NINJAGO: The Fray Of Crows

CHAPTER THREE - Finding Nya

Lloyd filled Master Wu's teapot with water and put Shimu inside. He swam around, then popped up and hung on the rim of the pot with a big smile across his face. Lloyd then picked up the teapot, carrying it in both his hands while he put the scroll he found under his arm and walked outside onto the Bounty's deck.

He set Shimu in the teapot on top of a crate while he looked at the green chest he and Pixal picked up again. Lloyd unraveled the scroll in his hands, glancing at the pictures, and then he opened the chest to look at the Vengestone katana-mace inside.

Lloyd looked back at the scroll, then tilted his head. The weapon on the scroll was different to the one in the chest. The bottom end of the scroll happened to slip out of his hand, revealing a small little symbol inked in the corner.

"Huh?" Lloyd muttered, then he lifted his gaze to the inside of the chest lid, finding that the odd symbols matched. "Hmm..."

"What's going on, Lloyd?" Pixal asked as she walked up, noticing the teapot sitting on the crate. "Why is Sensei Wu's teapot out here?"

"Look at this!" Lloyd said excitedly, thrusting the scroll into Pixal's face, particularly the part with the symbol. "They match!"

Pixal took the scroll from Lloyd and read it, then she looked at the chest.

"I wonder, what does this mean?" Pixal asked.

"I'm not so sure, but I think that whoever figured out how to forge Vengestone wanted to keep the weapons hidden away, or at least something hidden away," replied Lloyd. "I wonder how Wu ended up with the scroll."

"I am uncertain, this one appears to be new," admitted Pixal. "Or actually, remarkably old, it's made from extinct Wolfwood paper."

"So there's been a way to forge Vengestone for years?" Lloyd asked, then frowned. "That makes me feel even worse for not believing Nya..."

"You are strong-rooted with logical thought, Lloyd, it is not your fault for trusting facts over words," Pixal said. "But if this is true, then we should hurry to find Nya and the others before they end up in trouble."

Lloyd nodded, then he looked over at the teapot before calmly heading to it and picking it up.

"We need to find where he came from, too." he said, then tilted the pot to show Pixal, unexpectedly making Shimu jump up to the rim.

"Cute! Where did you find him?"

"He was inside Master Wu's chambers, hiding behind that same scroll, actually," Lloyd said, giving Shimu a tiny pet on the head. "I think we picked him up back on Crestfall when we got the chest."

"He is not a normal axolotl, his coloration indicates that he's indigienous to the southern shores of Trite," responded Pixal, then she proceeded to display a holographic map in front of them. "Crestfall is a north-eastern Island, what would he be doing there?"

Lloyd shrugged.

"I don't know, but what I do know is that when I was there on Crestfall, there was something off about the place," Lloyd said, looking down at the goofy salamander. "The trees looked like they were dying, like something was taking the life from them."

"Perhaps it was the pits all across the Islands, from my aerial view, there was at least one ditch for each Island. Having so many of them in such a close radius may have caused strain on the plantlife because they are also brimming with Vengestone," Pixal said, highlighting on her map where there were pitfalls for Lloyd. "It could've been that same reason why a southern axolotl was swimming northbound."

Lloyd looked at the map, then noticed a small little graphic that looked similar to a cage.

"What's that, Pixal?" he asked.