The trees were thick on this side of the mountains, and snow, three feet deep, covered much of their path ahead. It was strange to think, but the old Monastery was just beyond those mountain peeks. Well, maybe “just beyond” was putting it lightly. It was still miles and miles away, but it was the closest they had come to it since leaving back in the fall.
Jay stole a glance back at the ship, bobbing in the open water. Nya was still standing on the deck, watching them. He turned around, aware of Kai’s threatening gaze, and focused on a very interesting pebble on the ground.
“Zane, if you would please move the snow?” Wu asked, and Zane quietly moved to the front of the group. Near the back, however, Jay was in the unfortunate position of walking directly behind Lord Garmadon. Wu had brought him along, much to the palpable dismay of his students, but it certainly felt better than leaving him on the ship alone with the girls. Still, Jay wasn’t about to take his eyes off of him, especially the closer they got to the Golden Weapons.
Sunlight was streaming down through the trees, its beams illuminated by soft whips of mist. Zane—resident snow plow—was doing a good job in the front. That is to say, he wasn’t losing control and burying them all in an avalanche. It was almost like walking through a snowy trench when he had cleared their path, and in places, the snow reached up to his hips.
Jay felt his spine shiver again. He wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with how close Garmadon was right now, but it wouldn’t surprise him. He dreaded the idea of touching him at all.
Had he said any of that out loud? He didn’t think so. So then why had Garmadon suddenly craned his neck just to glare at him? Jay kept his head low and tried to think about the trail at his feet instead.
No matter how hard he tried, the description that Wu had given of young Garmadon just couldn’t rectify with the man in front of him now. The only image he could conjure up was some sort of four-armed, demon-like, gremlin child, running around terrorising the other kids. Not exactly the picture Wu had wanted to paint for them all.
The hike into the mountains lasted well over an hour, with not much exciting happening along the way. The snow was getting even deeper, at least up to Jay chest, but it didn’t really feel all that cold anymore. That was probably due to the small sweat he’d been working up.
Jay was sure that they were getting close to the peak by now, at least a little, as he looked back down through a gap in the trees and saw the ship, now just a tiny spec far off in the distance below. They were on more-or-less even ground now, especially compared to the steep inclines they’d clambered up to get here, but there was still no sign of wherever Wu might have hidden the weapons.
“Is everyone doing alright?” Wu asked as they slowed down a bit.
“Fine,” said Cole, who was right next him.
Jay looked up at Garmadon’s impressive figure and thought about how he might answer.
“I believe the blue one is about to wet his pants,” Garmadon suddenly said with no small amount of snark.
“Hey!” Jay huffed. Did he have eyes in the back his head or something? And he wasn’t that scared!
Then came the sound of flames being ignited behind him. “You know something, you’ve got a big mouth,” Kai snarled, his flaming fist curled tight. “Wanna see if this’ll fit?”
A staff appeared, smacking Kai’s hand. “Enough!” Wu yelled. He was between them now, his gaze hard. “We will, all of us, try to get along.” He swivelled his head and looked at Garmadon as well as Kai. “Is that clear?”
Garmadon’s mouth twitched, but he gruffly turned around and started walking up the path again. Kai on the other hand… well, Jay heard him mumble something along the lines of,
“Clear as swamp water, maybe.”
WOOSH.
The staff was now less than half an inch away from Kai’s nose.
“My patience with you is growing thin,” Wu said in a low voice. Jay instinctively backed away, scrambling through the snow in order to get behind his Sensei and out of the line of fire. “This is my final warning, Kai Rayson. Stand down.”
Jay could almost see steam rising from the top of Kai’s head. The look on his face said, “I’m too stubborn to stand down in front of everyone,” like a mule refusing to pull a wagon. But if he didn’t do as he was told… Wu had already pulled out the “full name” card, so there was no telling what he would do next.
‘Come on, Kai. Just drop it. Please! For once, just drop it,’ Jay thought.
“Kai…” said Cole quietly.
For a moment, it looked as though he was about to surrender—his fist loosened and his eyes started to drift—but then he seemed to have a thought. A thought that reinvigorated his stubbornness. He stood up straight, fists still clenched, jaw tight. A silent declaration.
“Very well, then,” said Wu quietly.
His staff flew through the air again, but this time Kai was prepared to—
Wu suddenly changed his course. His fist grabbed onto his collar and yanked him closer, while his legs were kicked out from underneath him. He would have fallen face-first into the frozen dirt had he not let loose a torrent of flames so hot they reminded Jay of a rocket ship blasting off.
Their Sensei spun around, avoiding the heat, while Kai flew up, twisting through the air and shooting more flames on his way down. Wu, however, wasn’t anywhere near the fire. He was in front of Kai and used his staff to smack him upward, effectively cutting off his concentration. While still airborne, Wu used the butt of his staff on Kai’s forehead—
SMACK!
SMACK!
SMACK!
In rapid succession. Then, just before he hit the ground, Wu grabbed him again and threw him deep into the snow. Powder exploded everywhere, and only Kai’s hair, eyes, arms, and feet were visible in the sea of white. Wu then promptly smacked Kai over the head with his staff one more time for good measure.
More steam rose from Kai as the snow around him turned into water and then evaporated, but he didn’t move.
“Am. I. Clear?” Wu asked with relative calmness, punctuating his sentence by planting his staff into the ground.
Kai didn’t say anything, but he also didn’t tighten his fists again. All was quiet in the wintry forest.
Jay felt the urge to look back his teammates’ reactions. Cole and Zane seemed just as uncomfortable as he did, but then, curiously, Jay felt as though someone was missing from the group. Was it Nya? No, they left her back on the ship. He looked around again and it suddenly clicked.
“Where’s Garmadon?” He asked, his voice rising. Now everyone was looking around.
Wu bolted forward, following what appeared to be the trail Garmadon had left behind in the snow. Cole and Zane followed him instinctively, but Jay lagged behind just long enough to make sure Kai had gotten up and was sticking with the group.
“You good?” He asked. Unsurprisingly, Kai didn’t answer.
The trail was long and Zane didn’t have time to carefully clear the snow away. They clambered over the top, sometimes stepping on compacted ice, other times, their legs sinking several feet into the soft powder. Overall, very wet and cold.
A stone wall came into view—a cliff face—tall and grey mossy. At the bottom of the cliff, Jay could see a small, dark tunnel, marked with an interesting symbol. It reminded him of a flower, with seven petals and one space in the middle. Wu ran passed it, into the cave, and all of his students followed. If they were too late—if Garmadon had gotten his hands on the Golden Weapons—who knows what would happen. His dark plot to take over all of Ninjago might very well come to fruition, or he could kill them all, or worse.
All of Jay’s worrying suddenly ceased when he ran straight into Zane’s back and fell over in the tunnel. Kai tripped over him and fell face forward, knocking Zane down in the process with a very loud,
“Ahh!”
“Woah!”
THUD.
“SHH!” Someone hissed.
Kai quickly dusted himself off and lit up his fist. There was Cole and Sensei Wu standing in front of them, next to—
“If you’re trying to get us all killed, you’re doing a marvellous job of it,” Garmadon snarled.
Jay could finally breathe again.
“What were you think running ahead like that?” Wu whispered to his brother.
“I was thinking that you were wasting my time,” he replied, looking bored. “Now tell your pathetic students to shut their mouths or I’ll do it for them.”
Jay opened his mouth to say something… but then begrudgingly closed it.
As Garmadon and Wu started leading the group forward again, Jay started looking around for any sign of the reason they ought to be quiet. The cave itself looked manmade, with oddly smooth walls and a consistent size—tall enough to fit two Coles stacked on top of one another, and wide enough to comfortably fit at least three Zanes side by side, maybe more.
Something fell to the cave floor with a splat. And not the kind of splat that a water droplet makes. He slowly looked up and could see a million tiny black eyes, reflecting the light of Kai’s fire. Bats. Big ones. And a lot of them. They were all hanging upside down, huddled together, and watching the group intently as they passed through. Jay suddenly felt his skin begin to crawl. The last place he would want to be is stuck in a relatively small space while a horde of a hundred bats flew around him, their fangs bared.
But then again, he thought about Nya and Kai and suddenly he straightened up. Just because he was scared, didn’t mean he had to show it. And certainly not to Kai.
They kept their silence until they reached what appeared to be the end of the road. There was a stone balcony, and then a drop off into a bottomless pit. Not Kai’s fire, nor Wu’s golden light reached very far. It was all pure blackness.
“What now, little brother?” Garmadon asked, frowning.
Wu smirked, then he jumped down into the pit—and landed, perfectly fine. From where Jay was standing, it looked as though he was hovering in midair.
Garmadon jumped after him and landed in the exact same place. “Hmph,” he scoffed. “Darkstone. What a cheap trick,” and on he walked, passed Wu.
“Come on, it’s perfectly safe,” Wu called to the boys. “Just jump exactly where I did.”
Cole went first, overshooting the landing sight a bit, but was none the worse for wear. Zane was next, and did just fine. Then it was Jay’s turn. He gauged the distance, took a bit of a running start, and cursed himself as his foot slipped right as he was pushing off. He going to come up short, he could feel it.
His feet were out ahead of him, and when they made contact with the darkstone, they slipped and he could feel his body falling backward.
“I got you!” Cole cried, grabbing onto his flailing hand in the nick of time.
“Thanks,” said Jay, a little shaky.
Then Kai landed as though it hadn’t been a problem at all. Jay frowned.
They had a little more walking ahead of them, this time in the form of stairs. Down, down, down they went, the air getting stuffier and warmer, until finally they reached a round room. For a moment, Jay thought that it might be another trick-dead-end, but then, as his eyes adjusted, he could see four door-shaped carvings on the wall. It took him a moment before he realised that they actually were, literal doors.
They had no door handle, no knocker, no window. Only a symbol chiselled onto them at eye level, and a hand-sized hole at hand level.
“And what cheap trick is this?” Garmadon wondered aloud.
Wu sighed. “Boys, if you would, please, step forward?”
He directed them all to one of the four doors, and Jay noticed that the symbol chiselled on his door looked kind of like a word, but not one that he had ever seen. Although, if he had to guess, he’d say that it might mean “lightning” or perhaps “nunchucks.”
“An elemental lock,” Garmadon sighed. “You really are unimaginative.”
Wu looked as though he were holding back some choice words of his own.
Elemental lock? Jay looked down at his hand, then the hole in the door, and put two and two together. He let his hand jolt to life with more of that sparkly, crackly energy he’d been conjuring lately and shoved his fist into the hole.
Instantly, the door lit up. Bright blue light lit up the cracks in the frame and scrawled across its face, creating all manner of intricate patterns. Then, with a POP and a cloud of dust, the door lurched backward, and then started moving out of Jay’s way.
For half a moment, Jay expected to hear something. A sound or a voice perhaps. He had this terribly great memory of the first time he had ever touched the Nunchucks of Lightning, and he swallowed hard at the mere thought of it. Time had stopped, the lightning had almost sounded like it had been speaking, and then it had leapt into his heart, almost like it had kickstarted something inside of him. That was the first day he’d ever used his powers.
Now, however, as he walked into the room, all he heard was silence.
Sitting on a crude stone pedestal, there sat a lumpy package of grey cloth. As he got closer and went to grab it, he could feel the hard surface of the weapon beneath the covering. He wondered if anyone would notice if he just slipped his hand underneath…
“Please be quick, now,” Wu said from the main room, and Jay founding himself shaking his head. Right. There was no time for messing around, he needed to stay alert, what with Garmadon hanging around and all.
He took the package and walked back out alongside the other three boys holding similarly odd-shaped parcels, and everyone’s eyes were locked on tight to one person in particular.
Garmadon’s lip twisted in a snarly sort of way as they stood their, scrutinising each other.
“Alright, now let’s return to the ship—without further incident please,” Wu added, taking another glance at his brother and Kai.
He led the way out, tailed by Garmadon, and then the boys.
Up the stairs they went, then across the seemingly invisible darkstone, then down the long tunnel with the bats in the ceiling. The whole time, Jay was holding on tight to his nunchucks and staring a hole into the back of Garmadon’s head. He cautiously wondered if they had the power to eliminate someone as evil as him.
Silence ate up the atmosphere, especially as they retread the sight of Wu and Kai’s little fight. Everyone simply kept their heads down, and their thoughts to themselves.
All in all, the hike down was much faster than when they had gone up, and in what felt like no time at all, they were back at sea level, walking across Cole’s stone ramp, back to their ship. It was almost comical how the creaking of the boards seemed to really encapsulate the tension in the air.
“Now,” said Sensei Wu, clearing his throat. “I want each of you to keep a close eye on your weapons. Do not let them out of your sight. And Kai? Come with me.”
Jay felt his lips press together hard as he watched the two of them disappear below deck. Meanwhile, Garmadon slowly wandered to the bow of the ship and just stood there, staring off into the distance.
“Hey, you’re back,” said Nya, walking over. “Did something happen with Kai?”
“You could say that,” Cole shrugged awkwardly.
“You could also say that he got his backside handed to him in a fight with Sensei Wu,” Zane deadpanned.
Nya grimaced. “He’s always been a bit… confrontational. So… those are the ‘Golden Weapons?’”
Jay looked down at the cloth-wrapped nunchucks and chuckled. “Well, you see, they’re too powerful to just leave them out in the open. Even a glimpse of them could be too overwhelming.”
He felt Cole and Zane side eyeing him, but he pretended not to notice. It was all he could do to keep his face from burning up even more.
What was he talking about?! What planet had he made up that little story?
“Woah, really?” Nya asked, staring at the weapons. “I remember seeing Kai’s Sword—that had been pretty intense.”
Jay heard himself chuckling again, and all he could do was mentally prepare himself for whatever nonsense was about to fall out of his mouth next. “The Sword of Fire’s pretty cool, but between you and me, I think the Nunchucks of Lightning are just a bit more… electrifying.” He held up the parcel for effect. “You wanna see?”
“Put it down, Jay,” Cole suddenly said. “You aren’t about to break the rules just to show off.”
“Who said anything about showing off?” He nervously chuckled, especially considering the conversation last night. “I sure didn’t. Heh heh.”
Just then, they all could hear raised voices floating up through the floor. Jay didn’t even want to guess how things were going.
“Tell me…”
Everyone suddenly looked at Garmadon, standing at the bow.
“…How such small creatures can create so much incessant noise.”
They all narrowed their eyes at him.
He turned around and started walking toward the stairs.
“If you all had a shred of perception, then we might not be under attack right now.”
“What?” Jay blurted as he disappeared below deck.
“Is he just messing with us, or…?” Nya wondered, but then Cole rushed to the bow.
“Jay! Man the rigging! Zane! Take the wheel!” He suddenly shouted. “I’ll go get Sensei Wu.”
As Jay grabbed the rope that would unfurl the sails, he looked out across the watery horizon, passed where Cole had been standing, and saw another ship sailing straight at them. Standing at the bow of that ship was none other than the purple Serpentine who had nearly killed him and Nya back at the museum.
“Oh, crumb cakes,” he muttered as he started unfurling the sail faster.
“What can I do to help?” Nya suddenly asked, beside him.
“Just stay downstairs where—“
“I want to help!” Nya said confidently, and Jay paused as he looked at her, fists clenched, jaw set, and determined.
“Er, uh, well,” he stammered. “Grab that rope over there.” Together, they got the sail down in time for Zane to start steering them away from the approaching enemy ship. The boat lurched as the wind pressed into the white sheets above them in the rigging, but Jay wasn’t sure how much it would help. He could see well enough to guess that the Serpentine’s ship was a lot newer than theirs, and it stood to reason, a lot faster. Without Ann’s help, they’d probably never be able to outrun them.
“What do we do now?” Nya asked, right as Wu, Cole, and Kai joined them. They each took a turn leaning over the railing, watching the enemy ship as it loomed closer and closer.
“Everyone, prepare yourselves,” Wu said darkly. “We’re about to be boarded.”
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