The Colours of Fall

"WHOOO HOOO!" Jay yelled. "I love the fall solstice!" The little blue figure ran along with branch before snatching a leaf, his weight pulled it off the tree and he used it as a parachute to float to the next branch where his friends were gathered.

"Why?" Kai raised an eyebrow as he observed the activities around him. "You rarely need blue during fall."

Lloyd shook his head as the two bickered, casting his green gaze on the activities below. The sparkless were getting ready for a big celebration. He let out a chuckle as he saw the colourful masks they creating. Dragons with large teeth and sneers, des orated in runes and ancient symbols. Though the dragons were the original spirits of colour the sparkless had it all wrong during modern times. It was the descendants of the oni and the dragons that created colour.

The oni sought to destroy colour while dragons created it. The very first masters of the spirits of the rainbow was a children of both oni and dragon. Which was how Cole and Zane were able to create black and white. Lloyd could see the other spirits crouched in the trees surrounding the parks. Kai shot a wink at Skylor, the spirit of orange or amber. She kept her gaze ahead but a small smile appeared on her lips.

Lloyd ignored them, watching as a sparkless, a girl, was carefully making a dragon mask. It was green, a representation of him , with golden horns and instead of the mischievous sneer that Kai's had or the long line lolling tongue that Jay's featured he was given a wise expression. A faraway look the the pupils she painted as she carefully made touch ups. She was an artist, she had made almost all the masks and all the other mask makers rarely compared to the ones she made. He had seen her last fall solstice. Sparkless always caught his curiosity. It was weird the things they used like phones or other technology. Lloyd never understood why some fancy cars needed to be a lime green.

"Lloyd," Cole nudged the spirit of green gently. "Stay focused, we need to renew the colours today." Every fall solstice in the light of the golden spirit all the colour spirits would gather and renew their colours. It was an ancient tradition and as the golden light washed over them they would grow more powerful for that night. Then they'd spread the fall colours throughout Ninjago.

Lloyd nodded, trying to snap out of it. But as a large wind blew through the park his attention wavered when the girl's mask was torn from her grasp. Before Cole could stop him Lloyd was off, swinging and vaulting the branches before hitching a ride on one of the falling leaves, his planted his feet on its yellow surface, riding it like a surfboard as it tumbled to the ground before jumping lightly onto a flower just by the mask. It had gotten caught in the large burning bushes deep in the edges of the park.

Lloyd could hear the girl pushing through the underbrush. Lloyd knew he shouldn't be doing it but something made him take the pendant around his neck and close his eyes as green energy encircled him.

*****

Kiara huffed as the branches scraped her arms and the grass cut her ankles.

"I'll be sure to give an ugly scar for Morro's mask." She muttered, hoping the spirit of transparent colour and wind would hear her.

But she paused when a green light erupted through the brush, it was a soft glow with small glittering particles but it was gone just as quick as it came, so fast she almost thought she missed it.

Kiara narrowed her eyes, pushing through the burning bushes and gasped at what she saw. It was a boy, a teenage boy just her age. He was crouched on the small clearing, his clothes smooth for a guy in the middle of sharp spiky weeds. He stood, before turning toward her, eyes wide as she caught sight of her. He was white with soft blonde hair that fell in waves and landed just before his chin. He wore soft green clothes, though they were beautiful they were unlike any style choice she's ever seen. On his neck was a necklace, like a choker with a leather tie and a pendant decorated in the symbol of the green spirit. His eyes were the same brilliant colours as the shining pendant, almost glowing as he glanced at something in his hands.

"I believe this is yours." He said softly, holding the item out to her.

Kiara gaped but glanced down to see him passing her the mask. Not a scratch on it. "Thank you." She furrowed her brow. "I haven't seen you around before, who are you?"

He moved by her, stepping and pushing through the underbrush. "My names Lloyd." He answered simply.

"Kiara." She tilted her head. "You came for our festival? The Colours of Fall? I assume you heard of it, we have the best celebration in all of Ninjago for the fall solstice."

"Something like that." Lloyd chuckled as he moved into the open. "You're making mask?" It wasn't really a question, more of a statement.

Kiara nodded. "I've been making them since before I could walk." Kiara walked to a table and sat down. She took the one she had been working on for the golden spirit but she's been having trouble thinking of a good design. There were many representations online but none of them worked and her concept board was getting crowded.

The boy grasped one of the spirit of cyan. A snort escaped his lips as he eyed the snarling face. Kiara frowned, a glare piecing her brown eyes as she stared at him. "What?"

Lloyd froze, like a deer in the headlights as he swallowed hard and placed the mask down. "Nothing, it's just a very interesting take." His lips curved in an amused smile.

Kiara took out her sketch pad, flipping to the concept of the water spirit. "You don't like my representation?"

"It's good, really good." Lloyd said quickly. "But not exactly how I see her."

Kiara raised an eyebrow. "Alright, I'd like to see you do better."

Thinking back she probably should've checked to see if he had an art major or something because fifteen minutes later he had a rough sketch of a beautiful water goddess. A petite girl with dark hair and sharp Asian eyes. Water and silver colours circled her figure and she wore a similar style dress to the one Lloyd wore. Layered fabrics, beautiful designs, and weaponry like the one he wore on his back. Now that Kiara saw it she assumed he was dressed for the festival already.

"Wow." Kiara tilted her head. "I rarely see people going in a human direction."

Lloyd snorted. "Human? No, she's not a sparkless."

"Sparkless?" Kiara repeated.

"Yeah, a sparkless. Someone without the spark of the spirit." Lloyd nodded to her. "Like you."

"And you." Kiara shook her head, amused. He was talking as if he wasn't one himself, he must get very engaged in his religious history of the spirits.

Lloyd didn't add onto that statement, watching as Kiara mounded on careful details around the eyes of the golden spirit.

"You haven't sculpted on any of the facial shapes." Lloyd said in surprise. Usually they was among the first pieces to be moulded on.

"I can't think of any good design ideas." Kiara nodded to her board full of pictures and magazine cut outs. Lloyd took the board, examining it.

"You know, some of the most powerful dragons had large crown-like crests spend their head and didn't have any horns except for a spike on the bridge of its nose." Lloyd told her.

"Are you a historian or something?" Kiara questioned as he drew out what he was thinking.

"Or something." Lloyd laughed. Her eyes widened in awe at the small pencil drawing he produced before ripping it out an pinning it to the board. Before she could say anything a whistle blew, marking the start of people's arrival. Kiara set down her mask knowing she could work on it later.

"Do you want to walk around the festival?" She offered.

He hesitated, eyes moving to the cluster of trees to the side before agreeing with a smile. Kiara introduced him to the games and activities, laughing at his reaction to them, he seemed unfamiliar with technology but was good at the carnival games. Though, he almost looked offended at the play they watched. Actors portraying the green spirit, the cyan spirit, and the blue spirit acted out their journey to find the ancient keytana. Kiara laughed along as the green spirit tripped around and messed things up but Lloyd's mouth fell open and his face twisted in disgust at the actions.

Lloyd was currently trying his first stick of roast Apple glazed kebabs as Kiara laughed at his antics. But they were stopped short when a hand latched onto his shoulder and spun him around. Kiara was shocked to see an older boy. Brown hair stuck unnaturally in the air like flames and a long scar over his one eye. He wore similar clothes to Lloyd's but rather in red and the fire spirit symbol on his neck, his almost orange eyes lit with fury.

"We were looking everywhere for you! Master Wu is so mad and if he finds out you were playing and eating..." He snatched Lloyd's kebab. "Whatever this is he'll be furious! We thought you'd been taken by Garmadon!"

Kiara's brows furrowed and his eyes widened when he saw her, hissing quietly in Lloyd's ear before turning to drag him away, taking a bite of the kebab. He paused and stared at the treat, taking another before eating the whole thing.

"Before we go we need to find another few of these." He told Lloyd.

"What's going on?" Kiara asked hotly. "Is this your bratty friend or something?"

"That is a good description." Lloyd piped before flame guy cut in.

"I'm his brother, Kai." He told me, eyes daring me to challenge him. "And he's not supposed to be here, the idiot. Sorry miss, we'll be going-"

Lloyd dug his heels in, shooting Kai a pleading look. Eyes wide like a puppies.

  "Don't!" Kai groaned. He's eyes widened, a pout forming on his lips. "Lloyd, you're killing me! You know that's not fair!"

  "Maybe I'll wander the festival alone.... My boyfriend dumped me, my friends left me-" Kiara joined in, a somber look on her face.

  "FINE!" Kai huffed. "But you better be back for midnight or else Wu's going to be really pissed."

  "Back for what?" Kiara asked curiously.

Lloyd froze for a moment, glancing at Kai before back at me. "Party. Big party. Family... things."

  She gave him a confused look. Something odd about it niggling in her brain but she chose to ignore it. "Okay, there's plenty of time before midnight."

Lloyd smiled gratefully at his brother. Kai scowled back and began to trudge away. Lloyd began to walk and Kiara went to follow him, she glanced back to say good bye to Kai, only to see he had seemed to vanish in thin air.

  "What...." Kiara murmured.

  "Come on," Lloyd danced around me and drug her forward. "I want to see everything."

  Kiara laughed and shook her head but complied, leading him to the activities. As they moved into the large parking lot they made it to the fair grounds. Lloyd was ridiculously good at the games and after winning Kiara a silver necklace with the emblem of the green spirit they headed to the market to try more food. Dancing started in the middle of the market place, local music being played through the air as dancers costumed as the spirits began to do the annual dance of the spirits.

  Kiara tried to drag Lloyd in but he resisted. "I don't dance." He protested.

  She rolled her eyes. "You can't go to the festival and not dance! That's a crime!" Reluctantly Lloyd followed and Kiara led him through the flowing movements. Contrary to his statement Lloyd was a really good dancer and seemed almost familiar to the movements.

  "The dance was said to be based off of the movements of the spirits thousands of years ago." Kiara explained to Lloyd.

He had a funny look on his face after she said that but when the music restarted Kiara forgot about it.

"Come on, let's join the dancers!" Kiara dragged him forward. They had been practicing on the side and Lloyd looked nervous as she brought him to the middle. The movements were graceful, fluid and the costumed dancers held ribbons that acted like the magic of the spirits as they twirled around. Lloyd took Kiara's hand as the did the sequence of moves, his breath catching when he felt sparks fly in their fingertips before he was forced to let go.

Time seemed to slow and all Lloyd could look at was her. Her smile was wide with joy, eyes sparkling with mirth. But the darkened sky reminded him of his promise and he drew back from her.

"It's time for me to go." He said quietly.

Kiara felt disappointment flare but she tried not to show it. "Are you staying any longer? Maybe we could meet with each other and tomorrow."

Lloyd chuckled, it was almost sad though. "I don't think so. I'm only able to meet with people ever fall solstice."

"Oh... maybe next year?"

Lloyd stared at her. Green gaze unreadable and mysterious. "Maybe."

He went to move away before suddenly he turned back. Kiara's eyes widened with surprise when he cupped her head in his palm briefly and kissed her on the cheek. Her eyes fluttered shut and she thought she saw a shine of green light from behind her eyelids. But when she opened them again he had disappeared just like Kai had. The warmth of his palm was gone but the feeling of his lips still lingered.

Unbeknownst to her a little green figure sat on one of the lanterns hanging over her. A small smile grazing on his lips as he leaped away.

Note****

I'm not exactly sure where I was going with this. It was sort of a unique idea and I hope you liked it! It is super long and I'm pretty sure I'm now at 234 followers for something.

Thank you to everyone who followed me and especially to those who've read,voted and commented on my books! I really appreciate all the support!

Hope you enjoyed!

LuckyBugBooks 🐞

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