The Jade City

Chapter 28: The Crystal Blade

Harumi's POV

"So..." I began, my teeth unconsciously chewing on the inside of my bottom lip, "Do you have a plan in mind?"

"Before that, I need to ask you about a few other things, if you don't mind," Morro said.

"Sure," I bit my lip, suddenly feeling a bit uncomfortable. Not knowing what to do, I traced the scales on the back of his dragon. Riding like this wasn't really steady, but the idea of wrapping my arms around Morro's waist like I had last time made me feel self-conscious. The dragon jerked upwards and I would've fallen if he hadn't grabbed my hand at the last second.

"Hey, be careful," he said, "Just hold on to me."

I felt my cheeks burn and did as I was told.

"So, uh," Morro began, taking a deep breath, "I don't really know how to start this, but, uh, did you have a shared dream at some point? Like you're dreaming the same dream as someone from Ninjago? I know this question might sound weird, but..."

"Yeah." I had been avoiding thinking about it for a while.

I felt his back straighten. "Could you tell me about it? Because there could be some important stuff in it."

"What was yours about?" I asked, not wanting to talk about mine. If Morro knew about the concept of shared dreams, then he must've had one himself.

"Hmm?"

"What was yours about?" I asked again, perhaps a bit too rudely, "Surely you've had one to know that they exist. Also how do you know it was a shared dream?"

"Okay, fine, I'll talk about mine. I don't actually know if it's a shared dream, it was just a guess. Basically I think I had one with Master Wu, the Ninjago one, and I admit I wasn't exactly Mr. Nice Guy there, but he basically just told me I'd never be the best, and that nobody will, because every person has so much to learn from everybody else. Cheesy, right? But that did help me with the whole wyvern thing, where I had to actually be a team player and not work solo for once," he said with a small laugh.

"You never told me exactly what happened with the wyvern," I said, still really not wanting to talk about mine. He'd actually learned a lesson, and I'd just been told to give up on a guy who I'd broken. Talk about shallowness.

"Eh, it wasn't nearly as interesting as you'd think," Morro shrugged. "Basically there was this dragon tormenting villages and Master Wu's counterpart and I were able to hunt it down and I killed it. We had some misfits join our cause along the way but that's about it. The whole dream happened because I was refusing to stick with the plans and wanted everything done my own way. I was gonna do everything by myself and uh, yeah."

"Oh."

"If you don't wanna tell me about your dream, it's fine. But lemme guess, you talked to Lloyd?"

As much as I didn't want to tell him, I figured I should. "Lloyd told me to get over him," I muttered, expecting him to burst into laughter.

"That must've been really hard," he said softly after a moment's hesitation, "But I mean, his counterpart is head over heels for you. I guess it's not the same, but..." I bet in his mind he was scoffing, thinking wow, what a meaningful dream.

"Can we not talk about this right now?"

"Oh, sorry." Morro leaned sideways and glanced down, probably trying to locate the raft. I felt my face warm and almost slapped myself on the forehead. He was my potential attacker and trying to protect me while I myself had completely forgotten about it.

"Sorry for being so rude," I sighed, "You've been really nice to me for the past week or so and I'm just..."

"Well, I still should apologize for being such a jerk before that past week or so. Just be a little meaner to me and then we're even. Wait, no, there's still that stupid forest magic." He turned around and grinned. "Hopefully it'll all be gone after this is over. It probably will, since it's Shadow Knight stuff. Then we can settle our debts."