Me: Say guys, what should I write for Christmas?
Everyone: Happy fluffy things about decorating and snow and stuff!
Me: Did you say "soul-sucking angst about trauma and suffering and tragic age-old hatred"?
Everyone: NO
Me: I'm hearing yes.
I'm so sorry, everyone! Especially to those who suggested things for a Christmas fic over in "Fantastic Mr. Walker." I did love all your suggestions, and there will be plenty of happy stuff in this fic, promise! It'll have fluff and humor and all the rest, and it'll end happily. But I also wanted to have some serious parts, because I dunno. Feels right, the way things are going these days.
A special thank you to FireLord54, who contributed several of the plot points/themes in this fic. And also to everyone who made suggestions on "Fantastic Mr. Walker"—I'll try to work in as many of them as I can!
Also, the trailer for Season 10 seems to show Faith riding Firstbourne (and believe me, it does my frosty old heart so much good to see it), so I don't know if Season 10 is gonna go ahead and contradict this whole story. But here I go anyway.
Merry Christmas, folks!
In this life, there are some rules that you'd think would be pretty obvious to everyone. For example: when in the presence of the almighty Firstbourne, mother of all dragons, dowager of the First Realm, progenitor of the First Spinjitzu Master and thus pretty much Queen of Everything—don't wake her from a well-deserved nap. Especially not by snapping her across the snout with a tail full of spines.
Lightning, the little idiot, did not understand this rule at all. He'd been harassing Earth until the much larger, heavier dragon finally lumbered to his feet and went after him. While fleeing, he'd made a tight turn with a dramatically lashing tail, and Firstbourne had jolted awake with a snort.
Now Lightning knew his goose was cooked. He backed up against the wall and cowered meekly, waiting for Dragon Mom to come after him with a metaphorical sandal. Earth settled back on his haunches to watch, rumbling amusedly.
Firstbourne was comfortable where she lay, however. After glaring pointedly at Lightning for a minute, she finally gave an irritated snort and settled her head back onto her foreclaws. She stayed awake, though, luxuriating. From the corner of her eye she saw Lightning recover his good spirits, make three giant bounds across the cave, and crashland on top of Earth. Earth gave an indignant roar, but Firstbourne only closed her eyes, sighing. And they called dragons the noblest of creatures.
She dozed for a while, ignoring the scuffling. Eventually she decided she wasn't going to get more sleep; yawning and scratching one hind claw under her jaw, she hoisted herself to her feet. She had some traveling to do today, might as well make a start.
Earth had by now pinned Lightning to the floor and was gnawing on the nape of his neck. Fire had joined in, tugging on the small Lung dragon's tail. Lightning was squealing as if he were being skinned alive, but he wasn't bleeding so Firstbourne considered the situation sufficiently under control. She would really have to teach those three better behavior someday, though.
As she loped towards the entrance of the dragon cave, she caught sight of two of her other offspring. Wind was curled up behind a rock formation, her head buried under Ice's wing. Ice was crooning soothingly, nuzzling along her sister's neck and rubbing her chin atop her head.
Firstbourne's eyes softened. Poor Wind. She'd always been sensitive; then she had been there to watch as the Ultra Dragon got slaughtered and eaten. More recently she'd been caught and nearly roasted alive herself. She was a nervous wreck now—even her own siblings frightened her. Luckily Ice, who was shy and gentle herself, was always there to comfort her.
Sighing, Firstbourne stepped over to nuzzle Wind. Then she headed back to break up the brawl between the other three dragons. Fire broke away and fled when he saw Firstbourne coming, but she had to forcibly separate Earth and Lightning. They exchanged snarls and chomps on the snout as she firmly nudged them in opposite directions, then nearly went for each others' throats again the second she turned her back. She had to get a bit loud with them.
Once her offspring were dutifully silent (though still glaring at each other), Firstbourne stopped for one last task. Near the entrance of the cave was a small alcove, elevated off the floor and safe from the dragons' shenanigans. Inside it was an egg, the size of a boulder and sporting a lustrous golden shell. Firstbourne sniffed it and tenderly turned it over with her snout. All 350 pounds of her reptilian heart seized with ferocious maternal love. It had been so long since she'd dared to lay eggs; times had been much too hard. But now things were better, and soon this egg would hatch. A new dragon youngling, hope for the future of her kind.
With a final glance over her shoulder to make sure the younger dragons were behaving, she stepped out of the cave.
The air was brisk, offsetting the heat from the lava pits. Firstbourne breathed in the refreshing breeze, then stretched, flexing her massive wingspan. She was majestic, and she knew it.
She sniffed the air for signs of snow. It had been forever since the First Realm had seen a proper winter. Now that her children no longer had to fear the Dragon Hunters and could roam the realm as they pleased, the balance of nature was slowly being restored. Rain fell. Plants began to flourish in the desert. The cycle of seasons began anew.
It worked out well for the Dragon Hunters. They were able to grow crops now, and even hunt some small mammals. They survived just fine without hunting dragons—and always would have, if they had never started hunting in the first place.
A wave of rage rose in Firstbourne's chest, and she glowered in the direction of the Hunter village. Her nostrils flared, spouting tendrils of angry mist. So many of her children dead and gone. So many years spent hiding, fleeing, scrabbling for their lives. Powerful creatures like them, suffering and falling and dying at the hands of those miserable, pathetic little bags of unprotected flesh. Humans. Hunters in particular. Her contempt knew no bounds.
But she did respect one human. Let's even be generous, two. And she respected what Wu and Lloyd had asked of her: no more attacking the Hunters. The Hunters had already promised not to attack them.
So they were at peace, if not exactly a friendly one. Both sides avoided each other vigorously. And even if Firstbourne sometimes felt a powerful desire to rampage into the Hunter village and level it to charred bones and rubble, her inherent aversion to destruction and her promise to Wu were together enough to stop her.
Speaking of the First Spinjitzu Master's son. And his sweet little grandson too. It had been a while since she visited Ninjago's realm, and she was beginning to miss those two lone humans she respected. Besides, it was time to check on them, make sure no other world-ending disasters were brewing. They had spoken of the Oni . . .
She broke into a lope, then a gallop, building up speed to take off. As her broad wings spread and pulled her into the air, she braced herself for whatever she might find once she crossed over. The realm might already be reduced to ashes, or it might be perfectly fine. With Ninjago, it was never safe to bet.
"How do you set TINSEL on FIRE?!"
So the realm wasn't reduced to ashes yet. But the way things were going, the Ninjago City Mall soon would be.
"I don't know, I don't know, geez!" Kai beat his jacket over the pile of tinsel on the floor. Instead of going out, it went from smoldering to really blazing.
"Huh." Kai paused, blinking. "That's pretty cool."
Even Jay paused his search for a fire extinguisher. The tinsel was writhing as if alive, shriveling and melting as it burned, spewing trails of thick blue smoke.
"Yuck, what is that smell—" Lloyd appeared on the scene. "GUYS."
Kai and Jay started guiltily. Lloyd was already striding over to the nearest concessions booth. Hoisting the tank off a slushie machine, he slopped its contents over the fire. He frowned at the steaming remnants of the tinsel and the charred marks on the mall floor, then shook his head at his two teammates.
"Why. Just why."
"It wasn't on purpose," said Kai, shrugging.
"Bet it was," whispered Jay.
Lloyd bit back a sigh. After a moment he realized the owner of the concessions booth was staring at him.
"Oh, uhh . . . Sorry." Sheepishly he put the tank back onto the base of the slushie machine. "Little bit of an emergency there."
The booth owner waved him off resignedly. Everyone in Ninjago City was a little beyond caring these days. It had been months since Garmadon and Harumi's defeat, and the city was still struggling to pull itself back together. Almost everyone had at least some place to call home by now, and more and more businesses were reopening, but there was still a ton of work to do. The citizens of Ninjago were used to destruction (especially the ones living in Ninjago City), but they still had to admit they were getting . . . pretty tired of this.
"Can you guys reel it in?" said Lloyd, as they all began cleaning up the burned tinsel and melted shave ice. "We're supposed to help decorate the mall, not burn it to the ground."
"Hey, we're workin' for free here," said Kai. "At that price, you can't complain about the work quality." He grinned at Lloyd's disgruntled look. "Whaaat?"
"Kai, you set something on fire again?" Cole came by, pulling a cart full of jumbo nutcracker statues. "By now it's starting to look like you're doing it on purpose."
"That's what I said!" chirped Jay.
"Ahhh . . . this is boring, okay?" Kai plunked down on the floor and leaned on his hands, sighing. "We've been cleaning and repairing for weeks and weeks. Every day we gotta chase down more freaking looters. Now we have to do even more work decorating. It never ends!"
Jay gave a scandalized gasp.
"How could you not like decorating, Kai?"
"Especially for such a good cause," said Cole. "Think of the kiddies. This is for them!"
Kai groaned, knowing his arguments were futile. It really was for a good cause. The owner of Ninjago City's mall had decided that Ninjago's people, especially the children, needed some semblance of a normal Christmas this year. Extra effort had been made to repair and tidy up the mall. It was going to be decorated to the very nines, and there would be a mini ice rink, visits with Santa and his elves, a massive toy drive, and a soup kitchen on weekends. The stores would all be selling goods as cheap as possible—as much as possible. Supply lines to the city were still kind of patchy. There had been a whole week where there wasn't a single tube of toothpaste to be had anywhere within city limits.
At any rate, the ninja had been shanghaied into this production. Mostly Lloyd's idea.
"What do you think nutcracker statues are made of?" said Kai idly, glancing at Cole's cart.
"NO." Cole dropped the cart handle and moved to stand in front of the nutcrackers, his arms outstretched. "We're not testing if it burns, Kai."
Kai narrowed his eyes, taking this as a challenge.
"Guys, no. The mall owner would lynch us," sighed Lloyd.
"Nonono, shhh, I want to see this!" protested Jay. Lloyd groaned. Was he seriously the youngest person on this team?
"Hey guys, what's going on?" Nya came bounding in, accompanied by Zane, just as Kai tried to make a running assault on the nutcrackers. He attempted to skid to a halt and look innocent, but instead slipped on the spilled slushie mix and went down hard, nearly taking a stepladder with him.
"Is . . . everything all right?" said Zane uncertainly.
"It's great," sighed Lloyd. "How'd it go? Did you get the looters?"
"And—hey. Where's PIXAL?" Jay sat up straighter, looking between Nya and Zane. "Didn't she go with you guys?"
Kai had been lying on the floor grumbling to himself, but now he popped up on his elbows, looking anxious. Cole and Lloyd also tensed.
"She's just out looking for the mall owner," said Nya, waving placatingly. "She wanted to see what we should do next. We caught the looters just fine, everyone's okay."
Everyone relaxed again. It had been going on like this ever since the team got back from the First Realm: if someone seemed to go missing, even in the most trivial situations, a mini-panic would brew until they turned up again. They were really starting to edge into clinginess here.
"Mr. Beasley is probably gonna have new chores for us after PIXAL finds him," said Nya. "I'm going to get out of this gear first. Kai, stay away from the nutcrackers."
Kai groaned, flopping back onto the floor.
"You're getting scary, Kai," said Cole. He headed on with the nutcrackers before Kai could make any more attempts. Zane went over to help Jay with the tinsel, only to find himself sticking to the leftover slushie mix. He blinked down at his feet, bewildered. Jay stifled a snicker, while Lloyd sighed and went to fetch a mop. Once Zane had detached himself from the floor, he began working on the stepladder, while Jay handed up hooks and new boxes of tinsel.
"We will have to move the ladder soon, Kai," said Zane, stringing a few more loops from the ceiling. "Would you mind getting out of the way?"
"I'd mind," said Kai sourly.
"How 'bout helping Greenbean over there clean up after the fire you started?" Jay poked a toe at Kai's side.
"I'm not the one who dumped sugar water on the floor."
"You are not being very helpful." Zane glanced down reproachfully. "Or mature."
Kai groaned and kicked at the ladder. Zane balanced easily as it wobbled, but the box of tinsel he'd been working with flipped over and fell on Kai, spilling its contents. Jay burst out laughing; after a moment Lloyd and Zane joined in.
"Whatever," said Kai muffledly. "Still not moving."
"Well, that's fine," said Jay. "Now you're festive. You can just lie here all Christmas and be part of the decorations."
"Perhaps he could sing carols as well?" suggested Zane.
"Fa, and la, and la la la," said Kai from under the box. Zane and Jay tried not to overturn the stepladder laughing. Lloyd shook his head over his mopping, chuckling softly. It felt a little strange sometimes—somewhere in between losing his friends to the First Realm and getting them back, he must have aged a decade or two. Now he felt kind of like a parent watching his kids playing—it was nice to see them having fun, but he was meant to be an observer, not a participant.
Couldn't say he hadn't missed them, though. He was determined to enjoy it . . . while he still could.
PIXAL came in next, wearing very unnecessary earmuffs. She had a body now, she liked to wear things.
"Mr. Beasley wants to talk to all of us!" she announced. She searched the group. "Where are Cole and Nya?"
"They're fine," said Lloyd. "They'll be along. We'll join you once they get back, 'kay?"
PIXAL nodded and turned back to tell Mr. Beasley. Her eyes lingered on the mound of tinsel with Kai's legs sticking out.
"Is he all right? . . . "
"We expect he'll pull through," said Zane cheerfully. PIXAL cocked an eyebrow, but she had given up asking for explanations from these people long ago. Zane looked after her as she left, glanced between her and the half-hung tinsel a few times, then slid down the ladder and trotted after her.
"Oh sure, thanks, leave me to finish up here!" Jay called after him. "Yeesh. Not enough mistletoe in the world for those two . . . "
"You're one to talk." On her way past, Nya swung up the wrong side of the stepladder just long enough to peck Jay on the nose. She hopped down and dashed onwards before he could respond.
"H-hey!" Jay recovered his composure, skipped a few rungs on his way down, and headed after her. "Wait for me!"
"C'mon guys, I hear Mr. Beasley's waiting. Wouldn't want to be late to more chores, wouldja?" Cole was heading outside as well. Lloyd turned to follow, then looked back to see if Kai was coming. Nope.
"C'monnnn, Kai." Rolling his eyes amusedly, Lloyd went back and pulled on Kai's foot. "Joke's over, you can get up now."
He had to tug a few seconds more before Kai suddenly sat bolt upright, sending the cardboard box flying. Lloyd didn't bat an eyelash.
"Ya coming?"
Kai, looking peeved at the lack of reaction, wound up to pounce. Lloyd tensed and started back, his eyes inadvertently hardening in warning. Kai caught the look just in time. He froze, searched Lloyd's expression for a second, then abandoned the lunge. Dropping his gaze, he began to slough off loops of tinsel.
"Sorry," mumbled Lloyd, also avoiding Kai's eyes. Kai grunted resignedly. They had all learned not to roughouse with Lloyd anymore. Shortly after coming back from the First Realm Cole had put him in a headlock and gotten blown into a wall. Certainly not by any intent of Lloyd's, just . . . his reflexes were a little intense lately.
"Well, anyway." Kai shook a stubborn tangle off his arm, scowled at it, then worked it into a wreath and plopped it on Lloyd's head. "There. Let's go."
"You've still got—" Lloyd cringed as Kai tried to get up, got caught in another loop of tinsel, and nearly went sprawling again.
"I swear this stuff has it in for me!" sputtered Kai.
"Well, you did set it on fire . . . "
Kai growled, baffled. Chuckling, Lloyd shook off the tinsel crown and nudged Kai after the others.
"Come on, everyone's waiting. Whatever Mr. Beasley's got, it might be a team effort."
"Oh joy," said Kai, sighing as he followed Lloyd out.
A/N: What am I doing posting the first chapter of this on Christmas Day, what is this madness . . .
Ech. I wanted to at least feel like I'd started this in time for Christmas. Even slightly. And maybe also force myself to finish writing this, because a lot of it is still . . . decidedly not written. But hopefully I can finish!
Hope everyone is having a great Christmas! ^_^