Uh...kind of forgot that this story exists. Oh well. Sorry for the four month wait, hope you enjoy if you read this!
Chapter 13: High Talks
Highmont, the city that King Howard lived in, was just east of Fairwick, the town the ninja had just stayed in and ran into Fair Wicked.
On their way, they ran into little trouble. A few other travellers and adventurers, but nobody paid any mind to anyone they saw pass by. Nobody looked troublesome and threatening to the ninja and Wu, so they kept going. However, there was some trouble when Cole misread the map and lead them the wrong way – that meant they undid a day's worth of work and were delayed a bit more than they wanted. Obviously, they reached Highmont a few days later.
When they reached their destination city, Kai immediately lead them to the castle, which, to be honest, was very hard to miss in the city. They were lead through a good distance of poor people, a good distance of middle class people, and eventually, the castle.
At the gate of the castle stood five guards, which was more than they anticipated, but Kai was fine with it. "Gd'evening, men," the red ninja greeted as he noticed the setting sun in the distance to his left.
Two of the guards pointed a spear at him. "What brings you to Highmont's castle?" one of the guards who was pointing the weapon barked at him.
"We have business with King Howard," Kai told them. "Matters to discuss about," he continued professionally. The other five were surprised by his…professionalism.
The guards looked even more suspicious now. "'We'? 'Matters to discuss'? Could you please elaborate on what you mean by these statements?"
The red ninja sighed. It might be a little difficult for the others to get through… "M'name is Kai Smith. I'm King Howard's favourite blacksmith, and I come from Ignacia. These here," he turned around and gestured towards the other ninja and Wu, "are my friends who are travelling with me."
"Who are each of you? Tell us your names!" one of the five guards commanded.
"I'm Sir Jay Walker!" the blue ninja quickly blurted out.
"I am Cole," the black ninja said plainly, looking them fiercely in the eyes. The guards looked uncomfortable of his stare, but they quickly regained their composure.
"I am Prince Zane Julien," the white ninja said proudly but quietly. They had decided that it didn't matter if Zane revealed his identity. If anything, it made what Kai said seem more official.
"I am Kai's grandpa, and my name is Boh Smith," Wu told the guards a bit too quickly for his liking.
"And I'm Kai's brother, Cal," Lloyd said right after his uncle.
The guards looked convinced enough that they were telling the truth. "Well, if Prince Zane is here, I'm sure what you're saying must be of importance to the King. Well, you may enter." The five guards stepped aside and gave an opening for Kai and the others to walk through the gate.
The ninja along with Wu hurried through the castle and reached King Howard's chamber door without any more delays. There, there were two more guards, as expected by the fire ninja. "Gd'evening. I'm Kai Smith, King Howard's favourite blacksmith and the one he gets his weaponry and armour from. We have news to tell King Howard, and it'd be nice t'get a meeting with him soon."
The guards exchanged a look. It wasn't everyday they got someone march up to them so boldly and request for a meeting with the king. Without a word exchanged, one of the guards went inside, probably to ask for permission if they could enter right now. The other one still stood outside, keeping an eye on the visitors. The ninja could easily take him out together, but that would obviously draw way too much negative attention towards themselves, and it definitely wasn't worth it to do so.
The guard who entered reappeared shortly. "King Howard says it'd be an honour for him to meet you and your friends," the guard bowed to Kai. The red ninja bowed in return and walked inside the doors, and the other five followed.
"Welcome, Kai and…other friends," King Howard immediately greeted his visitors, sitting on a wooden chair at the center of the giant, decorated room. "What brings you to Highmont again?"
"Your Highness, we have lots'o information to give you," the fire ninja cut straight to the point.
The King nodded. "Take a seat, all of you." After they sat down, he continued. "Would you like anything? Any of you?"
Everyone shook their head, and Kai relayed the answer. "We're all fine. We hafta get straight to business." He eyed a couple of guards around the chamber. "Is it possible to be completely alone?" he asked pleadingly.
King Howard was slightly alarmed by the request. What could be so important that the king had to send his guards away? Hopefully they weren't planning on killing him…
Hesitantly, King Howard sent the two guards outside of his chambers. "Do not listen to anything we talk about," he ordered them as they bowed. "If you do, there will be consequences."
When the guards left, it was not the red ninja who began the conversation, but Sensei Wu. "King Howard, it is of utmost importance that anything we discuss here does not go outside these doors until it is time."
Once again, the King was alarmed. "And who are you to give such an order to me?"
Wu looked over at Kai, wondering if he should tell the truth. The boy nodded. "Allow me to introduce myself, then. You may not believe it, but I am Prince Wu, the brother to the former King Garmadon. I can understand if you do not believe me, but that is the truth." He bowed his head to the king.
Well, this is surprising… King Howard muttered to himself, not sure if he believed the old man. "So are one of these young men with you…is one of them King Lloyd?"
"Yes, that would be me," the green ninja raised his hand a bit to get the king's attention.
"And I'm guessing this man with this light blond hair…he is Prince Zane? I have seen him before," the king continued. When the nindroid nodded, the king continued speaking yet again. "Then the only ones I don't know are you two." He pointed at Jay and Cole.
"I'm Sir Jay Walker of the Western kingdom," the blue ninja told the king proudly.
"I'm Cole," the black ninja said plainly once again.
"Well, that's all fine and well. Prince Wu – if you are indeed Prince Wu – I will believe you," King Howard put it simply. "Kai, I hope they aren't lying – they're not, right?" Kai shook his head for a no. "That's a relief." The King sat back in his chair. "Well, what are we to talk about?"
Wu began his story. "This may also sound crazy, but bear with me, my King. There is a prophecy that states that the Overlord, the villain who my father, the First Spinjitzu Master defeated, will be back. To counter this, there are five ninja who must be trained to stop him. The five young men you see here are the five ninja the prophecy speaks of. You can trust me on that. I have trained them myself, and they trained on their own as well. I can attest to their abilities, having seen them in action. They are good. I have a feeling that the Overlord will rise with the recent bad omens we have received – the death of my brother, King Garmadon, and the attack on Ninjago City by Cyrus Borg. We are here to seek your support to put my nephew, Lloyd, back on the throne. We need your army's help for that to happen. It is possible that at the same time, we will be dealing with the Overlord as well. Can we count on your support in this journey?"
There was a long silence after Wu had finished talking. That was a lot for anyone to take in. At last, after a couple of minutes at least, King Howard found the right words to say. "No doubt, it is a priority to take down Cyrus and put King Lloyd on the throne. However, with this Overlord business, I cannot put my army in a big risk like that. That, Prince Wu, I am afraid you might have to fight that fight with your ninja. Besides, how can I believe that they are truly ninja, and can fight well?"
"Have you heard of Fair Wicked, the biggest gang in Fairwick?" Wu asked patiently.
King Howard nodded immediately. "Why, of course! They're one of the biggest gangs in the Southern Kingdom, and possibly all of Ninjago too! I heard they were defeated, though."
Wu nodded. "That was done by us. We ran into their leader in Fairwick, and…well…things went sour, and we ended up fighting. We won, and they are now destroyed."
King Howard had some more respect for the ninja now. "If you six could take out a gang like that…you must be strong. You have my apologies. I'm sorry for doubting your skills."
Wu looked unfazed. "That is fine. Do we have your support? We need to go to the other kingdoms and get their support as well. Beating Cyrus will not be an easy task."
"I definitely agree with you on that, taking down Cyrus will not be easy," the King agreed. "I do wish to give you my support. That man is awful and must be punished for what he's done, but that will be difficult. We would need the support of all of the Kings in Ninjago for that." He paused for a moment. "But tell me, what are your plans after this meeting of ours?"
"There are special weapons the four elemental ninja, so not Lloyd, get to use," Wu explained slowly and patiently. "One of them, the Sword of Fire for Kai, is located in the Fire Temple in the Forest of Tranquility. The Forest is not too far out east from here, and we can get the Sword quickly and move on to the Eastern Kingdom."
"And I'm assuming once you're there, you'll ask for King Zedwin's support for this quest?"
"That is exactly what we'll do," Wu confirmed. "And get the Scythe of Quakes for Cole. From the Caves of Despair."
King Howard looked impressed as he sat back in his chair. "I've only heard rumours and legends about the Caves of Despair. Very few people have went in and came back out."
The old man smiled to the King. "Don't worry, we'll be fine in there." However, even with Wu's confidence and assurance, the ninja were all alarmed by what King Howard had said. They didn't know what the Caves of Despair were, but he made it sound very dangerous.
"I trust that your army will be ready within a couple of months?" Wu asked, just to clarify. "It'll be a while before we really go to war…I hope…"
King Howard nodded. "Definitely, a couple of months is more than enough time. I wish you luck on your journey throughout Ninjago!"
Wu smiled and bowed in front of the king. "Thank you. Also, if you don't mind, could we get a carriage and some horses? It would make travel a lot faster, and speed is something we are lacking right now…"
"But of course! I will give you 5000 gold as a departing gift. I think that should be enough to cover a lot of your costs," the King replied happily.
Kai paled at the King's remark. 5000 gold…that's a lot…I could buy so much metal! Of course, Kai knew better than to take the gold they needed for the journey and spent it on his own personal needs and wants.
"Thank you, that is a very generous departing gift," Wu replied honestly. Without too many other words that were exchanged, the group of six hurried out of the castle with the 5000 gold. They got their horses and carriage for about 1300 of the gold and were on their way to the Forest of Tranquility, a couple of days ride east.
The group reached the Forest of Tranquility. However, they were on the opposite side of the forest that they needed to be at. The Fire Temple was all the way on the other edge, and they would have to travel through it to get there.
"This is not a problem. The Forest only looks daunting, but there aren't many dangers inside," Sensei Wu said to relax the ninja. "We should be able to travel through without any issues."
As scary as it looked, Wu was right. They travelled through to the other side and reached the Fire Temple. The Temple really did look like a temple. It had a large, dangerous-looking gate at the front that they would walk through. Past that gate, they could see the Temple. The biggest, most obvious thing they noticed was the giant volcano behind the temple. It looked like there was always lava flowing down the sides of it, and even now, it was visible to them.
"The Fire Temple never has any guards in it," Wu explained. "Few people know about the Sword of Fire, and anyone that does has never been able to take it out."
"Take it out? What do ya mean by that?" Kai asked, confused over what his sensei had just said.
"The Sword of Fire is in a stone that nobody has been able to pull it out from," Wu clarified simply.
Inspiration from the King Arthur story, I guess. It seemed fitting for such a legendary weapon like the Sword of Fire. There won't be any dragons here like there were in the cartoon. That would drastically change a lot of fights in a way that almost makes it too easy for the ninja to win. After all, I think those elemental dragons would be more powerful than a bunch of people and robots. Anyways, hope you liked it! I think I'll get back into this soon...