I said I wouldn't update this much in the last chapter of A Tale Of Destiny. That is true. The updates for this story will periodic, which depends on when I have time and motivation to write it. Due to this, this story will take very long to finish - and it may never finish either, unfortunately. However, I do want to make an effort at completing this story. Lol...I hope people still read this story. Hope you like this chapter!
Chapter 11: The Journey Begins
It had been a month since Jay, Cole, and Zane joined Kai and Lloyd in their training. By this time, each of the five ninja (yes, they were ninja now, according to their Sensei Wu) had mastered the training course and performed Spinjitzu.
Maybe it's about time we head out in search of the Golden Weapons, Wu thought to himself. It was almost lunch time because the ninja had just finished their training for the day. Wu thought they were ready to go on a hunt around Ninjago. It would take several months to find all the Golden Weapons, no doubt. They were scattered around in each of the four kingdoms.
They ate a quick lunch and during this lunch, Wu decided to break the news to them. "My pupils," he began. "I think it is time we leave in search for your Golden Weapons. It will take months to find them all, which is why the sooner we start, the sooner you can begin training with them."
His nephew rolled his eyes and groaned. "Does that mean we're going to be camping out every night for the next few months?" His uncle simply nodded.
Zane put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Don't worry, Lloyd. Cole, Jay, Sensei Wu, and I all did that for the months we were out before we got here."
The green ninja shrugged like he didn't care. "I'm used to living in royalty. So are you, Zane. This house is big but it's obviously a stepdown from castle life. Living in the middle of nowhere for so many months…sounds even worse."
"Would you rather stay here, alone, for that long of a time?" Wu asked him.
Lloyd hadn't thought about that. He didn't have to go. After all, there was no weapon for him to use except his own powers. But if he didn't go, it'd be terribly lonely in this house with no company. He might as well go and make the best of it. "I didn't think of that, but I think staying here alone is the worst of all options." Wu smiled and nodded his head in agreement.
"When do we leave?" Jay asked, excited to go on an adventure.
Wu paused for a moment. "Tomorrow morning. Spend the rest of the day preparing for our leave. I trust that you know what to take."
"Any horses or carriages that we'll get?" Kai asked hopefully.
Wu smiled once again. "I don't think so. We have no horses here, nor any carriages. If we get one, it'll have at be to the closest place to here, which could be anywhere."
"We could go to Ignacia and get some, but it's not like I know where we are right now," Kai suggested sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Not a great idea, I know."
"I can take some coins, and hopefully we can find something to our liking on the way," Sensei Wu told the ninja. The ninja nodded, and without any further instruction, they began packing what they needed to take.
The next morning came rather quickly. "Now, I hope you five realize that anything you take will have to be carried by you," Wu told them before they left. "If you want to leave anything here, now is your chance." When nobody moved to put something away, he continued on. "Then let us leave. First, we will go to the Southern Kingdom and find the Sword of Fire. It is located at the Fire Temple, which is in the northern part of the Kingdom."
Everyone nodded, mentally preparing themselves to be ready for this journey. They had physically prepared a lot, and they could definitely carry the weight they were taking with them. How long they could carry it, they would soon find out.
And so the five ninja and Sensei Wu set out. They left the house and went down a path…not any specific one that they knew, but it would take them in he general direction they were headed. "This journey will teach you many skills," Wu told them. "Learning how to use a map like I am, or how to cook, or other…camping skills that you need for survival out here."
Lloyd was pretty bored of his uncle's talk and quickly zoned out. He was still really mad at his uncle, even months after the death of his father, but forgiving a criminal act like that…that wouldn't happen anytime soon.
"You'll also learn how to best use the resources you have available," Wu continued. "Be careful, however: you should prepare yourself for the lack of food and water you'll have over these next few months. It may be a while until you see any civilization, but it may come as soon as tomorrow."
"Don't ya know these lands around here?" Cole asked the old man.
"Sadly, I do not. It's been a long time since I last visited this house, and every time, I end up coming from a different path than the last. Different paths lead you to cross different places."
They continued walking down the general path. They stopped for the night. Ate their dinner. Camped out. And then they repeated this the next day, and the next day, and the next day, until they eventually reached a city.
The six of them got to this city (which they found out was Fairwick, city of Lord Soren) without any trouble. They walked for almost three weeks to get this far, and they hadn't seen a single soul since then.
Fairwick was quite a large city, far bigger than Ignacia, according to Kai. Lord Soren was a man around King Howard's age, so not too old.
"Yes! Finally, we're at civilization!" Jay was so very happy.
Wu nodded in agreement with the blue ninja. "Unfortunately, we cannot stay here for long. We must leave quickly. The less time we spend here, the less chance of someone discovering our identities."
"Does anybody have any acquaintances in this city?" Zane asked his group. Everyone shook their head for a no. "Kai, not even you?"
"Nah, I don't do business with anyone from this city," he told them sadly.
"Then we must find a place where we can stay for a day or two, and then leave," Sensei Wu told them. "We have enough gold to stay at an inn. Perhaps we can also learn what has happened in the past few months that we've been isolated from the world."
The five ninja nodded. Learning what had happened in the previous months was definitely a good idea so they were updated with the news.
The six of them walked into the closest inn, which seemed fine for them from the outside, and found that the lobby was hustling and very crowded. Nobody seemed to be in line, so they took the opportunity to get a room or two for the night. The woman at the desk didn't pay much mind to the six, taking them for ordinary travellers from some other part of the Kingdom or another Kingdom entirely.
"How can I help you?" she asked with half-closed eyes, clearly very bored of her job.
"We're wondering how many beds each room has," Jay told the woman, being nominated as the one to talk to her. "So we know how many rooms to get."
"Two beds in each room, but each bed is only for one person," she said with a bored voice.
Jay looked back at the others and they all agreed silently that they should get two rooms. "We'd like two rooms, please."
"You have two options: room 114 and 229, or 229 and 236. Which one do you want? Same price regardless."
"We'll take 229 and 236. Same floor, that's why," he added at the end in case the woman cared as to why. However, she didn't.
"That'll be 80 gold per room per night you stay here," she continued talking in her unenthusiastic voice. Jay nodded at the price. He fished out some coins that Wu had given beforehand and handed it to her. It was for 160 gold, which meant he had paid for a night.
80 gold…that means the room will be…"okay", Wu thought to himself about what he had just given gold for. That was fine. It beats staying in the wilderness every night.
After the gold had been exchanged, they went and found their rooms by themselves. The two rooms they had gotten were down the hall from each other, so not far at all.
"How are we going to decide who stays at what room?" Zane asked everyone.
"Um…I don't want to be with my uncle…that's just weird…being in the same room as him…" Lloyd murmered slowly.
Zane nodded in understanding. Although he felt something was off between uncle and nephew, he didn't sense that being the reason this time around.
"Lloyd and I already spent a lotta time together without you guys…I'll go to the other room," Kai gave his position on the matter.
Quickly, the ninja decided who will be in each room. It was Kai, Cole, and Wu in one room with Zane, Jay, and Lloyd in the other.
After they had set up their rooms to their liking, everyone went to Wu's room for a quick meeting. "Now, the less time we spend here, the better. The longer we stay, the more chance for someone to find out our real identities, and you never know what kind of people are here in this city. Please, nobody tell anyone of our identities, especially mine and Lloyd's. There will be many people who would ransom us to Cyrus Borg. Lloyd, I think you and I should stay in our rooms. Zane, is it safe for you to go out?"
The white ninja, who was wearing regular clothes that didn't make him look like a ninja, wondered to himself if it was a wise idea to go out. "I could definitely get a lot of information, but now that you mention it, Sensei, I am not sure if it is a good idea to try. I could get ransomed as well."
Wu nodded. "Then the three of us will stay here. Jay, Kai, Cole: try not to cause any trouble here."
The three ninja nodded. Kai and Cole were uncertain about how much information they could get. Cole was anti-social, even amongst the ninja, and Kai didn't know anyone here and didn't have much confidence to try and talk to anyone. Jay seemed sure that he'd be able to find something useful here. He was a knight; he had dealt with multiple types of people over the years since his training began.
The red, black, and blue ninja left the inn and began scouring the city in search for any helpful information.
"How do we know who to ask?" the red ninja asked the blue ninja, who seemed to be very familiar with this type of stuff.
"The usual cart owners won't know anything. You have to find the people in the back alleys, hiding behind buildings for the best information," Jay answered to him. "But those people are dangerous, so maybe we should go to the news stands instead."
They walked and went over to the first news stand they found. Cole grabbed the first paper he saw and looked at it. "Can't read this." He handed the paper over to Kai, who could read some of the words, but not all. He handed it to Jay, who read the whole thing.
"There's a bad virus going around in Central," the blue ninja said aloud. The man who ran the stand peered at them intently.
"That ain't free. It costs 50 silver if you want it," he told them suspiciously, as if they were to run away with that paper.
Jay fished around in his pocket and took out some coins. He counted 4 silver coins, which meant it was 40 silver. He sighed and pulled out another coin, another silver one. He looked at the man and tossed it on the ledge of the stand and continued reading the news. The man hurriedly picked up the 5 silver coins as if Kai or Cole were going to take it back.
The three ninja began walking away from the news stand and walked to someplace quiet: a small alley. "Nobody knows where this virus originated from. It started in Central, that's all they know. A cure is in the works by…Cyrus Borg! That makes this quite a lot easier to understand, knowing how he is."
"Y'know Cyrus?" the red ninja questioned curiously.
The blue ninja looked up. "No, not at all. I was at King Garmadon's funeral when he showed up. He seemed pretty sinister."
"Sinister? What's that word?" the black ninja asked, not having much education.
"He seemed pretty…bad, to put it in simple terms," Jay explained patiently. "Anyways, I have a feeling Cyrus introduced this virus, and now he's going to give out a cure for money or something else of good value. What a disgusting man!"
"Is there any news of riots or anything?" the fire ninja asked.
The lightning ninja scanned the paper. "Yeah. In Ninjago City. 24 people were killed by the robots Cyrus has, and another 34 were injured. The leaders of the riot are nowhere to be found."
"Anything else?" the earth ninja asked him impatiently. Cole wanted to hear some juicy information.
"Uh, it seems King Zedwin expressed his hatred for Cyrus openly – there's an article about that. Not the best idea, but I think he can defend his own kingdom."
"You guys want information about the world?" a voice from behind them said. Of course. They were in an alley, so obviously someone would eavesdrop on them. "Just give me something of equal value, and I'll give you some. I deal in gold, mostly."
The three ninja turned around and saw a man with short black hair and ragged clothes. He had a stick or something of the sort in his mouth. He didn't look to be much older than the ninja themselves.
"We have a newspaper, why do we need to talk to you?" the blue ninja asked threateningly. He had dealt with hundreds of these types of guys back at the castle in Freyport.
He shrugged and put up his hands at the same time. "Woah, don't get so aggressive, I ain't tryna hurt you guys. If you want info, I can give you some, but at a price."
"How do we know we can trust ya?" the fire ninja asked suspiciously.
"I have contacts all over Ninjago, believe me," he told them quietly. "You three don't seem like the type to tell, so I'll tell you: I'm Trips, the leader of Fair Wicked. Ever heard of us?" he asked with a sly smile.
Jay shook his head. "No. We don't live here." He was careful not to mention that they were travellers – although saying that they don't live in Fairwick means they're from elsewhere, it forces the other man to think of that himself.
"We're a gang – the biggest and most feared one in Fairwick. I have members in all five Kingdoms of Ninjago. Still don't believe me?"
The lightning ninja smiled on the inside. These were the kinds of guys to talk to. Jay had hoped he would run into one of them. Sure, they probably do illegal stuff, and as a knight and a ninja, Jay should take care of that, but he figured the information would be more useful.
"What do you know? Any recent news you found out about?" he demanded of the man.
Trips laughed. "What makes you think you're in the position to demand of me? I can call some members of my gang, have you killed, and nobody will ever know what happened to you three. Show some respect!" he barked angrily.
Jay remained calm, although Kai and Cole got worried that things might get ugly. They really hoped Jay didn't blow their cover and reveal that the three of them were ninja. "Well, what do you want for your news?"
Trips smiled. "Now you're talking. I'd say…maybe…1000 gold?"
"That's a lot to ask for…for some words from a gang lord like you," the blue ninja said calmly. Jay took out all the coins he had in his pocket. He had 650 gold and 770 silver. "650 gold and 770 silver. Is that enough to satisfy you?"
He nodded, and took the money carefully. "Now, let me give you some news…"
This guy, Trips, has information that the three ninja might want. What that is, they don't know quite yet. What if it causes trouble for the ninja and they get attacked by the gang?
Once again, there will be periodic updates at random times for this story. Thanks for reading!
