A Touch of the Master's Hand

A Sip of Patience

The new Destiny's Bounty was still hidden from the public eye. Master Wu and the other ninja had not been discovered. Lloyd could not help but feel just a touch envious that except for Nya one year younger than her brother, the other ninja did not even have to go to high school anymore as they were two years older than him. Though, to be fair, he did know that it was a confusing time for them too. College seemed unattainable for being both ninja and career people but odd jobs in town was kind of weird too. Some of his friends were having a worse time of it than others. It was a sort of time of limbo for all the ninja including Lloyd. There were no adversaries to face, but Master Wu would not let them get lazy with their training or their health.

Wu had, however given the secret force and the now well-known Lloyd a small break last week for what he called "family time" before he picked up training again today. Cole and Jay were encouraged to go spend time with their families. Wu had divided his own time between his biological family with Lloyd, Garmadon and Koko, and then back at the dojo with his adopted children Nya, Kai, and Zane. It was somehow still a lesson, Lloyd knew, but what it had been truly about he was not exactly sure.

The ship looked quite ordinary among the many others along the sea coast. It floated anchored not far from a large dock. It was no great feat for Lloyd to take a skilled whirl of a spinjitsu leap from dock to deck after making sure he had not been followed.

No one had.

Again, he was more worried about the press and ninja worshipers than actual bad guys.

Before he entered the main dojo, he could hear Cole talking about who he had likely been dividing his time with between spending time with his father.

"I might have to leave early today," he was saying. "This meeting was kinda abrupt and I already made plans with my girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?" gaped Kai. "When'd this happen?"

"I congratulate you," said Zane. "When will we get to meet her?"

"He said girlfriend not fiancée, Zane," grinned Nya.

Cole only smiled smugly.

"Still...man, you're so lucky, Cole," murmured Jay wistfully.

Nya turned to him with a wince and a very funny sort of expression.

Jay lifted his eyes to hers with a weird wince of his own, but he quickly faltered under her questioning gaze, and swiveled away like a flitting bird.

Nya looked about to say something, but it was at that point that she noticed Lloyd.

"Hey, Lloyd! You're late," she teased. "The party started without you."

"Yeah, I made a quick stop at home first," Lloyd admitted.

"Had to ward of your house from invading reporters again?" asked Kai.

"Speaking of warding," said Zane. "At least the reporters won't bother Lloyd at school anymore since the last day of high school and you ended up punching that reporter in the non-existent nose. That was perfectly bad ass!"

"Zane, I thought you deleted that teenager programming," said Nya.

"Hmm," said Zane uneasily. "I seem to have missed a couple files. Thank you for pointing that out."

"Yeah, but it still was pretty cool," Cole admitted, "even if you did almost not get your diploma."

Kai shrugged with a sheepish grin. "It was more of a reflex than anything."

"Well, I'm just glad none of us have to think about high school at all anymore," said Jay. "Those years were the worst years of my life. Almost worse than when we went to the Temple of Fragile Foundations, which really in the end wasn't as bad as Chen making up hero songs about Lloyd and our secret force titles."