15HEY yeah sorry. Don't worry, I'm plugging away, just really, really busy.
Cole heard footsteps behind him, and he thrust his fist into the sand. A boulder sprang up in the way of the approaching hunter. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see another attempting to move toward him. They experienced the same result.
This pattern continued for a few more minutes, but Cole was already exhausted and becoming faint. He struggled to keep his elementally manifested rocks together as they starting to crumble back into the dust he formed them from. Slowly he was building a wall around himself, but it was short and weak.
"Spinjitzu Master." Cole couldn't tell where the voice was coming from. He swung his head around listlessly, barely registering the battle-scarred faces surrounding him. The dark cliff walls looked so inviting, like the dark behind his eyelids.
There was whispering now, muddling up his head. The dragon hunters were conversing. "Spinjitzu Master." The voice was closer now. "We..."
Cole didn't hear the rest. His ears stopped working, then his breath shuddered, and he sighed as the black clouding his vision won.
When he came to Cole was lying on his back on a hard, but not uncomfortable, pallet. As he propped himself up he touched his face and discovered that it, along with all the rest of his exposed skin, was coated in a greasy oil of some kind. It was sweet smelling, but (he found out) did not taste very good. His left arm was wrapped in a thick, rubbery leaf of some sort. Touching the wrap made him sore, and it hurt worse the harder he pressed. After several painful tests he gave up investigating.
The room around him was dark, cool and dry. He ran his fingers along the rough edges of the wall he'd woken up against. It was made out of packed clay and sandy rocks, in bricks some places and haphazardly cobbled together in others.
Suddenly a sliver of yellow light opened up on the wall he was touching, and Cole turned around to see a young Hunter girl peeking into the room. The light spilled from behind a woven curtain used as the door. When she locked eyes with Cole mild surprise passed across her face, along with another emotion he couldn't identify before she was gone, and he was in the dark again.
Cole didn't know how long it was after he woke up, but it was long enough. He was cross-legged on the pallet, occupying himself with his injured arm. He prodded the wrap and flexed, trying to figure out what was wrong, trying to distract himself in general.
He refused to think about being injured, trapped in a Hunter's camp. He hoped he wasn't all the way back at Deads End, and when the thought came he pushed it away. There was nothing he could do right now, and he refused to work himself up wondering what the Hunters planned with him.
The curtain parted, this time all the way. The yellow light was milky and dim, but Cole had to squint to see the figure silhouetted in the doorway. They were tall, and cloaked in long robes. Cole braced himself.
"Please, Spinjitzu Master, we do not intend to harm you." There was the voice again, tired, smooth and feminine. The curtain closed, and Cole could see her clearly. Not the Baron. He reassured himself. Not the Baron. Just… just don't let them find a weakness. Act tough.
"I'll believe that when I see it." Cole said bluntly. Okay, not your best opening line. He tried to stare down the woman standing in front of him, and found it difficult to accomplish when she was at least a few inches taller than he was, impressive, and he was cross-legged on the floor.
The Hunter woman stepped toward him, and Cole's hand flashed to the dagger in his boot, ready to draw. She saw this, and after a moment's pause proceeded slowly, kneeling on the floor so she was slightly less taller than Cole.
The whole time she was moving Cole was watching her hands, waiting for her to draw a weapon from her robes. It never came, and it was only when she was seated comfortably in front of him did he meet her eyes.
That emotion he'd seen on the girl was there. It was guarded in the woman's eyes, but it was there.
"Are you hungry?" She asked.
Yes. Starving. "No." Cole answered.
She smiled sweetly. "Then would you allow me to see that injury?" As she spoke she leaned forward, but Cole leaned back, holding his arm close. "No, thank you." He said slowly, each word guarded and emphatic.
The Hunter woman nodded and stood up. Cole couldn't help but notice how poised she held herself even as she stood. It reminded him of how Master Wu stood, or Garmadon or Misako. They all carried themselves with a formality from another time. "I will leave you to rest then." She said, and turned and opened the curtain. The light spilled purple onto her robes. The huntress stopped a moment, regarding Cole with cool black eyes. "You saved our children from the dragon attack." She said. "We are very grateful for that."
Cole sighed and ran a hand through his hair which, he noticed, had been washed and was no longer full of sand. "It wasn't an attack." He mumbled, half to himself.
The huntress simply nodded and swept out the door. The curtain fell back and swung a moment, before coming to rest with a yellow glow seeping out from its edge. Cole was left in the dark, cool room, a dim sliver of light outlining his face as he leaned back and thought.
Cole was still cross-legged on the pallet, with his back against the wall and his eyes closed, when the woman came back again. He opened them just a hint as she set down a large bowl of what looked like a combination between soup and fruit salad. Fruit soup. She left again without a word.
The "fruit soup" tasted like vegetables and had some sort of chalky flour mixed in. Cole ate the whole thing, then scraped out the bowl for anything left. He was still starving when he was done, but the meal reminded him of his own cooking, and that soothed his worried mind. He couldn't help but smile, imagining the other ninja's reactions if he'd cooked it for them. Zane would sit there and swallow it, bite by painful bite, with a terse frown on his face. Jay would spend so much time talking about how bad it was that he wouldn't actually eat any, and after long enough Kai would get so fed up with the food and the blue ninja that he would throw his own bowl, splat, right in Jay's face!
Then Wu would look up with a stern frown under his beard, but sparks of amusement in his eyes. Lloyd would probably crack a joke that would cause Jay to throw his bowl into Lloyd's face, and Nya would roll her eyes and smile as the whole table descended into chaos.
Cole sighed with his eyes shut tight, trying to make every detail of the scene tangible. However, the pleasant moment faded when he remembered that most of these people were still lost somewhere in the desert. Lloyd and Nya were still back in Ninjago, and probably thought they were all dead. Cole couldn't sit here any longer, in case they turned out right.
Opening his eyes back in the dark room, Cole cast a thoughtful glance at the curtain door. If he was supposed to be a prisoner, the hunters would definitely have picked a sturdier door. Probably chains or something as well. So, surely they wouldn't mind if he just walked right out the front gate, right?
...Not that he would tell them.
Cole found his ninja hood by the head of his pallet, and when it was securely attached to his gi he stood by the doorway and listened.
It was quiet, and he cautiously opened the curtain and peeked out. In an adjoining room barely lit by a smoldering fireplace, a Hunter guard was busy stoking the dying embers. Cole pulled his hood over his face, and began his escape.
Getting past the distracted guard was easy enough, especially with the deep shadows in the room and the fickle light half-heartedly crackling as the hunter tried to spur it back to life.
Outside the guarded room Cole could see a glittering swath of stars exactly over his head, and nowhere else. It seemed he was underground, at least partially. The night sky was still violet from the setting sun, which meant Cole had spent less than a day in the Hunter's camp. This was good, his friends might still be okay if he found them in time.
The path in front of him was highlighted in pale silver for several yards, but disappeared back into shadow quickly. More yellow light gleamed around a corner. The black ninja stopped a moment and waited. It didn't seem to be moving, at least not toward him. Cole looked down at himself momentarily. Virtually invisible. Excellent.
The light turned out to be a lamp, a glowing clay bowl of coals hanging by chain from a spoke in the cliff wall. Staying directly outside the circle of light, Cole could see an entire ring of similar lamps casting soft glows on cliff walls and the windowsills of homes. Up above the stars offered sharp silver light on the ground, and the cliffs loomed black and menacing in front of them. The breath of air on Cole's eyes told him he was outside.
Skirting the edge of the camp, Cole stayed in the deepest shadows near the rock. He stayed clear of the shadowed homes, and even more clear of the homes with light in their windows and sounds of movement drifting out. It was after his second lap he encountered an imposing problem: he couldn't actually see a way out.
The whole camp seemed to be encircled about by cliffs. There were several dark corridors, most with lamps, leading into the rock faces. It was Cole's guess that most of these led to rooms similar to his own, and he didn't have time to try them all.
He considered the cliff faces. They weren't high, he could likely scale any of them with ease. The problem was he would likely dislodge something in the dark and draw attention, nevermind his need to see where he was putting his hands.
There was also his injured arm, which painfully reminded him it was there when Cole experimentally tried to pull himself up.
So climbing was a no-go.
It stood to reason, Cole thought, that there would be guards around any important entrances, including the exit. That would narrow down his search. His eyes were adjusting to the darkness, and he could see the moonlight reflecting in the deeper shadows a little better now. In some scattered areas he could see the metallic glint of armor.
After a short survey Cole discovered there were three guarded entrances. Two of them were framed by hanging lanterns, with guards in robes and helmets standing just outside in the shadows.
The remaining tunnel had no lanterns, and was guarded by four large men who stood so they could view every angle of approach, including behind them.
That had to be the one.
The master of earth waited in the shadows, not far from the guarded exit. He was in a bit of a pickle. The moonlight slanting in between the cliffs above perfectly illuminated the entire area. With no need for lanterns, the guards stood back to back, blocking the entire passageway. Cole would have to step out of the shadows, be seen, and pass through the barrier if he wanted to leave.
Without waking the entire camp.
Cole was still tired, still hungry, held captive by hunters, and couldn't use his left arm. He couldn't wait until morning, his friends might freeze in the desert. Not to mention it would be a lot easier to keep hidden and get as far as possible while the night shadows were darkest under the cliffs.
Once he was out, it would be very difficult to find him in the dark.
He decided to brute force this one.