiro didn't look amused, which is when he knew that something was wrong. "Hiro—"

"Boys!" Garmadon called, catching both of their attention. He motioned to the left, where the entrance to a large cave sat, dark. Lloyd frowned, looking at his dad with a questioning gaze. "We will rest here," Garmadon announced. "We start again tomorrow. It's too dark to continue; we may be attacked by Dark Scarab Beetles if we try our luck in the dark."