It's Wednesday and I can take a rest and not have to study my butt off like I have been for the past two days. Feels good.

"Devourer Timeline" yay.

Chapter Six: Confusion

Running.

Buildings flew past her, the neon lights practically blinding. At first, she did not recognize where she was. She had not made it this far in her journey yet. The city was a good ways away, at the end of the desert. Her legs carried her down the street and her breathing was labored. Sneaking a glance back behind her, she found nothing, but uneasiness filled the air around her. Why was she running? Why was she here? There were sounds of metal hitting metal all around her and she ducked underneath something she could not see, keeping her pace steady. What was happening?

"Over here," called out a strong voice. She glanced up, noticing a person she had not previously seen, running across the rooftops, keeping pace with her. He was clothed in red, his eyes full of worry. She opened her mouth to say something, but decide against it. She needed her oxygen for breathing, not speaking. Besides, she did not know this person. Then again, she felt like she did know him. "You're almost there! Keep going! We'll get you out of this!" The familiar stranger's words of encouragement sent a rush of adrenaline through her body and she surged forward, feeling the wind against her face.

Something halted her progression through the city. A strong force wrapped itself around her body, pulling her backwards. Feeling her breathing quicken, she glanced around, noticing nothing around her. The invisible force was unrelenting as she struggled against it, feeling her feet slide backwards along the dark asphalt of the street. "H-Help," she shouted, looking for the man on the rooftop, but he was no longer there. "Somebody, please!" She was more scared of where this thing was going to take her than the fact she had no idea what was going on.

"Don't worry," said another voice. She glanced around, frantically searching for the person who this voice now belonged to. It sounded very familiar and her heart ached terribly at the words. The fear and uneasiness seemed to drain from her body as she just gave up. The voice was telling her she should not worry and it sounded like it knew what it was talking about. "We will find you and we will get you."

Laurie could feel her body trembling terribly as she finally regained consciousness. The shaking was radiating pain from her left ankle and she gritted her teeth against it. She remembered now, tripping the night prior. Continuing to hope that the bone was not actually broken, the teenager dragged herself up off of the sandy ground and into a sitting position. Every muscle in her body continued to convulse and Laurie inhaled deeply. Why as she shaking so badly? As her eyes scanned across the sand hopping about around her, the walls of her makeshift shelter quickly trickling downwards, she realized something. She was not shaking.

The ground was.

Fumbling around for her knapsack, Laurie struggled to get a proper grip on the straps. Something rumbled in a close proximity to the city and she felt her body freeze up on her. No, snap out of it. You want to get out of this? Then move! Finally managing to sling the knapsack over her shoulders, Laurie jumped to her feet, stumbling forward. Oh yeah…my ankle. How was she going to move quick enough to find shelter from this earthquake? Holding her breath as she decided to just try and make a run for it, Laurie winced as she barely made any progress across the dry sand. She had really messed up her ankle. There was no doubt about that now.

Muffled growling and screeching erupted from somewhere Laurie could not pinpoint. The sounds seemed to echo out of the large hole that sat nestled in the middle of the ancient city. "What in Ninjago is that?" the girl barely whispered, feeling an unwanted tear slowly slip down her pale face. Without being consciously aware of it, Laurie wiped her face with the back of her hand, mixing sand with the salty liquid. The sound grew louder and the shaking underneath of her body began to become more violent. Feeling immobilized by her injury, Laurie just stayed down in the sand. What else could she do?

The ground beneath her began to rise suddenly, throwing the girl off balance. Using her hands, she grabbed on to whatever was in front of her, attempting to keep herself upright. Exhaling in relief, Laurie opened her eyes, not realizing she had actually closed them to begin with. A smooth and cold surface was what lay underneath of her hands; the color of the object a sickly green color. Her heart seemed to cease beating in her chest as she recognized what she was holding. Scales. Very large scales. Glancing over to her right slowly, Laurie realized she was very high in the air, the ancient city below her slowly shrinking in size. And she was holding onto a snake. A very large snake.

All of the aspects of her current situation seemed to overload her brain. Laurie felt incapable of actually processing what was happening around her. In a surge of anger, the godly serpent threw its head back quickly. Laurie, terrified of the creature, relinquished her hold on it, thankful to be away from it. The air around her whipped by quickly as the magnitude of the creature she had held on to became apparent. It was the largest thing she had ever seen in her life. Her mother would have loved to take a look at. Then something else became apparent to the red head. I'm still falling…

"There it is! Try and aim for the weak spot!"

A voice erupted from somewhere close, barely audible over the roaring of the serpent. Laurie closed her eyes, feeling really tired and finally noticing how weak she was. When was the last time she had eaten something? As if on cue, her stomach let out a horrendous noise and started burning. Her vision wavered slightly and she felt lightheaded. Laurie had been operating on adrenaline since she had been awakened by the sudden "earthquake". Now it was all starting to wear off. "Wait, look at that. There was someone up there! Can you get them? They're falling!"

Yup, I'm still falling.

The sound of a revved engine erupted from seemingly nowhere and Laurie felt her back hit something with a great force, the air expelling from her lungs quickly. "Oops, sorry about that," apologized a voice. Through extremely blurry vision, the girl could only make out the fact that the person who had her had closely cut hair. "You're gonna be okay now, I promise." She tried to open her mouth to thank this person. To tell him that she appreciated his help, but Laurie could feel her consciousness slipping again. The stranger gave a nervous sound and gripped her shoulder with a strong hand. "Whoa, hang on, okay? Laurie?"

"She's okay, right? She fell pretty hard into your jet."

The sounds around her were beginning to grow clearer and Laurie tried to sit up. Something guided her back down and she opened her eyes to see a guy clothed in red resting both hands on either of her shoulders. "Take it easy, okay? We had a friend of ours kind of look over you and you're a little worse for wear." That voice. It sounded really familiar. "What were you doing in the desert in the first place?"

"K-Kai?" her lips parted gently as she said the first word that came to her mind. It seemed to still the atmosphere around them. "I was just walking around. I-I'm looking for my brother and my father." A strong cough racked her body and she felt her shoulders heave violently. Someone else, a guy clothed in blue, fumbled for a glass of water that was sitting idly on a table nearby and shakily handed it to Laurie. She took the cup carefully and propped herself up on her right elbow, gulping the drink down in seconds. "Where am I?"

The red guy continued to stare, his light brown eyes wide. "How did you know my name?"

What? Laurie blinked slowly, trying to wrap her head around the stranger's words. "I don't know your name. I've never even met you before." Her tone was soft and quiet. The blue guy gave his partner a nervous glance before resting his hazel eyes back on the red head. "Yeah, I don't know either of you, but…" Her ice blue eyes fell back upon the guy with the auburn hair. "You knew my name. How did you know that?"

His mouth opened and he stuttered nonsense for a moment before collecting himself. "I do not know your name. This is the first time we've ever spoken: right now." The attention being solely on him was usually comforting, but at this time it felt very unsettling. He did not know this girl. He had never seen her before in his entire life. "Yeah, you and me, we're complete strangers, but you seem to know my friend over here," he smirked lightly, slinging an arm around his brother's shoulders.

She did not know him. She did not know either of them. "No, I don't know your friend," Laurie stated plainly, watching as the disgruntled brunet shook his friend off of him. There was something about him though, something that Laurie could not place her finger on. A tinge of heat dotted her cheeks and she reached up to feel her face. She was blushing? Why was she blushing? "Like I said before, I don't know either of you, which still doesn't explain how you knew my name." Laurie could see the frustration in his eyes and he opened his mouth quickly to protest. As quick as lightning. Lightning. She shook the random thought from her head as she cut the guy off before he could speak. "I don't care what you say now because I know what you said. I heard it. You said my name before I passed out."

"There's no use talking about this anymore. This is Jay and I'm Kai," the red guy interrupted, crossing his arms over his chest. "Of course you already knew that," Kai mumbled underneath of his breath. "And you are, who now?"

Her dry throat screamed in protest as she answered. "I'm Laurie." Both eyes scanned the room slowly, trying to figure out her surroundings. The room they were in was not large. Maybe enough room for two or three other people to fit comfortably. It almost appeared to be like a room someone could rent at an inn. Wait a second. "Where exactly am I?" The structure of the building just seemed familiar, like she had recently seen something like it.

"We brought you to Jamanakai Village," Jay answered, a large smile on his face. "It was the closest place to us and you really needed someone to look at you, especially your ankle." He watched as she propped herself up further, stretching her neck to try and look at her legs. "You won't be able to see it from underneath your pants, weirdo." Laurie's brow furrowed in annoyance and frustration at his words, but he only shrugged. "Don't worry about it though. Our friend took a look at it and patched it up. I wouldn't walk on it for a little while if I were you though. The sprain is pretty bad."

So the bone had not broken. Thank goodness. "Jamanakai Village?" she asked, resting her head in her hands for a brief moment. "I was traveling away from here. I-I didn't want to come back. Now I have to get back out to the desert and-"

"You're not gonna go anywhere for a while," Kai butted in. His expression seemed almost grave as he continued. "You're really dehydrated and, like Jay said, you should try and stay off your feet for a little bit." He could see the defeat plain on Laurie's face and felt somewhat bad for her. Of course, she was the one who had been out by herself in the desert to begin with. "I don't think you realize how lucky you are to be alive right now. That fall you took could have seriously injured you, possibly even killed you. If that hadn't done you in, the Devourer would have."

She felt her eyes widen. "Whoa, wait a second. You said the 'Devourer'?" her voice rose an octave as she pronounced the last word in the question. Kai nodded in response and Laurie just held up a hand. "As in the 'Great Devourer'?" Once more, the spiky haired brunet only gave a nod as a response, his expression turning to one of slight confusion. No, this could not actually be happening. It was just a fairy tale. It was just a thing she had read about in some of her mother's mythology books. "The Great Devourer is just a myth. It's only a legend."

Jay felt his face fall slightly and he laid a hand down on the girl's shoulder as he spoke. "Well, that legend almost killed you today."

Oh my gosh I'm going to take the longest nap ever when I get back from my Chemistry class later. -_-

Thanks for reading and reviewing and just being awesome. Yay. See you next week!