Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The earth dragon felt the scythe's absence almost instantly.

It took a second to open his gaping maw after nearly two centuries of being dormant, letting out a bone-deep growl as he stretched his claws with some popping snaps. His eyelids cracked open to a small army of skeletons running for cover when they noticed the dragon's movement.

Four colorful thieves, the black one carrying his scythe, stood with their backs to him, arguing something among themselves. The earth dragon lumbered up on them, the golden weapon glinting in his eyes. The First Master had charged him with a duty to protect his treasured weapon, and he refused to let it fall into evil hands.

The earth rumbled with the dragon, talons making the pebbles on the surface tremble. The four thieves froze, slowly turning around at the winged lizard looming over them, saliva dripping on the black one's head.

He growled, teeth bared in a snarling grin.

...

The dragon of lightning knew his job was to guard his weapon, which entailed staying in one place, entering a kind of 'sleep' of some sort, and never leaving their charge unprotected.

But... the dragon had never been to Ninjago before. And it didn't help that he was so young, energy zipping through him constantly, maddeningly. He just had to stay awake.

The First Master was hesitant to choose him for the task, but he had begged him to give the dragon a chance. And he'd been doing a really good job... up until this point.

At first, it was just quick little flights through the stormclouds, the static buzzing the air sent a thrill through his scales that was borderline addictive. But then he began to explore the rolling hills surrounding his stronghold in the sky. Ninjago was beautiful, so lush and full of life compared to the First Realm.

He never dreamed that someone would actually try to steal the nunchucks. Well, he wasn't stupid, but still, he didn't think they'd be stolen by this little guy.

Sensing a presence approaching the nunchucks, the lightning dragon cut sharply in the powerful gale. His sharp eyes caught a flash of blue reaching up to the golden weapon. With a snarl, the lightning dragon perched on the edge of the chained stronghold, wings splayed out for balance.

The blue thief let out a screech so high-pitched the dragon could've sworn his ears popped. He shook his head, a surge of panic hitting him when he focused on the spot the blue thief used to be. He whipped around just in time to see the intruder unfurl his own set of wings, gliding gracefully down to the surrounding cliffs.

No no no no! The lightning dragon bristled and fell into a dive, already imagining how much trouble he'd be in if First Master found out about this.

But he had already lost sight of the thief in the sheets of rain stinging his eyes. Soon all he could see in the brief streaks of lightning were the black mountains beneath him.

Oh man, First Master was going to kill him.

...

The shuriken guardian heard the intruders before she saw them, light crunching on the untouched snow surrounding her temple giving them away.

Still, she waited, poised directly above her treasure and the entrance so there would be no missing the thieves. She watched and waited.

Four humans nervously entered the chamber, all eyes on the twin shuriken dangling in the air like snowflakes. One or two gasped, not that she could blame them, they were beautiful.

She waited.

The white one was hoisted up by the other three to reach the high target, and consequently, haphazardly close to her open maw. It was like hunting in the First Realm, prey blissfully unaware.

The second the white one's fingers grasped the golden blades the ice dragon roared to life, spraying him with her blistering breath until he was nothing more than a block of ice. His friends shrieked in alarm and began to flee, but she wasn't done with them yet. Her muscles and joints that had been dormant for so long creaked and snapped as she dropped to the slippery ground and sprinted for the thieves with a snarl, snapping at the frozen intruder who still had the shurikens frozen in his grasp.

His friends dragged him through a crevice in the ice, then followed suit. The ice dragon lunged for the last one out, the red one, feeling the fabric of his shirt slip through her teeth as her head slammed into the wall.

Her snout curled in a snarl as she tried to dig a bigger hole.

"Stop."

The ice dragon froze at the voice, ears cocked listening.

"Let them go, it is my will."

She growled, tail swishing side to side. She'd wanted to pursue them, punish them for daring to steal from her, maybe even eat one of them (She was starving). But she couldn't disobey an order from the First Master himself. She didn't have to be happy about it, though.

"They will be back," He reassured her. "Have no fear."

She snorted.

...

Whoever woke her up was gonna die.

"Guardian of the sword of fire, awaken! There are thieves here who wish to steal your charge!" A deep gravelly voice called out through the murk.

Shoot that was her cue.

Shedding the drowsiness clinging to her scales, the fire dragon's head burst out of the lava lake and buried her talons on the ash ground for purchase. Heat radiated off her, giving everything a wriggly distortion to her vision.

At first, she thought the thieves were the two kids huddled on a slab above the magma, her sword nowhere in sight.

Hold the phone.

She dipped down and snorted their scent entwined with the soot and smoke. The girl cowered behind what looked like her brother, who wasn't doing much better.

Heck, they were kids.

Worry grew in her throat. If these children didn't have her charge, who did? She looked around the cavern, catching a shadowy figure duck out of the entrance, so subtle she almost missed it.

Before she investigated, she turned back to the two children and rumbled deeply. You are not the thieves, The fire dragon stated, ember eyes boring into them, sensing a goodness in them she hadn't smelt in a couple of millennia.

"We-we need your help," the boy stammered, "we're going to get the sword back."

The dragon breathed a puff of smoke at them in agreement, turning back to the path the true thief stole out of.

This was going to be fun.

Chapter Text

It may have been Kai’s turn to take the dragons out for the morning, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.
Sure he was the best out of the four ninja at wrangling the rowdy dragons, but it was still tricky, and usually ended in a minor injury of some sort.
Rocky was probably the best behaved out of the four, or the one who tried to be, mature, dependable, and loyal to a fault. But he didn’t know his own strength, and unfortunately, he was kind of a touchy-feely dragon. Kai was kind of glad he was Cole’s dragon.
Whisp definitely tried his best, but he was just like his rider: hyperactive, faster than his element, and easily distracted. He was the one Kai usually had to ride so he wouldn’t wander off and get lost in the thick clouds surrounding their home.
Shard did whatever the hell she wanted. Sometimes she’d be as docile and gentle as a snowflake, letting Kai fly her without any problem. Other times she’d lash and buck and snap like a wild stallion, sometimes refusing to fly altogether. Zane was the only one who could consistently keep her calm.
And then there was Flame. Kai’s dragon was kind of a piece of work. As much as Kai hated to admit it, she was much like him: lazy, emotionally attached, and knew how to hold one heck of a grudge. She may have been his awesome dragon, but he had to pay a price for it.
“Hey, guys!” Kai called through the barriers, shaking his head at the sound of Whisp bouncing around his stall in excitement, ramming his head against the door. Stifling a yawn, he bridled Rocky and led him out to the cliffside, couldn’t help but appreciate the nice mossy smell he always had, like what a forest smells like after a good rain shower.
“Stay,” he ordered, nodding in satisfaction when Rocky rumbled and spread his massive wings out to sun himself in the morning rays.
He went back to Shard, who was curled up in a back corner and glaring at him. Kai frowned and opened the stall door more to reveal a gaping hole in the divider between Shard and Flame’s stall, charred around the edges and dripping wet from melted ice. Kai pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “Flame…” he growled. From the next door over he heard the fire dragon make a noise he could’ve sworn was a snicker. This wasn’t the first time Flame had committed petty arson in revenge for something her roommates did, but it didn’t make it any less annoying.
“Sorry, I’ll have a talk with her later,” He apologized, offering the ice dragon a friendly hand. Shard’s lip curled in a snarl, but Kai could tell it was empty threats. Maybe she’d behave today, he thought hopefully.
Whisp was still banging his head against the door in anticipation once Shard and Flame were waiting with Rocky, Kai having to squeeze through the small opening he made to not let the lightning dragon escape.
“Hey buddy,” Kai greeted, holding up his hands to calm the – literally - buzzing dragon. He got him bridled inside the stall and climbed on his back to steer him over to the cliff where the others were.
Well, that went well, he grumbled, static making his spiky hair stick up even more. He waved the others on and took off with a yelp, eyes watering as Whisp sliced through the air and narrowly dodged the jagged cliffs surrounding the monastery. He held onto his red hood and looked back to ensure the other three had followed.
Not too far behind were the other three: Flame first, Shard next, then Rocky in a neat line. Kai turned back to see where he was going and signaled to fall into a V-formation. With some extra wing pumping, they managed to form a shape similar to some grey birds migrating far below them.
“Don’t even think about it, Whisp.” He warned the lightning dragon, seeing the gleam in his eye and earning a growl of protest. “No, we have food at home.”
Looking back up, Kai had to admit, that once he actually got himself and the dragons out of bed, he never regretted waking up at this ungodly hour. Seeing a sunrise was nice enough on the ground, and even nicer up on the mountain, but watching it on the back of a dragon above the clouds was something else entirely. It beat the privilege of sleeping an extra hour any day.
An ocean of white-capped clouds spanned the entire horizon, the dragons’ talons and wing tips stirring up whisps in their wake. The bronze sun warmed Kai’s face like the alloys in his forge back at home, even at the high altitude, casting highways of golden rays for the dragons to fly on. The air was fresh and clean and cold. Kai shivered, but it was good, the kind that made you feel alive, leaving him a little breathless.
About an hour later, it was time to head back. It must’ve been around six-thirty by the time Kai found their mountain again, landing not as smoothly as he would have liked and ended up slipping off Whisp’s glistening scales.
Of course, his teammates had to be coming around at that exact moment.
Kai hastily jumped up and brushed himself off as if nothing happened as the three ninja approached, two of which still looked half asleep.
“Good morning, Kai,” Zane greeted in a tone that was way too cheerful for Jay and Cole. Knowing Zane, he had probably been awake for a while reading or hiding in the fridge or something.
Cole and Jay got their wake-up call soon enough. Rocky cement-rolled Cole over with a slobbery greeting that would make a St. Bernard jealous, effectively pinning the earth master in place as he wheezed and patted his side in return, “Hey, buddy. Missed you too.”
Jay kept having to whip around himself as Whisp zipped around his rider, finally rolling over in demand for a belly rub. Jay giggled and gave a rapid-fire of ‘who’s a good boy?’ as he scratched the dragon’s blue scales, making his curly hair stand on end like Kai’s did.
Shard waited regally as Zane approached her, claws resting daintily on top of one another and frost feathering across her hide. “Good morning, Shard I – oh - ” The ice dragon plucked him up and dropped him in her talons, proceeding to clean him up with her cat-like tongue, which he didn’t look too thrilled about. She somehow made his white hair stick up even straighter.
Kai felt something coil around his ankles and sweep him off his feet with a startled cry. Flame rumbled happily while Kai rubbed his backside and shot her a glare, “What the hell?”
The fire dragon snorted a ribbon of smoke out her nostrils and circled her rider in an impenetrable ring of blood-red scales, settling her head where Kai sat. The fire master could feel her purrs resonating deep in her chest as he leaned against her, shrugging and sighing at the pleasant warmth emanating from her hide. “How’d I get stuck with the sappy dragon?”
Flame whacked him upside the head with her tail in response and sent another puff of smoke out her mouth, making Kai cough. “Low blow…” He coughed again before he could finish.
“Ah, students, there you are,” all eight heads turned to see their teacher coming down the stairs, bamboo staff thumping on the stone steps and ivory beard swaying in the morning breeze. “I thought I’d find you here.”
The ninja got up and bowed out of respect, sans Cole who was still having trouble getting enough oxygen, no matter how much he pushed with Rocky.
Wu waved a hand to dismiss them, bushy eyebrows raised, “You know, there’s a reason I call it a ‘sunrise exercise.’ You four should already be in the training courtyard.”
“Aww, sensei,” Jay moaned, slumping dramatically over Whisp, “We haven’t even had breakfast yet.”
“Then the sooner you begin your training, the sooner you may eat,” he responded lightly, rubbing Rocky’s nose affectionately before turning on his heels and making his way back up to the monastery, probably to make tea.
Cole, somehow managing to escape his captor, sat up and cracked his back, giving Jay a slap on the back that made the smaller teen wheeze, “C’mon, Sparky, it’s not that bad. Maybe Zane will make us pancakes afterward,”
All three of them looked hopefully at the very soggy-looking ice master Shard had just released, finally satisfied with her handiwork. Zane sighed and wiped the excess dragon drool off his face, “After I shower.” He turned to his dragon and gave a tight, “thank you, Shard,” before climbing up the stairs.
Shard purred pridefully and inclined her head.
Kai snickered and stretched as Jay and Cole fist-pumped in silent victory. He reluctantly took Flame’s bridle and led her back to the cave. She didn’t go without her fair share of grumbling and fireballs.
“C’mon, don’t be like that. You never know, we might have a mission today and you can eat some bad guys.”
Flame glared daggers at him but let the kid take her harness off and refill her water trough. After making sure she had everything she needed, he shut the stall behind him, seeing that the other two were doing the same with their dragons. Shard had smugly put herself away, being trained by Zane to be pretty much independent. Those two had a weird relationship.
Kai shook his head as he heard Flame set her stall on fire for extra warmth and Shard shriek and extinguish it with a spray of ice through the opening the fire dragon had made earlier.
Sometimes he wondered how these eight idiots ever became friends.

Chapter Text

               Jay had the munchies.

            Yes, breakfast was literally only three hours away, but he wanted something with an ungodly amount of sugar in it, and sensei never bought the good candy when he went out. Sorry, but breath mints weren’t candy.

            He threw his covers off him, nimbly hopped off his top bunk, and crept over to a bookshelf overcrowded with scrolls, gingerly reaching past them and pushing the false-back aside.

            It was a great hiding place for his stash. The two who would actually eat his stuff usually avoided scrolls when they could and Zane would lecture him on sugar intakes if he found it, but Jay doubted he’d tell anyone.

            He was sorely disappointed to find only a sad sucker laying dejectedly in the far corner. He wrinkled his nose as he picked it up. Ew, grape, I don’t even like grape.

            He sighed and put the board back, tapping his foot against the carpet as he thought, an idea coming to him. He grabbed his jacket and beanie and slipped out the door without waking his roommates.

            Whisp sensed him before he even stepped outside the gate, Jay could hear the dull thumping of his excited tail from up here. Now that he was out of the ninja and his teacher’s earshot, he bounded down the steps two at a time, pulling on his coat as he went. Jay grunted and pulled the lever unlocking Whisp’s stall, bracing himself as the dragon burst out with a joyful roar.

            “shhhhh! Whisp - no boy - take it easy!” Through a great effort, Jay managed to calm the guardian down enough to slip his bridle on and climb on his back. He heard the other dragons stir a little at all the noise they were making. 

            “Ninjago city, you know the way,” was all Whisp needed to hear to tear off the cliff, Jay forgot to hold on to his hat and protested as it flew off his curly red hair and fluttered into the night.

            RIP beanie, he thought solemnly as he reluctantly turned his attention back to the front. Whisp’s lithe body sliced through the mountain gales threatening to push Jay off his dragon. The distant lights of Ninjago City blinked sleepily as the two approached, spiraling down near where the lights glowed the brightest. Jay kept his eyes peeled for the river cutting through the center of town where the ferrymen worked. A little ways down he spotted one of the rare convenience stores that was open twenty-four/seven in this area.

            “Here we go,” he grinned, pointing. “Over there, Whisp.”

            The lightning dragon circled down and landed in the empty parking lot across the street and waited for Jay to hop down. Even at this hour, some cars occasionally rattled past, giving them weird looks, which he was happy to return. “Wait, here, ok? I’ll be right back.”

            He dug his hands in his pockets against the cold and swung the store door open with a kind of sad bell jingle. He looked over at the stained counter and brightened when he saw a little old lady knitting something tiny at the cash register. “Hi, Daisy!”

            The old lady looked up and broke into a gap-tooth grin, “Jay! Been a while since I’ve seen you round here. You still a ninja and everythin?”

“You bet I am,” Jay said proudly as he browsed an aisle, picking a couple brightly colored packages, double-checking that they had the right amount of MSG and hydrogenated corn syrup before returning to check out. “You still making baby hats?”

Daisy held her unfinished project and beamed, “they need something to keep warm at that stone-cold hospital.”

“Yeah,” Jay chuckled, setting his things on the counter and grabbing his crumpled pile of bills from his pocket.

   Daisy paused and frowned, “You always wear my hat when you come here, where is it?”

“Oh, uh,” Jay rubbed his neck sheepishly, “It kinda blew away on the way here. But don’t worry, it’s no big deal, I’ll just buy another one.”

Daisy gave him a hard look before she set her pink knitting down, slid off her chair (dropping to about four feet), and hobbled into the back room. Jay craned his neck at the sound of rummaging coming from behind the thin wall and raised his eyebrows when she came back with a cardboard box stuffed with hand-made hats of every shape and size imaginable.

Jay took a step back and held up his hand, “Woah, hey, I can’t take your stuff, that’s for the ki–“ Daisy responded by depositing a blue beanie on his curly hair and tapping his freckled cheek. “Hush,” she grumbled, straightening it so it fit right. It was almost exactly like the one he lost, his favorite color too.

Jay laughed nervously and began to dig into his pockets. “Well, at least let me pay for-“

“What did I just say?” She said sternly, now pinching his cheek more as a warning than as a granny thing.

“Uh, yes ma’am,”

She smiled and straightened, "good. Now, what can we check out here?"

Jay trotted up to Whisp with a plastic bag of junk food in one hand and a brand-new beanie on his head. The lightning dragon perked up from where he was chewing on a rusty lamp post, sparks spraying out of the shattered light bulb. “Whisp…” Jay sighed, taking the handles by his teeth so he had two free hands to climb up.

Once the two were in the air again and Jay could now feast on his newly replenished stash of sugar, he found that he wasn’t quite ready to go back to the monastery just yet. The lightning master slipped his bag over one of Whisp's horns and wiped his hands on his pajama pants. “Say… you wanna make some noise up here?”

He felt Whisp’s response as he started pumping his wings with newfound energy, the static bouncing off his azure hide growing stronger. Jay lurched with a yelp and barely caught himself, gripping the bridle so he wouldn’t fall off.

Once he recovered, he reached into his bag and pulled out the nunchucks of lightning. Whisp gave him a disapproving look. He shrugged, “What? A ninja’s always prepared, right?”

Taking a breath to center himself, Jay homed in on his elemental weapon, sensing that current of life that pulsed through the gold and into him. His hands – no, his entire body – hummed with energy, and the sky darkened with charcoal clouds blotting out the stars. He grinned and looked around him at the billowing storm now surrounding them on all sides, concentrating harder until a flash of light danced across his vision, followed by a rumbling that rattled him to the bones. He shivered.

All around him flared white fiery strips of pure electricity, lighting up the darkness for a split second before leaving the dragon and his rider in the shadow. The other dragons would have just flown above the clouds into the clear, calm atmosphere, but Jay could sense Whisp’s enthrallment, knowing there was no place he’d rather be than in the chaos of a storm.  

Reckless.

Powerful.

Beautiful.

Jay whooped and pumped his fists in the air as Whisp expertly zigzagged between the bolts, tumbling through the sky with gusto, letting out his own roar into the night.

Who knows how long after, they managed to find home again. Jay stumbled a few times getting off his dragon, giggling a little crazily with his static hair. Whisp actually drooped a little and yawned monstrously, needle-like teeth protruding from his gums.

Jay patted his muzzle and yawned himself. Yup, he was definitely going to pay for this tomorrow – er, today – or tonight, anyway, he’d need a couple dozen extra shots of espresso when he got back. Gee, between the candy and caffeine he’d be lucky if he made it to thirty at this rate.

“You ok, Whisp?” Jay asked, waiting for his dragon to settle down in his stall. Whisp licked his lips and draped his wings over himself like a blanket, looking more like a kid up past his bedtime than a century-old guardian of unlimited power. He sneezed a spark of lightning and closed his transparent eyelids.

Jay chuckled and closed the door gingerly behind him, stealing away silently back to his bed for a tight thirty minutes of sleep before sensei would break out his wake-up gong. He pulled the covers successfully over him without waking a soul, almost snickering in victory before being hit with a wave a nausea and opted for clutching his stomach instead. “Why do I do this to myself?” He muttered.

Chapter Text

Cole needed to get away.  

It wasn’t like he disliked the rest of his team; they were great. But every once in a while he felt that need to just be by himself and reorganize his thoughts, where he didn’t need to be the leader, or the black ninja, or even the master of earth. Where he could just be.  

He made sure to tell Sensei he was going to be gone for the day, though in hindsight he probably should’ve told him where he was going, but honestly, he didn’t really know himself. Stepping outside of that ancient monastery, his new home, he breathed in a little deeper. Huh, he’d forgotten how nice these August mornings could be.   

He shouldered the duffle bag slung over him filled with standard first aid, food, and climbing rope and trotted down the steps to his dragon’s stall. As always, Whisp’s sharp nose caught his scent before he even reached the door and made Jay’s dragon bounce around his cave. Cole chuckled and rubbed the small part of the blue dragon’s nose that could fit through the narrow opening in the barricade. “Sorry, Whisp. Jay will come later, ok?” He heard the lightning dragon huff in disappointment but settled down after a minute.   

He opened Rocky’s stall and greeted his dragon with open arms, not quite bracing himself in time for the rib-cracking encounter Rocky had in store for him. He wheezed and weakly patted the impenetrable scaly belly and protested at the slobber dripping from his red maw. “Hey, Rocko. Missed you too. Ready to get out of here?”  

Rocky released him readily and slammed his tail down in anticipation, creating a hair-line fissure in the cliff. Cole lost no time in bridling him, the motion rapidly becoming more and more fluid with repetition. They were up in the air in record timing.  

Since the two had met, Cole had become a lot better with flying, but even so he would take walking any day. No matter how many times they flew, it always made his head spin at just how high dragons could go.  

Hence, he was eager to find a mountain as soon as possible and get to the good part: climbing. Luckily around Cole’s new home there was no shortage of mountains jutting out of the trees like black talons.  

He pointed to the sheer cliff of glinting obsidian nestled in a pine cluster, unfamiliar, not too small, perfect. “How does that one look, big guy?”  

Rocky followed his gaze and rumbled, dipping down in the air and making Cole’s stomach churn as he plunged to the earth. His landing wasn’t nearly as graceful as Whisp or Shard, but it wasn’t the worst, a solid seven out of ten.  

With his feet on the sweet ground again, Cole unslung his duffle and rummaged through it until he found his climbing supplies, blocking out Rocky’s thunderous rampage while chasing a butterfly.    

After wrapping his hands with bandages, he leaned back and scrutinized the dark rock towering over him, the peak just barely in sight. It was surreal, preparing yourself to test your limits. Just before you begin, you look at the path you have to take, realizing that you will finish it, one way or another.  

He rubbed his hands together before jumping up and latching onto his first handhold with a grunt, hoisting himself up. Just beneath him he heard Rocky rumble and nimbly heave himself up, passing the earth master in a matter of minutes with his muscular body. Cole smiled. Sometimes his dragon seemed more at home in the mountains than in the air with his powerful talons and crushing tail. His solid build looked downright graceful as he scaled the mountain high above his rider.  

The two climbed in silence as the sun rose slowly along with them, watching them with a stifling gaze. Sweat trickled down Cole’s temple. He paused, breathing heavily, taking a moment to survey the pointed tree tips, the sea of pine standing strong and resolute. They were high enough for the wind to sweep the damp hair out of his eyes and dry his soaked shirt. In the distance a flock of white birds melted into the horizon.    

It was peaceful. He felt his thoughts settle like sediment at the bottom of a river.  

Cole felt the stone beneath his hands shift and winced at the spray of pebbles slipping down the slope and peppering his head. He jumped to find a sturdier handhold and felt a slight jolt to find the section of the cliff he was on beginning to crumble. A slightly larger jolt ran through him when he began to lose ground, slipping with the small cascade of rocks tumbling down to the earth. Well shoot. 

From somewhere off to his right he heard Rocky's call and a shadow darken his vision as he circled him.  

Cole struggled to look up as a larger rock dislodged and began to free-fall, ready to drop on his head. Cole scrambled to climb out of their path but still had nowhere to go. Again he heard Rocky roar and whirled around, stomach dropping when he saw his wings brush dangerously close to the mountain as he tried to snatch Cole up in his claws. “No, don’t -!”  

Too late. The rock collided with Rocky’s shoulder; it wasn’t huge but more than heavy enough to send him off-balance. In the split-second of lost concentration trying to regain his balance Rocky's tail inadvertently slammed into the mountainside, bringing much bigger, heavier rocks to come crashing down on top. Cole gasped and reached out to his dragon even as he was dragged down under the tremendous weight.     

Rocky squawked and out of instinct reached back, wrapping his talons tightly around Cole as he hurtled to the forest floor beneath them in a collage of stone, dust, and dragon. With a painful crack, Cole felt something make contact with his head as his fall abruptly ended.  

After a couple of dazed minutes Cole groaned and reached up to wipe the grim stinging his eyes, blinking blearily at the bright sun.

Rocky’s talons digging into his middle prodded him to wake up, and with a start he became fully alert to Rocky’s frustrated hissing. Cole pried himself from his grip and sucked in his breath when he saw the tons of stone piled against the side of the mountain and crushing Rocky's right wing.     

The slabs of rocks shifted, earning a cry from Rocky as he struggled against the oppressive weight. His wing was definitely bent at a weird angle. Cole scrambled to reach out and calm his dragon before he could do any more damage. He laid a hand on his snout and rubbed it back and forth till Rocky stopped struggling, Dirt-clouded amber eyes boring into the earth master.  

“It’s ok, buddy, I got you. You’re gonna be fine, alright?” Cole blew the air out of his cheeks and surveyed the mess. If he could move the boulders with his super strength, he could take care of Rocky’s wing and wait for Wu or someone to find them. It shouldn’t be that long before they realized something was wrong. They could hold out till then.    

Gingerly stepping up on a semi-precarious-looking rock, Cole winced as some pebbles tumbled down, making Rocky groan and plop his head on the ground.  

Only now did he notice a gash running the length of his arm, a small trickle of blood trickling down his shoulder. It stung a little but not enough to hinder his climb so he pressed on.  

“Sorry, sorry,” he apologized, grunting as he climbed all the way up to the largest rock wedged between Rocky and the side of the mountain. The only problem was the acclimation of other smaller boulders balanced right on top. It would be impossible to reach then and even if he did, what then? If Cole tried to move any of the rocks the others would fall, causing who knows how much damage to Rocky.     

It was too risky on his own, he would just have to wait till his teammates noticed he was gone too long and came around with one of the other dragons. Shoot, He should’ve told sensei where he was going. Dang it. Well, Nya’s smart, and she knew he didn’t like to go very far, so they’d just have to wait it out.          

“Hey, Rocko,” Cole slid down and stroked Rocky’s muzzle, evoking a strained puff of smoke from the dragon’s nostrils. “Listen, I know you're hurt right now but you gotta quit struggling, I don’t want you to get any more hurt, ok?”  

Rocky looked at him hard with ancient mossy eyes and made a deep noise in his throat as if he understood, folding his free wing against him to preserve heat. He could tell he wasn’t happy, tail lashing as bad as Flame. He was a dragon, his very nature was power, strength, and majesty, a direct line from one of the two oldest beings in existance. And now he was trapped, in pain, and vulnerable.  

“That’s it, I’m gonna go see if I can get some water for you, ok?” Without waiting for a response Cole grabbed a hand-hold and swung down, landing on the pine needle-carpeted terrain. Since his supply bag was buried somewhere in this rubble he’d have to find a stream or something.  

Luckily a brook the width of his forearm gurgled not a quarter-mile out, just out of sight of his stranded dragon. He filled his canteen and washed his wound off as quickly as possible before jogging back, not wanting to leave Rocky alone any longer than necessary.  

Rocky ground his talons into the broken stones underneath him. Worry and guilt swirled around in Cole’s gut like swamp water. His dragon was seriously in pain, and it was completely his fault. He was the one who wanted to escape the monastery. He was the one who slipped on the rocks. He was the one who Rocky saved.  

But his mom had taught him better than to wallow in self-pity when someone else needed help, so he breathed in deeply and hoisted himself up, water sloshing in his canteen.    

“Hey, Buddy.” Cole greeted, keeping a relatively upbeat tone as he unscrewed the lid and offered some to Rocky, who refused with a low growl. “C’mon, bud, you gotta drink,” he persisted. True, he’d have to carry a hell of a lot more canteens fow such a large animal, but he was willing to carry as many as necessary.  

After some more pleading he finally got him to drink a little, noticing the sun was beginning to dip down in the sky, he decided to build up a fire. It was already getting chilly and he needed a way to signal his teammates when they came.  

As day shifted to dusk Cole finally managed to get a fire going, thinking about how nice it’d be if Kai were here right about now. He blew on the rather pathetic flame until it caught on the kindling and started to cough out a steady stream of smoke into the air.  

Brushing his hands off in satisfaction, he glanced back at Rocky staring intently at him. He should probably get some more water before it got any darker. Already the sun had dissapeared behind the trees.  

“I’ll be right back,” he said, moving away from the orange light. He didn’t notice Rocky go rigid as his gaze cut from the darkening shadows to his rider.  

Rocky snarled and snapped out, making Cole jump and stop in his tracks. When he turned around his dragon seemed to be looking anywhere but him, talons clenched and deep rumbling in the back of his throat. He looked almost... embarrassed? There was something else though.  

“Relax, Rocko, I’m just going to get more water, I’ll be right back. Why don’t you rest and get some sleep. Nya should be here soon.”  

Again Rocky growled and nipped at the fold of Cole’s sleeve, creating a tear. Cole didn’t miss how Rocky’s eyes flashed and Cole frowned.  

Was Rocky was... afraid?  

His dragon bowed his head and glared at the ground, acting more like Shard with her icy pride. Cole sighed and took his snout in both hands, compelling him to meet his eye. “Hey, you’re gonna be ok. I’m staying right here with you.”  

Rocky snorted out a trail of smoke but Cole could feel his muscles relax behind his thick hide as he sank down beside him.  

After checking over the cut on his arm and finding satisfaction that his bandage job had indeed stopped the bleeding, he leaned his head back so he was looking up at the stars just beginning to appear, marred slightly by his smoke signal, but beautiful nonetheless.  

He could tell Rocky thought so too from the way he sniffed and craned his neck to take in the vastness of it all. Somehow night seemed a little less dark with a friend around. Cole hummed and closed his eyes, thinking that maybe this would be just a little nicer with his teammates here. Sure he still liked (maybe even needed, at times) being alone, but he couldn’t deny that he sort of missed his brothers. Kai would be complaining about how cold it was, Jay would be not-so-subtly inching closer to Nya for protection against the monsters in the woods, Zane would be listing off every constellation in the night sky, and Cole would be smiling and absorbing it all in, happily at home among these idiots. He hadn’t even known them for that long, but he was already willing to admit he’d do just about anything for them.  

He must have dozed off for a while, relieved that Rocky’s breathing had finally deepened into soft snores when he heard a far-off roar of a dragon. Rocky’s head pricked up and he sniffed the air, ears flicking forward as his eyes lit up. His tail started thumping the ground, splintering shards of rock and tree roots.  

High above them a sliver of iridescent white flashed like a star. Shard spiraled down and gracefully landed beside the injured dragon, frosty eyes showing a hint of concern as she sniffed him, a puff of frost clinging to Rocky’s snout. The earth dragon whimpered back, but Cole could tell he was excited at the prospect of being babied by momma dragon now that she was here. Sure Shard would probably stomp, snap, and spit ice at him for a month (unlike her rider) but she would indefinitely guard Rocky with her life.  

Nya and Jay hopped off her back and rushed over to the two with worried, and in Nya’s case enraged, looks on their faces. Nya’s first action upon meeting Cole was to punch him in the arm, his injured one unfortunately. “You nearly gave us all heart attacks when you didn’t show up for dinner, idiot. Next time warn us before you almost die.”  

Cole rubbed his arm gingerly and sent Nya a wounded look, “I did not almost die, I just fell off a mountain, drama queen.”  

Jay’s freckled face paled when he saw the state of Rocky’s wing, “What happened? ”  

“Um, long story, but we need your help moving all the debris on Rocky. His wing is in pretty bad shape.”  

The two younger teammates nodded immediately. Luckily with Shard’s help, they managed to lift the largest boulders off Rocky. The earth dragon let out an audible sigh of relief once the last one was raised off his wing. Unfortunately, his wing was in even worse condition than Cole thought. An ugly tear in the softer skin stretched between the tendons looked painfully red and swollen, and the entire wing shaft was bent at an awkward angle, almost certainly dislocated.  

“Well, he can’t fly,” Jay stated the obvious, earning an unamused look from Nya, “I guess we’re walking back to the monastery,” he said without any enthusiasm.    

Before anyone could react Shard reared up and shove hard on Rocky’s shoulder with her front claws, causing a nauseating pop as his bone slipped back into its socket. She ignored Rocky’s screech of pain as she immediately opened her maw and sent a numbing cloud of ice seeping between the scales on his shoulder. He looked like he changed his mind about Shard taking care of him.   

Jay raised his eyebrows and exchanged a look with Cole and Nya, “...or not I guess?”  

Cole rubbed Rocky comfortingly, “If Shard can support his one wing, you guys can guide us back to the monastery. If we start now we can get back before midnight.”  

Jay grimaced, “But by butt is still frozen from our ride here! How the heck does Zane do it?” He whined, wincing as Shard loomed over him and gave a threatening grin of needle-sharp teeth.    

Nya smiled and stroked the ice dragon’s throat, and Shard purred amicably. Cole didn’t know what it was, but for some reason Nya had clicked with Zane’s dragon, even more than Flame. Maybe it was kindred spirits of anger or something.  

Regardless of the reason, Jay sighed and cautiously followed Nya and Cole’s example of climbing on their dragons. Getting off the ground was harder than they thought; Rocky’s wing struggled to hold himself up, but once Shard tucked her open wing under his they gained enough altitude to haphazardly sail on the breeze. Cole breathed a sigh of relief when the warm light of the monastery came into view in the distance.

He turned to Jay and Nya. A thought occurred to him. "Thanks for having my back guys. I knew you'd find us."

Jay grinned and gave a thumbs up, "Anytime, Boulderbrain."

Nya snorted and didn't take her eyes off the reins in her hands, "Just don't do it again, kay?"

Cole raised his hands innocently, "I'll try avoid it." after a pause he added, "You know, I could take you mountain climbing with me sometime if you're interested."

Even in the darkness he could see the two raise their eyebrows in mild surprise. Jay turned to him and smiled slyly, "I'll try climbing if you'll fly into a thunderstorm with me."

Cole laughed. "Not a chance." 

Chapter Text

To say that Shard had undergone some character development since she joined the ninja team was a major understatement; She just went from actively trying to eat everyone to barely tolerating their existence, which was huge growth in her books.

But as much as she endured the three ninja and their respective dragons, Zane alone held a spot in her cold dark heart, and Shard loved him with every ounce of it.

She didn’t know when or how exactly it happened, but he wormed his way in and made himself comfortable in nearly no time at all, save when she first froze him solid for daring to steal from her. It was like frostbite growing on her talons, it’s no big deal until the next thing you know you have to make Flame thaw out your claws like frozen chicken.  

It was different, having someone to care about and to have someone care about her in return. She never liked other dragons before, even in the First Realm. She liked being on her own. She liked being intimidating, keeping the others away (except for Whisp. He didn’t seem to get her message). But Zane just seemed to snap his fingers and say “nope, it’s going to be like this from now on.” She was still trying to figure it out.  

But as much as Shard held him in high esteem, she was also an escape artist. The stalls they kept the dragons in were unbearably hot in the summer (all except for a certain smug fire dragon), so much so that she formed a habit of making prison beaks at night, climbing up, and coiling on the highest part on the monastery, soothing frost clinging to her draped white wings. Once the dreaded sun rose she liked to shake the melted ice off her scales, preferably when Kai comes outside to take the other dragons out.

On one such morning when she was climbing up the side of the monastery when she caught a faint smell coming from a small window in the white walls.

It smelled... good. 

Curiosity made her crane her long neck toward the source of the smell, but she still couldn’t see. After taking a minute to debate whether it was worth it, Shard slinked across the roof and dug her talons dug into the side of the wall, hanging upside-down to see into what must’ve been the kitchen.

Peering in, she saw Zane at the human heat-maker, a pan steaming in front of him. That must be what smelled so good. Zane reached over and slid a cutting board of more food into the pan, igniting a fresh wave of crackling.

Shard watched and listened and smelled, silently mesmerized by the calming aura that had found a home in the room. Zane brushed his hands off and leaned out into the hallway, called “breakfast is ready,” and set down six plates on the table while what sounded like a herd of buffalo stampeding through the corridor.

Kai, Jay, Cole, and Nya stampeded into the room with disheveled hair and sleepy eyes, hastily taking their respective seats at the table after crowding the kitchen for the steaming food. Zane took his own plate and slid into his place beside Wu, who had walked in from his meditation room and sat down like a normal human being.

Shard watched as Zane shyly smiled as his teammates dug in, ducking his head at the happy looks on their faces. There was a feeling of contentment among them, like all the worries and responsibilities they had to deal with that day could wait on them, and they could just be together.

Shard stared and quietly swished her tail back and forth. 

After they had scarfed down their breakfast, cleaned their plates, and left to get ready for training, Zane stood at the sink washing his dish. Shard made sure the coast was clear before sticking her nose through the window and snapping a breath of frost to get his attention.

Zane froze (literally) and almost dropped the dish as he whipped around and bumped his head into Shard’s glistening snout.

His eyes widened as he hastily put the plate and drying towel down and tried to ineffectively push Shard back outside. “Shard, you cannot be here! What are you doing out of your home?”

The ice dragon snorted before giving him a smug kiss with her blue-forked tongue.

The white ninja stiffened and scrunched up his face. “Oof” he returned, patting her neck as he continued his fruitless endeavor to push her back outside. “Thank you, but you really mustn’t be here. Go back to the others. Please. Kai will be out any minute to bring you breakfast,” Zane pleaded.

 Shard relented, albeit reluctantly, giving one last lick before releasing from the wall and spreading her wings to catch her fall.

But as she was about to land on the cliff edge where the other dragons would be soon, she paused, hesitated, and after a moment instead sailed on the air currents, letting the wind carry her farther and farther away.

In the refreshing wind whipping around her, Shard’s talons clenched and unclenched, deep in thought. Something about that small scene she had witnessed bothered her. Why she didn’t quite know. When the ninja all sat down together to eat the food Zane had prepared, they looked happy. Really happy.

When Zane gave them food, they seemed to like him. He and the ninja were...friends, right? If you give someone food does that make you friends?

Maybe – maybe – she could… give that a shot. Zane seemed happy with it, maybe she could try the whole – yech – friend thing too. And besides, if she didn’t like it she could always go back to being the reclusive ice dragon who hates everyone and is to be feared by all (Except Zane, who didn’t have to be afraid if he didn’t want to). What exactly did she have to lose?

Noticing she had been drifting for a while, Shard swooped down and landed gracefully on the forest ground where the currents had taken her, claws hard to see in the morning fog still clinging to the earth. Her ears picked up the laughter of a stream trickling nearby. She got an idea.

Slinking toward the water, she kept low to the ground to hide her shadow. A slippery fish glided through the water.

Quick as death she lashed out, stabbed a fish with her talons, and wrenched it out of the water, purring with satisfaction at her work. The fish glittered in the pale sunlight, more than big enough to share. She turned and launched off the bank, flying back towards the monastery.

The ice dragon growled in annoyance at how warm the sun shone on her back, hot and sharp against her scales. She wished a fluffy white cloud or two would come by to soften it up. Thankfully the bleached walls of her home came into view before the sun reached its peak.

From the red smudge on the cliff growing by the minute, Shard knew Kai had already taken Rocky, Whisp, and Flame outside, leaving the dragons perched on the rock side as he undid their bridles. Shard landed, padded over to them with her head held high, and dropped the dead fish from her mouth proudly in front of them.

Kai took a step back as it rolled towards him and raised an eyebrow at the ice dragon. “Nice of you to finally show up. Where have you been? I was looking for you.”

Shard ignored him and looked expectantly at the other dragons who were all blinking from her to the carcass, not sure what they were supposed to do with it.

Shard could’ve kicked herself. Of course.

She blew a breath of ice at the fish, creating a crunchy shell over the silver scales, freezing it solid. There. Perfect.

She looked at the others who were slowly backing away, retreating to their stalls for their actual breakfast. Kai gave her one last funny look before turning on his heel to join them.

“Wait, where are you going?” Shard hissed at Rocky, who was trying – and failing – to slip his massive body back into the cave without her noticing. “I made this for you. Eat it.”

Rocky sent her an unconvinced look, “Yeah... I’m not eating that.”

Shard balked, bristling her neck spikes indignantly. Since when did Rocky refuse food? She turned to Whisp, who was scratching behind his ear, claw moving so fast it was a blur. “That looks gross,” he chirped, blissfully unaware of the murderous glare he was receiving from the ice dragon.

Before she could turn to Flame, the fire dragon rolled her eyes and blasted a shoot of flame at the dead fish, effectively creating a charred black husk in a puddle of water. She made prolonged eye contact with each of the other dragons before hissing “cowards” and snapping it up in one bite, wrinkling her snout as she licked her teeth. “Soggy.” She pranced in the direction Kai had gone to go find him.

Shard blinked and cocked her head as they went back into their stalls, leaving her alone with a little puddle of water. That wasn’t supposed to happen. What did she do wrong? She did exactly what Zane did: give them food. Was there something she was missing?

Kai came back out and put his hands on his hips, ignoring Flame blowing sparks at him for attention. “You coming inside or what?” Shard lashed her tail and turned around, missing the shrug of indifference from the red ninja.

“Fine. You’re Zane’s headache, not mine, sweetheart.”

Shard again climbed up the side of the cliff, sniffing the air until she located which part of the monastery Zane was in. She found him sitting at the table reading a scroll so long it rippled over the opposite edge.

Light footsteps treading on the floorboards caused Zane to glance up, spotting Jay sneaking away from the kitchen with something that look suspiciously like a container of ice cream.

“Is that mine?” The white ninja’s cold tone made Jay freeze mid-step and hastily turn with his hands raised in surrender. “No no, don’t worry. It’s mine.” He twisted the pint to reveal his chicken-scratch blue marker signature on the side.

Now Zane was generous to a fault. That generosity did not extend to his ice cream. Zane loved ice cream. And he would defend his pint till his dying breath if need be. The other ninja knew better than to try and swipe his caramel swirl.

The white ninja nodded, but paused to take a closer look at Jay’s face. Shard noticed it too. The lop-sided carefree grin always plastered on the lightning master’s face looked stretched, thin, like it was pulled up by strings and a puppeteer. Fake.

“Is there something wrong?” Zane inquired, only confirming Shard’s theory by the way Jay’s pink eyes widened a little.

“What? No, why would anything be wrong?” Jay deflected, giving a nervous laugh.

“Lying is wrong,” Zane said simply, burying his chin in his elbows resting on the table as he waited patiently for Jay to take a seat across from him, scroll forgotten. Both he and Shard knew Jay wasn’t the type to keep his thoughts and feelings to himself; That was more Cole and Zane’s department.

Just as they predicted, Jay reluctantly sat down and popped the lid off the ice cream container, producing a spoon he must’ve swiped from the kitchen. Up close it was much more apparent that he’d been crying sometime earlier.

“Sorry,” Jay mumbled, stabbing half-heartedly at the freezer-burned dessert. “I just…it’s just that, well I found out someone I knew passed away last night, and I really cared about her and stuff. I just found out about it like an hour ago.”

Zane hummed and rolled his head to the side to show he was listening.

And Jay told him about an old lady named Daisy who worked at a convenience store in the city. At first he sniffed a little while telling the white ninja some stories about her, but towards the end, they turned more cheerful. Jay actually smiled for real a couple of times. All the while Zane listened, not saying anything, not even really looking at him, just being there.

Eventually, Jay sighed and propped his head in his hands, pausing for the first time in about twenty minutes. “Yeah, so... that’s - that was – Daisy. I uh, thanks for listening and stuff. I know I can ramble a lot.”

Zane gave a little smile, taking his head off his arms for the first time since Jay started talking. “It was my pleasure. I am sorry for the loss of your friend,” he said, straightening and glancing at the clock on the wall. “Well, we are late for training. Shall I tell sensei about everything? I’m sure he would understand.”

Jay grinned and swiped at his eyes, “Heh, that’s ok. I really am feeling better now. Maybe sensei will go easy on us and only make us do a hundred penalty push-ups.”

Zane’s shoulders slouched. “Previous experience would render that statistical outcome unlikely.”

Jay laughed and got up to put his half-finished pint back in the freezer. “Guess we should get going then.”

Shard pulled away and snaked back to her perch on the cliff, tail dangling limply beside her. That was... what even was that? Zane just sat there, hardly did anything, and he somehow made Jay feel better? Was listening to someone else bellyache supposed to make you a better person? Was that what – barf – friends were supposed to do?

Shard watched a flock of birds skim the clouds beneath her. She tried doing that whole spiel this morning and it didn’t work out so well. Would trying this be any different?

 Seeing Flame’s blood-red scales made the decision for her as the fire dragon shot a fire column out of her stall, erupting into a blazing inferno, and freeing her to pace like a caged animal along the narrow cliff.

Well, isn’t that just convenient? Shard sighed to herself as she jumped down beside Flame, recovering from an almost fall with how little room there was width-wise, and moved to the side for more room.

“What do you want?” Flame hissed, feathers of smoke coming out of her maw, making Shard cough.

“I just – cough – wanted to know what’s wrong,” the ice dragon retorted, trying to clear away the smoke with her wings.

Flame stared at her suspiciously, a drop of magma dangling out the corner of her mouth. “Why would you want to know? You’ve never cared before.”

  “Well,” Shard wrinkled her nose, not quite sure how to answer, “I care now, so spill it.”

Flame blinked at her, partly because of the black soot now coating the white dragon’s nose and partly because Shard had just uttered the words I and care in the same sentence. Shard wasn’t sure how to take that much surprise at her words.

“Fine,” the fire dragon said slowly, wings fluttering nervously. “It’s Kai. My stupid human is supposed to be the fire master, right? And I’m a fire dragon. We were literally made for each other. So why is he always off anywhere else but with me? Why does he always find someplace to go when I’m stuck right here.” Flame looked down at her talons, a restless frustrated look on her face. “I know not everything is about me. It’s just that… he never comes by. I never get to see him.”

Shard rolled her eyes and examined her claws in boredom, “You’re clingy.” She thought it was something serious, like having a dislocated wing or something, not Flame having abandonment issues with her rider. Realizing she’d just said that out loud though she winced and hastily rephrased her comment. “I mean, uh, that must be very difficult for you.”

Flame glanced up, heat waves curling off her black and red back. “Clingy? So that’s what you think? You think I’m just sitting here feeling sorry for myself? Well, sorry to bother you, Shard. I won’t bore you anymore.”

While Shard was thinking that yes, that was exactly what she was doing, she was self-aware enough not to say it out loud this time. But before she could think of a more constructive response Flame was gone, slicing through the sky so fast she left a trail of angry black fumes in her wake.

“Wait - uh – sorry?” Shard tried, heart already sinking knowing the fire dragon was well out of earshot. She snarled in frustration with herself and sank down, burying her head in her talons and sighing deeply.

She must’ve drifted off for a long time because the sun was low in the sky when she cracked her eyes open. In front of her was Zane crouched down, street clothes whipping around him in the wind.

“Hello there.” He greeted.

Shard gave him a look, lifting her head so she could look down on him instead of vice versa.

“Would you like to come into the city with me?”

Shard froze and pretended to yawn indifferently. The prospect of getting off this mountain with Zane sounded absolutely amazing, but her pride forbade her from letting him know exactly how happy she was.

It didn’t matter. He knew anyway.

-

Zane needed to grab some things for dinner at the store, so Shard found an open park to land in while Zane dismounted. (Zane was slightly more discrete than Jay about landing his dragon in the middle of a densely populated area without considering the repercussions.)

“I’ll only be a few minutes, alright?” Zane reassured, taking off down the sidewalk toward the market, disappearing around the corner.

Shard dutifully sat and waited for him to return, ignoring the stares from the few passing pedestrians and several raccoons sticking their heads out of a dumpster.

Waiting had never been her strong suit. She tapped her talons against the dirt, readjusted her position more times than she could count, and even made a modest ice sculpture of some people screaming in terror, which didn’t seem to help with the stares she’d been getting.

Eventually worry started to creep up on her. Zane should not be taking this long. Something must be wrong.

With that new thought she stiffened and lashed her tail, half flying, half trotting in the direction she’d seen Zane go.

Why on earth were there so many people in this world? There are only like, seven people she actually liked so why not clear out all the other riffraff?

The First Master probably would frown on that thought so she shook her head and sniffed the air for her rider, tip-toeing so as not to mow anyone down by accident.

Picking out Zane’s smell took longer than she thought. By the time she had navigated the thinning streets, she had found him with an arm of groceries facing three much older, much larger boys on the nearly abandoned sidewalk.

At first there didn’t seem to be any real danger; the boys were just talking to him. But as she crept nearer, watching from around the corner, she picked up on their conversation.

“So you’re one of the kids that crazy old man chose to be the ninja, huh?” The biggest of the three boys said, more of a statement than a question. Zane hadn’t hit his growth spurt as Cole had, and the other boys practically towered over him. Zane’s passive face didn’t look frightened, but his eyes kept flitting back and forth for a way out.

“Why pick you and not me, huh?” The older boy turned to his friends and shrugged innocently, making the other two grin and snicker. “I’d be a great ninja. Prob’ly be a lot better than this little weirdo, right?”

Excuse me?

What did they just say to her chil – her rider?  

Shard came closer, icy air venting hazardously from her jaw, getting a feeling of Deja Vu from the fish that morning. When the leader noticed Zane wasn’t laughing, or showing any emotion at all for that matter, he paused, flicking his hand out to make Zane flinch. He didn’t. “Ugh, what is up with you? Is there something wrong with you?” 

Shard’s nostrils flared. The white ninja was just standing there while the boys pushed him around. She growled and advanced, intending to give these potential food products a piece of her mind, but she was still a distance away, and the three boys had their backs to her.

“I bet I could be a better ninja than you or any of your friends. I mean, I could get you just like that.” With that Shard heard a thud as the leader shoved at the white ninja. Hard, sending Zane snapping back against the brick wall directly behind him with a grunt.

All three boys whipped around in surprise as Shard roared and barreled into them like bowling pins as she swooped down, and snatched her rider up in her talons.

“Shard! What are you doing?” Zane cried, clinging desperately to the claw that was the only thing keeping him from an ugly fall as the concrete sidewalk grew further and further away. “Where are we going!?”

Shard snarled in response and let him climb up to the relatively safer place on her back, skimming over the clouds until she was high enough to soar without much effort. She turned her head around to check him over. The boys hadn’t really been trying to hurt him, but the force had sent Zane’s head bashing against a hard wall, a trickle of red could be starkly seen against his white hair.

She bared her teeth dangerously. No one. No one hurts Zane.   

She forced herself to land on an abandoned dirt road to make sure he didn’t have a concussion, wanting to get him home as fast as possible. When she tried to check Zane pulled away. “I’m fine. You do not need to do that, it’s just a scratch.”

Shard arched her eyebrow, having none of that, but when she persisted he wouldn’t let her nearer than a claw's length. “I said there is no need for that.”

Shard bared her spikes and hissed a guttural threat to let her help. It came out harsher than she meant, but it underlaid a taste of the scolding she had in store for him when they got home. Why was he being like this right now?

“What? You think I don’t know I am not like everyone else?” Zane finally snapped at her last attempt to grab him, startling her into silence. “You think I don’t see them look at me like I’m some kind of - of freak? You think I don’t hear them whispering things about me when they think I can’t hear?”

Shard blinked at him as he deflated, shoulders sagging, continuing in a much smaller voice. “Trust me, I am aware of it. But I can’t change what they think so it is illogical to feel sad about it.”

Zane sighed, the last bit of icy bitterness being chased away by thawing exhaustion as he moved closer, rested his forehead on Shard’s arm, and closed his eyes. “Can we just go home now? Please?”

Shard never felt more like a block of ice. Cold, hard, and unresponsive. Um, what should she do? She had already messed this up twice, she really didn’t want to mess this up with Zane. Should she just bring him home like he wants, or could she leave him for just a minute to turn those bullies into rotisseries? 

 Zane would probably be mad at her for the latter, but she wasn’t ready to just do the former and call it a day.

The ice dragon rested the tip of her nose on his shoulder and purred, deciding. She was going to do what she did best.

This time she let Zane climb onto her back first before taking off, turning in the direction of the monastery.

She wasn’t rushing to get back, taking light detours while riding the air currents. After a while she felt Zane slump against her neck, must’ve fallen asleep.

She flew as smoothly as she could with the shifting atmosphere, being forced to glide closer to the ground when it grew too strong. Once she reached the white walls on the top of the mountain though she spiraled up and touched the tiled roof, gently nudging Zane to wake him and-

WHAM

WHAM

WHAM

She slammed her tail into the roof, giving a roar for good measure in case the idiots inside somehow missed her little wake-up call.

Zane nearly fell off her in surprise and scrambled to hold onto one of her neck spikes. “What are you doing!? Stop, you’ll wake everybody up!” Zane pleaded in a whisper-shout, desperately reaching out to close her mouth, which she shrugged off.

The three other ninja came darting outside and whirled around to see the white dragon drop Zane unceremoniously to the ground, where he somehow managed to land without breaking an ankle.

“What’s going on?” Cole asked once he helped Zane up, glancing at the dragon and giving him an expectant look. Zane brushed himself off and glanced hopelessly at Shard.

“She’s, she’s been acting most peculiar all day.” He paused and gave a look that could’ve been taken as thoughtful had it not been for the calculating eye darting going on, “Perhaps she is ill and I should remain with her for the night.”

At that Shard lashed her tail again, smashing a good portion of the roof tiles, making everyone wince. No no no! you are not going to self-isolate and cut off all your friends and...

 oof.

 For a minute she looked guiltily down at her claws at how familiar that sounded. Maybe she was the bad influence here.

Putting that little nugget aside she used her nose to prod Zane closer to his friends, who were now giving the white ninja suspicious looks. 

“Is there something wrong, frosty? Why’s Shard acting up?” Cole pointed out, arms crossed as he propped himself up on a support beam. “You were gone for a lot longer than you said you’d be.”

Zane had the nerve to smile innocently. “Nothing is wrong. I was merely detained longer than I anticipated, that is all. But I am rather tired, so if you don’t mind think I’ll -”

“What’s that in your hair?” Kai interrupted, indicating the crusty brown pattern coating his white hair. The others turned to the white ninja, raised their eyebrows, and waited for an answer. They all knew they certainly didn’t put that there.

Zane’s hand unconsciously went to the cut and the others pretended to ignore the small wince he gave when he touched it. “Ah, I was clumsy and tripped. Nothing that won’t heal.”

Thankfully, Zane is just about the worst liar to ever walk the sixteen realms, and even the ninja in their thick-headedness didn’t buy that lie for a minute. Zane wasn’t clumsy, and he certainly didn’t go around lying for no apparent reason. 

“Did someone do that to you?” Jay asked, hands fiddling mindlessly while the redhead’s brain worked. He’d been bullied enough to know when someone was trying to cover for someone else. “You don’t have to lie.” He gave a small wink. “Lying’s wrong.”

Zane looked around as if trying to assess a possible escape route, which Shard effectively blocked off with a puff of frost and an evil eye. After failing to convince her with a wordless beg he sighed in defeat, “It was just some kids from the city, they didn’t mean anything by it.”

Seeing how Kai looked like he was about to go find Flame and fricassee the kids himself Zane quickly added, “It was nothing! It’s done now and we have certainly dealt with worse, have we not?”

Cole’s face darkened into a frown. “Bud, that’s not really the point. Why weren’t you going to tell us? Yeah, we can get pretty banged up, a lot, but that doesn’t mean we’re just gonna blow you off when you need us to have your back.”

 “Yeah, now let’s begin again, who were they, and what are their addresses?” Kai prompted a little too cheerfully.

Zane raised his eyebrows in response but there was definitely a smile there, a real smile this time. He glanced back down at the ground. “Thank you, friends.”

So Zane gave a brief recount of what happened, though he didn’t share everything, the ice dragon didn’t really expect him to.  

Shard inclined her head in satisfaction, watching the scene unfold as Zane’s friends led him inside when he was finished to get patched up, snaking back to her cave and using her tail to shut the door behind her with a click. With a tremendous yawn and a blast of ice coating the floor, she curled up with her tail resting across her nose, letting out a deep sigh.

Just as she was about to drift off Whisp’s bubbly voice prodded her back from dream world. “You awake?”

Shard curled her lip and readjusted her position, “No.”

“Can I sleep with you?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“... Remember that fish I caught earlier? The one I froze and Flame ate?”

“Yeah,”

“That’s going to be you if you try to climb over.”

“... Oh.”

After a moment or two of blissful quiet she heard the labored grunt of Whisp squeezing through the narrow opening in the top of the divider and spilling out onto the floor with a painful “oof.” she kept a low growl to herself as she felt the lightning dragon’s lithe buzzing body plop down almost directly on top of her, hearing a yelp when his tail touched her ice and safely tucked it under his wings. With a final sigh he laid his head on the crook of her shoulder, forked tongue flicking in and out sleepily.

As Shard was about to bite his head off as a little lesson about boundaries she paused and reconsidered, slowly lowering her head back to the ground. Listening to the dragon’s soft snores. Maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to leave him be.

Shard groaned and refroze her ice bed, feeling it grow warmer with another hot body in this confined space.

This was going to be a very long night.