Chapter 3

"And then I just press send?" Harumi asked, her voice uncertain and her hand slightly shaking from the amount of stress in her body.

"Yup! And don't worry, if you didn't fill out something it won't let you send it at all," Lola's preppy voice said through her phone.

"I'm just gonna go over it once more, just to make sure," Harumi said, quickly scrolling back to the top of her application.

It was the last day of college applications, and of course Harumi had procrastinated her application to the last day. It was still a few hours to the deadline, and she had quickly called Lola, her old co-worker from the royal temple, and asked if she could help her. Lola was already studying law at Ninjago City University, and had offered to help Harumi fill out her application when the time came. And that time was now, mostly because Harumi couldn't push it any later anymore.

Harumi quickly double-checked her application, making sure she filled out everything accordingly and was applying to the right school and the right field of study. After deciding to triple-check, she decided that maybe it was good enough and she'd just have to send it now.

"Remember to mark the date of your entrance exam up, so you don't forget!" Lola's voice reminded.

"Oh, good idea," Harumi said, grabbing her phone and typing it up into her calendar. 3rd of June. Two full months away, and a couple days. "How did you study for yours?" Harumi asked as she swiped back to the phone call. "We had a book we had to read, but you can find the details of your exam from the uni's website," Lola explained.

"Oh, okay. Thank you so much for helping me," Harumi clicked open her email inbox, waiting for the confirmation of her application, refreshing the page every few seconds. "We need to arrange a meet up again, it's been too long," Harumi added. The two had seen each other last month, and went out for coffee.

"Of course!" Her sweet voice chirped. "And we totally should, I still have a couple of big project deadlines, but maybe next week or the week after that? We can hash out the details later," she suggested.

"Sounds great," Harumi said, letting out a heavy, but freeing sigh as a confirmation email of her application dropped into her inbox. "I need to air out my head now, I think I almost passed out there," she said with a chuckle as she rose from her chair.

"Understandable, I'll text you later! See you soon, bye bye!" Lola said, to which Harumi bid her goodbye as well. Then she was out of her room.

Harumi quickly texted Lloyd that she had finished with her application, and was going outside for a minute. Harumi opened the doors to the Monastery's courtyard, glad that no one was there. She breathed in the cool spring air, and sat on the porch.

For once it was a sunny day, the sun already warming Harumi's skin, which made her smile. A couple of weeks ago there had been huge storms, and in a moment of weakness Harumi had to evacuate to Lloyd's room. She was terrified of thunder, always had been. To her relief Lloyd hadn't thought her weird, just took her into his bed and the two watched movies and played video games, until Harumi got so sleepy she could barely walk to her own room anymore. Not that she wouldn't mind sleeping in Lloyd's bed...

For a moment Harumi let herself close her eyes and relax her body as she imagined it. Sleeping under his covers, borrowing an oversized t-shirt from him, being all curled up in his scent, and tangled in his arms... Maybe they wouldn't sleep at all, Harumi wasn't sure if she could. She'd press a soft kiss to his lips, and then a-

"BOO!" Someone suddenly yelled behind her, a numbing shock going through Harumi's whole body. As a reflex she quickly turned around and punched her attacker in the stomach.

Lloyd let out a groan as he stumbled back and fell to his knees. He grabbed his stomach and as Harumi registered what she had done she let out a scoff.

"Goddamn!" Lloyd whined.

"Serves you right! Don't scare me like that!" Harumi yelled, a blush raging on her cheeks as she was embarrassed she'd been caught daydreaming. She quickly turned around to hide it.

"No need to hit me!" Lloyd said, straightening himself and leaning against one of the porch's poles.

Harumi breathed out to calm her blushing cheeks, folding her arms over her chest. "You're the one who taught me that, so," she answered with a cocky smile as she turned back around.

She looked at him for a few more moments, as he stood and tried to even out his breath.

"Guess you're right..." he said with a chuckle that turned into a cough.

As Harumi's heartbeat calmed down, the adrenaline slowly left her body, she sat back onto the porch next to Lloyd who was still standing.

"Your hits are getting very good though, so I guess I should be proud of myself," he said as he sat down next to her, struggling slightly.

Harumi watched Lloyd struggling and a remorseful expression rose to her face. "I'm sorry, did it actually hurt that bad?" she asked quietly.

"It did, but it's okay. Like you said, I only have myself to blame. You're a quick learner," he smiled as he finally could breathe in normally.

"Maybe, but a good ninja probably doesn't assault their friends, no matter how surprised they are," Harumi smiled with an apologetic tint in her expression.

"You'd be surprised," Lloyd smiled with a chuckle. "And really it's okay, I should've been prepared for that. Clearly not a master yet, not prepared for all outcomes," he chuckled, but Harumi could hear a hint of insecurity in his words. She wondered if she should draw attention to it, but Lloyd beat her to it. "So you got your application all filled out?" He asked, leaning against the pole and turning to face Harumi.

Harumi turned more towards Lloyd, and leaned back to the support of her prosthetic. "Yeah, I did. Lola came in clutch, she really soothed my nerves while filling that thing. I was sure I'd forget to fill out a simple thing like where I even wanted to apply," she chuckled.

"It's a good thing you had her then," Lloyd smiled.

That certain sweet smile accompanied with those darling eyes of his, made Harumi's stomach fill with butterflies each and every time, a gentle blush covering her cheeks. He looked so soft in this moment, Harumi letting down her guard entirely. She wanted to lean in, like she had done four months ago, before their final battle with the Oni. Only this time she wanted to follow through, reach his lips and press a kiss onto them.

"I uhm..." Lloyd cleared out his throat, waking Harumi from her daydream. "I checked out that band, that you um... said that I should," he said, a sudden awkwardness on his face.

Harumi was taken aback by this, never had she seen him tackle with his words like that. Only when he was embarrassed.

Oh god.

Had he noticed Harumi's staring? Had she made him feel uncomfortable?

Oh god she was such a creep, staring at his lips like that and fantasizing about kissing him.

The blush deepened on Harumi's cheeks as she was embarrassed of her own actions and made Lloyd feel uncomfortable like that.

"Oh, nice," Harumi cleared her own throat as well. "What songs did you listen to?" she asked, trying to carry onward from her embarrassment.

"Uh... 'Boys don't cry', then that Friday song and mostly the hits," Lloyd answered with slight uncertainty still in his voice. "They were good, but you also have to show me your favorites," he added with a smile returning to his lips.

"Well 'A night like this' is one of my favorites right now," she smiled, fully knowing that she thought of Lloyd every time she listened to it. The song was probably originally meant to be a break up song, but Harumi couldn't help but relate to the lyrics all the same.

Lloyd dug his phone out of his pocket and seemed to write something.

Harumi's heart plundered to her stomach as she realized that Lloyd was going to play that song right now.

While she was here.

And while he was here.

While they were here. Together. Harumi's heartbeat fastened as she tried to look for an excuse why they shouldn't listen to it now. Then it was as if a higher power had heard her pleas, because before Lloyd could search up the song, someone knocked on the Monastery's gate.

Lloyd's face shot up from his phone, Harumi quickly turning to face the gate as well. "Mail delivery!" a familiar voice declared on the other side.

Harumi let out a silent, relieved sigh, glad that they were interrupted. She quickly stood up and walked towards the gate, Lloyd behind her.

Harumi opened the door, her most recent adrenaline rush dying down as the familiar mailman stood on the other side. He panted heavily and leaned against his bike like it was a crutch.

"I can go get water for you," Harumi said quickly, knowing the protocol with their mail deliveries.

The mailman had to climb thousands of steps every time he visited, so they always gave him water when he reached them.

Also, Harumi needed to calm down.

She had told everyone she came across on her journey to the kitchen about the mailman. She returned with a glass full of water, finding everyone huddled and standing closely by each other. Lloyd quickly turned his attention to Harumi, and to her surprise his face was beaming with excitement.

"What's going on?" Harumi said, handing the water glass to their mailman, who thanked her. She then walked over to the group.

"This is unbelievable!" Cole gasped next to her.

"It's an invitation to Shintaro!" Jay revealed, holding a white folded card in his hands.

"What?!" Harumi gasped.

"Read it again, Jay!" Nya demanded, though with excitement in her voice as well.

Jay opened up the card, and fireworks flew out of it! Harumi gasped at the sight, as if she wasn't impressed already.

"King Vangelis of the Northern Kingdom of Shintaro of the Sky Folk, kindly requests your presence, as honored guests, to celebrate the birthday of the Princess, Vania!" Jay read excitedly, voice pitched high.

"A princesses' birthday party?" Harumi questioned with a scoff, still impressed by the mere fact that they had even gotten a letter back from them. "There's no mention of your letter?" she inquired, eyeing Zane.

"No, but it is possible that they do not wish to disclose that kind of information in a letter," Zane explained.

"Who cares, we got an invitation to a legendary kingdom!? We gotta pack immediately, the princess' birthday is on Sunday!" Cole said excitedly.

"How could they send the invitation this late?" Harumi questioned. It was Friday now, so it meant the birthday was only two days away!

"Maybe they weren't going to invite us, before we reached out to them," Kai shrugged.

"Well it's a good thing it reached us in time," Nya scoffed.

"We need to pack and leave as soon as possible," Lloyd noted. "I hope no one had any plans for the weekend," he said with a sigh, but a happy smile tugged on his lips.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Master Wu!" Lloyd hurriedly knocked on his shoji, slightly out of breath as he bolted from the courtyard to his uncle's door.

"What is it?" Wu said, quickly opening his shoji. "Is everything alright?" he asked, worry painting his features.

"More than alright, we got an invite to Shintaro!" Lloyd excitedly shared, pushing past Wu's arm and walking into his room.

"An invite to Shintaro?" Wu repeated, shocked at the words. "This is remarkable, only a handful of outsiders have been allowed to visit in all of history," he reviewed, turning to look at Lloyd who now stood in his room.

"This is just what you need!" Lloyd said confidently.

Wu's wonder turned into confusion. "What do you mean?" he asked, his brows scrunched up in confusion.

"To get you out of your..." Lloyd paused to find the word, but failed. "Well, for the lack of a better word, funk," he said the last word carefully.

"I am not in a funk!" Wu argued quickly, his expression offended. He folded his arms over his chest in a manner of defending himself.

"I said, for the lack of a better word!" Lloyd argued back. "The words not the point, the point is that this trip could cheer you up. Take your mind off of things for a beat," Lloyd said in a more calm manner.

Wu sighed heavily. "Lloyd," he started with a tired tone.

"Please, uncle!" Lloyd pleaded, stepping closer to his uncle and lowering his hands Wu's shoulders. "It's just for the weekend, then you can go back to moping around," he added with a lighter tone, lifting his hands in the air.

Wu was quiet for a moment, his face full of ponder. Lloyd tried to put on his best pleading expression, his hands coming in front of his chest and his fingers intertwining. "Please?" he said once more.

A heavy sigh left Wu's lungs. "Fine..." he breathed out.

"Great, you won't regret this!" Lloyd shot his hands up into the air excitedly, stepping out of Wu's room. "Pack up, we're leaving in thirty," Lloyd noted and quickly walked away before Wu could protest any more.

"Do you think this'll be enough?" Harumi asked as she dug through her bag. She and Lloyd stood in the elevator, heading for the ship.

"Well, you have everything I'd pack so," Lloyd smiled with a shrug. Lloyd had helped her with packing, sharing his go-to packing checklist with her. "Besides if you forgot something, there's a good chance that someone else remembered it," he added.

"Yeah, you're right. I guess I'm just nervous, this is my first time going to a fabled far-away kingdom," Harumi chuckled, but Lloyd could notice her nervousness.

"Believe me, once you've seen one, you've kind of seen all of them," Lloyd smiled a lopsided smile, the two's eyes meeting. "Besides, you worked at the royal palace, you know how to act around royalty. You're such a princess yourself too," he added, a playful smirk on his lips.

Harumi snorted and turned to look at the floor. "If I'm a princess then you're the court jester," she shot back, a smirk on her lips as she turned back up to look at Lloyd.

Lloyd chuckled at the thought. "Do I amuse you?" he asked, his grin widening.

"A lot more if you wore a jester outfit."

"Whatever you want, princess," Lloyd bowed, with a smirk. Just then the elevator doors opened. "Ladies first," Lloyd said and extended his hand.

Lloyd noticed that a blush had spread across Harumi's cheeks again, and her bold expression had turned into a small smile. She rolled her eyes and walked out, Lloyd quickly following behind her.

They walked into Bounty, Jay and Kai meeting them there. Pixal and Zane were saying their goodbyes on the bridge, Pixal staying behind in case something were to happen in Ninjago while they were away. Soon Cole and Wu arrived at the ship, and lastly Nya arrived with their food supply in a crate.

The journey was estimated at four hours, Wu had found an old map of the fabled Kingdom's location. The time went by quickly though, the landscape turned into mountains, the temperature lowered by a few degrees and a cold wind picked up. Lloyd couldn't help but admire the views of the snowy mountains, apparently they were in the same area where the Wailing Alps were located.

"I've never been this far up north," Harumi gasped as she studied the snow covered mountains. They were all gathered around the steering wheel, Zane steering as of right now.

"We've been around here once, but it's still amazing," Cole answered with a mesmerized smile.

"What do you think, uncle?" Lloyd turned towards Wu. He had been quiet for most of the journey here, just watching the scenery glide by. But at least he was outside, not inside the ship. Lloyd took that as a win.

"Oh, sorry, I wasn't concentrating," Wu apologized, flinching as if woken from a dream. "The mountains are magnificent, I have visited the Northern mountains only on a few occasions," he commented with a small smile on his lips. Lloyd nodded with a smile.

The Bounty entered a canyon between the mountains. "We should be quite close now, but we need to get to a higher altitude. Destiny's Bounty has never flown quite this high," Zane said, the Bounty tilting slightly as he began to incline.

Lloyd grabbed the fence of the Bounty, steadying himself. He glanced over to Harumi, she had also grabbed onto the fence. She noticed Lloyd and gave a small smile, which Lloyd returned to her.

Lloyd's heart dropped, as a strange screech echoed through the mountains. Zane quickly steadied the Bounty and stopped. "What was that?" Lloyd quickly asked, frantically looking around himself.

"I don't think that was a mountain goat..." Jay gulped.

"Do some monsters live here?" Lloyd quickly questioned, switching his gaze between Wu and Zane.

"I am not aware of any, the scrolls have barely mentioned this kingdom, let alone a monster that would live in these mountains!" Wu answered quickly, the stress spreading through all of them.

"Zane?" Nya prompted, Zane clearly doing a quick search in his head.

He was quiet for a moment, then answered. "I only found one source discussing a foreign screech heard in these mountains, but..." he quieted down.

"But what?" Kai questioned, his voice antsy and shaky.

"The source was a log book of an expedition aiming to find the fabled kingdom. The last marking in the log book is of the strange screech..." Zane revealed with worry painting his face.

"They died!?" Jay yelled.

"Quiet!" Lloyd quickly commanded. "They could hear us! We need to get to the kingdom, right now!" urgency in his voice, he drew out his katana and eyed the mountains around them.

Zane quickly powered the ship up, the ship tilting into a steeper angle. "Hold on!" Zane said, as he sped the ship up.

Two screeches were heard, Lloyd frantically trying to find the source.

"Be ready for any-" "AAH!" Wu's instructions were cut short as Jay's yell filled everyone's ears. A giant white bat grabbed him and flew into the air!

"Jay!" Nya yelled after him, the bat carrying him higher and higher.

Lloyd turned around to see another one flying towards them from the back of the ship, quickly ducking as it flew above him. Behind him, he heard a grunt, as the same bat swiped Zane off the steering wheel and dropped him on the deck of the ship. Nya dove for the steering wheel, the bounty now diving downwards, making Lloyd falter.

The white bat landed on the ship, right in front of Zane. Lloyd quickly jumped forward to avoid falling over and kicked the hairy beast. It squealed and flew off the ship.

"They're trying to take us down!" Kai yelled behind him, as Lloyd quickly tried to help Zane up. Lloyd looked upwards, seeing that the bats were destroying their masts. They tore their sails and ripped one mast off completely! Kai quickly ran down and started to climb up the one remaining mast. He shot the bats with his fireballs, trying to shoo them off the ship.

"I'm saving Jay!" Cole yelled, but before Lloyd could question how, he jumped onto a bat flying by the ship!

"COLE ARE YOU CRAZY!" Harumi's voice yelled, as Lloyd followed the man riding one of the bats approach Jay, who was still held by the same bat.

"We need to get out of here!" Lloyd yelled, Nya tilting the ship upwards once again. Lloyd faltered backwards, seeing that the white bat carrying Jay had let go of him! Jay was flying airborne, but luckily Cole catched him!

Kai was still shooing the bats away with his powers, Lloyd deciding to do the same. Lloyd tried to shoot the bats with his energyballs, but was interrupted as both Cole and Jay were dropped off the bat that Cole had been riding!

"Cole and Jay!" was all that Lloyd could manage to yell out, pointing at the pair and looking up at Kai.

Kai noticed the two and threw out a rope. "Grab the rope!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.

Fortunately both of them did, and they swung themselves back onto the ship. Unfortunately the bats kept swooping down to the ship. Lloyd continued to try to shoot them away with his powers.

"How the hell do we stop them!?" Jay screamed, Wu and Harumi running down to the deck of the Bounty as well.

"Keep them away with your powers, we're almost there!" Lloyd yelled out, before turning around and noticing that one of the bats was swooping directly towards- "Master Wu!" he yelled out, and Zane quickly managed to tackle Wu down.

The bat flew past them, but hit the last remaining mast, knocking it down as well!

"Great, we're a ship without sails!" Jay yelled out.

Nya lost control of the ship, now instead of tilting upwards, it started tilting right! It was turning horizontal! They all lost their balance, sliding down the ship! Lloyd quickly turned his head to see that Harumi was sliding down next to him, a terrified expression on her face. Lloyd reached over and grabbed her hand tightly.

The ship kept tilting, all of them now standing on the edge of the ship. Lloyd looked down, seeing that they were thousands of meters in the air! They were approaching a mountain side quickly, all of them yelling loudly. "Brace for impact!" Lloyd yelled as he closed his eyes, and tightly squeezed Harumi's hand.

But

nothing happened.

In fact Lloyd felt like they slowed down their speed, and the ship was tilting back to the left, back to normal.

Lloyd opened his eyes and saw that the ship was indeed returning back to normal. "H-how?" Harumi questioned, the two letting go of each others' hand.

"Uh, guys..." Kai started, hanging off the side of the Bounty. "You're not gonna to believe this..." he said, looking down.

All of them walked over to him, peeking over the side. There Lloyd saw at least ten golden armored and winged soldiers carrying the ship!?

"What the f-" "Greetings, honored guests!" Jay was cut off by a voice behind them.

Lloyd quickly turned around, seeing that one of the flying soldiers landed on their ship! He wore golden armor with purple details and had golden wings. His skin was white as the snow around them, his features defined and chiseled. He carried himself with pride, but a smile rested on his lips.

"I am Hailmar, the right hand of King Vangelis. I welcome you to the Kingdom of Shintaro," he spoke eloquently and bowed down in front of the ninja.

Lloyd quickly bowed back before gasping out: "You just saved our lives!"

"It is the least we could do. The Dire Bats are a plague! They are one of the many reasons we discourage visitors, for their own safety," he explained with a smile. "Dire bats? That's what those things are called?!" Jay questioned. "A fitting name if you ask me," Cole scoffed.

"We want to apologize for not mentioning the bats in your invite, it must've slipped the secretary's mind," he apologized once more with a regretful expression. "But let us put our woes behind us and welcome you to the Ivory City of Shintaro!" he finished as the ship rose above the clouds.

There a divine city rested across the mountain top, looking down at the clouds.