Chapter 8: Tricks and Snakes

Lupe's POV

I woke up as a human and stretched. I never minded sleeping on the floor as a she-wolf, but it sure did a number on me as a human. I then noticed that Lloyd wasn't in the room, so I grew worried.

"Cole!" I heard Kai yell. Minutes later, Cole followed suit.

"Jay!" He yelled.

"3…2…1," I counted down.

"Zane!" I smiled. I decided to go find out why the boys were yelling at each other. I walked into the boys' room to find the four of them in a circle, facing inward, bickering amongst each other.

"You couldn't just be happy with the high score! You just had to rub it in my face!" Kai bellowed.

"Do you know how long it took me to make that? Three days, three days!" Cole yelled.

"It's an honest said law, ok? You don't touch a man's robot!" Blue Jay seemed hyper for some reason.

"How am I supposed to strike fear in this? It's pink!" Zane yelled back. The four then started arguing over who would be a green ninja. I rolled my eyes. Sensei then entered the room and shook his head. Sensei walked over to a sliding door and opened it, revealing my little brother, who was laughing with pink paint, salt and pepper, and a hammer behind him.

"You did this?" The four ninja yelled in unison.

"Boys, I get first dibs on him!" Cole called, and then walked angrily toward Lloyd. On instinct, I jumped at him and tackled him. When Sensei managed to get me off of him, I noticed Kai was smiling.

"No dibs!" Sensei told them. "I put him up to this for today's lesson. I wanted to show you that jumping to conclusions can only lead to trouble."

"No offence Sensei, but today's lesson is lame." Cole said. I was surprised, had I talked back like that, Peridot would have scolded me.

"Yeah, can't we learn how to paralyze our enemy with one finger? Or tell if a man is lying by the twitch of his nose?" Blue Jay added.

"Because not all lessons are about fighting!" Sensei snapped. "And I misplaced my lesson book."

"You mean this lesson book?" Kai walked up to Lloyd and grabbed the book Lloyd was hiding.

"It was the perfect plan! Until you had to come and ruin it!" Lloyd continued to go on and on, until Cole closed the sliding door. I growled at him.

"If you guys are done, we have a little snake problem to attend to. Over and out!" Nya said over the speaker.

"It's one thing to have the son and daughter of your nemesis, but my sister? I mean come on! I thought this was a ninja headquarter," Kai protested.

"You do know I can hear you, over and out." Nya reminded him.

"Besides, if there wasn't at least one female here, who knows what you boys would do." I told him, my eyes telling him to be grateful for his sister.

"Last we saw Pythor; he stole the Map of Dens from Lloyd, and is now on his way to release the remaining two Serpentine tombs." Nya explained.

"Uh, don't remind me." Lloyd groaned. I pat his head in reassurance. Suddenly, I felt a pair of eyes on me.

"Pythor is our most dangerous threat. If he finds the tombs before we do, with his intellect and all four tribes unleashed, there's no telling what he will do." Sensei said.

"But those tombs could be anywhere, without the Map of Dens we might as well be throwing darts at a map." Blue Jay complained.

"Good idea, why don't we?" Nya grabbed two darts and threw them at the map. Kai barely escaped being hit by both of them. Then I realized it was him who was staring at me. "These are the locations for the Fangpyre and Hypnobrai tombs."

"Nice," I murmured.

"Show off." Kai said. Nya threw another dart.

"And this is Pythor's tomb. After many hours of ruminating on why these tombs were placed in these exact locations, I discovered a secret pattern." Nya bent over and picked up a flashlight. "If you notice, all three tombs are in line for the Ninjago symbol for Serpent."

"So the last two tombs must be here, and here!" Blue Jay pointed, and then moved closer to Nya. "You are so smart."

"Was there ever any doubt?" Nya asked proudly.

"There's little time. Kai and Jay, you head to the Venomari tomb. Cole and Zane, you head to the Constrictai tomb. And take this; you might need it if you run into Pythor. Good luck ninja." Sensei instructed quickly, while handing Zane a flute.

"What am I going to do?" Nya asked.

"Yeah, what are we going to do?" Lloyd asked. Nya shook her head.

"Nya and Lupe, I need you here to make sure Lloyd doesn't get into any more trouble." Sensei instructed us. I had been so looking forward to tearing up some snakes! I thought angrily.

"Yes Sensei," Nya and I said together.

"Let's go boys; we got some snakes to clobber!" Cole said. I snorted.

"Why not whack them while you're at it?" I sarcastically whispered to Nya. She laughed and nodded in agreement.

"Where are you Pythor? What are you up to?" Sensei whispered to himself. I suddenly remembered I had to tell Lloyd my secret.

"Lloyd, I have to tell you something." I whispered to him. He looked up at me.

"What?" He asked, concern filling his eyes. Though he did not say it, it was clear he was thinking, 'Is it about my father?'

"I'm a moon she-wolf."

"A what?"

"A moon she-wolf. Every claw moon, or crescent moon, we turn into wolves by default. But we can change into human or wolf at any other time." I explained. "But never, ever call us werewolves. To call a moon wolf a werewolf is an enormous offence."

"Oh, what's around your neck?" Lloyd asked, pointing to my tag.

"This is my name tag. When I am human, it reads my human name, when I am a she-wolf, it reads my wolf name." I explained. "But, by moon wolf law, I can never take it off. To do so would be denying my blood. It would be a crime."

"What does it say now?" Lloyd asked again, He is a curios pup. I thought, smiling.

"Now it reads Lupe…Lupe Garmadon. When I'm a she-wolf," I turned into a she-wolf and lifted my head so he could read my tag.

"It says Cuchilla Loba. Is that your wolf name?" I nodded, and then turned back human. "But, why do you have silver on the ends of your hair?"

That was the first time I noticed I still had silver endings.

"It's like a badge of my status as a full moon she-wolf."

"Oh," Lloyd stated simply, and then looked down, his eyes distant, probably taking it all in. Curios, how he didn't freak out and run. I thought. I turned to Nya.

"Hey Nya, were you up all night starring at a map?" I joked.

"Yeah, pretty much." We laughed.

A few hours later, at dinner, the boys were excitedly sharing their day's adventures, including a Samurai.

"He was a hundred feet high. With weapons coming out of every part of him. Look at Sensei's beard," Kai whispered to Cole, though we could all hear him. "It's moving like snakes."

"When is this Venomari spit supposed to wear off? It's starting to get annoying." Nya said aggravated, just as Kai put a dumpling on his face. I laughed at him.

"Hey don't let this Samurai cloud what's really important. All Serpentine tribes are out." Cole refocused everyone's attention. "And if Pythor can unite them, legend states that a Great Devourer will consume the land and…"

"Great Devourer?" Lloyd asked.

"Whatever it is, it's a can of worms I don't want to see opened." Cole retorted.

"It's all my fault, if I hadn't opened the first hatch, none of this would have happened." Lloyd admitted sadly, I put my arm on him.

"It's not your fault, you're just curious." I whispered to him.

"We cannot change the past, but we can affect the future. At least we still have the Sacred Flute in our possession." Sensei started.

"Yeah, about that." Blue Jay started.

"Pythor, sort of, stole it." Zane admitted.

"The last Sacred Flute, gone?" Sensei looked panicked. "You four are Ninjago's last hope." The alarm went off, seemingly snapping Kai out of his hallucinations, but only slightly.

"Cold vision must have caught something. That means the Serpentine are near." Nya shot out quickly.

"Serpientes estúpido." I murmured. (Stupid snakes.)

"Ninjago City?" Cole asked.

"How many are there?" Blue Jay asked.

"Looks like all of them," Kai said.

"Pythor must be trying to unite them," Zane concluded.

"Go! We mustn't let the five tribes unite!" Sensei ordered.

"Why do boys get to have all the fun?" Nya asked.

"Because when they mess up, we laugh at them." I explained. "This is very often. Like today, Zane's still running around in a pink suit."

"Agreed." Nya laughed.

A few minutes later, the ninja returned.

"That was fast." I stated.

"It felt like forever." Kai stated back. When we were all seated back down to finish dinner, they talked about their adventure.

"Whether it was in the lesson book or not, we used the destructive power of rumors to our advantage." Cole said, smiling.

"Funny, usually that's our job to make someone else's life difficult with a little gossip." I whispered to Nya. We snickered in agreement.

"And now the Serpentine are further away then ever in getting their act together." Kai said happily.

"You know, I don't think we would have gotten out of there if it hadn't been for Zane." Blue Jay added in the conversation.

"Don't thank me. Thank Lloyd. If it hadn't been for his 'laundry skills', we all would have been found" We all laughed at Zane's comment. Suddenly, Lloyd walked in.

"¡Hablando Del diablo!" I commented. (Speak of the devil!)

"Well, it took me twenty loads, but your suit is no longer pink. And to show that I'm sorry, Cole, I got you a can of nuts." Lloyd offered.

"Yeah, don't think I don't what this is. When I open this, a bunch of snakes are going to pop out, right?" Cole denied sarcastically. "Yeah, no thank you." He walked over to the fridge, opened it, only to have a bunch of snakes jump out of him.

"¡Quemar!" I said with sarcasm. (Burn!)