Clay visits Jestro and Arnoldi while he practices controlling his magic. He also delivers their lunch.
Takes place post-season 4.
I haven't quite finished my Nexo Knights rewatch yet so I apologise for any inaccuracies but this idea's been swirling around in my head for a while and I wanted to write last night so I whipped this out.
The chalky rubble of the Colossus had dwindled considerably since Jestro and Arnoldi started sweeping it up a month ago to make up for their crimes. There was still a lot to get rid of, though, and it seemed like they’d drown in it.
Jestro had never been incredibly patient, but it only got worse on an empty stomach. He had groaned and grumbled as he swept the Colossus rubble into the nearby incinerator. Jestro’s constant complaining was starting to get on Arnoldi’s nerves - a feat, but not a good one.
Jestro looked over his shoulder at the sculptor and asked, “What’s the time?”
Arnoldi looked up from the chunk of Colossus rubble he was chipping down and said flatly, “It’s only been five minutes since you last asked.”
Jestro groaned. “It feels like the Squirebots are never gonna bring us our lunch at this rate!”
Arnoldi pulled back his sleeve to look at the time on his watch. After a moment, he told Jestro, “They’ll be here in another ten minutes.” Jestro groaned again.
As Jestro swept the last tiny pieces of Colossus rubble into the incinerator, the piece of the giant chunk Arnoldi was chipping down fell off and hit the grass with a soft thud. Jestro sighed, ambled over to the piece and began sweeping it in the direction of the incinerator.
The ten minutes leading up to lunch time dragged on and on. It didn’t help that Jestro was getting hot in his jester outfit. Any reasonable person would have just taken it off, put it in the washing machine and worn something else while waiting for it to be cleaned, but he’d rather be caught dead if he was caught in anything other than his jester suit or his pajamas. That, and it had been established that he wasn’t a reasonable person a while ago. How long ago was it that he had first found Monstrox in the back of Merlok’s library? Two years? Going on three? Jestro blinked hard at the thought. It felt like less than that.
From a short distance away, a familiar voice called out, “Hey! Lunch is here!” It wasn’t a Squirebot.
Jestro looked up from the piece of Colossus rubble he was sweeping. “Clay!” He immediately dropped his broom and ran over to the food-carrying knight.
Clay greeted Jestro with a smile, “Hey Jestro! How’s it going with the rubble?”
“Ugh, it’s taking forever! Seriously, look at all this rubble we have to clean up!” Jestro gestured to the Colossus rubble with both arms. Arnoldi looked up from the chunk he was chipping down and waved.
“Well, the pile has shrunk since I last saw it. You and Arnoldi are making good progress.”
As Clay carried the tray of food in his hands over to Arnoldi and the Colossus rubble, Jestro replied, “It has? Oh, well that’s good! I didn’t actually notice it myself.”
Jestro, Arnoldi and Clay sat together on a long chunk of Colossus rubble that was speculated to be part of one of its upper arms. The rubble piled up behind it cast a long shadow over the chunk during the middle of the day, making it a good spot to take a lunch break.
“So, what’s on the menu today?” Arnoldi asked.
“Ham sandwiches,” Clay replied, looking at the sandwiches.
“I hope they used the good ham from Hamsterdam this time,” Jestro commented. As he reached for a sandwich, he added, “I’ll take anything, though - I’m starving.”
Both Jestro and Arnoldi grabbed a sandwich off the tray now resting in Clay’s lap and began eating.
“So uh… how's the magic arm goin’?” Jestro asked Clay through a mouthful of ham sandwich, glancing at his friend’s glowing arm.
“Well…” Clay sheepishly scratched his head as he replied, “I’m having a hard time controlling it, honestly. I keep firing magic blasts when I don’t mean to, and it’s getting in the way of combat practice. Merlok said that I should try learning some basic magic skills, so I decided to come out here to practice. The chefs in the castle told me to give you guys your lunch since I was heading out this way anyway.”
Arnoldi swallowed a bite of his ham sandwich before asking, “So what magic skill are you going to try learning first?”
“Merlok said that levitation’s good for learning control over magic, so… levitation, I suppose.”
Jestro suddenly groaned, “Ugh, not the levitation spell.”
While Clay simply raised an eyebrow, Arnoldi asked, “What’s wrong with the levitation spell?”
Jestro set down his mostly eaten sandwich as he began, “Okay, so you know I tried to be a wizard at one point when I was a kid?”
Clay nodded as he replied, “I do.”
Arnoldi, meanwhile, raised an eyebrow as he asked, “You tried to be a wizard?”
“Yeah, I thought I told you?” Jestro replied.
“No.”
“Huh. I thought I did.” Jestro paused for a moment before continuing, “Anyway, Merlok was my mentor back then, and the levitation spell was the first one we tried. And the only one we tried. I was stuck on that spell for weeks! I could get the levitation target into the air, but they’d either just explode or turn into pigs before I could get them back down.”
“...Pigs?” Clay asked.
“Yeah. Pigs,” Jestro confirmed.
“Huh,” Clay muttered to himself as he turned his head to look at a piece of Colossus rubble a short distance away.
As Jestro and Arnoldi started on their second sandwiches, Clay outstretched his left arm and pointed it at the piece of rubble. A second passed before his magic shot out from his palm and surrounded the rubble. It slowly floated into the air, and hovered there for a few moments. And then it exploded in a burst of magic energy. Clay immediately pulled his arm back as he, Jestro and Arnoldi stared up at the spot the piece of rubble had been.
After a few moments, Clay murmured to himself, “Oh boy.”
“Hey, I believe in you!” Jestro told him. “Magic is really hard to learn, but you’ve done all sorts of amazing things! You can do it!”
“Practice makes perfect! And you can’t rush perfection,” Arnoldi added.
“Right.” Clay scanned the area for another piece of Colossus rubble. He soon set his eyes on a stray piece near Arnoldi’s sculpting tools and pointed his left arm at it. Magic shot out of his palm and surrounded the piece of rubble quicker than last time, and it floated up into the air.
All eyes were on the piece of rubble as it hovered in the air. Two seconds passed. It didn’t seem like it would explode… and yet it did anyway.
The three of them were quiet for a few seconds before Jestro said, “Well, there’s plenty more rubble to practice with.”