CHAPTER FOUR: BURNING

Kimiko stormed out of the temple, breathing furiously. Tears were streaming down her face. She made her way to the courtyard, located just outside the temple. Usually, the courtyard was beautiful, but the shadows cast from the building darkened most of the area, leaving only the light of the moon to illuminate the fountain in the centre of the courtyard. However, Kimiko was not in the mood for admiring the beauty of the area; the vast variety of emotions that were bubbling inside her were sure to erupt some time soon, and she needed to be away from people when that happened, not just for safety reasons; but for her pride too. She did not want to show anyone what happened when she lost control. Kimiko usually worked hard to control her emotions, but after the day she had had, she did not really care if she let them loose. She did not ever want to return into the temple. She felt she would die of shame; not only was she forced to be an outsider, but after losing her temper completely, her friends would treat her with much caution, making her feel even more like an outsider.

Why? She thought, I'm just as good as the boys are! Then her eyes widened. What if Master Fung thinks I'm weak? What if he thinks I can't do the job anymore?

She replayed the day's images in her head, trying to think logically, but her strong emotions were taking control of her completely. She screamed furiously and slammed her fist into the wall. As she did so, a large crack appeared in the wall and fire shot from her fist in all directions, setting fire to a nearby bush. Feeling victimised and alone, she dropped to her knees and let out a cry of anguish and a sob. She stared at the tree aimlessly. The fire had started on the lower branches of the bush, but was steadily spreading up towards the top. The leaves shrivelled from the intense heat and blackened. Look how much damage I do, without even meaning to she thought. Kimiko stood up weakly, sniffing and wiping her watery eyes. Pull yourself together Kimiko. You're being silly. You're a Tohomiko for God's sake!

With a final sniff, she pulled herself upright and pulled her robes straight. She looked around for the bucket she had used to clean earlier; perhaps she could fill it with water from the fountain in the centre of the courtyard and tip it onto the fire. With a sigh, she realised she had left it inside the Temple. Kimiko turned sharply and headed for the door. She had to return to the Temple some time, but when she did, she would do so with dignity.

As she turned a rustling noise coming from the bushes in the courtyard made her pause. She wheeled around to look for the source of the noise.

"Who's there?" She called into the darkness. Kimiko scanned the bushes, but saw nothing. Listening intently, she looked once again and turned her back to the fountain.

"Kimiko." An icy voice called. Once again she turned around.

"Who's there?" She called again. "Show yourself!" Her command seemed to work, because she heard more rustling.

"Very well." Said the voice, as the dark figure stepped out from the trees. Kimiko felt her jaw drop. "You should put that fire out. It's going to spread quickly." The figure said softly. Standing in front of Kimiko, was none other than the notorious Chase Young.

Kimiko shifted into a defensive stance.

"What are you doing here?" She snarled. Chase smirked, as he often tended to do when somebody asked him a question. The light from the fire reflected from his lizard-like eyes and made him look very threatening. As Kimiko was alone, she knew she did not have a chance if he chose to attack.

"Relax, young monk. I am not here to fight you." Chase held up his hands, showing that he was unarmed. Kimiko raised her eyebrow but did not relax her stance.

"If you aren't planning on fighting me, you're planning on causing some sort of trouble!" Kimiko accused him. She despised Chase, not only was he battling for the Heylin side, but he had also once tricked Omi into joining him. Poor Omi was bound by his word as a Xiaolin Dragon to be loyal to Chase. Kimiko could not imagine how heartbreaking it must be to end up in his position by his own actions.

"Quite the contrary, I wish to make conversation with you, Kimiko." Chase interrupted her thoughts. Kimiko lifted her eyebrow.

"Me?" She asked, "But why?"

Chase ignored her for a moment and there was a brief pause. He turned his head to the left, and looked at the burning plants that Kimiko had forgotten about.

"Are you going to put those out?" He asked, pointing at the burning bushes.

"I'm not leaving you here by yourself. You'll do something destructive!" Kimiko said louder than she intended to. Chase raised his eyebrow. He raised his hand, and for one terrible moment Kimiko thought he was going to summon his jungle cats, but, much to her surprise, he snapped his fingers and a large brown appeared over the burning bushes in a cloud of green smoke. The bucket tilted and water was poured over the flames, which sizzled and died away. Kimiko stared at him, rather shocked. The bushes were burnt to crisps. With a smile, Chase walked towards her. She tensed up slightly. Her body screamed at her to attack, but the events of the day had left her sore and tired. She knew if she attacked him, he would defeat her easily.

Chase stopped, just feet away from her.

"It appears your element is powerful when you do not have full control." He said softly, turning his head back towards the burnt bushes. Kimiko grasped exactly what he meant.

"I have full control over my element all the time!" Kimiko almost shouted, and as she did she felt her palms beginning to burn hot. She clenched her fists tightly. Chase made a noise that sounded halfway between a scoff and a sigh.

"Is that so?" He asked, his eyes were gleaming at her, almost as if he could see right inside her mind and read her thoughts. "Is that why the old monk has removed you from training?" Chase sneered. How does he know! Kimiko thought.

"I… don't know why." She responded, feeling rather uncomfortable.

"Yes, Kimiko. It is for the reasons you think it is. The old one thinks you have become too weak to continue as a Xiaolin Dragon. Your element has become more powerful than the old monk could ever have anticipated when he first recruited you. He believes you are a danger to the other monks." Chase watched her with an expressionless face. Kimiko opened her mouth to protest, but closed it again.

"You can't know that." Kimiko said under her breath, more to herself than him. Chase raised his eyebrows.

"Think Kimiko. What other reason could there be?" He said, using a softer tone than usual. Despite her hate for the man, Kimiko knew that Chase did tell the truth on occasion, and everything he had told her had made a lot of sense.

"I'm not dangerous!" Kimiko shouted, and her palms burned again, sending sparks flying from her clenched fist. She opened her palm and looked at her hands. He's right. I am dangerous!

Chase smirked.

"You see? It is just as I said. The old monk has not taught you the full extent of your power. If you do not know your own strength, how can you possibly learn to control it?"

Chase watched as Kimiko began to think. He could see she was really considering what she had said, perhaps even starting to trust him.

Chase jerked his head slightly to the right, peering over Kimiko's shoulder. She whipped around in time to see what he was staring at.

"How nice of you to join us, Dragon of the Wind." Chase said, as an angry Raimundo emerged from the doorway of the Temple. His usually spiky hair had no gel in it and was lying flat upon his head, and he wore blue pyjamas with a picture of someone surfing on them. Kimiko had never seen him looking so different; she was too used to seeing him in his Xiaolin robes. Under different circumstances, she would have laughed.

"What do you want, Chase?" Raimundo snarled. "Come to try and recruit another one of us? Well I've got big news for you, we aren't interested!" With a clap of his hands, Raimundo sent a large whirlwind of air at Chase, who stood, appearing to be unaffected by the strong winds. The only things that indicated the force of the winds were the sheer noise of them, and the fact that Chase's hair was whipping wildly around. Raimundo scowled furiously, as the winds died away.

"Calm yourself. I was just leaving." With that, Chase smiled. "Until next time, Kimiko." Chase snapped his fingers and his figure disappeared into a cloud of green smoke.

"KIMIKO! What were you thinking! The guy was like five feet away from you! He could have kidnapped you, or worse killed you! Are you out of your mind?" Raimundo turned yelled at her, getting very close to her face and throwing his right arm out to the side, as he often did when he was angry.

"Calm down, Rai." She said through gritted teeth. After the events of that day, she would not hesitate to put Raimundo back in his place.

He seemed to recoil slightly, perhaps realising that shouting at her was not the best thing to do.

"You should get some rest." He said finally, after a long an awkward pause.

"Yeah." She said, and turned away from him, making her way to her comfortable bed. As she walked away from him, Raimundo glanced around, only just noticing the burnt bushes. He shook his head, and thought about what he had just witnessed. He had only arrived moments before being spotted by Chase, but from what he could hear, Chase was obviously up to something. He could only hope that when he retold the story to his fellow monks and Master Fung in the morning, they could make more sense of what he had heard than he could.

Kimiko was in her pyjamas now, and as she curled under her thin yellow blanket, she barely concentrated on what she was doing, her thoughts were off with the meaning to Chase's words. They all made sense, but could Chase be trusted with this? Kimiko began to think so.