Hey guys.

This is my second story, and I'm hoping it'll be a bit better.

Seeing the Wind

Prologue

Kimiko...

Kimiko woke up, groaning. That voice had been waking her up for almost a week. "Stupid voice," she mumbled, rubbing her head. She sat up and looked at the clock beside her. 4:30 a.m.

"Ugh," she groaned to herself, "this is earlier than before."

Kimiko switched her alarm off once again and stood up. Then she stretched her arms up and yawned, before walking out of her cubicle and to a bathroom. Tired, she dragged her feet slowly across the floor.

When she got to the bathroom, she shakily held on to the sink and opened her eyes. She groaned again; her hair was in a mess and there were bags under her eyes. After a moment of steadying herself, she locked the door and began her normal morning routine; brushing, flossing, combing...

After she was done, she headed to the kitchen and heated up some leftover eggrolls from last night's dinner. As Kimiko turned the stove off, she grabbed a plate and cup from a shelf and placed eggrolls on her plate. Her eyes were barely open throughout the whole process, and they stayed that way as she grabbed her food and chopsticks on her walk to the porch.

At the porch, Kimiko laid her plate down on the table. In the middle was a steaming pitcher of tea. She sat down on the porch floor and poured some tea into her cup, which reminded her briefly about the time she had to pour tea while the other three monks tormented her.

Wait, three? There was only Omi and Clay.

Kimiko shrugged away the thought and continued the morning in her dulled state. She had to admit, though, that getting up earlier did have its advantages. The usual morning ruckus of three monks scrambling for the bathroom was avoided, and the early stars of dawn were really lovely to gaze at. Kimiko loved the serene feeling of having breakfast alone on the porch. The crickets chirped gently, and though it was summer there was no sun beating down on her, but a cool morning breeze that reminded her of something.

Kimiko couldn't quite place her pig tails on whatever it was, so she shrugged the feeling off once more and took a sip from her tea. She didn't want anything to ruin this peaceful morning.

"Ahh...I see you've met dawn, Kimiko."

Surprised, she spilled tea all over her herself and placed herself into a crooked fighting stance. "Master Fung! What are you doing here?" she asked, startled. The dragon-in-training eased herself.

"I always come here to have some tea and relax on the porch at this time. I'm sure you understand why."

Kimiko nodded and blushed in embarrassment, realizing that she hadn't even thought about where the pitcher of tea had come from. She blushed even deeper when she realized she was still in her pajamas.

"Now may I ask what you are doing up at this time?" Master Fung asked.

Kimiko thought about telling Master Fung, but wasn't sure. At first she thought that the voice would just go away after a while, but it had only been getting worse.

"Well...you see... There's been this weird voice inside my head waking me up for the past few days. Today it woke me up a bit earlier than usual, but I'm sure it's fine."

Master Fung was silent, obviously in thought.

"Well, if you say so, young monk, but if you have any problems, don't be afraid to alert me or any of the other monks." He walked down the porch towards a door for a moment before turning around. The sun was beginning to rise. "And I'm sure they will be rising any moment now." With that he walked into the door. Kimiko finished her breakfast and cleaned her dishes. She ran to her room and changed, throwing her pajamas into the laundry to have them washed. Suddenly Clay yawned.

"Good morning Clay. Did you sleep well last night?"

"Slept better 'an a bear in the winter," Clay replied, walking out of his cubicle already changed and heading for the bathroom before noticing the bags under Kimiko's eyes.

"Are you okay, Kimiko? You look worse than a raccoon-"

"I'm fine, Clay. I just woke up early today."

Clay shrugged and continued on to the bathroom.

Smiling, she went to the porch, having decided to wait for the others there. She watched as the sun rose in a beautiful sea of fire, and light slowly entered the temple in waves.

As the Wudai Warriors trained that afternoon in the courtyard, Master Fung came to them with an announcement.

"I'm going to choose one of you to be Shoku warrior and lead the others."

The three of them stopped and headed towards Master Fung. Omi was the first one to Master Fung.

"Is it me Master Fung!" he asked excitedly, bouncing up and down.

"Now now, be patient young monk. Wait for the others to get here." As he said this, Kimiko and Clay walked up.

"Each of you are going to go on a quest to prove yourselves. Only each of you, with a little help from Dojo, may choose what quest," Master Fung announced. He had an odd feeling like he had already chosen someone, but since there was no Shoku warrior among them he was obviously wrong.

Suddenly Hannibal Bean came out of hiding on his Ying Ying bird. He flew off, laughing maniacally about something before anyone could do anything.

"Why...that was weirder than the night Aunt Jessie slept with the pigs," Clay muttered.

"No kidding," Kimiko added. They all looked around, expecting an attack or trap of some kind.

"Well... Nothing seems disturbed. I'm going to go back to my office now. Continue training, young monks." Master Fung turned around and headed towards his office. Omi flipped around happily, thinking that the others didn't stand a chance.

"Do not fear, my friends, I'm sure by some luck that you might just win," Omi announced boastfully while practicing stances.

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch, Omi," Clay replied before practicing his moves again. Kimiko also went back to her flipping exercises, though she had been lagging obviously from lack of sleep.

Later that night, the three monks noticed a fourth cubicle. They hadn't noticed it that morning by chance, but it was still peculiar.

"Hmm... I don't think I've ever noticed that one before," Clay pointed out. It was completely empty, but still similar to theirs.

"Maybe it's for storage, like a closet or something," Kimiko replied.

"Or maybe there is another monk coming to train with us!" Omi announced excitedly. Kimiko and Clay looked at each other while Omi smiled at the prospect of meeting a new friend.

"Meh... maybe we'll see in the morning. I'm beat," Kimiko half said half yawned. She walked to the entrance of her room and closed the curtain door. Clay yawned next and stretched his arms.

"Yea, I'm gonna hit the hay too. See ya tomorrow, Omi." He walked to his own cubicle and shut the curtain.

Omi couldn't wait to know, but knew they were right. He too was tired and ready for bed. He walked into his room and shut the curtain. In the middle of the room he sat upside down, ready for another day to plan his Shoku quest. Omi breathed in and out, steadily falling asleep on his head as always.

Please read and review.

-Thanks