Part III-Misunderstandings


I heard a deep voice calling to me. I didn't want to open my eyes.

"Son? Wake up!" I heard. Then someone was gently shaking me. I slowly opened my eyes. My head hurt.

"Are you okay?" Garmadon's face came into view.

I looked around to see that I was back on land. "Uh… I think so," I answered slowly. "What happened?"

"You went over a small waterfall, and hit your head on a rock," my dad answered. "But I found you and pulled you out of the water."

I felt the bump on my head. Ow. "Thanks, for saving me."

Garmadon blinked. "Of course." I sneezed. "We need to get back to camp." He looked down at me. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah, I think so," I answered.

My dad reached out three of his hands and helped me stand up. I remembered that I still had my compass in my pocket. Thankfully, it didn't fall out and it was waterproof.

"We need to head north," I said, pointing in the said direction.

We walked on in silence for a while. I started to feel bad that I had gotten so angry at my dad. I guess I haven't completely let go of the past. I was trying to think about what to say to bridge the gap. I wondered if my dad was feeling as uncomfortable as I was.

Suddenly, my stomach growled. I had no idea what time it was, probably near lunchtime, judging by my stomach.

"Someone's hungry," Garmadon's voice said with a chuckle from behind me.

I felt heat coming into my face. "Yeah, being in peril does that to a person," I answered humorously.

My dad laughed at this. "I'm feeling pretty hungry myself."

When we reached a familiar area, my dad wanted to take a shortcut off the main path to get back to camp. He insisted it would be faster.

"I don't think that's a good idea," I told him. "We should stay on the main path."

"It'll be fine," Garmadon answered, as he made his way through a lot of underbrush.

As I looked closer at the plants that he just went through, I realized what it was.

"Uh, dad?" I called.

"What?"

"You just went through poison ivy."


I looked up in my handy guide to camping what to do for poison ivy. I noticed my dad was starting to scratch.

"Dad, don't do that," I told him. "That just makes it worse."

"What else am I supposed to do?" he answered, sulkily. He wasn't happy that his 'shortcut' turned out this way.

"I have some alcoholic wipes that should help," I told him. "And then you wash off in water."

Garmadon grunted. "Ugh, fine. I'll do anything at this point." He took the wipes from me and stomped off to the river.

I just shook my head.


Some time had passed, and I was beginning to wonder what was keeping my dad so long and if I should look for him.

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud, angry shout.

"Come back here with my clothes!"

I looked up and saw my dad running through the woods with nothing on! Seemed like he was chasing some animal that must have taken his clothes. My face turned red. It was a good thing that no one else was around to see this. Why didn't he at least take a towel with him?

He finally came back to the campsite after much yelling, running and threating to kill the animal, and approached where I was sitting, holding his clothes to himself.

At least he was partially covered now.

"The animals here are crazy, Luh-loyd, so watch yourself," Garmadon told me breathing heavily.

"Um…yeah, sure, dad. Can you please put your clothes on?" I asked, looking at the ground.

He blushed. "Oh, yeah, right."


The next morning, I awoke to hear a strange noise. It sounded like a munching sound. I got up and stepped over my dad, who was snoring lightly.

I stepped outside the tent and saw that a large, brown bear was eating our food. Leave it to my dad, who must not have secured it properly last night.

I wracked my brain for what to do in this situation. "Uh…let's see…run…no...climb a tree…no…bear spray…don't have any…"

The bear then noticed me. It popped its jaws, snorted, and swatted the ground with its front paw. This didn't look good.

I started to back away, but it suddenly charged me.

"Help!" I yelled as I decided to hit the ground and play dead, hoping for the best.

The commotion must have woken up my dad, because the next thing I knew, I heard a loud battle cry.

I lifted my head slightly to see him charging the bear with some kind of weapon.

Wait…weapon?

Garmadon slid along the ground and thrust his weapon under the bear's chest and hefted it high into the air, catching it off guard.

I couldn't see where it landed.

"Luh-loyd, are you okay?" my dad asked, for the third time on this trip.

"Y-yeah." I was stunned. I knew my dad was strong, but I hadn't really seen him do anything like this.

I stood up and dusted myself off, staring at the weapon in my dad's hands. It was his shark tipped staff.

"Dad-I thought you weren't going to bring any weapons!"

He smirked and shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, well, I changed my mind. I figured it might come in handy."

I guess I should be grateful that he did bring it. "I owe you twice then," I answered, rubbing the back of head. I felt like this whole trip had been nothing but saving me from danger, and here I am supposed to be a ninja. Guess I still had a lot to learn.

"Who's counting?" Garmadon answered with a toothy grin. "You're my son."

I don't know what it was about that statement, but it touched me somehow. In all those years, I never knew if my father cared about me. I had only seen him once or twice in my childhood, and then when he started attacking Ninjago, we spent our time fighting each other. Of course, he didn't know it was me at the time, but still. It really did seem that there was more to him than I thought.

"Well, what do we do now that the bear ate most of our food?" I asked.

Garmadon waved his hand around. "No problem-I brought fishing poles, and we can go fishing."

I raised my eyebrow. "You know how to fish?"

"Of course, I do! How do you think I got all those sharks in my lair?" He grinned at me.

I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answer to that.


We found a spot along the river that Garmadon thought would be a good place to find fish.

"This is your lucky day, Luh-loyd, because I'm going to teach you how fish," Garmadon told me, handing me a fishing pole. He pulled out some brightly colored lures and showed me how to put it on the end of the hook.

"Now, the secret to lures is that you have to keep it moving, so the fish will be attracted to it. Like this."

Garmadon threw his line out back and forth a couple of times, and made some quick movements, pulling up on his pole slightly.

I duplicated what he had done.

"When you feel a tug on the line, you'll want to keep a firm tension on it, and then give it a yank." He came closer to me. "Keep your pole at a 45-degree angle," he said, adjusting my grip.

"Okay, I think I got it," I answered, wondering how long it would take to catch something.

Hopefully soon, because I was starving. We waited, and waited, and waited. Time seemed to slow to a crawl.

Two things happened; I got bored and was getting eaten by mosquitoes. I had forgotten to put on my bug repellent. I looked over at my dad who seemed impervious to mosquito bites. Maybe they were afraid to bite a warlord.

"I got one!" Garmadon suddenly yelled. I looked over at him. He reeled his line in and pulled up hard on the pole.

"Watch this, Luh-loyd. This is how you bring 'em in," he continued. Just then his line went limp.

I hid my smile. A few minutes later, he got another bite and did the same thing with the same result.

"Third time's the charm," Garmadon said, as he tried to reel in another fish. No luck. "Oh, come on!" he growled.

I guessed there were some things that were hard even for him. Then I suddenly felt a tug on my pole.

"Dad! I think I got a bite!" I said, excited.

I reeled the fish in slowly up and out of the water, remembering what my dad had told me earlier. I caught a big one!

"Wow, look at that dad! My first try!"

"Guess you got beginner's luck," Garmadon answered with a pout and went back to try to catch something too.

I ended up catching five fish, while my dad only got two. I think he was envious, because he threw his pole into the water after I got my fifth one.

We walked back to the campsite with our catches. I was feeling pretty good, as I was finally able to do something without a lot of difficulty. I stole a glance at my dad, who seemed down.

"Hey dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Um…thanks." I paused for a moment. "For showing me how to fish."

Garmadon's eyes lit up. "You picked it up pretty fast."

"I had a good teacher," I told him.

"Naturally," he boasted. "But it was so much easier catching sharks."

I couldn't help but laugh.


Interlude-Ninja's POV:


Back in Ninjago City, Jay had gathered the other ninja together in the warehouse.

"Thanks for coming over guys," the lightening ninja started.

"What's this about Jay?" Cole asked.

"I'm concerned about Lloyd," he answered.

The other ninja just looked at each other like 'what's the big deal?'

"We haven't heard from him at all. And he said that if we didn't hear from him, we should go look for him," Jay finished.

"I thought he said if he didn't come back," Kai corrected. "They still have today left."

"Yeah, and he's probably in a remote area where his phone doesn't work," Nya put in.

"That would be a correct assumption," Zane added.

Jay shook his head. "He said he'd be at a campsite with wifi. We should have heard from him at least once. And this is Garmadon we're talking about. Do we really know he's changed? What if he's secretly teaching Lloyd the dark ninja arts… OR WORSE?"

"Jay, I think you're being paranoid," Cole answered, rolling his eyes.

"I think that we should at least check on him," Jay insisted.

"Okay, fine," Kai finally said. "Lloyd told me the place they were going to. But we're going to keep a low profile. Got it?"

Everyone nodded. "Ninja go!"

At the campsite, the Ninja had split up and checked out the whole place, but there was no sign of Lloyd or Garmadon.

"See? What did I tell you?" Jay said. "Something bad has happened, I know it!"

"Let's widen our search area. They can't be far," Kai said.

It was Zane who finally found something. He found a clearing and saw Garmadon. He radioed the others who then crept in quietly to observe the warlord. Lloyd wasn't in sight.

They saw a large pit with spit going over it and lots of wood under it. Garmadon was walking around it, whistling and holding a rope. He took out a dagger and placed it on the log near the pit.

"Oh boy, this is going to be good," they heard Garmadon talking. "I haven't done this in a long time."

The ninja kept watching and listening.

"Luh-loyd won't be able to resist this!" Garmadon laughed and headed out of sight.

The ninja all looked with concern at each other.

"I think he's up to no good," Jay said. "What he doing with all that stuff? And where's Lloyd?"

"Maybe he's in the tent," Cole suggested.

"I'll admit that Garmadon's acting suspicious," Kai said.

"We should watch a little longer," Zane put in. "Just to make sure."

"Yeah, Zane's right. We shouldn't just barge in," Nya agreed.

They waited and watched for what seemed like a long time. Then they heard a voice.

"Dad, what are you doing?" It was Lloyd's voice.

"You'll see. I can't have you ruining my fun now, can I?" Garmadon answered vaguely.

Lloyd was being led by his father blindfolded. It didn't look good at all.

"I told you something bad was happening," Jay whispered. "What do we do?"

"If we all charge at once, we can catch Garmadon by surprise and save Lloyd," Kai said. "On the count of three…one…two…THREE!"


As I was being led along, I suddenly heard a bunch of yelling, and the sound of pounding footsteps coming towards me. Was this part of my dad's surprise?

"What do you think you're doing?" Garmadon growled.

Okay, so maybe this isn't part of the plan.

"That's just what we were going to ask you!" Nya said.

"Yeah," other voices chorused. Those voices sounded an awful lot like my friends-but why would they be here?

"Guys?" I asked, still uncertain because of my blindfold, "Is that really you?"

"We came to rescue you, Lloyd!" Jay said. "We saw Garmadon doing some strange things and then we saw you blindfolded."

"You guys have it all wrong!" the warlord yelled. "You're ruining my plans!"

"And what exactly are your plans?" Zane asked him.

"Let me go and I'll show you!" Garmadon snapped, still trying to break free.

My friends grunted, trying to keep him down.

I took off my blindfold. I was surprised to see that Kai and Cole had my dad subdued.

"Come on, Lloyd! Let's make a run for it!" Jay said.

"Wait, guys, it's not what you think," I said. They all looked at me like I was crazy. "It's a long story…but first, let him go."

They still looked at me uncertainly, but they released my dad, who then shoved them away in a huff. He walked over to a nearby tree and folded his four arms over his chest, glaring at my friends.

"What's going on, Lloyd?" Kai asked me.

I told them the whole story of how we ended up in this place instead the camp site and why I hadn't reached out to them.

"But that still doesn't explain what Garmadon was doing having you blindfolded," Cole interjected.

"Well…" I rubbed the back of my head.

"I'll show you what that was about," Garmadon spoke up. He walked over to where the large fire pit was and then pulled on a rope that had been loosely wrapped around the tree.

"I caught this wild boar," the warlord explained. "I was going to surprise Luh-loyd with it for dinner, until you guys had to barge in and ruin everything."

The ninja all looked sheepish.

"But it all looked so suspicious," Jay defended.

"My dad has a flair for the dramatics," I told them. "He really wanted to surprise me, in his own strange way. I went along with it, but I had no idea exactly what he was planning."

"So, you're not in danger?" Kai asked.

"No, I'm not," I assured them.

"But you might be if you ever pull a stunt like this again," Garmadon threatened.

"Dad!" I scolded. "It was a simple misunderstanding."

"Whatever," my dad grumbled, still clearly not happy with my friends.

"What don't you guys stay and eat with us, since you're here?" I offered.

"What?" Garmadon protested.

"Dad, come on. They came all this way to make sure I was okay," I told him.

He opened his mouth but shut it again. He walked over to the fire pit and started getting the boar ready to cook.

"Just give him some time," I told my friends, who were still wary of the warlord.


In the end, we had a great pig roast. I had to admit that it very tasty. I was touched by my friend's loyalty to me. It was fun to be with them again. I told them stories of our camping trip, causing them to laugh, and they filled me in on what they had all done.

After doing some star gazing, which everyone, including my dad, thought was awesome (as you could see so many more stars away from the city) they all decided to leave and go back to Ninjago City, wanting to give my dad and I a little more time before we also would have to head back home.

As we were laying down in our sleeping bags for the night, my dad spoke up.

"I have to admit, you've got some good friends, son," he told me. "It takes some guts to do what they did for you."

"Yeah, I really do," I chuckled. "They've always been there for me."

Garmadon was quiet for a bit. Maybe he was feeling guilty about what I just said.

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"I had a really good time with you," I told him, sincerely. "Thanks for spending this time with me."

Garmadon fell silent for a few moments, surprised by what I said.

"You're welcome," he finally said. "I had a good time, too."


The drive back to Ninjago City was thankfully, uneventful. The traffic wasn't even that bad.

We reached the apartment complex and Garmadon parked the car and turned to face me.

"Well, this is it," he said. "Need any help with your stuff?"

"No thanks. I got it," I told him. I paused for a moment. I wondered when I would see him next.

"So, do you want to do something again, sometime?" I asked.

"Sure, anytime son. Just call me," Garmadon answered, ruffling my hair.

I shot him a look but nodded and got out to grab my stuff.

As I walked away, he honked at me and then turned on his music full blast as he sped off down the street, making a few people jump to get out of his way.

I shook my head. Some things about my dad would never change, and that was okay.

I came in the door. It was good to be back home again.

"Hi, mom. I'm back!"


THE END


AN: Hope you enjoyed this little, crazy story of mine. Until next time!