I couldn't tell what was weirder: the fact that there was no one in the house after I awoke with a prepared breakfast on the table or the fact that Kai had left me a note saying to meet him at a place called the Fire Temple on 'foot'. Does he truly think that I'd walk that far? Heck no!

I went to control room; flipped a couple of switches, turned a couple of latches, and typed in the coordinates to the fire temple from Nya's Coordinate's Of Ninjago's Extraordinary Places book, and started to work the ship. Ha, this will be a piece of cake. But I'm still wondering where the others went. Oh well. "This is Captain Samson speaking; we are now headed to the Fire Temple, arg!" I get to be a pirate while they're away. Ha ha!

Nathan's POV

I felt bad that I left Samson asleep like that but I knew that I had a long journey to go through if I wanted to meet Cole at the top of the highest cliff.

I looked at the map and then back to the many thousands of mountains ahead of me. Which one is the highest though?

I got a stick from the side and started writing out two equations. Who knew I might've needed to use this in real life huh?

I wrote out two small stick guys, looked at the two highest looking ones; then guessed the height of the smallest one. Then I did proportions and found the one that Cole said was 300 meters long…

I checked my pack for the waters and then started heading to the mountain. Might as well start now. I didn't see Sindy this morning, which was a bit odd, but then again none of the ninja were there so whatever right? I guess even she had her way of doing things…but…I don't quite like the idea of Zane hanging out with her more… Why did I have to be an idiot? I was just trying to be fast but then I unlocked this silly Spinjitzu thingy, come on! I would've even preferred it if she had Jay instead…wait, no, because he would've been in on it too…damn...

I started to climb the mountain, almost falling to my doom because of a misjudged rock. I started counting. 90, 91, 92, 93. In all, I needed about 948 feet. I'll be there soon, I guess…

Sindy's POV

In Zane's letter I was to go retrieve a boat and head to the Frozen Wasteland. I wonder if he thought I could manage a boat through those torrent waters because if he did, let me tell you, I was barely making it through.

When I finally made it there, it was about 10°F, maybe less, and I was freezing. I knew I should've brought a jacket…but of course it just 'happened' to fall into the dumpster and now was probably going through an incinerator. And I loved that jacket!

I sighed as I went onto the cold snow, sinking in at least 2 cm. I ran over to the mountain and saw a little letter. It simply said one word, Ready? What could that…

Something wrapped around my leg and appeared right in front of me and I held my gasp for later. I needed to act; fast. I kicked the weird creature face with my free leg and punched its tail that was wrapped around my leg, making it let go. Then I grabbed the katana that I 'borrowed' and started to use that against the creature. It went beneath the snow and burrowed towards me. When it jumped at me, I whacked it to the side with the katana's blade, making it angrier. Then finally, when I thought this might go on forever, I remembered that I had Spinjitzu! "Ninjaaaagooooo!" I spun in circles and formed an ice tornado. I was able to control it better this time and I went towards the beast, frightening it and making it run away. Frost gators, that's what they're called.

"Good job, didn't even see that one coming, eh?"

I turned around to see Zane, smiling. "Nope, just like I didn't see you leaving me to cruise a ship through snow."

Samson's POV

When I finally arrived, I saw that someone had already taken the katana and knife so now I was left with shurikens and nunchucks….both of which I have no idea of how to use…

I went into the training room and found an iron katana. Oh well, better than nothing right? I swung it around for good measure then slid down the chain to the ground; just to find that the Fire Temple was near a volcano. Course, where else would they get the name 'Fire' from?

As I approached the volcano, I saw the temple, though it looked like a wreck. Volcano explosion must have destroyed it. "I see that you took the boat?"

I turned quickly and swung at Kai with the katana, but he merely flipped back. "Ha, you think I would just let you hit me? You're going to have to catch me if you want to hurt me any time soon!" He ran into the misshaped temple and I ran after him.

I was barely two seconds away from death before I noticed the lava. "Holy…"

"Yep, just a little lava to deal with too," Kai said, grinning. I'm going to wipe that silly grin from his face!

I jumped from rock plate to rock plate, advancing to him ever so slowly. He jumped back to another rock and I pounced, bringing him to the ground only to find that he was expecting that just to kick me off. "Ha, you really are like me in a way aren't you?" he said.

I couldn't believe this guy. I attacked again, this time I barely hit him before he countered attacked. Oh well, I at least hit him right? "You're not even worthy of fighting my pinky toe!"

"I'm not interested in your feet; I'm interested in defeating you! Ninjaaaagooooo!" I spun around in a circle and activated the fire tornado, feeling freer than ever before. I went toward him, seeing him grin and use his as well. Fire fighting with fire, who knew that'd be a great analogy to use now?

When we collided, our tornados merged and while I was freaking out a bit, Kai thought it would be funny if he kicked me out, making me fall back. "You can't let little things like that stop you, Samson," he said, holding his hand out to me. Reluctantly, I took it. "Now, should we try again?"

Nathan's POV

941, 942, 943, 944, 945, 946, 947, 948, 949, 950. DONE! So I miscalculated by two feet, but still, this is pretty high. I climbed over the ledge, grabbed out a water bottle, and chugged the whole thing down. I almost died twice, barely saved by a ledge in both. I had a bruise on my left leg and a scar coming in on my right. I was going to look down, thought better of it, and looked over to the other side to see Cole.

"I see that you got here well," he said, grinning.

"If this is what you call well, maybe you should go see a battle and tell me the great news…" I mumbled.

He grabbed out his scythe and I just stared at him, confused. "Come on, you have to fight to stay alive," he said.

He expects me to fight when I'm injured? I got up on shaking legs, feeling the pain run through them as I grabbed out the scythe I brought. Cole wanted me to do the first move but what was there to do? Then I thought of Sindy and how she had those scars and bruises on her legs from falling. She never gave up, no matter how hard she fell, even if there was blood coming out, she just ignored it and kept running. And she had my coach! Coach…he'd laugh at me if I didn't fight!

I ran at him with the scythe and swung, barely touching his arm before he could jump out of the way. "Now that's more like it; I knew you couldn't be a weakling." Our scythes clashed and moved us both back. I charged at him, then at the last moment, I said, "Ninjaaaagooo!" then used Spinjitzu on him, totally throwing off of his original plan and I managed to cut his arm and I was going to hit him in the stomach with the back of the scythe but then he did Spinjitzu and attacked me. My guard was down for one second before I realized I needed to get back to the fight before this ends with him winning. I need to get back in time for lunch to see Sindy, so I need to hurry up and end this….

I charged at him again and surprisingly, I had tackled him to the ground which was not what I had planned at first, but then I saw his feet get in the position to launch me off so I quickly rolled off and jumped back on my feet and slashing at him with my scythe. "You're good kid, you knocked me off my feet twice already," he complemented, "But I already know why." That threw me off. Did Jay blab? He grinned and used that time to slash my arm. "Don't get off guard, you need to take words like that and throw them away before the person has a chance to attack."He hit me with the butt of his scythe and brought me to the ground. Then he helped me up. "Well, that was good for your first day."

I shrugged. "Yeah, but I still have a lot to learn."

"Well, if you were able to figure out which mountain was the highest, then you're on your way."

"Just a few mere calculations…" I said.

"Well, I bet that nowhere in your calculations did it say there was a stair case right?" He was pointing to the other side.

I looked over there and saw the staircase. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Nope, but then again, I guess you thought that the mountain was your test." He smiled. "Since you took most of our time getting up here, let's try to waist less getting down ok?"

As we went down the staircase, he said, "Nathan, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, I guess."

He put his arm around me. "How long have you liked Sindy?" Jay. Is. Dead.