We Hope Your Rules And Wisdom Choke You

Chapter 10: Before your father hears us Pt1

Hard stone. Stabbing vines. Damp air. Dust in his eyes. Grease in his hair. Flaking mud on his pants. No food in his stomach.

There were so many reasons as to why Lloyd could not sleep, but right now, none of those seemed quite right.

He was exhausted, that was for certain. He'd wandered for miles upon miles in those winding tunnels, desperately searching for an escape. When Lloyd finally found the exit, by pure chance, he'd nearly sobbed in joy.

So yeah, he was absolutely exhausted- but despite this, he still could not sleep.

Eyes heavy, he rolled staggeringly onto his side. Vine crunched under his shoulder, digging into his bicep. He reluctantly returns to laying on his back.

After escaping the tunnels, he'd returned to the room from before, the one thick with vines yet empty all the same. Admittedly, it wasn't Lloyds' brightest idea- deciding to sleep in the one room with the outrageously uncomfortable floor- but he'd made the decision for a good reason.

His father.

How could Lloyd face him again after the embarrassing little tantrum he threw? Yelling at his father and then storming off, what was he thinking? And so, in desperation to avoid his father out of pure shame, he'd tucked himself away in the corner of the closest room to him.

Sure, maybe it wasn't very wise to pick the one room that Garmadon knew the location of, but if anything it was ingenious! He'd suspect nothing.

If you could not already tell, Lloyd was going delirious with exhaustion.

So he lays there, defeated and too tired to move. He lays in wait for the sweet release of slumber to take hold of him.

It doesn't come.

So eventually, his mind wanders. It does that thing it does, when you're trying to sleep but you can't stop thinking. Whether it be something embarrassing you did as a kid, or something you wish you'd said as a response in an argument. His mind wanders.

His friends.

Lloyd missed his friends. They had only been apart for a few days, which was nothing compared to the five months he'd gone no-contact, but still. He guesses it was the circumstances that mattered.

Strangely enough, Starfarer drifts into his mind.

Starfarer... ever since he could remember, it was his favourite comic. As a kid, he'd read it under torchlight, under the covers in their shared bunk. He'd owned every copy, spare for the newest at the time of his... age up? Rapid puberty? After that, he'd been so caught up in being the green ninja that he'd refused to get back into Starfarer.

That didn't last long. Once his golden powers were taken from him, he'd very quickly gotten back into starfarer. Safe to say, Starfarer is a big comfort to him.

He feels cotton behind his eyes. It's working.

Wu.

The thought of him made Lloyds' face sour. But it also saddened him. Recently, his relationship with his uncle had deteriorated, becoming less uncle-nephew, even less master-student. It was as if they were like strangers.

Yet the thought also comforted him. Wu did not respect him. He was so single-minded and selfish, Lloyd is surprised he didn't realise it sooner. Countless times, Ninjago had nearly been destroyed due to Wu's actions. Aspheera, Morro and the Preeminent, even Garmadon had become evil due to Wu's actions. If some kind of dimension-ending catastrophe emerges in the future, Lloyd won't be too shocked when Wu utters "I haven't been completely honest with you."

A headache begins to form at his temple when a familiar name bombarded his thoughts.

Harumi.

For so long he'd spent his time scouring the earth for her. Every town, city, and ruin he'd flipped upside down to find her, and yet now he was here, stuck on the Dark Island with no way of getting back to his pointless search.