Lloyd POV

It's been a few days since the mysterious people were seen on the eastern coast.  They've moved from their original spot and we've been trying to find them ever since.  We've been doing steak outs and extra patrols, looking around for them.  For a while I thought they had disappeared, but I soon found out they were closer to us than I thought.

I'm currently sitting against a willow tree at a large pond next to a small mountain.  From atop the mountain is a river that flows over the edge and into a waterfall, landing into the pond.  I look out onto the water.  The sparkling pond reflects the sky and myself like a mirror. I came here to rearrange my thoughts. We've been searching for a few days now and nothing has come up.

Where could those people have gone in the few hours I wasn't watching them that day?  I think to myself.  Where they even real?  Or was it my imagination? I pick up a small stone and skip it on the water's surface.  How could I be so stupid, I should have stayed and observed them further.  Wait, why do I even care?  They're just random people that I know nothing about.

In the distance I suddenly hear a couple of voices arguing.  At first, I can't hear what they're saying, so I get up from my position and silently make my way over to the voices.  As I get closer I climb a tree and hid behind the leaves.  I move from tree to tree when I finally spot two people arguing with each other.  And then I realize, they're speaking Ninjagian.

One of the people is a shorter boy (around my height but I'm a bit taller) with messy strawberry blonde hair and freckles.  He has blue eyes and seems to be wearing a blue ninja suit; He's also holding nunchucks.  The other one is a taller boy with light brown skin, brown hair that is gelled up nicely, and he seems to also be wearing a ninja suit, but his is red;  He carries a sword on his back.  He has the most beautiful amber eyes I've ever seen.  He's... really handsome. Wait what?  Did I seriously just think that?  Why did I just think that?  They begin to start arguing again.  Yep, they're definitely speaking Ninjagian.  Now I'm really glad we took those lessons for all these years.

"Oh come on Kai!" The blue one speaks first.  "You're telling me you saw a flying person the other day?  You're crazy!" He says.

"Uh, I didn't tell you anything!  You're the one who eavesdropped on mine and Nya's conversation!"  The red one, Kai I'm pretty sure, says in an irritated voice.

"I wasn't eavesdropping!  I simply was just passing by, and overheard your conversation with her."

"That's just eavesdropping with extra steps,  Jay!"

"Whatever bro." He says.  Jay and Kai.  Huh.
"So, why are we out here again?" Jay asks.

Kai slaps his forehead with his hand.  "Why do you never pay attention?" He asks. Jay is about to say something when Kai interrupts him.  "That was a rhetorical question, Jay. Basically, we're out here to observe the area and see if anyone is around us."

"Ohh, okay."

They begin to move along again and I silently follow.  I found them!  They must be the people who were on the eastern coast the other day!  Wow, what a coincidence.  They walk a little longer, arguing a bit along the way, until Jay stops and puts his hand up to his ear, staying silent for a moment.  "Okay, we'll be back in a moment." He says. Who's he talking to?

"Who was it?" Kai asks.

"It was Misako.  She wants us to get back to the bounty."  Misako?  I'm guessing that's a name because I've never heard a word like that in the Ninjagian language.

"Do you know why yet?" Kai asks.

"No, I don't."

"Okay, let's head back."  They start walking back the way they came.  I should follow them. There is no way I'm going to loose them again. I follow them all the way back to the waterfall I was just sitting near.  They walk around the pond and behind the waterfall.  I climb down the tree and follow them into a huge hidden cave.  In the cave sits a large ship.  The same one I saw.  So this is where you've been hiding.  Right under my nose!

They meet with four more people on the deck of the ship.  I can't really hear what they're saying noir see them so I creep up the rocks and peak behind a boulder, giving me a clear view of the group. I decide to put my hood up to hide my face a bit.

"Okay, so why did you call us back?" Kai asks.

"And hello to you too." One of the guys spoke.  He also has brown skin, a bit darker than Kai's, and longish black hair with brown eyes.  He wears a black and gray ninja suit.  He seems to be the second tallest in the group.  Next to him is a girl with black hair tied up into a short ponytail.  She has the same skin color as Kai and pretty light blue eyes.  She wears a gray and light blue ninja suit.  She seems to be a bit shorter than the Jay guy.  And next to her is the tallest of the group who has... metal skin?!?  He seems to be made of some type of metal for skin and silver hair.  He has icy blue eyes and wears a white ninja suit with a few black accents in it here and there.  Finally, the one who stands next to him, is a woman with brown hair and silver streaks running through it. It's braided along her back.  She has warm brown eyes that are set upon the five.

"I called you here because we need to talk about our meeting with your soon-to-be teammates." The woman says.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah, hold up. You never said anything about them becoming our teammates." Jay says.

"I thought it was obvious." She says. "You will need to team up with these people in order to defeat the Overlord." Defeat the Overlord? So this means they don't work for him! Is that why they're here?

"Wu has not spoken with the master of your future teammates yet, but after he does we will head somewhere to meet with them."

Kai mutters something I can't hear and the girl slaps him on the head. "How does Wu know the master of these kids?" The one in the black ninja suit asks.

"I'm not so sure myself. What I do know is that they were friends at some point."

"Misako," the metal man speaks in a suddenly hushed voice. "I sense we are being watched."

Oh shoot.

"What? Who's watching us?" The girl speaks.

I duck behind the boulder. Crap. How am I going to get out of here? They all draw their weapons and fan out. I need to get out of here. I silently sneak my way out of the cave, nearing the exit. When I think I'm in the clear, I suddenly hear a voice pick up from behind me. "Hey! You! Stop right there!" Well, looks like I'm going to have to do this the hard way.

I bolt. I run as fast as I can out of the cave and into the jungle. I hear many pairs of feet following behind me but I don't look back. I climb a tree and hop to a few others, then I wait. I hear them calling to each other below me. They can't find me. I hop along the trees a little more until I've found a clearing far from the mountain. I jump down and try to figure out where I am. I figure it out eventually and start walking in the direction of the village when I'm tackled to the ground and a sword is put up against my throat. I look at the person's face and see a pair of amber eyes staring back into mine. Kai.

Kai POV

I run through the jungle with my sword in hand. I have to find that person. They probably work for the Overlord and if we're found out, we're dead. Zane comes up next to me. "Find them?" He asks.

"No. Nothing so far." I reply. Cole suddenly comes towards us.

"Did anyone see their face?" He asks us.

"No," I say back to him. "They had a hood over their head. I couldn't even tell if they were a girl or boy.

"Well keep looking. Who knows what that person overheard in our conversation." Zane tells us.

We nod and move into different directions. I run for a while until I reach a small clearing. I then see the person who was spying on us standing in the clearing. I run up to them and tackle them to the ground, putting my sword up to their neck. "Got you." I say to them.

I finally get a look look at their face.  He has pale skin and gorgeous heterocromia eyes; One emerald green and one brown.  I see strands of blonde hair sticking out from underneath his hood.  He kicks me off of him and stands up. I light my fist on fire and he looks at me in shock. His teeth grit together.  There are four teeth that stand out at me, they're abnormally sharp and they don't look like normal teeth.  Does he have fangs?  I grin.

"How about you make this easy and tell me what you know?" I ask him. He glares at me and pulls something out from the side of his pants.  I charge for him and he backflips out of the way.  I throw balls of fire at him but he counters that attack as well.  He presses a button on the handle he holds and it retracts into a sharp and well crafted sword.  Dang.  Where can I get a sword like that?

He runs for me and swings his sword at me.  I block it with my sword and push him back a bit.  He moves swiftly past me and we sword fight for a little while when he swings his sword at my feet. I catch his sword under my foot and laugh. "There's no sweeping of the leg in sword fighting, kid." He narrows his eyes at me and lifts the sword underneath me, causing me to fall over into my back. He puts his sword up to my neck with his foot on my chest. He smirks at me this time. 

"Looks like you got me." I say to him. I wonder how old this kid is. Not a moment after I say that the kid is knocked into the air by a rock spike shooting up from the ground. I sit up and look over to see Cole and Nya running up to me. Nya uses her water and sends a strong flood towards him, shoving him into the ground from the air. He struggles to get up as Cole helps me up and the three of us surround him, our powers at the ready. The blast of water made his hood fall down and we can finally see his full face and hair. He has the whitest blonde hair I've ever seen. He is in a crouched position and his hand is on the ground supporting him from falling. His hand grips the grass and I notice a glow from his hand. It looks like... ice?

"Nowhere left to run, buddy." Cole says to him with his scythe pointed at him. He mutters something inaudible and a white glow appears around him. We stand confused and back away slowly from him, then it happens. The light disappears and the guy is now enclosed in some kind of... golden-green ball of skin?

I was so wrong.

The skin unraveled and outstretched into two large dragon wings and a dragon tail. We stand shocked for a second when he blows a huge gust of wind at us with his wings and shoots up into the air. We lay on the ground, stunned, the others have no idea what just happened but I do. I know all to well. This explains why it looked like he had fangs earlier as well.

He's a dragonkin.

Lloyd POV

What the hell was that?!?! I let them discover me, I let them know what I looked like, I let them corner me, I let them beat me, and I let them see I was a dragonkin!!! How could I be so stupid?! I punch a tree over and over again. I found a new place to hide where no one would be able to find me. I continue to punch out of anger and frustration at myself. I'm infuriated at myself for being so weak and stupid. Splenda would be disappointed. I punch more and more furiously at the tree until I spin around and go to kick it. I kick the tree, but the outcome was nothing like I expected.

The wood and bark splintered and completely shattered into a million pieces, causing the tree to timber. My kick impacted with so much force the ground around me trembled and the the birds were blown off the trees and into the air. Holy shit. I think to myself. My leg then flares in pain and I crouch down to hold it.

"Ahh, oww." I hiss as quietly as I can while gritting my teeth. What the hell just happened? Why are so many weird things happening to me today? And why do I keep breaking trees?

I stand back up and sigh. I look at my bloody knuckles. I've been punching that tree as hard as I can for over half and hour. I lay down on the grass and look up at the painted sky. Streaks of deep orange and yellow stretch across the horizon. I'm so tired. I say to myself. I continue to stare at the sky and see the fiery colors escorting the sun below the horizon. For some reason, the color reminds me of the red ninja, Kai. His neatly gelled hair, his amber eyes, his smooth voice...

I practically slap myself in the face. Aw hell no! Why do I keep thinking about that stupid Kai guy? There is literally nothing special about him besides from the fact he is an elemental master of fire. I stop thinking as realization washes over me. Wait, he was an elemental master...

I sit up. He was an elemental master! They all were! This is what Splenda was saying! These were the people she was talking about! She mentioned she may have known someone from the group of 'mystery people'! I have to tell everyone. I get up, grab my things, and I run for the village. There's no time to loose.

~~~time skip brought to you by pink ninja Zane~~~ (aka best ninja)

After asking some of the villagers I found out that everyone should already be at Splenda's place. I rush inside and down the elevator. The elevator opens and I walk inside to see no one in the room. "Hello?" I call out. "Anyone here?"

I walk around a bit when I hear a frantic and familiar voice pipe up behind me. "Uh, Lloyd?" Haru asks from behind me. I turn around to find no one. "Uh, down here..." I look down to see a small puppy with a red furry coat and blue eyes. His ears are down and his tail is between his legs.

"Uhhhh..." I say. I look around a bit more, then down at the puppy again. "Har-ru...?" I say hesitantly.

The puppy lowers his head. "Yes..." he says. I look at him in complete shock.

"Wait— but— how did you?— Haru!?— WHAT?!?" Is all I can conjure up.

He looks back up at me and in a defeated yet confused and desperate voice he slowly says, "I don't knooooow!" I get into my knees and become eye level with him.

"Haru..." He looks at me. "What happened?"

He sighs and groans. "I don't know! One moment I'm a human, sitting on the couch, then the next thing I know I'm a freaking dog!" He says. I look around once more. "Where are Splenda, Katie, and Ash?" I ask him

"Splenda went to do something a while ago and Ash and Katie went out looking for you! You didn't come back from patrol and we got worried, so they went out for you..." he says trailing off. He redirects his eyes to my hands. "Lloyd, what happened to your knuckles?"

"Oh," I say looking at my hands. "I was punching a tree." I say whilst rubbing my neck. Blood is dried on the raw patches of skin and I, I gotta admit, they do hurt.

Me while writing this: Bruh this isn't Minecraft

"Why would you be punching a tree that hard?" He suddenly stops. "Did something upset you?" He asks. His ears go from practically embedded into his head to up and alert. His tail falls out from between his legs. He doesn't look so vulnerable now.

"No." I lie. He narrows his eyes at me.

"You're lying."

"No, no I'm not. Listen, we should be finding the girls and figuring out what happened to you." I say as I start to sand up. I start to walk towards the elevator when Haru jumps into action and blocks me from walking any further. In doing so I almost end up kicking him. "Haru-" I say to him but he cuts me off.

"I know you too well Lloyd. You're like a little brother to me, I can tell when you're upset, we all can." He's serious. I sigh and head for a medicine cabinet. I grab out bandages and start to wrap my hands. I also take a little to wrap the ankle I used to destroy the tree.

"Look Haru," I say when I've finished wrapping my injuries. "Can we talk about this later? When we've found the girls and figured out what's going on with you?" I ask him. He looks at me with an unsure expression but eventually nods. I take him in my arms and head for the elevator. The trip out of the house is spent in silence. I turn into my dragon form and soar in the skies with a terrified Haru in my arms, and we end up finding the girls not too long after nightfall. After receiving a lecture from the two, especially my sister, we head back into the village and spend the rest of the night discussing 3 topics:

-What happened to Haru
-the battle with the mysterious people
-What our next move is
———————

I'm sorry this took so long, I had writers block and didn't know how to progress the story.  Next chapter will be up in a few days.  Thank you for reading and have a nice day.

-Fal