Roots of Earth ~ A Ninjago Fanfiction

Chapter 73: "Only Us"

(Artwork by SmirkyCat)

Except Liana couldn't sleep. She'd listened to the sound of Eagle Talon and Cole's breathing as they'd gradually slowed into slumber. The girl shivered and wrapped herself tighter in the sleeping bag.

Before, Liana had loved listening to the sound of night. When her parents were still alive, she'd open the window of her bedroom and just listen, sometimes falling asleep on the window seat. In a way, the world was more alive at night; insects chirped and sang. Frogs cheeped and croaked. The leaves of trees rustled and whispered in the breeze. The house would creak like an old man on his cane. A horse might snort from the barn, a neighbor's dog might bark, or a pair of cats would yowl and screech their high-pitched songs in the alleys within the sleepy village.

Now she no longer looked forward to resting in bed with the covers pulled up to her face and listening to crickets chirp or the Bounty creak in its place. The time of night now held something else for her.

Fear.

Ever since the night she and the ninja had escaped the bandits' palace, horrible visions of violence and pain had visited Liana in her dreams, over and over again. More vivid and realistic than any childhood nightmare had ever been, this curse of the Dark Sleep plagued her for night after night. It seemed that as soon as she rested her head upon her pillow, she jolted awake in a cold sweat and her heart pounding heavily in her chest.

They wouldn't go away... they never went away. They came back every night, like leeches feeding on her. The more fear she felt, the stronger the nightmares became. The voice of Raven Frost accompanied almost every vision. She always awoke expecting to hear his voice hiss again from the corners of her room or to feel his claws running teasingly down her throat.

The arrival of nighttime no longer felt the same. Someone commenting on the time with "It's late, time for bed" now felt like a death sentence. Every night she dreaded falling asleep, and every night she awoke with a scream threatening to break free.

Tonight, she just couldn't bear the thought of sleeping and allowing her mind to become vulnerable to assault by Raven Frost. Somehow the experience of her nightly horrors were made twice as terrifying when she learned that the werecat sorcerer was deliberately trying to break her mind and take control of her. How the heck does Matilda think I'm supposed to fight him off and sleep by myself?

Liana sat up with a long sigh. There was no breeze in the cool air. Not even the sound of tiny snowflakes sinking into the ground reached her ears. It'd stopped snowing. She shifted and felt the grass around her bedding crunch; the blades were frozen with frost and a thin layer of snow.

For a little while she sat there indecisively. Her arms were bare to the night air, but to her surprise, it wasn't quite as cold as she thought it would be. At last she tossed away the covers and got up.

The thin surface of frost and snow crunched quietly beneath her soft-soled boots. She knew beforehand that they were surrounded by trees, so she reached out her hands and prepared to brush boughs out of the way. Wet snow and icy needles met her fingers.

She didn't know where she was going. She just wanted to get away—to walk, to breathe in the fresh air, to just get away.

The trees ended abruptly—she knew because she had her arms stretched out to feel the boughs, and suddenly she couldn't feel them anymore. The ground was now even and clear of foliage and fallen sticks beneath the frost. It felt as if she'd left the shelter of the trees and had stepped into a great space. No sound, no presence hinted at more trees, rocks, or anything surrounding her. Warily, she wondered if she was standing on the brink of a massive gorge.