to rule the world | a ninjago au

[17] the sword in the stone (and fire too)

kai

"When you said peninsula of land, I was expecting less of a volcano and maybe more of a resort." he drawled, hanging halfway out of the jump bay. "Not exactly a holiday magnet."

Astra Garmadon snorted from where she pulled on a parachute and tightened the straps, throwing one so far out Kai would have fallen out of the Nightwing without his absolutely fantastic reflexes. "This is your sword we're retrieving, so suck it up."

"I'm just saying," he shrugged nonchalantly, disappearing from the hanger bay to call everyone else down. Probably not best to piss off the Master of Death when they were about to jump out of a plane. Kai ran a hand through his hair, glancing down at the lava-snaked landscape below. The Fire Temple to him looked much cooler than the rest - the Caves of Despair were boring, the Ice Fortress also boring, and the Shuriken Monument was also boring.

This, however, was literally in his element.

Kai was practically bouncing off the walls in excitement as everyone else came down, and to his surprise, Skylor was there too. He knew she was feeling a lot better, but he was still worried. She looked pale and, well, fragile. He couldn't say that aloud because she'd probably push him off the plane, but it was true. Late at night when he was sparring the punching bag that had a blurry printed photo of Harumi's face on it, he'd heard shuffling from the room above.

Peeking in, Kai had seen Skylor meditating peacefully, controlling a small sphere of lightning to rotate around her. It lit up her face in a blue glow that reminded him of Jay - it was the guy's element, anyway. She seemed okay, she talked as if she were okay, but Kai had this weird feeling in his stomach, like there was a connection between them that he could sense was wrong.

"Hey, Sky." he flashed her a charming smile that she just laughed at, checking her parachute pack with deliberate slowness.

"Excited?"

Kai made a show of being casual, stepping to the edge of the plane with an easy going grin. "Of course," he said, and then jumped off the plane.

The wind tugged and pulled at Kai as he plummeted down towards the smoky volcano. He hadn't travelled much out of the city since moving there, so it was strange seeing all these new places. The volcano belched up lava, and Kai's eight grade Geography lessons came crashing back to him. A dormant volcano has not erupted in many years. An active volcano is one that erupts regularly.

"We're dealing with an active volcano here!" he yelled in his comm, hastily yanking on his parachute to deploy the full chute. He was jerked back up with the sudden release, and began a slower descent down the ground.

Kai landed in a copse of trees mixed with wide leaves and fern spreads, like the ones in the Forest of Tranquility that they'd passed over. There were six thumps from behind him, and sounds of rustling as they repacked their parachutes and double checked their surroundings. The midday sun was shining brightly with good cheer and optimism. Kai felt a surge of confidence as he looked at the black, steaming volcano from behind the leaves.

He could see a red and black ornate archway built fifty metres away from several layers of red-and-white walls circulating the base of the volcano. Much more heavily fortified than the others, except the Ice Fortress. Kai took a step towards the black sanded path, another tug in his stomach pulling him towards the archway.

Now he understood what Cole had meant when there was that feeling - that tug, like someone had lassoed you and was dragging you towards the weapon. As much as he wanted to run straight for the gates, the Sons of Garmadon had taken deliberate measures to make sure they knew how to scout out an area properly.