The snakes were just about ready to give up, if not for Skales, who insisted they kept moving.
It's been hours since they descended into the gorge, and now things were getting harsh, even still, the amount of walking they had gone through, the group seemed to be getting nowhere now completely lost. Skales growled, "Why of all placesss, did we decide to plan here?"
His men opened their mouths to answer, but Skales stopped them, "Don't. Anssswer that."
They continued to move despite their aching feet and Skales tired snake skin, the more they walked forward, the more they seemed to loose themselves, it seems the winding paths were endless from their point of view. A Mezmo spoke up from the crowd, "Skales, all do ressspect, why cant we ssstop and ressst? This labyrinth of earth issss long and never-ending, we're bound to ressst at sssome point, right?"
Skales held in his breath and tried not to lose his patience, he was immensely frustrated at the moment, and keeping himself from bursting wasn't easy. "Becaussse," he snarled, "the more we wassste time, the likely it isss going to be much harder to find the ninja of earth...asss for the never-ending, long journey, we'll have to be patient! SSSSO SHUT UP AND SSSSTOP COMPLAINING, AND KEEP MO-"
"AHHHHH!" a piercing shriek filled the air. Skales and his men turned to the shrill sound as they saw two Mezmo's run towards the them, the same ones that went looking for Cole themselves, their expressions horrorstruck. Skales watched them with both confusion and disgust, they stopped screaming and came over to them. "S-Skales!" one gasped, "t-thank goodnesssss! We were jusssst about to be fried by a dragon!"
The rest of the Hypnobrai shuddered, Skales however was intrigued, "What...kind of Dragon?"
The second snake spoke, "I-It wassss steel black! It ressssembled a sssstrong beassst with massssssive jawssss and sharp fangsss, we would've been eaten alive if-"
Skales grabbed his troop by both his shoulders, looking straight into his eyes with crazy interest, the other troops looked as if he were insane. "WHERE?! WHERE DID YOU SSSSEE IT? WHERE CAN I FIND HIM?!" he shrieked.
The sun had risen upon Ninjago, and it was time for the land to wake up. Cole, still sleeping against Mountain, had awoken to the bright rays of the sun as they crept into his eyes through the open mouth of the cave. He groaned at the sound of morning and urged himself to get off his dragon friend to go find some breakfast. Cole looked back at Mountain, how could he leave without making the dragon think he'd left him? Cole decided to leave his scythe behind, to signify his return. With that done, he left the cave in search of food. Today, the fish swam in the stream, the water making them so clear, and easy enough for Cole to catch. He threw his spear clear through one, impaling it. "Haha, yes!" he cheered. He speared a few others before heading back to the cave.
Mountain greeted him, responding gladly to the dead fish in Cole's arms, the earth ninja smiled. "Hehe, I hardly doubted you wouldn't like this...uh, you wouldn't happen to have the power of fire would you?" he questioned.
Mountain suddenly frowned, Cole set the fish down and groaned, "Of course Earth Dragons don't have the power to breathe fire, guess I'll have to make one myself." Cole started out with two pieces of wood which he found laying on the ground, both were dry, perfect for lighting, and he had a nice spot to light it from, but the real hard part was, actually lightning it. Cole rubbed them so hard together, his hands themselves were beginning to burn, he let go of the sticks and yelped at his burning fingers, Mountain engulfed them with his mouth, his saliva cooling the burn, but also making Cole's hands reek of dragon drool and drip with it. "Ewww," he moaned.
After more hours of trying, Cole finally got the sticks to light, he was about to cook the fish when the wind blew it out, Cole slammed his hands into his face, "UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH." Mountain briskly blew heated mist onto the two sticks, they instantly caught on fire. Cole stared at him, "So you can make fire! You liar!" Mountain scoffed and grabbed a larger stick from the farther part of his cave and used it to hold the fish above the fire to cook it. While they cooked, Cole decided to peek at his injuries, but Mountain kept his shirt down insisting not to. "Come on, I'm not picking scabs, I promise!" Cole cried. Convincing didn't seem to get past Mountain's view on health, so it seemed Cole would never check on his cuts whatsoever, which troubled him, he only wanted to see if they were healing well, the herbs would've probably deteriorated into his open wounds, yet he still was curious, he was anxious to know when he would be fit to fight in the battlefield.
Finally, the fish was finished and they could happily eat their breakfast, as Cole bit into his first bite of fish, he felt a strange sense of deja vu, as if he'd tasted this before, somewhere far back. Once both were done, Mountain allowed Cole to climb on his back so they could walk through the gorge. One reason why Cole decided to accept his friends author, was not because he was being lazy and just went for the ride, but because he was tired, having a bad leg and all, this week had been exhausting for him from day one. Mountain seemed to accept that, and the walk was simply not all to boring, Mountain walked to places Cole had not encountered before, and higher places where the view was not too bad. They then came upon a new sight, it looked to be an entrance to a strange, large new place, like a cavern, only more open. Cole carefully climbed down the back of Mountain, and limped forward, balancing himself with Mountain's front leg. They edged closer and found themselves in an entirely different world from any of theirs. The cave was open but it felt as if it were nothing more than a pit of dark and nothing, and only the glowing eyes of Mountain could lead them through. The walls, or what looked to be the walls were dripping with moist water, and some of it strangely looked like drool. Cole, being guided by Mountain, edged himself forward deeper, until they came to a strange ending, which looked like a tongue.
Cole's eyes widened, "RUN!" Mountain picked Cole up and started to run for the exit, the mouth seemed to come to a close. However they were nearly shut in if not for Mountains fast hind legs, before the creature could snap its jaws at them. It roared and slithered into the dark depths of the earth, never to be seen again. Cole panted, leaning against Mountains left foot, "That was a close one, huh, Mount?" The earth dragon nodded in slight agreement. They kept moving forward to find themselves in a stoneyard, stones seemed to be everywhere, big, small, even pebbles littered the place. Cole eyed one and got an idea, he picked up an average rock and waved it in front of Mountains face, he followed it almost like a dog would with a stick. "You want to play fetch?" Cole asked, grinning.
The earth ninja flung the rock straight for the wall, Mountain quickly reacted by running after it in excitement, returning it to Cole and waiting for him to throw it again. Cole did this a couple times until both of them began to get hungry. Cole took out his spear but Mountain insisted, he spotted a group of Desert Iguanas miles away, deciding to make them his prey. Cole watched in awe as his friend crept towards them, silently as a mouse, and in the blink of an eye, the Iguanas became engulfed into stone. It took only a few short minutes to dearth them, but it was worth the wait, the iguanas were delicious. As Cole watched Mountain eat, he noticed something he didn't before, one of Mountain's wings was strangely scarred, or better yet torn, like something, or someone, ripped it themselves. Cole frowned, the thought coming to him Mountain cant fly, that's why he only walks...poor dragon. The sudden thought of not being able to fly reminded Cole of his dreams of abandonment, as well as what those snakes had said, he shook the thought away, but the thought of being able to fly dawned to him...he suddenly urged, wished to become a dragon, not to fly, but to walk besides his crippled friend who once did have the chance to experience the joy of being in the air. Cole stood up and cleared his throat, Mountain turned to him.
"Mountain. Uh, look, I've been meaning to tell you something," Cole began, Mountain paying full attention, "look, before I landed in here, I was told to...turn into a dragon, I've tried for the past few days and still nothing in particular, so I was wondering...could you help?" Mountain eyed Cole solemnly, and in pity, as if seeming to understand, he then turned and reached for a rock, Cole was confused at first, but then he watched as Mountain dropped the rock above him.
The earth ninjas eyes widened, "WAIT WHAT-" he stuck out his hands to stop the rocks fall, it weighed on top of him, making him grunt, Mountain eyed him carefully, beads of sweat beginning to pour down Coles face. "May I ask...(pant) why did you nearly try to kill me?!" Cole shrieked. Mountain seemed to smirk, he flicked the rock off of Cole, the earth ninja collapsed, panting, he then looked up at Mountain, and from the look on the dragons face he could tell this was only the beginning.
(Well there you have it! I hope this was long enough to meet your interests, oh well, I just hope this was enough, its 11:49 over here and my legs are tired! Oh but I couldn't keep you guys waiting, so I wrote as much as I could, and oh goodness, seems like Skales found a quick way to Cole! Lets see if Kai can find him in time, before the snakes do, or will it be the other way around? Who knows, and it seems Cole now has a training coach to guide him, welp, thats all for me, until next time, have a T.G.I Friday! (UGH FINALLY) Thanks for reading!)