We Hope Your Rules And Wisdom Choke You

Chapter 20: And wisdom

The monastery, even from so high up, was vastly impressive. It was small, not nearly as large as the buildings that resided within Ninjago City, but it's architecture was something to behold. From the very walls of the monastery, to the individually and lovingly placed roof tiles, to the golden accents decorating the towering gates, it screamed importance, peace. Even the twisting golden dragons that decorated the very floors added so much to the Monastery of spinjitzu.

But he wasn't here to appreciate the view. Quite the opposite, actually.

From where he leant against the cherry parapet, he could see three figures excitedly waving at him from below, one red, one white, and one adorning the armour of a samurai: His friends. He doesn't wave back at them, simply securing the spear of Concentration awkwardly in his shoulder-sword scabbard. It tussled around a little, but he payed no mind to it; it wouldn't be staying in there for long, anyways.

As The Bounty became fully stationary above the monastery walls, he prepared a rope, tying it to the edge of The Bounty before throwing it down. It hung just above the ground, right over the mouth of the dragon engraved in the pavement. His friends gathered near where it hung, and glanced up at him excitedly.

His hands press against the railing. With a glance behind him, staring silently at the mess spread across the deck of the bounty, he turns away and leaps off the edge.

Blisters burn onto his hands as Lloyd slides down the rope, ground growing nearer at an almost worrying pace, but he does not care for the meaningless injuries anymore. He could heal them in an instant with the ever fanning flame of his heritage.

Overconfidence was a lighthouse, and Lloyd is the moth.

His descent slows as the ground is just a few feet away from him, and he releases the rope from his raw grip.

He faces his friends. He looks normal, as normal as a ninja can, at least. His gi is fresh and clean, orderly and untainted by stains of injuries and battles.

The team in front of him are ecstatic with solace and joy, and Kai bounds up to him, arms wrapping tightly over his shoulders.

The fire ninja sighs, and it fades into a laugh, "You're okay!" He can hear the smile on his face, stretching widely across his face. His arms squeeze at Lloyd, and he absent mindedly wraps a single arm loosely over his brothers back, feeling it bump up and down as he laughs.

"You're okay!" Kai repeats, as if he couldn't believe it. Somehow his hug grows tighter, and Lloyds breath halts in his chest. A set of cold arms thud around the two shortly after, squeezing them tightly.

"It is good to see you, Lloyd," Zane adds, voice fond as his hand pats his shoulder from where it wrapped around them.

He feels another cold hand press firmly against his shoulder, and from the corner of his eyes he sees Pixal. She's lagging behind, not feeling welcome in the group hug, but she smiles, face melting with relief and screaming what she doesn't say: "Glad to see you back.". He doesn't smile back.

Kai pushes away from the embrace as quickly as he initiated it, knocking Zane back as well as he stood with both hands holding his shoulders, jostling him around passive-aggressively as his eyes scanned the flaxen-haired boy for injuries.

"You are okay, right? It wasn't a trap after all?" He forcefully turns Lloyd a little, glancing over his shoulder and still not seeing any injuries. He pauses for a second, wincing, "Was Harumi there?"

Zanes face furrows in concern from where he stood.

He rips his gaze away from the nindroid and purses his lips into a smile. "Woah, one question at a time, Kai. I'm fine." He decidedly ignores the other questions for now.