Chapter 12 – What's the plan?
The sun rose over the horizon, but everyone on Destiny's bounty was still asleep. Since Lloyd moved in, there was another separate bed built for him in the ninjas' room.
Titan, who has now grown to about the size of a Boxer dog, was sleeping on top of Lloyd's sleeping body, all curled up. But then Titan began to stir, and so he lifted his head and yawned and opened his big curious eyes. And then he heard Jay mumbling in his sleep and looked wide eyed at Jay's bunk. Titan stood up, but Lloyd didn't wake up, and he opened his green scaled wings and looked at them. Titan fluttered his wings, before he flapped his wings as best he could and jumped off of Lloyd's bed and up towards Jay's bed. But Titan was a baby dragon, so he stumbled in flight. Luckily, Titan was able to fly the few feet, without awakening anyone, and was able to grab onto the wood railing of Jay's bunk.
Titan pulled himself up, and onto Jay's blankets. Jay's back was turned to Titan, so Titan carefully jumped over Jay's body and stared at his face.
"No—no, Nya—don't come near me," Jay mumbled in his sleep as he waved a hand. Once Jay's hand plopped back down, Titan cocked his head a few times. Titan walked closer to Jay, until their faces were just inches away from each other. Suddenly, Jay smiled in his sleep, and lifted his arm up and over Titan.
"Ok—just one kiss," Jay mumbled and used his arm to pull Titan closer to his face. Not knowing it was a baby dragon, Jay pulled Titan close to him so that he accidently kissed Titan's muzzle. Titan got angry and confused, so he shook his head and broke the kiss. Jay's face looked confused as he searched around for Titan with his hand. But Jay didn't know Titan opened his mouth and a green light was building up in the back of his throat, and he was aiming at Jay.
Jay began to open his eyes and wake up, only to face Titan and the glowing light in his mouth.
"Aw, man," Jay sighed. The next thing anyone knew, Jay's girlish shrieks filled the room as a green light emitted from his bunk. The boys began to stir from Jay's screams, and Lloyd was the first to turn and face Jay who was standing right next to his bed.
Jay's blue pajama shirt was a little burnt, but not as burnt as his face, and his hair was smoking and sticking up with black singe marks. Jay held out his arm horizontally because Titan was hanging off of his arm upside down like a sloth. Lloyd's tired eyes stared into Jay's tired and disappointed eyes.
"Lloyd, this is the fifth time this week he's injured me in my sleep," Jay said tiredly. Suddenly, Titan lifted his head to look at Jay's hand, and bit his hand.
"Mother-!" Jay cursed as he shook his arm, causing Titan to slip and fall onto Lloyd.
"Uh, sorry Jay," Lloyd said as he sat up and placed his feet on the floor.
"Yeah, tell that to my hand and my hair," Jay said angrily, and walked away.
"I don't get brunettes," Lloyd whispered to Titan, and Titan only growled in response.
Everyone was at breakfast, eating breakfast sandwiches, but Lloyd and Kate were just eating bowls of cereal. Titan sat on the floor next to Lloyd, begging for food, while Kate's baby dragon, Hope, who has also grown, sat curled over her shoulders, like a snake. Kate looked at a breakfast sandwich, sitting on a platter in the middle, that no one touched yet. So she quickly lifted the piece of bread and grabbed a piece of egg, and fed it to Hope.
"Now Lloyd, I am to understand that Titan keeps causing trouble for the ninja," Wu began, breaking the silence.
"No kidding," Jay cut in.
"And I won't have that for my students, so, and this goes for you too Kate, I want you to train these infant dragons," Wu continued. Kate smiled and turned to look at Hope.
"Nice," Kate said happily. Suddenly, Titan growled, and jumped up from the floor and onto the table, crashing into everyone's food, and making a terrible mess.
This also resulted in an egg sandwich landing, egg first, onto Kai's face. Kai glared at nothing in particular as the sandwich slid off his face, but left egg on his face. Kai kept his angry look as he slowly turned his head and looked at Lloyd, who was sitting right beside him.
"Uh—training begins now, come on, Titan!" Lloyd said and scurried out of his seat. But Titan was about to take a bite out of some food, when Lloyd grabbed him, and Titan didn't get one bite.
As Kate stood to follow Lloyd out of the dining room, Hope flapped her six wings a single time and jumped off of Kate and stumbled onto the floor, and walked the rest of the way.
"Now I wish I didn't throw my apron away," Zane sighed as he looked down at his ninja suit that was covered in stains.
"Consider this a break day for you all, and you too Nya—but I am taking one of the dragons into Ninjago City—I have something important to pick up there," Wu explained as he stood from his seat, and luckily wasn't covered in food stains.
Wu left the room with his staff, walked out onto the deck and off the ship and walked up to the four dragons. But Lloyd and Kate were out on the desert sand and noticed Wu.
"Where you going, Wu?" Kate called to Wu.
"I must go to Ninjago city to pick up an important item, and I will need a dragon's help to get there," Wu explained, as he walked up to Wisp, and as Wisp looked down at the old man, Wu petted his snout. And Wisp lowered his head, and Wu mounted.
"See you kids later!" Wu shouted as Wisp began to flap his large feathered wings and had lift off, and flew off into the sky.
"I can't wait until Titan can fly like that, then I can ride him through the skies," Lloyd said in awe.
"Well, I haven't seen the movies, but I know dragon training will be a lot of fun," said Kate. Suddenly Titan and Hope, being siblings, started to playfully tackle and growl at each other. Titan tried to breathe some green colored flames again and shot it at Hope, but she dodged it.
"Has he always had green breath?" asked Kate.
"Yup," Lloyd simply replied, "and I bet I've seen more movies than you, and if there was one thing I learned while watching a dragon movie, it's that a dragon will only hatch if it senses it's master is there," Lloyd explained as he went to pick up Titan and broke the fight.
"Wow, you're a real dragon nerd, aren't you?" Kate asked as she went up to Hope.
"Shut up," Lloyd sighed.
"Make me," Kate protested.
"Oh, I'd be glad to," Lloyd said darkly as he looked at Kate with a smirk.
"You know, sometimes I really don't like you," Kate said grimly. Lloyd rolled his eyes as Kate, and she still had her bow and quiver of arrows, got out her bow and an arrow.
"If there's anything a baby animal likes to do, it's fetch," said Kate.
"Your point?" asked Lloyd, as he put Titan down on the sand.
"This test I just came up with contains practice on flight speed, accuracy, and retrieving: I shoot an arrow as far as I can, and the dragons have to fly as fast as they can after it. They have to be able to grab it in mid air, and then bring it back," Kate explained.
"Ok, but how are we going to get the dragons to want to go after it?" Lloyd asked, as Titan clumsily flew up and perched on top of Lloyd's head. Kate thought, and then she smile evilly.
"We could put Jay's head on this arrow?" Kate replied.
"Um, no," Lloyd replied with wide eyes.
"You're so gullible. We can just tease the dragons, watch," Kate said and took the arrow and waved it in front of Titan's face.
"You want it, you want it?" Kate teased, and Titan tried to clamp his jaws down onto the arrow, but Kate took it away, and then waved it in front of Hope.
"How 'bout you, you want the arrow head?" Kate teased Hope, and Hope tried to get the arrow too, until Kate took it away and loaded her bow with it. Kate quickly aimed the arrow at a high angle.
"Then, fetch the stick!" Kate exclaimed and let the arrow fly. The whole time Hope and Titan kept their eyes on the arrow, and when Kate shot it, Hope flapped her six wings, and took off like a rocket, and so did Titan, but since he was on Lloyd's head, Lloyd fell back from Titan jumping off of him so fast. Titan also pumped his wings, and flew like a bullet behind Hope. Kate walked up to Lloyd and stared down at him with a smirk.
"Guess I was wrong, you don't have dragon smarts," Kate said as she offered a hand to Lloyd, and Lloyd glared at her as he took her hand and stood back up.
Meanwhile, Hope and Titan were flying at great speeds, and the arrow was still flying high, but ahead of them. The arrow began to descend as it traveled a few more yards, so Hope and Titan began to dive after it. But as the two dove after the arrow, a golden glow surrounded Titan, while a light pink glow surrounded Hope. The lights began to shine so bright, the dragons just became gold and pink silhouettes. But then those silhouettes would grow bigger and bigger, until they were the same size as the ninjas' four dragons. When the glow went away, both dragons were full grown, like the other dragons, and they still looked the same as they did as baby dragons, but they were just more bigger and epic looking. The dragons broke in mid-air and hovered as they stared at themselves and at each other. Titan let out a roar, a very loud and victorious roar. Hope roared at Titan, and then they looked back down, only to find the arrow was no longer in the air. But suddenly Hope and Titan looked off at the horizon ahead of them, and bared their now large and sharps fangs, and growled. Hope and Titan looked at each other, and Hope huffed at Titan, and then Titan flew back towards Destiny's Bounty and where Kate and Lloyd would be waiting. But Hope only stayed and hovered and didn't follow her brother, Titan.
Meanwhile, Kate and Lloyd were sitting on the ground waiting for Titan and Hope.
"Dang, I knew you were good at archery, but not this good—I mean, how far did you shoot that arrow?" asked Lloyd.
"A professional archer, like me, knows not to share her secrets," Kate replied. Lloyd huffed in anger. But then Kate shielded her eyes when she looked up at the sun's rays because she was seeing a strange shadow.
"What the heck is that?" Kate asked, making Lloyd look too, and he was confused. As the shadow got closer, Lloyd and Kate stood up. The shadow soon became clearer, and the kids saw that it was Titan.
"Is that Titan?" asked Kate.
"There's no way, he's not that big," Lloyd replied.
"Maybe dragon's have big growth spurts," Kate guessed. Just when Titan was yards above the ground, he outstretched his wings so he'd slow down. But Kate and Lloyd didn't expect Titan to swoop down and grab them both in his front claws, carrying them off back to where Hope would be.
Lloyd and Kate screamed and struggled to grip onto Titan's claws, fearing that they would fall. After many scary moments of flying high and fast, Titan finally reached Hope, and he gently placed Kate on the back of Hope's neck. Kate slowly sat up and grabbed onto the horns on the back of Hope's head. And Titan lowered his head as he lifted Lloyd up to his neck and placed the boy on him. Lloyd did what Kate did, and grabbed onto Titan's horns. When the kids were on the backs of their dragons, the dragons flew father out over the desert.
"Where are they taking us?!" Lloyd exclaimed.
"I don't know, but this is epic!" Kate replied and hollered with joy. Soon Lloyd was smiling big and laughing as he rode Titan through the skies.
The ninja were still at the boat and were just relaxing, but jay was staring at an old door no one bothered to open in the ship's halls. And then Nya walked up to Jay.
"Hey Jay, what are you looking at?" Nya asked enthusiastically.
"I'm looking at this door 'cause I'm wondering what's behind it," Jay replied as he placed a finger on his chin.
"Then, why don't you open it?" asked Nya.
"Good idea," Jay quickly said and placed his hand on the door knob. It wasn't hard for Jay to turn the knob with ease and push the door open. Nya watched in wonder as they entered a dark room. The light from the halls entered the room as the door opened all the way. When there was enough light, what was in the room amazed Jay, making his face light up.
There was a giant flat computer monitor that was fifty five inches big hanging on the wall, and many wires hooked up to it traveled down to a giant metal box with many button on it, so it was the monitor's key board and access table.
"O.M.G.! I should've opened that door sooner, so much technology to tinker with!" Jay exclaimed happily as he practically hopped and skipped up to the computer.
"Ooh, if I can make this puppy work, she can be like our scout that let's us know of any trouble in all of Ninjago," Jay said as he gently placed his hands on the computer.
"Hey Jay, I heard yelling, what are you-whoa," Kai asked as he walked up to the door, but when he looked in and saw the computer, he was speechless.
"Look at this thing Kai, isn't it really cool?" Nya asked cheerfully.
"I guess it is, but you two can tinker with it—I'm not the kind of guy who knows how to plug the do-hickey into the what'cha-mi-call-it to make the thingy go ding," Kai explained. Afterwards, Kai left the room, and Jay and Nya stayed.
Titan and Hope carried Kate and Lloyd over the desert, but they arrived at a familiar place. They were flying over the fang shaped rock monument that was Pythor's tomb.
"Aw man, this was the Anacondrai's tomb," Lloyd said as Titan and Hope landed in front of the tomb, and Kate and Lloyd dismounted their dragons.
"Anacondrai?" asked Kate.
"Yeah, it was a Serpentine tribe that was clever and could turn invisible—but the whole tribe died, well, except for Pythor," Lloyd replied.
"Who's Pythor?" Kate asked as she and Lloyd stared at the fang shaped rock.
"He was the tribe leader, and the only one of the tribe that survived," Lloyd replied, and then sighed, "and he tricked me when he told me he would be my evil henchman, but he tricked me so that he could get the map of all of the hidden Serpentine tombs," Lloyd explained.
"Which would mean that's Lloyd's epic fail number three," said Kate.
"Whatever, the dragons obviously wanted to show us something here, so let's go," Lloyd said as he walked towards the tomb, and Kate followed.
The door to the tomb was open, and torches were lit inside the tomb as the two walked in, but no one, but them, were there.
"If I could see, I know this place would be dark and full of dead carcasses," said Kate.
"Lucky guess," Lloyd simply said, but then Lloyd looked at a wall with a giant picture drawn in white chalk.
"Whoa, look at this," Lloyd said as he grabbed Kate's arm and pulled her over to the wall.
There was a lit torch above the picture, so it made it easy to see in the dark cavern. The picture looked exactly like the land marks and environments on the map of the Serpentine tombs. There were two circles with arrows pointing at them on the map in two places, one looked like a foggy bog, and the other was a mountain.
"What ever it is, is a big 'uh-oh', isn't it?" asked Kate.
"Definitely, Pythor is planning on going to the last two Serpentine tombs—but I don't get why," Lloyd replied.
"You think he's going to let the tribes loose, like you did?" asked Kate.
"I don't know, but what ever the reason, we need to get back to the ninja and warn them, fast," said Lloyd, and with that Kate and Lloyd rushed out of the cavern and back to Titan and Hope. Once they were mounted, Titan and Hope took off, and headed in the direction leading back towards Destiny's Bounty.
Wu was in a building, filled with many clothes, and outside the windows were other buildings and cars driving by on a road. Wu looked at the hundreds upon hundreds sets of clothes surrounding him. But Wu didn't notice a young lady with tan skin, long black hear, green eyes, wore a white tank top and khaki jean shorts, and blue flip-flops. She was sitting at a sewing machine, hand sewing some clothing.
"Can I help you, sir?" the lady asked, without looking away from her work.
"Yes, you can, I'm going to need you to make something for me," Wu replied. The lady finally turned off the sewing machine and stood up and looked at Wu.
"You're going to need to be more specific than that, sir. What do you need me to make? Oh, and what color do you want it to be, because colors are important," the lady replied with a chuckle. Wu smiled.
"I need something green," Wu replied.
Titan and Hope have just arrived back at the ship with Lloyd and Kate. Once Titan and Hope landed, Kate and Lloyd dismounted and sprinted onto the boat. When Kate and Lloyd were in the ship's halls, they stopped to find the ninja and Nya in the computer room that Jay just discovered.
"Whoa, too cool," Lloyd breathed as he and Kate entered the room, but then he shook his head, "guys, we've learned something big—before I came here, I let loose the last survivor of the Anacondrai Serpentine tribe, his name was Pythor and he was the tribe general," Lloyd explained.
"Can you get to the point?" Kai cut in.
"We just went back to the Anacondrai tomb, and found out that Pythor is heading for the last two Serpentine tombs in the toxic bogs and the mountains, and we think it might be because he wants to let loose the tribes," Lloyd explained worriedly. Everyone gave concerned looks at each other.
"Oh great, well whatever goes wrong, is your fault, Lloyd," Kai complained.
"Can we not bring that up?" Lloyd protested.
"Everyone, calm down—we shouldn't stay here and blame Lloyd, we should be going out to search for Pythor and the tombs," Zane said firmly.
"Zane's right—Jay and Kai, you two head to the bogs, Zane and I will head to the alpines," said Cole.
There was a roar that came from outside the ship, and everyone left the room and out onto the deck to see what it was. Wisp had just landed with Wu in his back, and Wu not only had his staff, but also a large white bag. When Wu dismounted Wisp, he stared wide eyed at the full grown Titan and Hope. The ninja and Nya were also surprised to see how much Titan and Hope had changed.
"Uh, the dragons went through a growth spurt," Lloyd explained as he scratched the back of his head.
"You're not joking," Cole admitted. Wu walked onto the deck and everyone wondered what was in the bag.
"Where'd you go Sensei, and what's that?" asked Jay.
"I went to Ninjago City's Rue Twenty-One," Wu replied.
"Why would you go there, that's, like, a place for some one to go clothes shopping," said Nya.
"Exactly, and I asked the seamstress to make me something," Wu said as he dug his hand into the bag.
"And that is?" asked Zane.
"You will all find out when I find what I am looking for," Wu replied softly, and left the deck, leaving everyone else stumped.
"Guys, have we really already forgotten that we were about to look for the tombs?" asked Kai.
"Or, right, let's go, boys!" Cole said, and the ninja pulled up their ninja masks up and over their faces, and did Spinjitzu and jumped over the railing of the ship. When the ninja landed, they stopped spinning and head towards their dragons. Cole and Zane mounted Rocky, and Rocky began to sprint off into the desert, while Jay and Kai mounted Flame, and she flapped her huge bright wings, and they flew off. Kate and Lloyd were about to go and follow the ninja, when Nya grabbed their shoulders and stopped them.
"Whoa, half pints, where are you going?" Nya chuckled, "you aren't going with them, if that's what you're planning," Nya continued.
"But what are we supposed to do for fun then?" asked Kate.
"I don't know, vandalize stuff, if you want, just don't follow the ninja and/or do anything dangerously stupid," Nya replied, and walked away.
"Does she not know that vandalizing is both stupid and dangerous?" asked Kate.
"No, she doesn't, because I've vandalized plenty of stuff," Lloyd replied.
"Oh yeah, like what?" Kate asked out of curiosity. Lloyd smirked
"Well, it wasn't my plan to, but your lips for example," Lloyd replied. Kate's eyes snapped wide for a second, but then she shot glaring daggers at Lloyd.
Cole and Zane were riding on Rocky, who was now walking, as they arrived at the bottom of a very large mountain, much larger than the one Wu's monastery was on. And clouds surrounded high up parts of the mountain, but still, the top wasn't visible. And the mountain was very steep.
"Oh great, this mountain's too steep for Rocky to climb," Cole complained as he and Zane dismounted Rocky Zane looked around, until he found something spiraling up and around the mountain. It was a stair case, just like the mountain with Wu's monastery.
"Perhaps, taking the stairs is our best bet," Zane said softly.
"Fine," Cole sighed, and he and Zane walked up to the stairs and began to ascend them.
Kai and Jay were riding on the flying Flame as they came to a darker area filled with swampy and bog like areas. Flame landed, and Kai and Jay dismounted, and Flame landed near a small pool of toxic green looking liquid. And when Flame was close to it, it exploded, but it wasn't a big explosion, only like a smoke bomb sized explosion. This made the boys and the dragon jump.
"Uh oh, these bogs aren't normal, this place is filled with explosive acids," Kai said as he walked over to a dead tree, which it wasn't the only dead tree there, and broke off a dead limb. Kai walked over to a different small green liquid pool and stuck the stick in it. Sizzling sounds came from the stick and even smoke rose from it. When Kai lifted the limb back up, half of the stick was gone.
"Ouch," Jay said as he stared wide eyed at the burnt stick.
"Flame, you're going to have to wait outside the bogs—I definitely don't want to blow up, today," said Kai. Flame obeyed and huffed in response and then turned and walked out of the bogs.
Kai and Jay stared into the dark bogs, filled with dead trees, pools of toxic green acids, and even a slight green glow filled the place.
"We can't just walk the whole way, how are we going to get through here without walking through these acid pools?" asked Jay. Kai then looked up, and saw many long and outstretched tree limbs above the acid pools.
"Hmm," Kai hummed as he placed a hand on his chin.