Hello! Welcome to the first chapter of my collection of Return to the Cursed Realm One-Shots. This series will include short little thingys that didn't fit in with the plot of the main story. Hope you like!

NOTES:

1. Read my main story, Return to the Cursed Realm, FIRST. You won't understand these if you don't. Plus there are spoilers for RttCR and Ninjago, soooo... I mean, even note #3 here contains spoilers.

2. You can request things you want to see here, like, for example, a guest with the pen name Angel Star Ninja requested a one-shot where Lloyd has a nightmare and Morro comforts him (that's this BTW). Please don't request anything completely random, like, Pythor and Misako have an archery competition. I might make a different story for random one-shots someday... I dunno. Anyway. Please only request things that fit in with the RttCR universe. I also won't write yuri or yaoi or anything M-rated. So keep that in mind.

3. These will not necessarily be in chronological order. I might have one that's from chapter 23, then have one from chapter 6, or even one before the story, say, Tara and Clouse family fluff or something. So yeah.

Well, I think that's it for now! Hope you enjoy this one-shot!

Tragic Dreams - Rated: K+ - Hurt/Comfort

Summary: Lloyd has a nightmare. Morro comforts him. Adorable friendship fluff, not a yaoi. Mentions of death.

Takes place: During Chapter 18, A Troubling Past.

Lloyd lay awake in the darkness of the cave, unable to sleep for the third night in a row. His sleep patterns were really messed up. He actually didn't know what time of day it was, but it didn't matter in the total darkness of the mountain. He shifted slightly, listening to the others breath steadily. He wanted to sleep, but he was wide awake, and he should probably stay up anyway in case Tara came back. Tara. Even thinking about her made him nervous. Even through she had only gone after Indigo so far, he was still nervous about being stabbed to death in his sleep. Being in a pitch-black cave with a murderer on the loose would do that to you. Lloyd summoned a tiny ball of light in his hand, illuminating the cave around him and revealing Morro asleep next to him. It comforted the green ninja to have his friends nearby, though, especially Morro. Unless Tara had water or deepstone, Morro could fend of her attacks with ease, even possess her or her weapons. Not only that, but Morro was extremely protective of him. Lloyd lay down next to the sleeping ghost, letting the ball of light in his hand vanish. Seconds after he did, however, he heard a sound. Lloyd froze. A rustle sounded in the darkness, followed by what sounded like a female cursing. Tara! Lloyd charged another ball of light, revealing the assassin girl standing barely five feet away. Tara growled.

"Hold still, boy, this won't last long." she hissed, brandishing a knife with a black blade in her right hand. Deepstone. Lloyd gasped and reached for his sword, only to find it missing.

"Wha-" he started, before seeing it lying beside Tara. The green ninja flung the ball of light at her, but she ducked easily, starting to approach. Lloyd scrambled to his feet and walked backwards, trying to find something to attack her with.

"Foolish boy! I already took all your weapons." Tara grinned sinisterly. "Stop trying to resist. It'll only make it worse for you." Lloyd jumped into a fighting position, but Tara matched it. "I have better training than you, and I'm better armed! Just give up!" she taunted him, drawing a regular knife and throwing it at him. He jumped out of the way, but tripped on a rock and tumbled to the ground. Tara stood over him, knife poised to strike. Out of the corner of his eye, Lloyd saw someone jump to their feet, but was too focused on Tara to figure out who it was. As Tara brought the knife down, Lloyd squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for the pain... and never felt it. Only a sudden weight hitting him. Lloyd opened his eyes to see Morro, lying half on top of him, Tara's knife lodged firmly in his chest.

"Morro!" Lloyd screamed. Tara sighed, flipping her hair boredly.

"Whatever. I suppose I got what I came for." Tara turned around and walked into the darkness. Lloyd hardly noticed, however, as he was tearfully pushing Morro off of him onto the ground. The ghost's eyes were half closed and he was grimacing in pain.

"M-Morro, you..." Lloyd began, but his voice cracked and he couldn't go on.

"I'll... be alright..." Morro said, his voice faint. "I... will..." his eyes closed, never to open again.

"NO!" Lloyd screamed, bursting into tears. His best friend... had died, to save him.

TragicDreams

Lloyd opened his eyes with a start, only to be greeted by pitch blackness. He instantly sat up, charging a ball of gold energy in his palm and looking around the cave wildly. After a few moments, he calmed down, his eyes alighting on Morro, who was sleeping peacefully, unharmed, next to him. Lloyd exhaled shakily, not daring to let the light in his hand go out.

"It was just a dream..." he told himself, still shaking. He closed his eyes, instantly regretting it when images from his nightmare flashed before his eyes. He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, hugging his knees to his chest with one hand and holding up the light with the other. After a few minutes of sitting like this, one thing was clear; the nightmare wasn't going to go away by itself. Lloyd hesitated for only a few moments before crawling closer to Morro and sitting down next to him, using his free hand to shake his shoulder. "Morro, wake up..." he whispered, barely audible. Morro shifted slightly, then opened his eyes a slit, blinking in the bright light. A second later his eyes opened wider and he pushed himself into a sitting position, looking at Lloyd with concern. It was only then that Lloyd noticed the tears sliding down his face.

"Lloyd? What's wrong?" Morro whispered, obviously worried.

"I h-had a nightmare." Lloyd answered, wiped the tears off his face with his sleeve. "T-Tara was in our c-camp and she attacked me and th-then she..." he paused to take a deep breath. "...she k-killed you..." Lloyd closed his eyes, tears streaming down his face. After a moment, he felt Morro's arms slide around him, comforting him. Lloyd sniffled, resting his chin on his arm so his tears wouldn't hit Morro, who shifted closer, holding the shaking ninja tightly. After a few moments, Morro spoke up.

"Tara couldn't kill me, Lloyd, I'm a ghost. Even if I did die, I would just reappear in the Cursed Realm." he said quietly.

"I kn-know..." Lloyd whispered shakily. "It was s-so real..." he stopped, since it was only making his crying worse. Morro held him tightly, gently rocking back and forth to calm him. After a few minutes, Lloyd had stopped crying and was resting on Morro's shoulder tiredly. "Morro?" he asked after a few minutes.

"Yes?"

"How old are you?" Morro frowned slightly in concentration.

"I'm not sure... somewhere around 30, I think."

"You look younger." Lloyd said, smiling slightly. "I'm 12."

"Really?" Morro pulled away slightly to look at Lloyd's face.

"Yeah. I got hit with T-Tomorrow's tea." Lloyd sniffled. Morro hugged him again and they sat like that for a few minutes more. "Morro?" Lloyd whispered.

"Yes?"

"I'm tired... but I d-don't want to have another nightmare..." he murmured. Morro pulled him over to his own bedroll.

"Come and sleep next to me." Lloyd nodded sleepily and lay down on Morro's bedroll, eyes half closed. Morro lay down next to him and put his arms around him, smiling as Lloyd snuggled closer to him. The young ninja soon fell asleep, Morro not far behind.

*screams* AGH THE FLUFFINESS IS TOO MUCH

This chapter was so fun to write. Maybe I should add "tragedy" to the thingy up there though, since Morro dies in his dream... what do you guys think?

So yeah, I estimate that Morro is about 30, and that Lloyd was 10 when he was aged, and it's been a couple years, so, 12. Yup.

Nightmares when people you care about die stink. Trust me.

I reposted this because I wanted to change something.

Well, hope you liked this! Did Lloyd's nightmare make anyone sad? It made me laugh, but I have some wires crossed... *cough* Anyway. Request things! Bye!

~FFF