Chapter XIV: Peoni

Another day in slavery for Nya. She has only been at the plantation for a week and she was completely miserable.

"How do people stay here there whole lives?" Nya asked herself.

"I told you not to come here," Tony said behind her. Nya jumped when he spoke behind her.

"I need to help everyone get out of here," Nya replied.

Tony just shook his head and walked away.

All throughout the day Nya looked for a way to escape, but she couldn't find anything. When she was planting corn or whatever it was she saw a pond with some shiny rocks near the bottom.

Nya looked around and when she saw that no one was watching she dove into the pond and saw that the shiny rocks were leading down a cave which ended right under the pond near the tree house.

Once Nya finally came back up for air she was beet red.

"How am I going to help people escape if I can't even stay down there long enough to look at it?" Nya asked herself.

"Are you alright?" Tony asked.

Nya looked up to see the young man's concerned face.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Nya said. "Say, do you have anything that would help me breath underwater?"

Tony reached into one of his worn down pockets and gave Nya a flower.

Nya looked at Tony very strangely. "What's this?"

"It's a Peoni Flower," Tony replied, "it helps you breath underwater."

"Thanks," Nya said.

That night Nya sneaked to the master's cabin and went to wake up Tony.

"Tony," Nya whispered shaking him.

"What?" Tony asked not even half awake. When Tony saw that it was Nya he fell out of bed because of his surprise. "What the heck are you doing here?" Tony whispered standing up.

I'm breaking you out of here," Nya replied.

"Are you out of your mind?"

"No." Suddenly Nya grabbed Tony's arm and dragged him over to the pond.

"You're going to come too, right?" Tony asked.

"There's only one peoni," Nya replied handing him back the flower.

"But you don't belong here," Tony told her taking the flower.

"Neither do you." Nya pushed Tony into the water and he was forced to swim.

Nya just watched him and when he was gone went to find another peoni. When Nya looked around the wall she found some leaves of the peoni going under the wall. Nya looked around and tried to scale the wall but was caught by one of the guards.

She kicked him in the stomach and the guard immediately let go of her. Nya then ran down the path and opened one of the cabin doors and yelled, "Run! Get out of here!" she told the people in the cabin.

The guards instead went to the people. Nya ran over to the people and grabbed an old man's hand. She ran with him as fast as they could. Nya helped the guy over the wall and then Nya scaled the wall herself just out of reach of the guards.

"I'm out!" Nya said raising her arms up in victory. She then helped the man get up and brought him over to the tree house.

"Please stop crying," Nya heard Tony whining to a kid.

Nya brought the old man to a comfortable part of the area and then went to the top of the tree house to see what was going on.

She saw Tony trying to get a little boy on his bed to stop crying.

"What's going on?" Nya asked.

"Nya?" Tony asked turning around. "How did you escape?"

"I let some people go which distracted the guards long enough for me to scale the wall," Nya replied.

"You finally listened to me," Tony said.

"Are you the girl who helped us get out?" the boy who was crying asked.

Nya knelt down to be face to face with the child and answered, "I am."

"Thank you," he said wiping away a tear.

"Why were you crying?" Nya asked.

"I miss my family."

"Even though I'm here that doesn't mean I'm going to give up on the rest of um."

"Okay," The little boy then went over to one of the girls who wanted to teach him how to read.

The next morning Nya got up early in the morning. She tried to leave to see if she could find more peonis but the minute she tried to leave, a girl who looked around the age of five went over to Nya and begged her not to go. She felt bad because of how scared the girl looked. Plus Tony looked like he was just down right miserable with all of the kids and their needs. So, to give Tony a break she told him to find more peonis while she took care of everyone and since Tony was desperate he ran like the wind out of there.

Nya played with the kids and when any of them got bored she told them of her and the ninjas adventures.

"Any questions?" Nya asked the kids when she finished telling them the stories of the ninja.

"I heard there was this thing called a phone," the girl started, "Can you talk to Jay?"

Nya took her phone out of her pocket with a smile. The kids marveled when she turned it on due to the fact that they have never seen anything like it. When Nya called Jay he answered immediately.

"Hey, Nya, what's up?" Jay asked.

"He sounds cute," Nya heard one of the girls whisper.

"Nya, where are you?" Jay asked.

"I'm in a tree house surrounded by about a hundred kids," Nya replied.

"Why?"

"I want to talk to him," a girl standing next to Nya said.

Nya handed the phone to the girl very carefully and the girl started chatting away about how she loved how the ninja have saved people from the same fate she has suffered. Jay listened uncomfortably. He wasn't very good with kids. Mostly because he still acted like a kid. He also felt bad about the slavery which was why he was happy that Nya wasn't looking for Wu so that she could help these people have a better life than they've had.

"What's it like to be a ninja?" the girl asked Jay.

"Why don't you ask Nya that?" Jay asked.

"Because she hasn't been a ninja as long as you."

"It's...fun," Jay replied.

"Could I ever be a ninja?" the girl asked.

"Maybe not a ninja but you could help out in some other way," Jay mentioned.

"Like what?"

"You could be a nurse or police officer or anything else that's not so dangerous."

The girl laughed. "Do you think I can talk to Nya for a minute?" Jay asked.

The girl gave Nya back her phone.

"Nya?" Jay asked over the phone.

"I know I need to help them all," Nya said sounding a little stressed.

"What if I come and help," Jay suggested.

"No. You need to look for Wu," Nya said. "Besides, I got this."

"Nya?" Tony called from the bottom of the tree house. "Did they hurt ya?"

"Who's that?" Jay asked.

"That's Tony. I rescued him from the plantation along with the kids."

Jay scoffed.

"You don't believe me?" Nya asked.

"Are you talking to one of the other ninja?" Tony asked coming up.

"Yep," Jay said trying to sound friendly.

"Which one?" Tony asked.

"Seriously?" Jay asked.

"He's never seen or heard of any of us, other than what I've said," Nya told him.

"What have you said?" Jay asked.

"I told him about you and Kai," Nya replied. Nya looked up and saw Tony holding about twenty peoni flowers.

"I'll call you back," Nya told Jay before hanging up.

"I don't think these are enough, but maybe we can help a few more people." Tony handed her the flowers looking very awkward.

"I'm the only one going," Nya said leaving the tree house.

As Nya was going down the latter she misplaced her step and fell right into the pond next to it. Nya ended up at the bottom of the deep pond. She rushed for one of the peonis in her pocket and it helped her almost immediately. Nya looked around the pond until she saw a small tunnel that Nya assumed lead to the plantation.

Nya swam down the tunnel for about five minutes until she finally saw the light of the moon above her.

As Nya came out of the pond she looked around to see if any guards were around. She saw that the coast was clear and immediately went to one of the houses.

Once Nya got there she opened the door and woke up the family of five in that house. Nya then went to about six more houses until she had exactly nineteen people not counting herself.

She led everyone to the pond avoiding guards as much as needed. When they got to the pond she gave each person a peoni and gave them directions on how to get out. Then, once everyone Nya gathered was out, she followed them back to the tree house and gathered the peonis back up for tomorrow.