A Touch of the Master's Hand

Dueling Storms

This really had to suck, didn't it?

The worst day was turning into the worst days of his life. Even worse than when they had to go through that horrible adventure to go get the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon that didn't really do anything even if it did in the end bring Garmadon to his senses enough to give up his criminal life to be Lloyd's dad. This was worse than that adventure because A: he did not know what the goal was anymore, B: he had no idea where Lloyd, Kai and Cole were, C: even if he did know where they were, Lloyd was probably still in danger of dying from some horrible poison, D: at any moment those monkeys could show up and poison any of the others including himself, E: he was starving and alone and it was up to him alone to find something to eat. Most of all though, was F: Besides the fact that at this point it all depended on him, in survival skills or anything by himself he would be graded an "F" and he knew it. Zane knew it, and Nya certainly knew it.

Jay sighed miserably.

Hunting had ended in dismal failure even with Zane's bow and arrow. He just got too nervous to fire without tripping up or making too much fuss so that the animal ran away. At least, he had found something to eat, though. It was not much, and he still was not sure how they were going to split it or even if it was a good idea to have taken it if they did not eat it right away, but it was better than nothing. Besides, he was not good at making decisions under pressure.

That is, with people counting on him even if being hungry did not help matters either. It was rare that anyone ever had to count on him. Not since the old days before they all decided to go to school again, and so much had changed since then. The world was so much more complicated than when he was a little boy.

Besides, now more than ever, he felt that he had gone backwards in courage and strength instead of forwards.

He reached the canyon and made his way down more dexterously than he had on his way up. Nya and Zane had not even noticed how close he was in the canyon's brush before he was close enough to overhear. He had made it just in time to hear Nya say that Jay had been gone too long, as a matter of fact.

"We gotta go find him, Zane," she said. "We shouldn't've let him go alone."

Nya was right to think of him as nothing more than a baby. While the grownups were hurt they still had to worry about the baby, after all. Slowly he was a little angry, but it was only at himself.

He should not be that way. He knew that he could do better if he tried hard enough, but why wasn't he? What was keeping him down?

Although, he had stopped quite abruptly upon hearing Nya even suggest that she would go look for Jay in her condition with heart in his mouth, he quickly marched onto the scene shortly after Nya had finished.

"Jay!" cried Nya when she saw him. She winced as she moved on her ankle funny.

She had not even been able to stand up straight yet, and she quickly sat back down from her impulsive movement at Jay's approach.

Jay's determined scowl slipped away, and he grinned nervously after looking at Nya with worry.

"Hi, guys," he said with a weird little titter. "I got breakfast. Or, uh, lunch. Or whatever time it... is."

"Time for... tzzt, tzzt, exploding," said Zane.

Jay sighed. "Yeah... sorry it took so long."

"Where'd you get that?" asked Nya pointing to the large egg that Jay carried.

"Uh... in a nest," said Jay.

It was a pretty large egg, Jay had to admit. Larger than an ostrich egg, and there were no ostriches on Ninjago Island since those few escaped from Ninjago City Zoo after a Garmadon attack, but the Secret Ninja Force had long ago recaptured them all.