Wisps: Recollection (Ninjago X Reader)

41. Wish of Dust

Splintered, uncertain stares were on you throughout the trip. They never had enough of doing that it seems, along with Jay's snide comments. You lazily trudged behind them, their eyes taking a break and yours following up the stony path to Jay's estate. The letter he got came up to the front of your mind, and you knew as well as he did the estate wasn't his. That didn't stop him from putting up a charade, prancing up the steps as the Ninja and you followed. Great ebony doors opened wide, revealing the inside. Zane's falcon wasted no time in flying in.

"Ahem, welcome to my humble abode." He gestured to the grand space nearby him. The Ninja were impressed, gawking at merely the entrance, a couple of laughs and exclamations at parts of the mansion. You trailed after as they went to the living room adjacent to the entrance. Sand billows in with a draft at the doors before they close with a heavy thud from the weight of polished ebony.

Indifference kept at your features. Difficult to be impressed when Jay was acting as if he earned the place with the rest of the group. The shoji door was already slid back, showing the living room. A voice abruptly announced: "Fear isn't a word where I come from!" You relaxed, it was just a statue of a man aiming a ray gun, wearing a distinct set of clothes. 'Wasn't that a character in a film or something?'

"So, how did you come across this place again?" Lloyd had a kind of childlike fascination and nostalgia with the statue.

"I saved up, yeah- that's it uh- I saved up every little bit, and now- Tada! Here's my secret hideout." He nervously chuckled.

'He couldn't have made it more obvious.' You held a snicker. The "What's so funny?" and hostility are a pain in the ass to deal with.

"Fear isn't a word where I come from!" The statue continued, and Jay launched at it, shaking it to shut it up.

"Uh, I'll turn off the lights!" He rushed to the couch, and when what he was rummaging for wasn't there, he threw the pillows off, darting to a panel with several buttons near the window. "Ahaha found them– sorry, big house." He pushed one button and the air conditioner switched on. Another's pressed, and the stereo pumped out disco music. He started button-mashing random things. Nya studied him, her lips pursed while everyone else stared on, puzzled. Metal shutters converged over the windows, flooding the room in darkness. Jay gave a triumphant laugh as Zane came back with a matchbox. Instinctively, you turned away to something else. You heard the match strike the box and flare. A shiver flashed in your nerves.

'Damn it.' You steel yourself to look at them crowding around the flame in the dark, hesitant to show you their secrets. Light radiated in its glass lantern, tame and absence of any warmth. Zane set it on the table, presenting the map it illuminated.

"Wow, so this is supposed to point the way to the only thing that can stop Nadakhan?" Cole muttered.

"Not stop, slow. A drop of venom from a tiger widow can kill a normal person, but slow a djinn down before he can disappear on us. If we aim to trap him, we need this venom so, let's figure out a plan."

"So the tiger widow is on that island?" She pointed to an island so far from Ninjago city, at the end of the continent's tail.

"An island that doesn't exist, according to my database." Calmly, they discussed their plan, but it had nothing to do with you. Or maybe so with their flickering glances in the flame's light. A tentative back and forth, before shrinking as the flame does and you too shrink back.

'At least none of them are saying anything to me.' That won't last. Cole and Jay weren't around the table. They sneaked out, hushed in their shady conspiracies... When they entered the room up the stairs, they left the door agape, and you slinked up to it.