The mountain is glacial, colder than you would have ever thought possible. Each breath sends the icy shock into your lungs, nearly freezing them, or even the oxygen that is immediately forced out. Above, the sun still shines down, a feeble trail of warmth in the current climate.
To your relief, even the ninja appear to struggle with the temperature. The fire ninja's annoyance is the most obvious as he loudly contemplates burning down the entire peak.
"Alright," Lloyd shouts, still barely heard above the approaching gale. "Most of us have been up here already, so you know how it works. Timing is important if we want to get to the Cloud Kingdom before anyone else beats us there."
Kai snorts. "Beat who there? These supposed mysterious individuals that Morro claims are after an ancient dark power?" He turns to glare at the ghost. "How do we know it wasn't you? Maybe it's just a trick."
"Kai, knock it off."
The automatic annoyance on his face at the command drops away when he notices that the voice behind it is his sister. Instead, the hotheaded ninja chooses to sulk silently, occasionally contributing a hostile glare at the ghost.
Lloyd sighs audibly, breath forming another cloud of white. "If it was Morro who set this up, then why would he freely hand over the book, and then tell us everything he knows so far? Which, for the record, matches up with everything else we knew before."
The grumbling doesn't last much longer after Lloyd's comments. It does, however, return as you and the ninja climb further up the conglomerate of ice, rocks, and snow.
Minute piles onto minute, then into hours, until your legs are burning from exertion and yet freezing from the ever-declining temperatures. For all its color, the brilliant orange sun overhead offers no semblance of warmth. Your breath long ceased to cloud in front of your face after your mouth dried from the fear and your heartbeat sped up to accompany each strain of worry whirling through your mind. This does little to hold off the cold seeping past your clothes and into your entire body. You're almost certain even your bones have been chilled by the frigid air.
"Hold on, wasn't it just a little past noon that we started up the mountain?" Jay asks through chattering teeth. "I could s-swear it wasn't th-th-this difficult to climb last time."
"Duh. Last time we had suits specifically designed to protect us from the cold, not to mention our mechs."
Zane shakes his head firmly. "Even so, Jay is correct. The structures of the mountain pass do not match the formations that we previously saw."
Kai snorts, glaring upwards in the direction of the setting sun.
"So? That just means we were on a different side of the mountain last time. No need to complicate things when there's a perfectly logical explanation."
"Since when have you acted based on a 'logical explanation,' Kai?" Zane queries, raising a metallic brow. "And whatever the cause, logic does not explain why the landmarks have changed, despite our elevation and direction exactly matching our previous approach. The only detail about our ascent that should not match up nearly exactly is the timing of Blind Man's Eye."
The others fall silent at the tense words and uncertain expression on the nindroid's face. Each of the ninja cast hopeful glances toward a familiar crag, or broken tree, or dilapidated lookout post, only to discover no such sight.
You turn to Lloyd, but he immediately shakes his head, wearing an expression close to disgust as he grimaces.
"If you want to know anything about getting up this mountain or what exactly it's supposed to look like, you're going to want to ask someone who was present."
YOU ARE READING
Kismet Tempest: Morro x Reader
FanfictionY/n spent the first twelve years of her life the same way: unwanted. The orphanage she grew up in had provided far more than she had arrived there with, but even the best actions of an individual cannot always make up for the worst choices of anoth...
