Cole put his hands on his knees and focused on techniques to help him catch his breath. Another tough morning of training was over. The afternoon was the ninjas to do as they pleased.

Cole straitened when he caught his breath. The others were already heading inside for lunch. Kai had made Kenchinjiru, a vegetarian soup.

"I'm thinking about taking my dragon out for some exercise," Cole told his friends, "Anyone want to come?"

The other three looks at one another hesitantly.

"Uh...sorry Cole," Kai said at last, "I promised I'd head down to the village and help my sister today. She's still working on closing the shop so she can move in with us."

"Yeah! And I was planning on doing some tinkering today," Jay added.

Zane response was simply, "And I have...uhm...something...else to do?"

Zane's vague response and Jay and Kai slapping their own foreheads at it made Cole cock an eyebrow. But he soon shrugged it off.

Just over an hour later Cole was in the sky with his dragon. His ticket to see all of Ninjago. They swooped over mountain tops, glided over forests and made daring dives into canyons.

Cole enjoyed every minute of it, but a thought still ticked in the back of his mind. Zane's response as to why he couldn't fly with him today. Zane was normally good at giving a direct answer to a question. He wasn't cryptic like stereotypical stages, and he was never vague. Something just wasn't right.

His dragon seemed to sense his thoughts and suddenly stopped listening to Cole's directions. It made a U-turn and started flying at top speed.

"Woah! Where are you taking me?" Cole asked over the rushing wind.

He got his answer moments later when his dragon landed just outside the village. Cole got down and his dragon pushed him towards the blacksmith Kai and Nya came from.

Inside Nya was stacking up some old helmets. She looked like she'd been working for hours and was getting tired.

"Kai hasn't come yet it look like," Cole said casually.

"Hey Cole," Nya smiled, "I...wasn't aware he was coming."

Cole stared in disbelief, "He...said he'd promised to help you."

"Sorry, but he did no such thing," Nya told him.

"First Zane gives me a weird answer, and now Kai lied to me...were they all just making excuses? Why?" Cole simply couldn't believe it.

"I'm sure they had a good reason Cole," Nya assured him, "You and the others are a team, you always say so yourself. I'm sure things will straiten out in time."

Cole thought for a moment then nodded. Whatever was going on would be resolved and explained. The ninjas didn't keep secrets from each other...at least not for long.

"Thanks Nya. I guess I'll see you around," He said.

He turned and started to leave the shop.

"Cole wait a moment," Nya called after him.

Cole turned, "Yes?"

"I could use some extra muscle getting ready for the helmet sale. Need to get rid of as many as I can after all. Seeing how Kai isn't coming, you want to stick around and give me a hand?" Nya asked.

Cole smiled. Finally a chance to do something with a friend. He eagerly accepted.

Nya's job mostly consisted sorting so the customers could fond what they wanted easily. Kabuto Helmets went one place. Hache Gane, forehead protectors, another place. Mengu, face masks, in yet another. To make it even more of a challenge the armor pieces had subtypes. Mengu had be sorted by what it covered. There were also two types of Kabuto helmets. At least the Hache Gane's were easy.

By sundown the store was finally ready for the following day's sale.

Cole wipes sweat from his forehead.

"When I told the ninja's I was taking my dragon out for some exercise, I thought I meant the dragon was getting exercise, not me," he joked.

Nya laughed, "Speaking of which you'd better head back before the others start to worry. Thanks for your help today. It would have taken me forever to do all that myself."

"Sure thing. I'll tell the others you say hi," Cole replied mounting his dragon.

Minutes later he was back at the dojo.

"What took you so long?" Kai asked when he came in.

"I was helping Nya in the shop, like you told me you were planning to do today," Cole said hoping to speed up his receiving of answers.

"Oh yeah well...things kinda got hectic around here, and I needed to stay and help," Kai said.

"Cole blinked a few times, shocked that Kai was once again lying to his face, but he let the matter go...for now.