"He who moves mountains begins by carrying away small stones first." -Chinese Proverb

. . .

"The knowledge from an enlightened person breaks on the hard rocks of ignorance." -Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

. . .

"I can do it by myself!" Mina shouted at Cole as he started to climb down a ways to help her.

"No, you can't." the ninja of Earth told her bluntly. "You need to watch your footing, that rock is not stable enough for your weight. Place it on that other one right there."

The girl gave a rather indignant huff, but did as she was told regardless. Cole watched her as she kept up with his pace as they scaled the side of the mountain.

Taking Mina rock climbing didn't start out as his idea, but it had some how became a monthly thing for the two of them. Taking the ten year old rock climbing wasn't exactly something Kai was too excited about either. Being Kai's charge and all -and adding in her supposed lineage- the ninja of Fire was very protective of the girl. If anything, it had been Zane's idea to keep up with the idea of Cole and Mina meeting up once a month to scale the same mountain for as long as they could. Why would be a mystery for any one to solve. What it meant was that Cole was stuck with a kid he didn't want for up to six hours at a time. At least Cole only had her once a month and not everyday like Kai...

It made Cole snicker a bit: Sucker.

"We'll rest here for a moment." Cole said when the two reached a ledge big enough for the two of them to sit on. Mina didn't complain and made herself as comfortable as she could on the ledge. Cole took off his hiking backpack and pulled out a water bottle to hand to the girl.

"Here." he said, "Promised Kai I wouldn't let you die of dehydration today."

The girl looked at the bottle wearily then took it.

"Thanks." she said softly. "How much more we gotta do?"

"'Bout three more miles up, then we'll try to find the zip line down. Do you think you can make it?"

Mina gave Cole a look that illustrated how disgusted and angry the idea made her. It amused Cole to think that the look would have made Nya proud, and it served to show off how much of someone else's personality could bounce off into Mina's. Nya wasn't exactly fond of Mina either though...

"I can do it." Mina said, starting to stand up right away.

"Not right now kid," Cole told her, taking a hold of her arm to force her to sit down again. "We're going to take a break for now. Geez, you're just as patient as Kai some days."

The girl gave her mentor another huff as she carefully sat down again.

"We're not going any where until you answer some questions for me." Cole then told her. She shot him a rather hateful glare.

"Why?" the disagreeable child asked.

"Gotta check to see if that mind of yours still operates at this high altitude. If you're forgetting stuff, we gotta go back before you're completely brain-dead. Understand?"

Mina folded her arms and nodded her head in agreement. Her face was still sour and disagreeable however.

"First question," Cole said, badly imitating an overenthusiastic game show host, "Where are we?"

"Easy." Mina declared. "We are scaling the exterior of the Caves of Despair."

"Good." Cole agreed. "They once housed the...?"

"Scythe of Quakes."

"Guarded by the...?"

"Dragon of Earth."

"Perfect. Now, can you tell me who you are and how old you are?"

Mina rolled her eyes. She hated these kind of questions because they were always the first asked when someone gets hit in the head.

"My name is Minerva Florence, and I am ten years old."

"Who am I?" Cole then asked her.

"Cole." the girl said bluntly.

"And your parents...?"

"I don't have parents, I have a legal guardian. His name is Kai and he is emotionally constipated."

Cole couldn't help but snicker a bit. Mina kept looking at him with a look that wanted so badly to kill on contact.

"Are we going now?" the girl asked. Cole sighed and looked up.

It was going to take them several hours before they reached the top. It would likely be nighttime. Kai wasn't going to be happy if they weren't back before dark.

"Sure, but we gotta hurry. It'll be dark soon."

With little else to say, the two started back up again. The sky was a brilliant shade of scarlet when the two finally reached the top. Mina looked up at the sky and her face beamed with happiness. Cole took a moment to stare at her in wonder before getting distracted by the sound of the falcon. Cole frowned when he saw it.

They were in trouble, big time.

"Hey Mina," Cole said, knowing that everything they were doing was going to be recorded from here on out.

"Yeah?" Mina asked, turning to look at him.

"What do you know about the four elements?"

Mina blinked.

"Something that they won't tell me at school, apparently." the girl deduced by the look on Cole's serious face.

"I was hoping that what I wanted to tell you would have been part of your schoolwork." Cole told her. "But in the end it all comes down to this; we all have an element of Creation inside of us."

Mina stared at Cole like he was nuts, but in reality her mind had been blown.

"What do you mean?" she asked, pretending not to be as interested as she was. For a moment, Cole hesitated. Now that he had started to conversation, he wasn't sure how to finish it.

"You know how we call Kai 'hothead' sometimes? Or Jay 'lightning mouth'?"

"And Zane 'frozen gears'?"

"Exactly, that's because inside of them- Kai, Jay, and Zane have the element of fire, lightning, and ice inside of them, respectively."

"So... since they call you 'rock brain'... you have the element of earth?"

"In... a matter of speaking... yes."

"Then, if you guys like calling me 'kid' and 'shortie' and 'squirt', does that mean I have the element of children?"

Cole smirked. The kid had a sense of humor- a morbid one, but it still was a sense of humor.

"Nice try." he told her. "No, Zane decided that you might have the element of earth in you."

Mina gave Cole a look that highly doubted what he was telling her.

"Then what element is the Green Ninja?" the stubborn child asked as she folded her arms.

"That's where it gets interesting." Cole told her. "Some of us are able to have two elements- but you have to be born in a certain family for it to work though. The element of Creation is too powerful to work with alone, so you have to be connected to two elements for it to balance itself out."

"So, along with Creation," Mina started to say, "What was the other element that the Green Ninja had?"

"Lightning." Cole said certainly. Mina gave him a hard look that made Cole remember a promise Kai had told him to keep the first time he took Mina rock climbing. Quickly he added, "So I was told any way."

Mina looked him over before looking up at the falcon. The girl then turned her attention toward a zip line that connected to a rather tall post. The zip line would take them back down to the ground safely. Without telling Cole what she doing, Mina started to walk over to zip line, took out a harness for the zip line out of her backpack, then adjusted the harness on herself and on the zip line.

"Wait a minute kid, let me help you with that." Cole quickly said as he went over to help her.

"I don't need help." Mina told him although she did not stop him. Cole made her look at him after that statement.

"This is why I can't stand having you around for so long." Cole told her, his face dead serious and demanding full attention. "You think you have the power to move mountains -but let me be the one to tell you kid- you'd have just as much luck trying to move a pebble without kicking or stepping it."

Mina gave Cole a rather ugly face and looked away from him. With the harness secure, Cole let Mina use the zip line down. He gave her a few minutes to make it to the ground, then Cole got a second harness out of his backpack and adjusted it so he could use the zip line down as well. Mina was waiting patiently for him on the ground.

"I know I'm a pain in the butt." Mina told him as he put his harness back in his backpack. "I know I can be rude and mean and very stubborn. But I really like being able to do this with you. It's... kind of comfortable in a way."

"With me?" Cole asked, slightly bemused and curious.

"No." Mina said in a flat tone. "Being here, in the mountains. I feel connected to the earth as we go up against it- and when we reach the top of the mountain and look around, it feels as if nothing can stop us."

Cole gave Mina an odd look as the child thought about the feeling of seeing over the mountain made her feel. To her, it felt as if she belonged there- connected to the earth and everything around it. It was a weird feeling, but it felt so... perfect.

"I think Zane is right, you do have the element of Earth." Cole said in a low tone.

Mina gave Cole a wild look but she looked back down again to think. The rest of the walk home was silent as the ten year old thought over what her mentor had told her. Cole went to sleep that night thinking that if she truly was (and she sure seemed like it) that meant he would be with her more often. That meant more rock climbing sessions, and more of Kai's berating. Cole smirked as he drifted into sleep. Maybe he could teach Mina some things after all...