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CHANGING THE STARS

By Etcetera Kit

Chapter Two: Out of Time II

He was running through the woods—which puzzled him. He didn't ordinarily have affection for trees or nature or anything earthy. He preferred being indoors, being with technology to hiking and camping any day. This was not some kind of VR computer game—the trees were too real and he could smell the damp scent of the earth, like moist soil. He had yet to be around any game that provided something for the olfactory sense.

He slowed and came to a halt in the thick woods. Something was covering his mouth and head. Reaching up, he removed some kind of hood and mask that covered his nose and mouth. With that gone, he could freely breathe in the scent of the earth, not sure why that damp smell felt so right and almost sensual. Never before had he spent enough time with nature to realize that this was intoxicating. He could feel the earth; feel its vibrancy and life. This was an amazing feeling… what was going on?

Looking down, he realized he was wearing a uniform, a ninja uniform. It was the uniform that Shane, Tori and Dustin's students had worn—a wind ninja uniform. The only thing that puzzled him was the green trim. The students had worn red, blue or yellow—no green. Their sixth ranger wore green, but he was a samurai. This uniform definitely indicated that he was a wind ninja. Perhaps he was a super special kind that hadn't been seen in millennia.

That thought made him grin. This was cool! He could probably ninja streak too.

Without thinking, he squatted down, picking up a handful of dirt. It was damp—mist still hung over the woods, indicating it was early morning. The golden sun was just peering through the tree tops and burning off the dew. The dirt was black, damp, but seemed healthier and more alive than something dusty. He rolled the dark particles around in his palm, drawing strength from the life that flooded through it. This didn't make sense, but felt right. Slowly, he let the dirt fall in a stream from his palm to the ground.

Near where he knelt, there was a patch of wildflowers. He gazed at them. He didn't know what kind of flower it was, but it was a brilliant blue. He had never seen anything like them before and wasn't sure that they existed in real nature. Brushing one finger against the soft petal, he felt the life from it more acutely than from the soil. It was living, breathing… almost like it had a soul.

"Ethan!" a male voice called.

Looking up, he turned and stood. The voice sounded extremely familiar, but he could not place where he had heard it before.

"Ethan!" a female voice joined the male.

He felt like he should have recognized them and their voices, but no names or faces were coming to join the vocalization.

A breeze blew, ruffling the blue flowers.

He lifted his face to the sun, feeling the wind caress his skin. It was still damp in the early morning, but instead of being muggy or uncomfortable, it was pleasant, light and refreshing. He closed his eyes, allowing the unspoken song to sing through him. That was what the breeze was doing—singing and the earth was joining.

"Ethan…"

Two figures came through the trees towards him. One was a taller man and his companion was a petite female. Both looked familiar, but he didn't know where. And Ethan, that was his name, who he was…

Neither said anything, but he knew they were friends. An intense friendship—a bond—was in their expressions. They were not clad in a ninja uniform as he was, but in civilian clothes, like they were his friends but couldn't join him.

An irritating beeping penetrated the stillness of the morning…

Ethan James growled and hit the snooze button of his alarm clock, keeping his eyes squeezed shut. He didn't want to relinquish the dream just yet. It hadn't been an over-interesting dream, but he had felt stress-free and at peace. And he had been a ninja. That, in and of itself, was cool. He remembered meeting the Ninja Rangers clearly and had been in awe of their powers that came just from being a ninja—ninja streak, elemental powers… He knew that he would never be a ninja, but that dream had been cool.

Eurgh—Monday morning… He had physics at eight. Fortunately for him, Tori was in that class and they could compare notes, pass notes, text message each other… He had taken several advanced AP classes in high school, but, upon entering college, found out he still had to pay in order to receive the credit hours. That was not in the financial aide package, so he was suffering through the freshman level science classes.

Tori Hanson—the Blue Wind Ranger—had enrolled at Reefside Tech the same time he had. She took a year off after high school to focus on her ninja training and skills, so she was in many of the same freshman classes as he. Reefside Tech was slowly integrating the arts and social sciences in an effort to become a more rounded school and get more grants. Tori was in the humanities department as an English major. However, freshman all had to take core classes like a science, history, writing seminars and math. Between having classes together and tutoring each other in their weak areas, they had become friends. That meant he dragged her to gaming nights at Hayley's and she made him go surfing with her. It could be worse.

Groaning, he glanced at the clock. Time to get up and meet Tori in the cafeteria for breakfast. He quickly gathered his things and went down the hall to shower. If there was one thing he wished about the dorms at Reefside Tech, it was that they offered private or semi-private bathrooms. But, alas, group bathrooms in all the dorms were the norm. At this hour of the morning, the bathrooms were deserted.

He quickly did the shower thing, dressed and gathered his things for class before leaving the dorm and heading for the cafeteria. Reefside Tech had an old-fashioned dorm policy even though the school was not that old. The dorms were divided by gender and—with the exception of move-in days—the opposite gender could not be in the dorm. The lobbies were public social areas, but the rooms?

The cafeteria was as empty as the showers had been. He swiped his meal card and went though the line. Tori was waiting at their normal table in the corner.

"Hey!" she said with a grin. She was definitely a morning person.

"Hey," he echoed. "Ready for physics?"

"Always!" she replied with mock sincerity. "Are you all right? You look a little wiped."

"I just had a weird dream last night."

Tori looked interested at the mention of a dream. Ethan supposed that was part of her ninja training, to be attuned to dreams and the supernatural as it were. "What about?"

"I was in the woods—I think I was a ninja."

She grinned at that. "What kind?"

"I'm not sure—my uniform was green."

"You must have been a samurai then."

"I don't think so…" he trailed off. "We still on for Hayley's tomorrow night?" he asked, effectively changing the subject from his odd dream.

"Yeah," she scoffed. "I want to get beaten by every kid in that place!"

"Not everyone beat you."

"It might as well have been everyone."

The friendly banter continued until they got to physics. The professor was an older man and that silenced any chatter. Ethan took his usual copious notes, most of the time ten steps ahead of what the professor was saying. He was able to zone out once he got far enough ahead in his notes.

He felt like the dream should have been significant, but couldn't pin down why.


Night had fallen some time ago—the forest was bathed in silver moonlight. He was running again, but stopped, just as he had during the day. The nighttime sounds were soothing—crickets, frogs and an occasional howl from a wolf. The night, in and of itself, did not bother him. He was a night owl by trade. Most gamers and geeks preferred the night to the day. However, he was a little bothered than he was in the middle of the woods. This was way too similar to a horror movie for his comfort. His heart beat uncomfortably in his chest as he expected an ax murderer to pop out at any moment.

Taking in a deep breath, he tried to calm himself. He was in a different part of the forest from previously, but he felt like he knew it intimately. Perhaps not consciously know it, like he knew his hometown, but like subconsciously. He felt like the earth and the plants would lead him in whatever direction he needed to go. In the respect that he felt connected with the plant life, the woods would lead him where he needed to go. On instinct, he bent down and picked up another handful of dirt. It was cold as the night was cold, but that lack of warmth spoke to sleep and hibernation instead of winter.

Straightening, he noticed he was wearing the ninja uniform again, but noticeably without the mask and hood. This uniform was just like a male wind training uniform, but the trim was still green. He could barely make that out in the silver night. Around him, the earth slept and those gentle, not-quite audible snores soothed his racing heart. Nothing was going to hurt him out here. He knew that. The earth was his protector.

A terrible growl penetrated the stillness.

Visibly jumping, he turned, trying to figure out the direction and cause of the noise. Had it been his imagination, or had that growl been friendly and in a greeting, rather than angry or scared? He didn't know and didn't know if he wanted to remain around long enough to find out. Something like that was not to be trifled with.

However, he didn't need to find out. A huge, lumbering shape moved through the trees towards him. He had seen just enough movies about camping gone wrong to realize that this was a bear. It was the strangest looking bear he had ever seen. The fur was brown, like most grizzly bears, but had a blue tint. As it moved in the moonlight, that blue became visible. The bear stopped a few feet from him and fell into what distinctly was a bow.

Earth ninja, the bear said without using actual words. I am at your service

"You're at my service?"

Correct. The bear paused. The fire ninja—the Wolf—is coming

"Who?"

You will know soon. Your fate and his are intricately bound.

With another powerful growl, the bear disappeared. He frowned. He was supposed to join forces with a fire ninja? He hadn't known that fire was an element the ninjas used. This did not make much sense, at least not much logical sense, not the sense he wanted it to make.

"Ethan…"

He let out a long breath. This voice was not of the two people he had seen earlier. It came from someone else, someone female and with power at her disposal. Her presence was disembodied and all over the forest.

"Green did belong to the earth ninjas, long ago," she explained. It bothered him that he could hear her, but not see her. She did not have a tangible form.

That explained the green on his uniform. He should have paired those two together earlier, the communication with those flowers, the dirt… it all made sense. It was something that Dustin did on instinct and it appeared he shared that instinct. Green had belonged to earth—what had happened to change the color designations?

"Can you master the earth elements, Bear?"

"Earth elements?"

But the presence faded and vanished.

Almost as soon as that presence faded, he could see the two figures moving towards him once more. With a burst of recognition, their names came to his mind. Conner and Kira, the two he had fought alongside, the two his considered his best friends, the two that had been with him through everything…

"Good luck," Conner said as they stopped close to him.

"Good luck with what?"

"With what lies ahead," Kira supplied. "We can't follow you or help you, but we're always here for you, we're always your friends."

"Remember," Conner picked up. "We're partners in crime-fighting."

"I know."

Just as the bear had faded, they faded, gone into the night. A sense of peace and comfort fell over him. They were his friends and that meant everything. He did not know what was happening, what was to come, but knowing that their friendship and love was steady and never failing made it all seem insignificant, smaller.

A hand on his shoulder caused him to jump, throwing the hand off and leaping into the closest thing he knew to a defensive stance. The person he found caused him to immediately drop the stance and his mind to pause. He was a tall guy, wearing a red ninja uniform. That ordinarily would have meant he was an air ninja, but he thought that was wrong. Something told him this was the fire ninja the bear spoke of.

"Sky," he said, the name coming without memory.

"Ethan," was the reply.

"What's going on?"

"I wish I knew."


"Tori, you don't have a stalker!" Ethan said for what felt like the hundredth time that evening. Who knew, perhaps it was the hundredth time? It was a gaming night at Hayley's and, while the establishment was not overly crowded, there were enough people to attest to its popularity, despite the school night factor. Tori was convinced she had a stalker—had been convinced since this time yesterday when they were down on the beach.

"Yes I do!" she retorted. "See that guy?" She pointed to a guy sitting in a corner. His eyes were fixed on the laptop screen and, because of the dim lighting, it was hard to make out his facial features.

"He's just a guy using a computer," Ethan replied.

"He's been following me." Tori sounded grumpy.

Ethan inwardly sighed, but figured he needed to assuage Tori's fears. "Look, Reefside isn't that big. Maybe he's just been the same places as you lately." He paused. "You know that all the surfers and gamers go to the same place."

"Yeah, but we're the only ones that crossover."

"Maybe he's a transfer."

"In the middle of the semester?"

"Okay, so he's not a transfer! What are you worried about? You could hand his butt to him if it came down to a fist fight."

Tori seemed to have temporarily forgotten that she was a ninja. That statement made her pause and then nod approvingly. Heck, Ethan knew that Tori would kick his butt in a fight, which is why he tried not to provoke her. She was not a person to be trifled with and, if this mystery guy was a stalker and had nefarious intent, he had another thing coming.

"What game are we playing?" Tori asked, abruptly changing the subject.

"Fists of Fire III," he replied. "It's a ninja game. You should be good at it."

"I'm normally coordinated, but I can't coordinate my fingers for that."

For a few minutes, peace reigned at their table. Tori was trying to get caught up with her reading for English. Ethan had already finished his homework and was trying to get past the first few levels of the game. This was a new one and was proving to be more difficult than its predecessors. After a while, he began to feel dry-mouthed.

"I'm going to get a smoothie," he said, standing up. "Want something?"

"Nah," Tori replied.

He moved through the tables of people to the bar. Trent had gone to LA for art college and Hayley had hired a new high school student to take his place. Ethan didn't know the guy too well, so he just ordered his smoothie and waited for it. He did not understand Tori's preoccupation with this supposed stalker. The café was running as usual. Most people socialized with their group of friends or not at all, being too engrossed in a video game or homework. Granted, this place made a good social network, but it catered to people that tended to spend a lot of time alone, staring at a computer screen.

Well, he decided. He had not been spending quite so much time on his computer since he and Tori started hanging out. Conner was in LA, working on his soccer camps. Kira had gone to New York. Consequently, neither was around much and Ethan did not get dragged to soccer practice where Conner would proceed to trounce him each time. Instead, he got dragged to the beach where he attempted to surf. Those attempts were rather tragic and he had to admit that he just was not athletically inclined. He wasn't sure what brought him and Tori together as friends, but he suspected it had a lot to do with their shared ranger past.

His smoothie arrived and he made his way back to their table.

"Ethan," Tori hissed. "That guy is staring at you, not me!"

"What?"

On instinct he whirled around to where the 'stalker' was. The guy still appeared to be engrossed in whatever he was doing on his laptop. Ethan turned back to Tori.

"What makes you say that?"

"He followed you to the bar."

"What?"

"Well, he watched you get to the bar."

"What? Tori, this doesn't make sense."

"He's following you!"

"That is creepy." He shuddered. "Can we talk about something else?"

However, that made him think of his last dream. He had met a guy at the end of that dream, someone he was supposed to find, work with. On what, neither of them knew, but they were being intrinsically bound together. There was some bigger force manipulating things here and he didn't like to think too hard about that. Too much like Big Brother… He craned his neck, trying to get a good glimpse of the guy. There were too many people and too little light to determine if he was the one in the dream.

Earth ninja joining forces with a fire ninja… but why, then, did he feel like he was already too late? Things had been delayed just long enough that the events were set in motion and no one could stop them. Were there more people involved with this?

"Tori," he asked abruptly. "Do you guys study dreams?" There was just enough emphasis on the word 'guys' that she got the point. He was asking about ninjas and their training, what they were told to pick up on.

"Well, Sensei always told us to pay attention to our dreams. They can reveal a lot if you're focused on them."

"Huh," he replied, sitting back in his chair.

"Why? Have you been having weird dreams?"

"In a manner of speaking."

"Did you have another dream that you were a ninja?"

He had temporarily forgotten that he had told her about his first dream. Ethan nodded slowly. "But there's more to it. I could almost hear the earth, feel the life there. And then a bear came and told me that he was with me and… it doesn't make sense."

"Sounds like you were an earth ninja."

"I think I was."

"The bear is an animal spirit," Tori said thoughtfully. "Or at least one of the animal spirits that we learn about. It tends to be associated with earth." She paused. "I'll talk to Sensei later this week and see what he thinks."

Ethan nodded, grateful that the subject had wandered back into the mundane realm of school work, part-time jobs and other such things.

Later, when the high school kid was shooing people out so he could close, Ethan got a good glimpse of the guy as he stood to leave. He was tall with sandy blonde hair, wearing a backpack that appeared to be packed pretty full. Ethan frowned. He seemed entirely too familiar for this to be a coincidence. In the better light, he realized that he had seen the guy in the moonlight during his dream. There was no telling what he really looked like.

Tori dragged him out the door and he gave the guy one last, fleeting look.

Sky?

To be continued...


Author's Note: Thanks for the amazing feedback so far, y'all! I was a huge fan of doing reviewer responses at the end of every chapter, but now that that is outlawed... it leaves me in something of a bind. If anyone wants to get in contact with me, please PM me and I'll definitely get back to you. Responses to reviews will be sporadic. With that said, thanks again!