Chapter 4 – Fire and Lightning
It was now dark but not only because it was the hour of night but also because of huge clouds that looked to be storm clouds, and they hung low over a new horizon. This land was a bit flat, but it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. And in this desolate place was a tall metal tower that was in ruin, but still standing.
The tower looked that to be of a power poll, used to hold electricity and let surge pass trough it to go through other power lines. Though there were a few old and broken power lines hanging from the tower, there were no other towers around. Atop the tower in ruin was a light blue colored light engulfing an unknown object, and the lightning strikes above seemed to be attracted to it as it hit the blue light.
The dark cumulonimbus clouds above would have big or small flashes of lightening every few minutes, or sometimes seconds.
Shard the ice dragon and Rocky the earth dragon were traveling towards the lonesome tower as Shard flew closely above Rocky and Rocky trotted, but still with great speed, on land. Riding Rocky was Cole, Jay and Kai, while Zane, Wu and Kate rode atop Shard. Shard was full of experience with flying so he practically soared, and because of his balance in the air, everyone on Shard sat with ease, and Wu took the advantage and crossed his legs.
As they approached the tower they gazed upon the blue light. Cole slowed Rocky to a halt and Zane made Shard descend. Shard and Rocky lowered themselves to let their rider dismount. Jay looked up at the light and also the lightning that came close to hitting it multiple times. Jay looked worried, but Wu came up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Do not fret Jay, Cole and Zane have already gone through dangerous obstacles, and they made it through, and so will you—besides, if you want to meet Kai's sister, Nya, I'm sure having golden weapons and a dragon on your side might make you look enticing in front of her," said Wu, and finished with a chuckle. That got Jay's attention as his eye brows barely shot up.
"Let's do this," Jay said as he clenched a fist. Jay began to make his way to the tower, but what he, or anyone for that matter, didn't notice was a shadow that was flying in the dark clouds.
The shadow was in the shape of a long Chinese dragon, but it also had wings and two legs, but the details were still not visible due to the clouds.
After a bit of climbing, Jay was able to get over half way to the top of the tower. But then Zane looked around with confusion as he sat atop Shard.
"Has any one else noticed that there isn't any activity of the Skullkin here?" asked Zane.
"Yeah, now that you mention it, it's a little weird since there are no butts to kick here," said Cole.
Suddenly, there was a distant high pitched shriek up in the clouds. Kate was the only one to bother to take notice in the sound as her sparkling violet eyes shot around in confusion.
"Uh guys, was that your dragons?" asked Kate.
"What was the dragons?" asked Kai. But Kate didn't reply, she only stared up at the cloud filled sky. Suddenly a flash of lightning came again, but this time it flashed over the silhouette of the dragon shaped shadow.
"Uh-oh," was all Kate could say.
As if on cue, loud and long high pitched noises were heard as they sounded like it was getting closer to the tower.
"What the heck is that?!" Cole exclaimed over the shrieks.
"It's the guardian protecting the Nun chucks of Lightning!" Wu replied.
Jay wasn't bothered by anything as he made it to the top, and the blue light that once engulfed the unknown object faded away as a golden light now engulfed the object that was actually the Nun chucks of Lightning.
The nun chucks, like the other golden weapons, were coated in gold, had dragon like designs, and glowed brightly in the presence of its wielder. Unlike ordinary nun chucks, the golden nun chucks had strands of ever lasting and unlimited lightning connecting the handles.
Jay was just about to reach for the golden nun chucks, but suddenly the shrieking came to an end as a blue and white ball of electricity came from the skies and was heading straight for Jay. Jay finally noticed the danger around him when he saw the ball heading for him, so he shifted from on side of the tower to the other, just dodging the ball of lightning, resulting in the ball exploding and sparks falling.
Suddenly, it looked like something hit the tower as there was a giant BANG noise to go with it and the weakened tower cranked.
"What's happening?!" Jay exclaimed with much fear.
"Jay, be careful, the guardian I placed for the weapon is able to make itself unseen!" Wu called to Jay, but it was too late.
Like Wu said, the shadow dragon in the clouds from before was the thing that hit the tower, but it now became visible with hissing noises.
The dragon's long Chinese dragon like shaped body was covered in dark and light blue scales, and it had two rather small and nimble legs, but it had its wings to make up for poor legs, this dragon's wings were different from Shard's scaly wings, this dragon's wings were actually made of long blue, light blue and even yellow feathers; the dragon had a fairly long enough snout, and atop its head was dark blue fur and two long, back curved horns. The lightning beast had its elongated body coiled around the tower and it glared and growled at Jay, obviously thinking he was a threat to what it is supposed to guard.
But suddenly the tower began to creak again as one of its sides gave out and it was about to collapse.
"Jay, get down from there, that tower's gonna give out any second!" Cole called to Jay.
"You think I don't know that?!" Jay snapped as he struggled to hold on to the metal of the tower to keep himself from falling, because falling from that height might kill if unlucky enough. Jay then got the nerve to look into the dragon's piercing yellow eyes, and it looked back down into his blue eyes. And that's when the dragon finally noticed the golden glow emitting from the nun chucks.
As the dragon finally took this in, he huffed as the tower gave out again and was just on the verge of falling. So the beast gave in and grabbed the golden nun chucks within its massive jaws, which were also filled with teeth, and plucked Jay up in one of its claws and flew off the tower just before it collapsed with a bunch of loud clanks and crashes.
The dragon descended, earning a few growls and soft shrieks from Shard and Rocky, but the lightning dragon only huffed in response as it let go of Jay, and Jay managed to stand and turn himself to face the dragon. The dragon also lowered its head so Jay could grab the nun chucks dangling from the dragon's jaws, and Jay soon grabbed them, but not too quickly.
"Thanks," Jay said softly with a smile as he stared at the golden weapon in his hands, and then he stared up at the dragon again. The dragon the lowered itself and placed its neck and head on the ground close to Jay, wanting Jay to mount him. Jay soon did so as he climbed on and grabbed the curved horns on the dragons head. Soon after, the dragon rose to its feet again.
"Wow, now I know how Eragon felt—speaking of which, you need a name, and I'm thinking Wisp, how 'bout you?" Jay asked his new dragon, and the dragon made a long shriek again and spread its feathered wings.
"I'll take that as a yes-sir-'re," Jay said with a smile.
"Wait, don't we still have one more place to go, Wu?" asked Kate.
"Yes, we have, last but not least, the Sword of Fire, Kai's weapon, and it's located in the more warmer regions—but we shall stop on the way there to get some rest," Wu explained.
Hours passed, but there was barely a crack of dawn in the sky. The ninja and their dragons have now arrived into a forest, but in the distance a large mountain was visible, and an orange and red glow emitted from it.
The ninja circled around small camp fire as their dragons relaxed with each other a few yards away. Things were quiet as no one spoke while huddled by the fire.
"You know what I just realized—none of us have learned Spinjitzu yet," Kai said, breaking the silence.
"Well, you are all going to need to learn it soon—I fear that there is another battle to come to us soon," Wu sighed.
"Well, let's just get some sleep for now—we can all talk and make more plans when it's light out," Kate said as she leaned back so she could go to sleep.
Everyone did the same as they all either said goodnight or yawned. Kai was reluctant to lay down for rest.
"I hope you're ok, Nya," Kai said to himself, and closed his eyes.
Darkness. That's all there was, except the faint sound of a feminine voice.
"Kai," it said as it echoed too.
Kai slowly blinked at the echoing voice. And the first thing he saw was a quick glimpse of the black falcon as it perched on the ground a few feet away from him, but it soon opened its wings and flew off.
Kai heard the female voice calling his name again, so he sat up, eyes wide and searching the woods around him. Kai then looked at his friends who were asleep around the fire that was now out as smoke strands rose from it.
"Kai—I need your help," the female voice said to Kai again, and that's when realization hit Kai. The voice calling Kai was Nya's voice.
"Nya?" Kai asked as he slowly got up and stared at the mountain with the orange glow in the distance. He saw the sudden brightening in the light of the mountain.
"If that's where she is, I'll take my chances," Kai said to himself, and began to run toward the mountain.
Once Kai made his way to the mountain, he realized it was actually a sleeping volcano. And he also realized there was a temple entrance in the volcano, but to get to the volcano, Kai had to cross an old bridge in ruin over a mote around the mountain.
When Kai made it across, he stopped and stared at the volcano.
"Kai," Kai heard the voice that sounded like Nya, but it was coming from inside the volcano. Kai heard the voice and he was eager to enter the volcano. Kai ran in at first, but then his running slowed to walking, and he scanned the rock walls of the volcano, and then he noticed the slight golden glow ahead in the mouths of the volcano.
Kai continued until he walked into a large chamber filled with slow flowing lava, and at the back of the room, the lava seemed to flow into a lava fall that fell far down into the earth. In the middle of the room was a golden light glowing, and it was engulfing an object.
The object the light engulfed was none other than the Sword of Fire. The sword wasn't so different from the other golden weapons, except the fact that it was a sword, the sword was also coated in solid and glowing gold, and the handle and blade of the weapon also had dragon like designs, but being the golden weapon of fire, there were also flame designs on it too.
The sword only glowed brighter as Kai stared in awe at the sword. But that staring was not to last, because suddenly Nya appeared, unscathed and unharmed, and she was staring at Kai, and Kai could only stare confused at her wondering where she came from.
"Nya—Nya is that you, are you alright?" Kai asked quickly.
"Yes—I'm just fine 'brother'," Nya replied in her sweet voice at first, but this wasn't Nya; Nya's sweet feminine voice soon became a dark and growling male voice, and her body changed too, because it slowly changed, like her voice, into the towering shadow of Lord Garmadon who lived in the Under World, but was now standing in front of Kai on the surface of the earth.
"W-who are you?" Kai asked angrily.
"Not only am I your worst nightmare, but I am also your future lord of Ninjago," Garmadon growled, "oh, and I met your sister," Garmadon added.
Kai gasped. "Nya?" Kai said with worry.
"Oh, so that's her name, huh—such a petty brat she is, don't know how you deal with her being your sister," said Garmadon.
"What did you do to her—I've heard rumors that you hurt her," Kai said angrily as he clinched a fist.
"Well, you've heard correctly—she may be alive, but I made her wish she wasn't," Garmadon hissed.
"Why are you even here?!" Kai exclaimed.
"I thought I'd just give you some 'inspiration' on wanting to retrieve this once and for all," Garmadon said as he side stepped so Kai could see the sword of Fire again, "and besides—did you really think that I wasn't going to trick you?" Garmadon asked darkly.
"What?" asked Kai with worry.
"You saw what happened when the others went after their golden weapons: a guard came and tried to kill them—this is just a diversion until the almighty fire breather comes," said Garmadon, and as if on cue, bubbles began to appear in the lava as they boiled fiercely. "Ah, right on cue, see you on the other side," Garmadon hissed and he began to disappear, but he came into an evil laugh that echoed.
Suddenly a rumble occurred in the volcano, but that didn't mean it was erupting, it means the guardian of the Sword of Fire was awakening.
Meanwhile, back at the campsite with the rest of the group, they were still asleep, but someone began to stir. Kate yawned as she opened her eyes hearing distant rumbling, so she sat up. Once Kate sat up, she first spotted the volcano in the distance with dark clouds hanging over it, and she heard the noise emitting from the glowing mountain. Kate then looked around to find everyone, except Kai, still there. Kate got up and made her way to Wu, who wasn't asleep but was sitting cross legged and was most likely meditating.
"Wu," Kate tried to get Wu's attention, and he soon opened his blue eyes and looked at her. "Wu, I can't feel the presence of Kai around, I think he's gone," Kate whispered worriedly. Wu hummed and the first thing he did was turn his head toward the distant volcano.
"I bet I know where he went. I'm going after Kai, if it's become too long and I haven't returned, ready the boys and their dragons and tell them to immediately head for that volcano," Wu explained firmly.
"Ok," said Kate, as Wu stood up and grabbed his staff and began his way to where Kai went.
"And tell them to also keep a keen eye out for the golden weapons," Wu reminded Kate.
"Got it," Kate called.
"Kate," Kate heard Zane's soft voice and she turned in the direction of his voice behind her, "why have you awakened, is something amiss?" asked Zane.
"I fear that Kai has gotten himself into trouble, and now Wu must go after him to save him," Kate was reluctant to say, "are the other golden weapons still secure?" asked Kate.
"Yes, they are fine. Why?" Zane asked as he stood up.
"Wu told me to tell you guys to be on the ready with the weapons just in case, and the dragons must be prepared too," Kate replied.
"Ugh, for what?" Jay yawned as he and Cole just woke up.
"I don't know," Kate sighed.
In the shaking volcano, well, Kai wasn't faring with the shaking going on. Kai tried to run and jump over a gap of lava to reach the stone platform the sword was on, and he made it over the gap, luckily. But the joy of just being able to grab the golden sword was not to last long, suddenly two massive and bulky claws came from the lava on the other side of the stone, and bright yellow and orange molten rock was attached to and leaked off of the claws and they both slammed down onto the stone; Kai on one side of the sword, and the claws on the other.
Soon, more globs of lava arose from the lava pools, but the cause of the rising molten rock was actually the beast guarding the Sword of Fire. After most of the lava spilled off the dragon, his body became visible.
The dragon was covered in yellow and red scales, and he had glowing yellow eyes, he walked on four legs, like Rocky, but this dragon also had wings, big giant wings that looked like they were made of feathers, but they were actually made of giant yellow glowing flames that were in the shapes of feathers, and there were giant hook claws on the wings too, this dragon also had a fairly long tail that ended in spikes, the dragon had multiple spikes coming from its head, and what was unique about this dragon was that there were literally gaps in the dragons body that would actually let you look onside the dragon, but there was a bright orange and yellow glow that made it very uneasy to see inside the gaps.
The dragon roared loudly and deeply and soon let out rays of fire burst from its short and bulky snout. The dragon didn't aim the flames at Kai, but it was still angry. Kai would look at the dragon, and then at he sword multiple times, until he heard his name.
"Kai!" Kai heard Wu's voice from the volcano's entrance and turned to find his sensei standing there, "hurry, grab the sword and get out of here!" Wu demanded.
"But what about the dragon?!" Kai called.
"We have enough allies already, now let's go!" Wu snapped.
Suddenly that's when Garmadon's giant shadow came back from the Under World and he scowled at the scene before him.
"What, how are you not dead yet?!" Garmadon exclaimed with rage.
"Garmadon," Wu said shakily as he stared at his shadowy brother, but Garmadon heard him.
"Oh, hello little brother—I see you've aged a lot," Garmadon said calmly, "and I've heard that none of your students have learned Spinjitzu either," Garmadon continued.
"Garmadon, what have you done? The family you started has fallen apart because of you!" Wu said, while on the brink of tears.
"Don't mention them to my face!" Garmadon snapped, and his voice echoed so loud the walls began to shake and crack.
The fire dragon in the chamber got spooked and flapped its giant wings and pounded its muscular legs on the stone on which the sword was on. The impact of the dragon's claws caused the stone to crack and break off and float away, taking the sword with it, and the chunk of rock the golden sword was on was drifting straight for the lava falls at the other side of the chamber.
"Yes, the sword is heading right for the Under World—I'll see you all on the other side," Garmadon said evilly as he and the sword both went over the lava falls and disappeared down into the earth.
The fire dragon roared after failing to protect the sword. But Kai waved his arms while trying to calm the dragon.
"Whoa, stop, it's ok!" Kai yelled as he put his hands on one of the dragon's claws, getting the dragon to calm a bit and look at Kai and huff, "we know it's not good that the sword is gone, but we'll get it back," Kai reassured the dragon. The dragon growled a bit as it inhaled and exhaled, but then it closed its yellow eyes as it gave in and put its head down by Kai, signaling Kai that he had its trust.
Kai smiled as he went up to the beast's head and petted it.
"This is not good," Wu sighed.
Suddenly more roaring was heard in the distance outside the mountain, meaning the others had arrived with their dragons. But Kai's new dragon didn't react like the other dragons with the feeling of other dragons being around, it simply just opened its eyes and shook its head a bit.
When the dragons arrived at the entrance, they hopped off them and headed into the cave.
"Oh cool, now Kai has a dragon buddy too, what are you gonna call him?" Jay asked enthusiastically.
"Well, I'm starting to like the name Flame," Kai said with a smirk.
"What happened here? And Kai, why did you run off?" Kate asked Kai.
"I was tricked. Garmadon fooled me so I would distract the dragon and he could get the sword, even if it didn't go quite like that, any other way, he got the sword," Kai explained sadly.
"Well, where is he and the sword now?" asked Cole.
"I think he's going to the Under World," Kai replied.
"Aw, dang it, and that's where no mortals like us can cross over to," Jay whined.
Kai's eye brows shot up all the sudden. "We may not be able to 'cross' over to the Under World, but we can still 'go' there," said Kai, but everyone stared at him confused.
"Uh, could you make that more blunt?" asked Jay.
"I mean, don't you ever remember hearing the fairy tales of how dragons were mystical creatures who originated from the spirit world and could cross over to our world and back?" asked Kai. Kai then walked over to his fire dragon, Flame, and hopped on the back of Flame's neck, and Flame soon stood up again as Kai held onto the horns on the back of Flame's head.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Kate.
"Yeah, none of this is ringing a bell, and I don't listen to fairy tales," said Cole.
"It means we could ride our dragons as they cross over to the Under World," Kai replied.
"And, you are sure that is safe?" asked Zane. Kai pondered this for a moment,
"Pretty sure," Kai replied with a shrug.
"Alright Kai, I trust you and your idea, you four take the dragons and retrieve the sword from Garmadon," Wu said firmly.
"And my sister," Kai added.
"Who I am willing to meet," Jay chimed.
"Ahem," Kate cleared her throat to get back to the point, "Wu and I will stay behind—I hope all of you return safely," Kate said as she walked over to Wu.
"Take the other golden weapons with you, and keep a close eye on them," Wu demanded.
"Yes sensei," all four ninja said at once.