#i just wanted to post a Lloyd section | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

robobirdie · 2 years

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Three added shorts

Sorry for the long gap in posts. Summers here so things are busy. I’m still working on the story and doing lots of editing when I can. In the meantime here are three added shorts I came up with while working. These shorts are:

Undercover Mis-hap- An Ashers attempt to catch him leads the Raven to take Zane undercover on an Ashers mission.

Droid Rescue- Zane can't stand how those like him are being treated in this place so when he finds a not very pleasant merchant is selling one he keeps locked in a dog cage he decides to rescue it on his own.

Forest of the Stag- An attempt to take a day to relax has the knights and Ninja run into an entity of the Stags make.

Undercover mis-hap Occurs after Merchants Tale but before Trials of the Tribunal

“Alright to help the people getting trapped here the town council put together a little get together to help the people get accustomed here. They want us to work with the people getting stuck here to help them understand what is going on and help with any issues they have since unfortunately they are going to be stuck here till we can stop this Plane Meld. The Knights are dealing with those from Knighton we are to work with those from Ninjago,” Lloyd told the other ninja. They were all dressed in their commoners’ clothes as they headed to the center the town had designated for them to gather in. The gathering was taking place in a large recreation center in the Under-city that had closed early in the late evening for them to have this gathering.

“Do we really have to do this?” Jay wondered not too enthusiastic with this task and Kai agreed equally not in the mood, “yha I was starting to get the hang of that video game; I was hoping to set the new high score tonight.”

“Not if I beat you first,” Cole boasted before Lloyd proclaimed, “you can play video games later, I think it will look good on us to help these people. Not only can we assure them we are working to fix things and offer the people some hope but it might make the people of this realm have a better view of us.”

“I agree with Lloyd. Most people ending up here are probably thinking this is the end; we need to give them some hope that this isn’t the end,” Nya expressed and Lloyd added, “Zane is the only one who is allowed to get out of this. There is going to be locals there and given how the people treat him if at any time you don’t feel safe Zane you can head back to the Scholars center.” Zane was fine with that idea but wanted to help out the best he could; Jay and Kai were not so happy with it. They were jealous that they weren’t being given the same chance to get out of this and when they offered to go with Zane if he decided to leave they were not permitted to do so. Before they entered the place Zane activated his cloak to hide his robotic skin. When they entered they found Hassiri had organised it so the people were split up in groups in their own sections of the place. The knights were already dealing with those from Knighton. Clay had made a slide show on a tablet which he had hooked up to a projector and was showing to the people all of which looked very on edge. Lance was not being very helpful often voicing complaints on topics instead of offering advice and even though he was being helpful Aarons cheerful mood and enthusiasm to things many would consider scary or unnerving just scared the people more than help them. There were folks from the Lost Realm hanging around together mainly around an area the town had set up with refreshments. Most were working there to provide the refreshments or scholars who had likely come out of curiosity. There were a few others but why they were there the ninja had no clue. The people from Ninjago were sitting together where Hassiri had gathered them on edge nervously looking at the others and their surroundings. The sight of the ninja calmed most of them down a bit. There were people of all ages and some were lost missing friends and family who hadn’t gotten trapped in this place. The ninja were quick to get to work with the people. They too had created a slideshow for the people. Zane had put it together and they had put it on a tablet to hook it up to the projector Hassiri had gotten for them instead of hooking it up to Zane to help him avoid attention from the natives who most luckily didn’t seem aware of his disguise. Some of the scholars knew but they didn’t reveal anything or bother Zane. As they hooked up the tablet they were bombarded by questions which they tried to answer. Lloyd and Nya were trying to answer them as truthfully as they could while also taking care to word things in a way that they didn’t startle people. Cole tried to be sensitive when replying but occasionally would word things in a way while being truthful just scared people such as when one kid wondered if the beast people would bite them he assured they wouldn’t but then added that if startled or if you touched their tails without asking they might try to scratch and that they may bite if made too angry, when fighting, sometimes the children could get nippy and some of them when hangry may nip. When he realised what he had been saying just put people on edge he added that the people had their shots or at least he thought they did. That didn’t help. Jay most often uttered complaints on topics and would often exaggerate how scary or bad something was and his jokes on some things didn’t help. Kai was helping out despite not wanting to be taking part however he tended to brush things off as not as bad as they were trying to calm the people down which often led to Jay countering things he said and arguing with him often leading Lloyd or Nya to say something or give them a look to silence the two. Zane didn’t talk much wary of catching the attention of the beast folk and feeling more comfortable working in the back than being in the main focus. Zane had noted some of the folk from the lost realm were not the most pleasant looking of people and some of these were watching him. Their gaze was making him nervous. He hid this feeling though. Instead he mainly worked the tablet for the slide show keeping quiet and letting the others do most of the talking. They quickly got to work and after an hour of talking some of the people started wondering about the refreshments.

“Is what they made safe?” one person asked and another stated, “yha we heard they eat bugs and strange mushrooms and these weird reptile bird things here.”

“Yha and what’s worse is they think there’s nothing wrong with that!” Jay exclaimed till Lloyd elbowed him to silence him. His comment didn’t help ease the peoples anxieties, instead it made them more uneasy.

“Yha it was off putting at first but after a while you get used to it and it’s not as bad as you think,” Cole commented and Zane agreed, “it is perfectly safe and fine and provides you…”

“You don’t have a problem with it because you’re used to eating bugs; you often end up eating them because they have some obsession with your eyes and keep trying to get to them no matter what,” Jay cut Zane off to comment before Lloyd cut him off to proclaim giving Jay a look to say he wasn’t happy with his comment, “Hassiri assured me for tonight they wouldn’t be using anything you wouldn’t be used to.”

“Good cause I could use a drink,” Cole commented and most of the people were in agreement with him. They decided to take a break so people could get a drink. The people refused to go up to where they had refreshments without the ninja with them. They were still wary of the beast folk. Most of the ninja went with them to help the people out. To avoid possible issues with the natives and worried they might have caused the people to become wary of him due to the natives view on droids which they were quite vocal of Zane stayed behind and worked with the tablet to occupy his time. While he was occupied Zane felt something pull on his shirt. Curious he turned to look and saw a little girl from Ninjago standing there looking at him and holding a cup of some sort of tea by the looks of it.

“Since you didn’t come with us I brought you this so you wouldn’t be left out,” the little girl stated holding the cup out for him.

“Thank you but I…” Zane began before deciding to just take the drink not wanting to upset the little girl who was staring at him looking a little sad as well as being scared. Even after he had taken the cup she remained standing there staring at him. He guessed she wanted to see him drink it to know he fully accepted her gift so he drank it then thanked her for it. Once he had thanked her she ran off back to everyone else all happy. Everyone took about twenty minutes to get refreshments. The ninja and knights took the time to talk over how things were going with each other and if they had any ideas to make things go better; both were not having much luck easing peoples anxieties which wasn’t helped by the scholars from the Lost Realm who kept trying to talk with the people out of curiosity during the break not realising they were not helping the situation and making the people more scared. As they got started again Zane started to feel a bit weird but just brushed it off. He had come to get used to odd feelings in this place. He and the others got them every now and then; even the knights got them. They all had a feeling it had to do with this place which they all agreed likely had some curse on it thanks to the ash from the cursed volcano. At one point he was surprised when Nya came up to him pulling the hood of his shirt over his head and whispering to him, “Zane your cloak slipped, weren’t you aware.” Zane looked at his one hand in surprise. He hadn’t been aware it had slipped. Since he was at the back of their group with the projector none of the people they were working with had noticed. His friends had though and were a bit worried. He then looked at some of the folk from the Lost Realm that were there with them. They had clearly seen his cloak slip and some of them were clearly not happy. Zane tried to reactivate his cloak but was unable to do so. Not wanting to cause a complication or cause the people from the Lost Realm to do or say something to scare the people more Zane decided it best he leave and head back to the scholars center. Despite Nya suggesting he head back with someone else he decided to go on his own so the others could continue their work Nya taking over for him with the projector. He would let them know when he got to the center. Zane quietly slipped out of the room aware the folks from the Lost realm who were not too happy with him were watching him the whole time. He started heading back to the scholars center sticking close to the outer walls of the lower floor of the Under-city hoping to avoid attracting unwanted attention. He kept his hood up so the people couldn’t get a good view of what he was. Luckily from what he could tell no one seemed to care or notice him.

As he headed back he tried to determine why his cloak had slipped. He hadn’t been anxious so it should have remained stable. As he tried to determine why it had malfunctioned Zane was surprised to find several of his sensors were also not working right and his diagnostics systems were off line and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t get them to work. This wasn’t good. As far as he could tell there didn’t seem to be anything hacking him. He didn’t like this. Something was wrong. He paused wondering if he should head back to get one of the others to help him figure out what was wrong.

“What the…” he expressed as he felt something drop onto and bounce off his head. Looking down he saw it was just a plain rock that had hit him. Looking around for who had thrown it his attention was drawn into the tree that overhung him from the planter he had stopped next to. A raven was perched there making noise at him.

“Did you throw this? Why would you do that?” he wondered looking up at the raven which stated in its bird voice ‘ello’. It then hopped down to land in front of him. It let down a cloak revealing it to be the raven that had brought them to this realm. Since arriving in town the raven generally did its own things most days often just surveying the area for dangers to help the town guard before returning to roost during the night in the scholars center. Seeing who it was Zane relaxed and encouraged the Raven to roost on his one arm. It hopped up reactivating its cloak.

“Hello, what are you doing here?” Zane inquired to the raven who started playing with his hood making Zane nervous, “please don’t do that. I’m trying not to be noticed.” The raven pulled his hood off worrying Zane before he felt something hack into his mind. The next thing he knew his cloak had been reactivated making him look like a pale blond hyena folk with some scaring on the face, short messy blond hair and a damaged right ear. The Raven then sent him a friendly and uplifting message to let him know that it was hacking him so he shouldn’t worry about that. Looking around to make sure no one had seen him before the Raven had activated his cloak Zane couldn’t see anyone taking note of him bringing him some relief.

“What did you…” Zane began looking at himself before being caught off guard by a voice in his head. It was the ravens and it told him, “shh just follow my orders and you will be fine.” It then motioned for him to look behind himself. Two folk, a cat folk and a short ungulate folk with prosthetic pronghorns and a red topped Mohawk between the horns were walking his way. They didn’t appear to notice him yet too busy talking to each other. Zane listened to them nervous of their approach.

“I gave it to him, you were right he couldn’t resist taking something given to him by what looks like a scared innocent little girl. The others told me it was working; some of his systems looked to be malfunctioning so he left on his own. That walking scrap heap should be out here somewhere, likely trying to avoid attention and putting himself in places we could easily catch him without anyone seeing,” the ungulate folk stated unnerving Zane. That was why his cloak had stopped working and he was having troubles with some of his systems. From what they were saying Zane had a strong suspicion the two were Ashers and they had given him something to mess with his systems. He wanted to go get the others and tell them what happened but the one noticed him before he could move.

“Hey you, what are you looking at?” the cat folk questioned. The raven sent commands to him straight into his mind so the Ashers couldn’t hear them telling him what to say and do.

“I was looking for someone like you. I am a sleeper one of many, I have been looking to be awoken,” Zane stated putting on an accent to hide his voice hoping the people wouldn’t recognise it. The cloak the raven had put on him clearly helped disguise his looks.

“Ah a fellow member; you haven’t seen a metal skin trying to pretend it’s human wandering around out here have you?” the ungulate folk asked.

“No, I just recently arrived in town,” Zane replied and the cat folk stated, “you probably don’t know what we’re talking about then. I haven’t seen you before so I’m guessing you’re not from here. What brought you here?”

“I heard this was where the good stuffs going down and decided to come see if I could get involved,” Zane declared and the Cat folk stated, “we could see about that. That metal skin likely got aid from that demons scrap heaps for shelter till his pals are done. I don’t think we’ll find him. It was a nice try but we’re going to need something more crafty to get him. So sleeper you have a name? Where are you from?”

“My names Varg Raven-eye. I’m from the Frozen Marsh,” Zane replied following the ravens suggestion.

“Wow that’s pretty far. That’s by the north western coasts… that would also explain why you’re so pale. It was pretty cold up there wasn’t it? Why don’t you come with us; we can help you get some color and warm up,” the cat folk proclaimed. The raven instructed him to follow the two folks as they led him away and snuck into an abandoned shop at the far end of the Under-city under the walkway for the second story. The place looked like it had been abandoned for some time. The window for the shop on the outside was blacked out so the interior could not be seen. The folk stopped to look around making sure no one was looking before opening the door and leading him in. Inside the place was dark. It was a single room set up as a shop with a counter at one side and some shelving on the other side. There was nothing special to the room. The folk went to the back wall and the one put their hand on the back wall. A dark red glowing symbol appeared on the wall then a doorway appeared in the wall.

“The guards have no clue about this, they’re all too stupid to figure out our disguise wards,” the ungulate folk proclaimed as they opened the door and led Zane to the other side. On the other side was what looked to have once been the shop keepers quarters however only the structural components were left to the area. In the back wall a large hole was broken through into a cave lit by dark lanterns of Asher design. They led him down the hall which led into a decent sized room of Asher construct. It was dark; Ashers of various stages mainly acolytes and sleepers were hanging about looking to be working on various things and their dark decorations decorated the place. Despite remaining calm Zane felt an unease from everything. The two took Zane up to one of the few full blooded Ashers in the room who was working at a table that had a strange rounded gem held in the jaws of a Venom-fangs skull placed on its center.

“Well that plan didn’t work their metal skin freak likely got help from that demons minions,” the ungulate folk stated to the full Asher who turned to look at them and proclaim, “I told you that would never work. As long as there are Cubs of the Fang as they call themselves in the city you won’t be able to catch him on his own. Who’s this?” The Asher looked at Zane deeply inspecting him. Zane was nervous of this Asher worried it might be able to see through his disguise.

“We found a sleeper whose looking to be awoken,” the cat folk stated and the Asher asked Zane, “really. What’s your name sleeper… and what’s with the bird?” The Asher pointed to the raven who was perched rather calmly on Zanes shoulder.

“Varg Raven-eye and this is my companion, my support Raven; where I go he goes,” Zane responded using the disguised voice and the Asher stated, “Varg huh, we’ve had a few folk bring companion beasts with them. Don’t worry we have a way of awakening them with you so you can keep your companion. So you want to be awoken well then you’ll need to prove yourself first. You’ll need a task and we need to get those knights and ninja or at least hinder them.”

“Any ideas on what we can do?” the cat folk inquired and the Asher stated, “not sure. Since a lot of you have been giving such useless ideas I think it’s time we turn to Dagon. He will know what to do.” At the mention of his name Zane became nervous. Dagon would likely be able to see through his cloak plus if he was there then they were in serious trouble. They were not ready to deal with him and he could cause serious complications in their mission. The Asher cast a spell at the gem in the skull and shortly after a hologram like image of Dagon in his true form came from the gem. He resembled a cross between a human and Oni with black skin baring lighter markings of Oni design and short horns on his head. By the looks of it they were lucky; Dagon wasn’t there. He was likely still back in Ninjago causing his chaos.

“Why do you summon me?” Dagon inquired sounding a bit annoyed and the Asher explained, “well my lord we are still working on getting those pests but so far we have not had any luck. We were wondering if you have any idea over what we could do?” Dagon looked at them clearly annoyed.

“Why do you insist on trying foolish tricks with them? How many times do I have to tell you the best option is to inflict them with the blessing of my brethren,” Dagon declared. Zane was pretty sure he was talking of the Blight.

“You might think that’s simple but it’s not. Do you know how hard that is when you’re not trying to get caught by the guards? Besides they tend to stick together and the people here don’t help. Their suspicions to outlanders have made those meddling scum’s all wary and on edge and that demon Stag doesn’t help either. His constant meddling with them especially to the metal skin has them all on alert most of the time. Have we also mentioned those knights brought a master wizard with them? We’re not sure where they’re hiding him but we know they have him. We’ve intercepted communications between them.”

“Then maybe instead of trying to directly infect them you go indirectly. Take the hidden sly methods, things they won’t expect. Now stop wasting time and get the job done. Those curs cannot be permitted to reach the Forbidden City let alone set foot in it. If they do so they could pose a serious threat to all our efforts now quite fooling around and get the job done!” Dagon declared clearly infuriated before his image vanished. The Asher thought something over.

“I think I know what we can do. We were saving them to try and inflict the town guard but they could work for this. We have some Shalk beetles inflicted with the Blight. They’re no bigger than a finch. We could place them in the Scholars center and they could go unnoticed for some time. We’ll hide them in the planters so they don’t know they’re there. They’ll crawl around at night and bite them while their sleeping and if others in the center get infected all the better. It could help lead to distrust and complications for them. You Varg will join us in this endeavour. This will be your test. Do well and we’ll see how quick you can move up in the ranks,” the Asher proclaimed. Zane didn’t like the sound of this. Within half an hour he was with the Asher, who was in disguise using their skin stealer magic, and the other two folk pretending to be service workers delivering supplies to the center. They all carried in some crates. The others actually had crates with supplies. Zane had been tasked with carrying the crate holding the beetles. No one was suspicious of them. One person did tease the raven which roosted on Zanes shoulder asking it if it was like a parrot and wanted a cracker holding out a biscuit for it. The raven was clearly not amused grabbing the biscuit to toss it and caw ‘no biscuit, want buggies crunchy juices buggies’ to which the person found the birds behaviour rude. They carried the crates into the storage room in the main room. Zane could see the others were still out helping the people. He was relieved. He didn’t know what he would do if he ran into them while in disguise. There wasn’t many in the hall. Most people were out in the town relaxing and enjoying themselves. Once in the storage room the Asher took jars each holding a few slightly smaller than palm sized shiny blue scarab beetles with yellow eyes, antenna and a stripe down their backs out of the crate and handed one to each of them. The beetles were just starting to show the markings of the Blight curse and most were trying to find a way out of the jars clearly scared but unable to get anywhere.

“Alright we’ll place some in the planters in the main room here and through other areas of the center. You Varg are going to place some of these in the planters by the bedrooms. They then split up to do their task. Zane made his way into the bedrooms hall. He was the only one in the hall and he was nervous. He stood staring at the beetles in the jar thinking over some things. Zane didn’t want to do this but he wasn’t sure what to do. The raven wasn’t giving him much advice as it wasn’t sure what to do either. Releasing these beetles would put a lot of innocent folk at risk of catching the Blight including them. Did he go to the town guard about this? Did he get the others? Would he be able to easily sneak away from these Ashers? What was he going to do with the beetles if he didn’t release them? They had the Blight and likely wouldn’t survive for long but in that short time they could infect other beings if he let them go. Apart from sticking them inside himself where they could cause internal damages or eating them which both methods would just infect him with the Blight where could he hide them where the Ashers would think he had done his job yet they couldn’t hurt others? He wondered if he should maybe talk to Merlok. He might know what to do. He was in the knights room reading some books they had gotten him to occupy his time while they were out. Voices coming into the hall caught his attention. He recognised the voices and it made him worried.

“This isn’t like him some things probably happened,” he heard Cole express then Jay exclaim sounding nervous, “you think some of those monsters from the Stag got him? They could be warping his mind to turn him into a monstrous savage like them!” It had been too long and they had heard nothing from Zane. Seeing how something looked to be wrong with him when he left they were deeply concerned for him so Lloyd had sent the two to check on Zane.

“I think you need to see someone about your paranoia’s of late. As for Zane in this place who knows what could have happened to him… hey who are you? I don’t recognise you as one of the people here… and what are you doing with those beetles?” Cole stated when the two entered the hall and saw Zane in his disguise. Zane tried to drop the cloak but was still unable to control it and the raven wasn’t co-operating in letting the cloak down.

“Those beetles don’t look right,” Jay noted and Cole stated, “they look like they have the Blight, what are you going to do with them?” Zane tried to block the raven from hacking him but Zane wasn’t able to fully control some of his systems making him unable to block the ravens control. Looking into it he came to realise if it wasn’t for the raven he would be having serious problems controlling some of his neural systems. Whatever the Ashers had given him had the ability to severely mess with him. He didn’t like that.

“Look we’re not wanting to get you in trouble. As long as you’re not meaning to cause trouble we have no problems. We just want to know what you’re doing with those things?” Cole inquired trying to keep things calm while Jay had pulled his weapon out. Zane could hear someone coming into the hall from the main hall. He had a feeling it was the Asher; it had been down there. Zane was torn over what to do. Did he try to reveal his disguise or continue to play along.

“I… I was looking for someone… I found these. They were…” Zane decided to continue in his disguise. As he talked to them he also became aware that the other two folk who were with the Ashers were coming into the hall and sneaking up on Cole and Jay who were unaware they were there.

“I found them…” Zane was torn. He was pretty sure if the Ashers got them they would do bad things to his friends but did he want to risk getting on the bad side of the Ashers at that moment. They still thought he was one of them and it would benefit everyone if they could find some way to thwart their plans and take out this group.

“Found them where?” Jay questioned before the two folk jumped Cole and Jay getting in a scuffle with them. The one used a spell on Jay that instantly paralyzed him. Cole managed to dodge the spell. Thinking quickly to prevent the Ashers from doing any notable harm to them Zane dropped the jar in the planter and quickly restrained Cole whispering to him, “I’m sorry, just play along and I’ll get you out of this” while the one folk hit Cole with the paralysis spell. Once he was paralyzed Zane lay him on the floor trying to hide any emotions to prevent the Ashers from getting any suspicions.

“Well this is a surprise, two of the Dragons wandered strait into our grasps,” the Asher proclaimed dumping the beetles out of the jar Zane had been holding in the planter where they instantly buried themselves in the dirt and the cat folk expressed looking down at Cole and Jay who couldn’t move or react, “what do you suppose we do with these two.”

“What else, we take them back with us. We’ll get one of the sorcerers to come by and turn them into drones for our service. Then we can set them on the others,” the Asher proclaimed and the ungulate folk wondered, “how are we going to sneak these two back to base?”

“I know a way, we can take advantage of one of the Stags minions secret tunnels in here just follow me,” the Asher proclaimed picking Cole up and the cat folk picked up Jay. They headed off towards the centers main room Zane bringing up the rear. He paused for a second to look into the knights room. He could see the hologram of Merok coming from the mini Fortrex which was half hidden behind a divider looking into the hall worried. He was remaining quite knowing it best not to draw attention to himself. Taking a glance to make sure the others weren’t watching Zane snuck into the knights room and went straight to Merlok who quietly stated to him, “try anything and you will regret it.”

“I don’t have much time but it’s me Merlok, Zane the master of ice…” Zane began trying to muster a display of his powers in his one hand but getting stumped when he couldn’t properly control them only able to create a cold icy mist in his hand, “that stuffs messing with my powers! This isn’t good… I don’t have time to worry about that though. I need you to contact the others. Tell them what’s happened. I’ll send the co-ordinates in order to find us. Tell them to hurry; I don’t know how long we’ll have.” Zane felt rushed as he regaled to Merlok who seemed to get he was who he said he was.

“I have to go before they get suspicious,” Zane stated starting to head out. Merlok paused him before he left the room to proclaim, “Zane be very careful. If they find out who you really are things are not going to go well for the three of you.”

“I know,” Zane stated before leaving to catch up with the others. They were waiting beneath the stairs for him.

“What took you so long?” the ungulate folk inquired and Zane replied in disguise, “I thought I saw something in the knights room.”

“You did? Anything of interest?” the cat folk inquired and Zane quickly replied, “just this mini version of their vehicle. It is holding some of their personal items.”

“Really, anything we might find of interest?” the ungulate folk inquired and he responded, “not unless you find a bunch of hair gel interesting.”

“What is with that knight and his hair? He’s always messing with it,” the cat folk stated and the Asher proclaimed opening the secret door in the alcove under the stairs, “don’t know but I believe you did a rather good job Varg. I think we can arrange for you to move up in the ranks.” They headed into the passage the Ashers using dark crystals they had in their pockets to light the way. Before he went into the passage Zane relayed to Merlok where they were headed. The Asher took them through the tunnels opening up a passage at one point that led into tunnels of Asher make which took them into the Ashers base in the abandoned shop. Once there the Ashers handed Cole and Jay to two of the others who took them off to a side room. Zane watched for a second to know where they were being taken before having his attention drawn back to the lead Asher who proclaimed, “looks like we got lucky today. Two of those fools wandered straight into us. I will send word to one of the sorcerers to stop by. Hopefully they can make it before the end of the day then we can have two of the false dragons on our side and if we’re real lucky maybe more. As for you Varg, you did well. I’ll send word to our superiors and see what kind of reward they wish to bestow upon you.” The Ashers went about their day continuing planning and working on things. Zane remained nervous as he tried to find time to break away from them to sneak into the room they had taken Cole and Jay into. He kept getting roped into helping some of them with what they were working on. Quite a bit of it was magical work in nature which he didn’t understand very well and had trouble working out. He took that as an advantage in helping to thwart some of their plans. Some of the Ashers questioned his failings to which he responded honestly, “I’m more of one for technology than magic.” They accepted his comment and didn’t show any signs of suspicion though one of them stated in a rather creepy way, “oh don’t worry you’ll come to understand our magic soon enough.” Zane didn’t like that folks tone. He eventually managed to break away and sneak into the side room. The place had been built like a little jail with cell bars made of cursed stone and was dark lit only by a few torches. It was a small room built into a little cave and was rather dirty and damp. The paralysis spell the Ashers had used was starting to wear off on the two though it hadn’t fully gone.

“I can’t feel my legs… what if I never get feeling in them again or even worse what if I’m paralyzed from the waist down! What will I do?” Jay was complaining sitting down and staring at his legs all worried and panicking. Cole was standing up clinging to the front bars of the cage his one leg numb and partially paralyzed but still trying to get up.

“You’ll be fine; at least I’m pretty sure you will. It was just a spell, I don’t think it did any actual harm now will you quit whining and try to get up. We have to find a way out of here before it’s too late… what do you want?” Cole stated as he approached the cell still in disguise and Jay chastised, “if it wasn’t for you we probably wouldn’t be in this mess!”

“I don’t know. Those two snuck up on us from behind. They could have still gotten us, just not so easily,” Cole reasoned as the raven who was still perched on his shoulder and controlling some of his systems let Zanes cloak down. The two were shocked.

“Zane! What… why are you working with these monsters? I could see you betraying us for that demon deer but these things,” Jay rambled his words hurting Zanes feelings that one of his friends thought he would betray them and Zane regaled, “I did not intend to get involved. The raven got me into this then again if he hadn’t I probably would have ended up in the cell with you.”

“What happened?” Cole inquired trying to stand up normally but having to keep hold of the cell wall in order to stay balanced.

“One of these Ashers tricked me into drinking something that’s messing with some of my systems and my powers,” Zane regaled trying to muster some of his power having trouble mustering them causing frost to develop on his skin and the ground in the room, “the raven has to control some of my systems to keep them from knowing. I was making my way back to the center when the raven found me. It disguised me. I thought it was trying to help me evade their attention but instead it got me involved. I don’t know why. I would say we shouldn’t worry too much since I alerted Merlok to the situation and let him know where we are so he could tell the others but they aren’t here yet and these Ashers plan to bring a sorcerer here; we need to stop them and get out of here before it is too late.”

“Yha I defiantly don’t want to try and deal with one of those things. I don’t think we’d fare very well. Do you happen to know where the keys for this cage are?” Cole inquired and Zane replied looking around, “I think one of the guards might have them.”

“Hurry and go steal them then before we have to face one of those monsters!” Jay exclaimed before they heard someone opening the rooms door. The raven reactivated Zanes cloak before the door opened.

“What are you doing in here?” the lead Asher inquired as some of them came in. Thinking quickly Zane stated in disguise, “I was seeing if I could get them to tell me the location of this metal skin you were looking for earlier.”

“And we’ll never tell you. We’d rather him join that monster deer than you demons,” Jay proclaimed hoping to help Zanes disguise. The Ashers were clearly not amused with Jay.

“Oh don’t worry we’ll find it, sooner than it thinks too especially now that we have these two,” the leader proclaimed as two Ashers unlocked the cell and put cuffs of cursed stone on Cole and Jay. They then forced the two to come with them.

“Oh you want me to get up and walk, don’t you remember you paralysed me! I can’t move my legs let alone feel them!” Jay exclaimed and the lead Asher stated annoyed, “the spell would have worn off by now. Get him up.” The one Asher gave Jay a kick to the legs then forced him to his feet Jay proclaiming, “okay I felt that… oh hey I can move my legs. Guess I’m not paralyzed after all. Guess I just needed to move my legs. That’s a relief.”

“Is one of the sorcerers here?” Zane inquired confused over why they were taking the two out of the cell.

“No, sadly none of them could make it till tomorrow but they did tell us of something we could do in the meantime to keep them under control so they cannot escape us,” the leader stated leading them all out of the room. It took them to another side room of their center where inside was some rather worrying things. A large altar sat in the center of the room which was dark, decorated with dark braziers on the walls, decorations of the Ashers and the tile work on the floor displayed a reddish design of dark symbols circling round this alter. Against the far wall of the room was a table holding a few strange items. A dark dagger, a strange dark purplish gem and some strange piece of plant matter which kind of resembled a large heart sized strange rounded pine cone though clearly wasn’t. In between the matters woody scales were faintly glowing blood red seams that revealed something was inside the hard exterior. At the head of the altar was a large statue of Dagon in his true form looking menacing. Zane looked at Cole and Jay who just like him were unnerved and worried. It didn’t look like anything good was going to happen.

“What are you going to do to us?” Jay began to panic and the leader explained heading over to grab the dagger and strange plant matter off the table, “we’re going to make you drones for our service. As part of your initiation Varg Raven-eye you are going to do this. Now who should we do first…”

“Cole do Cole! He’ll work better for you than I will!” Jay exclaimed trying to back away but unable to get anywhere thanks to the two Ashers holding him in place.

“We’ll do the earth one first then,” the leader proclaimed and Cole expressed, “thanks a lot Jay!” Two Ashers dragged Cole over to the Altar and laid him down on his back on it tying chained cuffs to his ankles and chains to the cuffs on his wrists to prevent him from escaping restraining him to the table. Another forced Zane to stand by the leader.

“What am I going to be doing?” Zane inquired hiding his nerves and the leader proclaimed, “you are going to cut out his heart then we’ll sow this in its place. It is a Heart seed, a very special seed that grows from the rare Elken Redwood. When imbued with the right magic it can take the place of someone’s heart turning them into powerful warriors that will serve those who imbued them with its great powers. Then once that is done you are going to eat his heart, if you’re lucky it will give you his powers.” Zane couldn’t help but show emotions in shock of what they wanted him to do as the lead Asher shoved the dark dagger into his hands.

“What?! Can we talk this over first?” Cole exclaimed startled struggling to break free and Zane stated trying to hide his emotions, “won’t removing his heart kill him?”

“Oh don’t worry we have a way to prevent that now why don’t you begin,” the leader proclaimed directing Zane to the Altar. Zane looked at the dagger in his hand then to Cole who was terrified looking back at him then back to the dagger.

“Come on guys we could talk this over right? We don’t need to do anything drastic, I’m sure we could come to some sort of agreement,” Jay pleaded but none of the Ashers listened.

“No, I won’t do it,” Zane declared. He didn’t care if it broke his disguise; he wasn’t going to hurt his family.

“I knew it, it’s not that you won’t it’s because you can’t. You’d never harm your friends out of free will would you,” the lead Asher proclaimed confusing some of them including Cole, Jay and Zane.

“I can’t believe you so easily fell for his tricks. I thought we taught most of you how to recognise the curs like him. He’s the metal skin s’wit,” the leader proclaimed and stunned by his accusations Zane questioned, “how…”

“I could sense a strange energy to you the moment I saw you. You and that bird…” the leader proclaimed hitting Zane with a magical blast that knocked him back into the altar. The blast disrupted the ravens connection causing him to lose his disguise. The raven took off his shoulder to perch on the statue of Dagon cawing at everyone.

“If you knew what he really is then why didn’t you interfere earlier?” Jay inquired and the leader proclaimed, “I knew there was something suspicious but I wasn’t sure entirely what it was. The way you reacted to your pals when cornered and the fact you objected to this told me who you were. If you were really a sleeper you wouldn’t have objected plus you would know this ritual is total bogus. This isn’t an Ashers ritual, this barbaric ritual is performed by followers of Storabek to create his powerful Blood-elk warriors for their tribes. I’m actually surprised a monster like you didn’t recognise that. That demons left his mark on you and you’re so chummy with his metal skin spawn I thought you’d recognise the ritual of your master.”

“Zanes not a monster and he doesn’t serve that demon,” Cole defended Zane who was struggling to control his powers which were reacting oddly to his emotions causing ice to build up on his hands and forearms along with the part of the altar he was touching.

“If that’s what you think then he’s got you fooled, you watch. You take him to his masters dwelling and he’ll side with that demon over you and tear out your hearts for that things spawn to feed on,” the Asher decreed. A sudden laughing caught them all off guard and caught their attentions.

“Oh that’s rich coming from the likes of you,” the raven cawed through laughter. The ravens voice was off. The voice wasn’t its but, and to their relief, it wasn’t the Stags. It was upbeat and a bit electronic sounding.

“What’s gotten into the bird?” one of the low tier Ashers in the room inquired and the leader grumbled, “I recognise that voice, DJ the Stags tech expert; a real nuisance that one.”

“Nuisance, you’re the ones to talk. Skulking about worse than vermin to cause chaos and harm for your pleasures. I can tell you I have never once eaten a person’s heart; I tried some chicken hearts once. I was just curious how they taste. They were not the best, kind of rubbery and bland no matter how much oil you soak them in. Anyway my master has never made us eat someone’s heart; I have no clue where you heard that. As for this ritual you are mocking you clearly have no understanding of it. There is nothing barbaric about it. Individuals must willingly give their hearts for the great strength, endurance and resilience to pain along with heightened senses and very long life that comes with being a Blood-elk warrior but it costs them their living state giving them a half life, a cursed life. For the rest of their existence they are plagued by nightmares and deep emotional pains along with becoming numb to feelings both physical and emotional. Only those worthy and pure of heart can benefit from the transformation. It is a self sacrifice individuals make to protect their lands and people at the cost of their own lives. A self sacrifice is far more meaningful and powerful than sacrificing someone else. Our master prefers that. Once given the heart my master fuses it into the seed. The heart seed is then placed in the warriors chest to replace their heart. They then become Blood-elk warriors. We don’t eat their hearts and no one is forced to have the ritual done. You are the savage ones forcibly mutating the innocent into your monsters, sacrificing others against their will for your dark pleasures and can I mention when’s the last time you had a bath cause man even through the raven I can smell your charred volcanic hides; I’ve smelt compost piles filled with some of the nastiest decaying matter that smelt better than you do. You must be either using some serious perfumes or some powerful magic to keep the towns people from smelling your stench…” The raven shook its head.

“I only agreed to let you listen in and give advice. You were not permitted to take control,” the Raven cawed in its usual voice before this DJ’s voice came through to state, “Oh come on if you had a chance to mock these burnt corpses would you not.” Everyone seemed distracted by the raven and DJ’s interactions. Taking advantage of their distraction Zane freed Cole and the two tried working on a plan. They were outnumbered and Zane was unsure how useful he was going to be as his powers were malfunctioning and he was having troubles with some of his systems.

“For this violation my price has now doubled. You now owe me twice the amount of oil coated worms and meats. Continue like this and it will be tripled,” the raven cawed then DJ came through to express, “fine. Worm eater.”

“Worm Eater! I will have you know Bone Picker that you should have more respect to me. Not only am I older than you I am a superior model. I was made by the last of the great Scymer beings not scrapped together by a dark spirit besides I have seen you eat worms too,” the raven cawed while this DJ responded, “as the humans say whatever. At least when I tried the worms I was not eating them out of dung piles or the mud. They were harvested, cleaned and decently coated in Scymer oil not foul substances.”

“Oh you think you are so much more refined than me, are you not the one who ate a bunch of Shalk beetles you found in a compost bin thinking it would give you an energy boost?” the Raven declared and DJ responded sounding to be embarrassed, “yha.”

“And how did that work for you.”

“I blew a few circuits. I was not saying all my ideas were well thought out. I was just stating I have more refined tastes than you. Besides you probably could agree we both have better tastes than these Ashers. Dirty burn stained bones, ash, dark awful smelling candles, dull and dirty rugs and tapestries, creepy crystals and statues, darkness… uhg even primitive styles with their cleaned bones, animal hides and rock paintings are way more appealing than this like come on just look at this statue. You could cover it in pigeon and racer droppings and they would be more aesthetically pleasing than this statue. It would foul the droppings,” DJ proclaimed making the raven peck at the statue and the raven cawed an agreement, “I will not disagree with that. I say it is about time someone does something to maybe dismantle this unpleasant décor and maybe take out the Blighters who made it.” By the fact the raven looked at Cole and Zane as it spoke they had a feeling it was encouraging them to make a move. They had no evidence anyone was coming to their aid so they would have to do things themselves. They could at least take advantage of Zanes malfunctioning powers. His hands and arms were coated in ice and anything he touched was getting frozen. With the ravens last words they jumped the two holding Jay setting him free. Cole and Jay took their weapons to defend themselves as the Ashers retaliated to attack them. The three put their backs to the wall to prevent being attacked from behind while the raven joined them in their attacks cawing, pecking and clawing at individuals to distract them. Zane was having trouble navigating and aiming constantly heading or attacking in the opposite direction he intended to and slipping up but with Cole and Jays help he was able to effectively take on the enemies despite his malfunctions. Within no time they were able to take out most of those in the room with little problem. They were doing pretty good till the leader started throwing spells of paralysis at them. It hit Jay first who complained as he sat against the wall unable to move, “great not again!” The Asher then hit Zane knocking him into the wall where he landed to sit at its base unable to move. It then hit the raven which landed stunned next to Zane. Cole tried to take out the leader but it got him blasting him into the wall to land with the others.

“This isn’t good,” Cole moaned unable to move and Jay commented, “to make it worse I had to pee earlier… now I don’t have to.” The Asher just laughed at them as they became worried over what was going to happen to them.

“Nice try dragon scum but you don’t stand a chance against us. Now we’ll lock these three up, we’ll restrain them so they can’t move. As for the raven; we can take it apart and see what we can find from this thing. It clearly has ties to the Stags spawn,” the leader proclaimed before the sound of fighting outside the room caught it’s attention. The next thing they knew the door to the room was kicked open and Nya rushed in to proclaim, “stay back from them you scum.” She soaked them with water then Clay who followed her into the room hit them with a Nexo power to freeze them. They took out all but the leader who slowly started to back away not taking its eyes off them. While they had their weapons and Clay had his shield both were still in their commoners gear.

“Leave this one for me,” Tafari proclaimed coming in behind the two fully decked out in her guard attire. She strolled up to the Asher who attempted to run away from her but she caught it dragging him back to herself then grabbing it by the front of its shirt lifted it with one hand off the ground.

“We’ll spare this one for now. We can see what this monster knows before we cull it,” she proclaimed another guard coming in to cuff strange cuffs made of Stahlrim, a material said to be ice turned to stone, onto the being.

“Nya I knew you’d come to my aid,” Jay proclaimed unable to move as Clay and Nya came to check on them Hassiri coming into the room to aid them.

“Are you guys okay?” Clay inquired and Cole stated, “well we can’t move, Zanes having problems controlling his powers and Jays going to need a new pair of underwear but yha we’re still in decent shape.”

“From the looks they were hit with a paralysis spell. It will wear off in a while and leave no lasting effects. As for you, are you also experiencing troubles with senses, navigation and various systems?” Hassiri inquired checking over Zane who replied, “yha, why?”

“I know what they used. Don’t worry it won’t leave any lasting effects. For organic beings it’s a paralysis poison, in droids it works a bit differently largely causing system malfunctions. Like the spell you’re just going to have to wait for its effects to wear off. We could have flushed your systems shortly after it was given to you but it’s too late for that now. You’ll just have to put up with it for now. Should only take between 12 hours to a day or two depending on how fast your system operates for it to fully wear off,” Hassiri explained.

“Looks like we got here just in time,” Clay declared as Tafari ushered the Asher out of the room. After Zane had talked to him Merlok had wasted no time in contacting the knights who quickly talked to the ninja. They had still been dealing with the people. They had hurriedly pardoned themselves leaving both groups with Robin and Ava to deal with. The two were rather overwhelmed and a bit unsure what to do but took up the task anyway. Before leaving they had told Hassiri who had gone and gotten some of the guard. Fearing they had little time they hadn’t bothered getting prepared and just grabbed their weapons and shields before rushing off to the co-ordinates they had been given. It took Clay with Merloks help sometime to work out the spell the Ashers were using to hide the entrance to their base but once they had figured it out they had wasted no time in rushing in to take out the Ashers. With them dealt with the rest of the ninja and the knights helped get Cole, Zane, Jay and the raven out of the base so the guards could search the place and clear it out of any remaining Ashers, secret passages and their dark contraband. To avoid curious spectators they took them back to the Scholars center. The paralysis was starting to wear off though Zane was still having problems. To help prevent his lack of control with his powers from causing problems Nya got the idea to put oven mitts on Zanes hands to keep him from freezing anything he touched till he regained control of his powers. While a frost had developed on the gloves, he still had ice building on his arms and he was making the area rather chilly the gloves did prevent him from freezing things he touched. They had placed the raven on the table where it was slowly regaining control flailing its limbs to try and stand Aaron rolling it back over whenever it put itself on its back. Other than them it was just some town guards and scholars in the center all of which were searching out and collecting all the Blighted beetles the Ashers had placed to keep everyone safe.

“I think from now on Zane if something’s wrong you stay with us no matter what,” Lloyd proclaimed and Zane had to agree.

“I don’t think anyone should wander around on their own especially if something’s wrong,” Clay declared and Cole stated, “yha cause those things are clearly determined to get us.” Cole was trying to move his one arm to pick up a cupcake he had gotten that had been put on the table in front of him. He was only able to get his arm on the table but unable to properly move his hand to grab anything frustrating him that he couldn’t get the cupcake.

“At least we got rid of some more of those monsters and the worst done was Jay wetting his pants,” Kai remarked and Jay was quick to snap, “sure joke about it but you weren’t there being played with by those things! They were playing a cruel joke trying to make Zane cut out our hearts and eat them so he would get our powers and they could stick these creepy looking seeds in place of our hearts to make us into monsters!”

“But they didn’t and now that group has been thwarted making us and the town safer,” Macy declared and Jay moaned, “still, it was not pleasant.”

“Yha and you were of little help. You could have put up a little more of a fight instead of so quickly offering me up as the sacrifice,” Cole commented and Jay quickly defended himself, “well I knew Zane would never hurt us right pal?”

“If I had a choice yes but you had no way of knowing I would remain in control nor if the Ashers would have taken matters into their own hands when I denied,” Zane replied and Cole agreed, “yha leaving me in a very bad position.”

“Well we got lucky this time,” Lloyd stated and Clay declared, “indeed but we shouldn’t take this lightly. We probably won’t get off so lucky in the future.”

Droid Rescue Happens around the later chapters of part 1

The ninja had some free time and had decided to take a stroll through the Undercity. They were wearing their civilian clothes to ease tensions with the beast folk and Zane was in disguise to keep his true identity hidden. Despite what was going on in the world the Undercity was relatively calm and most people were going about as if nothing was going on. The only ones who weren’t going about as business as usual were a few crazy people who thought the world was coming to an end and were preaching about it to which most people just ignored them though some of what they would say caused Jay to get anxious and disturbed the people from Ninjago and Knighton who had found themselves lost in this new realm. Many had taken to finding work in the town often filling in for people from Balmora who had gone missing likely having fallen into the Plane Meld and now stranded in Ninjago, Knighton or Dagons melded realm. While the people generally got along some of the people from Ninjago and Knighton were scared or at the least nervous of the beast folks bestial looks. This was especially true for the kids. On their walk the ninja had to help a few kids from both Ninjago and Knighton get the courage to play ball with a group of kids from the Lost realm. They were spooked by the other kids bestial appearances worried the beast folk kids would bite and scratch them. After helping the kids they came across one of the shops which was selling something odd. Zane had been the first to notice it and came over to inspect it. The others followed curious to what he had seen. It was outside what appeared to be a small thrift store on the ground level. Something about the shop seemed unpleasant. It was a bit on the dirtier side and the fact it was sort of tucked back out of sight from the main area didn’t help much either. There was a table out front holding various wares and next to this table sandwiched between it and some cargo crates was a large dog crate with a strange hyenoid in it. The hyenoid sat cross armed in the middle of the cage wearing pale ragged clothes and foot wraps watching as they came up to it. It didn’t resemble those the ninja had seen before and practised with in the ring.

“That is because it is the model used by the Stag,” Zane quietly explained to the others who were curious about its different appearance. The hyenoid was just looking at them with a dark sinister look that unnerved all but Zane.

“What’s a monster like this doing here?” Jay expressed and Zane was quick to state, “they are not monsters…”

“They serve that demon deer and do evil things therefore they’re monsters,” Jay cut in and Lloyd added, “he has a point. Sure maybe this one has not personally done anything bad but given what it is and who it serves by definition it is a monster.” As they talked the store proprietor came up to them. He was a bit overweight ungulate folk grey in color with red eyes, a small pointed beard on his chin and wearing a sleeveless shirt showing off his tattooed arms. He had a scar on his face on the bridge of his nose and was missing part of his right ear.

“Interested in this scrap heap? They make great slaves when programmed right or you can have some fun with it use it for target practice. They are rather easy to care for and very easy to train. Yes you can feed them if you want. They have a synthetic digestive system that can convert most consumed matter into electricity; the batteries charge lasts longer if you do that and means less charging. From what I’ve heard they love the taste of magnets; makes for a good laugh too. They also like when you shock them the more powerful the shock the better. Don’t worry they don’t feel anything so it won’t hurt them. It is capable of speech however it currently only knows the Scimitar tongue, someone who specializes in robotics could fix that for yha. There is a few in the scholars guild who could do that if you need some pointers. It’s powered by a high capacity animo core; it may be ancient Scimitar technology but it works better than most modern batteries. It can keep this thing going for several days. I got a couple extra cores and the charger for it too if you’d like,” the shop keep stated.

“Isn’t it illegal to sell most of these Scymer folk items especially their constructs that come from the Stag not to mention I thought it was illegal for anyone but the arena to have these things in the city?” Cole noted and Kai added, “yha and I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t be selling it like it’s some household item.”

“Not if you know the right people and take the right precautions. Everyone knows those brainless tin cans that serve the Stag are mindless drones; they can’t do nothing unless given orders by a superior and it’s easy to program them to a new master. It’s kept locked up and you see that device hooked up to its power source,” the shop keeper stated pointing out the strange device attached to its chest hooked up to its heart, “using my little remote all I have to do is hit the right button and that device will overload its systems and kill it in an instant. I’ve also had its internal trackers and communications destroyed so it can’t try and call for help from its demonic pals.” He showed off the remote he had for the device.

“That man is not cool. This metal-skin bro is a living thing not animated scrap. What you are doing is cruel dude,” Zane expressed in his disguised voice starting to get angry. The others had noticed over there time there Zane had started showing a worrying trusting and willing to aid the robotic denizens of this realm even if they were on the enemies side. It wasn’t evident when they were training and he rarely showed it around the townsfolk but it was there and the knights had started to notice it as well. He would often defend them and side with them even over his friends sometimes. The others didn’t talk about it while he was around or near not wanting to make Zane uncomfortable or alert him to the fact they worried the Stag or his minions might be messing with his mind without Zane realising it though Jay had a few more outlandish theories about the cause of his behaviour. Lloyd noticed that when Zane had spoken the hyenoid looked at him, hints of curiosity appearing on its aggressive looking face. It quietly muttered ‘Naas –Zeymah’ sounding almost like he was questioning something. Lloyd had no clue what it had said meant but he knew Zane understood the Scymer language and he saw Zane glance momentarily at the droid when it spoke this before being drawn back to the shopkeeper.

“Really living thing, if you mean like a common worthless unintelligent mutt I could see that,” the keeper stated and they could see his comment was angering Zane. To prevent him from doing something he might regret Nya butt in to inquire, “these droids are supposed to be very difficult to capture; how did you get it?” While they were talking Zane noticed the droid was looking at him like it was curious of something. Zane tried to see if he could commune secretly with it but true to what the shop keep said any method for it to secretly commune with other droids were non functional. Zane wasn’t the only one to notice the droid looking at him. All but Jay took note of this at one point during the conversation but didn’t make it evident.

“I know someone; they can get me things that are rather hard to come by. He found this thing trying to steal from his property and caught it off guard with his truck?” the keeper stated and Jay pondered, “with his truck?”

“Yha he ran his truck rate into the stupid thing and knocked it out cold. If these things are supposed to be so smart you’d think it would know not to stand in the way of a vehicle. Luckily it wasn’t too badly damaged so I didn’t have to do much to get it ready for selling,” the shop keeper bragged with a laugh which the others could see was making Zane angrier.

“Dude that is not funny, this thing as you call it is just as much a living being as you and deserves fair treatment,” Zane proclaimed and the shop keep laughed at him, “fair treatment for a metal-skin, what’s next you want me to give fair treatment to the demon bird-bugs Vesparilions next or let skeevers make themselves at home in my house.”

“I am just asking that you show more compassion to those who are not human; would you treat your own family like this?” Zane questioned clearly trying to control his anger at the keeper to prevent an altercation but starting to struggle with it.

“Let me think, yha I would. If I had a sister I’d sell her in a second,” the keeper proclaimed and the ninja were getting the sense this person was not the most pleasant or respectable of people.

“You’re a very disgusting person do you know that,” Kai expressed and noting Zane looked like he was going to punch the keeper Lloyd stated pulling Zane back, “Boon don’t, scum like him is not worth your time.”

“Yha metal-skin loving s’wit I’m not worth your time so why don’t you and your pals run along so I can get some actual business,” the shopkeeper stated. Knowing it best to leave things there the ninja started to head off however Zane didn’t want to follow as he didn’t want to leave the hyenoid with that person.

“There is nothing we can do. By their laws that droid is his and he can do what he wants with it. I know it’s not fair but we don’t have much of a choice. We don’t want to get in trouble with the law and make the people hate us more,” Lloyd explained to Zane as they dragged him away from the place. He agreed with Lloyds logic but they didn’t entirely feel he had dropped the issue. They went about their day and Zane seemed to drop the issue but some of them weren’t entirely convinced. Around them he seemed fine but worried he hadn’t dropped the issue Lloyd kept an eye on him when he was alone making sure to keep an eye on him from a distance so Zane would not be aware he was watching. At one point in the afternoon Lloyd watched as Zane watered the planters in the main room of the scholars center. It wasn’t odd for him to do this as both the ninja and the knights had taken to aiding the scholars center and its inhabitants as a sort of thank you for letting them stay there. The folk there were rather thankful for their help however due to some accidents Jay, Kai and Lance were not permitted in certain areas of the center or to help out with certain tasks. Zane often helped out with caring for the planters, Lloyd guessed it was relaxing for him. What he usually didn’t do however which Lloyd took as a sign that he was distracted and still thinking about the issue was giving water to the stuffed fauna that decorated the large planter against the back wall. Zane didn’t seem aware he was doing it till Aaron commented as he and Macy came up to Zane as they went to put back some books they had been reading, “Dude I’m pretty sure those creatures don’t need a drink anymore.”

“A little lost in thought?” Macy wondered as Zane realised what he had been doing and felt a bit embarrassed.

“I guess… just thinking about… back home… guess I got a little distracted,” Zane stated though he didn’t seem to into his words making Lloyd feel that wasn’t what was on his mind.

“I hear yha, I sometimes find myself getting lost in thought about home too,” Aaron agreed and Macy added, “yha, without us I don’t think there is many back home who stand a chance against the monsters from this place. Are there some back in your realm that could stand a chance holding back these things till you guys return?” The three talked for a short while before going their separate ways. Nothing stranger happened till after everyone had gone to bed. Zane waited till everyone had gone to sleep pretending to be asleep himself till they were. Then he quietly snuck out of their room dressed in his ninja attire. As he left Zane was unaware he wasn’t alone. Lloyd had worried Zane would wait till nightfall to do something so had been pretending to sleep waiting for Zane to do something. He followed Zane at a bit of a distance so he wouldn’t alert Zane to his presence. As he had worried Zane headed out into the Under-city and snuck his way back to that shop making sure none of the guards patrolling the Under-city were aware of him and shutting down any security cameras he came near. The lighting in the Under-city had been set to a night mode with only a faint moonlight and the occasional wall lamp providing any light to the place providing plenty of dark areas for them to hide in while sneaking about. Other than guards and a few nocturnal critters mainly of the insect variety there was no one around in the Under-city. Sure enough Zane went to the hyenoids cage. The droid appeared to be asleep curled up in the middle of the cage but it woke up and looked at Zane getting up to kneel on its hands and knees in the cage. The two talked quietly for a short while, Lloyd was too far away to hear what they were saying, before Zane went to fiddle with the cage door. The moment he touched the door however he received a serious shock as it gave off a small explosion and was sent flying backwards smacking into a support pillar for the walkway to the second story above nearby. He landed on the ground either unconscious or dazed from what Lloyd could see. Quickly looking around Lloyd noted one of the guards took note of the noise from the explosion and was coming over to see what was wrong. Worried Lloyd rushed over to Zane to find him dazed and thinking quickly to prevent the guard from seeing the both of them he helped Zane to his feet and to hide behind the crates next to the hyenoids cage. The droid just remained quite watching and looking to be curious. Zane began to come to his senses as the guard came up to the cage and Lloyd put his hand over Zanes mouth motioning for him to be quite as the guard approached the cage.

“What are you up to?” the guard questioned the droid shining his flashlight in its face and the construct muttered something in the Scimitar tongue to the guard before laying down as if going back to sleep.

“Fine whatever,” the guard stated before quietly stating as he walked away, “I hope that thing is taken out of here soon. I don’t care if it’s bought or escapes as long as I don’t have to deal with it; it gives me the creeps. Why can’t he keep it in his shop with some of those other creepy things he has for sale.”

“What are you doing?” Lloyd quietly inquired to Zane as he recovered from the shock once the guard was gone. Zane quietly responded, “I am going to set him free. He doesn’t deserve to be caged up and sold off like livestock. I know you and the others will not approve but he deserves to go back to his brethren. The people here are wrong. Those that serve the Stag are not monsters or mindless machines. They are just as much of thinking and feeling beings as you or I.” Zane didn’t wait for Lloyd to respond and went back to looking at the cage. To Lloyds surprise the construct spoke in the common tongue to Zane explaining how the cage had an enchantment on it to prevent fellow droids from touching the cage; a precaution to keep the Stags minions from releasing him. They had been told it only knew the scimitar tongue. Was the shopkeeper lying about it or was the construct hiding truths about itself? Lloyd didn’t like either answer for those questions. Zane was at a loss of what to do looking around for some way to open the cage without directly touching it.

“Okay say you do free him what are you going to do with him? He can’t stay with us and I don’t think the knights will let him stay on their ship,” Lloyd expressed coming up to Zane who replied, “Mzark knows how to contact some of those in service to the Stag and has agreed to contact them. I know a place he can go to be safe till they come, I will take him there.”

“Really, what else does Mzark know that his keepers don’t know about?” Lloyd wondered surprised and a little disturbed to know the little bestial construct that slept in the room next to them and often liked to hang around with the ninja and knights who often let it see what they were doing even listening to personal talks and to play with their phones had some dark secrets. It was not a comforting thought.

“I can see only one option to free him… you are the only one who can let him go free,” Zane explained looking to Lloyd who was not wanting to co-operate.

“What? No I won’t. I know it’s cruel but he’s a servant to a demon. We release him and he’ll just go straight back to that monster and it doesn’t need more servants,” Lloyd proclaimed and he could see his words upset Zane who had been hoping he would help.

“Why do you and that flesh-skin talk as if you are kin?” the hyenoid inquired and Zane responded, “Lloyd is like a brother to me, we are family.”

“He calls you family yet sees me as a monster?” the hyenoid inquired and Lloyd responded, “well maybe you’re not inherently evil but you’ve fallen into service under a monster who is evil.”

“And so that makes me evil? If I am evil because I serve a being considered a monster than I could say you are evil for having blood of an Oni,” the hyenoid remarked startling Lloyd who took a few steps back in shock. How did it know that?

“Our master told us, he told us about all of you. He knows things, many things even secret things; things you might not have ever even told each other or realise you have,” the hyenoid explained when Lloyd questioned how it knew this fact about him then even more startled by its reply he inquired, “how does he know about us?”

“It is part of his being, what he is. He walks where others cannot and can see what others cannot; he can gaze through the fogs of time and space like few others can. He would make a farseer jealous with what he can do,” the hyenoid explained before stating to Lloyd, “tell me flesh-skin if you think I am a monster than reach into one of these crates next to my cage, do not worry the lids are just placed on and can be easily moved. I promise nothing in there will harm you. Do it and pull out the first thing your hand touches.” Lloyd thought it a very strange request but did as the droid said. He couldn’t see what was inside the crate but when he reached into it the first thing his hand touched was something surprisingly warm, felt to be made of stone and shocked him with a dark feeling. He quickly pulled his hand out scared of whatever he had touched taking a few steps back from the crates. Curious Zane went over to investigate and pulled out a small statuette with the resemblance to an Oni, faintly glowing dark red markings covering its volcanic rock surface. Zane had seen one of these before and greatly disliked its sight.

“An Asher statuette,” Zane stated before putting it back and closing the crate disturbed by the items presence.

“Those things are more illegal than the hyenoid. What’s it doing here? How does no one know it’s here?” Lloyd wondered feeling disturbed to have touched the item and the hyenoid explained, “How do you think, that scum of a so called human who runs this shop. He is one of those Asher monsters. He put an enchantment on those crates to hide them from the suspicions of townsfolk. It even prevents the sniffer dogs and Mire-lions of the towns guard from sniffing them out.”

“Wait how did you know these are here?” Lloyd wondered and the hyenoid responded, “they are why I am in this cage. You flesh-skin might like what I do. Yes I serve the Stag but my task for my master falls in a category you would agree with. I work as an eradicator of Asher and necromantic influences a Deyra-Ah or as you would say in your tongue a demon hunter. I and my team search out small Asher operations often revolving around the smuggling of their illegal contraband and destroy their operations. It is why I ended up in this cage. I got caught trying to destroy those. We burnt down their barn and destroyed most of their contraband but they managed to save those crates and that what you flesh-skins would say a jerk hit me with his vehicle while I tried to escape. That is not the only contraband he has. There is more in his shop and house.”

“We should tell the guards about this,” Lloyd noted and Zane countered, “and tell them what? How do we tell them about this without seeming suspicious?” Zane was right. They couldn’t just tell the guards they had been tipped off by a droid that served a highly feared demon to the area about an evil forbidden item. It would spark the wrong ideas.

“Flesh-skin might not like it but freeing me is the best option. If I go missing the town guard will be drawn into looking into it as it poses a serious risk to town safety. All you have to do to draw the guards suspicion to the crate and its items is leave one of those statuettes outside the crates. Hide it behind them so the keeper cannot see it but where an inspecting guard could find it. The energies and smell of it will draw the guard and their hounds to it,” the hyenoid offered. Lloyd thought it over. Even though he didn’t want to the hyenoid was right. Freeing the droid was the best option. Even though he was not pleased with it Lloyd went and fiddled with the cages lock and opened the cage. The hyenoid slowly crawled out of the cage and stood up. Lloyd had expected the hyenoid to bolt off once freed but instead it stood waiting for them to make a move. Zane helped the construct remove the instant kill device from his heart and drop it on the floor by the cage. They made sure to hide one of the Asher statuettes behind the crates so it would draw people’s attention before leaving the area. They then snuck back to the scholars center where Zane took them to the alcove under the stairs in the main room. He opened the passage under the stairwell so the hyenoid could enter the passage to his home.

“Thank you Fang-brother, I wish I could give you something for your troubles but I have nothing to give,” the hyenoid stated and Zane expressed, “you do not have to give me anything. Seeing you are free and safe from that cruel person is all I need.”

“I know you do not approve of this flesh-skin but I promise you did the right thing I hope you will see that one day,” the hyenoid expressed before leaving to Lloyd who though wasn’t saying anything was clearly mad at letting the construct go free. Once it had left Zane closed the passage and put everything back the way it was so it looked like nothing had happened.

“I know you and the others think I am too trusting of those under the Stags service; that is why you followed me,” Zane stated and Lloyd explained, “I get you feel for them. They share a lot in common with you and I think that’s blinding you to the dangers these things pose. A lot of them here serve this monster stag…”

“That does not mean they are like him though,” Zane proclaimed and Lloyd countered, “it doesn’t mean they’re like you either. We know very little about them. They could be trying to trick you, take advantage of you to sway you to their side or for their own purposes.”

“I will not align myself with the Stag if that is what you are worrying about,” Zane expressed and Lloyd noted, “I know you wouldn’t but these droids you are so willing to trust could mess with you without your knowing and make you align with him without you realising it. Your trust of them is dangerous.”

“Is that what you are all worried about? I have heard some of your talking when you thought I was not around or listening,” Zane stated and Lloyd felt embarrassed and ashamed. He and the others had talked a few times over the issue when they thought Zane wasn’t near enough to hear them. They were all concerned over Zanes willingness to trust these foreign droids who served this demon and what they might have to do if he did get swayed by them to the Stags side. Most of their resolutions revolved around having to cause serious harm to Zane which he was pretty sure was not something Zane wanted to hear come from his own family.

“I’m sorry if we said anything that upset you it’s just you’re worrying us. We know nothing about these constructs and you’re so willing to trust them without questioning their motives or intentions. Surely you can see that doesn’t look well,” Lloyd confided.

“I guess it does look suspicious,” Zane noted and Lloyd continued, “you see. I know you don’t mean any harm with it but maybe you should tone it down in your trusting of these things especially when we’re not around. We don’t want to lose you. That monster has clearly shown he wants you and won’t hesitate to enslave you when he catches you. So far you’ve been lucky we were around to rescue you from him but in the future we might not be. I’m not saying you have to be like the people and be mean to the constructs or ignore them just treat them as strangers and don’t be so trusting of them. We’re your family you should trust us and not these droids you know nothing about. We just want to keep you safe but that’s hard to do when you’re so willing to trust the Stags minions especially when we’re not around. How can we keep you safe if something happens when we’re not around?” Lloyd could see Zane understood what he was talking about and agreed with him but it was also upsetting Zane a bit so Lloyd stated giving Zane a hug, “I know it’s not pleasant to hear but it’s true. Come why don’t we go to bed and we can talk with the others tomorrow; they’re all worried about you. If you want we can also make a stop at that guys shop early tomorrow to see what will happen.” Zane still looked troubled but agreed to go to bed.

“I don’t know how much of Jays ideas you have heard but if it’s any consolation none of us agree with any of Jays ideas,” Lloyd expressed as they headed to bed.

The next day Lloyd and Zane who was in disguise stopped by the area of the shop to see the results of their actions. Several guards including Tafari were there. They had handcuffed the shop keeps hands behind his back and sat him on the ground while the guard had a trained Mire-lion going through his stuff. They had pulled out several forbidden items already mainly Ashers in make or relation. A crowd had gathered to watch but were hanging back often sheltering behind objects scared by the items. Clay, Macy and Aaron were also there curious about what was going on. The three had been on a morning walk when they caught sight of the commotion.

“Looks like they found an Asher with some dark contraband,” Clay explained when Lloyd asked what was going on.

“You two, you had something to do with this. You told that metal skin s’wit of yours and he did this with the help from that demons spawn didn’t he,” the shop keep growled the moment he saw Lloyd and Zane clearly very angry with them and calmly with a hint of pleasure to his voice Zane responded, “how could he? As you folks wanted our cyber bro is kept locked up like an animal when my pals aren’t training. Maybe some of your so called monster droid hostages pals came to help him and reveal just what kind of monster you are.”

“That’s called a burn bro,” Aaron expressed to Zane impressed by Zanes comment.

“Why you…” the shop keep expressed looking to try to free himself and get up but Tafari sprayed him with a freezing liquid causing him to seize up in pain shaking from the cold and some frost building up on the spot she had sprayed; further proof that he was an Asher. As she sprayed him Tafari expressed, “I don’t care how it got out. It’s gone and nowhere to be found so it is no longer a major concern. As for you however there’s going to be some dire consequences for you in the near future and we’ll make sure none of your pals can help you. Now while I take him away why don’t some of you clear out some of these spectators.” As Tafari dragged the guy to his feet and dragged him away while some of the other guards ushered the people away while they continued searching the guys supplies. Macy, Aaron and Zane headed off while Clay hung back for a moment with Lloyd to inquire curious, “did you guys have a hand in this like he says?”

“Well a little bit,” Lloyd confided and Clay wondered a bit worried, “Zane wasn’t involved was he?” The knights generally weren’t aware of Zanes over trusting of the constructs. They knew he felt for them and they understood why but they had not seen the full extent of his over trusting behaviour. Feeling he needed more to talk to than the other ninja and not having his uncle who he wanted to speak to most of all around he had confided with Clay and Merlok about it feeling he could trust them and that they could offer some insight for him. Both agreed Zanes over trusting could prove dangerous and were wary of it but felt it best for the ninja to deal with the problem knowing it best if those closest to him dealt with the issue. They would only intervene if the ninja felt there was something wrong or a serious danger was present.

“Let’s just say be careful what you say around that Robo-bill Mzark. I just recently found out he apparently has some questionable ties outside the city,” was all Lloyd was willing to say and Clay acknowledged, “really, that’s a little concerning.”

“Yha I know,” Lloyd agreed and Clay noted, “Thanks for the tip. You know I guess one of those monsters droids running loose is better than having one of those Ashers roaming free and under cover in the city. Other than being the occasional nuisance unlike that monster of a master of theirs those constructs really haven’t been a serious problem like these Ashers.”

“True but that could just be an illusion, let’s hope for everyone’s sake that isn’t entirely the case,” Lloyd proclaimed.

Forest of the Stag This one happens late in the first part shortly before they leave for the city.

It was a warm sunny day and given how hard they had been working and all the rough times they had been having the ninja and knights had decided to take some time to relax on such a nice day. It would probably be the one of the last chances they would have to relax before heading off through the wastes to the home of a demon. They headed out to a small lake to have a picnic and relax by its shores. All but Misako, Merlok, Robin and Ava headed out. They used the knights 5 vehicles to reach the site and had all gone in their commoners outfits. It was a nice reprieve as they relaxed by the lake shore despite how unpleasant the local environment was. They were in what looked to have been a lakeside park outside a very small tourist town though it and the town were currently abandoned. The area had recently been hit by an Ashers Ravage Storm, a new attack Ashers had started. Ravage Storms were cyclonic storms created of dark magic that would taint the areas they hit with darkness, corrupt beings caught in it into monsters and tear the souls from the living to trap in special gems they were using to power portals to dark realms or to use as ghostly soldiers to slave for them. Though the city guard had destroyed this storm the area had been left tainted by the Ashers magic. The area was forested and surrounded by large hills with the lake filling the lowest portions of the makeshift valley the town sat in. The flora of the region was all greyed and dulled with many looking close to death or burnt. Even the very ground appeared like it had been burned. Much of the fauna and all the people had fled from the storm and hadn’t returned to the area leaving it quite and barren. Those that had been lucky enough to escape the storm before it fully claimed them had been cursed with Porphyric Hemophilia, what many including Jay called the Vampire disease. Luckily all of them including beasts and people had all been captured and were being given treatment for the condition back in Balmora. Sadly there was nothing they could do to save those who had been caught and claimed by the storm. Despite this they had chosen the location as it was close to town and since the Ashers had already attacked they felt they wouldn’t likely return to the area so should be pretty safe from Asher attacks. Plus with no animals around they were not very likely to encounter any possible allies to the Stag.

“You know I heard the ship we are going to be using will be repaired and ready for us in a few days,” Clay expressed as they relaxed he, Lloyd, Nya, and Macy playing a strategy board game and Kai who was relaxing enjoying the warmth of the sun stated, “do we have to talk about that now?”

“Yha can we not talk about such unpleasant things like travelling through that cursed place or to that demons monstrous home and just relax,” Jay complained and Lloyd noted, “we can relax now but we cannot forget we have work to do here.” They continued to relax sitting on two picnic blankets they had laid out next to each other by the lakeshore. Along with just relaxing Jay was playing a handheld video game he had brought with him, Aaron lay on his back asleep using a book to block the sun from his eyes, Lance was trying to tan himself, Zane was reading a book while occasionally looking over their surroundings, Axl was cooking their lunch on a little barbeque they had brought and Cole was helping him. While Zane read the book, the guide book they had been given he occasionally got a weird sensation. Whatever it was felt dark and un-natural and a bit like the Stag putting him a bit on edge. Whatever he was feeling he quickly surmised wasn’t the Stag as it was weak, more sporadic and he couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from. After a while he brushed it off as an effect from the ash or residual energy from the Ashers storm.

“I bet this place looked a lot nicer before those Ashers got a hold of it,” Macy expressed and Zane regaled from his book, “this was once known as one of the most beautiful places in the area even after the eruptions. Many believed that was thanks to the locals worship of a powerful forest spirit they called Skogursha who roams the forest around here in the form of a large creature known as a Morinosei (mori-no-say). He is said to be very protective of his lands and would routinely attack those that didn’t respect his forests or him.” While they talked Cole went to get some more burger patties for Axl to cook up from a cooler in their vehicles which were parked a bit out of sight in some trees a few meters away.

“Obviously this Skogursha must be a myth cause if he isn’t then he’s doing a very terrible job at keeping this place nice, just look at it. Calling it rustic would be too kind a word,” Lance expressed to which Macy explained, “and rustic is your code word for run down and dirty.”

“Many scholars believe Skogursha is a myth created by locals to explain why this area has been less effected by the Red Mountain than other areas nearby which recent studies have proven is thanks to the large hills of the area helping block some of the ash falls and storms protecting the region and not really due to any magical interference,” Zane noted.

“What are these Morinosei?” Jay wondered and Zane explained, “large relatives to the Venom-fang which are largely herbivorous though will routinely eat smaller animals, insects and on the rare occasion people. They are most well known for their large scythe like hand claws and very strange appearances. Despite that they’re supposedly rather peaceful and docile creatures.”

“Peaceful and docile yet they will still eat people; let’s hope we don’t ever come across any,” Jay expressed before Cole called them over to check something out sounding nervous. All but Aaron who was still asleep got up and went over to see what he wanted. When they got there they were all stunned. Something had attacked the vehicles leaving large deep scratch marks on them, one was stuck in a tree and one of the vehicles was gone. They could see the marks of where it had been dragged off into the forest.

“Luckily none of the food or drinks were touched but it makes no sense. This looks like an animal attack,” Cole noted and Axl wondered, “what kind of animal could do this?!”

“And what kind of animal attacks and doesn’t take the food?” Nya wondered Jay hiding nervously behind her to proclaim, “maybe it wasn’t animal but this Skog thing.”

“I don’t think this is mystical in any way…” Clay expressed before a noise back at their picnic caught their attention. Rushing back they found everything had been tossed about, the food was eaten and Aaron was missing. While the others looked around on edge trying to figure out what happened Jay began to panic which started causing Lance to panic.

“I bet it was this Skogursha being. We’re on his territory so he ate the food and took Aaron as a sacrifice!” Jay babbled before he was shocked by hearing Aarons voice proclaim, “I haven’t been taken.” Aaron was stuck in a clump of Chokeweed bushes at the edge of the cleared area they had been sitting. Clay and Lloyd helped him out of the bush while Kai inquired what had happened and if he had seen the culprit.

“Don’t know who did it. First I’m sleeping then the next thing I know I’m flung through the air and landing in some bushes. Not a cool or pleasant way to be woken up,” Aaron expressed before stating noting Zane pick up a strange object off the ground, “hey whatcha got there cyber-bro.” The object looked like a greenish colored feather but not like an average bird’s feather. For one it was large, much bigger than any birds plus it was simpler in design.

“It’s a Pycno-fiber, a basal form of feather commonly seen on flightless ground birds and the Repto-birds of this region,” Zane noted and Cole expressed, “that’s one big feather. There’s no chance that came from something small is there?”

“No and giving some of the footprints around here and the scratch marks to the vehicles I would have to say it is a large species we are dealing with,” Zane noted and Lloyd opted, “maybe we should think of relaxing somewhere else. I think we might have upset something here.”

“It’s Skoggy, we’ve angered him by being in his forest and not giving him any tributes,” Jay proclaimed annoying the other ninja while the knights were a bit confused Aaron even asking, “dude what’s his problem?”

“We often ask that… it’s not some spirit we’re dealing with probably just an animal looking for an easy meal or in a really bad mood,” Kai expressed and Macy stated, “whatever it is we should clean up then find the missing vehicle and figure out how we’re going to get the other out of that tree. Then we should probably find somewhere else to relax, preferably somewhere we are not likely to anger something.” They were in agreement and collected their stuff to take it back to the vehicles. As they brought things back to the vehicles they were shocked to find another vehicle now suspended in a tree by strange vines that looked to be a hybrid of plant and shrooms which were oddly healthy and vibrant compared to the state of the area.

“Okay, maybe there is something strange going on,” Clay noted as they looked at the vine wrapped vehicle and Nya noted, “What could do this?” Not wanting to hang around to find out they split up to work on getting the vehicles down and find the missing one. Nya, Macy and Lloyd went to find the missing vehicle while the others worked on getting the two down. Cole and Axl managed to slowly work the one out of the tree breaking a few branches in the process while Clay and Kai worked on cutting the vines off the other Lance working as a spotter for them. Aaron, Jay and Zane meanwhile checked over the other two vehicles to assess what kind of damages the scratches had done. It didn’t appear too bad, they were mainly cosmetic damages and the important components of the vehicles were unharmed. While they worked Zane kept getting distracted. He could swear from time to time he was seeing movement out of the corner of his eye or hear movement in the brush nearby and he got a strange feeling that something was nearby watching them. He couldn’t see anything nor pick up anything with his sensors though so brushed it off as tricks of the cursed environment.

“Well we found it but you’d never guess where it is,” Macy expressed as they came back from their search and Nya elaborated, “it’s somehow been pulled up onto a tall cliff by an un-naturally large and aggressive trauma root.”

“Well we’re almost done here. Once this one is down we’ll figure out how to get it,” Clay stated as he and Kai worked on the last of the vines and Kai wondered, “what do you think did all this?”

“It was Skoggy!” Jay quickly blurt out the others quick to chastise his idea. While the others talked cautiously working the vehicle free and checking over the one they had gotten out of the tree Zane got distracted by the slight sounds of movement in the brush nearby. The forest of the area was made of largely redwoods, Brightwood Cypresses, Eucalid Locusts, Maple and Pine. All were not currently in the best of shapes. He noted something odd about the trunk of one of the redwoods. There were some greener patches of something on it and there was an odd shape to some of the bark areas. Intrigued he went closer for a better look. What had looked like some sort of plant or moss from a distance looked more like the Pycno-fibers up close and looking over the shape of the abnormal patch of the plant he noted some slight movements that looked a bit like breathing to a few parts. As he looked at it he became aware of a low quiet growling. Following the sounds source looking up he was surprised to see a set of eyes looking down at him from what he had thought was a really strange lichen coated branch at first but he was now just realising was the head and long neck of a large creature that had positioned itself against the trunk wrapping most of its body into it so it blended in with the tree. Zane was unsettled and wary. Given the scratches they were able to put on the vehicles this creatures claws would defiantly do serious damage to his body if it attacked him. While he looked up at it slowly moving back from it not wanting to make the creature feel threatened causing it to attack two others like it seeing one of them had been spotted moved out from the woods where like this one they had been blending in as part of the foliage. They stalked out of the woods on two legs showing off the large scythe claws that tipped their arms as they began to attack the knights and ninja who were surprised by the creatures sudden appearance and shocked by how they looked and how well they had blended into the surroundings. The creatures were rather reptilian looking to be part of the Repto-bird group standing on two legs and a bit more upright than the usual bi-pedal Repto-birds. They were a bit on the chunky side with pot bellies and thick legs whose feet and upper leg were made to look like they were made of bark with even spikes that resembled the stumps of tree branches coming off the sides. Similar strange growths grew as short branch like structures from its spine on its back and on the shoulders with three plates of this stuff growing on each forearm and coating the head which faded into a dark beak at the front of the snout with several short and thick branch like structures growing off the back of the head plate as a frill. Large parts of the body including its core, the lower legs, most of the arms, part of the long tail and its long cassowary like neck were coated in the strange greenish pycno-fibers like the one they had found before with some standing up as a mane on the back of its neck. The creatures didn’t hold back in their attacks slashing with their claws, trying to bite and stomp on them. Zane rushed back to help the others the third creature following him to join in the attack.

“What are these things? They’re like living trees except they’re harder to burn than a tree!” Kai expressed finding his element wasn’t doing as much damage as he thought it would and Zane explained, “these are those Morinosei I told you of earlier.” They were no match for the creatures. They were surprisingly resistant to the ninjas elemental powers and Clays magic, too large for Spinjitsu to have an effect on and they had come to find themselves weapon less. When they had gone to retrieve their weapons and the knights shields from the vehicles they were shocked to find the strange fungal vines had grown onto the vehicles and encased their items. Even more shocking was the sudden arrival of one of the creatures who was notably bigger than the others as they all found themselves forced by the creatures into a cluster of bamboo at the forests edge blocking any backward movement and trapping them. The new arrivals size was not the only thing different about him. He was dark in color and also had small fungal growths and patches of moss coming out of parts of his hide along his back, a few bits of moss hanging from the frill on his head and algae clinging to parts of his hide. It also bore strange black and glowing aquamarine markings on its face, parts of its body and limbs and its eyes glowed with the same greenish color. He joined in the attack with the other three. Not only was this large one using the same attacks as the others but it seemed to have some knowledge in elemental magic mainly based around nature as it could control vines and even summoned vines up from the ground to try and encase them.

“Well I think we know who made the strange vines and has been messing with our stuff,” Cole noted.

“That must be Skoggy!” Jay exclaimed and Aaron inquired, “what’s with it’s strange tattoos?”

“The colors are like those the Stag uses; I wonder if it is a minion to the Stag,” Lloyd pondered to which Zane commented, “maybe. It is giving off hints of the energy possessed by the Stag but I do not sense the Stags presence here and none of the others show signs of the Stags hold.”

“That still doesn’t mean they’re not working for him… what are you doing?” Kai stated noting Jay who had stopped fighting and was bowing on his hands and knees to the largest of the Morinosei proclaiming, “oh great Scoggy we didn’t mean to trespass in your sacred forest. We beg that you will forgive us and let us go in peace and we will give you whatever you want. You can even have Coles cake that he snuck out here for himself just please don’t hurt us or eat us.”

“How’d you know I brought it? If you thought I was going to share some with you I wasn’t. I’ll share with Zane cause he won’t tattle like you,” Cole expressed and Lloyd declared forcing Jay to stand up and stop worshipping the creature, “will you stop it’s not some great spirit it’s an animal in service to a demon. No matter what you plea it’s not going to listen.” Lloyd then quickly shot a blast towards the big one as it went to take a swipe at him. The creature blocked his first attack and dodged the second attack he tossed at it. The creature watched the blast shoot past him and hit into one of the Brightwood Cypresses at the forests edge. When the energy from Lloyds attack hit the tree Skogursha noticed something. Everyone else was occupied with fighting so didn’t notice but when the blast hit the tree where it hit began to gain some color and the tree started bouncing back to life a bit of the symbiotic fungi housed in crevices of the bark which had been dulled from the Ashers magic lighting up and gaining not just their color but some of their glow back. Skoggy was intrigued. He called to the others to hold off their attacks and summoned vines to hold all but Lloyd preventing them from moving or fighting.

“Oh great Skoggy please have mercy on us!” Jay pleaded as Lloyd tried to fend off Skogursha as he moved close to him. Skogursha without hesitation swung his head down biting onto Lloyd.

“It’s going to eat him!” Kai exclaimed as Skoggy raised his head Lloyds top half encased in its mouth. Skoggy then turned and walked off into the forest the other three following him while the rest were left trapped by the vines.

“They’re going to eat us! We have to get out of here before they come back!” Jay exclaimed panicking and struggling to break free of the vines.

“What about Lloyd…” Axl wondered before Jay cut him off panicking, “it’s too late for him he’s Skoggys food now!”

“It might not be too late, we could still try to rescue him,” Clay declared trying to think of a spell to deal with the vines while Kai managed to free himself by burning the vines.

“I say we kick their butts and get Lloyd back and this time they won’t catch us off guard or un-armed,” Kai declared using the knife he had been using earlier to cut the vehicle free to cut the others free. While they got free and grabbed their weapons Skogursha carried Lloyd off through the woods. Lloyd was trying to get free terrified he was going to get eaten. He was suddenly dropped on the ground landing on his rear to look up at Skogursha and his three allies as they looked down at him. They had him backed against a stone wall that was coated in oddly healthy vines. Lloyd was terrified they were going to eat him tearing pieces off so each of them could have a bite. He wondered as he crawled backwards not taking his eyes off the beasts if the creatures thought that if they ate him if they would acquire his powers possibly to try and restore their home and that was why they had picked him. When he hit the wall he got even more scared then became startled and confused as Skogursha made a move with his forearms causing the vines on the wall to die back revealing a gateway in the wall that looked to lead into the courtyard of a small temples. The place while clearly ancient looked to have still been in use till quite recently. Strangely the foliage inside the temple grounds was still pretty healthy and didn’t look to be as affected by the Ashers storm as the rest of the area. There also appeared to have been fighting there recently, by the looks probably from when the Ashers storm had hit the area. Evidence of Ashers mainly weapons and scatterings of ash piles lay scattered about with a few monks, a few of what looked to be hunters or woodsmen in leather armour, two wolves and oddly a few of these were-wolf creatures. A noise drew Lloyds attention back to the creatures. Skoggy was now hunched over so he could put his head near Lloyds level. Skoggy looked at him then made a motion with his head at Lloyd as if saying he wanted Lloyd to enter the place. Lloyd looked back into the ruins confused. As he looked into the yard he was getting a dark feeling and he could see evidence of Ashers tainting around the yard. Primarily painted markings of their design, dark totems, a dark blood red fog that clung close to the ground and dark vines that reminded Lloyd of those used by the Oni when they had invaded. There was also a large tall distinct and dark carved stone totem of Asher make in the center of the courtyard which was emanating strong dark energies that looked to be fuelling the other tainting of the Ashers. Red glowing markings with heavily Oni related iconography were etched into the stone. For a reason he couldn’t determine Lloyd felt Skogursha wanted him to do something with this temple and though he was not entirely sure exactly what it was he felt it had to do with removing the Ashers influence.

“You monsters back off from our friend,” he heard Kai exclaim as the others rushed out of the woods towards the beasts ready for a fight. The creatures turned towards them defensively. Lloyd quickly thought over the circumstances.

“Wait I don’t think they intend to hurt us,” Lloyd proclaimed getting up and putting himself between the creatures and the others to prevent any fighting to which Kai wondered, “then what do they want?”

“To eat us!” Jay suggested before Lloyd explained, “I think they want our help. Come look.” Lloyd took the others into the temple grounds. Jay and Lance were scared of the creatures as they passed them while Kai, Nya, Macy and Clay were not willing to let their guards down to the beasts remaining on guard for a fight. The others were wary but relaxed not seeing any need to be threatening to the creatures. By the looks the creatures gave some of them it looked like their feelings were mutual, they were wary of them, but Skoggy and his allies let them pass in peace. The Ashers influence to the area unnerved them all and had them on edge.

“These poor individuals looked to have been caught off guard by the Ashers,” Lloyd noted as they entered the temple grounds and slowly made their way to the temple whose doors were wide open inspecting the few people and man-beasts that lay about the yard as they went. None showed signs of life. Interestingly none showed signs they had been affected by the Ashers storm though it was clear the Ashers had gotten to them. Interestingly none of the people showed evidence the were-wolves or wolves had attacked them and the were-wolves and wolves showed no evidence of being harmed by the people. Both however had clearly been hurt by the Ashers.

“By the looks they didn’t stand a chance,” Clay expressed and Nya noted, “strange this place looks to have been spared the worst of the storm that tainted the area.”

“Maybe they had some sort of magical ward to protect the area. They probably then were seeking shelter here from the storm when the Ashers attacked them,” Macy noted and Axl wondered, “why did the Ashers attack them?’

“Probably so they couldn’t escape the effects of their storm. They probably saw these folks had found a loophole in their plans and were not too happy with it,” Aaron hypothesized.

“Is it just me but does anyone else think it’s odd that they look dead but few show wounds that would have been fatal?” Cole wondered as they inspected the people Zane offering, “it is indeed odd. It is possible though their demise was not brought about physically but from the dark forces of the Ashers.” The others agreed with his statement.

“What do you think this place was?” Clay wondered.

“Maybe it’s a shrine to Skoggy,” Jay offered while Cole wondered, “do these were-beasts associate with Skoggy?”

“I did not see any mention of it in those texts but possibly,” Zane responded while Macy noted, “you know I don’t recall the map for the area mentioning any temples here.”

“I think that’s because the public isn’t supposed to know of this place,” Lloyd noted as they entered the temple startled by what they found. While the outside was made of stone the walls inside were made of plaster with wooden columns and accents. The building was medium sized and only one room which was spacious and open. The place was not in too bad a shape with only minor damages though there was serious tainting by the Ashers dark magic. A few ash piles, a wolf and two people an ungulate folk who lay sprawled out on his front on the ground in the middle of the structure and a cat folk who sat with her back against an altar at the far wall were in the place. A skylight was built into the wooden roof by the far side of the building which let light in over a life sized statue that sat behind the altar at the far wall. They didn’t need anyone to explain to them who the statue was of. By its form they knew exactly who it was depicting and it sent shivers down their spines. It was depicting Storabek the demon lord of the hunt who they had come to learn was an aspect of the Black Stag! The statue was of his man form with the head of an elk stag. He held two spears one in each hand and looked to be in the midst of a fight going to stab something below him with the one spear the other held back but in position to be used at a moments notice. Both the statue and altar had been defiled by the Ashers paintings and totems. This was a temple to Storabek which also meant a temple to the Black Stag!

“It’s a trap! Those monsters have led us here to give us to their demon master!” Jay exclaimed and Lloyd agreed, “I think this time Jay’s right. I think they intend to give us to that monster.”

“We should maybe get out of here then before he arrives. I’d rather not face him any more than we have to,” Clay expressed and the others were in agreement. They were about to head off till they noticed Zane was missing. Looking around they were relieved to find he had just gone over to inspect the one wall which was decorated by various drawings and a large plaque at its base.

“What’s with the drawings?” Lance wondered as they all came to join Zane to inspect the decorations and Zane replied, “it would appear they depict some local tale. Whether it is historically accurate or simply a myth I cannot tell.”

“Long ago when the region was still wild in the time of the second era a tribe lived in peace here under the reign of the Stag prince. It was a tough but peaceful existence but they lived in peace with the land and its beasts. Then one day the demons of the Tower attacked seeking the slaving of our masters children for their dark purposes and the riches of our great lands to satisfy their greed. The tribe were no match for the demons. All warriors took to arms but soon were no more. In their final hours as the monsters closed in on those who could not fight the last warrior who remained made a great sacrifice. To protect these lands and their kin that remained from the stains of the ash bloods they shed their own blood to call upon the Prince of the Hunt. Storabek listened to their pleas and accepted their offer. The Prince of Beasts bestowed upon the region a guardian of his choosing. Upon the beast who had not fled and fought till its last breath against the demons he bestowed new life and great power from the reaches of the void. With the warriors last breaths Skogursha came to the tribes salvation bringing the fury of the Stags blood upon the demons. From the beetles in the earth to the ravens of the skies and the beasts of mans fear that stalked the woods Skogursha brought them with him bestowing upon them the powers to drag the demons to their demise. Only with the last of the demons slain was his fury satiated, our kin avenged and the tribe saved. The Stags wrath was done and Skogursha remained; an eternal guardian for these lands born of flesh given the heart of a warrior and a soul born in the void he stands as our protector since his creation and shall remain so till the Prince of Wilds and Beasts feels his need is done. Since then we have worshipped our lords son of the woods. May his reign be long and that he spares us the cruelty of the towers hold,” Clay read from the plaque. The first one to speak when Clay was done was Jay who muttered, “that is not a very happy story.”

“No it isn’t, a lot of it sounds like they witnessed one of the Stags attacks,” Lloyd agreed and Aaron noted, “if the Stags so monstrous why did he save the people?”

“The answers in the tale, they worshipped him it’s as simple as that. He saved them because they’re his pawns not because he cared,” Kai explained while something glinting in the light on the altar of the shrine caught Coles attention. He went over to investigate it while Jay pleaded, “okay creepy history lesson over let’s get out of here.”

“I don’t know if this is 100 percent accurate history. It could be but it could also be a tale passed through generations about a historical event. Things could have gotten lost in translation over the years or even purposely changed to make the story more appealing or less frightful at the cost of the truth,” Zane noted while Cole picked up the object to look it over. It was a dagger with a blade made of obsidian. He found it odd this item had just been placed there.

“I don’t care about the semantics, I just want to get away from here,” Jay expressed before Cole caught all their attentions when he accidently cut his hand on the blade dropping it and some blood on the altar as he held the cut in pain. The others came over to see what he had done. The cut wasn’t too bad but it was bleeding a bit and he would need a bandage for it but wouldn’t need any stitches.

“Why would you pick up something in an evil temple and cut yourself with it!” Jay chastised Cole who responded with, “I just wanted to see what was shining; I didn’t mean to cut myself it was an accident.”

“We have a first aid kit back at the vehicles. We can get you a bandage there,” Clay proclaimed and Jay expressed, “yes let’s get out of here.” Before they could make a move a voice caught them all off guard. It was a voice they all recognised which scared them and had three of them paralyzed with fear by just its sound.

“Interesting I would not have expected any of you at one of my shrines let alone to shed your blood upon it,” the Stags voice declared echoing through the room around them. Zane, Nya and Cole were frozen by fear shaking as they looked around for where the voice came from. A ghostly projection of the Stags elk headed man form formed in front of the altar as a cold dark mist materialized and slowly swirled around them cutting off any chance to escape.

“Cole look what you did you brought that demon here now we’re doomed!” Jay chastised Cole on the verge of panic but Cole couldn’t hear him too terrified by the Stags presence to move or speak going pale at the shock of being in this demons presence. Zane and Nya were in the same states as the three stared at the ghostly Stag his presence bringing them terrible feelings and memories. The others noted the way the three were reacting and were disturbed and worried. They tried to get the three to move to get them away from the Stags apparition but the three were stiffened by fear and immovable. All they could do was stand close to them to offer them comfort trying to snap them out of their state.

“We saw what you did with our friends’ demon and we will not let you touch them again,” Lloyd declared holding his sword threateningly at the Stags aspect which eerily didn’t react.

“So you recognise that I Storabek am but one face of the one many know as the Black Stag good for you. If you seek something for my actions I promise you will get none nor will I apologise for them. What I did was necessary to get done what had to be done your feelings of the matter are of no importance whelps,” the Stag coldly stated his voice coming from the form though it’s mouth didn’t fully match his words while he simply stood idling by the altar looking over them. They could all swear in the dark mists surrounding them were shadowy figures of predatory beasts like wolves, hyenas, Scimitar Cats and Venom-fangs stalking around them appearing and disappearing randomly through the mist.

“Go ahead and make your move we’re not going to let you take us without a fight,” Kai growled standing protectively in front of his sister to shield her from this demon. With a calmness that only unnerved them the Stag proclaimed, “stay your tongue fire born I am not here for unproven pups such as yourselves.”

“Then what are you here for?” Jay questioned trying to act brave and the Stag declared, “I come not as the Stag but as Storabek. I am here for I was summoned…”

“Cole didn’t mean to summon you, it was an accident,” Aaron noted and the Stag declared, “it was not he who summoned me. While one of my wardens the beast you know as Skogursha tried to hold back the demons those that bow to me requested my presence. As the ashen heathens came bringing their un-natural storm those that dwelled here followers of my teachings begged for the aid to spare them from those monsters…”

“Clearly you just let them perish like the cold hearted monster you are,” Clay declared readying himself to challenge the Stag if it attempted to make a move at them. The Stag stated calmly, “perish it may seem as if that is what happened but the heathens are the only ones to have truly perished here... for now. As I had made him Skogursha came to their aid. The storm those monsters brought would have torn at their souls cursing them with the Ashers corruptions and torments. As those monsters attacked Skogursha did what he thought could save them. He brought their souls into himself for as one of the gifts I bestowed upon him in his creation makes him immune to the Ashers magic’s. He consumed their souls to keep them safe so the demons could not get them for their dark use. Those of this temple lie not in death but in a state between. They can be returned to life and their souls returned but Skogursha will not return their souls until he feels the area is safe for them. With the Ashers tainting he does not feel it is safe however he lacks the power and knowledge to cleanse the temple. He is of leaf and beast not of light. Time however is running out for those here. Soon it will be too late to save them. Soon Skogursha will have to let them go and with these grounds tainted and their souls having been separated from their physical being for so long they will not be able to return to their bodies. Instead the tainting left by the Ashers will doom their souls lost to the empty grip of the void. Skogursha knows this and has been searching for those who can do what he cannot for he thinks I have given up on those here. He does not understand my intentions to wait, to have let this place fall to darkness, for as like a moth to a flame this tainting shall draw in the right challengers. Interesting then that he should find you and bring you here, exactly the ones I seek to challenge.”

“We’re not going to do anything for you, we drove you off before and we can do it again; we still have Whetu’s Star,” Lloyd growled at the Stag who just laughed at him startling them. Cole’s fear became too much causing him to faint while Zanes emotions became too much for him causing him to short circuit and pass out off line. Nya managed to remain conscious but she covered her ears and tightly closed her eyes looking close to passing out as well worrying Jay who came to hold her trying to keep her safe.

“What did you just do to them?!” Lloyd panicked going over to check Cole while Aaron checked Zane.

“Nothing it is their own minds that has done that to them. They have let fear get the better of them as for that Star and what happened the last we met; you only broke my hold on your friend because I was only using but a fraction of my powers on him and chose to give him back. You did not hurt or even scare me and if I had been truly using my powers it would not have been so easy to break my hold. I let you pathetic fragile mortals have that pitiful victory. I saw little use in further challenging you then, I had seen what I wanted. I was not very amused by your struggles. You were like blind cubs flailing for their mother in the darkness. I will admit however that I am intrigued that you could turn the hunt on end standing your ground and turning my predator to prey instead of cowering and remaining the hunted. Not many would have done that,” the Stag proclaimed and Clay declared, “What do you want from us demon?” Clay had picked up Whetu’s Star from Zane after he had passed out and held it threateningly at the Stag who was clearly unbothered.

“I was going to cleanse my temple but now with you here… maybe you would be willing to do it for me,” the Stag stated to which Kai chastised, “if you’re so powerful why don’t you cleanse your own temple.”

“I could indeed; such a task is easy for the likes of me however this could also be a chance for you to prove yourselves. You think you have what it takes to challenge the darkness that grows in the realms then show me. Using what you have on your own now show me that you can bring light to the darkness and I may spare you,” the Stag proclaimed.

“Never, we’ll never do anything for you; why should we do anything for a demon of darkness?” Lloyd proclaimed.

“So you think I am only a demon of darkness. Even those born in the light can become demons, you should all know that. You have all seen it firsthand have you not. You have seen friends and family members turned to monsters even if it was not their choice. Corruptions by poisons, curses and objects… the darkness always seems to have a way of turning the pure of heart wicked does it not,” the Stag proclaimed his words unnerving them all. It clearly knew things about their past; what else did this monster know of them?

“Stop it with your cryptic words and go away, we didn’t summon you and we’ll never help you,” Jay yelled at the figure who proclaimed, “fine if that is what you wish I will take my leave now but I will leave you with this ultimatum. You will be free to walk away from here I will not bother or hinder you this day but I will leave these peoples fates in your hands. Walk away from here, do nothing and leave my temple tainted by darkness and my followers that while look up to a demon and one you oppose were innocent and struck down out of hatred and in cruelty to their fates. Or will you shine your light in this darkness and free my temple and its people from darkness. The choice is yours; let us see how pure your hearts are and how strong your light really is,” the Stag proclaimed before his ghostly form and the dark mist dissipated.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jay didn’t wait to proclaim. Most of them were in agreement but the Stag had left them with a dilemma that had some of them hesitating.

“What about the people?” Aaron wondered and Lance proclaimed, “they follow the teachings of a demon so they’re probably evil. I say we leave them.”

“I don’t know I’m not really getting any evil vibes from this place; yha sure I’m getting some from what those Ashers left but this temple and it’s people all look pretty chill, even the beasts and the beast men look chill,” Aaron expressed.

“True the people here might not truly be evil just misguided,” Lloyd noted and Kai expressed, “that doesn’t mean they’re innocent though despite what that demon says. They could still be monsters.”

“True but if the Ashers were attacking them then they might not be as evil as they seem. They were probably innocent of any wrong doing and attacked by the Ashers out of pure hate,” Clay hypothesized.

“Not to mention if what the Stag said is true if we leave them and this place tainted then they’re going to die and be lost to this void,” Lloyd noted and Macy added, “and from what we’ve heard that’s one of the worst fates possible.”

“They worship that demon of the void though they probably wouldn’t mind being lost to the void,” Jay countered and Axl stated, “we don’t know that though. We only know they follow that things teachings not who they truly are nor how their relation to that thing works.” They were torn. Clay, Aaron and Lloyd wished to help the people while Jay, Lance and Kai preferred to leave them to their fate. Macy and Axl were unsure what to choose. While they had been pondering what to do Cole and Zane had regained consciousness but like Nya were in too scared a state still to be responsive and both had to be helped to their feet by the others. The three could only stand there blankly staring at the ground by them, Cole and Zane needing the support of others to stand as they were too shaken to stand on their own.

“How’s this if you don’t wish to help them you can leave but I will stay and try to cleanse this place of those monsters influence. Anyone willing to help can stay we’ll meet you back at the vehicles,” Clay proposed, they were all fine with that. Clay, Lloyd and Aaron headed out into the courtyard while the others tried to get Cole, Zane and Nya moving. They could see Skogursha and his pals looking over the walls of the temple grounds watching them eager to see what they would do. Even though they were not entirely sure what to do both Lloyd and Clay had a feeling the totems the Ashers left were responsible for the corruption. The two inspected the main one working out what to do with it sending Aaron to destroy the smaller wooden totems scattered around the place giving him Lloyds sword for the task. Aaron got help from Axl to take out the smaller totems. From some of his lessons with Merlok on curses Clay believed this totem was the central focal point for the corruption of the temple and any smaller ones in the area were likely either for boosting the effects of the central totem or were for defining the barriers of the tainting. If they wanted to cleanse the area they likely needed to destroy the totems. The smaller ones were rather easy and Axl and Aaron had little problems taking them out though were a bit disturbed how when destroyed they collapsed into a dark mist that slowly vanished. This large central totem would be much harder to get rid of. Clay believed that if he and Lloyd did the same thing they had done to knock the Stag out of Zane in the mine it would work to destroy the totem and its curse. Clay and Lloyd did as they had done in the mine focusing their powers through the red diamond shurikan at the main totem. To their shock and surprise it didn’t work. Instead a dark mist started emanating from it and the darkness it emanated felt to be getting stronger.

“I think they put an enchantment on this thing to keep anyone from interfering with it either that or it is too powerful for us to affect,” Clay noted and Lloyd expressed, “do you have any clue what we could do?” They were all at a loss as the others came out of the temple guiding out Cole, Nya and Zane who they had managed to calm down enough to get them moving though it was clear they were still very unsettled.

“Well did you do anything?” Kai inquired as they congregated by the totem.

“No, it has an enchantment to prevent anyone from messing with it,” Aaron explained and Jay was quick to state, “well you tried now let’s get out of here.” Some of them weren’t willing to leave just yet.

“Maybe if we had Merlok…” Clay began and Macy noted, “we might not have time to retrieve him. We have no clue how long these people have left.”

“True,” Clay noted and Lloyd stated, “we tried what we did in the mine and it didn’t work. Our powers are not strong enough.” With his words Aaron looked at the totem then at all of them. Slowly he got an idea.

“No you’re not strong enough,” Aaron noted to which Clay expressed not amused by Aarons words, “thanks for rubbing it in Aaron.”

“You and our green ninja bro are not strong enough but you’re not alone. You have the rest of us. Maybe there’s some way we could all offer a hand to break this spell. The ninja all have powers and we may not but there’s probably something we could do to offer help. Obviously the shurikan is not big enough for us all to touch it at the same time maybe we could use a rope or something and maybe those of us who don’t have powers could give this thing some serious whacks while you hit it with light…” Aaron began to go on. Some of them thought over his words.

“He’s right, we can’t do this on our own but if we work together… together we might be able to produce enough power and light to destroy this thing,” Clay declared. Doing a quick search he and Lloyd found some rope on the temple grounds. They wound some around the totem then connected this rope to the Red-diamond Shurikan which was tied into another rope they had laid in a circle around the totem on the ground.

“Alright we can try to use this rope like a conduit. We focus our powers into it and hopefully they will go through the weapon which will enhance them and hopefully be enough to break this totem and its enchantment,” Clay hypothesized as they finished setting it up and Lance wondered, “and what are those without powers supposed to do?” Clay wasn’t sure but Lloyd had an idea.

“You might not have powers but maybe just your energy will be enough. You’re strong with good hearts and fight for the light. If we send our powers through the rope then maybe they can pick up on your energy and it can help make them stronger,” Lloyd offered and Aaron was quick to state, “sure bro. I’m willing to give it a try.” He knelt down and put his hands on the rope on the ground. Clay, Lloyd, Macy and Axl did the same. To their surprise even Cole, Nya and Zane did it as well.

“I’m surprised you guys are willing to help. These are after all followers to that monster whose hurt you,” Macy commented and Cole responded a bit quite and hints of fear still in his voice, “even so that doesn’t mean they’re evil or like that monster.”

“Plus we’ve felt what this void is like. To be lost to it would be a fate worse than death; I don’t think anyone would ever want that and I wouldn’t want to wish that fate on anyone,” Nya stated her voice in the same way as Coles. Kai, Jay and Lance were hesitating not entirely feeling up to doing this. Kai shortly followed suit with the others feeling it was the right thing to do, then Lance. Jay was last dead set on not doing anything to help the Stag or anyone associated with that monster. After some heartfelt and convincing words from the others he finally broke down and joined them. Once all of them were touching the rope Clay cast a Nexo spell of light as he touched the rope his arms lighting up and covering the rope in a warm white light. The light went up onto everyone’s arms and they could feel it not only warming them but taking energy from them. With the light activated the ninja each sparked up their own powers the color of the light on their arms changing color and developing hints of their powers. Coles lava arms got activated, a frost developed on the skin of Zanes arms, Kais arms lit on fire while electricity sparked from Jays arms. Even their eyes changed to match the glow of their arms and the eyes of the knights developed the same white glow as the light on the rope. At first it seemed like nothing was happening but slowly they could see cracks appearing on the totem and a warm golden light started to emit from the cracks and take over the glowing red markings etched into the totem. Seeing they were having an effect on it they could all feel a surge of energy which they put into their focus on destroying the totem. Before long the totem was covered in cracks of light before it exploded falling into a dark mist that slowly faded away. Once it was destroyed all signs of the Ashers tainting slowly left the area. The vines slowly died dissipating into a dark mist which slowly vanished, the paintings vanished and the fog cleared. As the tainting dissipated Skogursha let out a roar as if to say he was pleased with their actions and they could see a faint light emanate from his chest for a few seconds before appearing on those in the courtyard.

“Does that mean we did it?” Aaron wondered before they heard a voice talking to them. They turned to look where the voice came from some of them spooked by the sudden voice.

“Who are you? Are you hunters? Warriors of light? Dragons? We’re you sent by the Stag Prince? The Queen of Spirits Whetu? No mere mortals can break the cursing of the Burning Tower so you must not be mere mortals,” one of the monks that sat close to where they were leaning against a low wall holding his waist clearly injured and in pain inquired.

“We are the Nexo Knights from Knighton and the Ninja from Ninjago and no we weren’t brought by anyone. Are you okay?” Clay stated coming over to help the folk up. Seeing all those around them were starting to come to and get up. They decided to go around and see if they could help in anyway. Most were in decent shape, a few needed some extra help. Despite the monster they worshipped they were surprised that these people were nothing like the Stag. They weren’t dark or sinister, though some clearly didn’t have very happy views on life clearly gothic in personality, instead they were kind and friendly; much kinder and friendlier than most of the people in Balmora. They didn’t even show any dislike to Zane instead viewing him as one of Storabeks cherished cubs. They guessed because of their beliefs these people likely had good relations with the droids in service to the Stag so didn’t have the same fears and hatreds as other people in the area to those of their kind. They spent the afternoon helping the people settle and regain themselves while cleaning up their temple. Late in the afternoon they decided they should get going to get back into town before it was too late and for dinner. Even though the inhabitants of the temple offered for them to stay for the evening meal they politely declined feeling it best they return to the safety of Balmora before it got too late. They were prepping to leave when they realised three of them were missing; Cole, Nya and Zane. Looking back they hadn’t seen the three for much of the afternoon worrying the others. They asked around but only a few had seen them all remembering the three had largely stuck to themselves near the outskirts of the yard not looking the greatest. Their temples wolves had been trying to cheer them up but it didn’t seem to work. That had been earlier in the day but no one had seen them since. Eventually they found the three hanging outside a small wooden hut at the side of the courtyard. They looked better than they had been the last time they had seen them; less shaken and disturbed and more grounded and relaxed.

“There you three are, we’re heading back now,” Lloyd stated as they came up to them and Jay questioned, “where have you guys been?”

“Their wise woman wanted to talk to us,” Cole explained. The others hadn’t been aware but shortly after they started helping out in the place one of the temples inhabitants, their wise woman, had brought the three to her hut. She had recognised that they had been touched by the Stag and could sense it had left them troubled. She called them in to talk with them and give them some help. Upon hearing his words one of the monks nearby questioned, “Wise woman? We don’t have a wise woman.”

“Then who was that we were speaking with?” Cole wondered and when the monk asked for a description of the person Nya regaled, “she was an ungulate folk on the older side in age, had mid length grey hair which she had a small braid with a few beads in it on the back in the center of. She wore a mask around her eyes that resembled an owl’s face, wore tan and green long sleeved robes that only went down to her shins and was parted on the legs on the front.” Cole added, “she was also very good at making tea and made some pretty good scones.” The monk mumbled over her description thinking something over before coming to a realisation.

“That was no mere wise woman you spoke to. That was Mystara the lady of wisdom. You were in the presence of a member of the Tribunal. You should feel honoured, outside Sheoth it is not common for the members of the Tribunal to actively seek out mortals to commune with. She must see something special in you,” the Monk regaled. Cole, Nya and Zane were a bit taken back confused and a little stunned who they had actually been talking with.

“So that was actually an Oni we were speaking with?” Cole wondered a bit unnerved and the monk regaled, “yes but she is one of the good ones. She is departed so for her to show herself to you must mean she had something very important to tell you. What did she want to talk about?”

“Just some things we’ve dealt with largely revolving around that demon the Stag,” Nya expressed a little shaken by the revelation and the Monk wondered, “you’ve had dealings with our lord of the hunt! You must feel honoured.”

“Honoured is not the word I would use,” Zane stated a bit shaken and Cole elaborated, “yha I wouldn’t call being possessed or turned into monsters by that thing honourable.”

“I guess yha that wouldn’t be very pleasant but still you got to meet him, to feel his presence… as followers to his teachings it is viewed as an honour to be in his true presence and not just an apparition of his aspects,” the monk regaled.

“May I ask why do you follow the teachings of that demon Storabek? You do realise he is also the Black Stag right,” Lloyd inquired confused by the monks enthusiasm and liking to such a demon.

“Yes we do know that he and the Stag are one and we do not deny that he is a demon and can and has done great evil. To deny that is to deny who he is. He came to existence in that way we cannot change that fact but that does not necessarily mean he is pure evil. Yes he can and does do things that are evil sometimes greatly so but we also see that he also does good. He teaches us on the fragility and complexities of life. He urges us to live in the now, to respect all things whether living or not even if they mean nothing to you for they may mean something to someone else. A weed may appear worthless to you but to the hungry deer it could mean everything. Yes even through all his teachings he is still quite cruel and harsh but he reflects the realities of life. Life is harsh, in life you are either the one giving chase or the one that flees; whether chasing a beast for diner or your goals in life you must always be chasing even if you are not getting anywhere fast you are still in the chase as for only in death are things truly still. You might find it surprising but even with his cruelties he is quite fair for a demon. He demands the prey have equal rights and equal chances as the hunter. He takes great disgust for cheating out the hare at a chance to come out on top. For him he is just as pleased by the hare that overcomes its challenges as the wolf catching the hare. He holds neither higher than the other. Many claim he is of Oni relations like the Tribunal but he can do something they cannot proving he is not one of them. He can create not just change things. He created the condition of skin-changers that creates man-beasts. Despite what you may have heard it was not done for evil intentions. Our worlds a harsh and cruel place; it was even more so long ago when he created the condition. Back then our world was filled with the monsters born of the Oni, Ashers and Voids darkness. Our realm may seem like any other on its surface but when you look deep it is still a primal and harsh realm ruled and inhabited by Gods and Demons and ill suited for mortal inhabitants. Even if not in physical form they still hold sway here. Many of those sided with the darkness have no qualms with harming mortals and some even enjoy turning mortals on others. It is said our realm is an arena, a testing ground for mortals and the Gods and Demons are our testers and challengers. While all realms share some of this trait our realm is said to most heavily be hit by this. While defiantly not the nicest or friendliest Storabek is one of those willing to accept and aid mortals in our struggles even if his ways are cruel and harsh. Not only does he teach us but he gave some mortals mainly people and metal-skins a gift to help protect us and give us traits to help survive from and fell the monsters of darkness and survive in this cruel harsh world. Skin changers were meant to be guardians not monsters. Not many know it either but Storabek is also the creator of Gloam beasts. He taught the fungal community of the world beneath how to bring new life to the fallen. Despite what many think they are not evil nor desire harm to surface dwellers. They are no more dangerous or evil than creatures of the surface world. Storabek did not create them for evil. He created them to be and as they exist as guardians for their sunless home protecting it and its inhabitants from tainting by dark forces. Similarly he created Skogursha to protect this place and these woods creating a sanctuary in these tainted lands for all forms of life,” the monk explained showing them to the temples main gate where one of the monks was giving Skogursha who was lying relaxed a brushing, “to many Storabek is a demon for they fear his darkness and the monster they see but if you are willing to look past that to see him as the whole of what he is and the lighter side of his being then you will see he is not as monstrous as he appears. Not everything is so clearly black and white. Many things sit between these extremes and sometimes those of darkness are not as dark as they may seem.” Now that he was calm some of them including Zane, Aaron, Cole, Axl and Lloyd went and gave Skoggy a few pets. Skogursha remained relaxed enjoying the affection.

“I don’t know about that. If you’d had to deal with him like we have you might not think that way,” Lloyd stated and the monk inquired, “and how have you had to deal with him?”

“Well for one he keeps taking over Zane and forcing him to attack us. He even turned him into one of those bird monsters against his will the one time and he keeps pestering us trying to get us to either surrender to him or to just wipe us out,” Kai explained and after a moment of pause the monk questioned, “is he really trying to wipe you out or is he testing you?”

“Testing us?” Aaron pondered. He and the others were confused and the monk regaled, “the Stag Prince often tests us to keep us alert, strong and cunning in order to avoid the harms of the demons of the void and to stay alive in this harsh world. One who becomes complacent in all things is destined to fall. Threats are always looming and you must be prepared for them even if you do not wish to be. Even in sleep the fawn should always be ready to react to danger or it shall fall to the fangs and claws of its hunters. Maybe he has not been trying to wipe you out but test you.”

“Why would he test us?” Lloyd wondered and the monk explained, “who knows, he is a great and powerful spirit. It is difficult for us mortals to understand his nature and thinking. Only he knows why he tests you.” With that they said their goodbyes and the knights and ninja headed back to their vehicles. While they had worked in the afternoon Skogursha had retrieved the vehicle he had put on the cliff and brought it back to the others. Other than some scratching to the paint and thorns stuck in it the vehicle was still in good shape. They didn’t waste time heading back to town not wanting to be caught in the wilderness at night where they had a great risk of falling victim to an attack by the Ashers or the Stag. They stuck close to each other as they drove, those not in the driver’s seat keeping an eye out for danger.

“So you guys met this Mystara thing… what did you talk about with her?” Kai inquired as they headed home.

“She just wanted to talk… about the Stag and what happened with him… she also gave us some advice on how to better deal with the after effects of the Stags hold in case we have a run in with him again,” Nya explained and Jay stated, “that was nice.” The three were rather quite about what went on in the wise woman’s hut much like they had been about the Stags attack. They had a feeling in time they would tell them more so didn’t pry too much into it.

“She also said something similar to that monk that the Stag isn’t entirely what he seems,” Cole regaled and Lloyd wondered confused by their talk, “interesting… why do those with ties to that monster like to tell us he isn’t what he seems?”

“Probably to try and trick us,” Jay proposed and Clay stated, “who knows maybe there is some truths to what they say or they could be tricking us. I think only time will be able to tell us if there is any truths to their words.”

To find previous and later chapters look here: https://robobirdie.tumblr.com/archive

You can also find a copy of the story written here https://archiveofourown.org/works/34894561/chapters/86888878 and here https://www.wattpad.com/1087355671-ninjago-the-oni-scrolls-foreword-important-info You can also find images pertaining to the story here: https://www.deviantart.com/nerdy-hyena/gallery/72478681/story-project

#ninjago #ninjago zane #ninjago cole #ninjago nya #ninjago jay #ninjago kai #ninjago lloyd #nexo knights #Elder Scrolls

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