Bear's Aunt is a natural redhead, her mom is a dyed redhead, so yeah, I know some. (For those of you who don't know, Bear2013CJ is my best friend in real life and I'm blessed to have her.)
Hey cool, I haven't got any IRL friends on here.
I have IRL friends here, although I haven't met them before. LordTigress and MockingbirdInc are definitely real friends!
After Cole had scarfed down the cake and tea, Matilda began picking up the mats and blankets they had slept on and packing them into a small carpet bag. "So, what exactly did you think you were doing, climbing a mountain in the middle of the storm?" She asked. "If there was a 'Stupid Stunt' contest, I believe you would have won the grand prize."
"Har, har." He muttered. "I was traveling. I thought I could find shelter before the storm hit."
"Traveling, hm? Where to?"
He hesitated. "To..." He tried to remember lessons from Geography class. "...Jumanakai Village. Yeah."
"Hm." She grabbed some bottles filled with colored liquids and stuffed them in the bag. "Why are you heading for Jumanakai?"
He frantically searched for believable lies. "Uhh...to visit my uncle. He's a martial arts teacher."
"Why are you crossing the Yokai Mountains to get there? Surely you could just take a bus to Warbler Town and follow the river from there."
"Uh, I thought this would be quicker."
"Hsst..." She turned and glared at him. "Don't you lie to me, boy. Tell me the truth. Why are you traveling by yourself?"
He sighed. "OK, OK..." He took a deep breath. "...I'm running away. From school."
"Hmph. Thought so." She folded a blanket. "Why are you running away?"
"I just..." He crossed his arms, trying to think. How could he explain how he felt? There were so many mixed emotions. "...I just...couldn't." He paused. "My dad wants to send me to the Marty Oppenheimer School of Performing Arts...he wants me to follow his footsteps and become a dancer."
Matilda didn't reply.
"He's trained me all my life to dance. It's not that I'm ungrateful or anything, it's just that I don't think it's right...for me." He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. "He didn't take it too well when I told him I didn't want to dance. He said I was going to school whether I liked it or not. So..." He shrugged. "I ran away."
There was a moment of silence. Then Matilda murmured.
Cole looked at Matilda, but her face was hidden by the wide brim of her brown hat. He was surprised by the question.
"I--I don't know." He mumbled.
"What are your strengths?" She laid a folded blanket in the carpet bag.
"Well..." He thought about it. "...I'm strong. Physically, I mean. I can lift up things three times my weight sometimes. And.." He pondered about himself. "...I'm athletic. I like to be outside; running, jumping, climbing, anything with a challenge."
"Hm." She secured a tea pot into the bag. "What would you like to do for a living?"
"Well...I don't know...something active. Something challenging, something risky. Doing some good for the world...Helping Ninjago." He stared at the ground. "I've thought about being a police man and a fire-fighter before, but those things don't seem to be...enough." He sighed in frustration. "Ah, I don't know! I want to do something, I'm not a dancer, I'm a fighter! I need to be a part of something, but I don't know.....I just don't fit in anywhere. Nobody understands me, my dad thinks I'm just lazy, and I..."
He sighed and stood up. "Forget it. Just forget it."
"I'm not about to forget a little speech like that." Matilda retorted. She inclined her head to him. "Sounds to me you feel like an outcast."
"Mm." He grunted.
She gazed at the bag. "That's everything." She snapped the bag shut and slung it around her shoulder with its leather strap. She adjusted her hat, then looked at him. "So where are you headed?"
"I don't know. I've really just been wandering."
"Hmph." She was silent for a few moments. "How about you travel with me?"
"Me?"
"Does it look like I'm talking to anyone else?" She snapped. "You have a bad arm, a torn-up head, and no idea what you're doing. It'd be a shame for me to go through all that trouble rescuing you, and then as soon as you left you fell off another cliff."
"I won't fall off--"
"That's probably what you said to yourself the other night." She snorted. "So. Are you coming?"
Basically, in Ninjago, there's this magical tea called the Traveler's Tea that you pour on the ground to open a portal to other worlds, like Chima.
Wait, Chima and Ninjago crossover?
You received answers of both three seconds and eight seconds; both are wrong. It was long enough for Laval to ask Craggar who those random pajama men falling from the sky fighting were.
Cole spent the rest of that day wandering through Yokaiville, enjoying the sunshine while it lasted and wondering about what he should do. It was true what his dad had said; he had no idea what he wanted to do...and yet he felt there was something out there, a purpose for him. He felt like he needed to roam the vast wilderness, explore the world, climb mountains, swim rivers, experience the thrill of danger. He needed to test his abilities, test his strength, test his limits. There was so much he could do, the world was at his hands!
You're just like your mother. Lou's voice echoed in his head again, hard and bitter. He wondered...if she was still around, would his mom had approved? If she hadn't--
He shook his head. Don't think about that. He told himself. Nothing could be gained by remembering old wounds.
You may not have known when you were writing this, but this ties in so well to Cole's recent flashback. . . .
O.o That was some serious foreboding right there -- and I hadn't even planned it.
Especially a certain redhead only a little younger than him with a mouth as fast as lightning... (Do any of the other Ninja make an appearance, by the way? LordTigress )
From that description I recognize Jay, but he's not a redhead! (Is he? )
(The Jay LEGO mini-figures' hairpieces have a brighter, more orange color than the darker auburn color he has in the show. A lot of people consider him a redhead because of this. )
Pain throbbed at the side of Cole's jaw, and he tasted something hot and salty in his mouth.
'OK. Now I'm angry.' He thought.
The group of men were laughing and jeering while Rick cackled. "Ha! That'll teach ya, you--"
Cole punched at the punk's bearded face. Hard.
The huge man staggered backwards, a faint, dazed expression on his face, and tripped over a stool. With a loud THUD he fell on the dirty floor.
The room was still. Even the barman had turned off the stale music.
Cole stared at Rick, who stirred and groaned softly. 'Did I do that?' He glanced at his large, clenched fists. He knew he was strong, but...wow. That was some serious power.
A man with raggedy sand-colored hair rasped. "He--he just knocked down Big Ricky!"
They stared at him, all eyes wide with shock.
A man in the back of the crowd growled. "Let's teach this punk a lesson."
Cole suddenly leaped out of the booth, knocked over a couple of guys who didn't see him coming, and shoved his way out the crowd. He wasn't chicken, in fact, he enjoyed a good brawl once in a while. But he knew when he was outnumbered.
"Get him!" Somebody shouted. The crowd roared like thunder, and chased after him.
Cole ran down a shadowy hall off to the side of the room and caught sight of a flickering 'Exit' sign. He shoved at the door, only to realize with dismay that it was locked. He frantically rammed his body into the door, bruising his shoulder. Something inside the lock snapped, and with another shove he slammed open the rusty door.
He ran out into a narrow, stinking alley, where trash was scattered across the nasty pavement. Drops from the sky were falling; it was beginning to rain. He shut the door and raced down the concrete, angry shouts close behind.
Years of dance lessons had trained his body to be nimble and strong, he fairly flew down the maze of allies, panting and praying for an escape route. He kept turning corners, hoping to come to street, but only saw more walls of stone.
'I'm doomed.'
Yeah, teach Rick a lesson!
Oh wait, bad idea.
He's got some serious strength to break open a locked door.
Yeah! Yeah. O.O Yeah. That's his undiscovered super-strength kicking in.
Wary of running into the angry mob, Cole set out into the pine forest, heading for the range of mountains. He figured getting some fresh northern air would do him some good in any case. Shivering terribly and soaked to the bone in the pouring rain, he sought out shelter underneath the thick boughs of a ancient pine tree, and nestled himself awkwardly into a nest of dried pine needles. He wrapped his jacket tightly around his body and slept fitfully, dreaming of cats with stars at their paws and fire in their eyes.
He rose the next morning tired, sore, aching all over, and very hungry. The sky above the wet pine trees was a thick blanket of gray clouds, threatening more rain. He walked through the forest silently, while the land gradually sloped uphill and sometime around noon, he found an area where the trees weren't so thick, and stood on a ledge looking out over the mountainside. He gazed at the vast landscape of the world, for once realizing how big Ninjago was.
As he kept walking, the trees thinned, and were replaced by boulders. Mist seeped around the corners of cliffs. The wind began to whistle, making grass wave wildly.
It began to rain again when evening fell. Cole knew he had to find shelter soon, but the only sign of it was a grove of trees off in the distance, high on a cliff. If he could just scale that cliff, he could take shelter.
The rain poured viciously on him as he began hopping on and off rocks, trying to get a firm grip on the boulders despite the water making everything slippery. The wind howled that night, the trees above rocked side to side. He clung to the rocky cliffside desperately, trying to grab the next ledge.
His hand slipped, the rock was too wet. He was losing balance, he tried to steady himself. His head was light from hunger, but he had to hang on. If he fell from this height...
"No--!" He slipped, he was falling. He fell back, screaming. He hit something, his body throbbed in pain.
{Runaway Spoilers} I believe NFM meant that this little girl's MOTHER is married to Dog Bone -- and now I'm trying to remember if she's right or not. I guess we'll find out soon enough.
"Uh--" He stammered. "Not long. I--I just woke up."
The woman took a threatening step forward, where the dancing light of the fire shone on her face. Cole realized that while singing she may have sounded just a little older than himself, her aged, slightly wrinkled face told him she was in her late thirties, perhaps forty.
She gazed at him with intense almond-brown eyes, then snorted crossly. "Hmph." Without a word she turned away from him and tossed some branches into the fire. Sparks shot out with a small whoosh and flew up into the sky like little fire fairies. She then seated herself on a stump a few feet away from him and stared into the flames.
Cole sat there for a few seconds, feeling quite awkward. When the woman didn't show any sign of speaking, he cautiously cleared his throat. "Uh...How did I get here?"
She swung her head around and stared at him.
He shifted. "I mean...The last thing I remember was falling off a cliff during a storm...Did I black out or something, or..?"
She scowled. "Blast this generation. Can't even tell when someone's saved their worthless skin."
Cole blinked. "So....you saved me?"
"Risked my neck to save your worthless life, I did!" She made a peculiar hissing noise through her teeth. "Hss...Nearly smashed myself dragging your limp, broken body up that cliff! Hmph. Would have been better if I left you to the wolves." She glared into the fire.
Cole was bemused by the stranger's attitude. "What happened to my shoulder?"
Her eyes didn't leave the cackling flames. "You dislocated it. I put it back in place though, you won't be able to use it for several days. You also smashed your head on a rock, though I was able to close the wound in time. Other than that, and a few scrapes and bruises, you were very fortunate to survive that fall."
"Who are you?" He asked.
She hesitated, and glanced at him. Her eyes narrowed.
"Matilda Ravencroft."
Yep, that's Matilda! (Although people aren't supposed to get wrinkles until they're fifty. )
Is Ravencroft a name from Harry Potter, perchance? For some reason I recognize it from something else (and did last time I read this story).
(Then maybe she's fifty, who knows? )
No, though there are similar names in that fandom, like Ravenclaw, which is the name of one of the Hogwarts houses. I just picked up "Ravencroft" from an old movie and liked it.
An night bird cried out somewhere in the distance. The snapping flames cracked and popped, warming Cole's bare chest from the chill of the night.
"What were you doing up here?" He asked. "Isn't it kind of weird for somebody to be wandering around a mountain during a storm by themselves?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing, not to mention your name." She retorted.
"Oh, yeah..." Feeling awkward, he said. "..My name is Cole."
" 'Cole'." She repeated. "Cole...short for 'Coleman', isn't it?"
"It's just...'Cole'. Just Cole." He muttered. He didn't like the name 'Coleman'.
"Well, '"Just Cole", if I were you, I'd try to get some sleep. It's the middle of the night, and unlike you, I haven't been sleeping for nearly twenty four hours." She said.
Cole shifted uneasily. How was he supposed to sleep with a sore arm, a throbbing head, and with a creepy lady who looks like a witch staring at him?
When Matilda saw his hesitation, she snorted impatiently. "Relax kid, if I wanted to get rid of you I would have done it hours ago, or just I could have just left you lying nearly smashed on that cliff."
He bit his lip, but consented to pulling the blanket back over his body and lying down. He forced himself to close his eyes and slow his breathing. Out of the corner of his eye he watched Matilda, careful to shut it if she glanced in his direction.
She ignored him for the most part, and stared distantly into the burning flames, her gaze unreadable. Her long, brown, scraggly hair with streaks of gray spilled from underneath her worn, pointed hat and around her midnight-blue cloak. The hiss of the flames and the rustle of the trees eventually lulled Cole to a peaceful sleep.
So, does that mean his full name is Coleman?
(And people aren't supposed to get streaks of gray until their sixties. )
I dunno, I've heard fans theorize this a while back. Nowadays I just prefer to think of him as Cole.
LordTigress and MockingbirdInc are definitely real friends! 
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