The Split Element- Book 1 (Ninjago: Zane X Oc)

The Cliffs of Hysteria...

Aly's POV:

Once we figured out the direction of our next task, we set off for the Cliffs of Hysteria. But Okino wasn't guiding us. Instead, he was trailing behind while dragging his katana in the sand.

We felt sorry for him, since he had just been told his world was nothing but a video game.

"I'm worried about Okino. He took the news pretty hard." Lloyd sighed. "Wouldn't you?" Cole responded. "If you found out your whole world was nothing but a simulation? And you were part of it?"

"We gotta cheer him up." Nya added. "But how? He looks pretty upset." I sighed, quickly turning back to find the Samurai still looking glumly at the floor.

"You're right. But we have to do something." Jay admitted while trying to think. "Yeah. Okay. Nobody say anything about Unagami. Or Prime Empire. Or the Keytana." Lloyd instructed us.

"What do we walk about?" Kai asked, curious as to what we could say. "Anything. Just keep it cheerful." Lloyd stated as the upset Samurai came towards us.

We stopped, and watched as he walked right past us, still dragging his sword. We wanted to help him, but we weren't sure how. Luckily, Jay seemed to have an idea and rushed to him.

"Uh, so, um, Okino. What do you do around here for fun anyway?" He cautiously asked with a small chuckle.

"Fun is an illusion." Okino emotionlessly responded, making us more concerned.

"Hey, how about that sky? Look at those clouds!" Cole had his try at cheering him up, but it wasn't enough.

"The clouds..." Okino looked up to the sky and furrowed his eyebrows. "...Lies!"

Kai started to think until he pushed past Cole to reach Okino. "Say, Okino...how do you get a Ninja to cross the road?" We all knew where this was heading, and it definitely wasn't the best option.

"You say, Ninja-Go! Get it?" Kai laughed at his own joke while the rest of us just sighed with disappointment.

Okino looked at him confused.

"There is no road. Only the nothingness is real." He sighed, walking ahead of us again.

"Kai, I don't think that was the best thing to say." I told him. "Yeah, what kind of a joke was that?" Cole added. "You got a better one?" He shot back as our attention was taken by our destination.

"Holy cow." Jay gasped as we looked up at the sight.

There was a giant wall ahead of us, which practically touched the sky.

"Tell me those aren't the Cliffs of Hysteria." Kai sighed.

"That's not a cliff. That looks like a wall that never ends!" Cole pointed out the fact that the cliffs went on for miles either side of us, which was intriguing.

"Definitely not double-jumping up that thing." Nya admitted. "Yeah, Okino, I'm not sure I can climb that. And if I can't do it, these guys don't stand a chance." Jay scoffed, making us feel down.

"Thank you, Jay." I sarcastically smiled at him. "Honest but insulting." Cole added. "We don't even have a rope." Lloyd exclaimed, but Okino seemed to have a solution.

"You can buy some from shifty."

"From who?" Lloyd asked as Okino pointed to a small shop along the cliff.

A man was standing there and frantically started waving at us to come over.

"Greetings, Travelers! Welcome to Shifty's Table! Step right up and take a look. This here's the finest merchandise in all of Terra Karana! That's real leather armour, there, and those arrows are genuine poison-tipped, and...Hello!"