Birthright | Ninjago

𝐗. WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

CHAPTER TEN

THE JUNGLE WAS WILD AND overgrown, vines crawling up trees in an effort to reach the sun. The treetops seemed sewn together, interlocking leaves and branches making it hard to navigate. Hiro could feel the humidity of the air; his sweat stuck to his skin, and he'd long since removed his jacket, tying it around his waist so he didn't have to carry it. He felt gross, to say the least—he would have given anything to get out of the forest and lay down somewhere cool, preferably with water and air conditioning.

But alas, he found himself following Lloyd and Garmadon further into Hiroshi's Labyrinth, hoping that they were beginning to reach the end of their journey. The Ninja had completed their goal of shutting off the power—that was good. Someone had stolen the hard drive with the Overlord Virus on it—that was . . . not so good.

They couldn't return home until anything connected to the Overlord was destroyed.

Hiro failed to realize the irony in that.

He trudged through the trees, refraining from muttering about the heat; not only was it fairly obvious that Lloyd was suffering more than him (Hiro had told him to bring something other than his ninja gi before they left Wu's school last time, but Lloyd had insisted it was fine; well, now he was suffering in the heat. Go figure), but Hiro didn't want to waste his energy. Even though complaining was kind of Hiro's thing by this point in their journey, it just wasn't worth it.

"Alright back there?" Lloyd asked, looking over his shoulder. Hiro, as he so often did, had fallen behind the other two—useful for avoiding Garmadon and getting to wallow in self-pity, terrible for a chance to stay near Lloyd. Still, he gave Lloyd a thumbs up and a sarcastic smile, which Lloyd seemed to accept as he chuckled and turned around. Hiro let his hands drop down, smiling secretly to himself as he continued walking behind them, now with a little bounce in his step.

The humidity only got worse. Hiro would have thought that with all the shade the trees provided, they would be safe from the extreme weather, but as it was he could feel himself losing energy the longer they trudged on. How long had it been now? Three hours? Four? He knew they entered the jungle before noon after everyone had had their fair share of sleep, but with no way to accurately see the sun, he couldn't judge what time it was.

Hiro ducked under a large plant of leaves, catching up with the other two, who had slowed as they crossed under the unfamiliar bush. A bug flew overhead, making Hiro duck to get away; he found himself grabbing Lloyd's arm, glaring at the bug as it circled above them. It couldn't have been any bigger than his fist, but he wasn't going to take any chances. Once the bug flew off, Hiro stepped away from Lloyd, falling back again.

"Didn't know you were scared of bugs," Lloyd noted.

"I'm not scared of bugs, Lloyd, I grew up with them, but these bugs could be dangerous," he argued. "What if that thing was poisonous? We don't know! We've never been in this jungle before!"

"It was a firefly."

"I don't know what that is!"

Lloyd grinned, shaking his head. He looked ahead, and Hiro finally saw what was before them—a dense cluster of more leaves, different shades of green, yellow, and red. He sighed, shoulders slumping as he realized that they'd finally gotten off the path that most people had probably used to explore and were now in the thick of the danger of the forest. How the hell were they meant to get through all of this? Lloyd didn't even have a sword.