Omg you were quick- But here's a little something.
"He's not going to bite you!"
"And how do you know that? He tried to kill us when we first saw him!"
Kai groaned at his teammate's stubbornness to go nowhere near the earth dragon before them. Zane and Jay have already started working on getting their own dragons to trust them. Zane was basically a natural like he was taming the fire dragon, meanwhile Jay seemed to be making some contraption for his own. Cole however, despite the dire situation of needing to go to the Underworld, refused to go anywhere near his.
"C'mon, I thought you weren't afraid of anything??"
"And as you heard Zane say, that goes for everything, except dragons!"
Kai glanced over at the earth dragon who just yawned and stretched slightly, showing to be growing very tired of just waiting. No intent to snap at any given point ever since the fire one called them all to the temple.
"What's got you so afraid of them anyway? Especially when you've never seen one before until now?" Kai questioned, glancing back at Cole who was hiding behind a tree.
"Well, for one thing, they're dragons," Cole answered simply, only making Kai roll his eyes, "... and there was this one story my mom used to tell me."
"Your mom?" Kai replied back, his interest peaking so he stepped away from the dragon to stand beside Cole who was now sitting on the ground, hugging knees pulled up to his chest as he stared at the earth beneath them. Kai opted to sit next to him.
"She would always tell me stories of these adventures, and one of them was this hero saving these two tribes from a dragon in the mountain. It was always a fun story, and helped teach me to always help those in need, but the dragon was always so scary sounding, made me scared of ever coming across one in real life," Cole explained before letting out a small chuckle, "now explaining it out loud, I guess it sounds silly I'm still afraid of them just because a little story my mom used to tell."
"Mmh, nah, I don't think so," Kai smiled a little as Cole turned his head to look at him, little surprise on his face, "I mean, if you say that's silly, then I guess I should say listening to my dad tell stories about dragons is silly too, but it helped us in the end with me taming Flame over there."
"Flame? You named it?" Cole asked bewildered as he glanced over at the fire dragon, now named Flame.
"Why not?" Kai shrugged, standing back up, "but what I'm saying is, our parents tell us stories to leave us lessons to learn from. Mine was about how dragons can traverse to different realms, and yours was to help others when they need it. So why don't you use your mother's lesson to get up, go over to that dragon, and tame it so we can help Sensei Wu?"
Cole blinked up at Kai, surprised at this being the same guy who was so reckless and the only thought about saving his sister before, now giving him advice that sounded so well thought out.
"... Okay, I guess you got a point."
Kai smiled before offering his hand to Cole. Cole took it, letting Kai help pull him up. However, Kai didn't let go and began pulling him out from behind the tree, towards the dragon.
"W-wait, what??" Cole stuttered, feeling his face heat up just a little as he looked at their hands intertwined.
"Well I know I gave that inspiring advice and everything, but I can understand fears are hard to push pass, so I'll help you out," Kai answered.
Both ninja stopped right in front of the earth dragon. The dragon stirred to look at them, studying them almost. Kai made the first move by reaching his hand out which the dragon sniffed before nuzzling against with his snout.
The red ninja grinned, giving the dragon a few scratches before looking back at Cole. The black ninja gulped as Kai pulled his held hand closer to the scaley nose, and guided him to press it against the dragon.
"Oh this is weird..." Cole admitted, feeling cold sweat as his heart raced from both his fear of the dragon, and admittedly the way Kai held his hand in such a comforting manner as the red ninja helped make him start petting the beast.
The dragon made a similar noise to a purr as both their hands pet and scratched his bumpy scales, closing his large eyes and relaxing.
"See Cole? It's not that bad, seems like all this big guy wants is some attention," Kai says as he finally lets Cole go to let him pet the dragon on his own.
"I... I guess so..." Cole replied, feeling his fear and worry slowly fade as the dragon nuzzled closer to him, letting out a huff.
"And it looks like he really likes you already too," Kai smiled as he crossed his arms over his chest, "Which is great, because we should get going soon, you think you'll be alright to fly?"
"I only just started petting him and you're telling me I got to immediately start riding on him?!"
"Like I said, Sensei needs our help, so better get yourself comfortable on there!" Kai exclaimed, laughing just a little at Cole's misery while he walked off to his own dragon.
Cole huffed as he watched the red ninja walk off before he felt the large dragon nudge him a little. Turning his head, he saw the earth dragon staring at him, giving him a sort of look.
"Wh-what are you looking at??" Cole asked, the dragon huffing once more as he glanced at the red ninja before back to the Black one in front of him. Cole blinked in disbelief before shaking his head, walking to the side of the dragon, "Whatever! We are not getting into that! Now just, don't throw me off or something as I get up there."
The dragon huffed once more as he let the Ninja climb up onto him. Cole got himself settled the best he could, sending one last glance to Kai petting Flame before he hopped on his back as well.
The earth ninja couldn't help but smile.
