This was going to be great!
The sun was shining, there was a nice breeze. Perfect weather.
Cole used his hand to shade his eyes as he gazed up at the trees lining the clifftop. He'd been lucky, it hadn't taken him too long to scout this place out. A good size too, just a little taller than a two-story house. Not laughably short, but not overwhelmingly high.
He turned to look back at the little boy who had been trailing behind him. Lloyd was wearing a simple green t-shirt and baggy pants. Cole was dressed similarly, except he wore a black tank top. "It's perfect, right?" he boasted.
Lloyd raised his head up and eyed the cliff with a scrutinizing gaze. "Perfect?" he replied skeptically, "For what?"
"For your first time," Cole said, clapping Lloyd on the shoulder with one hand and gesturing to the cliff with the other. "Lots of good footholds, sturdy, reasonable height, nothing hazardous to land on if you fall-" Alarm lit up Lloyd's young face. "Not that you will," Cole hurried to add. He should have worded that better. "I think you'd be fine even without the rope and crash pad. It's just nice that you don't have to worry about it."
Lloyd didn't look convinced. "Yeah, sure." He let out a sigh. "Do I really have to do this?"
"Yes," Cole said, his voice becoming more serious. "Climbing is a very important skill for a ninja. You don't want to get caught just because you can't climb properly. And once you master climbing a cliff almost everything else becomes a breeze."
Looking down at Lloyd, Cole was struck by how small the kid was. He used to, and sometimes still did, tease Jay for being small, but Lloyd was tiny. He was a kid. He shouldn't be having to deal with any of this. Cole withheld a shudder as a terrifying image of Lloyd cornered against a cliff by a hoard of serpentine, unable to escape, popped into his head.
He pushed all those negative thoughts away.
"Besides," Cole continued in a cheerier voice, "it's fun."
Lloyd, clearly still distressed, shifted on his feet and glanced at the cliff again. Cole frowned slightly. "What's freaking you out so much about it?" he asked. He couldn't fix it if he didn't know what the problem was. "I know you aren't scared of heights. You've always been fine on the Bounty, and you climb trees all the time. I've definitely seen you climb at least one tree higher than this cliff."
"I'm not scared of heights," Lloyd agreed testily, crossing his arms in a huff. "I'm just reasonably concerned about falling." Fair enough. "The Bounty isn't going to randomly fall out of the sky and trees are way different. They're easier to climb and if you fall you have plenty of chances to catch yourself. But that," he waved a hand towards the cliff. "What am I supposed to do if I fall off that?!"
"Well, there are ways to do it," Cole said, remembering all the times he'd done it in the past. "And if you do it the right way it shouldn't be much of a problem. But I get why you're nervous. I was pretty nervous my first time too."
The confession visibly startled Lloyd. He perked up, green eyes widening with surprise. "You were?" he asked in disbelief.
Cole's lips quirked, but he quickly wiped the grin away. Lloyd hated when they thought he was cute and now wasn't the time to tease. So instead he nodded. "Yeah. Everyone is nervous their first time. But once you realize you're good at it and you've got a lot of practice, it's freeing not having to rely on or be limited by ropes."
Lloyd was listening with rapt attention and Cole couldn't resist reaching out a hand and ruffling Lloyd's hair, which elicited a squeak of protest from the little ninja in training. The earth ninja let out a chuckle as he retracted the offending hand. "And you're already in a way better place than I was when I first started," he pointed out. "I didn't have all the ninja training you've had. You're already leagues ahead of most beginners."
Surprise flited across Lloyd's face, and he seemed to seriously consider Cole's reasoning, eyebrows furrowing slightly. Cole waited patiently for him to sort it all in his head. After a few seconds, Lloyd nodded. "I guess that's true…"
"Course it is," Cole agreed, adjusting the pack of supplies on his back so he could reach the main zipper. "Now, let's get to it."
Withdrawing a coil of rope and tossing the rest of the bag onto the ground, he took a minute to study the rocky wall. After scouting out a good path, he looped the rope around his shoulder. "I'll be right back," Cole promised Lloyd.
It didn't even take him a full minute before he was pulling himself onto the clifftop. It was an easy climb. Looking back down, he saw Lloyd watching him and Cole gave him a little wave. He went about setting up the rope. Lining up the rope with what he judged to be the best path for Lloyd to use, he tied one end of the rope to a sturdy tree. He gave it a few tugs to test if it was secure. Satisfied, he let out an approving hum then used the rope to rappel back down to Lloyd.
Landing next to Lloyd with a thud, Cole brushed off his hands and began his lesson. "Ok, before you start, there are some important things you need to know. One of the most basic, but critical, things you need to do is push with your legs, not pull with your arms. It may seem a bit unnatural at first, but your lower body strength is greater than your upper. Your hands are more to guide and steady you as you push yourself up. Always make sure you've set your feet before moving your hands. Keep your weight in your feet. Good balance is important, but like I said, you've already got that down. Keep your arms slightly bent or you'll exhaust your biceps. Don't hug the rock. I know it might feel safer, but it will make it harder for you to see and move. Be precise and coordinated with your foot placements. Don't move without a plan, but don't linger too long. There are spots for resting if you need them and I'll point some out and show you how to use them as you practice." Cole paused. "Er, how much of this are you getting so far?" He was kind of laying a lot on the kid all at once.
Lloyd began listing off, raising a finger as he checked off each one. "Push with legs instead of pull with hands. Use hands to guide. Set feet before moving. Keep weight in feet. Keep arms slightly bent. Don't hug the rock. Have a plan but don't loiter. You'll show me how to use resting places." Kid had used practically all his fingers.
"Wow, Lloyd," Cole said, impressed. "You really are listening." Not that Lloyd didn't try, but he was still a kid. His attention span was only so long (still arguably longer than Kai and Jay's) and Cole had piled a lot on him very fast.
"I don't want to die," Lloyd deadpanned.
Cole chuckled. "Don't be so over-dramatic. You'll be fine." He crouched down and began to riffle through the bag. He knew he wouldn't be able to completely appease Lloyd's nerves until the kid tried it and realized it wasn't as bad as he was hyping it up to be. "Once you've got some practice it'll be fun. Plus, as a bonus, I packed us a picnic. We can have it on the clifftop once you've practiced a few times." He was a bit hungry already, but he could wait a little while. These cupcakes were going to taunt him mercilessly until then though. He hadn't been able to fit a full cake into the box.
From the bag, he took out the crash pad as well as some climbing chalk. "Here," he said, handing the bag of white powder to Lloyd. "Put this on your hands," he instructed, "It will dry any moisture and help increase friction. Don't overdo it though. Blow on them after to get any extra off." Too much and it would fall off your hands while climbing and actually decrease friction, which was definitely not the goal.
Lloyd took the pouch and peered at its contents curiously before starting to tentatively coat his palms. While he did that, Cole set up the crash pad. It was a decent size, black with a golden logo on the topside. Not his logo, the color scheme just happened to match his own. Well, it wasn't just a coincidence, he'd chosen it with his colors in mind, but still. By the time he'd finished unfolding it and positioning it below the rope, Lloyd had come to stand beside him.
"What's this for?" Lloyd asked suspiciously, poking at the mat with his shoe.
"Just something to make you feel more at ease," Cole explained, not wanting the kid to get the wrong idea. "Doubt you'll need it. You already know how to land correctly, and this is a pretty small cliff so the mat is just extra padding."
"I guess," Lloyd said unenthusiastically.
"Don't worry, you'll do great," Cole encouraged, fist bumping Lloyd's shoulder, maybe a little too hard because the kid half-stumbled. Oops. "You're not being chased or anything so there's no hurry. You can plan out your path before you start."
"And I can't use the rope?" Lloyd asked, tone indicating he already knew the answer.
Cole shook his head. "That's another precautionary thing. You can use it if you need to catch yourself, but trust me, you won't need it." He placed his fists on his hips, looking up at the wall. "Alright, let's get started. I'll point some stuff out to ya."
From there, he launched into talking about slopers, jugs, edges, pockets, pinches, all the climbing terms, and pointing out examples on the cliff wall as he did. He didn't care if Lloyd memorized the vocabulary so long as he knew what the stuff was and knew what to do with it.
Lloyd began his first climb about five minutes later. He was going pretty slow, and he kept hugging the rock then remembering he wasn't supposed to and pulling back. He was doing a good job finding a path though and his form was almost perfect. It would probably just come down to practice.
"Great job, Lloyd!" the earth ninja called as Lloyd pulled himself to the top. The blond peered down at him over the cliff edge. "Now use the rope to get down and try it again. Go a little faster this time if you can."
The kid's lips moved as he grumbled something, probably something rude, Cole couldn't hear from here. A few seconds later, the kid had rappelled down and landed beside him.
"How many times am I going to have to do this?" Lloyd whined.
Disappointment twinged in Cole's chest at those words. He'd been hoping Lloyd would like this considering all the tree climbing he did. It would've been cool for the two of them to have a thing. He'd tried to read those comics Lloyd liked but they were so nerdy, he just couldn't do it. Working out wasn't something Lloyd was into for fun and even if he was, it would be a weird thing to bond over with a child. Now that they had the Bounty back, they had their videogames back, but that was more Jay and Lloyd's thing. Cole just played casually (competitively casually) while Jay was way more into it and could talk about lore and junk. The blue ninja could explain why it was important the space dog was brown instead of purple or what so and so item description meant, and Cole just did not get it. He just wanted to blast the bad guys. Maybe the kid was into music?
"We'll keep at it for a couple hours," Cole said with a shrug, pushing those thoughts aside for now. "We'll also move around a bit so you aren't climbing the same spot every time. We'll take our cupca- er- picnic break halfway through." If he could last that long. He could hear the cake begging to be in his belly.
Lloyd sighed, but surprisingly didn't complain, and went back to reclimb the cliff. He was noticeably faster now that he had already climbed the path once.
He really shouldn't have been surprised. Lloyd was obsessed with spinjitzu and training at the moment. His eagerness had now officially surpassed Kai's, but Cole understood why. At first, it had spawned from the desire to prove he really had done spinjitzu when they'd been fighting the pirates. Then it evolved into being frustrated he couldn't do it for more than a few seconds. As far as Cole could tell, the main thing tripping the kid up was his small size. Being a kid sucked like that. All the movements were right, but he still couldn't keep it up long term. And there was no fast way to fix that. He was improving though.
After watching the kid climb the cliff another time, Cole was starting to feel antsy. Could he climb the cliff too? They were small, but better than nothing. No, Lloyd would feel better if he was down here, where he could catch him if he fell.
Sighing, he got down on the ground and began doing push-ups, still watching Lloyd as he did.
The kid gave him a weird look when he came down again, but Cole ignored it. "This time," he instructed. "Try to climb down instead of using the rope." Lloyd had done it enough times he should be plenty familiar with it by now.
Lloyd glanced at the cliff a little nervously but didn't hesitate to start climbing again. Good, he was getting comfortable with it.
Cole was on push-up 483 and Lloyd had climbed down the cliff two times when he decided it was time to move. Lloyd took a breather while Cole moved the rope and crash pad. He chose a part where the path was less clear, and Lloyd would have to reach a little to reach some holds. Not a huge difficulty spike, but definitely more challenging.
While he moved the rest of their stuff over to the new location, Lloyd started to climb. As he placed the bag down, he snuck a look at Lloyd. Kid was doing good so far and wasn't looking in his direction. Satisfied he wouldn't be caught, Cole darted out a hand and slipped a cupcake out of one of the bags (just one wasn't a big deal, right?) and quickly scarfed it down.
It was so good.
His eyes darted between Lloyd and the cake bag. They had brought a lot of cupcakes. Just one more wouldn't be missed…
He'd just finished the second cup of cakey goodness when he heard a yelp above him. Jerking his head upwards, Cole saw that the hold that Lloyd's left hand had been using had crumbled. His three other holds were solid though, so he was still fine.
"Don't worry, Lloyd!" Cole called, scanning the cliff. "Just find a new hold." Ah, there. "There's a pinch you can use a little higher to your left."
Lloyd found what he was talking about almost instantly. He continued a few steps to a more comfortable spot to pause then looked down at Cole. "See," he said, "this is why-" his voice suddenly turned outraged and his eyes burned with betrayal. "Hey! Are you eating the cupcakes?!"
"Um," Cole stuttered, glancing at the incriminating empty wrappers laying on the ground as he tried to come up with a way to deny the accusation. He couldn't think of anything. "Just making sure they still taste good."
"Why would they not taste good?! Zane made them!" Kid was right, not his best excuse. Pitiful really. That was what happened when you tried to think on an empty stomach.
"Well, yeah, er, don't worry about it," Cole stumbled. "I packed plenty."
"You could fill a truck with cake and you'd still somehow manage to eat it all! Your stomach is literally a black hole!"
"Not true," Cole defended himself, crossing his arms. There was no good way out of this. "Look, just finish the climb you're doing now, and you can have some when you get down." A little earlier than he'd been planning but this was fine.
Lloyd glared at him a few seconds longer then huffed, "Fine," and turned back to continue climbing.
Sighing, Cole started to unpack the picnic bag and set it all up. He did feel a little bad, but he really wouldn't have eaten all of them. Lloyd would have gotten the same amount either way. Although if their roles were switched and Cole had seen someone eating cake without him, well… The kid would forgive him when he got his cupcakes.
After putting down the black picnic blanket (which they didn't really need. It was just for atmosphere), Cole sat down and waited for Lloyd to make it back down.
And waited.
And waited.
Frowning, Cole stood up and scanned the clifftops. Lloyd had made it to the top a while ago, why wasn't he climbing down yet? Was this some kind of protest? He could see Lloyd doing something like that if there weren't cupcakes waiting for him down here, but there were. So where was he?
"Lloyd!" Cole called, keeping the growing concern out of his voice. "I've got the picnic set up!"
Nothing.
Okay, time to start getting worried. Not super worried, but still slightly concerned. It was probably just a prank, a stupid way to get back at him, and Cole was going to climb up there and Lloyd would be there just picking at the grass and the kid would laugh at him for climbing up. Cole would have noticed if anything bad was happening…
Even knowing that, he couldn't get rid of the nagging worries, no matter how improbable, that plagued him as he climbed the cliff. Lloyd not being anywhere in sight when he got to the top didn't help.
"Lloyd?" Cole searched for any sign of bright blond hair. No answer. Ugh.
He seriously doubted Lloyd had been snatched or anything like that. Lloyd would have made sure he made a lot of noise and, given where they were in his training at the moment, probably started a small fire in the process. It wasn't impossible that someone had managed to be especially sneaky, but it was more likely Lloyd had just run off to hide somewhere.
Heaving a sigh, Cole looked around trying to guess where the kid was holing up. He wouldn't have wandered off too far, he knew better than to wander too far off from his protectors.
"Lloyd!" he called, walking further into the trees. "C'mon. If you don't get back over here, I really might eat all the cupcakes without you!" That was a threat that would get the kid moving. If he didn't come out now, Cole would actually start to worry.
Fortunately, it didn't come to that.
"Stop, shouting Cole, you're freaking him out."
What? Him? Confused, Cole followed Lloyd's voice and peered up to where the kid was sitting on an oak tree branch. Finding him in a tree wasn't surprising. What was surprising was-
"Lloyd? Where'd you get that cat?" The grey tabby cat was sitting on Lloyd's lap as he pet it. It was a small thing, scruffy too. No collar either so it probably wasn't anyone's pet. No one lived around here anyways.
"He was sitting by that bush over there," Lloyd nodded over towards the cliff.
Cole tilted his head. "So you chased after it?" Not a prank then. This did create a new set of problems though. He was surprised Lloyd actually managed to catch the little guy. "He didn't scratch you, did he?" he asked. He didn't see any blood or anything, but this was a probably wild cat they were talking about here.
"No," Lloyd scowled, like the very idea was offensive. "He's nice, see?" He moved the cat forward a little as though Cole couldn't already clearly see it.
"Come down here and let me have a look at him," Cole told him.
Lloyd nodded and carefully climbed down. Meeting him at the bottom, Cole leaned down to pet the cat's head. It looked pretty young. Maybe five months old? He wasn't a cat expert, he was just going off what he remembered about his old neighbor's kitten.
"Do you think he's someone's pet and he's lost?" Lloyd asked, looking up at him with big eyes.
…This was a delicate situation. Under no circumstances could they end this with Lloyd getting a new pet cat. Kid already had a giant four headed dragon. Cole hadn't even been allowed to have a dog as a kid. His dad had said the barking would 'disturb the music'. He was still a little bitter about it. Just a little.
Cole shook his head. "I doubt it," he said honestly. "He doesn't have a collar, and no one lives nearby."
"But what if his owners went on vacation or something and now he's trying to follow them across the country?" Cute. Lloyd was such a kid sometimes. A lot of times actually. More times than not. He was a kid after all.
"I think that's a dog thing," Cole corrected gently.
Lloyd shook his head, plopping down to sit on the ground so he could hold the cat easier. "I'm pretty sure I heard a story about a cat doing it once," he argued stubbornly.
Cole sat down beside him, folding his legs into a crisscross position. "Well, I don't think that's the case for this little guy." He reached over to pet the tabby again, but it tensed up and kind of glared at him so he decided he maybe he shouldn't. Why was it so comfortable with Lloyd then? Was it because Lloyd was smaller?
"Do you think his mom is nearby?" Lloyd asked, glancing around. "She's probably wondering where her baby went."
"Nah," Cole said, waving a hand. "He's too old. She would have left him by now."
"What?" Lloyd frowned, eyebrows furrowing as he gazed down at the kitten. "But he's still a baby. Look how small he is."
"He's young, yeah," Cole agreed. "But animal parents don't usually stick around long. For cats, they tend to leave after about three months. That's why humans normally adopt kittens around that time. Some people feel like they're stealing the babies from the mom, but the mom's about to leave them anyways."
He'd meant for that information to be comforting but Lloyd just looked more upset. "But he's still small!" Lloyd protested, distressed. The kid clutched the cat closer. "Why would she leave? What else is she going to do that is so important?!" The last few words twisted into anger.
Cole winced. So the kid was still in that stage of his life, huh? He remembered what it was like being a kid and thinking the animals were like the ones in the cartoons and storybooks. Not the talking or any of that, obviously, but they always made everything seem nicer than it really was. They brushed over nature's harsher realities. As much as Cole liked and appreciated nature, it did kinda suck a lot of the time.
"Animals grow up fast," Cole explained, trying to think of what would make Lloyd feel better without lying. "For survival and stuff. And cats aren't pack animals. Look at him," he nodded at the tabby. "he's fine. A little scruffy, but he's been surviving on his own."
Lloyd opened his mouth then snapped it shut, turning to glare at the dirt with a surprising amount of anger.
"Does it really upset you that much?" Cole asked, concerned, but not really sure what else he could do. It was just a fact of life. Nothing he ever did was going to make cats stay with their kittens longer.
He didn't get an answer though and Lloyd just shook his head sharply. Hmm.
"We could take him to an animal shelter," Cole suggested. "If you really don't want to leave him out here by himself. He's cute and still really young, he'll get adopted fast."
"So if he's useful for something, people will keep him around," Lloyd muttered, stroking at the cat's cheek.
"Er, I don't know if I'd word it like that," Cole said, inwardly very confused but trying to hide it. "People gets pets for a lot of different reasons." He paused, thinking. "I had a neighbor when I was a kid who had a cat. It was this big white cat named Yeti." Lloyd glanced at him, then darted his eyes back to the ground. The reaction encouraged Cole to keep going. "He was a friendly cat, but I'm pretty sure he's one of the main reasons my dad was so against us getting a pet. Our neighbors had a piano and sometimes he'd jump on it and kinda stomp around. My dad hated that sound. And a dog was never going to happen, too much barking." It wasn't that his dad didn't like animals, he just didn't like them in his house or by his instruments.
"Your dad is into dancing and music and stuff right?" Lloyd asked, turning to face him, a spark of curiosity lighting up his green eyes.
"Yeah." There was a time admitting that would have been really embarrassing, but he actually felt kinda proud about it now. "He was a member of the Royal Blacksmiths. They were a pretty big deal."
Lloyd's nose scrunched up. "That's a weird name for a band- dance group- whatever you call it. What's musical about blacksmiths?"
"More of a barbershop quartet," Cole corrected. "And there is a reason behind the name, a long, long reason, but I do not want to talk about it right now." Hearing the story from his dad a thousand times, he could literally recite the story word for word. There'd been a point when he'd hated that story, but now that he wasn't being pressured into being a dancer and he hadn't heard the story in a while, he didn't mind it. Telling it, at least, listening to it himself for the millionth time, well...
Lloyd seemed calmer now so they should probably get moving. Dealing with the cat was going to cut their climbing time short, but the kid had gotten some good work in for his first time.
Cole stood up, bumping Lloyd's shoulder as he did. "C'mon Champ, we'd better get going." He eyed the cat uncertainly. Lloyd wasn't going to be able to climb down with it in his arms, but he didn't like his chances of the cat letting Cole hold him. "I'm gonna go grab a bag to put him in so we can get him down the cliff. I'll be right back."
Lloyd nodded and Cole hurried back to their yet to be eaten picnic. He cast a mournful look at the waiting cupcakes before turning his attention to the bags. If Cole just carried some of the equipment by hand, they could use the smaller bag to carry the cat.
When he got back to the top of the cliff, Lloyd had moved to wait by the edge. Shrugging the bag off his shoulder, Cole placed it on the ground. "Do you think he'll stay in there?" he asked.
Lloyd shrugged, placing the cat in the bag. It sniffed around a little but didn't move to jump out. "He seems fine."
Before it could change its mind, Cole carefully grabbed the bag and used the rope to rappel down. Lloyd followed behind closely and took the cat back once they were on the ground.
"We're going to have to call it here for the day," Cole told him, beginning to pack up their stuff. Between walking back and getting the cat to a shelter, they would use up the rest of their time. He glanced back at Lloyd. "Do you feel better about climbing? Now that you've done it some?"
"Yeah," Lloyd nodded. "Not sure I'd be as okay with an actual mountain, but it was kinda cool. And the views were kinda nice."
"Yeah?" Cole said hopefully, grabbing up all the now-packed bags and loose equipment. "Well, it will only get better the more you practice. We'll make a mountaineer of you yet." A small smile slipped onto Lloyd's face.
Maybe he'd get his rock-climbing buddy after all.