"WHAT ARE THESE THINGS?! GHOSTS???" Sora shouted, pulling the Bō off of her back as she stood.
Pulling her to the side, the ghost shrieked, narrowly missing her. Their shrieking caused some sort of.. shock wave..? You pulled your hood over your head. "I don't care what they are! You take the one on the right!"
Running towards the left one, you held up a fist, attempting to use the molecules around it to essentially punch it, but it only phased through the ghost. It could just go through shit. Unfair.
Behind you, Sora began screaming. Whipping around to face her, a ghost was holding her by her foot about 30 feet in the air. Well shit.
Preparing to use solid air to step up to her, you forgot to actually look at her. And so you realized way too late that she was being thrown right in your direction! So fun!
Getting slammed against a rock, you groaned. That definitely gave you a concussion, fucckkkkk. Was Sora okay?! You looked down at your lap. Her eye was bruised, her lip was bleeding a bright red, and, well, she was unconscious. You were such a bad guardian, weren't you?
The two ghosts went for another attack when Dragon-Sora leapt in front of you both, shrieking loudly, breathing orange sparks. The energy managed to spook the ghosts off, and she quickly picked up Sora by the collar, allowing both you and Riyu to climb on as well.
Stumbling to her back, you sat down, watching her toss Sora in front of you. You wrapped an arm around her torso, weaving your other glove into Dragon-Sora's scales. And then she quickly took off.
Your head hurt. It felt like you were going to pass out. Everything was happening so fast. Lacing the atoms of Sora's jacket into a scale, you checked if Riyu was okay, and took a deep breath. You'd be fine. This mission was going to be fine... Even if you were leading it.
You were so tired.
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Waking up, you frowned, glancing around the stoney mesa. When had you even fallen asleep? Master, your head hurt.
A finger prodded at your cheek, causing you to glance over. Sora was sat beside you, wearing a tank top, her jacket was hanging from Dragon-Sora's scales still.
Yawning, you reached over, snagging her jacket, loosing the atoms around it. Handing it back, you unwove your own glove. Sliding off of Dragon-Sora's back, you stretched, pulling your glove off. Yup. Yellow sun thingie was still there.
"Remember what I said about curses before? How you're not, and then I rambled about the First Realm? I think we might actually be cursed now."
She frowned, checking her own hand. Still there too. "Where are we though?" Sora slid off the back of the dragon, mimicking your stretches.
"I dunno, Sora brought us here." You shrugged, glancing to the dragon for some kind of explanation.
Instead, said dragon started barreling into the cave behind you, Riyu following right after... Weird.
Pulling her hood off, Sora put her headphones on, shrugging. "Guess we follow now."
You began running after the dragons, your head feeling fuzzy. Every few moments black spots turned in your sight. If you weren't afraid of going to bed, you wouldn't told yourself that you needed sleep after this mission.
..Wait... Why didn't you get any visions when you slept? Even when you passed out at the cloud kingdom you had visions.. why didn't you now?
Glancing around the circular cave, there were books everywhere, a couch in the corner, candles strewn across the room, and even a table. "Did we just break into someone's home..?"
"What are we doing here?" Sora asked, glancing around.
"YES! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"
In a practiced motion, you pulled your hood on, pulling out your sword. A figure rose from behind a rock, the shadow glowing with four arms. You honestly though it was Garmadon for a split second.
"YOU DARE INVADE THE SANCTUM OF ARRAKORE THE MIGHTY DJINN? TRESSPASSERS WILL FEEL THE FULL MIGHT OF MY UNSTOPPABLE MAGIC AS IT PRESSES DOWN UPON-" A guy with blood red skin floated up, hitting his head on the ceiling. Instead of legs, there was just a crimson fog beneath his torso. "-Zanth?"
You rested your posture, watching as Dragon-Sora ran up to the Genie.. Artichoke? And begain licking his face. Were you sure you hadn't died from that concussion? This was all so weird.
Sora scrunched her nose, staring at the Genie. "Why'd you call her Zanth?"
He mocked her, scrunching his nose back. "Well that's her name, duh! You travel with a dragon and you don't know her name? Rude."
The genie- no, Djinn. Those were seperate things. Began chatting with the dragon again. Honestly, it was so much better than calling two people Sora.. You could've sworn Jay and Nya had brought up Djinn a few times before.. but they always seemed in edge and hesitant.
"You can stop staring, you know!" Arrakore snapped at you, causing you to realize that you had been staring. "I am real. The last Djinn from Djinjago. I'd have cleaned up if I knew I'd have company.. actually no, no I wouldn't.. Are you one of those Ninja that caused the destruction of Djinjago?"
You frowned, shaking your head. "Unless you're referring to the Merge, I didn't know that even happened.. it also might've happened when I wasn't on the team. I'm sorry."
Arrakore sighed, picking a pillow off the floor. "I don't need apologizes, it happened half a decade ago, you've all already moved on. However, I was in a quest and managed to escape. Zanth must've been in another realm too, Djinjago dragons could always travel between the realms.
Flipping through a book, Sora glanced to him. "..so you've been alone this whole time..?"
"Does it look like this place gets a lot of visitors?" He deadpanned to her, groaning. "What's the point of cleaning even? No one's ever gonna see it."
Zanth growled loudly, quickly turning towards the entrance.
Running- or.. floating quickly..? Towards her, Arrakore, gasped, shaking his head. "Howlers? Are you sure?.. Of course this would happen to me."
"What are Howlers?" You asked, hurriedly walking over to him. Instead of answering, he quickly grabbed your wrist, yanking your glove off.
He stared at the yellow mark on the back of your hand, looking to Sora next. "Does she have one too?" Without needing an answer, he grumbled. "Don't tell me you used Seeker Stones without proper guidance.."
Pressing your lips together, you shrugged. "Well.. the Cloud Kingdom said it'd be fine, so don't blame me! We're just trying to save the world, my guy. But what are Howlers?"
"Nothing happened! The stones didn't work.." Sora tried to explain, slipping her glove off. "Well, except for the mark I guess."
Arrakore laughed, putting his lower pair of arms on his hips, while is top ones crossed in front of his chest. "Oh, they worked all right. Worked at cursing you! I'm gonna guess you got attacked by floating guys that can yell super loud? Those are called Howlers. They're a curse from the misuse of Djinn artifacts. They can only be defeated with Djinn wish magic."
You shrugged, motioning up at him. "You have Djinn wish magic, right? Just poof em away!"
Shaking his head, he groaned. "You all are so uneducated. I used to have Djinn wish magic. Djinjago was the source of our magic. Without the realm, all of my wish magic is gone. It's been gone for years."
"Didn't you just threaten us with said magic?"
He raised his brow towards Sora. "People do this really neat trick called.. lying. I'm powerless. I was a great hero, saving lives! Now.. I can't even be motivated to sweep.."
Picking at your neck, you shrugged to Sora. "Well, we've gotta be miles away from the Howlers now. What's the chances we'll actually bump into them again?"
"100%" the Djinn huffed, rolling his eyes. "Do I need to explain what a curse means? The Howlers will hunt you to the ends of the known- I guess it's just the Merged Realms now.. and beyond. They never stop until they drain the energy of those who have been cursed. And you two, have strong energy, really painful."
Sora sucked her teeth. "Okay.. a little worse than what we originally thought.. but this is what I mean! I'm cursed with bad luck!"
Your hand began to itch and burn, glowing again instead of just being a yellow mark. "This.. means something bad, right?" The bag of Seeker Stones on your hip jostled, the large purple one jumping out. It has a faint glow to it. And the eye was back. "What does the eye mean?"
"It means they've found us."
Air whooshed into the cavern, the two Howlers from before appearing as quickly as they had the first time. Arrakore dove behind the rock he was originally behind, leaving you, Sora, Riyu, and Zanth to fight alone.
Sora was about to shout at him, but instead you shook your head, beginning to fight.
Creating a Spinjitzu tornado, you spun at the ghost-like creature, but it grabbed your heel, tossing you across the room. Falling to the floor, the back of your hand smacked into the ground, causing a ripple of pain to course through your skin.
Wincing, you forced yourself up, going at it again. You had to believe there was some way to beat the Howlers.
Spinning at them again, they kicked you out of your purple tornado, throwing you against the wall beside Sora. Taking a sharp breath of air, you pressed into your temples. Your head hurt so much... "These things have no weakness! We can't hurt them!"
"And that Djinn guy refuses to help!" Sora complained. "What a downer, all 'You can never win, why even try?'"
In your dazed state, you still managed to lift your eyebrows up, judging her attitude. She kept spinning between being one Sora, and being two.
She widened her eyes, staring at you. "Wait. That's.. I don't sound like that, right?"
"Eh.."
Riyu got thrown in front of you, landing on his side.
Hurrying beside the dragon, you looked at Sora, nodding to Arrakore. "Tell him the whole spiel, you have heard it from us enough to repeat it!"
She nodded, kind of confused, but still ran over to him as a Howler began kicking your ass again. Grabbing a shuriken from your belt, you threw it at the Howler, but it just bounced right off.
You got to your feet, about to attack with your sword, when the Howler stopped, staring at where Arrakore and Sora were.
"-Your wish is yours to keep!" Arrakore shouted, 4 glowing blades forming in each hand. He swiped them towards the Howlers, causing them to begin running (flying????) towards the entrance. "Make another wish for me to banish them, Master of Hope!"
You.. weren't exactly sure what was happening to be honest. But it was working nonetheless.
Sora turned towards the Djinn, shouting, "I wish for the Howlers to be gone!" She stood on her toes, the mask slightly muffling her but it worked.
"Your wish is yours to keep." A golden glow filled the room as a yellow spark from Arrakore flew at the Howlers, causing them to basically 'poof!'.
Well. That was easy.
And behind you, Arrakore collapsed.
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Sora finished hanging up the last painting as you continued working on the puzzle. You would've also tried to sleep, testing out what was happening with your visions, but Arrakore was a really loud snorer.
Flipping onto his side, Arrakore awoke with a grunt, glancing between you and Sora. "..we..we won, right? I remember us winning.."
"Yeah, we did. Thanks to you." You smiled sleepily.
He sat up, stroking his small goatee. "I haven't been able to use wish magic in a long time. This is the first time I've felt like a true Djinn since my land was destroyed."
Smiling, Sora pointed to the rock which had attached itself to a chain around his neck. "Well, it's a little less destroyed now."
With a gasp, Arrakore, grinned. "It's so big already! With more time and more wish magic it could- I could restore all of Djinjago!"
He flew over to a corner, picking up the last puzzle piece. "I can never repay you for what you've brought me, but.. there may be a little something I can do..."
Raising your brow, you nodded, "..We were trying to find something that would stop the world from imploding on itself.."
"You were using Seeker Stones to find whatever you were looking for, correct? Perhaps I can help you with that. Just wish, and you shall receive."
Nodding, you ran the words through your heard, making sure it wasn't phrased awkwardly. "I wish we could locate the missing Dragon Energy Core that we are searching for."
He bowed his head down, forming a yellow spark in his hand. "Your wish is yours to keep!" Arrakore grabbed your hand, laying your palm up. Setting the spark into the valley of your hand, it warped into the shape of an arrowhead. "This shall guide your path."
Nodding, you stared down at it, watching it follow your hand like a worm on a string. "So it works like a compass towards the Energy Core, I'm guessing?"
"Exactly." He hummed in approval, seemingly a bit dizzy from using excess power. "It points directly to the item you seek. Once you have gained possession of it, the compass will fade."
Sora smiled, waving. "Thank you Arrakore! Good luck restoring your realm."
"Good luck saving the world, Ninja Y/n and Ninja Sora."
Climbing onto the back of Zanth, you saluted, flying into the air.
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Omg Arrakore is such a fun character to write he's just a silly guy!!
Sorry if these chapters haven't had much to them, I promise the chapters closer to the end of the season have a lot more Lloyd and a lot less questing 🥲
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