Out of Time // Ninjago Halloween Special 2018

Chapter 1 - 2015

The picture above was drawn by ninjagofangirl19 for this story 😍. I still need to find a way to make it into a cover but isn't it amazing?!

This chapter is the one from the sneak peek, but I've made a few small changes/edits.

Chapter 1 - 2015

"Excuse me, Miss." I heard a voice call out to me as I was watching the red paper lantern disappear into the sky. "Would you happen to know which way leads back to Ignacia?"

I looked around in surprise - I had not expected anyone else to be up here - and, through the eerie mist, I could make out something, or rather someone, slowly approaching me.

Just like every year on the evening of the Day of the Departed, I had climbed the small hill just outside of Ignacia to light a sky lantern.

Not many other people liked coming up here in a foggy night such as this one – especially as, as the name suggests, Haunted Hill is considered to be a cursed place. But for me, it held some wonderful memories.

When we were younger, our parents had always taken us, my brother and I, up here on this very eve, to perform the same ritual in honour of our ancestors.

I even kept the picture dad took of us children that one year when mum couldn't join us on my nightstand, to remind me of happier times – those time before, two years ago, mum and dad had been killed in a car crash, caused by a drunk driver.

It happened in a cold and dark winter night; father was collecting mum from her second job at a restaurant when the other driver wanted to overtake them, but lost control on the icy road and crashed into their car. Ironically, it was one of the patrons our mother had served at the restaurant earlier that night. If only she had known that idiot was still going to drive...

Afterwards, we had found out that the family business had been in a lot more trouble than our hardworking parents had told us. Even the compensation we received wasn't enough to cover all our debts, and Kai and I had been forced to sell the Four Weapons blacksmith shop that had been a part of my family for many generations.

At least they let us stay together, so we were now living in a small apartment in town, very close to our school.

Not wanting to be constantly reminded of all that we had lost, Kai had stopped following all those family traditions we used to have, including this one.

But I still remembered dad's telling us about the Realms coming together during this very day and night, and that our ancestors in the Departed Realm can see the lights we light up in honour of them.

Kai didn't even know that I still came up here, and he probably would not have approved of me being all alone in this mysterious place, especially as it was already getting dark.

Well, as it turned out, I was not completely on my own.

"Good evening." A boy - or maybe a young man, it was not that easy to tell in the dim light - came walking towards me.

"I was so glad when I saw the light of your lantern." He smiled at me. "I-I always come up here to watch the Day of the Departed festival but there isn't much of a view tonight. And I must have somehow lost my way, because I couldn't even see a single light from the town or the palace, and I was really worried I'd have to stay up here over night and..."

As he kept talking and talking, I finally got to take a closer look at him. He looked to be about the same age as myself, only slightly taller and quite skinny. He had messy auburn hair and a handsome face with lots of freckles. But his most distinctive feature were his piercing deep blue eyes that were glistening in the dark like a pair of sapphires.