Cultists of Chen: A Ninjago backstory

The Trip to Domu

"Son, we're leaving for the Library! Come on!" comes a voice from the hallway, slightly muffled by the locked door of young Chen's room. Chen sat in a corner, sulking in silence. Earlier, he had been told that he would amount to nothing when compared with the Elemental Masters, who wielded unique and powerful abilities. He wanted to give up on life, thinking that there was no point in life any more.

Chen heard the sounds of keys jangling from outside his room, and seconds later, the lock turned and his father came in, and very harshly dragged Chen to his feet. "Come on! You will come with Mother and I to the Library. Now!" his father said angrily. "Okay, okay," Chen replied, dragging his feet across the wooden floorboards of his small house towards the main door.

Outside, a bright red rickshaw was parked across the road from Chen's house, the coolie pulling the rickshaw standing in front of it, drinking some water from a pouch, waiting for customers. Chen started heading towards it, but his father put a hand on his shoulder, so he stopped. As he watched, a man walked out of a tea shop on the other side of the road, towards the rickshaw. The man looked young, with sandy blond hair. In one hand he held a bamboo walking staff that glinted gold in the bright noon sunlight, and in the other hand he held a bag of tea leaves that looked pretty expensive to Chen, the kind of stuff that Chen thought he'd never be able to afford. The man was dressed in black robes with grey rims, and along the right side of the robes were letters printed in gold, like some sort of spell. The man got on the rickshaw, and the rickshaw drove away.

"Father, aren't we supposed to take that rickshaw? It...it's driving away!" Chen said anxiously. "Oh no, we aren't taking rickshaws! We're going to take a hike!" came a reply from behind Chen. It was Chen's mother, coming out of the house holding some walking sticks and some packed bags, with one slung across her shoulders. Chen couldn't believe it. "We're walking? All the way up to Domu? No way!" Chen stomped his left foot on the ground to punctuate his statement. "We are hiking to Domu and that's that!" Chen's father said, putting a walking stick in Chen's hands, and tossing him a backpack. As Chen reluctantly strapped his bag around his shoulders, he tried very hard not to throw the staff in his hands to the ground in anger. He succeeded, but the raging look on his face was very clear. "We're heading off now," said his father to his mother, then turning to look at Chen, he added "And don't give me that look," he said, referring to Chen's angry face, "I will not put up with this nonsense, boy." It took all of Chen's will not to drop down and throw a tantrum. Instead, the boy nodded twice, willing his anger to dissolve.

An hour later, Chen found himself still trudging along the rocky path in the mountains towards the Holy City of Domu. He felt slightly better looking at the beautiful scenery around him, but he was still mad. Mad that he was walking - his feet felt like pounds of rock, weighting him down - and mad about what he was told earlier, about him amounting to nothing. Suddenly, his mother called out excitedly, "Look! It's there! The Holy City of Domu! Come on!" Chen's mother increased her pace, followed by Chen's father, who turned around and gave his son a single wave, signalling for him to come forward, before walking off to join his wife. Chen rolled his eyes, sighed, and increased his pace a tad bit more.

Walking into the city, Chen saw a lot. This place hadn't changed much since the few times he visited this place a while ago. The marketplace near the entrance was still bustling with action. Vendors selling food were busy cooking in their stalls, with steam steadily flowing out, and the aromas of a wide variety of food wafting out from the stalls and up Chen's nostrils. Vendors selling precious clothes, cloths and fabric products were busy yelling promotions and discounts, inviting customers towards their stalls, while vendors selling precious stones and jewellery were very popular, with a lot of people crowding around their stalls. As Chen walked through the marketplace, he noticed that among the different stalls were some street performers. One was doing some dance moves, one was coated from top to bottom in metallic silver paint, and standing very still. But one that caught Chen's attention the most, was a middle-aged man with a thin black moustache and a wide conical straw hat, who sat cross-legged on a nice red mat with gold rims and tassels on the corners, playing a flute. In front of the man was a straw woven basket. As the man played a tune on his flute, a dark green snake with a lime pattern running down the length of its back emerged from the basket, slowly swaying from side to side, as if it were hypnotised. The whole performance was hypnotising to watch. What a great show, Chen thought. Imagine taming a snake! Imagine having a whole army of snakes! Chen quickly shook these thoughts away, concentrating on this performance. The man with the flute looked up at the crowd gathered in front of him, not stopping his tune, and he saw Chen. He gave the young boy a little wink, then went back to looking at the snake. Chen felt a gentle tug, and he saw his mother behind him, reminding him that he had other places to be. So, giving the performance one last look, he turned and followed his mother towards the great building in front of him - the Library of Domu. He had finally arrived. (Not that he was too happy or excited about it)

Hey guys! IronBaron0920 here. This book was in stages of planning since a few months ago, but I was kinda lazy so I procrastinated for a looong while, but here it is! The first chapter! Hope you enjoy! :D