Respite
Kai was breathless and red in the face by the time the sun had cleared the horizon. It seemed awfully strange that the storm had stopped as suddenly as it did, but that was just the way of things. After the wind had finally blown the clouds away, the
Southern nobleman began to understand the true meaning of the word 'hot.'
"Don't mind the warm weather, eh?" Cole repeated the words Kai had boasted on while aboard the Black Bounty. "Growing up in the South made the narcissistic lord immune to the effects of heat? Or was that humility?"
Kai handed the Dark Knight a venomous glare before dropping his gaze to his feet, counting each step tediously. "I might be able to give you a snarky comeback," he said in a tired voice. "If I knew what 'narcissistic' meant." A sarcastic look crossed
Kai's face as he glanced back up at Cole. "And what was that other word you used?" He asked. "Humility, was it?" He shook his head. "I feel like I've heard it somewhere, but I can't put my finger on the definition."
Cork snorted and stared up at the sky, giving his eyes a roll. "You wouldn't," he said. "That word doesn't seem to have a place in your vocabulary." He observed his surroundings in silence for a short moment before pointing to a large rock outcropping
to their left, set at the base of a hill. "There's our hideout," he said.
Kai looked at the rock outcropping and tilted his head to the side, befuddled. To him, it looked like an ordinary pile of rocks, set on the side of a large sandy hill. "So we're going to hang out and play king of the hill?" He asked, half joking. "Where's
the 'hideout' part of this rock pile?"
Cole purposely ignored the question and broke into a jog, shooting straight for the pile.
Kai groaned and shook his head, even more befuddled than before. It must have been at least a hundred degrees out there, not counting the humidity. Cole seemed perfectly at home here, and seemed to never run out of energy. That man had been walking impatiently
beside Kai for hours, breathing normally and comfortably while his captive gasped for breath with sweat dripping down his forehead.
The Southern nobleman picked up his pace a tiny bit, determined to finish strong, but ended up reaching the rock outcropping about ready to faint. "Cole?" He addressed the man climbing the rounded pile of rocks with his ragged voice.
The Dark Knight looked down with a scowl, fingers locked on the boulders. "What?" He snapped. "Too tired to climb?"
Kai shook his head. "I'm just wondering how this is a hideout," he said. "When you reach the top of that boulder pile, you'll find a hill that will leave you exposed for the Overlord to find."
"Well," Cole said. "If you'd shut that flap on your face for ten seconds and allow me to explain things, I would have told you that this 'boulder pile' is actually the mouth of my cave." To prove his point, he carefully mounted the last boulder about
ten feet up and slid down a crack between two rocks, out of Kai's field of vision.
Kai shook his head tiredly and began the short climb. He gripped the rocks with sweaty palms and managed after a few moments to get up to where the hole was. He peered down the narrow mouth of the cave and was surprised that Cole had even found this place.
It occurred to him then that this cave was similar in its build to the one near the Dicara River, which made up the border between the Southern and Middle realm. The last time Cole had led him into a cave, it had been just like this one, located in the
heart of a hill, with the mouth concealed by boulders.
"It's about time you showed up," Cole said when Kai finally slid down the steep hole and into a large, open cavern. "Welcome to my home, don't get too comfortable."
Kai threw off his cloak and breathed a sigh of relief. The dark cave was at least ten or fifteen degrees colder than the world outside. "How did you find this place?" He asked. "I couldn't help but notice the similarities between this cave and the one
that you hid us in while on Ninjago Island."
Cole grabbed an electric lantern from the table and turned the knob, basking the cave in a bright white light. "Yeah," he replied "I can't explain it, but I have some sort of talent for working with dirt and rocks. I am quite knowledgeable when it comes
to different types of sediment and rock layers."
Kai eyed the white light from the lantern curiously. "That doesn't explain how you found this place," he said.
"I'm not sure," Cole said as he hung his cloak on a hook and set his pack on the small table in the center of the room. "I just looked at this hill and..." His face was thoughtful for a moment. "Well, I just knew that it was hollow."
"So that cave near the Dicara River?" Kai prompted.
"I walked by that hill on my way to find you, and I knew that a small cave was there." Cole insisted.
"Huh," Kai grunted. "Strange." He turned his head and examined the fairly large earthen, dome-shaped cave. It was surprisingly well-stocked with various trinkets and furniture. A small bookshelf, hardly larger than a nightstand, sat near the far wall,
filled with a variety of small photos and thick, leather-bound books. As was to be expected, everything was meticulously centered and organized.
Next to that shelf was a single cot with thin sheets folded neatly at the foot. The small round table in the center of the room was accompanied by a single wooden chair. Barrels and crates were stacked neatly against the sloping wall. A good sized spring
flowed from the ceiling in the back of the cave, opposite the bookshelf, and into a small pool in the floor. Kai was too tired to look any further than that.
"This is...fascinating." He said.
"What's so fascinating about it?" Cole asked as he opened a crate and grabbed two small cups.
Kai shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "It's just not what I expected, I guess."
"Uh-huh." Cole grunted. "There's a lot about me you don't know, prisoner." He pulled the top off of a barrel and peered inside, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "Just out of curiosity, what were you expecting?"
Kai realized that he hadn't really known what to expect. A dark, filthy hole filled with weapons and tools of torture, perhaps?
"I don't know," he said finally. "Sorry, forget I said anything."
Cole gave him a look that suggested that he knew what Kai had been thinking. He held out a cup in Kai's direction and gestured to the waterfall. "You can freshen up and get a drink before you rest."
Kai took the cup gratefully and went to the spring. He filled the cup in the falls from the ceiling, allowing the icy cold water to flow over his fingers. It tasted abnormally sweet, as if it had been flavored by berries or sugar.
"If you want," Cole said after watching Kai for a minute. "You can climb back outside. I made this spring you see here from a larger current that runs on the other side of the hill. You could take off your clothes back there and get a good rinse in the
faster, deeper waters. We both could use one since there was no bath on the Black Bounty."
Kai raised a brow as he refilled his cup. "Both of us?" He asked. For some reason, the thought of taking a bath with Cole made him want to cough up whatever food he had left in his stomach from his last meal.
Cole raised both brows and shook his head. "Did I make it sound like that?" He asked. "Ugh, no. I'd be rinsing off in this spring."
Kai took a long swig of his small clay cup and then set it down, finally sated. "I may be wrong," he said. "But I've gotten the impression that you are afraid of water."
Cole jumped, as if surprised that his prisoner had drawn that conclusion. "What gave you that idea?" He asked quickly, only confirming Kai's suspicions.
"You never looked at the ocean," Kai stated. "And you treated the rainwater like acid."
Cole walked up to the waterfall and cupped his hands under the flow, splashing his face with short flicks. "Didn't I say that I made this spring myself?" He asked, droplets of water dripping down his chin. "I won't touch the water that flows outside of
this cave, but I trust what I've made with my own two hands. This water won't hurt me." He gestured to the cot with one hand and set the cups down in the table, still empty. "You can rest there if you're not going to take a wash right now."
Kai turned his head and looked at the cot, too tired to bother pointing out the sudden subject change. "So you're sleeping on the floor?" He asked.
"No," Cole replied without hesitation. "I'll just shove you onto the floor when I'm ready to go to sleep."
Kai snorted. "Fair enough." He watched as Cole grabbed the two cups and set them on the table, then went to various crates and began emptying the small backpack he had carried from the Bounty.
Kai was too tired to stay awake any longer. He had not slept in over thirty-six hours, and knew that he was probably going to stay asleep for a long time once he allowed his eyes to shut.
He sat down on the cot and undid his boots. Handfuls of sand fell with the worn leather, making him wonder at the fact that he had no blisters. Hopefully this hole is a safe enough hideaway for at least a few days, he thought. He laid down on the
cot, ignoring the thin sheets entirely, and fell asleep immediately.
Zane awoke to the sharp pain of a blunt object against his head.
"Get up, Zane," a voice demanded. "Evil never sleeps, and neither should you."
"Ah!" Zane's eyes flew open and he sat upright, holding up his arms to shield himself from another blow from the dreadful staff. "Good morning to you, too." He snapped.
"Good morning!" Prince Wu rested his staff on the tiled stone floor, a pleasant smile barely visible through his long white beard. "It's nearly bedtime. You slept through the day. But no matter. Was it a pleasant rest?" He talked as if he could not sense
the Northern nobleman's annoyance. "That's good, because we have a lot of work ahead of us before I go to bed."
Zane threw himself backward onto his cot with a moan. "I thought you told me I was going to get a few days of rest before I had to rescue Cole and Kai." Honestly, housing with this eccentric old man was turning out to be anything but restful. He shut
his eyes and tried to fall back asleep. The sounds of a nearby creek and foreign, exotic birds chirping made a wonderful white noise in the back of his head.
What he wanted to do was get back on the trail and find his companions. What he was doing seemed completely and entirely useless. Sleeping and going about his day with leisure was the last thing he wanted to do, but he knew he did not have
much of a choice when the prince of his homeland was there to order him around.
"This is your rest time," Wu replied firmly. "Trust me, once you're a week into your journey, you'll be begging to come back and work on my gardens for me." He lifted his staff and hit Zane's head again. "Get up. That's an order."
Now I'm a gardener? Zane grunted and waved away a third blow. He swung his feet over the side of the cot and reached for his boots, mumbling under his breath.
"Excellent." Wu said. He turned on his heel and walked toward the door of his small hut. "I already made you dinner, hurry up and eat so we can get to work."
Once the elderly prince was out of the house, Zane pulled on his boots and stood up stiffly. Every mechanical joint in his body was stiff from the exertion of swimming for so many hours in the ocean the night before. He looked out of the open door across
the room and decided that he had slept through most of the daylights hours. He was just fine with that. He could not stand the heat, and felt that the air could stand to be a few degrees cooler.
His heart was heavy and full of grief as he walked slowly up to the small table and reached out for the sliced fruits that had been set out. There was no meat, but he did not care. He was hungry, so these strange tropical fruits worked just fine. He could
not name any of them, but they tasted fine enough for Garmadon's table.
It almost felt wrong, eating these wonderful foods while Kai and Cole were in the Overlord's dungeons.
The thought of Kai and Cole with that unearthly monster made Zane lose his appetite. He set down the slice of orange fruit he had been working on and turned toward the open door, which revealed the pink light of sunset. He could eat later. What he wanted
was something to get his mind off of his troubles. And as much as he hated to admit it, helping Wu with his gardens sounded like a good diversion.
He walked across the stone tiled floor and left the house. A strong, warm breeze hit the side of his head as his feet hit the ground. The sand was still a little wet around the shady areas under trees, clear proof that the storm that had blown him over
the edge of the ship the night before was taking its time in blowing away.
"I see you finally decided to get up," Wu's voice sounded firm and mildly annoyed as he looked up at Zane from where he knelt inside a small garden on the side of the house. "Come on, Zane. Have you ever worked on a garden?"
Zane hesitated. "Y-yes," he said slowly. "My sister had a bed of flowers that I helped her with on occasion." He purposely referred to her in the past tense.
The grief was no less than it had been the night before when he had washed up on the beach, he was just doing his best to look uncaring on the outside as he stood next to Wu. The inner turmoil would have made his features look grotesque if he were to
let them show on the surface for even a moment.
"This is no flower garden," Wu said. "My condolences on your loss, Zane. I know how hard it can be. But this garden is actually for vegetables." He sighed. "It's too hot here to grow anything good, like broccoli or cabbage, but the squash and pumpkins
do just fine in this shady area on the side of the house."
"What about strawberries?" Zane suggested, trying to get his mind away from his problems. "I've heard that they aren't too picky."
"True," Wu said as he got to his feet. "But do you know how many birds we have in this area? I have better things to do with my time than try to shoo away every little hungry beak that comes through here."
"True." Zane agreed, unknowingly repeating what Wu had said. He felt a tear start to line his left eye, and he forced himself not to blink, lest it fall down his cheek. "Can... Can I have a few minutes to myself?" He asked, hoping he was not too transparent.
Wu raised a white brow. "To do what?"
Zane turned his face away. The tear was growing. He looked up at the sky over his shoulder and focused on the deepening blue sky. "I just..." The first star of evening was sparkling faintly. "I want a moment alone. Can I go for a short walk? I think I
might try to contact my father."
He could feel Wu's all-seeing eyes boring into the side of his head. "Of course," the elderly man replied. "The heat must be hard for you to work in since you grew up in the North. Twenty minutes should be enough time for the sun to finish setting."
So he knows my real reason, Zane decided. But he is graciously pretending that my problem is with the heat, not my own mind.
"Thank you," he said. "I will be back soon."
"Watch out for stone warriors and slaves. The whores and servants like to come down to the spring on occasion to wash the village's laundry; try not to be seen."
"Count on it." Zane ran for the trees with all he was worth without another word. The dam was breaking in his eyes.
Blinded by silent tears, he ran with no sense of direction until he hit the spring. His boots splashed into the cold, clean water. He slipped on the rocks and fell forward, catching himself at the last second with his palms. He was glad that he was out
of Wu's sight, because his behavior was unbecoming of any person, let alone a man of his status.
The creek was deep. When he was on his hands and knees, the water swirled around near his chin as his head hung between his shoulders. Where are you? His breathing accelerated. Where did you go, Pixal?
He rolled back on his knees and sat down, lifting his chin to the sky as the tears streamed across his face. His eyes pressed themselves shut, and his arms drifted near his sides, pulled by the gentle current. You weren't supposed to leave me here.
It was as if the water was washing away not only his outward impurities, but the filth within in his very being. The cold water was refreshing, and seemed to clear his mind tremendously. He felt as if the current was going straight through his heart and
was taking the heaviness with it. Can I live without you, sister?
But even with that heaviness gone, the grief remained. His head dropped into his wet palms, and he began to sob unreservedly. No, he shook his head slowly in his hands and let in a gasping breath. Living without you is almost too hard.
But he would not give up.
He could not give up.
For you, Pixal.
For you, I will fight.