The Imperial Battle II: The Emperor of Ninjago

Chapter 10. The Whisper in the Wind

"Papa!"

Wu raised his gaze up from his oil painting project to see his little son running up to him excitedly. His hair was all messy and he was not wearing any shoes. One could hardly blame him for the latter as it was an extremely hot summer day in the countryside.

Little Morro sat down on the floor next to his father, a wide smile that exposed his missing teeth decorating his features. "Papa, guess what I saw!"

Wu smiled. "What did you see?"

"A dragon!"

Wu raised his brow in surprise. Much to his knowledge, there were no dragons just flying around free in Ninjago.

"Where did you see a dragon?" The father asked.

"Outside! It was, like, really green and this tiny," Morro left a gap of maybe an inch between the tips of his thumb and forefinger.

"Ah, that's interesting," Wu chuckled, turning back to look down at the canvas he was painting on. He really enjoyed painting when on a holiday with his son. He'd tried to get Garmadon to try as well, but he was busy Emperoring around and was merely interested in poetry and playwright in his freetime.

"Papa, don't paint," Morro whined and grabbed his arm.

"Why not?"

"It's boring. There are lots of nicer things to focus on!" 

Wu tilted his head. "Oh, namely?"

Morro simply threw himself over his father's lap and smiled contently. "Me."

Wu placed his hand down on his child's head to gently pet his wild hair. He couldn't help but feel an enormous burst of joy in his chest, one that could only be triggered by his silly little Morro.

"You're right, my wind, you're absolutely right."

Wu gazed affectionately down at his son and saw all the little details of him that he adored… only to then watch him and everything around him slowly fade away and turn into complete darkness. 

"I'm far more experienced than those! I'm far more experienced than anyone! I need to go with them!"

The voice echoed around him.

Wu was briefly surrounded by what looked like dark water with black ink spreading within it. He was completely disoriented with little glimpses of gold appearing here and there all around him, distracting his gaze. 

Then, a new sight opened up before his very eyes.

A small room with little daylight managing to get in. A cold room with dark red walls and freezing cold floor planks. A dark room with a mattress placed in the middle of it, a figure covered by a white sheet lying on it.

"Morro."

"They need me! Dad, I am go—"

"Morro, no!"

Wu took slow, careful steps towards the mattress, eventually coming close enough to kneel down and lift up the white sheet.

A feeling of immense terror and despair took over Wu's mind as he came face to face with the image of Morro lying dead before him. His face was lifelessly pale, his eyes were closed, his skin was ice cold and there was dry blood all over him. A gaping wound formed itself on his chest, the tip of an arrow pushing through.

Wu tried to turn away and close his eyes, cover them, do somehow just prevent himself from seeing Morro anymore. It was all in vain as his body was frozen and an invisible force was making him stare down at Morro. He felt like fainting, dying, but couldn't do anything.