The Master of Dragons

Chapter 11

                Daniella bounded up the steps to the library, filled with excitement. Her first fight with a demon had not gone awry and she wanted to share the story with her grandmother. With a smile, she opened the door and stepped inside as she willed her staff away. Her grandmother appeared in the center of the grand entrance hall with a warm smile on her face.

"You two worked so well as a team," she complemented, slowly floating towards them.

"You could see us?" Daniella asked, stopping in her tracks.

"Yes. My soul may be tied to the library, but I can still venture to the edge of the village if I want to, though no one can see me," her grandmother answered.

"Did I do well?" Daniella asked, clasping her hands behind her back.

"For your first fight, you did exceptionally well," she commended.

"Well, it wasn't my first fight with a demon," Daniella corrected.

"You have fought a demon before?"

"Yeah, right before I arrived. It was massive and ugly, and it tried to take the staff from me. I acted more on instinct than anything else."

"I see," the older woman replied, thinking thoughtfully to herself.

"But it was the first time that Lotus and I have fought a demon together," Daniella added happily.

"You both did really well," Lao Lao replied with a smile. Lotus purred in pride as she sat by Daniella's legs. The blonde bounced on the balls of her feet as she beamed herself. Lao Lao nodded and started making her way back into the Library.

"Come, we must get you a journal to recount both your first and second demon encounters," she said as she floated through the open doors. Daniella looked down at Lotus in confusion before looking back up.

"A journal?" Daniella asked, bounding behind her grandmother to catch up.

"Yes, every Purple Ninja is given a journal to record their demonic encounters for future ninja to reference when they are in need," the older answered, standing in front of two doors. Daniella stood at the door, looking to her grandmother for permission. Lao Lao nodded. Daniella placed her hand on the two doors, causing them to swing wide open.

      Inside were shelves of leather-bound journals, each one worn in different places. Daniella gasped as she took in the scene in front of her. Daniella walked inside the room with Lao Lao and Lotus on her heels as she gently slid her hand down one of the shelves. Daniella looked at a shelf, deep in thought, before turning around to face her grandmother.

"But Lao Lao, if there have been generations of Purple Ninja before us, why would there still be a need for the current Purple Ninja to record their encounters. Surely all of the demons have been discovered, have they not?"

      The older woman chuckled under her breath before floating in the direction of a particular shelf. Daniella followed behind her, taking a closer look at the shelves that they were heading towards. Lao Lao stopped, waving her hand towards the shelves, motioning for Daniella to take one of the shelf. Daniella reached for a random journal and opened it to a random page. On it, a picture of the smoke demon that she had just faced in the village. Beneath it was a short description of how the owner of the journal had defeated it.

"When I faced a smoke demon, or a Shurandian as they are called, I used a massive wind gust to dissipate it's body, not fire," Lao Lao explained with a smile as Daniella slowly looked up from the journal.

"This journal is yours?" Daniella asked in awe, looking back down at it.

"This whole shelf is, and the one behind it. Sometimes how one Purple Ninja defeats a demon won't work for the next Purple Ninja. We write things down so that the future Ninja have something to reference if they are ever in a bind. Not all your battles will be quick like the previous two."