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Lloyd is dying.
He knows it with absolute certainty. The claws of death trying to tear at his soul are strong and familiar. He can feel darkness pulling at him just beyond his subconscious, greeting him like an old friend. It’s not the first time he’s faced the end, but it might be the last.
He failed the trial.
He failed the Rite of Unrooting. The consequence was death. The Arc Dragon themself had told him. They warned him that he would likely not survive because he wasn’t young enough. They were not wrong. He’d experienced too much in his lifetime—too many failures, too many mistakes. He couldn’t overcome the hate and doubt he felt towards himself.
He knew he was dying from the moment his eyes fluttered open on the forest floor. Pain washed over him, paralyzing. Every breath hitched and shuddered with each exhale. The agony rivals that of when he was at the mercy of Thunderfang just a couple weeks ago. The shame of his failure is similar to when he foolishly decided to fight his father one-on-one way back in the walls of Kryptarium.
There is no doubt in Lloyd’s mind that he is dying.
He stares up at the starry sky above him. Tears prick the corners of his eyes. He knows death is a risk he takes every day, it comes with being a Ninja; he just never imagined it would be like this—his life slowly ebbing away as he lays helpless and alone. No final stand on the battlefield or grand sacrifice to save it all. The forest around him is still and quiet. He’s truly on his own.
Lloyd tries to breathe in deeply but he can’t. His chest shudders in protest and pain surges through him. He can feel his heartbeat slowing. It should be racing because of his distressed state, but instead, it’s sluggish and irregular.
He doesn’t have long.
The forest around him is in a pain similar to his own. It’s dying. He can feel life leeching away from the trees and animals and insects that live here. It leaves like water dripping between his fingers. He can’t stop it; he can only watch in dismay as it escapes from his grip.
A warm wind brushes over him like a caress. Lloyd closes his eyes at the sensation. I’m sorry, he wants to say, but lacks the energy. I can’t save you.
The forest whispers in response. He feels it trying to reach out to him, but he’s too far gone.
That is, until he feels a surge of energy wash over him, similar but weaker to when the forest’s energy had plunged into him twice when he fought the elemental monsters. His eyes open and he gasps in surprise. The pain in his body momentarily fades.
Help help help, the forest whispers. Heal heal heal.
He’s hit with a sudden urge to move, to do something, like an instinct. His skin crawls. He needs to get up, to heal the forest, to save his friends, to save the world—
He can’t do all that. He cannot move. He’s too weak and in too much pain. Fatigue holds his body in a tight grip, stronger than he’s ever felt. He knows he can’t stand even if he tries.
He can’t save his friends. He can’t save the realm. He can’t even get up.
Heal heal heal, the forest pleads.
Lloyd inhales shakily. With trembling arms, he manages to roll onto his side.
He may have failed the trials, but he will not fail this forest.
Pain shoots through him and Lloyd winces, instinctively curling up small. His fingers dig into the dirt to ground him. He’s dying and he has very little time left.
Heal the forest.
For one last time, Lloyd calls on his element.
It feels different, somehow. It feels more alive than before, like a part of it was blocked but now it’s free. It’s bright and awakened and much more energetic than Lloyd is. It awaits his command like there’s nothing wrong, like it’s another day of training. He can imagine that, if it was a person, his powers would be staring at him, demanding why he wasn’t responding.
He concentrates his element into the palm of the hand that is buried in the earth. He can feel the forest reaching up to him and already drinking in the life that his element provides. He can sense the deeper parts of the forest still dark and empty, well out of reach of his light.
Lloyd grimaces as he forces more of his power into the ground. It glows brightly and spreads through the forest like a wave of fire. But it doesn’t burn. Every root, every animal, that his element touches, surges with energy and life.
Lloyd’s eyes drift shut for a moment too long.
He forces himself away from the beckoning darkness with a sharp inhale. He can’t give up now. He’s not done.
He remembers his vision back in the trial. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of roots all around him, glowing green and healthy. He recalls the one root that couldn’t quite reach the life-giving water below and how it shriveled up, pulsing with red light and corrupted. It would’ve died if it didn’t get help from the stronger roots around it.
He feels like that little red root. Energy spent and dying while everything around him flourished. But he can’t get help from the forest like the root did. His job is to provide, not to receive.
Connection.
He wishes his family was here. Even just one person. He feels so small and alone and scared. He would give anything to have one of his older siblings with him now in his final moments, telling him that it’ll be okay, comforting him in the last few minutes of his life.
But he’s so alone, lying weakened and slowly dying on the forest floor.
He’s the shriveled red root that can’t reach the bottom.
Lloyd shudders as his energy wanes. His heart is too slow, his slow breathing almost nonexistent. Sleep pulls at his eyelids but he knows that if he lets them close, they won’t open again.
The forest still cries in pain. His job is not done.
He will save the forest, and then he will die. But the forest and all the life it nourishes will be okay.
A wave of sorrow washes over him. He doesn’t want to die. He wants to be able to see his family again, to train his students, to see them grow. He wants to fix the mess he’s made and not leave it on the shoulders of someone else. He doesn’t want to never appear in the inevitable fight that’s to come and leave his family wondering where he was. He doesn’t want them to find his body on the forest floor, long-gone by the time they’d reach him.
Life life life, the forest calls.
Lloyd wants to reply and give some sign that he’s still trying to heal the Whispering Woods. He doesn’t want the forest to think he’s failing it, too.
He extends his power deep into the ground and realizes that the Woods are healed.
His job is complete.
Lloyd’s next exhale is long and slow. His vision goes in and out.
His fingers curl, loose soil giving way under his weak grip. He wants his family. He’s scared. He doesn’t want to die alone.
He wants help.
Each tree is connected, Lloyd hears himself say. His younger self that he never grew up to become. The age he skipped because he used Tomorrow’s Tea and prevented him from hearing the Whispering Woods call to him. The tea that would end up causing his death. Trees are life.
The Woods are healed. The painful plague that had harmed its roots is gone. Life has returned to the forest.
Life life life, the trees whisper. Wind gently flows over him and if he tries hard enough, he can imagine that it’s Kai or Nya or Cole brushing his hair back in a way he deeply enjoys but never asks for.
I am…the Master of Life.
He doesn’t feel like a master, let alone one of Life. Not when he’s minutes away from his final breath. Not when he’s failed so many people.
Life life connection life. His mind is too tired to try and figure out what the forest is trying to tell him. He can feel sleep encroaching. Eternal sleep.
CONNECTION, the forest screams.
Lloyd is the small red root that can’t reach the life-sustaining water. But the roots around him will not let him die.
Connection. His family. He knows they would all help him if they could. He wishes they were here.
But, impossibly, he feels them.
He senses Cole first. He can feel the Earth Ninja’s grounding and steady presence. He latches onto the feeling, tears pooling in his eyes. It’s almost like his big brother is right next to him, urging him to fight the call of death. Cole, he begs silently, help me. Please.
Cole’s energy surges and chases away some of Lloyd’s pain. His vision sharpens ever so slightly.
Then there’s another root giving him energy, and another, and another—newer and not as familiar as his siblings, but warm nonetheless—Sora and Frak and Wyldfyre. He can tell that they don’t understand what’s going on. But they send him their energy anyway. They won’t let their teacher die alone.
Lloyd vaguely realizes that there’s tiny roots climbing up his body from the ground like they’re anchoring him in place. They glow a faint green. He doesn’t get a chance to think about it before he’s overcome with three new energies, these ones strong: Nya, Jay, and Kai. Kai and Nya don’t hesitate to reach out to him, like roots giving him some of the water. Jay follows a moment later. Lloyd can sense something different about his brother, something clearer and sharper.
Before he can dwell on it, his attention is drawn away and towards the three of his friends closest to him. Arin, Zane, and Euphrasia all reach towards him. They’re distracted, maybe fighting, but they don’t waste a second in providing Lloyd with the last of the energy he needs.
His family supporting him.
The pain in his body is slowly dissipating. Each heartbeat is stronger than the last. Lloyd shuts off his powers and rolls onto his back, breaking free of the tiny roots—now no longer glowing—and stares at the stars above.
He really is like that little red root. He couldn’t make it on his own; he was seconds away from death. But those closest to him refused to let him shrivel up and die.
The forest didn’t let him die.
He can hear the whispers a little clearer now. Life! Life! It rejoices. Connection!
The Woods had tried to tell him before. To reach out and ask for help from those closest to him. That he wasn’t truly alone; he could always ask his family for support until he could put his feet underneath him and walk on his own.
Lloyd is no longer dying. The forest and his family refused to let him.
His element surges and power floods through him. Green fills his vision.
Time to repay the favor.