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Your breath hitches as you stare across the flat concrete ground spreading miles in every direction.
There were no buildings in sight and also no greenery or water anywhere.
You turn around, doing a full three-sixty before walking in a random direction, however the moment you do, everything begins to shake, the floor shatters into spiderweb looking cracks before shattering into a black abyss underneath you. Your head begins to pound and the floor opens, dropping you into the darkness—
—You wake up with a gasp. Your back is cold, palms sweaty, your forehead beaded with sweat. The blanket on your lower half suddenly feels too tight around your legs and the room suddenly too hot, the walls appear to beat like a heart in the edges of your vision.
All of the training that you had with your elemental power suddenly seems to disappear as the vibrations from the things around you invade your head, the constant buzz making you nauseous.
You need to take a walk.
The Monastery is quiet around this time of night, aside from Jay’s loud, insufferable snoring coming from down the corridor. And because of Mr. Frohicky’s amazing cleaning skills, it’s not hard to walk silently on the normally creaky wooden floor.
Zane never tended to sleep but he remained downstairs building things for the team, while Cole on the other hand tended to sleep like a rock. So naturally, you weren’t worried as you crept past their rooms and out the sliding Monastery door.
The 2 AM wind hits you like a truck, biting at your exposed skin and sending a chill down your spine. You cross your arms across your chest and walk to the Monastery’s front gate.
Your hand is on the handle when a voice calls out from behind you.
“Hey, Y/N? What are you doing?” Lloyd asks, jumping down from the Monastery roof and landing next to you.
“What are you doing?” You fire back, re-crossing your arms over your body.
“It’s 2 o’clock in the morning.”
“And?”
“It’s late.”
“Okay.”
“Why are you awake?” he asks.
“Why are you awake?” You ask back.
“Are you copying me?”
“No.”
Lloyd exhales a sigh. “Go back to sleep.”
“You go back to sleep.”
“I was never asleep.” Lloyd says.
That makes you pause and you take a beat before responding.
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t.” Lloyd says.
“Why not? Bad dream or something?” You ask.
Lloyd doesn’t respond, which gives you your answer.
“Yea, me too.” You mumble. You turn back to the gate and creak it open.
“Wait, where are you going?” Lloyd asks.
“I’m going on a walk.”
“At night?”
“Yep.”
“Okay, then I’m coming with you.” Lloyd says, holding the door as you step through it. He makes sure it shuts behind the two of you.
“Okay, then.”
“Where do you wanna walk to?” Lloyd asks.
“Anywhere.” You say.
You start walking, not waiting for him to catch up and he quickly hurries to follow in step with you.
“You seem like you’re in a bad mood.” Lloyd says, kicking a rock.
“Really? What gave it away?” You mumble.
“Did something happen?”
“No.”
“Then why are you in a mood?”
“I just had a bad dream, okay?”
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
“Not now, Lloyd.”
“Okay, sorry.”
After that, you two walk in silence. Lloyd continues to relentlessly kick a rock down the path. You keep your arms crossed across your chest, trying to keep out the cold, and the sounds around you.
However, the nausea creeps up the back of your throat and you can’t swallow it down anymore. You stop walking and crouch next to a bush on your right, vomiting bile into the dirt.
Lloyd pats your shoulder. “It’s okay, just get it out.”
Lloyd keeps his hand on your shoulder as he stands next to you. You cough, the bitter burn lingering in the back of your throat. The ground trembles for a moment before settling.
“Just breathe.” Lloyd says again.
You exhale a long sigh and stand back up. “I’m fine, just a little dizzy.” You say, shrugging Lloyd’s hand off of your shoulder and continuing to walk down the path.
Lloyd shakes his head and walks after you. Stubborn: that was the only word that he knew that could be used to describe you, he was well aware of that.
You weren’t gonna tell him anything if you didn’t want to.
There was no point in pushing anyways.
After walking for about ten minutes you and Lloyd some across a river. You walk over and sit down on the bank next to it and Lloyd follows and sits next to you. Neither of you say anything for a moment but eventually Lloyd speaks.
“What did you dream about?” He asks.
You don’t respond, allowing the river's water to speak for a moment before you finally open your mouth and respond.
“The world was empty, and when I went to explore it shattered, I fell into a void.” You say.
You extend your legs in front of you and lay back on the dirt and sand. Lloyd watches you but doesn’t do the same.
“Why?” he asks.
“Why what?” You ask.
“That has to mean something, right?” Lloyd continues.
“What has to mean something?” You ask, glancing at him.
“The dream— it has to mean something.” Lloyd mumbles.
“Not all dreams mean something, y’know.” You huff.
“But what if it does?” Lloyd says.
“Lloyd, listen, if it means something, it means something bad. The ground opened under me and I fell into the abyss. That’s not good.” You say.
Lloyd doesn’t say anything for a moment before speaking.
“Y/N, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” Lloyd says.
You look over at him and sit back up.
“Yea, what?”
“Ever since the ritual of the Green Ninja, I hear everything. I asked the Arc Dragon of Life in the Whispering Wood if I could turn it off, but she said that I can’t. But you feel the world around you too, you listen to it, but you don’t seem bothered by it at all, so how do you do it?” Lloyd asks.
You look over at him. “How do I do what? Not seem bothered?” You ask.
“Yea, you just don’t react, you ignore it, I need to know how. Everything around me is just too loud.” Lloyd says.
You consider him for a moment, pondering his statement, not knowing how to respond. Lloyd continues.
“You seem so controlled, and the Arc Dragon told me that if it became too much, someone I knew would help me, I wasn’t sure if you could help me or not, so I figured that I’d just ask anyway.”
You pause for a moment before speaking.
“You’re wrong, you can’t stop the noise, you just learn to ignore it.” You say.
You pick up a small rock next to you and toss it into the river.
“But, how am I supposed to—” Lloyd starts but you cut him off.
“You’re not thinking about it in the right way.” You say, turning your body to him, criss-crossing your legs.
“What do you mean?” Lloyd asks, mirroring your sitting position in the dirt.
“You have to feel the world around you, listen to it, you have to move with it.” You reply.
“What do you mean?” Lloyd asks.
You lean forwards and put your palms flat against the ground. “You have to dig down, feel the world underneath you, you can’t force it to stop, the world never stops, you just have to learn how to move with it, how to listen to it.” You say.
You take a deep breath, you listen to the ground, digging down into it, the buzzing of the earth reverberating in your head. You keep talking.
“You have to learn that you can’t always force things to go your way, I can feel the vibrations in the world, and instead of trying to force the vibrations to stop, I match myself to meet them.”
“But I can’t feel the vibrations.”
“No, you can feel life itself.” You say. “That’s stronger than any vibration.”
Lloyd looks at you before looking down at the dirt separating you two.
“But how do I stop it?” Lloyd asks.
You exhale a long sigh. “You’re missing the point, you can’t stop it, you need to learn to move with it.”
“So how do I move with it?” He asks.
You smile. “That’s the question that you should’ve asked from the beginning. You need to breathe, feel the ground under you.”
Lloyd leans forwards and puts both of his hands flat against the ground while exhaling a long sigh.
“What now?” He asks.
“Breathe.” You say, closing your eyes and inhaling a long breath of air. Lloyd follows suit, copying your moves and breathing slowly. “Feel around you.”
“What do I feel for?” Lloyd asks.
You breathe slowly, calming your heart. “Try to focus on something specific, a rock, weeds, an ant. You want to take your power and push it down into the dirt, you want to feel around for the life underneath you as opposed to the things currently around you. The things underneath you are quieter. By focusing all of the noise on something small, you can drown out everything else because you're amplifying one thing, start small and then get bigger.” You say. “Feel around the dirt underneath you, are there ant colonies? Perhaps a snake? Dig down for something specific and then focus on that.”
“That doesn’t seem too hard.” Lloyd mumbles.
Lloyd takes a deep breath and green sparks encapsulate his fingers. After a moment, he looks up at you.
“I’m not feeling anything.”
“Dig. Push down into the earth and feel.” You murmur.
After a moment of silence, Lloyd speaks up again. “I’m sorry, but I’m not feeling anything.”
You huff a sigh of annoyance, “maybe I’m not a good teacher, when we find Wu maybe you can ask him.”
Lloyd backtracks immediately. “No! I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just that maybe I need more practice.”
“I always forget how optimistic you are.” You say, turning back to the river and putting your feet out in front of you again.
“I mean it. I think I just have to work harder.” Lloyd insists.
You sit in silence for another moment, listening to the flowing river and the occasional splash of fish breaking the surface.
“What does it feel like?” You ask Lloyd.
“What does what feel like?” He responds.
“Turning into a dragon. Is it weird having a tail and stuff?” You ask.
Lloyd lets out a small chuckle. “It’s not weird, it just feels free. Like all my stress goes away, like a weight has been lifted off of my chest.”
“That’s interesting.”
Lloyd copies your sitting position and moves closer to you, staring off into the water.
After what felt like twenty minutes, Lloyd speaks up.
“When do you wanna go back?” Lloyd asks.
“Go back where?”
“The Monastery?"
“Oh yea, I forgot about that.”
“You forgot that you’re technically a Ninja now?” Lloyd asks, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
“It’s not usually the first thing that I think of in the morning.” You sigh. Your gaze travels up to the night sky, “speaking of being a ninja, when can I learn that cool tornado thing?”
“Spinjistu?”
“Yea.”
“I don’t know, did you want to learn?”
“Sora learned, so it can’t be that hard.” You mumble.
Lloyd jokingly hits your arm, “Sora tries her best. But sometimes she can be very unmotivated.”
“Me too. It just seems like so much work.” You huff, blinking lazily and letting out an exhausted yawn.
Lloyd laughs. “Too much work? Seriously? You want to be a Ninja but don’t want to learn Spinjistu because it’s ‘too much work?’”
“Pretty much.” You sigh.
“I used to be like that too, y’know.” Lloyd says.
“Like what?”
“Careless, bratty.”
“I’m not bratty.” You snap.
“Sure.” Lloyd mutters.
You chuckle. “Yea, back in your day.”
“I’m not that old.”
“Sure.”
“Can we stay on topic?”
“Which topic?”
“Any of them.”
You don’t say anything, letting silence fall between you two.
The wind rustles the trees above you two and a few small leaves fall into the river.
“Why did you decide to walk with me?” You ask.
Lloyd doesn’t say anything for a moment, thinking. “Because I didn’t wanna be alone, and I feel like you didn’t want to be alone either.”
“I think we should go back.” You say after another small moment.
You stand up and offer Lloyd a hand, he takes it and stands up. Together you two slowly walk back to the Monastery.
The wind blows the two of your backs and the trees rustle above you. The Monastery door creaks open and you two walk inside, and after walking into the main hallway, you two part ways.
“Good night Lloyd.” You say, turning to your room.
“See you in the morning, Y/N.” Lloyd says, looking at you for another moment before turning to go to his room as well.
You enter your room and close the door behind you, resting your back against it and exhaling a long sigh.
You plop down on your bed and rest your head against the pillows, you’re barely there for two minutes before you hear a soft knock on your door.
You huff and get up, walking to the door, apologies already spilling from your mouth.
“Look Cole, I’m sorry if I woke you. Everything’s— Lloyd?” You question.
“Y/N, I’m sorry– I just… I would appreciate a hug.” Lloyd says quietly. “It’s just that the noise in everything around me, seems to get quieter when you’re around and I just—”
You don’t let Lloyd finish his sentence when you wrap your arms around him and pull him close.
“You should’ve just asked y’know.” You smile, the top of your head resting perfectly in the crook of Lloyd’s neck.
He stays still for a moment before wrapping his arms around your back. “Thanks.”
“No problem.”