The Chasers were in a very different part of the world. They were in a more uninhabited landscape, with endless jungles and large rivers. The Elders sent them here to try to see if any of the Tai Chi had gone unnoticed here. There wasn't any sign of anything yet.
"Oh man...it's so hot out here!" Tori exclaimed, wiping the sweat that was already starting to build up on his forehead.
"Yeah," Rai agreed, "I hope we find all the Tai Chi down here soon, so that way we can get back to some normal weather!"
Rai and Tori continued to keep watch while Donha and Finn were trying to fix the air conditioner in the engine room. Sena sat in her chair uncomfortably, Hak's tail flicked with annoyance at the heat that seemed to build up more by the minute in the room.
I wonder if the Elders were right sending us down here, Sena thought, it seems unlikely that a Tai Chi would even want to be down here.
For the tenth time Sena wiped the sweat off her face.
"Nothing yet, Hak?" she asked, also for the tenth time.
"No, Sena," Hak said, curtly. Sena sighed and stood up.
She made her way down to the engine room, where Donha and Finn were working.
"Blasted thing!" Donha exclaimed, "there's no way it's going to work!"
Sena was surprised, she had never really seen Donha get frustrated before. Even Finn seemed like he was about to lose it.
"How about you guys take a break," Sena said, "if it won't work then it won't work, you guys tried your best."
Donha sighed, "I'm sorry, Sena. With this heat even the air conditioner is out of it."
Finn and Donha left the room, with disappointed, black-smudged faces. Sena followed them.
When it was time for lunch no one really wanted to eat or do anything at all.
"Come on, guys," Sena said, "you have to eat and drink, or else you'll get sick!"
"Easy for you to say, Sena," Rai sneered, "you don't do anything! We do all the work!"
"I do plenty of work, Rai!" Sena yelled, "we all do an equal share!"
"Yeah! That's why Rai and I get to stand in the hot sun all day while you relax inside!" Tori said, glaring at Sena.
"It was your guys' turn for today!" Sena yelled, "and quit complaining! We may be all hot, but we still have work to do!"
"Can we please stop yelling!" Hak cried through the messenger tubes, "I can hear you from all the way over here!"
"Fine," Sena huffed, "I think I'm done here anyway, be sure to eat and drink, because I don't want to have to deal with your complaining about being sick, too!"
Sena stomped out of the room. Rai and Tori stomped out, too, leaving Finn and Donha in an uncomfortable silence.
"I hope this doesn't last long," Donha finally said, "I can't deal with yelling right now, not with this heat."
Finn looked up, his eyes wide.
"What is it, Finn?" Donha asked, concerned.
"I have an idea." Finn got up and ran out of the room. Donha looked around with dismay.
"I guess I'm stuck with dish duty, then," he mumbled to himself.
Meanwhile, Rai and Tori were gathered in Rai's room.
"I can't stand that Sena sometimes," Rai snarled, "some leader she is, sitting around all day!"
"Yeah, we do the real work," Tori said, glaring to himself.
"I think we should just defy her, and not do anything, too!" Rai said, crossing his arms.
"I'm with you!" Tori did the same.
Suddenly, the feel in the room began to change.
"What is that?" Rai put his hand to the vent, it was blowing out cold air.
"Air conditioning!" Tori cried out, happily.
The two quickly rushed out of the room and down into the engine room. Sena and Donha were already there, Finn had out his Bing card and activator.
"This is a great idea, Finn!" Sena said, smiling, "how long do you think you can hold up, though?"
Finn swiped his card again, sending another round of cold air through the ship.
"I'm not sure," he said, "I think that by the time I have to stop, though, the ship should be cool enough to be more comfortable."
"Well be sure to stop when you need to," Sena said, "I don't want you to get overheated."
Finn nodded and went back to work. Sena turned to see Tori and Rai, she glared at them.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, "I'm sure you're expecting my lazy self to be in a chair somewhere."
Rai and Tori looked down at their shoes, ashamed.
"We're sorry, Sena," Tori said, "we didn't mean it...we were just so hot..."
Sena's look softened, and she gave a small smile.
"Hey, that's alright, Tori," she said, "I don't blame you for being crabby, I was the same. So sorry for being so short tempered."
Tori smiled, Rai still scowled at the floor.
"Ahem...Rai?" Sena looked at him expectantly.
"I'm sorry that you were crabby, Sena," he said. Then Tori elbowed him in the ribs and he tried again.
"I'm sorry I said you were lazy," Rai said, finally.
"And I'm sorry that I was crabby," Sena said, "there, was that so hard?"
"Hard enough," Rai muttered, "at least it's cooler now..."
The team made their way upstairs, leaving Finn to his work of cooling off the ship.
The moods of the Chasers certainly improved, even when Finn had to take a break the ship stayed nice and liveable.
It was towards evening time with Rai ran into the command room, looking like he had found a million dollars.
"Sena!" he exclaimed, "there's a lake below us, can we please go swimming?"
Tori followed in behind him.
"Yeah, Sena!" he said, "it looks really nice, and we haven't had any signs of Dragonoids or Tai Chi cards."
I don't think it could hurt us, Sena thought, and we deserve a break.
"Okay," Sena said, smiling, "go grab Donha and Finn, we're taking a break tonight!"
Tori and Rai quickly spread the news around the ship and ran down to the air board hatch. Hak opened the hatch door and Rai and Tori gave happy cries.
The airship landed on the shore beside the lake, which stretched out as far as the eye could see, the setting sun gave is an orange color. Rai leaped off of the airship and onto dirt shore, and ran into the water after abandoning his shirt and shoes. Tori followed behind him.
Soon Donha was out with them, splashing and laughing. The water was a comfortable cool, and it was very peaceful.
Sena walked out into the shallow part of the water, towards where Donha, Rai and Tori were, leaving Finn standing on the shore.
"Come on, Finn!" Tori yelled, "the water feels great!"
"I think I'm fine here, thank you!" Finn yelled back.
"Don't make us come and get you!" Rai yelled, "we wouldn't be true friends if we just let you miss out on how great this water feels."
Finn backed up a step as Donha, Tori and Rai began trudging through the water towards him. Sena laughed as the boys chased each other around the shore, finally Donha was able to lift Finn off his feet and toss him into the water.
Finn gasped and sat up, he was completely and utterly drenched, luckily his shoes were still up on the shore. He glared at the other boys, but then his lips trembled into a smile. Donha, Tori and Rai burst out laughing, and Sena joined in.
"Of course you know that this means war," Finn said, splashing at them. This made them laugh even harder, then they teamed up, Sena and Finn against Rai, Tori and Donha. Hak came out side to join in on the fun, he teamed up with Sena and Finn.
After much dunking and splashing, the team came and laid out on the shore, still smiling and occasionally laughing. The stars were beginning to come out, the sun had completely disappeared, replaced by a full moon.
"It's so beautiful," Tori breathed, "look at how many stars there are!"
The team murmured in agreement.
"I wish we could do something like this every evening," Rai said, "and not have to worry about Dragonoids or lost Tai Chi..."
"Me, too..." Donha said, "I hope that'll I'll always be with you guys."
Sena sighed, suddenly sad. She wished that this moment could last forever. Finn looked up quietly at the stars, listening to what the team was saying. About all the hopes and dreams.
Rai built a small campfire with his Hwa card and the group roasted s'mores. Sure, a campfire didn't really help the heat situation much, but it was worth it.
"Let's tell ghost stories!" Tori said, "I'll start."
The team sat back, chewing on their s'mores as Tori began his tale.
"Long ago, there was an old house in an old neighborhood," he said, "and every night, the people would see a large figure step out of the house and creep around the neighborhood. And it was said that if you didn't get into your house in time, the large figure would get ahold of you and you would never be seen again. There was this one boy who-"
Tori stopped and the team was silent, too, they had heard the same thing. Rustling in the bushes.
"What was-" But Rai was cut off when Sena raised her hand to silence him.
The rustling sounded again, but then it was silent. It was the kind of silence that could almost smother you. The only sound was the Chasers' hushed breathing and the crackling of the fire.
Then all madness broke loose, unidentifiable figures lept from the bushes, too quick for the Chasers to react. Their activators were unclipped from their belts because they didn't want them to get wet, so it was impossible to reach for them in time.
The figures surrounded the Chasers, pointing long, sharp spears at them. Their attackers had large masks on, most of them had scary looking carvings in them. They spoke some words that the Chasers couldn't understand. When they didn't say anything the masked men grabbed each of them and tied their hands behind their backs.
Then the Chasers were pulled through the forest, getting scratched up by branches and rocks. Once Tori fell down, but the men pull him up and forced him to keep going. After what seemed like a long time they finally made it to a large camp. It wasn't really a camp though, it was more like a large village.
The women and children looked at the Tigeroids with confused expressions and began to follow them. Pretty soon it seemed like the entire village was out to see what was going on.
Finally the men shoved the Chasers to their knees in front of the largest dwelling in the village. One of the masked men went into the tent-like house, and then came out followed by a large man with colorful robes on.
Sena could tell by his clothing and the way that he held himself that he was the leader. He stared back down at her and the rest of her friends confused.
"Who are you?" he asked, frowning at them.
Sena was surprised that he spoke her language.
"Sena, Finn, Tori, Donha and Rai, sir," she said, her voice trembling a little, "please, we didn't mean to cause any trouble."
The leader looked at each Chasers intently. Then he took a step back, rubbing his chin.
"You were found on our land," he said, "swimming in our waters and making fire with a magic card. Those are forbidden here, they are evil."
"Please, sir," Sena said, "we had no idea, we weren't going to stay long and we had no evil intentions with using the cards."
"I cannot trust your words, outsider," the leader said, "for trespassing and disturbing this land you and your group will be punished severely."
Suddenly a young boy ran out of the tent coming next to the leader. He looked down at the boy, surprised.
"Son, I told you to stay in the hut," he said, "there is no place for you out here right now."
"I wanted to see the outsiders," the boy replied, "why do they look so different? They look like they're almost my age, right father?"
The leader's expression softenly as he look at his son's face, then he turned to look at the frightened faces of the Chasers.
"I don't think they wanted to do anything wrong, father," the boy said, looking up to his father's face.
The father sighed, suddenly looking tired.
"For now, just take them to the spare hut, and keep an eye on them," the leader said to one of the masked men, "make sure that they stay in your sight."
With that said the leader and his son walked back into their hut and the Chasers were lead away. They were put in a small hut that was more isolated from the others, thankfully one of the masked men cut the rope that bound their hands together. Making them a little more comfortable.
The hut had one door, which was guarded by two men and a small window, which was too high and small to climb out of. The group sat down against a wall.
"So much for relaxing," Rai muttered, "something always seems to go wrong when we're having fun..."
Tori sniffled a little bit and, despite the growing heat, Donha put his arm around him and held him close.
"We'll be alright," he said, warmly, "I don't think they're mean people, I think we just surprised them, that's all."
"Yeah, right," Rai muttered, "they said they were going to punish us, how's that for friendly."
Finn and Sena gave Rai a sharp look as Tori sniffed even harder. Rai slumped against the wall, thinking unhappy thoughts. Sena began to consol Tori with Donha, Finn began to examine the ceiling of the hut.
Outside the torch light flickered into the doorway of the hut they were in, occassionaly shadows passed by of villagers who wanted to get a peek at the mysterious newcomers. The guards stayed in their positions all night.
Eventually, the Chasers fell asleep one by one.
They were awakened by the masked men pulling them to their feet and taking them out of the hut.
The group was taken back to the hut where the leader lived, he was outside waiting for them.
"I have thought about what I will do with you," he said, "then last night someone came in that made me make my decision."
Hak stepped out of the hut and smiled proudly at the Chasers.
"Hak!" Tori exclaim, happily.
"Your friend has explained everything to me," the leader said, "I would be foolish if I am not to take the word of a spirit such as he."
Hak couldn't help but feel a little bit proud.
"I apologize, friends," the leader continued, "for how unkindly we treated you, we just don't know who to trust anymore. My name in Treo, I am the chief of this village, my son that you saw last night was Jom. Please, if you could step into my hut, we have much to discuss."
The Chasers followed Treo into his hut. The wooden walls were covered with different kinds of skins and carvings, a small fire glowed in the middle of it.
Treo motioned for the Chasers to sit, and he sat down at the head of the hut, on an ancient looking chair.
"The spirit which you travel with spoke of your mission," Treo said, "that you find and collect these magic cards."
Sena nodded, "yes, sir. We need to find the 500 lost Tai Chi that belong to the Tigeroids."
Treo nodded, thinking to himself, then looked at the Chasers.
"Our village has been tormented by a magic card, one of the cards which you call Tai Chi," he said, "our village would be grateful if you would remove that card from our land."
"We would be honored to do that for you," Sena said, the rest of the team nodded with her.
"Thank you," Treo said, "the card has been making life very hard for us and is has been getting worse. It's scaring the wildlife away, so we have not been able to hunt for our food. It has also frightened even our bravest warriors, they come back to the village in a shocked state. When they recover they tell me that they've seen terrible things."
Sena nodded, "we will get that Tai Chi so that way your village will be at peace."
"Take any supplies that you require from us," Treo said, "and I wish you the best of luck."
The Chasers made their way out of the hut, Sena turned to face them.
"The Tai Chi symbol must be converging," she said, "that's probably why things are getting worse for this village. Now our mission is to get that card no matter what it takes."
The masked men returned the Chasers' activators to them, and a guide led them out of the village, leaving Hak with Treo and Jom.
After they had walked for a while their guide turned to them.
"This is as far as I will take you," he said, "the evil card is somewhere straight ahead, that is where the activity is worse. Good luck, children."
Their guide left them there and the group observed their surrounds. The jungle seemed a lot darker and more omnimous.
"Well, we won't find the card standing still," Rai said, "let's go!"
Rai hurried forward.
"Rai, wait!" Sena called, as the rest of the group tried to keep up with Rai, "we don't know what we're going up against yet!"
Rai slowed a little bit, but only because the trail began to get a little more narrow, and it was starting to get darker.
"Why is it so dark?" Donha said, "it's still morning and the sun was shining when we were at the village."
"I don't know, Donha," Sena said, "I'm sure it's something to do with the symbol."
The team continued to walk for what seemed like forever, and the trees began to thicken and get darker.
Suddenly, Finn stopped in his tracks.
"What's the matter, Finn?" Tori asked, getting increasingly nervous.
The team stopped and looked at Finn, who seemed to be staring at something.
"We're being watched," Finn said, "and followed."
Tori gulped and looked around.
"We should keep moving," Sena said, in a shaky voice, "keep your activators ready, we'll probably need them."
The group continued, this time much more alert. Sena and Rai were in the lead, Donha was with Tori in the middle and Finn was in the back.
The only sound they could hear was the sound of their footsteps, there weren't any bird songs or wild animals walking through the trees.
Then the trail they were following ended upruptedly before them.
"This doesn't make any sense," Sena said, "the trail ends here, but there's no card."
Suddenly things started to feel really tense, it was a different sort of silence than before. It was like the whole jungle was holding its breath.
Then the rustling began. It started behind them, and then in front of them.
A large, dark figure lumbered out of the bushes and onto the trail, just a few paces from Finn. It had long black, scraggily hair. It's face was squished up and it had long, pointed teeth. It creeped closer to the Chasers, extending its long, sharp claws.
"Tai Chi Bing! Ice!" Finn sent shards of ice at the creature, but then it disappeared into thin air.
"Uh, guys," Tori whimpered, "that was the monster from my story."
The team gaped at Tori, their eyes wide.
"What! How's that possible?" Donha said, "your story was make believe."
All of a sudden they heard Rai cry out.
"Get it away from me!" Rai hid behind Donha. The team looked at where Rai was pointing at, there was a large clown making its way towards them from where the trail should have continued.
"I hate clowns!" Rai muttered, "they freak me out!"
"Tai Chi Seok! Stone!" Donha tried to take out the clown with boulders, but it disappeared just like Tori's monster did.
"I think the Tai Chi creates the things that we fear the most," Sena said, "stay on your toes, we need to find it before this gets any worse."
The team began to run through the jungle, leaving the trail behind them. Now they were beginning to hear sounds all around them, rustling and sometimes growls.
"They're not real, guys," Sena said, "just keep your gaze straight ahead."
Then the ground seemed to be moving around underneath them. The Chasers looked down to see millions of huge spiders.
"Gahhhh!" Sena yelled, "spiders! Get them away!"
"No, Sena," Donha said, pulling her along, "we have to keep moving, like you said, they're not real."
"They look real to me!" Sena cried, "run!"
The Chasers stumbled their way through some more thick bushes and trees. They came to a clearing and stopped, trying to catch their breath.
"This is insane!" Tori said, "how are we ever going to find that Tai Chi in a place like this?"
"I don't know," Sena sighed, "but we promised we would, and we need that card anyway."
"What should we do now, Sena?" Rai asked, "it'd probably be a bad idea to split up, we'd all get lost."
Sena nodded, "we're going to have to split up, though, Rai. But we'll split it down to two and three. Finn and Tori, you guys will go left, Donha, Rai and I will go right. Contact me through this if you've found anything or are in trouble."
Sena handed Finn the Tai Chi detector, she had one of her own so they could use them as walkie-talkies.
"Be careful," Finn said, as he and Tori disappeared into the trees, the rest of the group went into the opposite direction.
"Are you sure it was a good idea sending Tori and Finn out on their own?" Rai asked, "who knows what could be out there?"
"Finn and Tori can fend for themselves, they are very talented with using Tai Chi," Sena said, "and we had to if we wanted to cover more ground and find that card quicker."
More rustling sounded and the trio stopped.
"What was that?" Donha whispered, getting out a card and his activator.
Then something stepped out from behind a large tree. It was a large man with a red coat and a long, white beard.
"Noooo!" Donha cried, covering his eyes, "anything but him!"
For the first time since they've been out here Rai and Sena began to crack up.
"No way," Rai said, "Donha, don't tell me you're afraid of Santa Claus!"
Sena and Rai fell into another fit of laughter.
"It's not funny!" Donha cried, "who wouldn't be afraid of him!? Just look!"
With tears in their eyes, Rai and Sena looked at the fat, jolly man. Except he didn't seem so jolly anymore, he smiled to reveal long sharp teeth, and his eyes were glowing red. Then he began to run at them.
"Ahhh!" Rai screamed, "let's go!"
The group started running, the demon Santa was close on their tail.
"Donha," Sena gasped, "since when has this sort of Santa been your fear?"
"My brothers thought it would be funny to be a scary Santa Claus for Halloween," he replied, "I didn't think it was funny, though!"
The evil Santa let out an rough 'ho ho ho' and continued to chase them.
Meanwhile, Finn and Tori were unaware what was in store for them.
"I hope the others are alright," Tori said, softly.
"I'm sure they are," Finn replied, looking at the Tai Chi detector to see if there was a card nearby. There wasn't anything.
"I really don't like this Tai Chi," Tori said, "whatever it is."
The bushes up ahead of them rustled. Finn stopped and Tori hid behind him. The silence came over them again, then a figure stepped on front of the two boys.
"Elder Sid," Finn said, shocked. He quickly walked up to the old man. It looked just like him, except there was something different about him. His usually warm eyes seemed colder.
"You have failed me, Finn," Sid said. Finn's eyes went wide and his mouth slightly opened, only to say nothing.
"You have failed me and the rest of the Tigeroids," Sid said, "and you have failed your mission."
"It's not real, Finn," Tori whispered, "remember, that's not really Elder Sid."
But Finn didn't pay any attention to what Tori said, he was too focused on the hateful words that were coming from Elder Sid, and the look of hate in his eyes.
Finn went to his knees, whispering, "forgive me, Elder Sid."
He looked up to see that Elder Sid had disappeared, he was replaced by a concerned looking Tori.
"Are you alright, Finn?" Tori put a hand on Finn's shoulder, "he wasn't real, Finn. It's okay."
Finn blinked a couple of times, trying to clear his head, and then got back onto his feet.
"We need to find that card," he finally said, "and fast."
"Tai Chi Hwa! Fire!" Rai sent a ball of flames back at the evil Santa Claus, it disappeared like the other monsters before him.
"Thank goodness," Donha sighed, catching his breath, "that was terrible!"
Suddenly Sena's Tai Chi detector started to beep. She flipped it open.
"Hey! I'm getting a signal!" Sena exclaimed, "it looks like the card should be straight ahead."
"Finally!" Rai said, "let's go!"
The group ran forward, trying to the best of their abilities to dodge the trees and large rocks.
Then they stopped, and gaped at what was in front of them.
"I think we're here," Rai said, looking up at the tall, stone tower.
"Yeah," Sena said, putting away the detector, "I can see the card on top, too!"
Donha swinted and saw the card was perched perfectly at the top of the large cylinder.
"But how do we get it?" he asked, "there's no stairs or anything!"
Rai and Sena saw that Donha was right, the structure had no opening or ladder. It was like someone build a chimney but forgot to add the house to it.
"It's no problem!" Sena said, pulling out her activator and Mok card, "my branches can take care of that!"
Just as Sena swiped her card and created the tree branches that were supposed to carry her up to the card she screamed.
Donha and Rai gasped to see Sena's branches turn into thousands of black spiders.
Sena quickly brushed herself off and began to hyperventilate.
"This is impossible!" she cried, "it even turns my own Tai Chi into my fears!"
"Well maybe we could try climbing it?" Rai said, running over to the tower.
It was a little too wide for Rai to wrap his arms around it, but then he was able to shimmy up the first part of the wall.
"Yeah, Rai! You're almost there!" Tori yelled, as he and Finn ran out of the trees to join the rest of the Chasers.
"You guys!" Sena said, "I'm glad you're alright, you didn't run into any trouble did you?"
Finn paled and looked away, Tori frowned and only said, "nah, just the usual monsters and stuff."
Sena nodded, but couldn't help but feel that they were hiding something.
"Hey, guys!" Rai yelled, he held up the card triumphantly.
The team cheered as he slid down the tower.
"Good job, Rai," Sena said, taking the card from him and swiping it into the detector.
"It's a Toi card," she said, "and it's just what we thought, it attacks its enemies by bringing out their worst fears."
"What scary card," Tori said, moving away, "but feel how different the jungle is now!"
The team looked up and saw that Tori was right.
The sun seemed to finally reach down to them, and they could hear different birds singing and chirping. The dark trees now seemed less omnimous and the Chasers finally relaxed a little bit and they made their way back to the village.
"Okay," Rai said, along the way, "so Tori's fear is his made up monster and Donha's afraid of Santa Claus."
"I am not!" Donha exclaimed, angrily.
"Sena's fear is spiders," Rai continued, not paying any attention to Donha, "and mine was clowns. What about your's Finn?"
Finn didn't say anything, and Rai grew impatient.
"What? You don't have fears, either, Finn?" he said, irritated, "no fears and no dreams, sometimes I wonder if you're even human, Finn."
"That's enough, Rai," Sena said, glaring, "if Finn doesn't want to talk about it he doesn't have to!"
Rai huffed and quickened his pace, after a while they finally made it back to the village.
Treo came out to greet them.
"Were you successful, my friends?" he asked, anxiously, "I was beginning to get worried."
Sena pulled out the Toi card and showed it to him, Treo's eyes widened at it.
"Thank you," he said, "I don't know what I could ever do to repay you."
"Don't worry about it," Sena said, smiling, "we were happy to get rid of this card for you, we experienced what you were talking about."
Treo nodded, grimly.
"At least join us in a celebration in your honor," Treo said, "and in honor of the peaceful years to come for our village."
"We'd love to!" Sena said, and Treo motioned for them to follow him.
He took them to the middle of the village and sat them down in a place of honor next to his seat.
"We will have a big feast!" Treo said to the gathering villagers, "and we shall celebrate, the evil card is now gone thanks to our new friends!"
The villagers cheered and scattered, gathering different kinds of foods and wood for the bonfire.
The sun was beginning to set and the fire was growing larger. One of the villagers handed Treo, Jom and the Chasers large plates of food. Donha's eyes widened with joy and dug in and the others joined him.
The rest of the village laughed and feasted around the fire, after Tori had finished his food he told them the story about his team getting the card. Instead of talking about Elder Sid, he replaced that part with bringing in his monster again.
Much to Donha's embarassment, the villagers laughed at the Santa Claus part of the story.
Once everyone was finished with their food some of the villagers got out a few guitar-like instruments and some drums. They began to play and some of the village girls began to dance, the team was entranced at how graceful they were.
Suddenly one of the girls stopped in front of Rai and held out her hand. Rai put up his hands and began to sputter.
"Uh, no, that's okay, I don't really dan-" The girl laughed and pulled Rai to his feet and pulled him to the middle of the group by the fire.
The music began to speed up and the girl began to spin around with Rai, and laughed as other villagers joined into the circle.
"Let's go guys!" Donha said, tugging Sena and Tori along.
Pretty soon it felt like the whole village was involved with a giant 'Ring around the Rosie' game. They orbited the giant bonfire, laughing and shouting out.
Finn sat back, enjoying the scene, but still feeling a twinge of dread at the past events of the day.
All of a sudden a small child appeared in front of him. She held out a small wooden carving of the sun, and smiled.
"Thank you," Finn said, smiling at the girl. She laughed and tugged at Finn's sleeve.
"You need to dance!" she said, "my mother told me the sun would make you finally smile and then you would dance!"
Finn gave a small smile, "that's okay, maybe later."
"No, now," the girl said, more determined, "my friends said they would help, too!"
More children appeared and they helped the little girl pull up Finn, the crowd in the larger outer circle laughed and grabbed Finn and pulled him in. The children joined in, too.
The music began to pick up even faster and some of the villagers began to sing in breathless voices. Everything was spinning now and the only noise anyone could hear was pure happiness.
Then the music came to an uprupt stop and the villagers stopped dancing, breathless but still laughing.
They went back to their seats and Treo stood up.
"My village and I are forever grateful to you, Chasers," he said, the village murmured in agreement, "you are always welcome to return to us if you come by this way again. Our land is open to you, you are now a part of this village."
The village cheered, and the Chasers beamed at Treo.
"Thank you," Sena said, as she and the rest of the Chasers stood up, "we will never forget this. We're glad that this card will never bother you or anyone else ever again."
The village cheered again and Treo smiled at them.
Tori yawned a little bit and rubbed his eyes, Sena smiled over at him.
"It's getting late, guys," she said, "we'd better get back to the ship and tell dad about the card that we found."
The group nodded, but were a little sad at leaving such a nice village. Treo smiled sadly.
"I will escort you out," he said, "our village will miss you greatly."
The Chasers followed him, Finn looked around and saw the little girl smiling at him. He clutched the small sun and put it in his pocket.
Treo and some of the masked warriors led the Chasers out of the village in back into the jungle.
It's hard to believe we've only been here for about a day, Rai thought to himself as the team emerged back onto the shore.
"Here is where we say goodbye, my friends," Treo said, "thank you Sena, Finn, Tori, Donha and Rai. And thank you spirit Hak, I hope we meet again someday."
The team said goodbye and Treo and his men disappeared back into the forest.
Sena sighed and made her way back to the ship, the rest of the group followed her.
Once they were all on board Hak took off and they soared over the large lake.
"Why don't you guys go to bed," Sena said, when the team was up in the command room, "it's been a very long and hard day."
No one disagreed with her and they made their ways to their bedrooms. The ship was still a little bit cool from Finn's Bing card, so it wasn't too terrible.
Soon everyone was fast asleep, except for Sena, she stayed in the command room with Hak, keeping lookout.
"I wonder if we'll ever see Treo and his village again," she wondered, Hak turned around.
"We might," he said, "but we have a lot of important things to do before then."
Sena sighed and frowned as Hak turned back around to steer the ship.
Maybe someday we can spend some more time doing what we did today, Sena thought, enjoying ourselves, minus the Tai Chi.
The End