(Cole's P.O.V.)
It wasn't long before we reached the area where the girls heard the dragon's call. We-the guys I mean-had all put on swim trunks and a wet suit shirt. Talynn came up not too long ago in a pair of swim shorts and a short sleeved wet suit swim shirt.
"What's taking them so long?" Jay asked. Great, it was breakfast all over again.
"Just be patient Jay." Talynn said, tying back her hair. "Kyna's having some doubts about the water and Soula can't find her top."
"Here we are." Soula said coming up, dragging Kyna behind her. Both were wearing the same as Talynn, but their wet suit shirts were long sleeved. "Sorry about the wait."
"How close are we?" Kyna asked, looking over the edge.
"I'd say as close as we're gonna get with the ship." Nya said coming down the steps. "The coral reefs are too dense. And like Talynn said, you can't hear him from the air."
"Are we sure it's a boy dragon?" Kai asked.
"Not yet." Talynn replied, pulling off her shades. "But it's better than calling him an 'it'."
"Tread carefully my students." Sensei said from above. "This reef is home to many a creature. There's no telling what could be down there."
"Don't worry Sensei," I replied sitting on the edge of the rail. "We'll keep an eye on eachother."
"Aren't you coming with us Nya?" Kyna asked.
We hadn't even thought about it. Nya just always stayed put working on projects in her room. But with three new members-who were female no less-why wouldn't she want to come?
"Who me?" she asked, genuinely surprised. "I dunno."
"Come on." Soula said, grabbing her arm. "We've got an extra swim suit in our room."
"But-"
"You can't be a princess in a tower forever Nya." Talynn stated, swinging her leg over the bar. "You gotta escape sometime."
"Uh…translation anybody?" Jay asked.
"What Talynn's saying is you gotta get out of your comfort zone sooner or later." Kyna said, standing beside Talynn. "Like I am with this mission. I normally hate water, but for a dragon, I'd risk getting wet."
"You mean like this?" Talynn asked as she wrapped her arms around Kyna. Both immediately fell into the water with a big splash. When they surfaced, Kyna looked like she was ready to rip Talynn apart.
"I'm gonna get you for this!" She stated, swimming towards her friend.
Talynn just laughed. "You and I both know it was the only way to get you into the water!"
We watched them for a bit; Kyna trying to drown Talynn, and Talynn avoiding it by the smidge of a second. We almost didn't realize we'd been standing there long before Jay and Kai got splashed.
"Hey!"
"What was that for?!"
"For standing around and not getting in!" Kyna said, preparing for another splash.
"Come on the water's great!"
I wasn't about to be splashed by either of them, so I jumped in quick. Lloyd and Zane weren't far behind. Soula and Nya ran off since they just came back up. That just left Jay and Kai.
"Come on you two!" Talynn yelled. "That baby dragon won't wait forever!"
"What about the reef?" Jay asked.
"The reef's a few feet from here. From there we dive and find the baby."
"Kai don't make me come up there and get you!" Kyna exclaimed, looking ready to come get him.
"I'd like to see you try." Kai stated, crossing his arms.
By then it was too late to stop Kyna, who was already halfway up the haul of the ship. Jay didn't like the looks of it I guess, because he jumped overboard. That only left our hotheaded fire bender up there.
"He had to challenge her didn't he?" Talynn asked swimming up beside me as Kyna pulled herself over the bar. "Now we're gonna have a test of who's even more stubborn."
"Five bucks says Kai throws Kyna back into the water." I say watching the two red ninja fight.
"All right." She said pulling herself closer to the ship. "But you may wanna move because either way we get splashed."
I took her advice and swam up against the ship. Not even a moment later though, it was KAI who got thrown overboard. I looked over at Talynn to see her smiling.
"Not, a word."
"Okay. But you still owe me five dollars." She stated swimming away. "Kyna get your butt down here!"
"No need to say that twice." Kyna said jumping in.
Talynn led the way through the waves. The reef was below us now; the multi-colored coral looked like a rainbow of colors.
"Beautiful." Soula said, swimming ahead. "Reminds me of the scales of a dragon."
"Now that I think about it, this reef's better known as Dragon's Ridge." Nya said coming up beside Kai. "A long time ago, female dragon's came here to nest and hatch their eggs. Then the waters of Ninjago rose and the nesting ground was lost, along with a bunch of the eggs."
"Well this one must be aquatic." Talynn stated. "Look."
We all did, almost unable to believe our eyes.
There ahead of us was a three foot long sky blue baby dragon caught in a fisherman's net.
(Talynn's P.O.V.)
I'd never seen a dragon so small. It looked scared that's for sure. But it wasn't scared of us. No, it was scared of the people up ahead.
Poachers.
I'd heard of people often mistaking dragons for the Loch Ness Monster or a Sea serpent, but this little one was just hatched. And I mean fresh out of the egg hatched. It still had its eyes shut tight, meaning it hadn't opened them yet. But where was his mother? Then it hit me. The poachers had killed the mother.
"This little thing's gonna be a great haul eh Eli?" A man said not noticing us.
"You bet Chase." Another said. "This Sea serpent is probably worth more than the mum."
Both men laughed, making me angrier by the second. I didn't care if my other personality took control at this point. Just as long as the baby was safe, that was all that mattered. I noticed that Cole was grimacing too. As was everyone else. They didn't like the way these guys treated the baby dragon anymore than me and my team.
"So what's the plan?" Kai asked, looking at us cautiously.
"We split up." I said, peeking out from behind the rock. "Soula, you and Zane dive and get the little guy free. Take Kai and Kyna with you."
"Understood." Zane replied, diving under the water, taking Kyna, Kai, and Soula with him.
"Jay, Nya, Lloyd, you guys play decoy. Make sure the poachers don't see the divers. We can't risk one of our own getting hurt."
"You got it." Lloyd said, swimming ahead with Jay. Nya looked back once, but the look on my face made her swim ahead with the others.
"And what do you plan that we do?" Cole asked looking at me skeptically.
I felt a pounding in my head; my other side taking over. No control. I have no control!
"We sneak abroad and teach those poachers a lesson." I feel myself say, swimming towards the ship. "No creature deserves what they've done happening to them."
(Normal P.O.V.)
The groups split up quickly and began to do their jobs. Jay-being the most annoying-got the poachers' attention first.
"Hey! You two in the boat!" He yelled out, waving his arms back and forth. "Don't you know there's no hunting allowed here?!"
"What's it to you?!" The one called Chase, looking around. It didn't make sense how a lone swimmer could be this far out on his own. Especially since the Ninja of Ninjago's bounty wasn't very far-
Oh crap.
"Uh…Eli?"
"Let the dragon out of the net and we won't hurt you!" Lloyd exclaimed, standing on top of another rock.
"Oh yeah?" Eli laughed, looking between the two. "You and what army?"
The two ninja looked at eachother and smirked. They were hoping he'd say that.
"Uh…Eli."
"What?" He looked at his partner, who was struck with fear. Then he looked in the direction that he was pointing in. Seeing the Destiny's Bounty in the distance, he then looked over at the two swimmers.
"Aw crap!" He exclaimed, backing towards the back of the boat. "Call the boss!"
"Not gonna happen." Cole said as he backed up into him. "You two are going to jail for poaching an endangered species."
"Not only that." Talynn stated coming up behind Chase. "But you'll also be arrested for endangering the wildlife of this coral reef, not to mention a freshly hatched dragon egg!"
This made the two look at eachother, then down into the water, where two more ninja and their female companions were cutting free their catch!
"Do you know how much that hide costs?!" Chase asks, grabbing Talynn by the neck. "It's our ticket to fame and fortune!"
Talynn's eyes turned black in an instant, her hands pointed to the two men's shadows, making them rise until they were the same height as the men. Both of their eyes opened, revealing a deep crimson red. Shadow Chase immediately pulled the real Chase off of Talynn, leaving the girl rubbing her neck. Shadow Eli pinned his owner before he could escape.
Cole, Jay, Lloyd, and Nya watched in awe as the shadows forced the two down on their knees as if they were bowing to royalty. Talynn made both of them meet her eyes, which were getting darker by the minute.
"If there wasn't the presence of a young one, I wouldn't hesitate to slay you where you kneel." She said, her left hand creating a pitch black spear out of the shadows. Both men cowered, thinking that this was the end of their lives.
But the spear never reached them.
Instead, she made their shadows transform and become a pair of handcuffs for each; her eyes turning red in the process.
"But as I said, for the presence of a young one, I will not kill."
"So what do we call him?" Kyna asked, looking down at the little guy in the bathtub as she dried her hair.
The creature was truly remarkable. Light blue scales with a dark blue underbelly; his fins matching the same darkness. Across the scales was a black swirly design, making it look like he had a storm cloud on him. It would be some time before his wings came loose enough for him to open them, but that didn't matter at the moment.
"There is a great multitude of names we could choose for him." Zane stated, going through his data banks. "Though, we may want to simplify it quite a bit."
"How so?"
"Well," Kai began as he put gel in his hair. "When we got our dragons, we went with what got them pretty close to their elements. So what we gotta do is think of what this little guy's element is, and we got a list of shortened names."
"Well that's not so hard." Soula stated, going back into the girls room. (They'd put the dragon in the conjoining bathroom) "He's a water-lightening dragon. You can tell by the color of his scales."
"So we've got a double dragon?" Kyna asked sitting on her bed. "That's pretty rare."
"Ever more a good thing you got to the young one when you did." Wu said walking in. "Who knows how far those men would've gotten if the girls had not heard the young one's call."
Kyna and Soula looked away, blushing a dusty pink as they did. Talynn on the other hand just stared at the small creature she used so much power to protect. She knew what name to call him, but she decided to wait and see what the other's came up with.
"Here's some ideas of names for the young one." Zane said, going through a list in his mind. "Cove?"
"Too cavey." Kyna said, pulling on a juju bead bracelet.
"Typhoon?"
"I don't think so."
"Reef?"
"Do you want to remind him and everybody else of this day? Besides that's a girl name"
"Tempest?"
"Again female."
"Neptune?"
"No way are we naming that little guy after a planet."
"Storm." Talynn said suddenly, putting her hand on the baby dragon's forehead. "We're calling him Storm."
No one dared to argue with the tannette. Instead, the boys and Nya backed out while Wu walked ahead, putting a hand on Talynn's shoulder.
"I understand you went into your darker self to save this young creature." He said, kneeling down to meet the small dragon's eyes.
Talynn sighed. "Yeah." She petted his forehead. "I know I just put any chance of having the ninja as allies down quite a bit-"
"On the contrary. I want them to know what you're capable of."
"Excuse me?" Talynn asked confused at what he was telling her.
"All your lives, you girls have had to hold back. To not reach for your true potential." He said, watching Storm swim about. "Not anymore. I want my youngest students to become who they really are, not hang back and let themselves become play things."
"The question is this though." He said, getting to his feet. "Are you a dragon, or a sea serpent?"
Talynn pulled her shades off, meeting her teacher's eyes. "What do you think?"
Okay I know this is way overdue. But with school coming up, my parents are starting to drive me to a point that I'm too stressed to write! I'll try to get more posted before the school year starts. If I don't, so sue me. And I'll try to get another chapter up of Gem's of the Night in too. Wish me luck!
