Hey everyone! FFF here. Welcome to another lovely school week. Cough. Hope you all enjoy the story!
Just so y'all know, Lloyd and the other ninja left today on a mission to do something, they didn't tell me what, so he probably won't be back until at least tomorrow. Hopefully I don't turn into a ghost again. ^ ^
Review Replies:
Breana: Nope, not weird at all. ^ ^ People love getting cookies.
Angel: Ouch! All this screaming is hurting my ears. I told her that, and she started screaming back. Ow. The OCs forgive you for saying they should be killed by Tara.
SilverKunochi1212: I'm sorry, but I have no idea. My characters continue to run off with the plot. But they should meet her within the next five chapters or so. :)
The Flaming Star: Thanks for the encouragement! I'm always happy to get more reviews.
Maxine Rose: I'm sorry, but I'm not currently accepting OC applications. Not only that, but your character is very similar to Kayson. If you look at the reviews from chapter one, you will see that the profiles are very similar. Also, it doesn't make sense that your character would get along with all the characters and hate all the bad guys. This is especially true with Morro, who is suspicious of everyone new, as you may have noticed, so it's rather... gary-stu-ish for him to get along perfectly well with all the good guys. So yeah. Also, please give him more original powers, fire and water are already taken. Except for those points, your character is very good. :) Please change your character a bit, and then re-apply it once I open OCs again. Thank you! Wow, you must like this a lot if you've read it five times! :D
Bob: Lloyd forgives you. ^ ^ Thanks for the cookies!
Kairocksrainbow: Thanks. :) Ah, sometimes people get grounded for the stupidest things. Like, the other day my Mom grounded my and my older sister from the internet because my sister burned some grilled cheese. -.- Aww, thanks for the bromance story. It's cute. :)
Windy: That's great! And I'm glad you like the Lloyd A/Ns. Too bad he's on a mission for a little while. :P I like writing Jessica as a fangirl, so except to see lots of it. ^ ^ I really hope your parents let you email me. I'm so happy I was God's answer to your prayer! :D I can't wait to read your stories. If you want, I would be happy to beta-read any of your stories for you. :) How is your sister doing? My 1 year old sister is sick too. :(
Here is le chapter (I am running out of things to say here).
Chapter 20
After a hearty meal of chicken sandwiches, the ninja and co. set off once again to find the portal, Jessica leading the way. Ming was having a friendly chat with Nya, who, although she wasn't sure why, felt that something was off about the slightly-younger girl. Maybe it was that she seemed over cheerful, smiling at everything and laughing nervously. Unless she really really wanted to get away from Tara, and Jessica's information seemed to point the other way, Ming was acting. Why, Nya didn't know. Not only that, but whenever the topic of Tara was brought up, Ming would force a smile and change the subject. Nya told herself that the poor girl was probably still nervous about her kidnapping and shrugged it off, but she couldn't rid herself of the feeling that something was wrong.
ReturnToTheCursedRealm
"I remember this place, I know I do!" Jessica declared as she and the rest of the adventurers walked through a narrow tunnel. "The portal's not far now!" she called over her shoulder at Lloyd.
"Great!" the green ninja called back, happy to finally have some progress. They had been trekking through the mountain for days, and, frankly, he was sick and tired of it. He wanted to get to the Cursed Realm already so he could see his father again. He was tired and cranky and wanted to be done with this mission. But he refused to give up. His father was at stake. But he sure wished they hadn't destroyed the Realm Crystal, so they could just warp straight to the Cursed Realm instead of going on this journey halfway across the world.
"Um..." Jessica's voice broke him out of his thoughts. "There did used to be a bridge here..." Lloyd stared at the cavern ahead, which had a sea of lava at the bottom. Large chunks of rock lay half-submerged in the lave, directly below where the bridge Jessica mentioned should be.
"Wonderful." Indigo said sarcastically.
"Well, it's really not that bad. We can just summon our elemental dragons!" Kai said. He clenched his hands into fists and concentrated, but nothing happened. "Huh?"
"What's up?" Jay asked, confused.
"I can't seem to make my dragon." Kai muttered. "And my elemental powers won't work either. What's going on?"
"My sensors are detecting large quantities of Vengestone in the vicinity." Zane explained, his eyes scanning the cavern.
"Oh. Rats." Kai sighed, letting his hands drop to his sides.
"How do we get across then?" Kayson asked from the back of the procession.
"Um... Morro, Cole, are you hurt by lava?" Lloyd asked, turning to the two ghostly members of the team.
"I don't know. Probably, since it's a liquid." Morro replied. "But I really don't want to try."
"Same here." Cole agreed, looking uneasily at the lava.
"Right, well then..." Lloyd thought for a few minutes before staring at the mostly-flat wall on one side of the cave. "Could we climb along that wall?"
"I could! Easily!" Jessica chirped. "Oh! I know! I can take one end of a rope across and climb across the wall and tie it to something and you can tie your end to something and then you all can climb across!"
"Great idea, Jess!" Jay exclaimed. "Uh... does anyone have a rope?" Rolling his eyes, Kai shrugged his backpack off and pulled a large coil of rope out of it.
"Uh, wait." Indigo spoke up. "It's a good plan, but I doubt Ming and I can climb across the chasm on a single rope."
"Ohhhhh..." Jessica murmured, a thoughtful look on her face. "Well... maybe we can find another way around."
"But that would take a long time, and we want to get to the Cursed Realm as soon as possible." Lloyd frowned as he stared at the gap.
"Hey, I know." Ming spoke up. "You guys can go ahead and go from there, and Indigo and I can try to find another way around."
"But what if there isn't another way around? Then you'll be stuck here until we come back." Nya pointed out. "I'll stay with you guys. Maybe I can help you two across the rope if we can't find any other way across."
"I'll stay too." Morro spoke up.
"Okay..." Lloyd didn't want to separate them, but there didn't seem to be any other option. "Alright. Jessica, go ahead." Jessica grabbed the rope from Kai with a grin and handed one end to Lloyd. She then slipped her arm through the coil of rope and ran to the end of the ledge and leaped off towards the wall, barely grabbing onto it. Without missing a beat, she got a better hold and began working her way across. The rest of the adventurers watched in strained silence as she made the perilous journey across the wall. She slipped a couple times, eliciting gasps from the onlookers, but recovered quickly and continued. After about fifteen minutes, she dropped onto the platform on the other side and tied the rope securely around a large boulder. Lloyd tied his end around a similar rock and, after making sure it was taut, climbed hand-over-hand across the rope. The other four Ninja and Kayson did the same, and, after waving goodbye to the others, walked off down the tunnel.
ReturnToTheCursedRealm
Tara crept stealthily through the darkness, approaching the sleeping ninja with her knife drawn. After Nya and her party had left, Tara had climbed across the rope in pursuit of the others. She had soon found them setting up camp, and had hidden while they ate and went to bed. Now that they were all asleep, it was time to complete part of her mission. Just in case freeing Clouse didn't work out like she hoped. Tara knelt beside her first target, the green ninja, and pulled the tiny, pulsing crystal out of her bag. Taking the knife, she carefully cut a thin line on his arm, not enough to hurt him and wake him up, but just enough to draw blood. Quickly, she touched the crystal to the red liquid forming on his arm and it glowed red for a moment before returning to its normal coloring. Except, now there was a tiny swirl of green energy dancing in the center. Smiling with satisfaction, Tara gently dabbed the blood off the scratch on Lloyd's arm, so he wouldn't notice it when he woke up, and moved on to her next victim.
Well, Tara's back! Bet you all thought she was "reformed"... wait, I don't think you did. Well, now you have more reasons to hate her! :D I don't actually hate her, really, because she has such an interesting personality.
Lloyd just got back from his mission! He looks tired, though. He just said "Hi" and wandered off to his room. Guess he can't be bothered to write an author's note right now.
I know this chapter was a bit short, and I'm sorry about that. I wrote another page and 1/2 on paper but it turned out that it didn't actually fit with the story, sooooo... yeah. I'll try to write a short chapter (maybe one of Jay's crazy dreams?) as well as the normal one tomorrow. :)
Well, peace out, everyone!
~FFF