Chapter Text
The rain wasn't letting up even with the shelter the giant had found.
It had been several months since they left their homelands to explore the world beyond Dradevows border, to be away from the gripes of their parents and siblings.
Shaking off the excess water from their mask, she noticed something in the distance, getting closer to it she began to make out the figure of a small child on the muddy ground.
'At this rate...this child will never survive..'
She was in a dilemma now, save the child or leave it to the elements....Hearing the rattling inside the wooden box she carries on her back, she mustered up the courage to pick up the kid and run to the nearest inn.
Goodness, what a day.
.
.
Lloyd groaned as he opened his green eyes, instead of being met with mud and ran, he was met with a wooden ceiling and something cooking right next to him.
"Meow~"
"Hm? You woke up."
The kid's eyes snapped to a black cat with a green stripe on his fur and a tall purple haired woman covered in scars.
"W-Where..." The blonde child slowly stood up, taking notice that he was changed out of his black hoodie to more comfortable clothes and a wet towel falling from his forehead.
"Oi, don't sit up so quickly." He heard the giant woman scold him, instead of yelling and the usual hit to the face, he was met with a gentle hand pressing against his forehead and a stern yet careful look on her face.
'That's a big scar..' He thought to himself as he took note of the large scar (or maybe birthmark) on the right side of her face.
"Looks like you're fevers gone down. Good lord, what kind of shit happened to ya kid?" The boy watched as the giant person carefully scooped some kind of soup into a bowl and some medicine wrapped in a cloth.
He watched her place those things infront of him with a spoon. It smelled so good his tummy rumbled making him fluster.
"Go on, Eat." It looked like she wasn't taking no for an answer, as she soon started to eat alongside the weird cat, who was staring at him as it ate.
Mustering up the courage, he gently sipped on the rim of the bowl before whining in pain. "I don't need to tell you it's hot, goodness." The purple haired woman grabbed a jug of water and placed it in front of him.
The cat looked like it was laughing at him making the blond boy pout as he drank from the jug.
'Stupid cat..'
.
"Phew...that was so good.."
River collected the empty bowls of food as the child (who she later found out was Lloyd) was situated near the fire with an unwilling cat used a plush/guard.
"So you're gonna tell me why you were so busted up when I found ya?" The blonde huffed as began his story about he, the son of the Great Lord Garmadon whoever that was, bullied and pushed out by the kids at his boarding school.
Lloyd was abandoned as a baby and was under the care of Darkly's Boarding School for Bad Boys (stupid name in her opinion), tormented by the other kids for various reasons.
Good lord these kids were brutal.
Darkly's was a familiar name to the woman but they made no comment to that as the green cat reluctantly purred to the kid, who began to pat his ears. "Then it started raining and I got all sleepy.."
"You mean you got beat up by these for a majority of your life, neglected by your caretakers and...How old are you?" Lime green eyes stared at olive green as Lloyd pointed up 6 fingers to her. "About this much."
"Mrooooww..."
Even the cat knew that was fucked up.
"It's best if you stayed the night, its raining down like crazy out there. I'll drop you off by the gates in the morning." Lloyd whined at this before he was shushed by the room next door.
"But I don't wannaaaaa.."
"Then how about sleeping in the rain?"
That shut him up.
'No, you're already on your own with the weird cat you picked up...Just send him off to a better orphanage and we'll be all good.' She thought to herself as she watched the kid get bullied by the green cat.
Dear lord, and she already had one clingy kid from the other town over.
"Go brush your teeth before you hunker down for the night. Alexi, you watch him for me." Alexi, the green cat, grumbled as he batted the blonde's leg to stand up.
"Lady, the weird green cat is so mean to meeeee..."
Bonk!
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!"
"Goddamit Alexi.."
.
.
"I'll be back."
"Safe Travels out there!"
Donning on her mask and out layers of clothing, the giant of a woman carried the young Garmadon to the gates of Jamanakai Village.
Lloyd began to go on about some carriage and being carried like a god before being batted again by Alexi. The masked person sighed before noticing a fairly large wooden box in the alleyway.
"What's wrong? You stopped."
"Stay put." Gently putting the boy down, she grabbed the wooden box, inspecting its quality before deeming it good enough. Tying a rope to the edge of the box, they picked up a confused Lloyd from his spot and placed him in the box.
"Good, now hush."
"Mrrruuuuwwww.." Such a bratty cat she had picked up, even she could tell he was talking shit about her.
"Tall Lady, Jamanakai Village is like on top of the huge mountain up there! It'll take days to get up there!" Lloyd did his best to stop her from leaving him but she proved to be too stubborn as he watched her grab a weird pouch from thin air.
"Then it will take me 6 minutes to get up there."
"I have decided..."
Risking a glance to the boy, she could see him looking at her with admiration and a new found objective. "You're going to be my second in command! To the son of Garmadon!"
"Again, no idea who that is..."
"Really!? Surely you heard about my dad, Lord Garmadon, The Lord of Destruction! You must be living under a rock!"
'Well sorry for not being close to him ya brat.' She soured as they grumbled all the way to their destination, at the bottom of the Mountain of Impossible Heights.
"So what kind of voodoo are you gonna do? Summon a giant dragon? A staircase? Oh! Oh! I know! A rocket!"
"A rocket-No, but you're right on the giant bit."
Alexi jumped down from her shoulder and landed on the ground, digging a small hole in the ground. "Thank you sweetie." The green cat nibble on her hand before retreating to the box with Lloyd.
From the pouch, she took out a yellow dirt ball and placed it into the small hole before covering it up. Taking a breathe, she pricked their finger and let a small droplet of blood come in contact with the closed hole.
The trio waited, until the earth started to rumble.
Lloyd shrank in fear, hugging the hissing cat as the dirt ball began to sprout into a giant stalk of green.
Grabbing both child and feline, she quickly hopped on to one of the leaves as the stalk began to touch the clouds. Lloyd both gasped in amazement and yelled in fear as the view from the town below began to grow farther away from them.
The wind whistled as the view of the top of the mountain began to come to view. Three hard slaps to the stalk and it abruptly stopped growing causing Lloyd to hold on her tigher.
"Don't let go of me okay?"
The child nodded while the cat was digging his claws into their arm. Jumping off the leaf, she successfully landed on the mountain ledge before picking the boy off of her.
"Okay, now that we're here. See ya."
The kid gaped as he watched the giant woman and her green cat prepare to jump on to a leaf but before they could, he hugged on her leg. "Kid, let go of my leg."
"No."
"Kid-"
"Take me with you!" The villagers of Jamanakai watched at the screaming child in a black hoodie stuck on to a giant in a mask, who was trying to pry said child of their leg.
.
"Finally...away...fuck.."
Both giant and cat managed to escape the clutches of the blonde child, who was still sniffling when they left. River knew that it was dangerous for him to join their journey, he was still a child after all.
Lords above, she hopes that village will take care of the kid.
Alexi sighed and laid near the wooden box she carried as they set up their little stand to sell medicine, from the looks of it, her patients were doing better now but even then, there were still those who were sick.
Their entire afternoon was spent on selling and trading medicine to the villagers both young and old, showcasing handmade and commissioned jewelry to the rich and eager eyes of the people.
Soon, the sun began to set.
The green cat was woken to the masked face of the giant who picked him up, grumbling out an annoyed meow, the feline was met with a black scarf with a small bell chime attached to it.
He tilted his small head in confusion. "This way, you won't get lost while we travel around. I'm still trying to understand this lands text and writing after all."
It made sense but something about this....seemed intimate and brought back buried feelings from deep within. Shaking it off, he squeaked for her to hurry up and tied it on him.
The masked woman chuckled at this while she tied the small scarf around the cat's neck. Nodding in approval, she brought out a small mirror from behind and showed it to him.
"What do you think? Took a while to get the right dye but I think I pulled it off." The cat sat up stunned as he saw himself in the mirror, the giant merely brushed it off as surprise as she took the mirror to be stored in her box.
"Come on, let's go back to the inn."
For once, the cat willingly followed her this time as they both walked back to the inn they were staying.
Guess good things did happen that day.