Hey guys Merry Christmas! Thanks for sticking around after that tidal wave of a last chapter. Also sorry I don't think I've ever procrastinated on a chapter this much so thanks for being patient XD!
Review Replies
FallingToast - Thank you so much! I literally listened to sad music nonstop all throughout writing last chapter just to put me in the mood, don't worry though for this chapter I tried to lighten things up a little (you'll see)
Phetiamwantip - Thank you! I was for once kinda proud of myself as well, mainly cause that was actually the longest chapter I've ever written so, it really means a lot to hear that someone else liked it as well, I honestly am just so lucky to have your support. Thanks again, and I hope you like this chapter as well
TrinityCrystalPrincess89 - Thank you! As a left handed myself I DEMAND we have more representation! No hate to righties tho we still love them X3
Chapter 31
The room's delicate balance between hefty silence and a potentially outrageous cacophony of angry, accusing, voices seemed to rest on Morro's stiff shoulders as his gaze lingered on the dusty floor boards beneath Jasper's feet.
Lloyd couldn't bring himself to so much as breathe whilst he waited for the wind master's inevitable respons-
"Ok, seriously how are we gonna turn him back before Koso gets back?" Morro suddenly asked, raising his head to meet the tense eyes of his fellow companions.
The blonde didn't know why his first instinct was to release a relieved, yet ...almost...disappointed sigh ,but he didn't have much time to ponder on its implication before the familiar hand of panic tightened its grip around the base of his throat and he was left gasping both figuratively and literally for an answer as his peripherals caught sight of the lighter shade of grey subtly over taking the once pitch black sky. Sun rise was coming and soon.
"We-I...I don't- We're screwed!" The green ninja shakily wheezed. Even still, he couldn't help absentmindedly flipping back through the pages of the spellbook, as if there was any hope for an answer to be produced.
"Ok, ok," Morro sighed, sounding strangely calm as he raised his hands into the air. "Why don't you just...try again."
"But-"
"You said it yourself, we're already screwed so, what's the harm in trying just one more time." The former ghost reasoned with an uncomfortably tight smile, his sweetened tone petering on the edge of hysteria.
After a moment of staggered breathing, Lloyd weirdly found himself nodding in understanding. Ok, just one more time, and if it didn't work, there was nothing they could do about it now, oh well.
"Alright," The green ninja aquised as he raised up an only slightly steadier hand, not even bothering to look back at the symbol.
"On three," Lloyd easily decided, since the situation did effectively feel like the detonation countdown of a bomb in one of those cheesy action movies Kai liked. "One,Two…"
At the last second the blonde focused his gaze back on Jasper, whose stoic glare seemed to be glued to the opposite wall, like he had yet to pull himself back to the present.
Closing his eyes, Lloyd all ,but whispered. "Three."
"Snap."
ForgottenFamily
This wasn't the first time he'd been involved in a streetside scuffle, but Koso would be lying if he'd said it had even once been against a group of colorfully dressed young adults.
'For the love of-Brother what have you done!?' He rhetorically asked himself as he more or less snuck through the grimy Ninjago City back alleys, away from the pile of his challengers uselessly demanding for a rematch. He truly was a benevolent man to have at least led them away from the public eye so their precious reputation could remain intact.
Koso might've found the situation humorous, were it not for the daunting reminder of the potential destruction his already marred cottage was currently facing with those two brats stirring about in it.
He needed to make this last part quick, just like with the old man.
So with a heavy sigh, The sorcerer snapped his fingers and the image of his face faded from the minds of the young ninja.
"Sorry, but I've already been more than fair. Now I have to go and train that idiot brother of yours."
ForgottenFamily
Lloyd was so close to dying from an amazing mixture of shock and relief he could almost feel the hand of the Departed Realm reaching out to him. Jasper had never looked so beautiful as he did on all fours, his body completely back to normal with fur, teeth,ears, and all.
The closest thing to celebration Lloyd found himself capable of accomplishing was a quiet, "I did it." as he inwardly rejoiced in the fact they weren't going to be murdered and or turned into frogs or something else equally maniacal come Koso's arrival. They were going to make it to tomorrow at least!
"Ok what are we gonna do with that f**king spell book now? You know Koso can't find out you have it."
'Crap he's gotta poin-' Lloyd's thoughts suddenly stopped of their volition as he vaguely registered the….strange quality to Morro's voice a second ago.
"Wait, why do you sound like tha-" The blonde wasn't allowed much time to finish his verbal pondering before he was abruptly stricken into horrified stillness with a cut off yelp. The little movement his body did allow him was used to quickly raise his strangely smaller looking hand to cover his mouth as his brain slowly registered the peculiar high pitched quality to his own voice. Not for the fact that it didn't sound like himself ,but more so the fact he hadn't sounded like that in a long,long time not since he was…..No, no it couldn't be...
The blonde's gaze darted down towards the lower half of his body and...unfortunately his worst most bizarre fears were confirmed in the form of two stubby legs and boney arms that hadn't belonged to him since he was around eight f**king years old!
"Lloyd," The green ninja mindlessly looked up. He would've likely plummeted backwards were it or the fact his jaw was currently all ,but nailed to the ground out of already preexisting shock.
Morro stood about an inch shorter than him, and his pale skin was close to drowning in the abundant grey fabric enveloping his much,much smaller body.
"What the f**k have you done?"
Well from the looks of it he had quite literally just turned them both into children either that or just really, really short people with adolescent bodie-oh f**k he turned them both in children!
"Ah!" Lloyd shouted, smashing his hands against his forehead as his breaths turned labored with panic. "Uh oh- How did, This is bad. What are we gonna do!?" At this point the green ninja could barely keep his footing as he leaned against the now taller bed frame, distress noticeable in every tremble to even Jasper who the blonde could've sworn had begun whining already.
"Why the f**k are you asking me?!" The embarrassing crack and reflected panic in Morro's youthful voice might've been humorous were the blonde not tethering upon the brink of passing out. "You're the one who couldn't keep his stupid hands off some f**king spellbook. Now look where you've gotten us!"
"I...I" The green ninja failed to suffice as an argument as he could only assume 'us' included Jasp-hold on where was that wolf? At that exact moment, the blonde chose to recognize the sound of incessant scratching and turned to see Jasper in the midst of gnashing his fangs into one a loose wooden floor board beneath the window.
"Jasper!" Lloyd shrieked, stumbling on his tiny legs over to the now seemingly mammoth sized animal. "Stop, we're already gonna be dismembered and buried in the backyard." The creative euphemisms for their inevitable demise were truly unceasing.
The wolf refused to listen however, only tightening his deathgrip on the lumber before muttering a soft growl that the blonde quickly took as a warning to step back whether that was the intention or not.
Sharing a side eyed glance with each other. The two teens turned adolescents watched in a mixture of horror and confusion as Jasper braced his back feet in a wide stretch before suddenly yanking on the plank on with effortless vigour.
The sound of a slick cracking noise sliced the room's tense atmosphere in two as Jasper ripped the wooden board clean out of the floor before carelessly tossing it's teeth marked remains at Lloyd and Morro's feet.
A small gasp could be heard and whether it originated from the blonde's mouth or raven's neither was willing to confirm. Not that that mattered because soon enough Jasper had already tore off a second flood board and then another, before finally stopping long enough to bend down and disappear beneath the remaining floor whilst haphazardly directed shots of dirt began sprinting out behind him.
His stress momentarily forgotten, Lloyd looked back and Morro they both shared a confused shrug before one of them finally worked up the effort to gingerly step forward and peer at the mess Jasper had created.
A pitch black hole was formed in the center of the dirt as the sound of rapid digging echoed back into the room like a steel drum.
Suddenly the realization of what Jasper was actually doing hit the boys in unison and with another round of gasps the two were already edging their tiny bodies off the edges of the splintered floor and down onto the barren dirt.
"Should we just….you know?"Lloyd offered gesturing with his small hands toward the narrow hole. Morro looked at him and then the hole. "Well what's worse, potentially dying in an enclosed space or the old man?"
They began arguing over who went first.
"I'm just saying you're smaller so there's less of a chance of you getting stuck." Lloyd tried to reason, much to the former ghost's chagrin.
"I am not small!" The blonde swore he saw Morro about to stomp his foot. "You're just saying that becau-"
At that exact moment their short lived spout was sidelined when Jasper abruptly reappeared back out of the hole and jumped onto the dirt before circling the boys with his much larger body and all ,but shoving them in the direction of the hole with his massive muzzle. Morro was first.
The wind master made his displeasure known by shooting an over the shoulder glance at his fellow prisoner before reluctantly giving in and reluctantly bending down to shimmy into the hole.
And in a matter of seconds his body slid down the first incline into the darkness.
Lloyd swallowed as his turn came. After wasting no time closing his eyes as he tightened his grip on the spell book that he only then realized was still in his grasp, Lloyd all ,but threw himself into the hole in a stunt he considered no less painful than ripping off a bandaid.
The first thing the blonde registered was the heavy dirt smell invading his nostrils as he blindly crawled forward, unintentionally bumping into Morro.
"Watch it!" The former ghost shouted. Through the darkness of the underground both their faces were obscured, but even still Lloyd could feel a strange tenseness in the air as he quickly scrambled backwards into a barrier of fur he could only assume to be Jasper.
The wolf gave another half hearted growl before pushing his muzzle up against Lloyd's small back and moving them all forward in a bizarre trainlike symphony.
The blonde was actually quite thankful to be in the middle, with Jasper behind and Morro infront he at least knew he wasn't getting lost in the smelly endless dark abyss.
Not too long after that thought came and went, Lloyd finally felt his heart flutter in relief at the increasingly bright outline glowing around Morro's hunched silhouette.
He was even more relieved when he felt the dirt gradually begin to incline as the light peaking in became brighter and bright until finally the wind master's form disappeared entirely into a sea of pure white light. As Lloyd quickly followed- erupting himself into the foggy grey atmosphere of the wilderness- he couldn't help ,but be the smallest bit melodramatic in a cheesy show of throwing his arms out like he'd never seen the light of day before.
"We did it!" The green ninja shrieked with cheerfully closed eyes as Jasper finally reared himself above as well. "We're free!" To the blonde's surprise instead of immediately conjuring a snarky reply, Morro simply nodded as the just now perceived trembling within his body began to subside.
The green ninja slowly lowered his arms, suddenly understanding why Morro didn't want to go first.
Another moment of silence passed before the sound of Jasper's exhausted panting seemed to bring everyone back to the present, prompting Morro to turn back to the massive dome shape of mountains surrounding them and the valley.
"So, what now?"
When your pet wolf takes pity on you...
Thanks for reading sorry this one was shorter ,but I just wanted to get this plot point out there because I literally cannot wait to explore child Lloyd and child Morro interactions. Till next time!