Mehhhhh . . . this chapter is short and goes nowhere. Originally it was supposed to be much longer, but then it got TOO long and would have been a serious chore to read. So I split it in half. Sowwy. :(
Guest: Thanks very much for the review! ^_^ Heh, it did cross my mind, but I'd thought Cole's official last name was Brookstone. So it really is Bucket, eh? Dang LEGO, don't toy with me like that. :P
Glad you're enjoying it! Updates every other day. :)
GUEST05: Thank you to you tooooo! Ooooooh, you got a bunch of nicknames that I missed. Hmm, I also have Tin Can, Lug Nut, Blue Boy, Hotshot, and "the kid"; that makes seventeen total! And I bet there's more . . .
Ohh, I didn't know that! I thought the ones with the ghosts were going to be Season 5. Ah, either way, I'm lookin' forward to 'em. :3
Glad you liked the angst! This is onnnnnnly the beginning . . . Thanks for the kind words! ^_^
Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus. - Hogwarts' motto
The rest of the afternoon crawled by agonizingly. For the first (and probably last) time in his life, Cole actually wished he'd spent some time at Marty Oppenheimer's. Just long enough to take some acting lessons. Luckily, his attempt at a mask of unconcerned cheerfulness seemed to hold up; nobody asked any questions. As evening drew nearer, they bid Lou goodbye and went to meet the dragon master at the agreed-upon street corner. It was in a rather shabby part of town.
"I'm still not sure about this," said Kai grimly as they stood around waiting. "How reclusive do you have to be to not get mentioned on the internet even once?"
"Yeah, even my parents' scrapyard has a website," agreed Jay. "And I don't know how that happened, because electronic devices tend to die when my dad touches them."
"Seriously?" Kai raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah." Jay shrugged. "I guess I had to get my elemental powers somewhere, you know. My dad might not look it, but he's an electrical menace. Handy for picking up new scrap items."
Kai fell silent, his expression shifting as he tried to wrap his head around the concept of the loquacious, slightly daffy old Ed being an Elemental Master.
After a while, a wiry, ragged-looking man came shuffling towards them. He was quite short, his hair was greasy and cast into tight ringlets that framed his face, and his hands twitched aimlessly while his eyes flickered over the little group. Weaselly was one word that came to mind.
"Are you the ones with a sick dragon?" he asked, his voice oily and low, but strangely piercing.
"Uhm, yeah," stammered Lloyd, while the others were still blinking in bewilderment. They hadn't been sure what to expect, but all the same they hadn't thought it'd be along these lines.
"I am Vaal," said the dragon master.
"Lloyd," said Lloyd, a little thrown. "A-and Kai, Cole, Jay, and Zane."
Vaal nodded.
"Lead the way."
And with that they set out.
"You don't have a problem with flying, right?" said Kai.
"All is the same to me," shrugged Vaal. He continued to say nothing as they walked along through the gathering evening, but he ceaselessly scrutinized them all with his sharp dark eyes. There was something deeply irksome about the way he did it.
"So," said Jay, digging into the stock of questions they had prepared to test the guy. "You must know a lot about dragons. What's dragon society like? Do they have a pecking order or something, or are they above that kinda stuff?"
"Not entirely," said Vaal shortly. "Dragons are solitary creatures, but they do not fight if they do gather in groups. In such cases, dominance is assumed by the dragon who roars the loudest. They have very sensitive diaphragms in their inner ears, much more precisely tuned than ours, which can differentiate between volumes as little as three decibels apart."
Jay raised his eyebrows—he'd known the answer up until "roars the loudest," but he hadn't expected a scientific explanation on top of that.
"Say, something that always bugged me," spoke up Cole. "Why do dragons lick their forefeet so much? Ours used to just sit and lick their ankles all day sometimes."
"They have small oil glands just by the spur of their backwards-facing toe," replied Vaal. "They lick the glands and then the rest of their bodies to spread the oil over themselves. It gives each dragon a unique identifying scent, keeps their scales in good condition, and makes them more aerodynamic."
Cole nodded, satisfied. They'd noticed the oil seeping from their dragons' ankles early during their adventures in dragon ownership, and they had theorized as much regarding the reason for it. It definitely wasn't anything you could find on the internet, though.
Under the guise of innocent curiosity they asked several more difficult questions, things they figured you could only know after years of owning a dragon. Vaal answered them all correctly, without so much as a moment's hesitation. There was little doubt that he was vastly knowledgable on the subject, but somehow the others' anxiety didn't abate in the slightest.
Eventually they got back to the Bounty. Nya had it parked low over the outskirts of town, bobbing at the end of the anchor chain in the gloom of night, looking quite imposing in its newly-renovated glory. Vaal, however, seemed thoroughly unimpressed.
"A dragon's-head prow," he grunted, casting an eye over the figurehead at the ship's bow. "Uninspired, and an insult to the species. It muddies the name of an interdimensional creature to have its likeness crudely hacked into wood to decorate the flimsy constructs of man."
The ninja exchanged glances, some of them pulling faces. It might not be a dragon, but they were pretty proud of the Bounty, and talking smack about it didn't go over well. Meanwhile Vaal said very little throughout the voyage and turned down the offer to share dinner; he bundled himself up in blankets and sat on the deck near the bow, meditating. Or staring off into the sky, whichever it actually qualified as.
"I'm starting to seriously wonder if he's legit," muttered Kai, peering through a window at the huddled form.
"Are you kidding?" Jay scoffed. "Nobody non-legit would act like that. You've gotta be real to be that weird."
It was two AM by the time they got back to the mountain where the Ultra Dragon was holed up. Sensei Wu explained to Vaal that they had arrived, but it would be dark inside the cave and the dragon would probably be sleeping.
"It can wait until morning," said Vaal coolly, not making a move.
"If you care to sleep . . . " began Sensei Wu, but Vaal shook his head.
"I am fine here."
So they left him there. Everyone else stumbled off to bed, except Cole, who made a pretense of organizing the boxes he'd brought from his dad's house. Really he just shifted them around in the corner of the mess hall until he was pretty sure everyone was asleep.
As soon as the coast seemed clear, he slipped quietly off the side of the Bounty. Vaal was still bundled up near the prow, but he seemed to pay no mind either way, and Cole didn't concern himself about that. Cautiously he crept his way down the tunnel leading to the Ultra Dragon's cave, a single flashlight casting a feeble beam before him.
The dragon was still alive (oh come on, he scolded himself, no reason why it shouldn't be), and very peacefully asleep in all four heads. Cole knew better than to wake it; messing with the Ultra Dragon's sleep patterns was a risky game. Every nth time you tried it, you would get a dragon cranky enough to make Stone Warriors look cuddly.
He played his flashlight over the scarred, scaly body, watching the rise and fall of the back as the giant creature breathed. Flicking off the light, he stepped closer to Rocky's head and felt the familiar warm, dusty breath washing over him as he drew near. Carefully he felt his way along the dragon's neck until he reached the shoulder; then he settled down in the hollow between Rocky and Wisp's necks. He'd often done this before, back in Ninjago City before the Stone Warriors' invasion. When their dingy little apartment grew uncomfortably hot, or when they were all grating on each others' nerves from being in such close quarters for too long, or—well—even he felt down sometimes—he would head up to the roof and spend some time in the dragon's silent but sympathetic company. He didn't doubt the others did this too, just that they'd never caught each other at it.
He lay back, feeling the gentle rumble of the dragon's lungs against his back and head. By this time tomorrow, they would hopefully know what was wrong. Hopefully there would be a way to fix it. He couldn't imagine what they would do otherwise. Just sit back and watch their pet wasting away? Brrr, no.
Soft footsteps suddenly caught his attention. He jumped slightly, but made no sound, waiting for the unknown visitor to show up. A dancing beam of light flickered down the tunnel and skittered across the floor; by the gait and the dull twinkle of red fabric he recognized Kai.
Soon the flashlight went out, and there was a soft murmur and blink of a different, ruddier light. The glow revealed Kai, crouched by Flame's sleeping head, holding a tongue of fire in one hand and gently running it up and down the dragon's muzzle. Apparently this was a soothing sensation for a fire dragon, because Flame made a blissful noise through his sleep and snuggled his head closer. Kai laughed softly and sat down cross-legged, still stroking the dragon's nose.
Cole eyed the setup, smirking. Normally Kai would have been able to pick up on his presence instantly by the sound of his breathing, but here the Ultra Dragon's four heavy breaths (all out of sync too, however that worked with one set of lungs) drowned out any hope of catching a human sigh. If he was stealthy, he'd probably be able to get up and move around without Kai hearing too. Now the only question was if stepping up behind him and laying a hand on his shoulder heavily would cause him to yelp loud enough to wake the dragon.
Deciding to take the chances, Cole pushed himself upright and began to slide his feet along the floor. Suddenly the light danced as Kai started, and he gave a gruff call of "who goes there?!" Cole froze. How had Kai managed to—
"'Who goes there?' Seriously?" said another voice, and Cole realized Kai hadn't heard him after all. So now Jay was here too. So much the better, it'd make sneaking up easier.
"Give me a break, it's three in the morning," grumbled Kai. "What are you doing down here?"
"Came down to check on the ol' Ultra, same as you," Jay murmured back. "Is he doing okay?"
"No worse, anyway." Kai yawned.
Cole resumed stepping softly out from between Wisp and Rocky's necks. He had nearly passed Rocky's head when Jay suddenly blurted, "Look, Kai. As long as we're alone—"
Cole froze again. He'd had quite enough of eavesdropping on private conversations for one day, and he did not want to hear another. Yikes, better make his presence known straightaway—he fumbled for a moment as to how—
And then Rocky's head shifted in its sleep and curled around, coming to rest squarely on Cole's foot.
Oh, just peachy.