Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or the lines from the episode Fire Maker

Chapter XIV: Fire Maker

The Fishing Village was filled with many people. Mostly fishermen, but there were a select few who weren't. Two of the fishermen, Utaug and Bolma were bringing home some fish from their most recent visit to the lake. They were the two men who had helped the ninja make their way to the village.

"Do you think they like to eat fish?" Utaug asked.

"Who?" Bolma asked.

"You know, the strangers from Ninblahgo," Utaug replied.

"Everyone likes fish. And it's not Ninblahgo, it's Ningabo."

"That's not what they said."

"Honestly, Utaug, who's hearing is better. Your's or-"

Bolma stopped talking, he stopped moving when he heard the sound of marching feet coming towards them.

"Listen. Do you hear?" Bolma asked his companion.

Utaug knew exactly what that was.

"Blizzard Samurai. Heading our way," he said.

"We have to warn the village!" Bolma replied before the two began running. Even the birds knew to run.

Back at the Fishing Village, Sorla was showing Lloyd a map of the realm.

"Your friend, Zane, is imprisoned here," Sorla said as she pointed to a large spot near the end of the map, "in the Ice Emperor's castle. There are only two paths through the mountains. This is the safest," she said as she pointed to a very thin, squiggly path.

"A pass?" Lloyd asked.

"In the old tongue, it is called Mala-Wojira," Sorla explained.

"Mala-Wojira?" Lloyd asked himself.

"Wojira's wrath. But you must be careful. You cannot make a sound in this place. You cannot speak or whisper. Even your footfalls must be like a gentle breeze."

"Why?"

"If you make a sound, Wojira will strike you down."

"Okay, but what is it?" Lloyd asked.

Sorla replied by inhaling and exhaling dramatically. Lloyd couldn't tell if that's what the answer was or if she was just frustrated with all his questions.

"Okay. Great. Well, I guess we'll just be...quiet," Lloyd smiled as he took the map and left to see his friends sitting by a nearby tree. Jay and Kai were trying on snowshoes, Nya was working on the tracker, and Cole was playing with C.J., who had been given a coat by Sorla. It was a little big, though.

"Any luck?" Lloyd asked Nya.

"Nothing. It's really weird. The signal keeps coming in and out," Nya replied.

"Huh. Maybe the cold is interfering?" Lloyd used Cole's suggestion from before. He probably knew more about this than him, right?

"Cold shouldn't matter," Nya replied. "It's like the signal is weak, but the mech had a brand new battery. It makes no sense."

"Hey, guys! Have you tried these? You gotta try them," Kai said as he began running around in his snowshoes. "You can walk on top of the snow!"

"I think that's the point," Cole replied as C.J. began making his way to a smaller pair.

"What will they think of next?" Jay asked with a laugh.

Suddenly, Boma and Utaug came running into the village, screaming, "Alarm, alarm! They're coming!"

Cole helped C.J. into his snowshoes before making his way over to the fishermen with the rest of the ninja.

"Blizzard Samurai. On the march!" Utaug told the people.

"Heading for our village. We saw them coming down the pass!" Boma explained.

"I heard them first, Boma's hearing isn't as good as mine," Utaug announced.

"Don't start that again!" Boma yelled.

"Boma! Utaug!" Sorla's voice could be heard as she walked up to the men. "Are you sure you saw this? You saw them?"

The men looked at each other before looking back to Sorla and nodding.

"Gather the elders," Sorla said. "There's no time to lose!"

It wasn't long before all of the elders of the village were gathered in Sorla's home by the fire.

"What do we do?" one asked. "The pass is only a few hours away."

"We have to hide! We must abandon the village!" another said.

"And leave the fire behind? Are you mad?" another asked.

"What choice do we have?" the first asked. "I say we hide in the village of the formlings."

"I won't go there!" the second said. "Not after what happened. That place is cursed!"

"For-ing?" C.J. asked, but no one could hear him. Around him, arguing and murmuring and bickering could be heard.

Sorla placed her head in her hands in frustration before saying, "We cannot abandon the fire! The fire is life! We must protect it."

"I don't understand," Kai said. "Can't you just light another?"

The people of the village looked at him as if he was crazy.

"You know, with matches or something?" Kai asked.

The people began murmuring again about the ninja this time.

"They are new to this realm. They do not know," Sorla defended. She then turned to Kai, and said, "The winters have grown too cold. It is impossible to light a new fire. We have kept this fire going by adding wood every morning and every night. It has burned for decades."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know," Kai apologized.

"The fire is life," Sorla explained. "If the fire dies so will we."

"What if we moved it somehow? Maybe we could transport it with torches?" Lloyd suggested.

"The risk is too great. The hearth fire is the heart of our people. It keeps the darkness at bay and gives us hope. If the fire goes out, our hope is lost. No. We must stay and protect it. We must fight."

"Then we will fight with you," Lloyd told her.

The villagers thanked the ninja, wondering where their bravery could've come from.

"Go!" Sorla ordered the villagers. "Prepare yourselves!"

All of the elders, villagers, and ninja then left to prepare to fight, but Kai and Sorla stayed. She noticed that Kai seemed very worried and had to calm his fears.

"Do not fear for us, Kai," Sorla told him. "All will be well."

"I just wish I still had my powers. I was master of fire. I could've made a new fire like-like-like this," Kai said as he snapped his fingers together.

"And now you cannot?" Sorla asked him.

"No. A snake woman named Aspheera stole my elemental powers," Kai explained. Every ounce of his voice spelled out hate for Aspheera.

Sorla just chuckled, though, as she patted his shoulder. "Do not worry, Kai," she told him. "Elemental power comes from within. Like courage. Sometimes it wanes, sometimes it waxes, but it cannot be stolen."

Kai sighed before saying, "I'm pretty sure it's gone."

"What comes from within will grow again. Give it time."

It wasn't long before everyone in the village, young and old, were helping in every way they could to create barriers around their village and prepare to fight, and by the time the sun had set, everyone was ready.

Cole was about to join Lloyd to wait for the Blizzard Samurai in one of the ice fortresses they had made, but he noticed that C.J. was beginning to follow.

"No, C.J.," Cole told him. "You can't fight."

"Oh," C.J. sighed in disappointment.

"Remember what we talked about? About how you weren't supposed to come here?" Cole asked his son.

C.J. nodded.

"I know you're scared for me, but I at least know what I'm doing. You'd...only get in the way. I'm sorry, Buddy. Maybe you'll understand better some other day, but right now, I need you to stay in Sorla's home with the other kids, okay?" Cole told him.

C.J. didn't answer right away. Instead, he just clung onto Cole as if his life depended on it.

Cole stood up and walked over to Sorla's home, where some older girls were staying safe with the fire. The oldest gasped when she saw C.J.

"Hi!" she cooed as if he was a newborn, but C.J. seemed to like it. A lot.

"Ninja, right?" she asked Cole.

"Yep!" Cole answered.

"Don't worry. I got him," she said as she took C.J. from the earth ninja. "We're gonna be safe in here," she told C.J., "don't you worry."

Cole smiled, knowing his son was in good hands, before he went back to where Lloyd was. The two sat up there for what felt like hours, although, it was probably only half of one. The moon was now coming up, and the ninja had nothing to do. That was until a bunch of arrows came hurtling towards the village.

"Look out!" Lloyd yelled.

Everyone ducked while arrows flew past them, nearly hitting many. Lloyd then peaked over the fortress to see a bunch of samurai with ice all over them.

"They're here!" Lloyd announced. "This is it!"

"They're so many," Utaug breathed.

The samurai in the front let his ax down, signaling for the other samurai to attack.

"We can take them" Lloyd told Utaug.

"Yeah, just get ready to bring it!" Cole told him.

"Take what? Bring what?" Boma asked.

"'It'. You know, like, uh, let's rock! Throw down! Brawl!" Cole explained.

"I don't get it," Boma replied.

"Oh, never mind," Cole said as he put his hood on. "Just follow my lead."

The samurai shot more arrows at Nya this time, but she managed to block them with her spear. Jay then jumped down next to her and used his powers on them, breaking them!

"Are these guys made of ice?" Jay asked when he saw the blocked remnants where the samurai he shocked used to be.

"Some of them are frozen warriors, others are just ice!" Cole explained as some others got destroyed and others were still standing even after being hit.

Some of the samurai then began climbing Lloyd and Cole's fortress.

"What about these guys?" Cole asked.

As the samurai came at them, someone from behind began shooting and destroying them.

"All ice!" Cole exclaimed.

The samurai then got ladders and used them to climb up the fortresses. Lloyd used his spinjitzu to knock some off. Meanwhile, Jay was holding his own against frozen warriors. He punched one, causing him to fall off of his fortress and into the village! They began coming after Boma and Utaug, but Cole jumped down and destroyed the ice one. He then got out of the way as Lloyd tackled the other. Lloyd let the warrior turn to face him only to turn into a normal person for a second. He then turned back to his callous blizzard self. He grabbed Lloyd to strike him, but Lloyd managed to kick him back before standing back up.

"Woah! Did you see that?" Lloyd asked Cole.

"I saw it. It's like the ice was controlling him," Cole replied before punching an ice samurai that was coming up from behind.

As much as they fought, the samurai kept coming, and Kai was fighting as best as he could. The seemingly leader of the samurai jumped up and began running towards Kai.

"Kai!" Sorla yelled, hoping to warn the young man of the danger coming towards him.

The samurai punched Kai so hard that he was knocked off of his fortress and to the snow below. "You dare defy the Ice Emperor?" the ice samurai yelled before he began running up to the red ninja, ax in hand.

Luckily, Kai managed to roll away just before he would've been struck by the ax.

"You will obey or perish!" the samurai yelled as he ran at Kai again. Before he could hurt Kai, though, the red ninja grabbed a nearby staff and jumped out of the way.

He held the staff up to face the samurai, but he immediately split it in half before continuing to chop it up, piece by piece. It got so short that Kai had to result to throwing the remaining piece at the warrior's face, but that did absolutely nothing. He then tried to strike Kai down again, and Kai was very surprised to find himself still breathing a second later.

"Oh!" Kai exclaimed when he saw his rescuer. "Hi, Lloyd."

Lloyd was using his sword to keep the ax away from his brother and pushed the samurai off of him.

"Head up!" Cole exclaimed as he used his earth punch to punch him into a nearby building.

"It's over. You've lost," Lloyd told the samurai as he took off his hood.

The samurai began grunting in defeat until he noticed a light coming nearby. Two of the younger children had opened the door to Sorla's house to see the fight, but they immediately shut the door when they saw the samurai had noticed.

"You sheltered the newcomers. You should have known not to defy the Ice Emperor," the samurai told Sorla.

He then ran up to his ax he had previously dropped to pick it up before he ran at the guards to Sorla's home and jumped on one of them to get to the roof.

"The fire. He's going for the fire!" Kai exclaimed as he ran after the warrior.

"C.J.!" Cole yelled as he ran after Kai.

"Stop him!" Nya called.

The samurai destroyed part of the roof to get inside while the ninja went through the door, but they were too late.

"No!" Kai screamed as the samurai used his icy ax to put the fire out.

"You have won the battle, but without your fire, you have lost the war," the samurai told them before he and the rest of the samurai left.

"Are you okay?" Cole asked the girls, who had stayed in Sorla's home.

"Yeah," the older one replied, C.J. had now moved from her to Cole, happy to have his father back but colder than ever.

It was much later that night when every villager and ninja had gathered in a circle around where the fire used to be, wrapped up in blankets, and fearing that the cold would take them before the night ended.

Kai watched as a child snuggled up to his mother for warmth and as some villagers fought for another blanket. He watched as Cole wrapped C.J. up in his blanket to provide extra warmth to him, ignoring the cold himself and as the elders shivered in their already weak bones. He felt horrible. There used to be a time when he could do something about this.

"I'm sorry," Kai said as he looked at the dead fire. There wasn't even a small sign of a spark.

"It is not your fault, Kai," Sorla told him.

Kai sighed as he felt his nose grow numb from the cold and knew that everyone else in there felt the same, if not worse.

"I just wish there was something I could do," Kai told her.

"You have done all you can," Sorla comforted. "Have you not?"

There was another sneeze. Kai couldn't take this anymore. He threw the blanket off of him as he stood up and reached his hands towards the fire. There had to be something there. Anything that could help. Even the slightest spark. He groaned a little as he tried to find something inside him that could come out. A small spark that with a little help could grow brighter and brighter and become a fire for these poor people and for his family.

Kai suddenly felt very tired and he nearly collapsed into Cole's arms. He looked back up at the place the fire used to be, and it was somehow there!

"Fire Maker! Fire Maker! Fire Maker!" the villagers began chanting, and that's when Kai realized that he wasn't imagining something he wanted to happen, he actually made it happen!

"I did it," Kai breathed.

"You sure did!" Nya cheered.

"Fore! Fore!" C.J. exclaimed happily

"Just listen to them!" Lloyd said.

"Fire Maker! Fire Maker! Fire Maker!" they kept on chanting.

Hope everyone liked that. Next chapter should be out sometime next week.

Have a great day/night!

#God'sNotDead