What in the realms was this thing?!

Lloyd jerked back to avoid the giant snapping mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. It was some kind of plant monster. Its stalk had red eyes bulging out of it about a third of the way down and its roots acted more like tentacles than roots. Only three roots appeared to be buried in the ground to anchor it down.

Dodging another lunge, Lloyd cursed that he only had his knives on him. He hadn't been able to conceal his swords properly, so he'd left them behind. The extra reach of his swords would be really useful right now. None of the locals had mentioned any plant monsters!

The creature let out a snarl and this time when Lloyd tried to dodge the attack, something wrapped around his leg and yanked him to the ground. He grunted at the impact and looked down to see one of the vine roots wrapped around his leg. Another vine used his moment of surprise to trap his left arm. Crap. When he glanced up, rows of teeth were inches from his face. His powers would-

The chomp never came though.

Before he could even activate his powers, the monster jerked backwards with a screech. As its mouth thrashed, Lloyd got another look at its stalk and was startled to see the stalk had been slashed in half right through its eyes. The monster disintegrated into black smoke.

"Are you okay?"

Lloyd blinked up at the girl that had suddenly appeared above him. She looked about his age, long blonde hair that was up in a ponytail and held with a butterfly pin. She was wearing a more armored version of a traditional kimono with a skirt that ended at her knees and big sleeves that ended at her elbows. The kimono was a sage green with white and pink flowers on the edges and a golden obi sash. It was a strange outfit to be wearing just running around, girls usually only pulled them out for special occasions, if at all. The girl also had a quiver and bow as well as a katana, which was probably what she'd used to slash the monster. Yet another strange bunch of things to be walking around with, most civilians weren't strolling down the street with weapons like that. Her blue eyes were bright with concern as she gazed down at him.

She was really pretty.

Wait, crap, no. Lloyd shook his head in an attempt to center himself. "Um, I'm fine. Thanks."

"Oh, good," the girl said, sounding relieved. She sheathed her katana. "What are you doing out here?"

Lloyd stood up, dusting off the dirt. "I, um, didn't mean to be. I think I might be lost?" He didn't know where he was so that counted as lost.

"Lost?" the girl repeated, confused. "How? From where? The only village around here is Haven's Gate and I've never seen you before." Her eyes widened. "Don't tell me you've been travelling by yourself?! It's dangerous to be out here alone!"

Haven's Gate? He'd never heard of the village. It certainly wasn't the name of the town he'd just been in. Attempting to stall and cover his confusion Lloyd pointed out, "I mean, you're out here alone."

"She's not alone, actually."

Lloyd spun around to find himself at the end of a different blade. This katana was being wielded by a boy with spiky red hair who also looked roughly Lloyd's age, maybe a little older. The boy was, similar to the girl, unusually armed and armored. His outfit reminded Lloyd a lot of the ninja's own gi, though there were enough differences that Lloyd couldn't accuse the boy of copying them. The gi itself was black with silver detail while the sash tied around his hips and the belts on his pants and sleeves were red. The guy looked like someone who knew how to use the weapon he was currently pointing at Lloyd.

Not wanting to start a fight, Lloyd raised his hands in surrender. It wasn't that he didn't think he could take the guy, but these people didn't seem like enemies. The dude seemed a bit trigger happy, but maybe Lloyd had unknowingly done something wrong? "Er, sorry if I'm- intruding on your land or something."

The redhead's eyes narrowed further. "Is that supposed to be some kind of joke?"

"What? No," Lloyd rushed to assure. "I just-"

"Zeo," the girl interrupted, stepping past Lloyd and pushing the boy's katana down. "Don't go around sticking your katana out at random people."

"What?" Zeo bristled. "I'm not- you're the stupid one for sheathing your blade in front of an obviously suspicious stranger." His hostile gaze shifted back to Lloyd. "What even are those clothes?"

Lloyd glanced down at his clothes. "Um, it's a hoodie?" He wasn't the one wearing weird clothes here.

Zeo rolled his eyes. "Yes, I can see the hood. I mean the style, the way it's made. And that's really the least suspicious thing about you." He tried to raise his blade again, but the girl batted it down again.

"He seems alright to me," the girl shrugged.

"How could you possibly know that?" Zeo shot back. "You only just laid eyes on him, like, thirty seconds ago. For all we knew, he's a jaakuna spy."

"I'm, um, not a spy," Lloyd informed them, feeling the need to defend himself. "I don't even know what a 'jaakuna' is."

Zeo raised an eyebrow. "Okay," he admitted to the girl, "so he does seem too stupid to be a spy." Hey! Lloyd would be more offended if he weren't so confused. "Did he, like, hit his head when he fell or…?"

"This is Ninjago, right?" Lloyd checked. Had he fallen into another realm somehow without noticing? Because none of this was making sense.

"Yeah," the girl confirmed, puzzled. "Where did you think you were?"

"No, I thought I was in Ninjago," Lloyd clarified. "I just- where exactly is this? Like, what part of Ninjago?" This clearly wasn't where he'd been, and he didn't recognize it at all.

"Um, western Ninjago," the girl answered. "We're near Haven's Gate and-"

"Western Ninjago?!" Lloyd yelped, confusion deepening. He'd been in eastern Ninjago before. To now be in someplace that could be considered west Ninjago… he'd have to be at least a thousand miles westward from where he'd been. How was that possible? "But I was in the east, like, ten minutes ago."

"Ari…" Zeo whispered warningly to the girl, his expression clearly conveying he thought Lloyd was crazy. Which was honestly fair at this point.

"The East?" supposedly Ari repeated, tilting her head. "You mean like…" her eyes sparkled, "the other half of Ninjago?"

"Don't be stupid, Ari," Zeo scoffed. "Of course he doesn't mean it like that. There's no way."

"But the Spinning Forest is right there," Ari reasoned, gesturing to the forest Lloyd had just left.

"I thought it was called the Winding Wood," Lloyd said, trying to piece together what was happening in his head. But he didn't think he had enough pieces because he couldn't think of any logical explanations.

"I've never heard it called that…" Ari pondered thoughtfully.

"Neither have I," Zeo agreed aggressively. "Besides, the forest doesn't work. It hasn't worked in ages."

"The forest was supposed to do something?" Lloyd asked.

Ari nodded. "It was once able to transport people from one side of Ninjago to the other. There's an identical twin forest in eastern Ninjago that connects with this one. The stories make it sound like you are technically in both at the same time and then when you step out you either come out on one side of Ninjago or the other. People used to use it to flee the Overlord, but it stopped working a little after Ninjago split."

"Wait." Lloyd's eyes got huge as the puzzle suddenly slammed together to create an impossible answer. "Is this the Dark Island?!" Oh no, had he really gone crazy? Was it the lack of sleep? Because there was no way this was real, right?

"Uh, no," Zeo frowned. "Does this look like an island to you?"

But it was the Dark Island, wasn't it. Because the Dark Island was Ninjago. Of course if these people were from the island (the continent really), they'd just consider it Ninjago but-

"But, the Dark- I mean, the Overlord side of Ninjago doesn't have people living on it," Lloyd protested. If it did the implications were… "No one goes there, it's all- evil and stuff." There had been a few exploration teams that had investigated the edge of the island, but it had been deemed too dangerous to be worth it. Most people were too scared of the Dark Island to even attempt. And it was very out of the way with the ocean between them.

Zeo rolled his eyes. "For all his faults, the First Master didn't make half the world inherently evil." Wait, did these people not like his grandfather? "Things were fine here before the Overlord came."

Well, yeah, maybe he'd unconsciously known that before, he'd just never really thought about it. It made sense that people would have lived on the Dark Island at one point but… His grandfather wouldn't have just- abandoned loads of people when he submerged the island. And if that were true, then these people should have been frozen in time like everything else on the island. That would explain their clothing, but-

"But… you should be speaking ancient Ninjargon then," Lloyd deduced. "We wouldn't be able to understand each other if you were. Modern Ninjargon is way different." Lloyd could read ancient Ninjargon fine enough thanks to the lessons with his mom, but he wasn't fluent. And he'd almost never heard it spoken aloud.

"I agree," Zeo growled. "Another point of suspicion against you. You really aren't making a good case for yourself here."

"Maybe we should just take him to the village for now," Ari suggested. "The elders will have a better idea of what is going on."

"You want to take him home?" Zeo gasped, outraged.

"Well, what were you going to do with him anyways?" Ari shrugged. "You weren't going to kill him when you know almost nothing about him, and you weren't going to just let him go either."

Zeo glared at her for a second, then sheathed his katana, grumbling under his breath.

Nodding in approval, Ari turned back to Lloyd. "I suppose we should introduce ourselves properly. I'm Akari and the growly one is my cousin, Zeo." The redhead growled unhappily beside her. "What's your name?"

"Er, Lloyd," Lloyd told them, feeling like his basic understanding of the world was unraveling.

"Well, Lloyd," Akari said cheerily. "Let's head back to my village. Our elders will be able to help. Probably. They're our best option at the moment."

Lloyd was not going to make it back to the Bounty before the others woke up. Not even close. And he couldn't even call them to explain what was going on, there was zero cell service over here. Kai was going to kill him.