Ninjago: The Heirs Of Chaos

The Heir Of Wind (Part 3)

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The group stood staring up at the forest, feeling uncomfortably small compared to the vast expanse of huge, towering trees. They shivered in the chilling breeze, moving closer to each other and huddling against the cold.

"Well," Lloyd started, placing his hands on his hips. "We're here. The Woods of the Whispering Giants."

Kai shuddered in response, massaging his arms. "Couldn't the Master of Wind have chosen a more easily accessible and less freezing place to be born?" he complained, blowing warm air into his numb fists.

A comparatively strong gust blew but the biting cold wasn't the reason the team stopped short. Ever so slightly, they could hear soft hisses of something being whispered. The wind made it hard to decipher the garbled sound. The whispers died away as quickly as they had started, leaving an eerie silence in their wake.

"Please tell me that was just the leaves rustling?" Jay whimpered, struggling to hold up Cliff in his shaking arms. They felt so numb and sore now, he was sure they were going to give way soon.

Nya took a few steps into the trees' shade, resting her hand on the trunk of a rather long one. She glanced up with interest as another gale swept through the growth, the mysterious sounds returning as if on cue.

"The trees," Nya muttered, intriguingly feeling the grooves of the bark. "The giants are the trees. Their rustling is what causes the whispering sounds."

"So what now? We just start calling out to Morro for guidance?" Lloyd asked, a hint of annoyance bobbing in his tone.

No one answered. Instead, Jay threw in a loud groan of frustration. "My arms are dying! How much does this kid weigh?"

Nya frowned disapprovingly as Cliff mumbled, "Bro bro, goo goo," before resuming his light snoring. Jay only turned his gaze away awkwardly, cheeks going red.

"Here, hand him over," Kai offered, holding out his arms invitingly.

Jay was more than grateful to lessen the burden. "Ah, yes! The guy who wanted to give family support," the ginger quipped as Kai extracted the boy from his aching arms.

The Master of Fire only rolled his eyes in return.

"Is it time to give him Vitali-tea yet or do we have to keep playing pass-the-kid for a few more hours?" Lloyd wondered, wincing internally when Kai tossed Cliff over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes instead of carrying him bridal style.

"Can I get a break?" Nya snapped at the three men, her forehead wrinkling immensely. "Seriously, the sarcasm from all of you is driving holes into my brain."

The journey (or rather aimless wandering) after that was wordless. They all took turns in bearing Cliff, the mode of carriage switching from sack pose to piggyback rides. Each turn would be accompanied by useless, sleepy mumbles from the boy that would trigger some traumatic, unsolved memory in Lloyd's head like the ketchup brownies incident.

After what seemed like hours of stumbling around like a flock of lost geese, Jay finally broke down. He tutted furiously and intercepted his wife who was advancing onwards with a confidence that was too out of place compared to the exhaustion the others were harboring.

"Stop, Nya! Just listen to me!" Jay yelled, catching the ravenette's wrist and twisting her around to face him. He looked ready to blast off with all the irritation bottling up inside him. "We've been doing nothing but walking for miles! Do you even know where we need to go?"