Living in the Past

The Mission

Kai's POV

The only thing I could hear was the constant tap of my feet against the stone beneath me and the silent inhales and exhales of breaths. My thoughts roamed, but I continuously shook my head to push them away. I almost appreciated Master Wu's sending me off, but now that I'm out, all I want is a distraction. Nya screaming at me, Lloyd tripping over one of our booby traps, Cole complaining about how he was hungry, Zane commenting on our apparent lack of brain cells, even Jay's constant blabbering would be appreciated. Anything.

Scaling a wall quickly, I swung myself onto the roof before running across the Xieshan and jumping to the next one. 

I stopped at the perched end of the roof and looked out over the empty streets. I glanced to my right to see the beginning rays of sun peak out over the mountains. The pinks and oranges glowing in their birth only to spread and infect the sky with their glory. I looked back to the streets as only a few civilians were about. 

I heard chattering and turned to see a man exit a house only for a woman to follow and fuss over him before giving him a kiss and ushering the children who had come out back inside. I felt a burning ache in my chest, it was painful. I pushed off my hood and breathed in the fresh air before quickly putting it back on as I stood and began on my way again. 

My eyes burned for some unknown reason, and the fact that they burned at all made my chest heave in rage as I ran. I couldn't make sense of anything anymore. I ran blindly, just needing to get out of...I don't even know. I just had to get out. It felt like the world was constricting itself on me, like I was being caged. 

I didn't want to feel, I didn't want to exist. I just wanted peace, a foundation, a rock...to hold me above the raging water that was myself. 

I turned South as I hopped from roof to roof. I shut off myself and let my instincts carry me to where Master Wu wanted me to go. He had said that very few could find it, only those that wanted release, who wanted an escape from the crushing reality of their present. Did I have any clue of what he meant? Of course not, but I did know that it was a place that didn't actually exist. 

I stopped suddenly, every sense tingling like its own being. My head shot to my right where a sparkle caught my eye. An extraordinary glow that didn't seem the least bit natural. So, I turned toward it.

Picking up my pace as the strange light got closer, I hopped down from a roof and began sprinting. It was strange, there were trees that didn't grow in Ninjago along with strange flowers that were foreign to me. It was like walking into a whole other world. 

I looked around only to realize that I was now in a small park. I slowed my pace to a walk as I took everything in, but it was a second later I found that the strange light was gone. My eyes wandered to an opening in the trees where a lone fountain stood in the center of a circular stretch of pavement. I followed a path up to the fountain, though I didn't know why. I stared as the perfectly clear water streamed over each bowl and into the next. I didn't understand why I watched as long as I did, but it somehow brought a small feeling of comfort to me. 

That was when a shiny stone caught my eye. It had a black and purple hue to it as it nested in the waters. Why it felt important confused me, like it had something to do with everything, a piece of the puzzle that was too big to comprehend.

I heard footsteps approach me, but my eyes remained glued to it. 

"Only fools spend their short life stressing." A voice scoffed behind me. 

The voice was familiar, yet different. It held a kind and an understanding tone unlike what I was so used to hearing.

"I wasn't stressing." I replied curtly.