#why doesnt the link embed anymore

[tarditzgrade]

i got too invested in imagery and the result was this fic. its got basically nothing going on in terms of plot or themes, but its got a ton of description of scenery and character interaction. and no dialogue.

about 3,064 words

Early Morning Hike

Training at the crack of dawn is to be expected, perhaps even synonymous, with being a ninja. But of course, they've got to get to where they're training first and Wu chooses the most out there spots for training. Which means they've got to take a hike through the woods before the sun is even up. --- This fic was supposed to be something else, but I liked the imagery I wrote in the intro a lot and decided to just make it the entire fic.

Training at the crack of dawn was to be expected, perhaps even synonymous, with being a ninja.

Danger and destruction won’t wait for you to wake up, so you must prepare and train yourself to be ready at all times of day and night.

And despite Jay having been in the profession for a good portion of his life, he doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to it.

The sun hasn’t even risen yet, so it’s dark out. Not pitch black, but an early morning shadow sits on everything. The sky’s definitely blue and there’s enough light to distinguish objects in the landscape, but the sun has yet to break the horizon and provide proper color to the world.

They’re trekking through a beaten path in some forest, the seven of them, because Wu likes to choose the most random spots for training, and no, they can’t drive or fly there. Six fruit colored ‘pajama’ wearers trailing after their wisened mentor, like ducklings following their mother. Under normal conditions, they’d probably stick out like ugly ones with how bright their get-ups were. But in the predawn lighting, everyone’s outfits dulled into some shade of blue or purple.

Even Lloyd’s palette was affected, his usual green appearing like navy right now. Jay could see him near the top of the line, almost step-in-step with Master Wu. Jay couldn’t tell if the two were discussing anything or if they led the group in silence. Either way, with how tired he was, nothing within Jay wanted to figure it out or cared.

Cole had been kind enough to give Jay a piggy-back ride for the journey. He’s fighting sleep on his back, trying to strike that perfect balance between getting a decent rest and not completely dozing off.

He doubts he’s winning, but he’ll take what he can get at this hour. Hopefully, whatever sleep he does get will be enough for whatever Wu has in store for them when they get to where they’re going.

Cole’s shoulders rock up and down with laughter. He straightens his back a bit as he does, head held high and disturbing Jay’s rest. Cole could care less for Jay; he’s got a good hold of him and the joke Kai just told was too good for just a half-hearted chuckle.

He, then, doubles over slightly and slows his pace. He thinks there might be a few tears on his face as well, streaming light trails down his cheeks. Kai slows next to him. Cole can hear him laughing, too, like he couldn’t believe his own punchline. But he’s not laughing as loud as Cole.

Cole’s laugh is boisterous and hearty, unfortunately disturbing the sanctity of the woods. He spots the shapes of a group of birds flying out and away from the trees and into the sky. Maybe his laugh was a little too loud.

Cole sees that Wu has stopped in front of them, and he’s watching him now. His master has that even, unreadable expression on his face, with a light smile sitting under his beard. Cole knows what it means, however. It’s all about context.

Immediately, he tries to reel himself in, reducing his bold laughter to just erratic snickers. He steadies his breathing and posture, readjusting Jay on his back. He has to let go of Jay with one hand to wipe away the tears, but the lightning ninja doesn’t rouse from any of this.

Wu seems content and turns back around, leading on.

Cole notices Lloyd never looked back at him. He stopped when Wu did, but he never turned. He picks up the pace again once Wu does.

Lloyd’s more focused on the ground. Despite the path being distinct and well-tread, there’s always leaves on the trail, both loose ones that rustle and shift with every step and compact ones that hardly give when they crunch under his shoes. He kicks up a few and watches them float back down to the ground. One clings to his pants for a few steps before joining its kin.

He can see a tiny spider move about the leaves on the path; it’s one of the spindly ones that are more legs than body. It dips under some leaves and crawls over others. The spider is moving perpendicular to them, so it’s not long before it crawls off the path. Once it does, he blinks and can’t see it anymore. It’s too dark to parse finer details and that unfortunately includes the tiny critter. He was mostly relying on movement to see the little spider, and without that, it blends into the forest’s ground.

Lloyd looks around to see if he can spot another before Wu mutters something to his left. Lloyd hears the sound, but doesn’t catch the words.

He looks up at his master to see if he’ll repeat himself or clarify, but Wu doesn’t so much as spare him a glance. Lloyd knows he said something, but he wonders if it was intended for him to hear or just Wu speaking aloud.

He’s known Wu long enough to know that he won’t tell him which it is in this moment. Lloyd chooses not to pry. It’s Wu’s choice if he wants to speak again or not and Lloyd is content to sit in more silence.

He hums and looks ahead. There’s a branch hanging over the trail. It’s thin and flexible, but it sits low enough to catch most of them in the face or neck and stretches across the entire path.

Lloyd picks up his pace to step ahead of Wu and raises the branch high enough for his master to pass under without stooping. He hears Wu give his thanks and Lloyd waits for him to fully step ahead of himself before he lets the branch go, continuing on.

A single sharp, quick, and loud laugh sounds out behind the pair. Lloyd initially thinks it's a quack before he realizes what it actually is. Lloyd and Wu turn to find Cole slapping his hand over his mouth, looking embarrassed. The master of earth mutters some apologies for his outburst.

Kai is again the source of his laughter. The master of fire is regaling to him a tale of when he, Lloyd, and Zane got into a beef with a group of kids at an arcade, and just got the part where Lloyd went 1-7 in a game of air hockey.

The smile on his face is proud and his eyes are closed, like he’s visualizing the moment in his head. The flashing, multicolored lights and constant, blaring sound effects of the arcade in the past are a sharp contrast to the early morning twilight and small, negligible noises found in the forest of the present.

Kai opens his eyes and meets Cole’s to make sure he’s still invested. Cole’s watching him with an amused smile, captivated by his story and waiting for him to continue. Jay’s still on his back and he’s out like a light. He’s so screwed when they have to start training in a bit.

Kai goes to continue his story before there’s suddenly sticks and leaves in his face and hair. He’s caught the branch in the head and the branch has caught him right back, with no intent of letting go. The thin tree rustles and leaves fall from its fingers as Kai fights to escape it, angry at both the branch’s audacity to attack him like this and the fact that no one bothered to warn him about the incoming assailant.

Once he does escape the branch's clutches, Kai’s sure he looks like a mess. Cole’s face confirms his suspicion. He’s still amused, but instead of looking like he just got done with laughing, he’s clearly about to launch into another bout of it.

Jay’s also woken up and he’s got a similar look to Cole, just a lot lazier. Somehow, that sparks more fury in Kai. The haze of sleepiness prevents Jay from cracking any jokes at Kai’s expense, so the master of lightning just raises a hand to point at Kai’s hair, a dumb smile stuck on his face.

Kai goes to fix it and he pulls out several leaves and sticks out of his hair as he does. He grumbles at the inconvenience. He doubts he’ll get his hair back to perfect. A younger him would be mortified at that fact, but it’s not like he has to be too presentable in front of these guys.

What is humiliating is him having to spit out not one, but two leaves before he’s done fixing himself up. Cole laughs at him, quieter this time, and lifts the branch up for him to walk under.

Kai passes under the branch and thanks him, smacking the branch from the underside as he does. He sees that Jay has also fallen back asleep. He grumbles once more and continues walking in silence. Cole does as well for a few steps before he asks him if he’s gonna continue his story.

Honestly, Kai’s forgotten about it and is too miffed to remember where he was. He tells Cole he might resume later once they’re done with training. Cole understands and doesn’t ask again and the two return to silence.

Nya’s a little irritated at that because she was listening in as well. She’s walking behind the three of them and without Kai’s story, she focuses on the surrounding forest instead, resolving to hear the rest from Lloyd at a later time.

She hears the river before she sees it. It’s moving pretty quickly, as the water beats and splashes heavily against the rocks within it again and again. She can hear it crash upon itself, as it pours down over several ledges and kicks up against whatever is in its path.

The river itself isn’t too hard to spot. Off to the left and through the trees, she can see the current’s rapid movement against the still forest backdrop and the whites of the water easily reflect any of the scant light in the area.

The path they’re walking on runs straight through the river and there’s no bridge going over. She also realizes just how wide the river is. It’s nothing insurmountable, but she is skeptical about how they’re going to cross.

As the group comes upon the bank, she briefly wonders if Wu plans for them to wade straight through it. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s made them do something like that.

But instead, Wu takes a step off the riverside and onto a rock that just barely breaks the surface of the river. He takes another step onto the next rock, one that sits higher this time. As Wu takes more and more steps farther into the river, Nya sees there’s an entire chain of rocks connecting one side of the river to the other.

They all follow his steps, grateful that he’s not making them trudge directly through the water. She’s sure the river isn’t too deep, since the water looks about knee high at the deepest, but they’re wearing lightweight gis for this hike and it wouldn’t be fun to deal with all the nuisances that came with their thin pants being thoroughly soaked through.

The rocks they cross vary in depth and size. Some only barely peek out of the water and have surfaces that are quite slippery, forcing those who step on them to focus a little more on their balance. Some don’t come out of the water at all, making it hard to spot their exact location beneath the current. She sees Lloyd miss one of these rocks and he groans in annoyance when his foot falls in the water. She giggles when it happens and sees Kai do the same.

Some of the rocks are so small, she can barely fit a single foot on it before she has to find the next one. Some are large enough that they take multiple steps to cross, and one of the stones is able to fit her, Kai, and Cole on it simultaneously. Thankfully, they’re all decently flat and evenly spaced apart so they don’t have to do any extreme balancing or parkour as they cross.

They cross in silence, the sounds of the running river doing plenty to fill the air. The path they cross is close to a waterfall. It’s not one of the massive ones that drop hundreds of feet, but it's far enough to create all the noise. It continues to crash and splash upon itself, kicking up a spray as it does.

Kai and Cole are directly in front of her and Jay’s snoring away on the latter’s back. Somehow, none of this is enough to keep him awake for an extended period of time. She doubts he’ll fare well once they start whatever activity Wu has planned.

Carefully, she levitates a small bit of water, only a ball of it that’s about the size of an orange, and throws it straight into Jay’s face. It strikes him between his eyebrows and streams down his nose.

He jolts awake from the impact with a cry. He blinks rapidly and goes to flail his arms around before he remembers where exactly he is. Cole senses the movement and stops to ask him if he’s okay, but Jay doesn’t quite know if he is. He’s still stuck in that confusing limbo between asleep and alert.

It’s only when he wipes his hand on his face does he put two and two together. He looks behind him to see Nya meeting him with a smug smile. He counters it with one of irritation. Unfortunately for him, he’s still too tired to make any kind of witty comeback or retaliate with an equal threat, so he groans out loud and shoves his face into the back of Cole’s gi to dry his face.

This gains a cry of complaint from Cole, who threatens to drop Jay if he does that again, but Jay’s fallen back asleep before he can hear the entire thing.

The whole spectacle causes Kai to cackle and he fist bumps Nya for starting it. They’ve finished crossing the river by now and it's back to the even silence of the forest, only broken up by the crunch of leaves and noises of animals.

A particularly loud cry resounds through the trees. No one can tell the source of it, but not many pay it mind. Zane, however, recognizes it immediately, snapping his attention to the sky. 

The cry sounds again, louder this time and piercingly sharp. It’s obviously that of a bird. A few others begin to recognize it and look up to see if they can spot their familiar feathered friend.

They can see a shadow descend from the sky, glinting in the twilight, and it aims itself towards them. The shadow spreads its wings and takes the shape of a bird, slowing its descent as it nears the hikers.

It soars past the first six and finds its perch on the outstretched arm of the last member of the group. The sharp talons of the bird ding lightly against his metal skin as it lands. Zane smiles and offers a happy greeting to his companion.

The titanium falcon is a magnificent creation. Its silver feathers are majestic, even in the early morning haze, and its eyes glow ever so faintly, providing the brightest light in the vicinity. In the near silence of the woods, he can hear the falcon’s machinery clink, whir, and hum within it. A host of complex mechanisms constructed by a genius. Zane scratches the top of the bird’s head and it coos with delight.

He wonders what the bird’s purpose is for being here. It’s quite early and he thinks the bird would want the extra rest it could get from not having to wake up at this time. He certainly would. But the bird doesn’t seem to be in any distress and has made no move to relay any kind of message to Zane. He figures the bird simply wanted to join the group on their hike to wherever Wu was taking them. 

He also wonders how exactly the bird knew they were up and about, but he can’t know everything that goes on within his friend’s mind. He supposes the bird must’ve inferred that they’d be doing something this early and tracked them down. It wasn’t a wild assumption to make, either.

Training at the crack of dawn was quite common for the ninja.

As magnificent as the bird is, his falcon friend is also quite heavy and Zane doesn’t want to exhaust most of his strength before they get to where they’re going. Kindly, he asks the falcon to sit upon his shoulder so his arm can rest for a bit, and the bird obliges.

Once he’s sure the falcon is comfortable, he notices Wu has stopped. The rest of the group halts as well, waiting to see what he has planned for today.

Wu has taken them to a clearing, a wide circle having been formed in the middle of the trees. On the opposite end from where they entered, the trees break to give a view of a small valley below where the river continues to run. It’s all coated in that early morning shadow. But, off and over the horizon, he can see the slightest bit of pink seeping into the sky.

Wu hums at the sight. He has mistimed it slightly, but he knows he isn’t perfect. His students wait for him to tell them what he has planned and he will tell them soon enough. But first, he has to wait a tiny bit, and, ah, there it is.

The sun peeks out over the horizon, giving first light to the day. The pinks and oranges it comes with are a welcome change to the blue they’ve been seeing all morning.

But of course, he did not bring his students all the way out here just to watch the dawn, as magnificent as it may be. He turns his back to the sun to face his students. The tips of trees behind them are just now turning green.

Training at the crack of dawn is synonymous with being a ninja, and with the sunrise, training has now begun.

[fixedgearider-blog]

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