A Garden of Flowers and Bones [Lloyd Garmadon x Reader]

Chapter 9: War of Wills

Over the trees waving and leaves shuddering in the breeze, there was the sound of stone against stone clanging in a duhduh duhduh duhduh pattern, with something heavy behind it. Almost like the beating legs of a... horse? against the pavement of the path.

Cautiously, Y/N approached the window of her bedroom, unlatching it and pushing the lower half of the glass upwards to see said muddy brown horse approaching. And on it's back was a somewhat familiar face. Thomas. The stable hand assistant who was actually older than the original stable hand, with a wide brimmed hat from his partner, and a greasy black ponytail that matched the colour of his unshaved stubble.

Well, there were very few reasons anyone would travel out to her place. None of them could be good. Dread took root in her chest.

She leaned out the window and sent him a big wave. He didn't return it. He just kind of glared up at her, clearing the end of the path and landing on the grass, heading right for her porch. She sighed and pulled her upper body inside, shutting the window.

"Who is it?" Dwyn had already jumped off her chair (her toes still only brushed the ground when she sat down) and walked towards her older sister.

"It's just some guy from the village," Y/N sighed, stretching her arms above her head until her back popped, "Dunno why he's here... give me a sec, I'll go take a look."

The sound of knocks banging on the door made her grumble to herself as she headed out of the room. Like, yes, she knew he was here, and he knew she knew. Did he need to announce his presence in such an annoying way?

When she finally reached it, she shoved on her shoes and tore the door open. There he was: stood on the porch, his horse bending it's head down to graze on the grass nearby. It had a bright white mark on it's forehead and a light brown, wispy mane with long lashes, a great contrast to it's chocolate brown fur.

"Yes?" She asked, trying and failing to keep the snappish tone out of her voice.

"Don't get lippy with me, missy. I didn't wanna be here either," Tommy glared, leaning up against her door frame, "You've been gone for a week after that massive blow out in the town's square. A couple'a people were getting worried, so they sent me over like some kinda errand boy."

"A couple of them?" She narrowed her eyes.

"Yeppers."

His blue eyes met hers, hardly light like a winter's sky such as Chamille's, or blue agate like Ellowyn's, or oceanic like Dwyn's. They were milky, sort of. With a greyish undertone. And much like his horse, he had luscious lashes that were actually quite tasteful to look at. She was definitely not a bit jealous.

She folded her arms, a sneaking suspicion crept along the base of her skull, as if something was telling her he wanted to be let inside and that she shouldn't. She levelled him with a frown.

"Well, alright then. I was just lookin after Winnie. I already let my co-workers know, so I would've thought everyone else in the village knew by now."

"You want me to be honest?"

"Yeah."

"Seems like they wanted to make sure you weren't doing anything suspish in here. So let's make this easy on both of us. You let me have a looksie so I can tell 'em 'no' and we can part ways like this never happened."

Y/N weighed her options. She didn't really want some outsider waltzing around her childhood home- her home filled with memories. Her sacred space. But if it would get people like Margot off her back for a little while... well, she didn't really have anything to hide (that wasn't already hidden). Probably.