The Second Master of Wind

The Beginning of the End

Aeria's POV

The wind rushing through my hair, I forgot, for just a few seconds, that my powers were gone and the Call was gone from my mind with them. After the quick realization, I reached over and pulled the cord to open the parachute, slowing my descent toward the edge of the cliff where the opening of the mines was located.

"Follow me!" I called out to the others as I pulled my parachute to correct the path of my descent toward the entrance.

"You can't be serious!" Cole yelled out as his hands started to phase through his parachute controls.

"Can someone get to Cole before he goes off course?" Lloyd asked through the comms as the wind started to pick up, drowning out anything anyone said.

"I got'im." Kai responded before gliding over to Cole to help him.

"Approaching the mine entrance." Zane announced before Xia added,

"10 feet and closing."

In a few seconds, everyone managed to land on the cliff, albeit a bit off-balance since the gales were starting to blow even harsher in the direction of Ninjago.

"How're the people doing down below?" Nya asked through the comms to the Bounty.

"The people have started an emergency evacuation, but if the winds continue at this pace, they won't be able to get out in time." Misako reported from her end.

"Then we better hurry and stop the snake and dark side before that happens." I growled menacingly before pulling an arrow out from my quiver and readying it in my bow as we all walked through the entrance to the mine into the darkness below.

"Everyone, stay close, once we get close enough to the center of the mountain, they're gonna have the advantage of an ambush." Lloyd warned the others as we followed the path of dimly lit torches down the old tunnels.

I was surveying the area in front of us, ready to loose an arrow at any moment when I felt a distinctive chill down my spine, like a part of me was just restrained with chains. The chill sharpened and spread to my previously infected eye to the point where I weakly loosed my arrow to clutch my eye while dropping down to one knee.

"Aeria!" Lloyd was by my side within seconds before I held a hand up to assure him that I was alright.

"Something's wrong, it's like part of me is being chained down." I told Lloyd as I got back up and went to pull my arrow out of the wall it buried itself into.

"Like that's not ominous..." Jay cowered down a bit as he looked around the dark area in slight fear.

"It is possible that Aeria is not the only one feeling that ominosity." Zane referred to Xia who looked like she was on the verge of a splitting headache.

"Well, what did you expect when you meddle around in the dark?" An echo sounded from all around them in a hissing manner.

"Pythor... Show yourself you slithering coward!" I dared him as we all circled up with our backs to each other to prepare to face him from any direction.

"Gladly..." Pythor slithered out from behind a withering pillar of wood that was supporting the tunnel frame structure.

"Oh boy, that's not good." Cole noted from Pythor's position.

"Indeed, you've all just wandered right into your tomb." Pythor swiftly cut the pillar using his tail and, right after he did so, the frame burst apart in splintering mass, causing the whole tunnel to start to collapse.

"Toodle-oo." Pythor retreated further into the tunnel in a quick white streak.

"Quickly, after him!" I ran forward dodging and hitting away all the falling pieces of rock that threatened to bury us until I managed to get through to an open cavern-like area.