“Where’s Little Leaf?” Eagle Talon found himself staring into the accusing face of Lightning Streak. Her white and ginger fur bristled uneasily while her forked tails twitched low. The pretty female stood before him anxiously, waiting for an answer. Talon swallowed and forced himself to reply. It was the first time he’d spoken to anyone since the end of his and Black Blood’s duel against Cole earlier that afternoon. His voice felt rough against his throat as he responded, “She’s with the ninja.” Lightning Streak’s ears pricked forward. “The ninja? Why?” Talon scanned his surroundings uneasily. The Moon Tribe army were back in their underground home, arriving just as the pale moon was rising. Now the cats were dispersing among one another, melting into the crowd of elders, mothers, and young cats waiting for them. Mates purred and nuzzled each other happily while their kits squealed and wound about their parents’ legs with excited mewling. More family members greeted one another with exclamations of relief and gladness. Several warriors shifted into their pale human forms and volunteered to take care of the weapons everyone had carried into battle, so that they’d be collected and returned to their respective caverns where the tribe kept their weaponry and supplies. The majority of the reunion took place in one of the larger main caverns near the entrance tunnel. It was there Eagle Talon, who had been intending to slip away from the crowd unnoticed to find something to eat, ran into Lightning Streak. Talon double-checked the activity of the crowd around them. Satisfied that there were no eavesdroppers, he finally answered his tribe-mate’s question. “Because she wanted to.” Lightning Streak looked startled. “You mean… she really did run away?” Talon hesitated, trying to determine whether or not to confess Little Leaf’s claim that Black Blood had attempted to destroy her, which led to Little Leaf fleeing and joining the ninja for her own protection. He replied, “Kind of. I mean, yes— yeah. She— she decided that her place was with the Sons and Daughters.”
Lightning Streak opened her mouth, but Talon stalled her. “Look, can we not talk about this now? Or at least right here? I don’t want anyone else to hear this. And I’m hungry,” he added. “Of course,” Streak murmured, lashing her tails. “You can tell me while you eat.” She turned and led the way to the food pile. He huffed. “Couldn’t you wait until after I ate…?” Reluctantly, he dragged a rabbit out of the shallow dip in the stone floor at one end of the cavern. He saw Lightning Streak crouch down at the the base of one large stalagmite away from the other cats, and he joined her. Sitting together with the rabbit behind the rock formation, the two cats were somewhat sheltered from any potential observers. “Didn’t you find her?” Lightning Streak demanded in a low hiss. Talon gave her an irritable look. Deliberately, he held his rabbit between his claws, bent his head down and took a nice, long bite, pushing past the fur to get to the juicy meat. He kept his eyes on her as he ate. She looked back at him, and he voiced a brief soft growl. The growl was more out of an eating habit than fear she was going to try to steal his food. “Well?” she prompted again. Talon swallowed his bite and voiced a small sigh of relief. It’d been a while since he’d eaten. He had no idea how hungry he was until now. “I did find her. She was with the ninja. She didn’t want to come back. So I left her with them.” Streak’s blue eyes widened in disbelief. “You just— left her?” Talon forced himself to feign nonchalance. “I tried to persuade her to come home. But she insisted on staying. And the ninja probably wouldn’t be very happy if I’d tried to take her by force. So I left her with them. She’s happier that way—at least for now.” Streak’s expression was incredulous. She lashed her tails furiously. “There’s more to the story than that. There’s got to be. I know you care more than that.” “You don’t know me.” “I’m your tribe-mate.” “So what?”
“Talon,” Streak snapped. “Little Leaf may complain sometimes, but she loves her home. She’s loved here. I love her like a sister. I know there’s no way she’d just run off with those toms without a good reason.” “There are females, too,” Talon muttered. His whiskers twitched in amusement at the thought of Nya blustering angrily at the implication that the ninja team consisted only of boys. “Talon, tell me. If it’s a secret, I promise I won’t go blabbing it around to the tribe.” Streak shifted forward, forcing him to look at her. “Please. She’s my friend.” The two cats held each other’s gazes for a few moments. Then, quietly, Talon murmured, “She said that Black Blood tried to end her. That’s why she ran away. To escape.” Streak’s eyes widened. She inhaled sharply, gasping, “Ancestors save us…” “It’s mouse-brained,” he muttered, taking another bite from his rabbit. “She’s not right in her mind.” A weight slammed into his head, shoving his face into the rabbit. His ear rang with pain. He yanked his head up with a loud growl. “What the—?!” “What is wrong with you?!” He looked up to see Lightning Streak standing over him, bristling angrily and glaring at him, ears flattened against her head. Both tails lashed as she spat, “Why are you acting like you don’t care?! She’s your sister! She told you Black Blood tried to end her, and—what—you don’t believe her?” “She’s young,” he hissed. “Easily mistaken. She doesn’t know Black Blood. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Her head’s been in the clouds ever since she snuck away on that one patrol that found Ll— the Son of the First.” “Your head’s in the clouds, Eagle Talon!” she cried. “You’re one of the most annoyingly overprotective big brothers there ever was in the tribe. Suddenly Little Leaf’s on the humans’ side just as we’re on the brink of war, and for no reason at all you don’t care? What happened to you?”
For a long moment Talon didn’t respond. He only glared up at her, flexing his claws in and out as he resisted the urge to leap up and scratch her nose. At length he growled, “She’s ten and five seasons old. She’s capable of making her own decisions.” “She hasn’t even earned her full name! Just last season you were telling her to stay in the nursery when that bear was loose!” Streak sputtered. “I can see right through you. Why are you acting like you don’t care?” There was no hiding it from Lightning Streak. Talon twisted his face into a scowl and looked away from her prying gaze. “Sometimes it’s easier not to care. Especially when it’s about something you can’t change. Why waste your heart crying about it?” Steak fell quiet. After a few seconds, Talon risked a glance up at her face. She was staring at him with a strange expression. She eventually whispered, “When did you become so cold?” “I became cold when the world did, and that was a long time ago,” Talon snorted. He looked away again, determined not to meet her shocked gaze. “She’s gone, and that’s that. So just leave me alone.” A long, frozen silence followed his bitter words. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Streak’s white paws trembling—whether with outrage or hurt, he couldn’t tell. Finally, without a word, she turned and walked away. Talon ignored her, instead turning back to his rabbit. Suddenly, he was furious. Another long, low growl escaped his throat, and he sank his teeth and claws into his meal. He ate as if it were the rabbit’s fault for all that had happened in the past month. He didn’t want to think about Little Leaf. He didn’t want to think about her being with the ninja—especially Lloyd. He didn’t want to think about the horrible battle that had taken place just hours previously. He didn’t want to think about Cole’s face when he’d pleaded with Talon, his voice a pitiful croak against the sound of falling rain and distant thunder.
They’d just left him there—broken. Lying there in the grass, alone to the wind and rain. Black Blood had not been kind in her victory. As if that weren’t enough, she’d taunted him, threatening his friends and loved ones, and declaring how ending him would have been a far greater mercy than letting him live to watch it all play out… Talon shook his head angrily. Don’t think about that! “Eagle Talon!” To his relief, someone called for him, distracting him from the sickening thoughts. Reluctant still to leave his meal, he stood up and exposed himself. Venturing out toward the center of the cavern, he saw the crowd of his tribe-mates had thickened, with many shifting into their nekomata or human forms. They milled about something beyond his sight, murmuring and hissing urgently to each other. Talon tensed. The cats typically reverted to their nekomata or human bodies when they felt the need to make themselves look bigger, feeling threatened or wary. Usually, when the tribe members were shifting into their larger forms in the safety of the caves, it was because a prisoner had been brought out. Matilda. Sure enough, Black Blood stood in the very center of the crowd, calling to him. She stood in her human form. “Eagle Talon!” “I wanna eat,” he muttered, just barely beneath his breath. He walked over to her promptly enough, yet still he felt irritable. “Is that too much to ask? I haven’t eaten all day. I just want to eat.” He pushed himself through the crowd, though most of them stood aside to let him pass. “I swear, if someone eats all the rabbit there is left by the time I get back, I’m gonna—” He stopped. He stood at the fringe of the crowd in the center of the meeting cavern, and there he saw what everyone was crowding around about. His stomach sank.
One of the sorcerers had freed Matilda from the paralyzing spell, only to have her feet and arms tied together and a gag wrapped over her mouth. The woman balanced awkwardly on her knees before the thick circle of Moon Tribe warriors. Most of the mothers and kittens had backed away from the hubbub, bristling nervously whilst the rest of the felines growled and jeered in low tones. Matilda looked small and vulnerable, trapped by her bonds and surrounded by malicious enemies. Black Blood stood before Matilda, smiling sardonically. Her wounds left extra holes in her outfit and stained her face and arms in scratches and bruises, and her long black hair, usually so sleek and glossy, fell in a muddy disarray around her face. Yet the Moon Tribe leader held herself just as proudly as ever. Perhaps she was one of the few creatures who enjoyed the sting of pain and used its bite to drive them onward to their most vicious desires. Black Blood looked up and smiled gleefully when she saw her brother approaching. That smile made Eagle Talon’s stomach sink even more. Her smile is always someone else’s grimace, he thought darkly to himself. “Behold,” Black Blood announced loudly. She let her voice ring proudly against the walls of the vast cavern, grabbing the attention of her already-captivated audience, before continuing. “Before you we have an enemy; one of the most dangerous opponents once feared by the Tribe of the Moon. Known as a liar, a spy, a murderer, and a Sister of Darkness who uses magic that’s unlike our own Seven Sorcerers’—” she finally gestured to the figure crouched awkwardly on the ground, “—Matilda Ravencroft, one of the allies for the Sons and Daughters. Now defeated, humiliated, and Broken Fang’s prize to our tribe.”
A great chorus of triumphant yowling rang shrilly throughout the cavern. Cats in differing forms threw back their heads to voice their victory. Black Blood smiled broadly at her audience, and cast a satisfied look at the sorcerers who stood behind in in a neat, orderly row: Broken Fang, Rip Claw, Lion Claw, Sky Pelt, and Raven Frost. Unlike the rest of the crowd, the sorcerers only stood together silently in their dark cloaks eyeing Matilda coolly, although Raven Frost wore a nasty sneer on his black and white-furred face. Black Blood looked back at her tribe, then threw back her own head and cackled happily. Eagle Talon couldn’t find it in him to cheer alongside his tribe-mates. He only stood there awkwardly among them, feeling uncomfortable and wondering why Black Blood had summoned him to the front. He stared down at the ground and tried to ignore all the noise thundering on. He didn’t want to look at Matilda. Eventually, the cheering died down. Black Blood had finally raised her white hands up for silence, and the tribe quieted into an expectant hush. When all that was left was an occasional murmur from the back of the crowd, she spoke again—and the words she spoke this time made Talon’s insides feel as if they’d been turned into ice. “This human—this thieving, lying Sister of Darkness—had for weeks been assisting the Sons and Daughters of the Elements in keeping our young warriors, Eagle Talon and Little Leaf, their own prisoners. She is the cause as to why they had not been able to return home for so long, before escaping,” Black Blood announced solemnly. “And she was the one to bewitch Little Leaf—to delude the young cat, barely out of kittenhood—to thinking the human world had something to offer her. That is why Little Leaf has mysteriously disappeared!” Eagle Talon inhaled sharply and stared at his sister. Black Blood had little to no idea that he and Little Leaf had stayed with the ninja for that period of time out of their own will, and Talon had told her they had been kept prisoner. This story she was telling the tribe checked out. Matilda bewitching Little Leaf and encouraging her to stay with the ninja, however—!
Talon was confused. Why would she say that? His mind raced, and he realized the reason: Little Leaf disappeared without a trace several days ago. Rumors were flying among the gossips that she had a thing for the ninja. The cats with common sense were adamant that Little Leaf was smarter than that. Yet how could anyone help it if someone, say a human witch, cast them under some sort of spell? The Moon Tribe regarded human sorcerers with fear and uncertainty. Everyone would be all too willing to blame Matilda for Little Leaf’s disappearance, and Black Blood’s story would only appear to be true when someone from the tribe eventually saw Little Leaf in battle fighting alongside the ninja. One drop of truth can sweeten the pot of lies, he thought to himself. He couldn’t help but feel slightly disgusted with Black Blood. What had happened to the code of honor and honesty their mother had taught them since kithood? The one he had boasted so proudly of to the ninja? Then his disgust evaporated in a sickening flash when his sister turned to him and said: “The time has come for our revenge. Eagle Talon, my brother—you were kept prisoner by the Sons and Daughters. You have fought through the challenges of this time with courage and loyalty. For that, it is only right that you are the one to end this.” Her white teeth and feline fangs flashed in a malicious smile. “I am giving you the honor of punishing the Sister of Darkness.” All eyes turned to him. Silence enveloped the room, and the massive cavern suddenly felt very small. Every cat in the room waited for his reaction with eager expectation. He knew they were all waiting for him to scream a cry of victory and lunge for Matilda with teeth and claws. Talon wished the floor would open up beneath his feet and swallow him whole. He wished he had stayed hidden behind the stalagmite with his dinner. He wished everyone would quit looking at him, that Black Blood would dismiss him, call the attention back to herself, and just get on with her own thing, whatever it was.
The silence was deafening. It rang in his ears, constricted his breathing. He could feel his blood pounding and his face heating up with it. Not knowing what to do with his hands, he tugged awkwardly at the fringes of his deerskin tunic. Stop looking at me! He wanted to yell at the hundreds of eyes staring at him. He wished he could just have a heart attack and drop right there and then. “Well, Eagle Talon?” A harsh voice jolted him back to the present, breaking that silence, though only to make it louder. Lion Claw stood alongside the another sorcerers, his yellow beard twitching in a sneer. “What are you waiting for?” Talon swallowed dryly. It took a few clumsy tries to find his voice before he was able to reply. “Y— you want me to…?” He drew one shaking finger across his throat and made a choking noise. Lion Claw’s yellow eyes gleamed with approval. Black Blood, however, shook her head. “Only if you believe it necessary, or if your lust for revenge is that strong.” She cast a contemptuous look at the figure sitting in the center of the room. “She’ll be of more use to us alive. I’d just love to cast the Dark Sleep on her.” At last, Eagle Talon forced his gaze to turn to Matilda. From her position on her knees, bent over the floor, she was looking at him. Her gray-streaked brown hair was scragglier. Her midnight-blue robes and green dress were torn nearly to shreds. Dark scratches stood out here and there on her skin alongside ugly bruises and splotches of mud. The few middle-aged wrinkles around her brown eyes looked longer and deeper, carved in with the edge of trauma. The dirty gag stuffed and tied around her mouth pinched and drew her face in. Yet, through her small, humiliated, haggard appearance, her eyes glittered with ferocity. Matilda stared back up at Eagle Talon unflinchingly. He looked back at her, and felt his skin prickle uncomfortably with an emotion like guilt. She didn’t seem notice or care about the young man’s discomfort. Her eyes were on him only. There was a challenge in her gaze.
“Go ahead,” Black Blood purred softly. Her green eyes lingered on Talon. He looked back at her, and wondered if there was a hint of a threat in her gaze when she said, “Justice is yours. Take it.” Eagle Talon’s mouth ran dry. He hesitated. A voice from the crowd hissed, “End her.” “No—tear off her ears,” another prompted. With rising eagerness, more voices joined in. “Make her change into her fake cat body, then end her as you would end prey!” “Scratch her face!” “Make her scream!” “She must suffer!” The clamor rose. The malevolent murmur spread from cat to cat and grew to a roar. Eagle Talon felt as if he were drowning in a raging sea, the voices of his tribe the waves threatening to destroy him. The sickening feeling in his stomach intensified. He couldn’t refuse. He couldn’t ask someone else to do it. He couldn’t simply turn around and leave. The attention of the audience was on him, making it his duty to bring on the show. His heart pounded in his ears. “Vengeance!” a voice called. “Vengeance!” others echoed eagerly. They began to chant, “Vengeance. Vengeance. Vengeance.” Talon sucked in his breath. Don’t think about it, he told himself. Just do it. Do it and get it over with. Then they’ll stop. They’ll have their fun. Just do it. He gritted his teeth. He shoved away the memories that kept throbbing, the ones that insisted on popping into his head at that moment, like an invisible force frantically protesting. He ignored that voice. What choice did he have? His heart froze and became ice. “Vengeance, vengeance, vengeance.” Talon closed his eyes. He focused and felt his body shift. Forked tails sprouted from his rump. Fingers and hands became paws. Claws revealed themselves from those paws. Dark tabby fur grew all over his body. A muzzle complete with thin whiskers morphed from his face. His rough tongue rasped over his jaws. He now opened his eyes, his nekomata form complete. While the faces of the Moon Tribe faded around him, the chanting roar felt louder than ever. It thundered in his ears, and for one moment, that heart of ice within him trembled. Yet he looked coldly upon Matilda.
She gazed back, expression impassive. She seemed resigned to her fate. There was no hint of fear in her eyes. She should be afraid. “Vengeance, vengeance, vengeance!” Eagle Talon threw back his head in a yowling roar worthy of a lion’s voice, but he barely heard it. The excited chanting shifted into a cheer. Talon bared his teeth and lunged for his prey. The shrieks of pain from his victim drowned out all else.
* * *
A shuddering gasp broke from Cole’s chest. His eyes flew open as he jerked on his back, startled. He could feel his pulse racing. Some already-forgotten nightmare had startled him awake. “Easy, son.” A cool, damp cloth was hastily applied to his head, in clumsy dabbing motions. A familiar voice murmured above his head anxiously, “You’re all right now.” Cole blinked several times, trying to clear the fuzziness from his vision. He tilted his head back on whatever surface he lay upon to see the speaker. “D— Dad?” Lou sounded relieved as he heaved a sigh. “How are you feeling, son?” Cole felt a little confused, but he took a moment to think about it. Suddenly, he was aware of many stinging, throbbing, and sore sensations coming from all over his body. “Lousy,” he groaned. Lou looked awkward, probably wishing he could think of a helpful response. During his father’s silence, Cole struggled against the wave of exhaustion threatening to overtake him again, instead trying to establish his surroundings. With a surprised jolt, he realized that he was lying atop his bed in the ninjas’ quarters, within one of the cabins of the Destiny’s Bounty. His father sat beside him in a chair while Cole himself lay on his back, head on a pillow. Judging by the shadows in the room and the two candles that were lit in there, evening was falling.
“What— what happened—?” Cole’s question ended with a startled gasp when he tried to sit up. His entire torso throbbed achingly. Needles of pain stabbed him from the stomach. Yet the greatest agony came from his shoulder. When he moved and tried to put weight on it, it fairly screamed in protest, shooting a hot, burning feeling like fire. Cole fell back trying to choke down the strangled cry he felt rising from his lips. “Easy,” Lou said again. “You’re hurt.” “No kidding,” Cole muttered. He moved his head so that he could catch a look down at himself. While his muddy boots and damp pants were still on, someone had removed his gear, his breastplate, gauntlets, shirt, and mask to replace them with hastily-wrapped bandages winding all around his chest. A thicker bandage was tied firmly around his left shoulder at the collarbone. Dark red splotches stained the bandages. He shivered in his otherwise bare torso. The temperature in the dimly-lit room was chilly, and he felt damp, like he’d been running around in the rain. He wished someone had at least thrown a blanket over him. “The others are out looking for Matilda.” Lou’s voice brought Cole’s gaze back to him. The older man tugged briefly on his mustache—a nervous habit of his. “She’ll be here soon, and you’ll be fixed up in a jiffy.” Like a sudden gust of wind, Lou’s words cleared away the sluggish fog in Cole’s mind. He remembered: the confrontation in Lou’s house. The invasion. The battle—and the defeat. Cole suddenly had many questions. He stammered weakly, trying to figure out which one to ask first. “The— the Moon Tribe. Black Blood, T— Talon. Did they—?” He searched his father’s face. “Did they… win?” Bit of a weird, random question, but he wasn’t sure which one he should have started with. Lou flinched at the name of his other two children. His gaze fell away from Cole’s. “No. The ninja beat them off, it seems. The townspeople are safe.” “Well, ah—” Cole licked his dry lips. “Good.” He hesitated, mentally stumbling to ask another question. “How—? How did I get here…?”
“We found you outside the town, after the cats had left,” Lou explained in a low voice. “Little Leaf went to get help, and Liana and Zane carried you here.” “What are you doing here?” His father looked at him with a note of confusion. “Why— to see how you’re doing, of course.” “Oh,” Cole mumbled faintly. Even though it had been a few years since he had somewhat healed the broken relationship between himself and his father, it still surprised him sometimes when Lou showed that he really cared. His dad was a man who, more often than not, expressed himself by hiding himself among his passions. Translating sentimental emotions was not a natural attribute of his, although Cole could tell lately that he’d been trying. Lou’s characteristics aside, Cole’s job as a ninja took him away from home more often than not, and it was becoming increasingly rare for him and his dad to get together even for an idle conversation, much less anything deep and meaningful. The faint distance between himself and his dad made any sentimental exchange feel uncomfortable and strange. Now the distance felt doubly awkward with the realization that Cole’s father had been in a relationship before his mother, and that relationship had produced two more children. Cole felt as if he ought to confront his dad about that issue—but what to say? Where did he want to take a conversation like that? Hey, I’m real glad to know I have a brother and sister now. Sure, they tried to end me and want to take over Ninjago, and they’re also shape-shifting werecats with magic powers, not to mention they’ve been kidnapping and torturing my friends, but I bet we’re all super-excited to get together and make up for lost time. Gee, how did you and Silver Mist the werecat decide to get together? Now was not the time for scathing sarcasm. The wounds—not just the ones that stained his bandages—were still too fresh. He needed some time to dwell on it all. He heaved a small sigh and laid his head back on the pillow. “Cole,” a familiar voice said in surprise.
Cole shifted back up—biting a grimace when his shoulder throbbed in protest—and looked past Lou’s shoulder toward the doorway. There, Liana was stepping through the threshold “You’re awake,” she exclaimed with a relieved smile. The uncomfortable weight in Cole’s chest eased at the sight of his friend. He granted a small smile as she neared the bedside. “I just woke up a moment ago.” She stepped into the candlelight, and he could see her pale ponytail fell in disarray around her face, damp with rain and mud splattered on her clothes from the boots to the waist. She still had her sight bow and arrows in their quiver strapped to her back and the nunchucks attached to her belt. Her eyes blinked tiredly against the glow of the candles. “How do you feel?” she asked tentatively. “Like I got beat up by a Serpentine and run over by a Grundle,” he groaned. Unexpectedly, she gave an abrupt laugh with some emotion like relief. “You’re OK. You’re OK.” She dropped by the bedside with a faint sigh. “You have no idea how worried everyone is. The way we found you, we thought you were…” Her voice trailed off. “It sure felt like I was,” he muttered. Liana hesitated, then sat up on her knees and reached out over the bedcovers. She groped for his hand and took it. “I’m glad you’re all right,” she murmured. Cole was surprised by the gesture, but felt warmed at her concern. He couldn’t hold back the little smile on his face as he squeezed her hand back. He looked into her pale face. “Thanks for carrying me back.” Liana’s lips quirked into a smirk. “You’re heavy. Did you know that?” She huffed, “I’ve met Clydesdales lighter than you. Just how much cake do you eat every day?” “Hey, now. It’s not my fault you’re a weak little beanpole,” he retorted, grin widening. She punched his right shoulder. “Ow!” He bit back a pained curse. “That could’ve been my bad side!” “But it wasn’t,” she shot back cheekily. During this exchange, Lou had been quietly watching the two of them. His gaze fell upon his son’s hand grasping the girl’s. A small, knowing smile alit his face.
Cole happened to glance over at his dad, and their eyes met. Lou raised his eyebrows at him with a small smirk. Cole suddenly felt self-conscious. His face flushed hotly, and uneasily he released Liana’s hand. She didn’t seem to notice. She only said, “‘Beanpole’? Call me a beanpole, will you? If you weren’t hurt right now, I’d show you just how much damage a beanpole can do…” “Liana? Is Cole awake?” Nya’s voice called from the hallway. “Awake enough to call me a beanpole!” Liana responded, still grinning. For some reason, the idea of being thought of as a beanpole amused her greatly. “Cole!” Nya stepped into the room, closely followed by Jay, Lloyd, and Wu. Nya immediately joined Liana’s side, smiling in relief. “You’re awake.” “He’s awake!” Lloyd exclaimed. “Brilliant deductions.” Cole rolled his eyes. Nya still looked him over with concern. “You look awful.” “Thanks. Where’s everyone else?” “My mom, Master Wu, Zane and Little Leaf are upstairs,” Lloyd explained, joining Nya. The space around Cole’s bed was beginning to get crowded. “After Jay, Nya, Skylor and I tracked down which direction the Moon Tribe warriors left, we decided we needed to get airborne. We didn’t know if you needed to be taken to the hospital—” “Hang on, hang on!” Cole interjected, waving one hand wildly. Did he hear that correctly? “Back up. Did you just say… Skylor?” “Hey.” Cole swung his gaze back toward the doorway and heard himself make an identifiable exclamation. There, leaning casually against the doorway, stood a familiar figure, wearing a strange uniform of blue and gray armor. Bright red hair fell all around her face. “But— wha—?” Cole sputtered, dazed. He blinked repeatedly and leaned forward, making sure that his eyes were working correctly. Am I seriously seeing who I think I’m seeing? He looked back at his friends and saw them all wearing amused smiles. “How?” he demanded. “I just decided to… drop in, you could say,” Skylor replied with a small smirk. “We didn’t see her,” Nya explained. “But she must have fallen into some portal back home. She just appeared right in the middle of the fight in the town.”
