Skylor
"And you're telling me that you just found him like this?!" Skylor asked the mayor of the tiny Ninjagoan village for the third time. She couldn't believe that a Serpentine (who was supposed to be locked up in a tomb somewhere) would somehow get himself tangled up in the branches of a cherry tree, which had somehow grown in through the windows of the only coffee shop in the village. The same one Ash said made such great coffee.
"Yes, missy. Strange thing, very strange thing."
Skylor had the feeling that the man was hiding something from her. "Are you sure?"
The mayor nodded fiercely. "Yes, yes! It's a very strange thing!"
"But how did the shop get destroyed so fast?" Skylor pestered. She had a feeling that if she kept going, the man would eventually break and confess, which happened, but Skylor knew that he was just saying it to get her off his back.
"Okay, okay. I confess. I confess. This village, it is protected." The mayor started speaking in a hushed tone. "Many years ago, a witch who was one of the first people to live here, made it so that the trees attack all who come with evil thoughts. Sometimes, they get turned into snake-people as well, and chairs start flying and come to life, attacking those who dare be evil here."
An old woman stepped up from the crowd. "It's true! And then, when it doesn't stop them from being bad, these four spirits come and beat the snot out of them!"
Skylor turned to the old woman. "Okay, can you describe these spirits?"
A smallish boy spoke up. "The one, he looks like the snake, but bigger and meaner, and they say, he can throw a person as easily as my daddy can break a toothpick!"
"And there's this other one," the boy's rather muscular father added, "who is all wrapped up in bandages, but red, and he has all these knives, which he throws all over the place!"
"Don't forget about the one who makes the trees wake up," an old man said, right before a nearby tourist could say anything. "They say, he's part tree."
The manager of the coffee shop grunted. "And there's the tiny one, who can see into your thoughts and who puts salt in the coffee, apparently."
Now Skylor was certain that these people were hiding something.
And even more so when one of the tourists spoke up. "There were no spirits, Miss Ninja. They were just kids."
"And those kids aren't here to save you this time!" The Serpentine hissed behind them, breaking off his twiggy chains and reaching out to take a great, big bite out of Skylor.
He was stopped by Karloff throwing a boulder at him, which led to a look of realisation coming over the snake's face before he fled into the icy snow in front of them.
Skylor stared after him, glaring the whole way, happy that he was gone, she heard the shocked and almost angry voices of the villagers yelling at the snake to come back.
"Miss Ninja?" a little girl asked, tugging on Skylor's shirt, "is the snake going to eat those people who saved us?"
Skylor got down on eye-level of the girl. "What do you mean, sweetie?"
"They live out there, and the snake is going there," the little girl answered meekly. "And the snake was going to eat us, but it can't do that with you here, because you're brave too, just like the nice people who saved us, right?"
Skylor doubted that there were any people living out there, in the icy wasteland where the little girl was pointing, and she had no idea what the girl was talking about, but if there really were people living out there, then it would be a bad idea to let this snake go after them.
"I suppose that we could check," Skylor told the girl as she hopped on her dragon and called the guys over to follow her into the cold.
"Are you sure that this is a good idea, Sky?" Griffin asked as his dragon caught up with hers. "These people fought that scary monster. And won. And if they're really spirits, then they won't even get hurt."
"I don't like spirits!" Karloff added as his unruly dragon tried to throw him off. "Bad Rocky!"
"From the sounds of things, these "spirits" are just kids," Skylor countered. "We should go check up on them, just in case."
"We're just kids too, Sky, and we're doing just fine," Ash told her. "We should turn back."
"Or not. I think we're here," Griffin told the gang when he found strange markings on the ground, which reminded Skylor of the Serpentine Tombs her father was so obsessed with before he vanished. "See? There's an entrance."
Griffin was right. The tomb was unsealed.
Four dragons came down for landing as soon as they were above the entrance of the tomb.
"This is the Tomb of the Hypnobrai," Skylor told the others. "It's been said that they can control your mind just by staring into your eyes."
"You're kidding, right?" Griffin asked. "They can't really do that, it's just a legend."
"Only one way to find out," Skylor told him and walked down the stairs, which seemed relatively new compared to the rest of the tomb.
She lit her hand on fire to get a better look of the place, when a little voice spoke inside of her head.
Skylor Chen, leave this place or face your doom.
Skylor ignored the voice as part of her imagination and moved onward, calling the rest of her team down after her. It was surprisingly warm down there, and Griffin commented on it.
Then he suddenly looked very frightened. "Did you guys hear that?"
Everything was quiet as they listened for whatever it was that Griffin heard, but there was nothing.
"It's your imagination, Turner," Ash told him, pushing past him as Karloff made the exact same complaint.
Ash was well ahead of them, and needed light, so he lit up his fist with lightning and vanished into the tunnels.
Then he screamed.
All three of them forgot their fears and ran in the direction where they saw him vanish into.
When they got there, they saw quite the fearsome sight.
Someone (human) had a knife against the throat of Ash, holding him very tightly. This person had everything covered but their eyes, and they seemed ready for the kill.
"My friend warned you lot to get out, or else," the person (possible male) growled at them. "Now, if you don't leave, you will find out what he was talking about."
Griffin tried to reach for his friend, but it only made things worse, because now there was a thin line of red coming from Ash's throat.
"Come closer, that'll just make my day," the guy told them with a sadistic tone in his voice.
Griffin took a couple of steps back as the guy kept glaring at them all with vicious, yet familiar brown eyes. Eyes that looked a lot like Nya's. Just like Nya's.
"Kai?" Skylor whispered, hoping that maybe it was true, and that he would want to see his sister, who missed him dearly and thought that he was dead, or forgot about her. The stranger's eyes went wide in shock when he heard her. That gave her an opening. "Kai, I'm a friend of your sister. She wants to see you."
She stepped closer, her arms reaching out to try and get her friend, and her other friend's brother, out of these cursed tunnels and maybe see Nya smile for once. As in, actually smile. Form real happiness.
But something went wrong. The guy who might be Kai noticed that she had come closer, and when somebody with a hostage doesn't get what he wants, it's the hostage who gets hurt, as Skylor found out at that very moment.
"You just made my day, you little liar." Ash was thrown at Griffin with enough force to throw the White Ninja into the wall behind him. "My sister's dead, and if you don't leave right this instant, your little blue friend will join her."
When he spoke next, Skylor got the chills, which had nothing to do with the cold. It reminded her of her father, before he left Ninjago when she was just a little girl.
"Now, leave before you're next."
He vanished into the shadows, leaving Skylor behind to see Griffin taking off his scarf and holding it against Ash's throat to stop the rapid bleeding.
Karloff carefully picked up the Blue Ninja as not to jumble him too much, and they left the tomb like that, deciding that maybe they should just let these guys get eaten by the purple Serpentine.
Then the little voice came back.
I'm so sorry. I don't know what got into him. He's not really like that, I swear.
Skylor shook her head to get the little voice out of her head. It sounded so sad, but it still sent that crazed killer after her and made it kill her friend.
He's not really like that. He's not a killer. I swear.
Skylor couldn't tell Nya about this. It would break her.
I swear. He's not…
The little voice trailed off as the four of them flew home as fast as they could, hoping that Sensei would be able to help Ash before he died. Because as annoying as he was, he was still her friend, and she would hate to see him dead. It was her fault.
Italics: Jay using Telepathy
Skylor's going on a little trip.
A guilt trip. Sorry, couldn't resist. Please comment! :D
