The Imperial Battle II: The Emperor of Ninjago

Chapter 32. The Labyrinth of Secrets

The next morning, much to Kai's fortune, he awoke before Lloyd for once, although he did so very early. Remembering what he had been requested the previous night, he gently approached Lloyd, staying as quiet as he could. He was to wake him up and ask/insist he was carried for a certain portion of the journey of the day.

And it wasn't like Lloyd wasn't going to blow up when he asked that, because he thought he was perfectly fine and strong as ever.

Therefore, Kai didn't rush to wake Lloyd up, but took the opportunity to increase his chances of living after the question by performing one of his usual praying rituals. He got onto his knees in front of Lloyd and bowed to him three times before clasping his hands together and praying to the First Spinjitzu Master.

'Good and gracious Spinjitzu Master, please have your grandson wake up in a good mood. Thank you.'

Kai separated his hands and bowed to his prince once more, his forehead touching the ground, and then proceeded to start waking Lloyd up. In theory, he could've gone to get ice cold water from the stream and dropped some on Lloyd's face, but he didn't have being murdered on his bucket list, so he scrapped the idea. He had to be as gentle and pleasant as possible, so he went and grabbed a little blade of grass from outside. Coming back, he took a seat and carefully brought the thin blade of grass down to gingerly caress the tip of Lloyd's nose. He let it travel down to the underneath of his nose, which finally seemed to have an effect on the prince. He wrinkled his nose and made a small and useless swat with his hand.

Kai let out a quiet chuckle, watching how his sleepy expression grew— irritated?

"Stop it, you dumb block of cheese," Lloyd mumbled annoyedly, his eyes still closed. He seemed uncommonly tired— again.

'Thanks for nothing, Lloyd's grandfather.'

"Wakey, wakey, Princey," Kai said, now stroking Lloyd's cheek in an attempt to salvage the situation. "We need to go tomb-hunting."

Lloyd sighed deeply and cracked his eyelids open. "Fine..." He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

Kai fidgeted a little, giving his words one more moment of consideration. "So... Lloydie..." he began, gently sweating up. "I was thinking... I mean... how is your leg?"

Lloyd yawned. "It's fine."

"Okay..." Kai nodded. "Anyway... just to be sure, should I... and I want to stress that this is coming entirely from me and not Wu or anything. Like what? That would be crazy and super unrealistic. But anyway... should I carry you for toda... part... a few hours of today?" He knew from the look on Lloyd's face that whatever he was going to say wasn't going to be 'yes'.

Lloyd stared him in the soul. "Wu set you up for this, didn't he?"

Kai blinked. "Er..."

"He did," Lloyd concluded and clumsily stood up, laying most of his body weight on his uninjured leg.

"Wh-Where are you going?" Kai asked.

"I'm going to tell Wu he's being overbearing again for no valid reason!"

Kai could see the disappointed look Wu's face would bear if Lloyd managed to reach him and throw a princely tantrum.

"Lloyd, wait!" He exclaimed, scrambling up to stop the blond. "Listen—"

"No, I'm fine, I can walk—"

"Lloyd, you fell twice yesterday, not to mention had your leg twisted and tugged by an aggressive vine. And when Wu did as much as moved it yesterday, you were gritting your teeth and groaning in pain. You were five miles away from fine, and that hasn't magically changed overnight," Kai reasoned.