Legends of Ninjago: Book 2: Rise of the Serpentine: Chapter 31 — Healing Up

“…no… I don’t…”

“It has to be done…”

“I’m not leaving you!”

“—CAN’T GET HIM OUT OF MY HEAD!”

“…Wake up, Cole.”

Cole felt his heart rate spike and his eyes popped open. Where was he? What were his orders for today? He sat up, expecting to see himself surrounded by a horde of Serpentine, but instead he saw a thick, misty woods in every direction. There was a dim fire burning just a few feet away, the smell of smoke blending together with the damp morning air. One look to his side where Kai, Zane, and Jay were drooling and snoring reassured him that he was perfectly safe. What a joy it was to wake up among friends and be allowed to smile. He rested his elbows on his knees and breathed a deep sigh. His hair felt wet and cold, and he soon noticed that almost everything around him was covered in dew.

No one else was up, and without his blanket, Cole was beginning to feel goosebumps rising on his skin. Good fire wood was hard to find, since everything was so wet, but a few minutes later, Cole was hobbling back over to the fire pit with a small bundle of sticks and branches. He dropped them into place, one by one and watched the fire turn them black. The flames were considerably higher now, and much, much warmer. So much so that Cole actually had to back up a bit. It did feel amazing on his skin, though, and he stood up so that he could warm his back, swivelling around like a rotisserie chicken.

The campsite was as still as stone and quiet as a mouse. This must have been a dead spot, because there was barely any wind in the trees. Although, he thought that maybe he could hear something off in the distance—a din so subtle you could miss it if you weren’t paying close attention. At first he thought it might be the wind, or some trees, but the longer he listened—spinning round and round by the fire—the more he realised that it had a rhythm to it. It rose and fell with a thick sort of softness. Were they near the ocean, maybe?

Someone started moving on the ground. Jay was stretching his legs and moaning softly. With a big yawn, he rolled over and peeled open his crusty eyes, which spotted Cole in an instant.

“Hey,” he said in a cracked voice.

“Hey,” Cole replied, smiling.

Jay yawned again. “You’re up.”

“That makes one of us,” Cole remarked as Jay closed his eyes again and chuckled.

“I’m conserving energy…” he said, pulling his blankets closer to his shoulders.

Cole took a few lazy steps over to the sleeping mats and plopped himself down just close enough to feel the warmth of the fire. “So… this is the new secret base, huh? Somehow I thought it’d be… dryer.”

This time, Jay actually propped himself up on his elbows and rubbed some of the sleep out of his eyes. “Yeah, it’s not much, but it sure beats an IBI cell.”

“IBI?” Cole leaned a little closer, certain he’d misheard.

“Yuuup,” Jay said with an awkward smile. “Yeah, that was a fun little adventure. Remember, uh… the day at the construction sight? In the forest?”

“How could I forget?” Cole lamented.

“Well, after… all that happened… Zane, Keat, Kai and I all went back to the monastery and kinda got a little bit arrested. You should’ve seen the place, too, there were agents everywhere… like a bad fungus.” Cole listened intently as Jay relayed the events of the past few days. It was hard to imagine his friends pedalling through Ninjago City, outrunning the police.

“So, they think Wu kidnapped us?” Cole asked, frowning.

Jay was sitting up now, his blanket still firmly wrapped around him. “Well, not you, just us. I don’t think they know about you… or Ann for that matter. Speaking of which, has she woken up yet?”

“Not yet,” said Cole, looking over to her body which was still laying, motionless. “She’s been through a lot, though. It’s not exactly surprising.”

Cole could tell that Jay wanted to ask something, but it hung on his lips for a good long while. Finally, he said, “So… what exactly happened out there?”

There was a stretch of silence. Cole stared into the fire absentmindedly while flashes of Scales’s face streaked across his mind’s eye. Of course he owed his friend an explanation, but that was precisely the problem.

“I, uh…” Cole began, watching one of the sticks turn grey and fall apart in the fire. “…I got caught. Let my guard down. But everything I did… everything I said… it wasn’t me.”

“I know,” Jay said.

“You do?”

Jay looked him dead in the eye and smiled. “You may be a bit of a meathead sometimes, but I know you wouldn’t want to hurt any of us. You’re a good guy.”

Cole felt a lump begin to form in his throat, but he quickly tried to shrug it off. At least he didn’t have to worry about Jay holding a grudge. “Still…” he said, twiddling his thumbs slightly. “I’m sorry about… you know… hitting you in the chest with that rock… that day in the woods.”

Jay simply waved his hand in the air dismissively. “Forget about it,” he said casually. “Water under the bridge. It’s honestly just nice having you back.”

“Nah, are you kidding?” Kai suddenly said, slowly rising from his mat like a disheveled cave man. “We’re gonna hold on to this forever. What did you think, we’d just let it go? Pfffft!” His cheeky grin was hard to ignore, and it quickly spread to the other two guys.

“Woah, I didn’t know corpses could talk!” Jay jabbed.

“Eh, I’ve looked worse,” said Kai, ruffling his hair and straightening his wrinkled clothes a bit. “Besides, you’ve got a little something right there.”

“Right where?” Jay asked, looking around his torso and feeling his face a bit.

Kai came up to him and pointed to his chest. “Right here.” Just as Jay looked down, Kai pulled the cliché finger-flick and swatted Jay’s face.

“Aw, come on, seriously?” Jay cried, rubbing his nose. “That’s like the oldest trick in the book!”

“And yet, you still fell for it,” said Kai with another cheeky grin. “So sad.”

If anyone had the energy, Cole was sure that this would have turned into a real fight. Fortunately, it seemed like they wouldn’t be eager to fight with each other for a long time to come. Not after last night, anyway. Jay simply smiled and shrugged Kai’s comment off while Kai warmed himself by the fire.

Someone moaned over on the mats. Cole could only see a single arm reaching out from under three blankets.

“Kai…” it said. “…bring the warm back…” It sounded like a groggy Nya. She was rolled up as toasty as a bean burrito—minus the gaping hole Kai had made in the blankets when he got up. “…you let the cold in!” She whined, not opening her eyes. Cole couldn’t help but snicker a bit.

“Is she always like this?” he asked Kai, who was frowning at his sister.

He glanced at Jay before he replied, “You should’ve seen her when we were growing up. If she wasn’t in with our mom and dad, then she’d be banging on my door in the middle of the night.”

“Kai!” Nya whined again.

“Just use the blankets,” was all Kai said.

Nya seemed to huff and rolled over, covering every inch of herself in warm, toasty blankets. She even snagged one from Zane, who didn’t really seem to notice. He was still out cold.

The ambiance of the woods returned, louder than before. There weren’t many birds around, but the few that were roosting nearby began to call to one another. There were some crooning doves, a woodpecker somewhere far off, and a goose honk or two. The camp site seemed so detached from the rest of the world—especially the world which Cole had just come from.

Suddenly, Cole found himself sitting perfectly still, like he used to when he was awaiting instructions. He frowned and got to his feet, beginning to warm himself by the fire again, making sure to pace a little for good measure. Jay scooted a little closer, too. He still had his blanket wrapped firmly around his body, and every so often it looked like he was scratching himself underneath the fabric.

“So, how long have you been working on those jet packs, Jay?” Cole asked, feeling the silence stretch on for way to long.

Jay’s face beamed with a mixture of pride and embarrassment. He scratched the back of his head and said, “Eh, you know, just tinkering really, in my spare time.”

“I honestly thought you were exaggerating when you first told us, back at the monastery,” said Cole.

“Personally, I still think that,” Kai said dryly as he rubbed hands together over the flames.

“You must’ve, like, won a dozen contests with those things,” Cole went on, thinking of all the young inventors competitions there must be in Ninjago City.

Jay’s face fell and Cole instantly knew he’d just poked a touchy subject. “Well… actually, no. I never really got out of the house much, growing up. I, uh… I was homeschooled for a long time, and… yeah…”

“No shame in that,” Kai said suddenly. “I was homeschooled for a few years.”

“Really?” Jay asked, his expression brightening.

“Yeah, for, like, three years maybe? But after that, I guess my parents got tired of having to deal with me, so I starting public when I was… nine, I think?”

‘Better than boarding school,’ Cole muttered. Then he realised that he hadn’t actually said it out loud. He swallowed uncomfortably and tried to pay attention to the conversation that was unfolding without him.

“See, I never understood that! How exactly does that help anyone?” Jay was saying. Maybe he was talking about cafeteria food or something.

Another person moved, and this time Cole thought that maybe it was Ann. His head shot over to where she and her sister were still sleeping, but it was Keaton who was shifting. She seemed to go back to sleep pretty quickly. False alarm.

What would Ann say to him when she woke up? What would they ever have to talk about? Finally, they have something in common, and it’s a kidnapping experience. Typical.

…Would she be angry at him? He’d tried his best to make the most out of every situation they’d been in, but some pretty uncomfortable things had still happened. One night in particular sprang to mind.

“Cole! Snap out of it!”

Cole’s head snapped to attention and he saw Jay and Kai looking at him.

“Jeez, for a minute I thought we’d lost you again,” Kai joked, but Cole could only manage a smile.

“Sorry, just…” He was about to say something like, “never mind” and shrug it off, but then Kai finished his sentence for him.

“Thinking about Ann?” he said. It didn’t exactly sound malicious, but Cole really didn’t wanna talk about it with Kai.

“No,” Cole said, a little irritably.

Kai seemed to get the hint and he changed the subject.

The rest of the morning was fairly peaceful. The three boys just chatted away around the fire, slowly feeling their muscles grow sore and their stomachs rumble. Most everyone was up at around noon—Nya had tumbled toward the fire after the blankets had become insufficient, and Zane and Wu woke about an hour later—but Ann was still laying on her mat, breathing steadily.

Keaton was the last of them to rise, and she looked as though she might never speak again. Her hair was a frazzled mess, her eyes were heavy and dark, and she refused to smile, no matter what any of them did to try and cheer her up. She went immediately to Wu’s side and ate her “breakfast” (lunch) in silence, not speaking to or looking at anyone. Something told Cole that whatever happened during Ann’s rescue had hurt the little ninja pretty bad.

It was a bit warmer in the afternoon. The sunlight could easily penetrate the thinning trees, but an autumn sun—especially this late in the season—didn’t give off as much heat as Cole would’ve liked. Still, the morning dew was gone now, and what few orange leaves remained in the trees created a whimsical glow around the camp. Cole always felt sluggish this time of year. Like he should be hibernating in a cave somewhere. The land was resting—going into a deep sleep until the spring sun woke it up again, calling it to work. He could already smell the upturned soil, freshly mown grass, and pollen fragrances that would be drifting through the air in roughly four months, and he wished that there was a way for him to actually hibernate and bypass winter altogether. Especially with the Winter Festival coming up.

Now that everyone was firmly awake and had filled their bellies, Wu set to work bandaging everyone up. He started with Cole. He cleaned the cuts on his legs and wrapped them firmly with white cloth and bandages.

“You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?” Cole asked Kai as Wu was wrapping the gauze.

“What? They’re baby cuts!” Kai protested. “I grew up in a smithy, I know how to use a katana.”

“Does this look like a ‘baby cut’ to you?” Cole asked, gesturing to the five-inch long cut on his right leg.

“Oh, please. Talk to me once you’ve been stabbed.” Kai adjusted his jacket and wandered closer to the fire. He really didn’t seem to like the cold weather, and if Cole had grown up in the warm South, he probably wouldn’t either.

Wu finished with Cole’s legs and moved on to the numerous cuts, scrapes, and bruises, namely on his head. If Cole had to wear another head bandage ever again, it would be too soon.

Kai was next, who still had a gnarly black eye and a torn lip, not to mention a fractured arm, a bruised neck, a banged up back, and a broken toe. After Wu was done with him, he had his arm in a sling and a mummified foot.

“Sorry,” Cole said in regard to all his wounds.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get you back. We’ll have a rematch, and next time I won’t let you win,” Kai smirked.

Cole could only chuckle in response. It was such a “Kai” thing to say.

Conversation in the camp remained relaxed, probably out of spite toward the stress of the last few days. There was a radio sitting on one of the dead logs, practically begging someone to turn it on and listen to the news, but nobody felt up to diving back into the mess and the stress and the grief. They mostly sat around the fire on their mats, drifting in and out of sleep and idly chatting. They all collectively figured that Wu would tell them when they needed to get back to work, and until then, they were going to milk every second of their vacation time.

After Zane came back with a surprisingly clean bill of health, and Keaton was bandaged up, it was finally Jay’s turn with Wu. The only problem was, Jay was nowhere to be found. At some point during the past half hour, it seemed that he had excused himself to—ahem! “Answer the call of nature”—and hadn’t come back. Even on a normal camping trip, that would be a red flag, but for them, the situation was practically screaming “Something’s Wrong!”

Cole offered to go look for him and he started trudging through the dead leaves, heading in the direction Jay had gone not too long ago. The first spot Cole found—which would be ideal for… relieving yourself—was completely vacant, so he pressed on, trying to figure out which way Jay might have gone.

Just before Cole started fearing the worst, he heard a quiet grunt somewhere nearby. He instantly followed the sound and came upon a small stream which must’ve fed into the ocean somewhere not too far off. Down by the shallow, rocky bank he saw Jay sitting. It looked as though he was doing something, but Cole couldn’t see what. As he came closer, Cole noticed the blanket Jay had had wrapped around him all morning was laying on the rocks, as if he hadn’t taken the thing off all day until now.

“Jay, what are you doing?” Cole asked. Jay nearly jumped ten feet in the air and he quickly scampered to his feet.

“Oh, Cole! It’s just you!” he cried, seemingly very relieved. Although, Cole couldn’t help but notice that he had his left arm tucked behind his back. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you,” Cole replied. “You can’t just go wandering off without telling us where you are. And you still haven’t told me what you were doing.” He squinted his eyes and he knew he was applying just the right amount of pressure on Jay, who seemed to be sweating despite the cold weather.

“Umm… rock… collecting?” he said awkwardly.

“Rock collecting?” Cole repeated, folding his arms.

“Yeah! There are lots of really cool rocks out here. Like this one!” Jay bent over and picked up the first colourful thing he saw. He displayed it proudly, but Cole only frowned.

“That’s an old piece of gum,” he said flatly.

“Oh… is it?” Jay chuckled. He quickly dropped the gross thing and wiped his hand on his wrinkly shozoku.

Cole would have pressed him further, but if Jay really didn’t want him to know… maybe it was personal? Maybe he should just let it be? He sighed and said, “Come on. Wu’s waiting for you.”

Jay looked like a sad puppy dog walking into camp with his tail between his legs. He was clearly embarrassed about something, but what, Cole would never know. He simply dropped Jay off into the hands of their Sensei and instantly the camp relaxed again.

Wu started checking Jay over, meanwhile Cole laid down and listened to the sound of the fire crackling for a while, when suddenly, Wu cried out,

“By the Seventh Realm!”

“What is it?” Cole asked, but he didn’t need someone to direct him to the massive gouge in Jay’s arm. Wu had pulled back the sleeve to examine it, only find the shocking wound glaring back.

“What caused this?” Wu asked, looking very stern.

Jay hesitated for a moment. “I don’t remember. It all happened so fast and I think I had my eyes closed. All I do remember is that it hurt.”

Wu muttered something under his breath and then set about creating all the materials he’d need to treat the wound. It really was the most awful wound Cole had seen to date. The cuts in his legs had been clean and precise, but this? This looked like someone had torn through his skin with a pointed rock. Why hadn’t Jay asked for help sooner? Something like that should’ve been treated right away. He would be lucky if it didn’t become infected.

All in all, Wu didn’t find anything particularly wrong with the wound, and sent Jay on his way not long after. After that was done, he came over to Cole and asked him in a hushed voice, “Where was Jay when you found him?”

Cole straightened up. “He was sitting by this little stream, over there,” he pointed.

Wu thought for a moment. “What was he doing?”

Cole shrugged. “I couldn’t see.”

Wu nodded and then went back to his thoughts. Cole hoped it all turned out to be nothing, but at the rate that bad things were happening to them, it was more than likely to come back and bite them. Still, things seemed fine at the moment. Might as well enjoy it.

Perhaps he spoke too soon. Near dinner time, everyone was starting to get worried again. Ann still hadn’t woken up. By this point, Nya had tried shaking her awake, and still nothing happened. She just laid there, eyes closed, breathing steadily. Wu had already gone over her and bandaged her head firmly, clicking his tongue all the while as though he was annoyed at the damage. More likely, though, he was worried about how extensive it had turned out to be.

Keaton still wasn’t talking, which only made Cole feel more anxious. What if Ann never woke up? What if Keaton never spoke to him again?

‘Woah! Woah! Calm down!’ he told himself. ‘It’s gonna be okay. Just figure out what what’s going on and go from there.’

He took a deep breath and asked Wu, “What’s wrong with Ann?”

Wu was sitting by her side, running his old, leathery hand over her forehead. “I’m unsure. It has been many years since I last fought with the power of hypnosis.” Cole winced at the word. “Perhaps her mind is taking extra time to heal. With any luck, she will wake soon.”

“And if she doesn’t?” Cole asked, hating himself for even thinking of the question.

“Then… she will officially be in a coma. And all we can do is care for her like this.”

Cole looked down at Ann, sleeping on her mat. Like this? Forever? His mind instantly thought of Keaton, who’d be heartbroken without her sister around. Perhaps that was part of the reason she was acting so distraught. He sincerely prayed that Ann would wake up soon. With any luck, somebody would hear him.

Dinner was considerably uneasy, and the rest of the evening didn’t get much better. After everyone had eaten, Wu turned on the dreaded radio and they listened carefully as the news reporter’s voice popped to life. Cole especially didn’t want to hear another word about the Serpentine, but it was impossible to ignore the single biggest threat to Ninjago’s safety and still be a ninja. He clenched his jaw and forced himself to pay attention.

“…quite perplexed. General Prasert Niran released an official statement today, claiming that the towns have indeed been abandoned, but urging caution toward the residents. He went on to say that the Serpentine could be planning something far more dangerous than what we’ve already seen, but he could neither confirm nor deny what exactly that could be. In any case, relief is currently underway for all of the residents of Greta Junction, Kairi’s Landing, Eagle Rock, Vista Point, and Kuro Village, starting with the compromised soldiers who were recovered this morning.”

The Serpentine were… gone? Why would they just up and leave all the territory they’d struggled to gain? Did their attack last night have something to do with it? Eventually the news segment looped again, covering all the facts for “those just tuning in” and they turned the radio down for a bit.

“So what does that mean?” Kai asked.

“They’re a bunch of scaredy-snakes?” Jay offered.

Wu looked very serious as he stroked his beard. “As I made my way through the town last night,” he said. “I witnessed something rather troubling. Scales challenged the Chief Slithraa. And he succeeded.”

“Woah, what does that mean?” Kai asked, looking alert.

“It means that Scales is now the chief. The Serpentine disappearing is his doing,” Wu explained.

Cole swallowed hard. Scales? The chief? No, no, no… he didn’t know if he could stand seeing that blue-faced monster ever again, let alone on the battlefield.

“I’m sorry you couldn’t get Lloyd out in time,” Nya said, pulling Cole back into the conversation.

Wu seemed rather grim as he replied, “Thank you, Nya. I can only hope that he stays alive long enough for me to find him.”

Everyone seemed to shuffle uncomfortably, and it was almost like Cole could tell exactly what they were thinking: we don’t want to save Lloyd. Just then, Wu got up and started pacing on the other side of the camp. Cole wondered if, somehow, Wu had been able to hear their thoughts.

Keaton was still sitting by her sister’s side, staring hard at the ground. Kai was leaning against a tree, his arms folded. Jay was sitting on the ground, cross-legged, gently scratching at his arm wound. Zane was standing perfectly still, his eyes drifting far away, as though he was having an intense conversation with himself. And Nya was sitting on one of the logs next to Cole, twiddling her thumbs. No one really seemed to know what to say.

Wu didn’t give them any new orders. They just hung around the camp fire until night fall when Wu handed everyone a tent to set up. The camp site was really starting to look like a real camp now, and Cole was definitely glad to not wake up with dew drops on his face the next morning.

Again, it took Cole a second to reboot his brain and remind himself that he wasn’t with the Serpentine any more, but being alone in his new tent was starting to make him feel… cut off… lonely… set apart. He quickly unzipped the door and stepped outside where his friends were gathered around the fire, eating. That made him feel somewhat better.

The other guys were talking about something that seemed rather troubling.

“I have to go and look for them,” Kai was saying.

“But what about the Serpentine?” Jay asked as Cole sat down.

“We’ve got a little bit of time, don’t we?” Kai went on. Nya looked torn between her brother and her new friends. “We can go and look and be back before Scales shows his ugly face again.”

“You don’t know that,” Zane said firmly. “This is not a very wise idea.”

“Well, we can’t just sit here. The Undead Citadel was released weeks ago now, they could be anywhere! We need to go find them.” Kai seemed upset, and Cole could only guess that he was talking about his parents.

“This is something you need to talk to Wu about,” said Zane. Kai grumbled something under his breath.

“Kai, it’s not like we don’t have time. They’re grown ups, they can take care of themselves for a while,” Nya said, trying to comfort her brother.

Kai turned on her. “They don’t know where we are. I don’t want them to think that we’re dead.”

That seemed to grind the conversation to a halt.

The team continued to hang out at camp in some sort of limbo. They were resting, mostly, and listening to the radio on occasion. So far, no one could find any trace of the Serpentine, and the military had taken back all of the attacked towns. People were being cautiously optimistic, but Wu remained as stoic as ever.

Day three at the camp site and the biggest concern on everyone’s mind was Ann. She still hadn’t woken up. It was starting to look more and more likely that she was in a real coma, and the longer she stayed asleep, the less hope they had that she would ever wake up.