A Garden of Flowers and Bones [Lloyd Garmadon x Reader]

Chapter 17: Firing bricks from broken canon and prose

To build a wall so high,
It reaches the heavens in the sky

TW: Implied/Referenced Ableism (unlike last chapter where this took the form of a throwaway line, this is much more detailed, but it's not graphic, per say).

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The conversation between the two had continued as they walked. Blondie had mostly taken up the talking role- not that Y/N minded. She was terrible at continuing conversations, and was happy to add some comments here and there while he weaved the story.

Actually, it was perfect. Y/N didn't feel pressured to egg him on so that the silence was filled. Sure, she prompted him when she was interested and wanted to know more, but it wasn't necessary, not really.

He talked about how his friend Jay was scared of spiders- told a story about how he'd screamed girlishly, and it was only 'Nya' who had killed it to save him. In turn, she left out names as she recounted the tale of Dareth, Thazar and herself in the basement, openly displaying her disgust with Dareth's love for the damned things.

He talked about magic creatures in the Fairie Realm- how the spider she'd seen in the basement was probably nothing like what they had. And in disbelief, she told him he could keep his Nightmare Realm to himself, because she wasn't going there even if he managed to steal her name. To which he teasingly assured that she'd give it to him herself.

If there was one thing she learned from his stories, it was that he truly treasured his friends.

"... and Kai makes jokes about his sister 'malewife-ing' him since he's good at cooking and cleaning and using the loom. I don't think it's a big deal, but Jay gets offended by it. Their arguments can get pretty heated. It doesn't help when Nya gets involved. She likes teasing both of them and makes the situation worse on purpose, so everyone gets angry..."

"Fae trickery."

"If only it were that simple. She likes to say she's nothing like her mom, but she's basically her clone- a clone is an exact copy, if you were wondering," She was wondering, so she was thankful for his quick explanation, "It's better to not get involved but Jay won't stop talking, and since arguing with Kai is like arguing with a brick wall, it never goes anywhere."

"Immovable object meets unstoppable force."

"That's exactly it," Lloyd chuckled, "Normally, they need someone to regulate them."

"Regulate?"

"Control," He supplied, without batting an eye, "Seriously... I love my friends, but they are annoying sometimes- not counting when they nag me, since I'm apparently the 'baby' of the group... whatever that means."

"You're the youngest?"

"Yeah. Nya and Kai are siblings- and their parents are friends of my uncle, so they've been babysitting me ever since I was a changeling."

"Changelin??" Y/N felt her heart almost stop in her chest.

There was a lot of fearmongering about changelings. Ever since Y/N was a young girl, she'd heard the folktales about children being stolen from their cribs and swapped out for human children. It had been a long, long time since she'd heard the term. Perhaps about eleven or so years... talk of it died down.

The biggest supernatural concern among the people of Opia was Fey- monsters with little sentience who poached the citizens. The fear of intelligent Fae had not come to them for just shy of half a century.

Y/N could remember Redkeep and the stories told of changelings when she was a child. Back when it all seemed so much more real- a closer threat breathing down her neck. Her mother would warn her about being stolen away. Her dad would stay up at night at the door, as if waiting for someone to come in and snatch them away. He had a friend who was cursed by a Wild Fae a long time ago.