Roots of Earth ~ A Ninjago Fanfiction

Chapter 32: A Point of View

It took a while for the human travelers to settle down and fall into an uneasy sleep around the smoking embers of the campfire. Eagle Talon lay away from them, still and silent as stone. His dark tabby stripes melted into the midnight shadows as one, and he was a single black silhouette, save for his glimmering feline eyes. His belly was full, he was relatively warm, and now that the humans were asleep he felt relatively safer and rather drowsy. He was snugly curled up among the long grasses, and he was preparing to drift off to sleep when his half-sister's scent wafted to his nose.

The tom lifted his head and watched the small calico approach from the forest. She was running her tongue over her muzzle, and from the scent of freshly-killed prey Eagle Talon knew that she had just finished eating. Little Leaf padded idly over to him and sat down beside him among the weeds. Wrapping her ginger and black-tipped tails neatly over her paws, she sat down on her haunches and began to wash herself.

Hearing her rasping her tongue over her paw and run it across her muzzle had a familiar, soothing effect on Eagle Talon. With a small sigh the tom rested his head on his paws and shut his eyes.

"I thought they knew about the Red Battle," Little Leaf's voice stirred him out of his drowsiness.

He blinked his eyes open blearily. "What?"

"Them. Lloyd and Cole and Nya and all the rest." He looked up to see Little Leaf wearing a thoughtful expression. "I thought they'd known about what their kin did."

"Whoa. Whoa, whoa." Eagle Talon shifted in his in seat, blinking away sleep. "You've already memorized their names?"

"I can't remember all of them, of course," she retorted. "But, yes. I mean, Lloyd and I traveled together for at least three days, so that's only natural, and I rather like saying their names. Because 'Cole' makes me think of 'coal', 'Wu' makes me think of 'whoo-hoo', 'Zane' makes me think of 'insane', and stuff like that. Why?"

Eagle Talon's two tails began to twitch slowly, back and forth. "Little Leaf," he said slowly. "You'd better not be becoming... attached to these humans."

Little Leaf swung her head and met his stern gaze. "What are you talking about? You're the one who guided them through the mountains and helped them rescue the Son of Lightning!"

"That wasn't my idea! That was because they caught me and forced me to do it!" He sputtered indignantly, "Look, we made a deal: I help them rescue the Son of Lightning, and they'll give me a moonstone."

"They have one of the moonstone pieces?" Little Leaf's ears pricked up.

"One of their friends do—at least, that's what the Daughter of Water says." His sentence ended in a growl. "She could be lying, the snake-tongued vixen—all of them."

Little Leaf shook her head. "They don't strike me as liars. At least, Lloyd doesn't."

"All right, again with the trusting thing." Eagle Talon's whiskers twitched irritably. "That's your problem, Leaf. You're way too gullible. Humans are natural liars. It's in their blood."

Before she could protest, Talon continued earnestly. "Little Leaf, listen to me, please. You're not safe here. We have no idea what these humans will do, and you could get hurt. Go back to the caves. Raven Frost told me about you running off. The whole tribe's worried sick about you! You can slip away tonight and get home safely before any of the humans can catch you."

"The tribe's not worried about me," Little Leaf muttered rebelliously, looking away from her half-brother. "They don't give a rat tail about what happens to me."

Eagle Talon paused and regarded her with concern. "Yellow Wing and Fox Bark don't still pick on you for being my sister, do they?"

Little Leaf didn't answer. She suddenly found the grass at her paws quite fascinating to scrutinize.