A Touch of the Master's Hand

Monkey Got your Tongue

It was earlier than Cole woke, when Nya stirred to life. She let out a little moan. She could not help it. Her ankle hurt with a deep dull pain, and, the more her consciousness roused, the more acute it felt until she felt tears in her eyes. She sat up with a cry and fell back against the rock behind her for support.

She had been leaning on it funny, apparently, because now that it was straightened it felt more like it had before, but it was too late to take back the shout as it woke both Jay and Zane up.

"What!" cried Jay. "What's wrong!? What happened?!"

"Monsters over the bed!?" cried Zane.

"No," whimpered Nya. "Just my stupid ankle again."

"Are you okay?" Jay asked crouching near her.

Zane crept up on the other side trying to ignore the sudden sizzle in his brain. Sleep mode had done nothing to relieve his condition, and as they had surmised last night, that the canyon they had come out into had the same magnetic interference as the cavern tunnels had. Neither Nya nor Zane were in a condition to climb (much less ninja-leap) out of the canyon either. Neither Zane nor Jay had felt it a good idea to carry Nya out with risking further damage to her ankle. As it had been evening, they had decided to rest before they made another attempt in the morning to figure out what to do.

It was probably near morning now; though it was still very dark out.

Nya was far more worried about Zane than her ankle now as she turned to his blue eyes blinking in the darkness.

"Someone should get help, Nya," said Jay.

As the ankle throbbing subsided, Nya felt a more pressing matter than her wound and possibly Zane's condition.

"We should find something to eat first. It was harder to go to sleep hungry than it was to sleep on the ground."

"Oh, yeah..." Jay sighed. "Me too. I mean, the same. I mean..." Jay winced. "I understand."

"Yeah," moaned Nya.

Zane looked up at Jay with a very mechanical jerk. "The early bird tzt makes the coffee."

Jay winced. "Zane, I can't make breakfast with nothing... nothing to make breakfast with. I—I'm sorry."

"Are you sure you don't have anything left, Zane?" asked Nya.

"The bad neighbors knocked the table," said Zane sadly.

He had said something of the like yesterday too.

"Then..." Nya said with a wince as she turned back to Jay. "Then unfortunately, it's up to Jay."

Oh! That sounded bad. She did not mean to have such lack of faith in him, but even as she spoke Jay seemed to stiffen with sheer terror at the idea. She tried not to look irritated, but she knew that she did, so that on top of that Jay looked miserable too. She sighed and pretended it was about her ankle.

Jay did not seem to fall for it.

"But how am I gunna catch anything, and I don't know plants like Za—," Jay protested.

A sudden beautiful bow and quiver was thrust into his face in a very jerky manner. It had almost hit Jay in the face, and he fell over temporarily.

Nya rolled her eyes and moaned.

Quickly, Jay scrambled upright, though, and he smiled nervously at Zane.

"Thanks," he said; it was painful.

"Jay..." said Nya. "Are you gunna—"

"Yeah?"

"Are you gunna be okay?"