Ninjago's Shadow

19: Ice

~~~Zane P.O.V.~~~

I walk through one village, and am able to get a ride from a farmer who was going to visit his parents who live about seven miles from town. I tell him about the Great Devourer, the Serpentine, the final showdown, and finding the golden weapons of spinjitzu. When he asks if the roamers were true about Lloyd having a girlfriend I slowly nod. Then he says, “Well if it is the girl that was in the newspaper then I know her.”

“You do?” I ask him.

He nods, “Saw her layin’ on the side o’ the road passed out. Tribal gashes all over her, poor little filly. She ain’t know what hit her, was nearly dead. So I took her to the Jamanakai village hospital.”

“Thank you so very much for saving her, and by the way she is alive.” I thank and tell him.

“Do you know her?” He asks me.

I laugh. “More than you’d believe. She’s my sister. My father, the one who built me, adopted her.”

“Well it’s been nice talkin’ to you.” The truck slows down as we near a house. “This is where me folks live. It gets cold at night you want a blanket?” He asks.

I shake my head. “The cold won’t hurt me.” I get out of the truck.

“Wait, I all most forgot.” He says and gets out of the truck. I follow him to the back of the truck and he pulls out something long and circular rapped in a brown cloth. “Your sis might o’ lost this.” He says handing it to me. I thank him then turn and leave, walking along the side of the road.

The sun falls in the sky and the sky darkens and the clouds turn pink, red, and yellow. I unwrap the brown cloth, Leray’s crystal flute sparkles from the fading light of the sun in my hands.

Stuffing the cloth in my pocket, I play the flute. Sweet notes drift through the air. Suddenly I hear a bird chirping along with me. I look up and see falcon. Smiling I rap the flute in the cloth again and place it alongside my sword hilt on my back.

For two more days I walk with falcon flying over my head. Every day the mountains slowly grow taller and taller reaching for the sky like icy claws.

Now I stand at its rocky base. Falcon chirps and lands on a bolder. He blinks at me as if to ask, ‘Well are we going or not?’ I nod then set off. Swiftly scaling ledges and boulders, the air soon starts to cool with an icy breeze that sweeps down from the mountains. Snow gathers in cracks and under rocks. As the snow thickens the air grows sharper with cold and the sun sets.

I find an overhang that will shield me from the wind and snow. I sit down with my legs crossed and lean against the rock behind me. Closing my eyes I sleep, well more like powering down for the night, with a sealing of rock above me.

I wake up to a rumbling in the ground and falcon squawking. Earth quack. Quickly I scramble out from underneath the overhang right as it collapses. Soon the shacking withers down to a tremor. As I continue to climb the mountain the air seems to tremble and falcon squawks again. An ocean of snow washes down the mountain.

Instantly I whip my sword from my back and the blade extends. Plunging it into the rock a wall of ice forms and the seconds seem to slow down. The snow hits the ice sending cracks to web out over the surface. Pushing my sword deeper into the rock the ice thickens. Minutes pass by and then the last few flecks of snow dribble by.

I pull my sword from the rock or the mountain and look around. The ice wall shatters and falls in chunks on the snow. Trudging on the snow builds up till it’s above my knees. Another small tremor shakes the mountain slightly and then boulders come rolling down. Falcon whistles in alarm as the boulders roll by me crunching the snow. An even path is left behind as the boulders roll away. I walk on the path instead of scrambling through the snow.

Soon I come to a chasm with a narrow ledge and cliff faces on either side. On the other end I can see the ice plains. I call to falcon, “That, my friend, is where we need to be.” I point to the ice plains. Flacon chirps then dives into the chasm.

Carefully I skirt the edge or the chasm to the narrow ledge. Clinging to the wall of the cliff I slowly slide my feet along the ledge with only inches to spare. For the rest of the day I cling to the rock for my life and make slow progress to the ice plains. During the night I continue on under the twinkling stars not daring to stop. I keep my eyes fixed on the ice plains or the cliff face. Never looking down.

By the time the sun begins to rise I have my feet firmly planted on the ice. Falcon is standing in front of me. He blinks and cocks his head to one side like he was asking, ‘What took you so long?’

“I wish I had wings like you, my friend.” I say, then taking a few steps forward I survey my new surroundings. To my left is the ocean with glaciers floating in its calm waters, and to my right the everlasting, or so it seems, ice plains.

Falcon flutters to my shoulder then into the air and chirps as if to cry out with glee, ‘Not much further now!’ He takes off and I run underneath him.

Soon the ice arch pocks out of the blue haze the ice creates. I run faster cold wind blasting by. The ice temple then appears from the side of a small ice mountain. Sliding to a stop under the ice arch I marvel at the temple.

It is made from large ice crystals that glitter in the sun and cast rainbows over the small powdery layer of snow. The door is just a jagged hole from when Shard burst through it when he thought that we were stealing the shurikens of ice, before he became my dragon.

I jog up the slick ice path to the temple and as the path grows steeper I start to slide back a little. Finally I reach the temple out of breath from stepping then sliding and stepping then sliding back a bit more.

After catching my breath I enter the temple and go to the middle of the high domed sealing room. A giant icicle pointing to the middle of the temple. I stand under it and look up at the point where the shurikens of ice once hung from it.

Falcon flutters in and sits on the head of a frozen skeleton his claws making a scraping sound on the ice. I turn my head to him and ask, “Do you know what I should do now?”

“Become one with the ice, sink into it.” Says a tinkling voice. I turn to where it came from. A small girl stands behind me. She has silver hair with flacks of snow in it, eyes as gray as the full moon, and very pale skin. Her dress is a swirled silver and white with frost on the hem.

“What’s your name?”

“Prophecy.” She seems to sing. Then as she starts to fade, she repeats, “Become one with the ice, sink into it.” Then she is completely gone.

I sit down, facing the door, and cross my legs resting my hands on my knees. Closing my eyes I clear my head oh any thoughts. Suddenly a new kind of power rushes through me. It is chilling but strong, light but deadly. I feel my body crystalize like ice, I am being incased in ice.

The ice shatters and I curl my hands around cold metal. Opening my eyes I find that the shurikens of ice are in my hands and my ninja suit is white again, but now with ice crystals out lined in silver.

Throwing the shurikens in the air I spin and with a burst of light I am sitting on my ice motorcycle. Soon I am speeding across the ice plains back home to the bounty, a different way than the way I came.