Chapter 19: Underwater

"Let go! You aren't that gentle

Watching and waiting from in the shadows,

They've been here such the meadows,

Run little fox, your heart is at stake,

You're going to be bitten by the snake

Run little fox, your heart is at stake,

You're going to be bitten by the snake,

Your paws are sore and your tail is long

Is the snake really doing wrong?

All it wants is one little snack,

Run little fox, and don't look back.

The snake looks around for its next meal,

Maybe his invitation didn't have a seal

He watches you from a distance,

Even though you wished for his assistance,

He doesn't care, eating all day,

Just run little fox, far away

Or don't, and be dragged under,

Seriously, where is your mother?

They said you can't give in!

Or are they lying, with a evil grin?

They're forcing you below the surface

Run little fox, this is your purpose."

——-—————-—————-—————-———

"Stay low!" Warned Nya, crouching.

"I'm sure the Rock Crusier could get through here." Murmured Skylor, ducking, "Shhhh!" Growled Nya. "You're lucky it's only the three of us. We would of been dead if anyone else was here."

A tank soared behind them and Nya hid behind a tree, trying to fit her body into the silhouette. The tank stopped, moved its gun to the tree, and let out a soft clicking noise.

1, 2, 3, 4.

The tank moved back into its normal position and moved along.

"4 seconds, just stand still for 4 seconds."

Nya whispered, slipping down the tree.

"What? Surely that's not how-" Harumi protested before Nya covered her mouth. The sound of footsteps echoed through The Valley, and Nya felt the single bead of sweat dripping down her forehead. A soldier, tall and muscular. He pushed the brunette hair out his face and looked around.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Harumi looked to Nya with relief and pointed to a Smokey grey shape in the distance. Skylor nodded and slowly crawled through the bushes, trying not to make a sound.

"General, we have reports of a vehicle parked just outside of our borders." Nya stopped and tapped Skylor on the shoulder, giving her a look. Skylor looked at her in fear.

"Then it is none of our concern. Border patrols will begin at sunset. It is their job and their job only."

They had until sunset to get in and out. It was early midday now, they had a scarce amount of hours remaining.

Nya sighed and kept crawling her knees scraping them under the mud and sticks. Harumi had her hair tied messily into a ponytail, while was covered in mud. When they were close enough, Nya pointed to the river flowing directly into the stronghold, before Skylor and Harumi got the jest and got up and ran that way. Nya followed them, flinching at every noise that the forest would possibly give them. She got to the river, before Skylor shrugged. Nya rolled her eyes before forming a very large bubble under the waters surface, and signalled them into it.

Skylor lit a match and stared at the stone roof above them, before pulling down her half mask.

"Wow, I didn't know you could do this."

"I didn't either. But after Lloyd died I pushed myself to go further in my training… it feels weird to say it now. Lloyd being dead."

"Wait, I thought you and Jay went travelling around Ninjago?" Asked Skylor.

"Yeah we did, but we still trained. Jay isn't really that fond of Master Wu, he thinks that Lloyd's death had something to do with him, he won't tell me what though. He's been incredibly obnoxious since then. And more annoying if you can't tell. It's been really hard lately actually."

"Well, I'm sure that as soon as we find Lloyd we can all go home and joke about this tomorrow." Smiled Harumi.

"Yeah. But until then, we need to keep fighting for Lloyd." They reached the end of the tunnel, where a large grate stood in the way.

"What would this be here for? Unless it's to keep the fish out, but the bars are way too far apart for that." Murmured Skylor.

"Callista said something about barracudas right? Then the grate is here to stop them from coming in." Reasoned Nya.

"If that's true that means that this pipe lends into the water system. That means if we go through here that we'll be straight in and won't have to deal with any guards." Commented Harumi.

"But that also means that it's probably heavily protected. It's the King we're talking about here." Nya spoke.

"Right." Harumi sighed. There was a moment of hesitation before Nya opened her mouth.

"There's a species called Aquarians here. They're basically humans expect they have fins and tails and other stuff like that. And they're blue and sometimes even green. But they live underwater, so King Aurelius must have some sort of pool or door to welcome them in. But that would be more decorated, but also very secretive at the same time."

"Like different colours of kelp or coral?" Asked Skylor.

"Coral and kelp don't grow in freshwater. But water ferns do. They look very similar, and come in many different colours." Informed Harumi. "I'm studying Biology."

"Oh nice." Skylor smiled.

"And useful, look!" Nya pointed to a patch of autumn coloured water ferns.

"That's it." Harumi grinned. They walked over to the circle, and Skylor feels the sand.

"It's not wet. But I think…" She traced her fingers from the floor to the stone wall. "There must be some sort of button.

And a door." Something clicked and it opened, revealing a wide water logged tunnel.

"Welp. This would be a fun way to die." Remarks Harumi.

Hellooo~

I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did writing it (which took like a month OOPS)

I love reviews to if you like it please let me know as well as your predictions/suggestions.

once I finish this segment of the DragonEcho series as I'm calling it I'll be refining the chapters and uploading a better version so if you wanna see that follow my account and you'll get to see Echoes of the Fall 2.0 I guess.

Lmao that's all have a stupendous day!!!!