Hey everyone! Thank you all so much for the support you've given this story, it's really encouraging and I know I am so incredibly lucky to have you guys!
Review Replies:
ItsYoGreenGirl - IKR It's like everyone says Lloyd is a giant tooth rotting cinnamon roll and we love him, also he is baby. Thank you, I hope this new chapter will not disappoint! Also so yeah, that's definitely something to consider for future chapters, for now what I really want to focus on is developing Koso, Morro, and Lloyd's relationship.
Phetiamwantip - Thank you! Also, ask and ye shall receive
Chapter 14
"Yes, I had a wife why do you sound so surprised?" Koso asked with a genuinely confused look upon his face.
"Uh cause you're an awful person who kidnaps kids?" Lloyd said as if it were more obvious a truth than the sky is blue. "Plus you're ugly." Morro added, just to be spiteful to the man who had caused him to be in so much pain.
Koso narrowed his eyes in the direction of the bed bound teenager.
"Careful with that tongue of yours, remember I have the key to end your suffering." To emphasis his point the straw hat wearing man raised up a brown paper bag, that presumably had the ingredients to the antidote.
"Hurry up then! I can't stand being like this a second longer!" Morro snapped back before groaning at the strain he put his body through yet again.
"Well I will... as soon as my kind great nephew cleans up the mess in the kitchen so I have room to brew the antidote." Koso replied before heatedly staring Lloyd down.
The green ninja gulped before nodding his head and hurriedly heading out the bedroom door and getting to his task.
"My cloth towels are under the sink!" Koso called out as he too left the room ,but not before fixing a stern look upon, his apparent not pet, Jasper.
"You. Ever. Pull a stunt like that again, I will personally make sure you can never have children."
The wolf fixed Koso with his own heated glare in reply ,but did not make a sound of disagreement. That was enough to satisfy the green eyed male so he simply walked out of the room leaving Morro and Jasper alone.
The wind master narrowed his eyes at the wolf as Jasper turned his attention from the doorway Koso had just occupied back to Morro.
"Don't-"
Morro was promptly cut off when the wolf jumped onto the joined twin beds and went back to lying his large muzzle back upon the wind master's neck as he curled up against the injured former ghost. Letting out a defeated sigh, Morro muttered.
"I. hate. all of you."
Forgottenfamily
"So, that thing,...I mean, you said his name was Jasper, he was your wife's, uh pet?" Lloyd asked as he began scrubbing up the chicken blood from the kitchen table.
"Correct, now stop talking and use more elbow grease." Koso commented absentmindedly in reply as he inspected his broken front door.
'That fiendish mutt! How you were ever so fond of him, Tera I'll never know.' The straw hat wearing man thought as he began to plan on looking for a spell to fix the damage, either that or have the two brats do it.
"So, he's a wolf right?" Lloyd asked aloud.
"Jasper's part of an ancient Ninjagian canine breed called the Nira wolves, they were very rare in my day and I'd guess that they still are today. His kind tend to live in secluded caves and underground tunnels. If I were a man of luck that mutt would follow the rest of his species' example ,but no he just had to come back here, and now of all times."
Lloyd tried best to hide his smirk at Koso's rant, thinking that revenge, now matter how small was rather sweet.
"So his kind must also have a really long life span then, sense you're technically like what, ninety?"
Koso couldn't help a small sigh from escaping him as he replied. " Actually ninety -two if we're aiming for procession, but yes his kind can have a life span ranging from two to three hundred years."
Lloyd found himself arching an eyebrow before asking. "How do you,...know so much about animals, I mean first the fish, and ...now this?"
Koso frowned slightly at the question. "Oh?"
The straw hat wearing man felt caught off guard slightly. "Truthfully I had not realized I was droning on that much,...I suppose I just remmbered it, because my wife, Tera was her name if you were curious, she loved looking at and studying all sorts of animals, and she never stopped talking about the new species she discovered to me." Koso explained with a hint of fondness in his voice that Lloyd did not believe he could possess.
"So then, your wif- uh Tera, was she a zoologist?"
"If by that you mean, someone so obsessed with all the animals she came across that she wrote journals on top of journals about them and came up with ridiculous names for them, then yes Tera was a zoologist."
While Lloyd's face remained passive as he scrubbed the blood from the table, inside he was whirling with flooding confusion that he had surpressed after his failed escape attempt.
'Urghhhh Is this guy really my great uncle?! He just sounds so geniune, and if he has the mental capabilities to cast spells, then he can't be crazy, can he?! Plus he's really really f**king powerful!'
It was at this moment another worry worked its way into the blonde's mind. What would have to be done about Morro, once(if) this was all taken care of. He would have to be imprisoned, right? He was a criminal, responsible for almost cursing all of Ninjago into a hellish nightmare! As the blonde thought of the former ghost's past crimes, another thought crept its way into his mind.
'And he's the reason dad's- No! no don't think about that!' Lloyd scolded himself whilst shaking his head. 'There's nothing you can do about what he is now! It's not even him! Just an ugly allusion of him!' To escape his inner turmoil, the green ninja decided to focus his attention on scrubbing all of the blood from the kitchen table and picking up the piles of feathers scattered on the ground.
'None of that matters right now!' Lloyd told himself. 'Focus on the present Lloyd, what I need do now is start finding a way out of here, or at least getting a message out to the bounty.'
Daring to hope, Lloyd wondered if it was possible Zane's falcon would happen to fly over the mountain valley and see them. That was unlikely though, considering that robotic bird had specific flight patterns programmed into it, that usually didn't include rocky terrains, on account of Zane's pragmatic fear its reflex defenses would not be quick enough to avoid jagged high mountain peaks.
'But maybe he'll adjust the settings, so it'll have a better chance of finding me' Lloyd concluded hopefully, despite it only being two weeks the blonde was beginning to have a new appreciation for the company of his brothers and sister. After spending two weeks with a constantly snide old man and bitter fellow teenager, Lloyd was so desperate for some positive company he had honestly felt overjoyed when Jasper had acted so sweetly upon their first meeting.
Once all the chicken blood and feathers were all cleaned up, Lloyd turned back to Koso who was still looking at the broken door. "Hey uh, I finished."
Quickly looking up, Koso offered a slight nod in reply. "Very well, I'll get started on the antidote it shouldn't take longer than half an hour to make."
Lloyd nodded back awkwardly in reply. "O-ok."
When Koso moved into the kitchen, Lloyd took that as his que to leave. He might have thought to stay around and watch because knowing how to make a healing potion would be something incredibly useful to know in the future ,but the intimidating look Koso was shooting him made the blonde believe it was best to leave the green eyed man alone.
'He probably works best without someone watching him.' Lloyd guessed as he retreated into his and Morro's room.
Forgottenfamily
When Morro heard Lloyd walk into the room he immediately started talking.
"Is that fuc- uh antidote ready yet?!"
"Koso said it'll be done in half an hour." Lloyd said as he sat down on the joined beds and gently rubbed a hand upon Jasper's head. The nira wolf hummed contentedly as he leaned his large muzzle more heavily upon Morro's neck.
The wind master's nose twitched slightly as Jasper's fur was pushed against it. Then the former ghost did something that no one would ever expect in a thousand years of him to do.
He sneezed.
It wasn't a loud a or obnoxious sneeze, but was instead rather quiet and almost timid.
Lloyd could not stop a loud chuckle from escaping him as Morro shot a nasty glare his way.
"What's so funny?!"
"Nothing." The green ninja said tersely when he managed to gain control over himself. "I just cannot believe that I actually used to be afraid of you." Lloyd said with a condescending shrug.
The former ghost snarled back in response. "When I get my mobility back you better watch-"
"So I have a question." Lloyd said cutting the wind master off. The former ghost looked at the green ninja skeptically. "Who says I want to answer you."
"C'mon don't be f**king childish. " Lloyd said quietly so Koso wouldn't hear him.
Morro's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "Did you just...cuss?!"
The blonde rolled his eyes in reply as he let out a small sigh. "Is it really that surprising, I'm not a toddler."
"No, you're the perfect little naïve green ninja who everyone loves because he's so completely innocent and good." Morro rattled off sarcastically.
"Innocent is a strong word, you do know I released the serpentine and almost got Ninjago destroyed by the great devourer."
"You were a kid doesn't count." The wind master shot back immediately, with a look in his eyes that suggested to Lloyd he used that excuse more than once to justify someone's actions, probably his own.
"You're one to talk, I mean you look pretty innocent right now with your new buddy."
"Shut up. What was that stupid question you wanted to ask?" Morro asked obviously trying to get away from the subject of his very vulnerable position.
"Well, umm" Lloyd hesitated slightly before just letting the question spill out.
"W-what's the departed realm like?"
Oh no! Our poor Lloyd has been corrupted! Eh oh well.
Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter sorry it's kind of short, I just needed to put it out so next chapter I can get to the meat and potatoes parts.