A.N: Hey guys! Thanks to everyone who reviewed last time! And also, thanks to my beta, BrightLightGirl15! Remember to review!
Cole
I placed my hand on the ground, in yet another attempt to find out where the Raptora had gone. I could feel a faint pulse from the East; but they were miles away. There was no chance that we would catch them in time; not at the rate they were moving. "Guys, they're just too fast!" I announced to the others, who were eagerly following my movements. "We're never going to catch them before they attack!"
Zane furrowed his eyebrows, before speaking, "According to my calculations, we would have to travel at approximately 140 kilometres per hour if we are to catch up to the Raptora before they reach Ninjago City." Morgan, Michelle, Jayde, Ayesha, Matt and Max looked confused, before Morgan asked, "Your calculations? What do you mean by that?" Uh oh. These guys still didn't know Zane was a robot. Damn.
"Yeah!" Jay covered for the nindroid, "Zane's super smart! He's a genius!" I nodded, as Zane tried to look as convincing as possible. It appeared to work, as they dismissed the incident. Morgan, however, still looked a bit suspicious, as she turned around again. "Hey, Cole!" Michelle called out to me, "How are we supposed to get to them fast enough?" I thought for a minute, before replying,
"The Raptora will most likely take a break and fall asleep tonight. So if we continue travelling for at least half of tonight, we should at least gain some distance to them."
Then a thought occurred to me. "Hey, why did you ask me? Why not someone else?" The dragon rider grimaced at me, before mumbling, "Because I assumed you were the leader! Geez, what is this, an interrogation?" I shrugged offhandedly, before continuing to follow the Raptoras' tracks. Placing my hand on the ground once more, I felt a slightly stronger pulse. Without a second thought, I started to run towards the source of the shockwave. The others followed me excitedly; we had been doing the same thing almost all day, and it was starting to get dark.
About an hour later, it was completely dark, with only the moon for a source of light. I was ecstatic when I felt the ground, noticing that the Raptora were no longer moving. "Guys! They've stopped for the night! Now's our chance to catch up!" As soon as I said that, everyone broke into a sprint, as we strived to get closer to our objective.
After just a few minutes, I could feel the shockwaves even while I wasn't touching the ground. We were getting dangerously close. Apparently, Matt was thinking the same thing. "We shouldn't get too close! We can't just barge in there without a plan!" he panted. "Yeah, we should probably finish up for the night." Ayesha suggested.
"We can set up camp here!" Lloyd added. Max flopped himself onto the dusty sand, and began to fake-snore.
"Max!" Jayde scolded the psychic ninja, "We can't just sleep here unguarded! We need to take shifts keeping watch!" She had a point. Damn; I was really tired. But still, I would rather have an uninterrupted sleep than to have to wake up in another two hours. "I'll take the first watch." I volunteered reluctantly, as I climbed up a low tree branch.
As everyone fell asleep one by one, I was stuck being awake. I decided to try finding constellations in the sky. There was only one I could identify. "What's that one called again?" I whispered to myself. "Omega? Oreo? No, that's not right…" I trailed off, trying to remember the name.
"Orion." Came a voice from beside me, almost making me fall out of the tree. I whirled around, only to see that it was Michelle. She was sitting beside me, staring at the stars, her sandy blonde hair floating around in the wind.
"What?" I asked, confused. Michelle snapped out of her trance, and locked her dull brown eyes with my dark ones. "The constellation. It's called Orion." She stated, before smiling, and adding, "Not Oreo." I smiled sheepishly in response.
"See, you always know where Orion is when you see those three stars in the middle." she gestured to three bright stars in the centre of the constellation, "That's Orion's belt."
I have to admit; I was kind of impressed. How did Michelle know all this anyway? "How did you know that?" I asked her, genuinely curious.
"Why do you want to know?" she snapped, before sighing, and speaking again, "My mother was an astronomer. When she was home, she would take me outside and show me the constellations…" she trailed off, gazing at the stars again. I decided not to pry, as I continued looking up at the stars. Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. "Why are you up? I'm supposed to be on watch." I asked. Michelle shrugged, before turning to me again, and responding, "I… couldn't get to sleep. That's all." She explained.
I looked up at the moon; I had been on watch for about half an hour. One and a half more to go. Michelle sighed, before asking me, "I should call Andusk? I'm worried about him; what if he gets hurt? You know, with the Raptora and everything."
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Call him in the morning." I agreed. So we sat in a comfortable silence for the next few minutes; just looking at the stars.
"Being in a team… Is it always like this?" Michelle asked me after a while.
"What do you mean?" I replied, confused.
"I mean, like, usually, it's just Andusk and I. Solitary. Independent. You know? But now that I'm travelling with you guys… It's so different. I feel like… Like someone always has my back, no matter what! I feel so… connected. You know?" she finished, looking at me again. "I guess I never really thought about it that way." I responded truthfully, "I mean, I've always been in a team, so… I wouldn't know what it's like to travel alone."
Michelle nodded once, and smiled at me, before hopping down from the branch next to me, and whispering, "I should go to sleep! I'll see you in the morning, then!" I nodded, and waved to the dragon rider, as she settled down near Ayesha and Jayde. Looking up at the moon again, I saw that I still had about an hour left until I could fall asleep. I sighed; this was going to take a while. With no company or entertainment, time seemed to drag by agonizingly slow.
After an hour of doing nothing but staring at the moon, I swung down from the tree, and shook Lloyd's shoulder. "Hey, Lloyd!" I whispered to the green ninja, "It's your turn to be on watch!" Lloyd groaned, rolling onto his side and swatting at my hand. "Dude, leave me alone, I'm trying to sleep…" He trailed off. I sighed; Lloyd obviously wasn't fully conscious. "Wake up!" I whispered, shaking his shoulder again. Reluctantly, Lloyd stood up and stretched, before nimbly climbing up into the tree to keep watch. I yawned whole-heartedly; I could finally get some rest.
So, stretching out on the ground, making myself as comfortable as possible, I let sleep consume me.
I woke up to the sounds of the rest of the team scrambling out of their makeshift beds, and getting ready to travel again. Following their example, I leapt out of bed and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes in an attempt to wake myself up. Andusk was running around, sniffing people excitedly; he was obviously thrilled to be with us.
I turned my attention to Michelle, who was shouting at Max and Jay to wake up. She noticed me, and smiled gratefully in my direction; but the smile was gone as soon as it came. I shrugged, before raking my hands through my hair in a vain attempt to make it look a little neater.
"Guys! We need to move!" Kai shouted over everyone else, as he started walking. I placed my hand on the ground in an attempt to track the Raptora; surely they would be miles away from us now; we had woken up later than usual. But to my shock, the pulses were still coming from the same place. I furrowed my eyebrows; this couldn't be right. "The Raptora haven't moved since last night!" I exclaimed. Everyone looked at me in shock, before Lloyd suggested, "We should go check it out! I mean, if they're not moving, they're either still asleep, or at their destination, right?"
I nodded, before leading the group to the main source of the underground disturbances. "Here!" I exclaimed, pointing to a spot on the sandy floor. On closer inspection, I saw that there was a kind of inscription in the sand. "Hey, look!" I exclaimed, "There's a sign on the ground!" Everyone crowded around the small inscription; it was a pentagram.
"What do you think it is?" Jayde asked, peering at the five-pointed star.
"It looks like… A star inside a circle!" Jay exclaimed, stating the obvious. I rolled my eyes, before replying, "Yeah, we figured that bit out. She meant, why is it here in the middle of nowhere?"
"Ohhhh…" Jay said incredulously, earning a few eye-rolls.
"Well, there's only one way to find out!" Ayesha said decidedly, before turning to Michelle, and asking, "Can your dragon dig?" The rider nodded, before whistling for Andusk, and asking him to dig through the pentagram.
The sandy coloured dragon began to paw at the sand, before vigorously burrowing under the ground. Michelle looked down the hole after her dragon, making sure he was safe. Suddenly, Andusk leapt out of the burrow, rubbing up against his rider. Ayesha leaned over the hole, and after checking that it was safe, jumped in.
Lloyd looked in after her, before calling out, "What's down there?"
"Some weird shiz… You guys had better come down here and check it out!" came the shadow ninja's voice from deep underground. Without hesitation, Lloyd jumped in after her, followed by the rest of us. When we got down, it was pretty dark; dark enough that I couldn't see a thing. I could only identify that we were standing on a hard, rocky surface rather than dirt. "How do you know what's down here if you can't even see?" Kai asked. "Please," Ayesha replied, "Darkness is no problem for the ninja of shadow!" Jayde sighed, before creating a ball of light in the palm of her hand, illuminating the pit.
I was right; the floor was made of rock. And engraved in a large stone tablet just a few metres from us were ten different patterns forming a circle around a picture of the sun; a flame, a lightning bolt, a rock, a snowflake, a void-like image, a beam of light, a water droplet, a wisp of smoke, a fang and a whip. "What the heck?" Max asked as he approached the formation of symbols. As he got closer, though, the wisp of smoke began to glow red. "Hey, sick! I made it glow!" he exclaimed.
Kai furrowed his eyebrows, before slowly approaching the symbols. As soon as he got closer, the flame emitted a red glow. "I think these pictures match our elements!" he yelled. I decided to try my luck, approaching the symbols cautiously. Sure enough, the rock began glowing black. Ayesha followed my example, causing the void to glow black as well. Soon, everyone had been assigned to their symbols, except Lloyd, Morgan and Michelle.
"We're not ninja! So how are we supposed to have elements?" Michelle pointed.
"I don't think these are elements, Michelle. They just symbolize what is inside of us." Morgan reasoned, before stepping up and igniting the fang with a purple glow. Michelle, not wanting to be the last person, marched boldly up to the image of the whip, which also began glowing purple. Last but not least, Lloyd stepped up to the stone tablet, engulfing the sun in a greenish light.
Shortly after, all the symbols began glowing violently bright, forcing us to cover our eyes. Suddenly, the stone tablet dropped out from beneath us, and we were falling.
A.N: Ok, so I was going to write more, but I felt like leaving it there! XD Anyway, remember to review, guys!
