The Forgotten Son

Following the trail

Lloyd quickly grabbed a map of Ninjago hoping to narrow down places where the Hall could be based on the clues left behind but that only narrowed it down to two places an unexplored section of the mines under Shintaro or a hidden cavern in Hiroshi's Labyrinth.

"Couldn't he have made it easy and just put the hall in the Passageway of Elders," Lloyd grumbled as he looked the map over again hoping that he'd missed something the first time around he even pulled out a map of old Ninjago around the time his uncle was still around.

This time it was either Hiroshi's Labyrinth or Primordial Zai both of which where bad places to look since they were both extremely expansive places to look.

Lloyd closed the guide before hiding it under a loose floorboard before heading to do the sunrise exercises that Wu demanded they do every morning since he'd worked on finding the Hall of Elementals the entire night.

Lloyd masked his tiredness and went to the training grounds and did the sunrise exercises and an hour of training and sparing before going back to his research.

"Is everything okay with Lloyd?" Nya asked

"He's been on the trail of trying to learn about his uncle and what happened to him.  But the consensus says that one day he left Ninjago for some place called Hyrule only to never be seen again, " Kai answered giving his sister a look.

"What?" Jay shouted, "after everything Sensei Wu said yesterday about him".

"Jay we all know that Wu is a little biased along with Garmadon. Let Lloyd  come to his own conclusion.  But Kai what did you find out about him during your trip yesterday?" Zane inquired

"His uncle, Link, was extremely well respected and liked by everyone in Ninjago except for Chen because Link stopped Chen for the longest time from having any sway over Garmadon or the Serpentine," Kai told the others

"And for good reason look at what happened when he left," Cole coldly replied with a glare gesturing to everything that they had to deal with when he left Ninjago.

"He was falsely imprisoned in Hyrule by a lord who got help from Chen in not only arresting him but keeping him there for the long haul, " Lloyd who'd reentered the courtyard said

"What?" The ninja plus Garmadon and Wu, who'd come to check on the ninja, asked in stunned disbelief.

"Here," Lloyd said handing over the letters  of correspondence between Chen and Lord Dagnis.

Everyone read each letter and you could see the shift in attitude in the group, but none looked more outraged than Garmadon since he and Link had been extremely close back before he vanished.

"If Chen wasn't dead already I'd hunt him down and kill him myself," Garmadon growled causing everyone to slowly back away from the raging Garmadon.

"Look I know that you hate him Wu but he couldn't get back home because of these two. Now excuse me I'll be in my room researching where the Hall of Elementals is if anyone needs me," Lloyd said leaving having given his Uncle Wu proof that Uncle Link hadn't just abandoned all of Ninjago to continue looking for the Hall of Elementals. Wherever in Ninjago it may be.

Five minutes after returning to his room a scratching noise was heard on a secret panel Lloyd had hidden in his room for one reason and one reason only.

Opening it with a wide grin a black wolf with fur so dark it was almost green entered the room. "Hey Wolfie," Lloyd said, he was four when he first met this wolf so sue him if his name was childish.

Wolfie was more of a constant in his life even more so than the other ninja given that they had separated on multiple occasions for various reasons over the years. Which was saying something since Wolfie was still a wild wolf and usually didn't stick around for long unless he needed medical attention or food like back when he was in Darklys and when he'd been kicked out.

Lloyd quickly wrapped his arms around Wolfie's body bringing the wolf in for a hug which the wolf returned as best as he could. Before Lloyd knew it he'd fallen asleep in the wolf's embrace.

Twilight looked at Lloyd as he slept. It was painful watching the kid suffer so much only to gain so little in return. Ever since Lloyd was sent to Darklys by his so called mother he took up the mantle of protector once again when First pleaded him to do so since he'd done well with Wild.

Twilight looked over at the mess of papers around Lloyd's room. With a sigh Twilight transformed back into his Hylian self picked Lloyd up of the floor placing him in his bed before cleaning up the mess. Upon reading everything he saw that Lloyd was looking for the Hall of Elementals which laid in the far side of Hiroshi's Labyrinth. Twilight circled the location on the map of Ninjago before transforming back into Wolfie, seemed like he could never escape that nickname no matter what he did though unlike Wild, Lloyd had an excuse.

Deciding to say until Lloyd woke back up Twilight hopped onto the bed and cuddled close to Lloyd offering what little comfort he could to the kid as Lloyd burrowed himself into his fur. Like uncle like nephew.