Ninjago: Where Heroes Come From

Chapter Six: The Anacondrai

Drym Vendosa wiped his brow and sighed, his muscles aching, staring at the wall of solid rock that stood before him. He and his mining team had been hard at work drilling through the mountain all week, and they were so close to finding the vengestone stores...

Vengestone was in high demand, especially with the recent news of sensei Wu's new ninja team. A lot of people wanted confirmation that there was a way to fight elemental powers, and a lot of celebrities were buying, displaying, and auctioning off vengestone for publicity, making the production of this rare metal even more stressful than it already was. The wells of vengestone in Yan, the island where most of the rare earth metals came from, where all but empty after centuries of use, and so the miners had been forced to seek it out elsewhere. Luckily, they'd discovered lots of it sitting, unused, inside Norcestor Peaks, where nothing had been mined thus far. Drym and his team had been sent to collect it, a task which was far from easy, but definitely profitable, which was the only reason they'd accepted the job.

"How much further d'you reckon it'll be?" Drym's partner, Alina, asked. She, much like him, was covered from head to toe in dust and debris from the mountain they were currently drilling into, and her brow was slick with sweat as the sun beat mercilessly down upon them from up above. "Max thinks twenty minutes, I say ten."

"Fifteen," Drym replied, "but maybe sooner. I think we're getting close."

"I sure hope we are," Alina said, "I'm sick of sweating my ass off out here just to get some rocks for celebrity hotshots." She ran an arm across her brow and sniffed. "They're too full of themselves, dont'ya think?"

"Yeah," Drym agreed, watching the massive, mechanical drill push further into the rocks. The grinding of steel against boulder grated his ears and made his head spin, and he began to wish, not for the first time, that he had sought a career path elsewhere.

"Hey!" He was torn from his thoughts suddenly when the drill made a loud clanking noise and stopped. He and Alina rushed forwards to inspect it, while Max, who had been controlling the drill, pulled it back to allow them to see into the mountain.

"We've hit it," Drym said mildly, and Alina grinned. "Time to grab those pickaxes," she said, "drills won't cut through all that vengestone."

The pickaxes they used were specially made to cut through just about anything, including vengestone. It took a while, but they had hacked off large chunks and were creating a respectable pile of the rocks at their feet, moving in through the mountain rapidly.

"This is one big deposit," Drym remarked, "ya think they'll make a mine out of it?"

"Probably," Max replied, "I'd be surprised if they didn't-- gah!"

Max had fallen over suddenly, toppling forwards and through the hole he was creating in the vengestone. Drym and Alina both gasped and rushed forwards, peering in to see that he had somehow found a large tunnel, leading down to a wide cavern beneath the earth. Glancing at one another, the two jumped down after him.

"You okay?" Drym asked, helping Max to his feet. He nodded, swaying slightly but recovering his balance quickly. Drym glanced back down at his feet and saw, to his dismay, that Max's ankle was twisted out of proportion.

"We have to go," he said, "you're hurt." He began helping Max back towards the tunnel, but Alina stopped him, pointing to something on the ground. "Check that out," she said, and Drym's eyes widened.

On the ground was several deep grooves, like something had scooped a piece of rock out of the ground with a large shovel. Beside it was a large puddle dried-out blood, fading slightly but still visible. Drym breathed in deeply and gagged; the air reeked of something rotten and old.