The echo of crickets chirping as birds sang their beautiful melodies were all that Aurora needed to hear. She closed her heterochromia purple eyes and leaned back. The smell of wyldberries reached her nose and Aurora opened her eyes, mouth watering at the thought of making a delicious pie for dessert that night.

She glided over to the bush, tracing her birch wood-hued fingers gingerly over the amber leaves of the plant. Closing her eyes once again, she felt the energy of the plant flow through her. The surge dancing in her veins like lightning; it tingled and pricked at her while the bush vibrated under her touch. In seconds, plump silver berries dropped to the ground, scattering around Aurora’s feet.

Aurora crouched, grabbing as many berries as she could, and placing them into the wooden basket in her right hand. Her smiled brightened and she stood up. A few feet from her stood her older brother, Jason Sharpe. Jason appeared to be staring off in the distance. Their hands moved gracefully, signing half-coherent words. Aurora rushed forward, touching their hands and looking into Jason’s gray eyes. Strands of ash-brown hair fell into their eyes as they looked to her.

“What is it?” Aurora asked.

Jason looked forward, nodding their head in the direction of their home. They pulled their hands free, signing once again. “Metal. Home not safe.”

Ever since Jason was little, they had shown signs of hearing things that weren’t there. They mostly came as warnings. Only Aurora ever believed them. Their parents… They saw Jason as some brat with schizophrenia, and that was a disservice to Jason’s abilities.

“Home, you say? Let’s go, Jace,” she said, taking their hand.

Jason looked into her eyes, a small smile forming on their lips. They squeezed her hand and nodded. They took off, dashing past the trees and brush. The further they ran, the louder the sounds became. Explosions and clangs of metal. Jason flinched and slowed down, grasped at their head. Aurora paused. Her lips parted as she noticed their headphones were on their shoulders.

“Jace, your headphones!” She rushed to their side and helped position their headphones back in place. “There,” she said soothingly.

Jason opened their eyes and looked at her. They signed, “Thank you.”

“Be mindful,” she reminded.

Aurora looked back toward their home. She took off running again, hoping that Jason was following behind. The sounds of a battle echoed through the trees. As she came racing to the edge of the forest, she saw a massive ship hovering above their tan house, an anchor dropped to the ground, tearing up part of the front porch. Much smaller metallic ships hovered in the air, shooting lasers at the main ship.

A group of people were fighting — whether on the ship or the land — slashing their swords or using some sort of power. Her eyes widened. She had heard stories of battles like this. They had been popular over in Ninjago City. She couldn’t remember their names or their group name, but she knew they fought to save lives.

A man clad in red slammed to the ground in front of her. He groaned, gripping his head as a roar above her raised her attention to spot a tiger leaping down from the deck of the ship. He landed a few feet from her, glowering at Aurora and the half-conscious man.

“You dare attack my home?” Aurora growled. She raised her hands, willing her hands to fill with energy. A bright white glow emitted from her as she arched an arm back and flung a white ball of light at the tiger. “I’ll show you the meaning of messing with my family!”

The tiger snarled, dodging the first blast and slashing at the next with a pink laser sword. The beam burst into a ray of sparks. “Try that again.”

Aurora huffed. Light wouldn’t win against such powerful objects.

A groan caught her attention. She looked down at the man, who sat up. He blinked his dark brown eyes.

“Th-thanks,” he said.

“Can you stand?” she asked.

He nodded. “So, you can use an elemental power?”

Flicking a beam of light toward a metallic ship, she wrapped it around the nose, yanking it toward the earth. The ship pushed harder on its thrusters as it began to nosedive.

“Does that answer your question?” she snapped, struggling to hold the ship in place.

The man rolled his eyes. He stood up and dusted off his shoulder. “Wasn’t trying to be a jerk. Just surprised.”

“Sure,” Aurora snarkily replied.

She tugged on the beam again, jerking with her other hand and causing more beams to rip from the ground and grasp the ship. The ship strained against the beams’ grasp, dipping lower and lower to the ground until it slammed down, an explosion erupting from the engine. The pilot inside scrambled out of the cockpit, letting out screams of terror. Aurora grinned. That was one less problem. Now, she needed only worry about the other threats in the area.

“Name’s Kai,” the man in red said.

Aurora looked him up and down. “Aurora,” she responded coldly.

“Sorry about your house,” Kai said, his fist flaming up. He threw a fireball at a ship, another explosion echoing in the area. It crashed to the ground, and Kai smirked.

“Did you drop that anchor on my home?” Aurora snarled. She placed her hands on her hips. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jason running up to her, signing something too rapid for her to make out.

“N-no. We got ambushed by Imperial soldiers traitors,” Kai explained. A couple of strange men wearing golden armor stalked forward. “And they don’t know when to quit.”

“Fine. Deal with them,” Aurora said, turning to her brother. “Jason, slow down. I can’t understand—”

Jason started re-signing, slower this time. “Score and Inch are hurt.”

Aurora’s face paled three shades. She took her eyes off Jason to look toward the back of the house. Score and Inch weren’t in sight. They had been the reason Aurora and Jason lived alone at the house. Ten years ago, their parents brought them to the cabin for a nice, relaxing vacation away from all the drama of Ninjago City. It seemed promising, at first. Then, came the dragons. They burst from a hidden cave deep within the canyon and their parents fled, leaving them behind. When their parents never returned, Aurora took that lesson to heart — people betray and they don’t care about anyone but themselves. While Jason struggled to adapt, Aurora took pleasure in taking care of the dragons, two of whom became like extra siblings to the duo.

“Go check on them. I’ll deal with these bastards,” Aurora told Jason. She touched their cheek. “Be careful.”

Jason nodded and ran to the back of the house. All that remained of the golden armored men and the ships were few in number. Not much longer. They could win.

Another man jumped down from the ship, this time in a strange orange outfit. She didn’t question his attire and welcomed his help as the armored men grew closer. Six to three. She liked those odds.

Curled her fingers into a claw, she twitched her head to the side. Waves of thorny light twisted from the ground and shot toward her enemies. One shrieked in terror, slashing down with his laser sword. The beam slithered back, swerving to go in an opposite direction.

From above, a man in green suit spun down to the ground, his hands glowing bright green. He glanced toward the men, a glint of mischief in his leaf green eyes. He shot off a few green energy blasts at the men, knocking them to the ground. Before Aurora to recall her light, one snagged around the green man’s ankle, hoisting him into the air. He cried out, surprise written on his face.

“Lloyd!” Kai called. He shot out a fireball, and the green man dropped to the ground, a squeak of pain escaping his lips. Kai swiveled to look at Aurora. “What were you thinking?”

“I… He came out of nowhere!” Aurora shot back.

“Fall back!” shouted the tiger.

The last of the men scattered back to the tiger. They hopped onto the few ships that were left. As the last ship left the area, Aurora sighed. She released her hold on the light. They were gone. Her home was safe. Though, she knew that was a lie. Before her stood the ruins of her home — destroyed by the combat that followed. She wanted to rewind time and fix everything before she lost it. Yet, she knew that was impossible.

The man in green stood up, gently rubbing his ankle where the thorny beam held him. With his other hand, he pulled back his hood to reveal a young man. Strands of tousled maple blond hair draped over his ears and reached past his chin. He grimaced at the pain in his ankle. Aurora bit her lip. That was on her. If she had known he was going to join the fight, she never would have harmed him.

“S-sorry,” Aurora said. She bowed her head. “I was aiming for those bastards when you got in the way.”

“No big deal. I’ve had way worse,” the man said, grimacing again.

Even with faking how serious it was, Aurora could only imagine how painful the thorns must have been.

Aurora let out a sigh. “Now, can you tell me why you were near my home in the first place?”
“Dragons,” Kai said.

“Yeah,” the man in orange piped up, pulling off his hood. “We saw the Imperial traitors heading this way, some mentioning dragons. We had to check it out.”

Crossing her arms over her chest, Aurora gaze narrowed at the dirt. “That means they were after Score and Inch.”

“You have dragons here?” the green man asked.

Aurora nodded. She pointed to the house, or what was left of it. “They live out back, near the canyon. Score and Inch are mates and have a clutch of eggs to defend. Though, they don’t have a home anymore.”

The men flinched. Because of their negligence, Aurora, Jason, and the dragons were homeless. And the eggs were at risk of dying without a den.

The green man nodded his head at the ship still hovering above. “We can take you all back to the Monastery. There’s caves underneath that house all the dragons we’ve saved. And I’m pretty sure that Wyldfyre would enjoy seeing some dragons hatch.”

“Mona-what now?” Aurora’s eyebrows furrowed. The word was new to her.

“It’s our home and a place where we train,” the green man explained. “I’m Lloyd.”

“Fine. But I have to tell Jason,” Aurora said.

“Jason?” Lloyd arched a chestnut-colored eyebrow.

“My brother. They’re… Different from what you’re probably used to dealing with.”

“Well, you can obviously use plant elemental power,” Kai remarked. “I wonder if they’ve got anything.”

“Sunlight,” Aurora commented. She walked past them, heading toward the debris. “They use sunlight.”