Roots of Earth ~ A Ninjago Fanfiction

Chapter 31: Story of the Red Battle

Eagle Talon stared at her, then growled, "Well?"

"Tastes like pigeon, but it's drier and burnt," Little Leaf said thoughtfully. "There's this funny taste to it—like oily plants or something."

"There's onions, soy sauce, and green onions, plus a few spices here and there," Nya offered. "What do you think?"

"Meh." Little Leaf shrugged. "I'll take a fat vole any day."

Lloyd gave a good-natured smile while Nya made a face.

Matilda saw that Cole was looking at her, and realized that a small grin of amusement was tugging on her lips. Before she could attempt to hide it, he asked, "What are you smiling about?"

She grunted. "Eh. Last time I saw werecats and Elemental Masters together, they were at each others' throats. It's a bit funny, seeing this."

"You say that as if we're getting along," Eagle Talon muttered.

"Who says we aren't?" Little Leaf tilted her head. "Lloyd and I are friends."

"No, you're not," Eagle Talon snapped.

"Hey, who says I can't be friends with—?"

A sudden groan from one end of the clearing interrupted the siblings, and everyone looked at Jay. His eyebrows were furrowed in a pained grimace. He moaned again, this time softly, and it ended in a small whimper. He twitched once, then fell silent.

The entire group looked at the motionless figure for a few seconds more, then took turns glancing uneasily at each other. Nya glanced at Matilda and opened her mouth, but the witch spoke before she could. "I've told you: there's nothing I can do for him, other than try shoving a soothing medicine down his throat, and that just makes him vomit. The best we can do is get to the Bounty as quickly as possible and find at least a soft bed for him to lie on."

"Is there no way to break the spell?" Zane asked.

"Yeah, killing him," she replied dryly. "At this point he would consider it a mercy."

Foreboding silence followed those words. Liana shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. Lloyd shifted in his seat and used his chopsticks to lift another mouthful of fried rice to his mouth. Nya bit her lip and looked at Jay anxiously. Little Leaf glanced around uneasily and sat down against the fallen log by Lloyd. Eagle Talon's scowl neither deepened nor lessened, but he did look away and stare off into the surrounding shadows.

Cole cleared his throat. "A-hem. Matilda, how do you know about the Elemental Masters and the werecats? Hardly anybody today remembers the Masters, and nobody that I know of knows about the bakeneko and nekomata."

Matilda met his curious gaze. "Well, I would know about it because I was there when the Elementals fought against the leaders Katsu and Red Alder alongside the Serpentine. I helped them fight the werecats."

Everyone stared at her in surprise. "I didn't know that!" Cole exclaimed.

"Of course not," she sniffed. "If you had, you wouldn't have asked."

"Can you tell us how it all happened, Matilda?" Liana asked from her seat beside Lloyd. "How the Alliance defeated the tribes?"

"I suppose I could," the witch said thoughtfully. "But perhaps we'd prefer to hear their side of the story."

Everyone looked surprised when she gestured across the clearing. "Eagle Talon, how do your people tell the story?"

Eagle Talon blinked and stared at her. "What?"