Flumptober/Morrotober 2022

Prompt 2: Hiking

"Would you just smell that beautiful Autumn air?"  Nya inhales deeply, enjoying the loud crunching sound of the leaves underfoot as she takes a forest walk with the rest of the ninja.

A fiery-hued leaf drifts down from a sugar maple tree, and Jay catches it and admires it, then deftly weaves its stem into her hair.  He steps back and admires his handiwork.  "You look perfect."  He grins.

She smiles back.  "Thank you, Jay."

He quickly kisses her on the cheek and runs after Lloyd, who's bounding through the undergrowth, trying to keep up with Kai.  "Wait up!"

"Summer's my favorite season, (it's a great chance to show off some skin) but Fall's got its..  Advantages."  Kai smirks and sets his hand alight.

"Kai, no."  Cole grabs his hand, putting out the flame, and throws him into the leaves.

"Do you want to burn this whole forest down?"  Nya growls, glaring at him.

"Yeah, it'll be like what happened to the Greater Ninjago Region's Pine Conservancy Area."  Jay adds, backing Nya up in a heartbeat.

"The what?"  Lloyd asks, confused.  "I've never heard of it.  Is that even a thing?"

"It was, until Kai BURNED IT ALL TO THE GROUND."  Cole barks out accusingly.

"H-hey, now..."  Kai stammers, backing away from them.

"It was a magnificent example of the beauty of our native forests."  Zane clarifies.  Then his eyes glow an angry icy-blue.  "Until Kai decided to ignite it all."

"Do you know how quickly pines burn?"  Cole continues.

"No..?"

"Exactly.  And neither did he, until it was too late.  So now he has a restraining order.  Against trees."

"It looked pretty cool, though.  Kind of like flaming fireworks..."  Jay trails off at everyone's horrified looks.  "I mean, bad Kai."

"Can we play in the leaves now?"  Kai asks meekly.

"We are adolescents now, nearly adults.  I do not believe that we should set this kind of example-"  Zane begins, then breaks off, spluttering as Lloyd throws a fistful of leaves into his face.

"BULL'S-EYE!!!  YEAH!!!"  Lloyd whoops happily and races over to the Smith siblings and Jay, who are busy scooting around an ever-bigger pile of leaves.

"Where is Cole?!!"  Zane shouts.

Cole screams as he gets accidentally rolled into the pile, then shrugs and pulls a cake out from nowhere, munching it as he turns round and round.

"I LOVE FALL!!!"  Jay screams.

"You mean Autumn.  Fall makes it sound like an accident."  Zane sighs.

"YES!!!  FALL IS THE BEST!!!"  Nya hollers back, and the two hug each other triumphantly as Lloyd, Kai and Jay all jump into their massive pile of leaves.

Kai leans back, winking at Zane and throwing him a kiss playfully.

"ARE YOU HIGH?!!"  Zane beeps indignantly.  "Or just insane?"

"Maybe a little bit of both, buddy.  Enjoy it, it won't last."

"Zane, as your team leader, I order you to have fun today."  Lloyd drawls, then squeals with delight as he comes across a wood mouse.  "I'm gonna call you Squeakers!"  

Zane hesitates.  "Well, perhaps just this once..."

"Yay!  The whole team's finally going to have some fun without dying for once!!!"  Lloyd places Squeakers in his gi and jumps onto a low-hanging tree branch.  "THIS IS AWESOOOME!!!"

"You are still just a child at heart, aren't you?"  Zane smiles and presses a button on his arm.  "Activating fun mode."

Fun mode activated.

"Fun's a mode?"  Jay asks.

Kai shrugs.  "I guess so."

"Let's have some fun while we can, because we still have to go all the way back to the monastery, you know."  Nya reminds them sternly.

"Yeah, it's my turn to cook."  Cole responds proudly.

"Oh, no!"

"I'm suddenly not at all hungry anymore."

"Can we stay a lot longer?"

"Like, forever?"

"That sounds like an excellent idea, friends."

"Oh, come ON!"

594 words.