Escapade | Ninjago AU

Prologue

*15 years ago*

Cole's POV

I sit at my oakwood table, looking out of the window of my small cabin in the mountains. It's a modest cabin that I made myself. It's one large room that has everything I could ever need. There's a bed, table, two chairs, and storage areas for tools and anything else. I cook everything I hunt over a fire outside and live off of the land around me. It's peaceful.

"I might go on a walk today, or maybe I'll go mountain climbing. I'll see," I verbalize my thoughts, partially to make sure I still have a voice. I haven't talked to anyone else in decades, and the only time I did decades ago was when a group of hikers accidentally found my cabin after I didn't stop them with a landslide. I redirected them back towards civilization when they found it and acted like it was no big deal..

It's been centuries since I last saw anyone that I care about. I haven't looked for them though. I don't know if it's out of fear or out of being content how I am, but my isolation in the mountains has lasted for longer than I intended. It was initially just a place of refuge, but now it's home. Besides, none of my friends came here looking for me anyways.], so it's clear that they moved on too.

Standing up from my chair, I twist back and forth. My back cracks before I walk out of the door and into the wild. The breeze is gentle. It mingles with my hair that has grown out significantly since I've moved out here. Pulling it out of my face to make sure it doesn't get in the way, I tie my hair back before I start my climb up the mountain.

Being in the mountains makes me feel powerful. I'm so close to my element. Isolating myself from the rest of civilization has helped me create a deeper connection with it and become stronger. While I could only create a single mountain before, now I can create mountain ranges.

Propelling myself up the mountain by shooting the earth up underneath my feet, I quickly reach the peak. My eyes scan over as much of Ninjago that I can see. The miles surrounding the mountains are primarily forest, but in the distance, I can spot the beginnings of the Sea of Sand.

Using the power that's calling to me, I form a ledge out of the side of the mountain for me to sit down on. I make it flow with the rest of the mountain, so it looks natural. When I take a seat, I close my eyes and focus on the sounds around me. My own steady breathing can faintly be heard over the rustling of the bushes from the wildlife and the songs of the birds. The wind rattles the trees around me. Some of the leaves land in my hair, but I don't mind.

I'm pulled out of the peace when my right quad starts to sting. Even though I attempt to ignore it, it continues to grow until it starts to significantly annoy me. When I look down, nothing is on my shorts. I move them out of the way to reveal that the stinging is only happening where my tattoo is. I rub it to try to ease the pain, but it keeps hurting.

Every human in this realm is born with a tattoo. Initially, no one knew what they meant, but it was figured out that the tattoos come in pairs. For each person, there's another who has the same tattoo on the other side of their body, their soulmate.

Because two soulmates can be born in completely different lifetimes and across the realm, it's nearly impossible to find your soulmate. Only a handful of people have ever found their soulmates, and the only reason was because they were elemental masters that could live across multiple lifetimes. They had extra time to find their partner.

When the public found out about the deeper meaning behind the tattoos, many refused to get into relationships unless it was their soulmate. This caused the population to lessen, so the royal family announced that the "soulmate theory" was wrong, and things went back to normal. However, some of us that have been around long enough remember the truth. We've watched, or felt, the soulmate tattoos in action.