A Cautionary Tale

Part 4

The group, now consisting of four, continued their dangerous trek through the forest. All was going well at the moment. It had been at least twenty-three minutes without getting attacked by any foe or dangerous creature.

At least, it was peaceful until Darreth decided he wanted a closer look at Cole's wand. The archer had grabbed it from the fairy's grasp and waved it around, presumably mocking Cole. "Hey! Give it back!" Cole demanded, trying to grab it back from the idiotic man. "Be careful!"

Just as Cole demanded he be careful, Darreth, being the... man... he is, accidentally pressed the in case of emergency button on the wand. Cole gave Darreth a mortified look before his shoes began to glow and Cole lunged forward as his shoes took control. "DARRETHHHHHH!" he screamed.

Darreth laughed hastily then looked between the elf and the knight. "Heh... a little help?"

Kai and Jay both immediately shook their heads. "Uh-uh," Jay protested. "You made the fairy angry, you deal with his wrath."

Kai patted Darreth's shoulder. "Yeeeah, you're on your own this time, pal." He then gestured towards the distant figure of Cole. "Have fun!"

Darreth groaned before running after Cole. "I'M SO SORRY!" he screamed. "PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!"

As soon as Darreth was gone, Kai started chuckling and sat down on a nearby tree stump. "Wanna join me, elf?" he asked Jay who was holding in laughter at the situation. "There just happens to be two conveniently placed tree stumps right here." He patted the second tree stump.

Jay grinned at him then sat down, letting the bag fall off of his shoulder. "Oof, that feels better!" he sighed, closing his eyes and almost leaning into the breeze that was gently blowing around them.

"Okay, you've been complaining about that bag all day," Kai said. "What's in it?"

"Ah ah, an elf never reveals his secrets," Jay told him.

Kai rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless. "Eh, I'll find out eventually. I have my ways." Jay didn't reply, instead he just took a breath of fresh air and sighed, content. "It sure is a nice day, isn't it?"

Jay chuckled lightly. "It usually is in here." He opened his eyes, blue eyes meeting Kai's amber ones. "At least, it was until The Prince took over." The amber eyes now widened. "It used to always be sunny and happy and just... just perfect here, ya know. All of the creatures were happy and we all lived in peace and harmony... we haven't had a nice day ever since The Prince took over."

"I-It's nice today," Kai said, a little shaken at how serious Jay looked and sounded.

The corners of Jay's mouth twitched. "I think that's because you're here," he informed him. "You are the forest's savior after all."

Kai gulped before hesitantly asking, "What exactly did Prince Julien do? I mean I know he had the animals help him but... how did he take control of everything so quickly?"

The elf sighed, running a hand through his curls. "No one really knows for certain. We all welcomed him once Shaktilar Garmadon let him in, he is an elder and we all trusted him. Some say he's got dark magic, others say he used hypnobrai venom to hypnotize us." Jay laughed a bit at that. "Crazy, right?"

Kai threw the elf a half smile. "Heh, yeah."

"But," Jay continued, "he just really does have a way with animals I guess and they did his bidding. Maybe he made the animals convince people, maybe he just slowly began taking over and we didn't notice because we trusted him. But... once he began to take control, he took away our homes... separated our families... all because he hated our kind." Jay blinked back a few tears and Kai was silently extremely impressed with Jay's acting skills (honestly, the blue ninja had been a little over the top the entire time but now... wow!).