"Hey... hey..."
...
"OI WAKE UP."
I shot awake, going to sit up but failing before realising that I was still in the green ninja's arms. I glanced up at him with a gaping, bewildered expression while he hysterically giggled.
"Ah... sorry," he wiped under an eye. "I couldn't help myself."
Still lost in the tangles of sleep, I could only stare at him. Mind blank. No thoughts head empty.
"What?"
"We're here," he chuckled, nodding at something in front of him. I turned my head to follow his gaze and gasped.
Pressed up against the foot of a mountain range and encompassed by the towering forest lay the most magnificent monastery that I'd ever seen.
A striking red in colour, the temple was preceded by a large pond. A driveway curled around said pond and a number of cars sat before the entrance. The temple itself had red columns lining the front and dark rooftops that curled in the traditional tiered style.
What looked to be long hallways extended out from either side of the main building, leading into seperate wings that went deeper into the forest.
"This is where you live?!" I gushed in awe. "Oh, my god, and here I was thinking that my house was cool because it has a flat roof!"
"Live, practise, train the new monks," he listed off. "It's a huge job to clean, though. Seriously - all the rooms, the garden, the onsen-"
"Alright, we get it, Cinderella," I snorted, pushing his cheek away. He made a sound of protest.
He walked us up the entrance stairs while I took in the carefully sculptured architecture. Carved dragons and demon-looking figures curled up one of the columns, painstakingly detailed.
The green ninja noticed me staring.
"Each of those columns hold a prophecy," he stopped by one so I could run my fingers down the tiny details. Some of the sharper edges had gone smooth with age. "Only a handful have actually be deciphered or fulfilled. This one's the prophecy about the green ninja. We're yet to fully understand it, though."
"How can you tell?" I asked quietly, staring at the figures but not being able to pick out a single coherent thing.
"It's... a bit of a long process," he said with a nervous laugh. "I'll tell you about it later."
"Promise?" I glanced up at him, finally tearing my eyes from the stunning sculpture work. He caught my eyes and they squinted with a smile.
"Promise."
So he expects to see me again? Just who does he think he is? Who does he think I am? How can he be so sure that I'll be back here? I thought the whole thing about having the barrier was to keep unwanted people out.
What was he to me? And the tugging - I was just joking about being pulled together by fate before, but what if I had brushed off as a joke was correct?
Then what about Lloyd Garmadon? How does he fit into all this?
Despite everything I now knew about him, I didn't want to feel as if I was leading him on.
He entered the temple and inside it was nothing like I had expected. Clearly it had been recently refurbished to be more home-like, with framed photos on the walls. The green ninja was walking too fast for me to see them but I was sure that I caught a glimpse of blond.
We walked down the large hallway to the left, passing a few people in white robes with shaved heads. They stared at me curiously and I pretended I didn't notice, gazing out a window that took up the whole side of the hallway. It looked out into a gorgeously-tended to garden. Springs, sand, bamboo, cherry blossoms, Buddha statues, the whole shebang.
"This place is so pretty," I hummed, placing my head back against his chest when my neck began to ache. I couldn't imagine living here and seeing all this beauty everyday. I was speechless.
He made a soft sound of acknowledgement. We ended up in the right wing and entered a room that was right at the entrance. It was clearly a medical bay, the smell of sterilisation making my nose itch. A number of cots sat waiting in the far side of the room. A figure in smart clothing was tending to the cupboards, retrieving items that he seemed to need.
