Roots of Earth ~ A Ninjago Fanfiction

Chapter 107: "Death, be not Proud"

"No you not!" Liana yelled. "I am!"

"I don't know what you two think an inside voice sounds like, but this is definitely not it," Li laughed, suppressing a grimace.

Suddenly serious, Liana stared at her father with big blue eyes. "Don' go."

Li's expression softened. "I won't. I'm here now." He kissed her forehead. "So as a celebration, I think we should go on a picnic tomorrow!"

The children cheered shrilly. It was too sweet a scene for Martha to complain about the surprise. She could only smile and meet Li's eyes.

"You like your present?"

"I love it."

"Then I'll help you put it on." Gently dropping the kids, he took the necklace and had her turn around.

Now the children saw the necklace. "Is that a present for Mommy?"

"Do we, do we get presents?"

"Did you get us presents, Daddy?"

"Of course I did!" Once the necklace was on, Li kissed his wife teasingly on the cheek and neck before turning back to the bag. "Let's see... I've got some throwing stars for Liana, a sword for Philip, got a little blood on it, but that's OK, we can—"

"Li! Absolutely not!" Martha gasped.

"I'm kidding!" Laughing, he bent over the sack. Philip danced excitedly around him, babbling and trying to peer over his shoulder. At last a small wooden horse with a samurai figurine was revealed, and the walls of the house shook with shrieks of joy once again.

"Mama?"

Startled, Martha looked down to see her daughter staring up at her with big blue eyes. Gravely the toddler stammered, "I— you, can I have— can I have the, can I have neck'ace?"

Smiling, the mother stooped down to kiss one of her daughter's tiny hands. "One day, sweetie. When you're older."

"Princess, you want your present or not? If not, I guess I'll just give this nice doll to your brother..."

"No!" Giggling and attention diverted, Liana joined her brother in receiving their new presents. She immediately forgot about her mother's pretty necklace.

* * *

The Pingous way of imprisonment was unlike any Kai had seen. Instead of a dungeon containing a series of cells, the prison was a large, bare courtyard lying by the castle, surrounded by high, thick walls. Deep stone holes drilled in the ground littered this courtyard. The guards dragged him here, struggling and hollering, until they reached one of these holes. A guard pulled back the thick iron grate and Kai was forced down into the hole by way of a ladder. Two guards joined him only to chain both his hands to the icy walls before climbing back up to the surface. Laughing and jeering, they slammed the grate shut over his head and left the Fire Mage locked in his dark, choking underground prison.

There he remained, both hands encased in balls of metal and chained to the wall. He'd tugged on the chains for a while before giving up, exhausted. In the near pitch-black darkness it felt almost hard to breathe, what with his prison being so narrow and small. As time wore on his hands went numb and his legs fell asleep. The rough blows from the soldiers throbbed, along with older wounds.

Kai clung to the act of staring upwards for as long as he could before his neck got too stiff. He could see, through the grate in the ceiling, the night sky. Clouds drifted by; they paid him no heed but occasionally granted stars to peer cast their veil and wink at him. The stars looked bigger in Pawreles than they did in Ninjago...