Of Luck and Poison - Short Story: Chance Encounter

((To clear up any confusion on the above title: I have a discontinued multi-chapter story called Of Luck and Poison on deviantART. I wanted to give extra background information on one particular OC of mine, and so I made this stand-alone story. I figured it wasn't too shabby, and decided to upload it here as well as on dA.))

((Ninjago doesn't belong to me, Zada and Senka do, legal stuff blah blah blah.))

I've been running nonstop for the entire night. Sometimes I got lucky, and somebody would give me a ride. Those were the only times I allowed myself to rest. Between the nice folks, though, I've been pounding along the ground, trying to get as far away as possible. I had no idea if I was being followed at any point, but I didn't take the chance. I had to get away before those awful scaly things killed me, too. And when your life is at stake, you'd be willing to run away as fast and far away as possible, too.

Just yesterday, several hours before sunset, I was forced to watch as my uncle and cousin were put under the blue creatures' mind control and turned into slaves. Then moments later I had to watch and sob uncontrollably as my parents were slaughtered for refusing to succumb to them. When it was my turn, I glared straight into their ugly blood-red eyes, but for some reason I couldn't be hypnotized. The shock that I couldn't be controlled allowed me a chance to escape from the snake people with nothing but a deep claw wound on the side of my neck, which was healing up quickly. And I've been running ever since. They wouldn't take me like they've taken my loved ones. I wouldn't let them. Then when I'm ready, I will avenge my parents' deaths and free my uncle and cousin. I had to.

Dawn began to break, and my scared paranoia eased up. Suddenly my legs felt like lead, my head throbbed as if it were a gong, and every ounce of energy I had to keep me moving evaporated. Collapsing onto the ground, I gave a weary look around at my surroundings. I had been so panicky before that I hadn't even noticed that I was in a totally different biome. The scene of the attack was rather frigid and mountainous—a few miles outside of Jamanakai Village in fact—but this place was some sort of dry and dusty desert. I seriously doubted that the blue snake monsters followed me out here, and then I wondered how on earth I managed to run hundreds of miles during the course of an entire night. These few thoughts drifted through my mind before my eyelids drooped out of exhaustion and I blacked out.

"Do you think she'll be alright? What if she was badly hurt, or she collapsed because she was ill? We're still quite a ways from the nearest town, so I hope it isn't serious."

"Don't worry, Nya. She seems more exhausted than anything. I can't see any injuries besides that scar on her neck, and she doesn't have a very sick… aura? I don't know how to explain it. What do you think, Sensei?"

"Only time will tell. However, it appears she is coming to, so it might be a short time."

Three strange voices swirled around my head, which was still pounding forcefully like a little creature inside of it was trying to bust out. I groaned in pain, and tried to roll over to protect my eyes from the sun glaring red through the lids. But the ground was as hard as ever, and I simply gained more pain rather than the relief I wanted. This was a very bad situation I was in.

"Easy there, tiger," said a female voice with a hint of amusement. "Don't strain yourself."

I cracked open my eyelids and immediately closed them again as the sunlight burned them. Rather quickly, I sat up and buried my head in my legs. The shadow offered sweet protection from the sun's rays, and I could think again. All at once I remembered the new voices, and looked up to see where they came from. Luckily, my eyes seemed to have adjusted to the bright day, and I noticed that it must have only been a couple of hours after dawn. Great. Two hours of sleep. I was certainly doomed to a day of exhaustion.

After sighing, I looked around and saw the owners of the three voices huddled around me, watching me curiously. There were two girls around my own age kneeling on the ground, one with short black hair and bright red lips, and another with beach blonde and dark red streaks in her hair. Then standing above us all was an elderly man with a long white beard and wide hat to protect him from the evil sun. The man kept glancing between me and the blondie with a frown, as if he thought there was something off about me and her.

"So," said the black-haired girl, breaking the uneasy silence. "What's your name?"

As if I was actually going to just give out my name to a bunch of strangers. I was way too on edge for that. Instead, I said, my voice sounding rather raspy, "How about you tell me who you're supposed to be first? And what you think you're doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"Okay," said the blondie cheerfully, an unfazed grin on her face. The other two looked a little insulted, but this girl clearly didn't mind my brash demand. "I'm Zada, this is Nya, and that's Sensei Wu. And we're living in a ship out here, but right now we're headed off to buy some supplies."

I was slightly taken aback, and then snorted in disbelief. A ship? In the middle of a desert? "Likely story."

"Now it's your turn," said Zada, with that same smile. I was disarmed by her cheerful attitude, and decided that telling them my first name wouldn't hurt. It wasn't as if I was giving them very personal information.

"Fine," I spat, trying to regain my usual intimidating figure, despite being on the ground covered in dust with an awful headache. "The name's Senka. Happy?"

"Yup," replied the Zada person, again with her unfading smile.

The pounding in my head lessened, and I could make out these strangers more clearly. The blonde girl had a weird maroon clover mark on her cheek, and it looked rather like a tattoo. Although why you tattoo your cheek, of all places, was beyond me. She was also wearing a fitted maroon outfit, and a giant spear-like weapon rested on her back. The other two characters looked a bit more normal, save for the billowing white kimono the elderly man was wearing.

Since nobody said anything else, and I was getting uncomfortable with the stares, I spoke again. "So… Who are you guys exactly? You're carrying around a giant weapon, which I'm pretty sure people only do if they plan on killing or threatening somebody else."

Zada rolled her bright blue eyes, saying, "Are you kidding me? Have you never heard of a ninja before? I have this to protect myself, not to attack somebody else."

"Wait," I said, with a hoarse chuckle, "You're saying that you're supposed be a ninja?"

Now she looked a little offended, the smile faltering. "Well, yeah. I'm part of the ninja team who took care of the skeleton army that was attacking Ninjago. I wasn't actually there, but Sensei was. So were my brothers. But I have just as much skill as they do."

The old man who was supposed to be a sensei didn't seem to be paying attention to the conversation, and was instead looking between me and this Zada girl as if there was something about me that reminded him of her. Could this guy really be the fabled brother of Lord Garmadon, trainer of the powerful elemental ninjas? I guessed that it was possible, but it seemed unlikely. I wasn't going to believe anything I couldn't see for myself.

"Whatever."

I started to get to my feet, intending to walk off and leave these weirdos. Maybe I could find some small desert town and stay there for a while. But as I stood up, vertigo washed over me and the entire world spun around crazily. I stumbled backwards and nearly fell down, but the two girls caught me and put my arms around their shoulders. To say I was frustrated was an understatement. I hated being caught in a weak position in front of strangers like this.

The old man—I wasn't going to think of him as "Sensei Wu" until I had proof otherwise—seemed to snap back to reality from his thoughts, and said, "We will need to take her back to the Destiny Bounty for now. She is in no condition to be on her own, especially with the Serpentine on the loose."

This caught my attention. Serpentine? Could that be the name of the snake people who murdered my parents? Serpents and snakes were extremely related, after all. "Er, by any chance do these 'Serpentine' have blue scales and look rather human-like? Except for one who has a giant tail?"

The three strangers looked at me in surprise, and the girl named Nya answered, "Yeah. You mean you've seen them?"

I nodded, trying to cover up the horrifying memories of my encounter with thoughts of revenge. If I stuck with these people, I might find the Serpentine more easily, and free my uncle and cousin from slavery. Not to mention I would have an opportunity to slit the throats of those disgusting scaly creatures, and give them a taste of their own medicine.

Zada grinned once more, and said, "Perfect! We'll need all the info we can get, because we haven't actually learned too much from our past experiences with the Hypnobrai. There was less planning and more kick-butt, actually. Not that I'm complaining, though; fighting evil is definitely a fun career. Painting is also a pastime of mine, but it isn't nearly as full of action as being a ninja is."

As the girl rambled on, I decided to allow these people a small amount of trust. They wanted to fight my snake-like enemy, too, so they couldn't be all that bad. Not that I would be going to sleep around them without my knife in my hand any time soon. I've never given anybody besides my parents that level of trust.

I could feel strength returning to my muscles, despite my continuous exhaustion, and ceased leaning on the two girls. I stumbled a little bit, but almost immediately managed to stay upright again. "Well," I said, looking at the three people around me. "If you're also hunting blue snake people, I think I'll join you guys. Just point me in the direction of your—er, Destiny Bounty, and I'll meet you there."

Zada rolled her eyes, and Nya scoffed, "Oh please, you really think that we'd let you wander off on your own in your condition? I'm not even comfortable letting you stand without help, let alone go walking around with an ancient evil on the loose."

I felt slightly defensive, and pulled out my concealed steel knife and small pack of paralyzing poison. "You think I can't defend myself, huh? I've been training with this thing almost my entire life, and just a couple drops of this," I shook the bag slightly to emphasize my point, "would instantly knock anybody out, snake or human. I can fight, just like you guys say you can."

The old man looked slightly impressed at the sight of the knife and poison, but Nya was very insistent. "I doubt you could hold up that knife for more than a couple minutes in your state. Nope. You're not going without help. Not happening."

I stuffed my weapons away, and crossed my arms. But this girl was clearly just as stubborn, and we glared at one another for a short while in a face-off. The strength I had before was beginning to wane away, but I didn't want Nya to see. So instead, I scoffed, rolled my eyes, and said, "Fine. If it gets us moving any faster."

She was pleased with this response, and more light-heartedly asked the old man, "What do you think, Sensei? Should we head back with her now, or go to the city first?"

The bearded man chuckled, saying, "I do not think she needs quite so large of an escort, Nya. Zada, you will help Senka back to the Bounty, while Nya and I continue on to buy supplies."

"Yes, Sensei," said the clover-cheeked girl, bowing. My arm was unwillingly thrown over her shoulders, and we started walking away, following the path of three pairs of dusty footprints in the dirt.

"I don't need your help," I growled, trying to yank away.

"Yeah, yeah, but I'm here just in case," replied Zada, sticking out her tongue at me. I sighed, and let her lead me away in grumpy silence.

As we walked, I could hear the fading voices of the other two leaving in the opposite direction.

"What's up, Sensei?"

"Well… I am puzzled. I sense that this new girl has power equal to Zada's, but that should not be possible. There can only be one Ninja of Void. I will need some time to meditate on this."