Sorry this chapter took a while. School's been murder on me and I've been having a hard time concentrating. I have the whole story planned out from beginning to end, I just haven't had time to write it down. Thank god for Spring break. Expect more updates then. Until next time, enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 4: The Search Begins Again
Clay was exhausted. He had been searching for hours and it was getting late. He already started thinking about when he'd have to meet up with the others because, even though he wasn't necessarily afraid of the dark, he still didn't think it pleasant to camp out there by your self. Oh well. He still had time before sunset. Hopefully Rai and Omi's day had been more productive.
And, hopefully, Kimiko was alright. What was he going to tell the guys when they saw she wasn't with him?
"I reckon I'll have t' tell em' what happened." Clay thought simply to himself. " 'Sides, It's mostly her fault. Damn, I think I'm already gettin' a rash! Could of told me that plant was poisonous." He scratched his arm.
Deep down, he did think that he had gone a little overboard when he yelled at Kimiko. Then again, what about all the things she had said to him? She made rude comments to him all the time. Didn't he have the right to defend himself? Still, there was something about the way she had looked at him. Clay never meant to make her get that emotional. He had never made anyone cry, at least not to his knowledge.
Sure, she looked angry. She looked angrier than Clay had seen her in a long time. But there was that look in her eyes. She looked as if Clay had said something like he hated her. He shook his head. He didn't really hate her. He thought she was….
At that moment Clay realized something. Something he was surprised that he'd never thought of it before.
What did he really think about Kimiko Tohomiko?
Before he could put more thought into this, something else caught his attention. Smoke slowly filled the air and the smell of ashes filled the young dragon's nose. It didn't rake him long to realize what was going on.
"Shit!"
As Clay looked closer he could already see flames rising from out of the brush. He frantically searched his mind for a solution. Soon he would have an all out forest fire on his hands. It would have been better if Raimundo and Omi could handle this. After all, wind and water were a hell of a lot more useful than earth when it came to putting out fires. But he was there. It was up to him to do something about this.
Quickly, Clay took off his ten gallon hat and pulled out his signature Shen Gong Wu, the Fist of Tebigong. He quickly slipped it on his hand and headed in the direction were the smoke was coming from.
Clay didn't go far before he began to choke on the ash and burnt particles in the air. Thinking fast, he pulled the bandana around his neck over his mouth. In the distance, the fire engulfed everything in plain sight, turning everything from green to black. Clay got as close as he could while still being safe, then stopped to raise his metal clad fist. He swung it down with a mighty force.
" FIST OF TEBIGONG"
The ground cracked from the intense pressure. Dirt and mulch flew into the air and smothered some of the flames. It barely helped. It was going to take a lot more than that to put out this fire.
"Damnit! I need help….."
"Clay!"
Clay looked up, caught completely off guard. As if on cue, Omi and Raimundo came onto the scene. But that did not surprise him as much as seeing Dojo.
"How's that possible?" Clay thought. Did they, could they of found it?"
"Hang in there dude!" Rai shouted down to him. "Now, Omi!"
The small monk whipped out a round object and held it up in the air, the sun shining off of its crystal clear surface.
"ORB OF TORNAMI! WATER!"
A sudden torrent shot up into the air. As it down, Rai pulled out something that had been tucked into his robes and spun it around over his head like an out of control ceiling fan.
"SWORD OF THE STORM! WIND!"
The water hit the spinning blade and dispersed into tiny droplets. They rained down onto the flames below, extinguishing them. Before Clay could blink, Dojo was landing on the forest floor and the two other boys were running towards him as the dragon shrunk back into his normal size. They looked almost as perplexed as he was.
"Clay, what has happened?" Omi asked. Rai turned his head from side to side, obviously looking for something. Or someone, as the case was.
"And where's Kimiko?"
Clay scratched the back of his head. He tipped the rim of his hat over his eyes, trying to hide his embarrassment. "Mighty good questions, I reckon. Don't know the answers to neither of em…"
Omi and Clay looked confused. Hell, he was just as confused as they were, if not more. Dojo slid over and curled himself around the top of Omi's head. He gave Clay an equally confused look. The cowboy felt like he was on a huge stage all alone. And the spotlight was on him. He sighed.
"All I can tell ya'll is what I know, an' that ain't much. I have no clue how this here fire started, an' as fer Kimiko, well….."
Clay looked up for a moment then sighed again. He turned his attention back to his friends. He really didn't want to do this.
"Here's what happened…"
It didn't take long for Clay to explain what happened, although to him it seemed like an eternity. When he finished he found it hard to read his friend's expressions. Omi looked like he was still processing the information. His eyes were closed and his finger was placed under his chin, a clear sign that he was pondering something. It seemed that something was nagging at him. He just couldn't place what it was.
Dojo's expression was similar to that of concern, but like Omi it seemed like something else was trying to take up his thoughts. Then Clay looked at Raimundo.
One look at the Shoku Warrior's face and the dragon of earth was hit with a feeling of uneasiness. He looked at Clay as if he had just committed an unspeakable act. His hands were balled up tightly into fists and they were shaking. That really got the cowboy to feel ashamed of himself.
"Dang, I reckon I really messed up with somethin' this time."
However, Rai had not intended to express what he was feeling towards anyone. At least not anyone there. He screwed his eyes shut.
"Damn it, Kimiko! What are you thinking?"
Raimundo was worried. He knew something they didn't, something they all should know but couldn't remember. But, what exactly was it? Clay could feel that there was a little voice in the back of his head trying to tell him something. What it was, he couldn't say. There was one thing Clay knew, however, and that was that something was seriously wrong. He could feel it. He could see it in his friend's eyes.
Trying to concentrate on something else, Clay looked at Dojo who was still coiled around Omi's head. He decided that know he wanted some answers.
"By th' way, Dojo, how in tarnation is it that you ain't all shakin' no more? B'fore when we tried t' land you were actin' up like a rattler with a bad case o' the sniffles."
Dojo looked at Clay and nodded. "Yeah I was feeling pretty lousy. I couldn't get anywhere near the ground without feeling like I was going to have a stroke." Dojo narrowed his eyes. His tone had gotten more serious. "That is, until…."
………………
Earlier that day Dojo had been soaring over the mountainous Japanese terrain, admiring how lush and green it all was. Only a small percentage of the country was populated by people and the feeling of that kind of quiet calm isolation had almost put the old dragon in a meditative state. It reminded him of his years of living in quiet tranquility at the Xiaolin Temple.
Or at least, it was like that until he got stuck with babysitting a group of rowdy young tweens. But even Dojo had to admit that he had never imagined that these young inexperienced kids could grow up into the responsible young warriors they had become. Sure they still acted up and did stupid kid stuff, but they carried a huge responsibility on their shoulders and deserved the time they had to goof off like normal teenagers. Dojo let out a long repressed sigh, breathing out smoke as he did so. He hoped they were all alright.
Right now, all he could do was hover above the trees and watch out for anything that would come across as suspicious. But so far Dojo had seen nothing. The forest stood still like it had for years, with the exception of the all too common earthquakes that would occasionally shake its boundaries. But nothing at all was happening. And even if it was, how on earth was the dragon supposed to tell the others? He couldn't get close to the ground without totally losing control of his bodily functions and he would start to twitch like a madman. He hadn't yet forgotten that first episode he had. He nearly ended up causing the deaths of the earth's only hope against the forces of darkness.
After a while, Dojo started to notice that trace amounts of smoke started to fill the air. He looked around him, confused. "That's not me. What's going….oh…NO!" In the distance, not to far from where Dojo was hovering, smoke was rising out of the trees and into the air.
In that instant Dojo completely stopped. He forgot to hover. Hell, he forgot to breath! Of course, he began to drop like a lead balloon. He lost his ability to think straight as he began to spin around in the air. He was close to the tops of the trees now. He braced himself for the sharp stabbing chills he knew were to come.
He felt nothing. Just the wind whipping at his face accompanied by the sensation of falling. That woke him up from his shock induced state of panic as he pulled up, just grazing the branches of the taller trees. He elevated himself up to a safe distance before checking himself for any feelings of unpleasantness. Nothing.
"I-I don't feel anything? No chills…nothing?"
There was a moment of silence.
Then
"WHAT IN THE NAME OF DASHI IS GOING ON?"
It did not take long for Dojo to answer his own question. It was clear what had happened.
"Oh crap."
Dojo flew off in the other direction at topmost speed. He never remembered ever flying this fast.
"Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapocrap! CRAP! This is not good! This is NOT GOOD!"
He had to find Omi. Or Rai. Or anyone. He had to find them now. Right now! If he didn't…..
Suddenly, he noticed something below him. It was reflecting the sun's rays, and it was moving. He could see the shine moving under the cover of the trees below. Dojo soon recognized it as a familiar glare the sun made when it shined off of one thing in particular. And that was Omi's big shiny head! Omi and Raimundo were directly below him! Still panicked, Dojo swooped down towards them.
Straight towards them!
It was too late to change his direction. If he tried, he would most likely end up entangled in the branches. There was only one thing he could do.
"LOOK OUT BELOW!"
Rai and Omi looked up. Their eyes went wide with disbelief as they saw the big dragon coming straight at them! Thankfully, Omi possessed perfect reflexes. He grabbed the team leader by the cuff of his sleeve and leapt out of the way just as Dojo made contact with the ground with a loud
-BOOM!-
Dojo moaned as he tried to move. It had been hours since he touched solid ground and, while his body was weightless during flight, he was always reminded of how heavy he was in this form when he was back on the ground.
Obviously annoyed, Rai stepped out of the bushes Omi had leapt into. He spat out a leaf before he could speak. "Dojo! What in the world's gotten into you?"
Omi stuck his head out of the bushes, unaware that he had a small bird's nest on his head. "Wait, Clay! Do you not find it strange to see Dojo here when before he had to keep his distance? The affects of the Shen Gong Wu are too powerful for him to handle."
Rai realized that Omi was right and turned to the Dojo for an explanation. The dragon quickly rose to attention once he caught his breath. He was still panting when he talked.
"I'll explain on the way." He turned so his back faced them. "Just get on!" Dojo and Omi looked at each other in confusion. Dojo pounded the ground with one of his claws. "GET A MOVE ON! We don't have time to stand around like this!"
Omi and Rai were shocked. Dojo had never sounded so serious. Nodding simultaneously, they climbed on the dragon's back and soared off into the sky.
…………………….
"Dojo had explained to us how he had seen the smoke." Omi said at the end of the dragon's explanation. "As you clearly saw, we came prepared."
Clay scratched the scruff on his face as he absorbed everything his friends had just told him. The cowboy was still confused, although that explanation had cleared up some things for him. He still, however, had not received an answer on the matter he thought was the most important.
"That's all fine an' dandy, fellas. But ya'll still haven't told me why Dojo isn't effected by th' Wu's vibes anymore."
That was obviously not the right question to be asking. All three of Clay's companions suddenly grew melancholy. Omi bowed his head as a symbol of shame and Dojo let out a pained sigh as Raimundo bowed his head like Omi. Dojo cleared his throat of the ash and soot that lingered on his breath before turning to the dragon of earth. From the look on his face and that of his fellow warriors, Clay knew this was not going to be good news.
"It can mean one of two things" Dojo said pointing one claw up. "One, it can mean that somebody found the Heylin Urn and took it away."
This idea made Clay's insides turn. His skin turned pale to match his farmer's tan. He looked at Dojo as if what he had said was not possible, not probable. But It was very possible. The fact that the small dragon could be there was proof.
Dojo sensed the fear that had entered the cowboy's tough exterior. "Trust me, it's better than the other possibility." He said sadly, pointing up a second claw. "Two…" Clay felt like his heart was going to stop. What could be worse than one of those heartless Heylin getting their hands on such a dangerous object? That was why they were there, to stop them from getting it. That's what the fate of the world relied on. What could be worse than that?
"The Urn has been opened."
These words echoed over and over again in Clay's mind. He felt totally paralyzed. He had never imagined such that could happen. Not in a million years. Not in two million years. But it was all too possible. Clay knew that. But, could it really be true? Could they have failed so miserably? So totally?
"Guys, wait. Let's assess the situation. It's not totally hopeless." Rai finally said. It was obvious he was trying to sound calm when he really wasn't. "If someone on the Heylin does have the Wu, than there is still a chance we could get it back before any damage is done. But first, we have to find Kimiko and regroup. After that, we'll come up with a plan. We've been through situations like this before and we always come up on top. Am I right?" The team leader stretched out his hand. "Come on, guys."
Omi and Clay knew that he was faking the enthusiasm. Still, they couldn't help but smile at their leader's attempt to raise their spirits. Omi put his hand on top of Rai's, and Clay put his hand on top of Omi's.
"We're with you, partner."
"Yes. We will overcome this trial, as we have all the others."
They all then raised their hands to the sky, each boy shouting his element at the top of his lungs.
They decided to split up and search the surrounding area for Kimiko. Dojo took to the sky to search from above and to keep tabs on everyone. The boys agreed to have Dojo pick them up individually if they found nothing by nightfall, which was four hours away.
As Rai ran off into the direction opposite to that of Clay, only one thing was on his mind. He had to prove to himself that what he was thinking was wrong. That the one behind this wasn't who he thought it was. He had to prove he was wrong, even though deep down he already knew he was right.
The next chapter is coming soon, I promise! It will be entirely from Clay's point of view, which is different from the other chapters where I have switched back and forth between scenes involving other characters. Not this time. Nope. Besides, it has to happen that way due to how I've spaced out my chapters. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter, no matter how short it seemed to be. There will be fluff by chapter 6! THERE WILL BE FLUFF! Nothing that big, mind you. See ya soon!