The Wolf and The Dragon (Book 2)

29 - Closer

[Lloyd]

We walked back from the Forbidden Wood, completely covered in mud, both of us. Akita felt in the muddy pit, I tried to help her out and ended up falling as well, we laughed so much that we couldn't get out of it for ages.

-"What about that race?" - Akita teased me.
-"Bring on! Which way? so I don't get lost..."
-"You would only get lost if you can not even watch me from a distance...." - she runs in front, still on her human form.
-"I am afraid you can not beat me as yourself, Red!" I just overtake her.
-"So you think you are fast, hum? - OK! Keep going towards the village, when you see the big pine tree turn to you right... See you there..." - She shapeshift into the wolf, and fly by past me. I swear I could hear her laughing.

Suddenly occurs to me that I didn't really need to run, we were going down hill in the snow, I just grabbed a piece of plain flat wood and used as boarding.

-"Hey, Red..." I snowboarded passing her...
-"Hey... That is cheating..." she shifted to human and back to wolf, speeding even more.
-"No, is not, it is used of natural resources..."

She passed me again and jumped straight to the lower level of the hill, while I had to go all the way to turn.

-"ok... you asked for that Red" I said find a nice spot to jump, I managed to fly over her and land on the board metres ahead of her.

She also jumped and land almost by myself, but then she stopped and bark, as she was still on her wolf form, I realised she was trying to alert me of something, I quickly scanned my surroundings and realised I had just passed some pine tree, maybe that is the tree she has mentioned before, so I stopped boarding.

-"Lloyd you are going in the wrong way, again..." she shouted from a distance.
-"I see... what would I do without you?" I said playing.
-"you would have been hunted by the black wolves, if you had escaped the wolves you would die under Ma-la Wujira after you caused the avalanche yourself, and let's say you managed to survive, I am pretty sure the ice bird would have eaten you for his supper."

-"ok... I got it.. you are always saving me... Thank you, Incredible Puppy..." I do bow to her in a joking way.
-"what did you just called me?"
-"Puppy...? ... like little wolf, or little okami, your brother call you that... I just... I mean... do you..." somehow I wasn't exactly sure why did I call her Puppy, it felt more like something I have done before, another memory, instead of giving her a new pet name.

I stop talking, and she was still looking at me...

-"don't you like me calling you Puppy?"

-"no, is not that... it just felt... I don't know... strange... as if it wasn't... you know... never mind, Puppy is ok, though I still prefer Red. Come on this way... race is over, I won..." she changed the subject, she did the same thing when we were talking about dreams early on, what is she hiding this time?...I just played along.

-"No, you don't, i was in front of you when you made me stop."

-"I only stopped you because you were going in the wrong way, I told you to turn to your right on the big pine tree... haven't you seen the tree?"

-"there are hundreds of pine tree around here, how am I supposed to spot a single one that is not even so much bigger than the others?"

-"by looking at the sign..." she pointed to a sign on the tree, with a few squiggling words.

-"I can't read formling language..."

-"well... for your information it is not formling language either."

-"what is it then?"

-"I do not know, we only assumed it says 'the big pine tree'"

I shake my head realising she was laughing as she walked in front of me. Has she just plank me?

-"you... you have just played a plank on me... don't you..."

I shouted, running after her and when I reach her, I grabbed her waist and dropped her on the floor, she rolled and hold back on me and I end up falling on top of her, she was still laughing, and I started laughing too, watching her beautiful face... for a second I just wanted to kiss her, but... I stopped myself... jumping up away from her.

-"you look disgusting..." she said to me referring to the muddy all over my face and hair.

-"so do you... " I helped her to get up -"how far are we?"

-"not far at all." She started walking again -"come on... can you hear the water?"

-"no... but I can hear..." as we turn between trees someone shouted at us.

-"you two look disgusting, where have you been?" - it was Cole. He ran past us in his boxers and covered in snow, jumping in the hot springs, followed by Kai, Kataru and Kraig. -"Man!! this place is amazing you have to try it, Lloyd!! Come on Kraig do you thing"

Kraig jump in the spring and create a massive wave.

-"Lloyd, you will have to explain yourself later." Kai tells me, as passed through me.

-"Akita are you ok? where have you been, little sister? I thought you would be here first then me this morning."

-"Yes ... we are fine, brother, I was just showing Lloyd around the woods a little bit, and we fell into a muddy pit."

She calmly explained to her brother, while removing her coat, boots... and to my surprise everything else but her underwear, a small short and crop tank top alike, all in red.

I found myself staring at her, she is very pale, her muscles are defined and well toned, she still have a scar from the broken bone in her leg, and just above her knee there are red marks on each leg, like matching tattoos.

As if she has sensed me staring at her, she suddenly turned and faced me, we were at least 1 meter apart, but that was close enough for me to feel a heatwave taking over my body, my face was burning and I am well aware I probable as red as Kai's gi.

-"The last one in the springs is definitely the loser" - she tells me casually, she throws herself in the soft snow, and roll over it, she looks like a small 'kraig' covered in snow... I just keep watching her and smiling at myself, i guess that would help me get rid of my heatwave.

I remove my gi as quick as possible and buried myself in the snow before the others notice anything, it was a shock to my system, but it did the trick to cool me down. Suddenly I realised Red was the one staring at me now, and I am sure I saw her face changing color...

-"Come on! Race you there!" she screams, already running in front of me.

I leap up and jump over her into the spring just before she does.

-"Winner!" I shouted. Meeting her very annoyed face just inches from mine, before she jumps over me holding me under the water.
We kind of swim together, her hands on my shoulder, mine on her waist, we giggled under the water, before surface again, and find everyone else watching us. She moves very quick way from me, and I realised she was as embarrassed as I was.

-"waaawwwooruuugaa" - Kraig shouts, and Cole seems to understand what he said.

-"Yes buddy!... AGAIN, let's go. Come everyone..."

They all run out of the water, and buried themselves in the snow again, before jumping in the water AGAIN... Red followed them and I stay a bit longer, just watching her... when she jumped again in the water, she swam close to me.

-"Come on Lloyd, you are missing all the fun!" - she swims closer, and reach my hair with hand, removing some of the mud - "You still have mud all over you face and hair."

-"you too..." I said, removing a lump of mud from her forehead.
-"not as much as you... come on, the snow helps cleaning up" she held my hand and pulled me after her... I tried really hard not staring at her, but was nearly impossible, she is just... gorgeous... suddenly I realised I have feelings for her, does she feel the same?

We all rolled in the snow and jumped back in the hot springs again and again, many times, eventually we all got tired, and went back to the village to find out that Nya, Jay and Zane was there waiting for us.

-"shall we go to the Lake village, sure, Sorla will be able to help us going back to Ninjago." - Nya said, and all the others agree... I feel a strange twist in my stomach... Going home.... so soon...