It's been three months since Lloyd came to the sanctuary and it has been the best three months of my life. I didn't realize how much I missed human contact and considering my mother was the only other person and she died when I was ten it's been a while. I may have become a bit socially awkward in the last few years. Today is different though, Hatching season starts today and I've taught Lloyd enough to help with the new baby dragons.
Once every five years the dragons lay their eggs and after months and months of incubation, courtesy of overprotective and viscous mothers, they hatch leaving cute baby dragons that have no control over their ability to "breath" their element. This means repairs out the wazoo and a lot less sleep than I normally get. Lucky for me I don't have to do it alone this year since I have been teaching Lloyd about caring for dragons.
Lloyd and I are sitting in the dining room going over last-minute preparations for the hatching. "So you have the spare clothes I gave you and the fact that you are apparently trained in the ninja arts means that you have a one up on the exploding eggs." He gives me a look of surprise and horror at the exploding part. "What do you mean they explode?!" I blink once and realize I forgot to mention that, "Sorry, but yeah they explode. Whatever element the dragon represents will explode when the egg hatches, it's sort of like a precautionary measure to keep predators from eating the newborns as soon as they hatch." He just stares at me but nods anyway and we leave to go find said eggs before they start exploding.
With the Ninja
On the bounty was an entirely different story. It was like a cloud of hopelessness had settled over it and that hopelessness was reflected in the actions of the ninja. Lloyd had been missing for three months and every time they got a call they would jump up and hope it was their lost friend.
Kai was angrier than usual, always snapping and losing his patience. On top of that, he wouldn't stop killing the training dummies with his sword. Jay wasn't any better and on top of snapping at people was locked away in the bridge working on something...it could be anyone's guess what he was building. Cole didn't leave the weight room and kept trying to lift more than he could and kept overdoing it ending up on mandatory bedrest most days while sulking about it. Zane was going over as many databases as he could trying to their lost friend.
The only clue they even had that he may have been okay is there was no blood anywhere after he ran. They were also looking into whatever had attacked them, almost resembling living shadows. Sensei Wu had never seen anything like it before and even with all of his knowledge he had no idea what they were.
The only one trying to do anything productive and keep appearances up was Nya the resident samurai. This left relations strained and no one wanted to face the fact that an unknown enemy had Lloyd and they had no idea how to find him.
Another tense morning on the bounty was leaving everyone jumpy and breakfast was no better than the attitude anyone had at the moment. With everyone sitting down to a tense meal and curt conversations no one knew that their friend was going to be coming home pretty soon and a whole new adventure would begin for them all. Altering fate forever.
Back in the Sanctuary
"Lloyd, what you trying to do with the egg? It's going to hatch any minute now!" I said in a bit of a panicked voice as it meant that he was going to deal with the backlash. He just looked at me like I was crazy, "What are you talking about? I was just moving it away from the trees." Then it happens and the egg explodes. This also happened to be a fire dragon egg so it was rather painful. I watched Lloyd get hit with the flames and thrown back into a boulder and slamming his head against it.
Rushing over to check on him after a brief moment of shock. "Are you okay, you hit your head pretty hard?" The concern is palpable in my voice and the guy I have secretly gotten a crush on over the last three months being hurt is not good for my nerves. He looks at me and his eyes look different. Like a fog has been removed from them and are clearer now. "I'm good, better than good actually! Liv I remember everything!" I look at him in wide eyes and shock clearly evident on my face, but he continues talking already on a roll. "I was being chased by some shadows and I ended up running into Hiroshi's labyrinth to try and get away. Oh no! The others must be so worried about me! I'm going to be in so much trouble once I get back! I…"
I stop him by putting my hand over his mouth cutting of his next words before he even gets a chance to say them. "Lloyd what are you even rambling about...If that's even your name anymore." He gets this strange look in his eyes like he just remembered that I didn't know his full name or actual name since he had forced amnesia. "My name is Lloyd Garmadon...I guess you could say I'm the green ninja."
From that moment on everything changed and I wasn't sure what was going to happen anymore. Everything clicked after he told me his name and we spent the next week getting him ready to leave. This also involved fining a way for me to go with his since I could not physically leave the sanctuary. That week my curse was finally going to be broken and we didn't even know we were soulmates at the time.
