The Earth's Seismic Faults

The Lion's Wrath

     "How much LONGER?!" Jay complained, as the Ninja were near the tip of the mountain. "I don't think I can handle it anymore!"

     "Well then, I'd be happy to give you water, Jay," said Nya, raising her hands. "Still thirsty?"

     After the battle with the Crystal King, Nya's power have been slowly returning. Nowadays, her powers are now stronger than ever. 

     Jay gave a small nervous chuckle and ran behind a small pile of rocks right beside Cole, who laughed as he pulled Jay up and made him  go in front of Cole.

     "Scared, are you?" whispered Kai to Jay's ear, while Skylor was still busy looking away. "Scared of your own Yang? That's something you don't see everyday. Right, Lloyd?"

     "Huh?" asked Lloyd, who was busy checking the mountains for any other clues for another lion crest. "Oh, yeah, right. Definitely. Totally agree with you, Kai."

     Cole chuckled as he made his way towards Vania, who was in the very front of the line. She was chatting with Harumi. 

     "...I thought that it would never happen, yet-oh, hi, Cole," said Vania, as she saw Cole's shadow walk toward her. "Have you found anything?"

     "No. The only thing we found was the lion with the Latin writing in it," said Cole, he sounded very gloomy. "How about you guys? You two seem very interesting in chatting. Something going on?"

     Both Vania and Harumi shook their heads and Harumi replied coldly, "And since when did you care about that?"

     Cole shrugged and continued walking. His friends had still been teasing Jay about being scared of Nya until then, but this time, Kai was especially quiet, as Cole saw, Skylor was right beside him.

     "Anything new that they found?" asked Skylor. 

     "Nope," replied Cole.

     After a few more minutes of hiking up the mountain, the Ninjas', Skylor, Vania, and Harumi had finally reached the tip of the highest Shintarian mountain in the entire Kingdom of Shintaro. Each of them sat down on the rocky floor, still searching for clues, until Cole laid his head on top of a what looked like a smooth, small, and blackish stone. As he laid his head, he felt the smooth surface became rougher, rougher, and rougher by the second, until it felt like someone had drawn on the rock.

     Cole carefully picked up the rock and examined it. The rock had the same lion crest and the same Latin writing on it. 

     "I found something again!" said Cole, waving the rock around. "It's a clue. On another rock!"

     Suddenly, everyone had crowded around Cole.

     "It says the same thing," complained Kai, who took the rock from Cole's hand and was now pressing his fingers on the sculpted drawing. "The same Latin words. I don't see what's so interesting about a lion's crest with some weird language below it!"

     Just as Kai had finished saying his sentence, the earth beneath them started moving. It kept moving until the floor that they were sitting on had cracked in half! Beneath the crack, a statue, which looked like one of those old Egyptian statues, but this time, it was a lion which was sitting on top of a stand.

      "Great work, Kai!" hissed Cole. "Now we're all stuck here with a giant whatever that is! Just great work! I wonder how he ever got Skylor to like him." Cole whispered to himself.

     "You have found the Lion's Statue," the statue's mouth suddenly said. "Congratulations, mortals. Now, the wrath of the lion shall fall upon the Kingdom of Shintaro! No one, not even the bravest fighters, will be able to defeat me!"

     'Well, we'll see about that!" said Lloyd, getting back on his feet and restoring his balance. "Ninja go!"

     Lloyd's Spinjitzu was powerful, but not powerful enough to defeat the Lion's Statue. He tumbled and fell hard on his back, yet again.

     Cole took out his hammer, and tried hitting it, but the Statue was just too smart and kept dodging the hits. Kai tried doing the same thing, but also got knocked out. 

     "It's no use!" said Kai, as he tried standing up. "This statue's just too strong! Nothing can stop it!"

     "I do hope you're wrong," said Vania, as she grabbed her naginata and aimed for the Statue.

     The Lion's Statue did not see the naginata flying in the air, so the weapon hit it straight in the head. This seemed to make the Statue a bit angry.

     "Who dares hit this sacred Statue with a weapon?!" the Lion's Statue barked at the Ninja. "Who dares?!"

      Vania charged again with the same naginata. Still, the Lion's Statue did not see the swing and aim. Vania's weapon hit the Statue yet again. Cole saw a glimpse that the Lion's Statue's head now had a small crack forming.

     "It somehow can't see the way the Princess hits!" said Zane, as he was, too, knocked out. "I wonder why, though."

     "Probably runs in their blood!" grunted Nya angrily. "This Statue just won't budge when we try to hit it!"

     "Runs in their blood?" repeated Cole. "What do you mean runs in their blood?"

     "By that, I mean, that the blood of Vania might have a special something that this Lion's Statue, or whatever really, can't see or hear!"

     "That's really great for the Princess and all," Kai began. "but how about us? We don't have the same blood as her! We can't help in any way!"

     Lloyd looked very deep in thinking. 

     "I have a plan! But all of you, even you, Princess, have to trust me!" said Lloyd.

     "Trust you? We have trusted you this far, I wonder what will happen if we trust you more!" said Jay. "But, I guess it's worth a shot."