𝕊𝕚𝕩 𝕃𝕖𝕒𝕘𝕦𝕖𝕤 | Ninjago Villain AU

VI - Lord Of The Departed

"Land ho!" Ames announces, a mix of cheery and sarcastic. He pilots the ship's wheel of the Destiny's Bounty, and lands it onto the drear that is the water. The other three skip up to the upper deck, and peer over to the drab town that is Stiix, which Cole looms somewhere among.

The clouds are dark gray, almost black. Quite overcast, and yet, no rain. Apparently it hasn't rained in Stiix in years. The waters below the tangle of a town are murky and remind the passengers on the Bounty's stead of ink. There are an array of hills which were the bare minimum that a hill could be; completely rock. They surround this town, and apparently they're all new.

"I'm telling you," Ames insists, "These weren't here last time I came here!"

"You've been here before?"

"Research purposes," the advisor answers as-a-matter-of-factly. "Needed to collect data."

The hills are actually a gaping problem. They surround the town, as mentioned earlier, and that's meant to mean all of it. So, there isn't exactly an easy entrance. 

"Are you all stupid?" Jay snarks. "Can't we just fly over them using the ship?" he suggests.

"If you want this thing to crash, then it'd be a perfect idea." Lloyd says. "But alas, it's not. There are over thousands of cursed properties and matters in this town, and thousands of curses, to add onto that. I have the feeling that the Destiny's Bounty is going to simply combust once it's inside the boundaries of this wretched place."

Jay groans. "Well crud!" he mumbles. "What are we gonna do, then?"

"We go by foot," Lloyd replies. "It's the safest. . . And even then, the safest here is hazardous. So, naturally, I'd suggest being careful." he heeds, putting on some thick black climbing boots and a dense cloak, in which he put its hood over his head.

"That's fine with me." Kai shrugs. "As long as I don't step on a spike, or get eaten alive, or get stabbed, or possessed, or. . ."

Kai lists gruesome, odd, or straight up dumb ways to die as the gang hops off the ship and onto the rocky and steep hills that set the town's boundaries. The hills seem somewhat weak, actually. Rocks easily fall off if any of the men hold onto marginally tight, which is rather important when climbing, so this is somewhat of a struggle. Pebbles often crumble down and bonk on heads, too.

"Gosh, why are these stupid hills so hard to climb?! They're hills! You don't climb hills!" Jay complains in exasperated breathes as he fumbles onto a small ledge for a wee bit of rest.

"They're basically miniature mountains," Ames replies casually. "Like, rocky and not one to prosper on kinda mountains, but they're way too low below the 1,000 foot height that is required for something to be a mountain, so they're hills."

Jay groans at the answer, and keeps on climbing. The gang have progressed three fourths of the hills at this point, and are rather tired. It's then that Jay has an idea that nobody's bothered to have for some reason.