The group, now consisting of four, continued their dangerous trek through the forest. All was going well at the moment. It had been at least twenty-three minutes without getting attacked by any foe or dangerous creature.

At least, it was peaceful until Darreth decided he wanted a closer look at Cole's wand. The archer had grabbed it from the fairy's grasp and waved it around, presumably mocking Cole. "Hey! Give it back!" Cole demanded, trying to grab it back from the idiotic man. "Be careful!"

Just as Cole demanded he be careful, Darreth, being the... man... he is, accidentally pressed the in case of emergency button on the wand. Cole gave Darreth a mortified look before his shoes began to glow and Cole lunged forward as his shoes took control. "DARRETHHHHHH!" he screamed.

Darreth laughed hastily then looked between the elf and the knight. "Heh... a little help?"

Kai and Jay both immediately shook their heads. "Uh-uh," Jay protested. "You made the fairy angry, you deal with his wrath."

Kai patted Darreth's shoulder. "Yeeeah, you're on your own this time, pal." He then gestured towards the distant figure of Cole. "Have fun!"

Darreth groaned before running after Cole. "I'M SO SORRY!" he screamed. "PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!"

As soon as Darreth was gone, Kai started chuckling and sat down on a nearby tree stump. "Wanna join me, elf?" he asked Jay who was holding in laughter at the situation. "There just happens to be two conveniently placed tree stumps right here." He patted the second tree stump.

Jay grinned at him then sat down, letting the bag fall off of his shoulder. "Oof, that feels better!" he sighed, closing his eyes and almost leaning into the breeze that was gently blowing around them.

"Okay, you've been complaining about that bag all day," Kai said. "What's in it?"

"Ah ah, an elf never reveals his secrets," Jay told him.

Kai rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless. "Eh, I'll find out eventually. I have my ways." Jay didn't reply, instead he just took a breath of fresh air and sighed, content. "It sure is a nice day, isn't it?"

Jay chuckled lightly. "It usually is in here." He opened his eyes, blue eyes meeting Kai's amber ones. "At least, it was until The Prince took over." The amber eyes now widened. "It used to always be sunny and happy and just... just perfect here, ya know. All of the creatures were happy and we all lived in peace and harmony... we haven't had a nice day ever since The Prince took over."

"I-It's nice today," Kai said, a little shaken at how serious Jay looked and sounded.

The corners of Jay's mouth twitched. "I think that's because you're here," he informed him. "You are the forest's savior after all."

Kai gulped before hesitantly asking, "What exactly did Prince Julien do? I mean I know he had the animals help him but... how did he take control of everything so quickly?"

The elf sighed, running a hand through his curls. "No one really knows for certain. We all welcomed him once Shaktilar Garmadon let him in, he is an elder and we all trusted him. Some say he's got dark magic, others say he used hypnobrai venom to hypnotize us." Jay laughed a bit at that. "Crazy, right?"

Kai threw the elf a half smile. "Heh, yeah."

"But," Jay continued, "he just really does have a way with animals I guess and they did his bidding. Maybe he made the animals convince people, maybe he just slowly began taking over and we didn't notice because we trusted him. But... once he began to take control, he took away our homes... separated our families... all because he hated our kind." Jay blinked back a few tears and Kai was silently extremely impressed with Jay's acting skills (honestly, the blue ninja had been a little over the top the entire time but now... wow!).

"He forced a lot of us to work for him in his castle," Jay explained. "Some creatures like other trolls and some goblins and giants sided with him of their own free will. Shaktilar tried talking to them but... well, that's why he has that scar on his cheek. He is almost untouchable. They're willing to hurt him but they just can't bring themselves to kill him or take him away from his bridge. They still respect him. Cole and I are some of the lucky ones who managed to escape. And, luckily, we were able to find you!" The elf nudged Kai with his shoulder and winked at him. "You'll save us all! I know you will!"

Kai gently smiled at the elf. "I really hope I can."

"I know you can!" Jay chirped, smiling back. "You're Sir Kai! The noblest, bravest knight in all of Ninjago!"

Kai's chest puffed up in pride at the praise. "Well thank you, Elf Jay. You are one of the best companions a knight like me could have."

Jay blushed but smiled. "Thanks, Sir Kai. I--!"

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

"Duck!" Kai yelled, diving towards the ground and pulling Jay with him. A second later, Cole shot over their heads, still flying out of control.

"DARRETH I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!!!" the enraged fairy shrieked.

Darreth came tumbling out of the woods. "I'm sorry, Cole! Please don't hurt me!" he pleaded.

Kai rolled his eyes and stood up. "Don't worry, Sir Kai shall save the day!" he declared, posing. "Darreth, give me Cole's wand."

Darreth, confused, nonetheless handed over the wand. Kai waved the wand around with a flourish... and pressed the 'stop' button on the wand.

"WOOOOOAAAAAH!!!" Cole screamed as he finally slowed his flight... and promptly crashed into a tree. "OW!"

"Huh," Darreth scratched his head. "How did I not see that button?"

Kai shrugged. "It is alright, Sir Darreth. It is rather hard to spot."

"HARD TO SPOT?!" Cole demanded, hovering over to them while rubbing a bump on his head. "IT'S CLEARLY LABELLED 'STOP'! AND IT'S RIGHT NEXT TO THE 'IN CASE OF EMERGENCY' BUTTON! HOW CAN YOU MISS IT?!"

"Uhhhh," Darreth sweatdropped. "Oops?"

"OOPS?! WHY I OUGHTA—!"

"Whoa, whoa," Kai got in between Cole and Darreth. "Cole... I'm giving you one free hit and that's it. Darreth, I'm sorry but... you kinda deserve it."

"What!" Darreth exclaimed.

"Oooooh, this is gonna be good," Cole cracked his knuckles.

The archer whimpered pathetically and threw his arms over his face. "I promise I'll never do that again!" he waited. "Sir Kai spared me, can't you?"

"Uhh yeah. I'm not as noble as Sir Kai," Cole informed him, drawing his left fist back. "I'm an angry fairy and I'm about to pull some magic and make you pay for—"

"Shhh!" Kai suddenly shushed.

Cole pouted. "Oh c'mon! You said that I get one free hit-!"

"Quiet!" Kai hissed, eyes darting around. "Do you hear something?"

Cole was about to retort 'no' when he suddenly heard the noise that Kai was referring to.

Thud... thud... thud... thud...

"Uh, w—what is that?" Darreth asked nervously, his knees knocking together.

Kai turned to face Jay. "Elf Jay?"

"Hahaha," Jay laughed nervously, fidgeting with the ends of his curls. "I... might have forgotten to mention that there are a couple giants that like to hang out in this part of the woods."

"Giants?!" Kai exclaimed, both fearful and excited about the prospects of fighting a giant.

Cole rolled his eyes. "It's not as exciting as you might think it is. It's just—"

"Cole!" Jay hissed through his teeth. "Stay. In. Character."

Cole rolled his eyes again but stopped talking.

Kai frowned. He didn't like spoilers, but it would be nice to know what he was up against—another robot made by Jay, perhaps?

In any case, the knight decided that the best course of action would be to hide. "Everyone, find a hiding spot," he ordered, already ducking behind a large tree. "And whatever you do, stay silent. If a giant comes this way, I'll sneak up on him and surprise it."

Jay hid behind another tree next to the one Kai was hiding behind while Darreth ducked into a big berry bush. Cole carefully flew up and hid amongst the leaves in the tree Jay was hiding behind.

The thuds from before grew louder. Kai carefully and quietly drew his sword, gripping it tightly but taking care to keep it hidden.

After a few moments, the giant finally entered his line of sight. Kai's eyes bulged and he immediately bit his lip so he wouldn't make noise.

Standing in the clearing in front of him was Lloyd. His entire face and hands were painted a rather dark shade of green and and it looked as though his eyebrows had grown bigger for now they were as bushy as Cole's. He was wearing a white shirt with a leather brown vest and brown pants.

Now, Lloyd was always in the middle when it came height wise. Taller than Cole, Nya, and Jay but shorter than Kai and Zane. Right now, he was the tallest person Kai had ever seen. The green ninja was usually around 5'7, but now he appeared to be around 8'8 with the added height of the gigantic stilts that Kai was 98% positive that Lloyd was wearing.

Lloyd was a giant.

He rarely got intimidated by Lloyd—the only time he could remember being intimidated by him was when he lost his cool during the final battle. Other than that, the green ninja had always been his blanket-loving little brother. But, now, when his little brother had at least three and a half feet on him (which was highly unacceptable) and was carrying what looked like a very realistic (though probably fake) enormous club with spikes on it, Kai could easily say that he was slightly (if not very) intimidated right now.

The giant was stalking down the path the four had previously been trekking down, grumbling incoherent words under his breath. Once he reached a certain point along the path, he turned around and began marching in the opposite direction.

The knight turned towards the tree Jay was behind and Cole was in, then mouthed, What is he doing?

Jay perked up a bit. He peered around the tree to make sure Lloyd's back was turned before he stepped out from behind the tree a bit. He made his body ridgid then put a hand to his forehead and saluted. He then stiffly walked a few steps forward, his hands at his side and then sharply turned and did the same in the opposite direction. He repeated the action three more times before loosening and bowing.

Kai saw movement above him out of the corner of his eye, and when he looked up, he saw Cole face palming. The fairy did some kind of gesture that looked like a 'K' being thrown on his forehead, then he pointed to Jay.

Kai didn't know what that meant, but he was guessing it was something along the lines of 'idiot'. He's patrolling? He mouthed to the two.

Jay nodded enthusiastically while Cole made two 'O's' with his hands then turned them into some jazz hands of sort which Kai assumed meant something like 'yes', but it was probably something ruder than 'yes' considering Cole rolled his eyes at him.

The fairy made two 'y's' with his hands then lowered them, and then he had all of his fingers out and shook his hands back and forth. He then moved his fingers in such a way that Kai could only make out a 'K' and the 'I' (okay but his fingers really were moving fast and, well, his name only had three letters in it and those were the only three letters he knew!).

Kai just raised an eyebrow at the fairy and shook his head. I have no idea what you are saying, he mouthed over exaggeratingly.

Jay then caught his attention by waving his arms frantically. Cole sighed and looked down at him as well. The elf got into a fighting stance and pretended he was fighting with a sword, then suddenly he paused and held out a time out sign. The elf then dramatically pretended to run away, then turned around and shrugged his shoulders.

Kai nodded in understanding. Ohhh, 'now what'. That makes sense, he mouthed at them. Jay smiled proudly while Cole threw his hands in the air and pretended to bang his head against the tree.

Kai quietly drew his sword out and was about to explain his plan, when Darreth ruined everything.

"What're you guys talking about?" he asked a little too loudly for comfort. "I want to know! I'm a valuable member of this team!"

"Ah-ha!" they heard a terrible, fake deep voice exclaim, followed by the sound of multiple thumps.

The eyes of Kai, Cole, and Jay widened and they sharply turned towards Darreth.

"Are you kidding me!?" Kai whisper-shouted incredulously, getting into a legit fighting stance now.

"This is why you should have just died!" Jay whispered. "Well, not actually die-died but just— gah you know what I mean!"

Cole just repeated the 'K' - forehead gesture over and over again while legitimately banging the side of his head against the tree.

Darreth just shrugged. "Whoops?"

Kai pressed his back back into the tree, gripping his sword tightly and motioning for the others to fully resume hiding once more.

The thumping grew louder and louder until the giant came back into the clearing. The tall being slowly began scanning the area, presumably for signs of life. His eyes finally rested on the bush Darreth was hiding behind.

Kai mentally groaned as Lloyd approached the bush and split it open in the middle, revealing a cowering Darreth (who conveniently forgot that he had a weapon with him). "Ha ha! Luh-Loyd found you—you... Sir Darreth?" the giant's eyebrows flew upwards at the man beneath him. "Luh-Loyd thought you were dead!"

"I... uhh... Sir Kai spared me! I do have a family you know!" Darreth spat out proudly.

Lloyd stared at him dumbfoundedly. "But you don't have a family! I—Luh-Loyd, uh, killed them!"

Kai couldn't help it, he really couldn't. He burst into laughter.

The knight dropped his sword and slumped against the tree, clutching his stomach as he laughed. He could hear the sound of Jay's laugh behind him and some thumps from the tree above Jay.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Luh-Loyd?!" Kai wheezed. "WHO CAME UP WITH THAT?!"

"Hey!" Jay exclaimed, "Lloyd and I did!"

Kai was about to make fun of it some more when he heard a few unsettlingly close thumps. Suddenly, the sun above him was blocked by a rather tall and angry looking Lloyd.

The giant pounded his fists against his chest and screamed, "LUH-LOYD... ANGRY!"

"Congrats" Cole said sarcastically from up in the tree. "You made him mad, way to go, Sir Kai!"

"Shut up and help me, fairy boy!" Kai cried uneasily as the giant reached out to grab him. He rolled out of the way then quickly stood up, grabbing his sword in the process. Before he could use it, though, the giant was towering over him, and Kai's last thought before he was picked up from the ground was WHY DID THEY HAVE TO MAKE HIM SO TALL! I DON'T LIKE BEING THIS SHORT! IT'S NOT FAIR!

The giant smirked at him, almost as if he could read his thoughts. "Luh-Loyd will crush you, puny knight!" he thundered, causing the group to scream. He then carelessly tossed him to the ground. Kai skidded across the dirt, his sword falling out of his grasp, before he plowed head-first into a tree.

The knight groaned. "Did anyone catch the license plate on the freaking truck that hit me?" he mumbled. He laid on the ground to catch his breath for a moment because the giant didn't seem to be too interested in him at the moment, and just as he was about to sit up, he heard Jay desperately screaming.

"NO LLOYD! NO DON'T DO THIS NO! THIS WASN'T IN THE SCRIPT!"

"You laugh at Luh-Loyd, you laugh at yourself!" the giant screeched.

Kai finally managed to sit up and was about to scrape some dirt off of his face, when he suddenly heard Jay scream bloody murder and was forced back onto the ground when something heavy barreled into him.

"Jaaaaaaay, what the heck is in your bag! Something in it is digging into my spine!" Kai groaned, shoving the bag off of him.

"Ugh, an elf never reveals his secrets," Jay replied, gasping for air. "When did Lloyd get so strong!"

The elf and the knight both glared at the tree Cole was hiding in when they heard a copious amount of laughter coming from the fairy.

"Hahaha! You guys deserved that sooooo much!" he chuckled.

His chuckling died down, however, when the giant, who was just a little shorter than where Cole was in the tree, stomped over towards him. "You think this is funny, fairy?" he growled.

"Heh... kind of..." Cole said, slowly standing up and grasping onto the branch above him, pulling himself up to the next level of the tree.

"Then why don't you join them!" the giant snarled, reaching upwards and grabbing a hold of the fairy's shoe.

Cole yelped as he was plucked from his tree and was being dangled upside down. "Nononono, Lloyd, c'mon man! Don't do this please! I'm a freaking fairy, for goodness sakes, let me have some fun!"

"Luh-Loyd is having too much fun to listen to puny fairies," Lloyd smirked before tossing Cole to the ground.

"WHY DOES LIFE HATE ME?!" Cole screamed as he 'flew' through the air. He gasped as he hit the trunk of a tree hard then fell to the earth, groaning in pain.

"Karma..." Jay muttered.

"Shut up," Cole uttered in pain. "Shut up!"

The giant laughed. "You have been defeated, Sir Kai!" he gloated. "Luh-Loyd will crush your bones and make them into bread!"

"Ewww," Darreth stuck out his tongue in disgust.

Kai growled and staggered to his feet, picking his sword off of the ground. "You haven't defeated me yet!" he cried, charging at the giant.

Lloyd growled and swiped at Kai with his club, but the knight was able to dodge it by somersaulting past the giant. He rose to his feet and stabbed at Lloyd, the tip of his sword poking at where Lloyd's 'knees' should be.

The giant yelled and stumbled backwards. Seeing an opportunity, Kai charged once again. Growling, Lloyd swung his club and this time succeeded in hitting Kai. The knight let out a gasp as the club connected with his side. While the spikes were made of a soft foam and didn't actually hurt, the main part of the club was made of plastic and therefore hurt.

Kai flew to the right, his feet skidding across the earth and kicking up dust. He held his side in slight pain even as he fended off another swing of Lloyd's club.

"Sir Kai!" he heard Darreth exclaim. "Don't worry, I'll help you!"

This isn't gonna end well, Kai thought grimly, not at all positive that Darreth would actually 'help' him.

Seconds later, however, he heard the thwack of a bowstring being loosed followed quickly by Lloyd yelling in pain as a boxing glove smacked him in the face.

"Oops," Darreth muttered. "I was aiming for the chest. My bad!"

"THAT HURT!" Lloyd bellowed angrily. "When Luh-Loyd gets his hands on you, puny archer, he'll—wh—whoa!"

Kai watched as Lloyd almost tripped over his own feet, stumbling for quite awhile before he regained his balance. "Stupid stilts," he heard the giant mutter under his breath.

Kai's eyes widened as he got an idea. "Jay!" he called out to the elf, who had finally recovered. "Do you have any rope?!"

Jay peeled up and dug into his bag. "This good?!" he asked, pulling out a long coil of rope.

"Perfect!" Kai declared as he raced closer to the elf. "You and Cole take a different end of the rope and hide behind some trees."

"Huh? Why—oh!" Jay's sapphire blue eyes lit up in realization. "Sir Kai you're a genius! C'mon Cole!" he chirped, dragging the disgruntled fairy behind him. The two creatures ran around the clearing, discreetly getting behind Lloyd and Kai.

The knight drew his sword and pointed it at the giant. "Surrender now or I will have no choice but to destroy you!" he declared.

"Luh-Loyd never quits!" the giant retorted.

Kai sighed. "Well, you asked for it," he told him. The knight signaled for Darreth to fire another boxing glove at the giant, and while he did that, Kai charged at Lloyd with the tip of his sword pointing at his heart.

The force of the plunger hitting Lloyd's face and the panic from getting charged at caused the giant to stagger and back right into the rope that Jay and Cole were holding.

A giant crash echoed throughout the clearing as the giant toppled to the ground. Before he could get up and retaliate, a sword, a knife, a wand, and a toilet plunger were all pointed in his direction.

"It's over, Luh-Loyd," Kai said proudly. "Now, I'll give you a choice. You either lead us to The Prince's castle or I'll let my friend here shoot this quite possibly used toilet plunger at your face. What'll it be?"

Lloyd nervously looked between the plunger and Kai before dramatically sighing. "Luh-Loyd has been defeated."

The group cheered and let the giant get up. "Oh Sir Kai!" Jay squealed, hugging the knight. "You saved us once again! You truly are amazing!"

"Yeah!" Darreth chimed in, smiling. "Everything turned out to be just fine!"

Cole growled and glared at the archer. "We wouldn't even be in this mess if you hadn't decided to open your big mouth and give us away! This is why you should have let Kai defeat you earlier!"

"Cole!" Jay hissed. "Stay in character!"

Darreth chuckled nervously. "I mean, it could've been worse?" he tried.

The tips of Cole's ears turned red with anger. Without any warning, the fairy flew up to the archer and sucker-punched him right in the face. Poor Darreth dropped like a sack of potatoes, out before he knew what hit him.

Cole took a few breaths. "That," he said, smirking. "Felt amazing."

Everyone sweatdropped and took a massive step away from the fairy. "... okay," Kai said slowly, eyeing the fairy cautiously. "Um... how about we continue to The Prince's castle?"

"That," Cole started, "sounds like an excellent idea."

----

If you're wondering about the gestures that Cole is doing, he's doing American Sign Language(ASL). musicalsaregood and I both like to headcannon that Cole knows/is basically fluent in ASL. Zane kinda knows ASL, while the others can only recognize their names. musicalsaregood once wrote a story where Cole is deaf and I started writing my own story about it too.  :D

The 'K' gesture means "stupid" or "idiot"; the 'O' symbol with the jazz hands means "obviously"; and the 'Y' gesture followed by the bunch of hand gestures that Kai couldn't understand mean "What now, K-N-I-G-H-T?"(there's no sign for "knight" in ASL, so Cole has to fingerspell it. Hence why Kai recognized the 'K' and the 'I' sign, since those two letters are in his name). 

Also, I was the one who suggested that Lloyd the giant talks in the third person. I was also the one who suggested that he calls himself 'Luh-Loyd'. Hehe. XD

Also also, I wrote the part where Cole punched Darreth in the face. I was gonna have Cole hit him lower, but musicalsaregood vetoed me. -_- She knows me too well...

Next chapter: Death is lurking around the corner for one of our merry bunch.....well, not ACTUAL death, but y'know....