Roots of Earth ~ A Ninjago Fanfiction

Chapter 30: Matilda's Memory

Arianna didn't answer.

"Please?" Julia prompted.

Arianna bit her lip and stared at the grass. Tugging wretchedly at the folds of her brown and black uniform, she whispered, "I— I can't."

Julia scowled, half with irritation, half with sincere concern. "Matilda, tell Arianna she can't keep this to herself forever! She's been like this ever since we escaped the caves."

The teenage girl wearing a dirt-stained, medieval green dress frowned and walked out of the shade of the clump of pine trees. Her long brown drifted behind her elegantly, though she slightly limped from an unseen wound. Her face was young and pretty, and her almond-brown eyes glittered in the sunlight.

Young Matilda Ravencroft laid a hand gently on her friend's shoulder. "Raven Frost gave you a vision, didn't he?"

Arianna started and stared at Matilda in surprise. The latter arched an eyebrow and said, "I'm not stupid. That monster did something to you, didn't he? He made you afraid of something."

"'Afraid'?" Arianna sputtered indignantly, attempting—without avail—to disguise her fear. "Since when have I been afraid of anything?"

"What about the lizard incident?" Julia quipped innocently.

Arianna cast her a quick glare. "I thought we agreed to never talk about that."

"Nevertheless," Matilda snorted. "Something has you as scared as a cornered mouse, and there is no way either Julia or I will not stop pestering you about it until you tell us exactly what happened down there."

Arianna bit her lip and looked at the two young women both staring intently at her. "Oh, for crying out loud!" she finally exclaimed in exasperation. "Fine. I'll talk." Nervously she twirled her hair between her fingers and sighed, "You know that huge moonstone we broke back in the caves? Well..."

She pulled out three beautiful stones of a compound of light and dark silver, blue, and purple colors that glimmered in the afternoon sunshine. "I found some of the pieces, and I kept them. This way the tribes can't rebuild their stone and get their powers from their ancestors."

"You don't actually believe that mumbo-jumbo, do you?!" Julia exclaimed incredulously. "That stone isn't magic. Those crazy cats just worship it and stuff because it glows once in a while!"

"And what would you know about magic, young Master of Lightning?" Matilda commented dryly.

"Oh, so do you believe that their moonstone is magic?" Julia challenged hotly.

The witch raised her eyebrows, but didn't reply.

"Look, what if the werecats want revenge for what we did?" Arianna interjected. "We killed a lot of their people—"

"They killed a lot of our people!" Julia interjected angrily.

Arianna ignored her. "And even if it takes decades for them to recover from the damage done, they may want to strike back in the future. That's why I took a few of the moonstone pieces. They can't get their ancestors' powers if the moonstone has lost some of the pieces and they can't connect to them."

Julia opened her mouth to say something—probably something sarcastic about the werecats' magic—but Arianna held out the stones in her palm to them. "I want you to take one of them. And you, too," she added to Matilda. "I can't carry them all with me, and I know they'll be safe with you. If they ever come after me and get one of the stones, at least you two will still have one each to keep away from them."

Julia frowned. "'Come after'—? Don't you think you're being a little dramatic? Arianna, we've won! We totally kicked their furry feline butts! It's over, finished! Badda-bing, badda-boom, a job well-done! Those punks are now the literal definition of 'scaredy-cat'!"