Hello again! Fire in Winter new chapter out! I'm glad I've been getting support for this story. Honestly, I've really just run out of ideas for this story, so it feels really boring for me. I need you to let me know if you want more. Sorry for the irregular posting. I was especially busy today with a lab practical in Anatomy and a Spanish test yesterday (ugh). Thanks again for the support! Here it is!

It was several hours later before I woke up again. This time I was actually able to see somewhat clearly. I saw the fire in front of me. It was nighttime. And then there was that face. The one that had rescued me was on the other side of the fire on what looked like a fur blanket. She had red hair and a pretty face that I couldn't help but be mesmerized by. She wasn't asleep, just staring up at the cave wall (I think we were in a cave). Had she really stayed awake this whole time? I rose a little, being careful not to move my injured shoulder too much.

She saw the movement and stood up as well. "You feeling better, Kai?" she asked. It was a little foreign to me for her to say my name. I nodded and sat up the whole way. "I still didn't catch your name," I said, though that sounded weird.

She smiled and told me. "Skylor," she said, picking herself off the blanket. "But I guess it doesn't really matter."

"Why not?" I asked, curious.

Skylor shrugged. "I've just never had to use my name very often." I wanted to know more, but the way she looked into the distance kept me from speaking anymore. She seemed like she didn't really want to talk about it.

"So, what do you do, Kai, Master of Fire?" she asked. "How did you know I was a master of fire?" I asked, surprised.

"I inherited my powers from my mother, or so my friends told me. I have this special power that allows me to absorb other people's powers. That's how I created the fire," she said, gesturing to the flames. "I can't remember what it was called. I was too young."

For some reason, I felt very comfortable talking to this girl I hardly knew. I normally don't open up to people very easily, but something inside me told me I could trust her. I mean, who else would she tell? "I inherited my powers from my father," I said. "My sister Nya inherited the water element from our mother."

Skylor smiled at me. "You have a sister?"

"Yeah," I replied. "She's awesome, though I don't tell her that often. She helps me and my friends out any time we need it. Ever since our parents disappeared, she's really been the only family for me." It was then I realized that Skylor didn't just have the power to absorb elemental powers, but words as well.

"I'm sorry you didn't know much about your parents," Skylor said. "Why are you sorry?" I asked. There was a silence before she continued. "Because I know how it feels."

That was all she told me then. I couldn't speak anymore, because I started getting tired again. I lay back down carefully and sighed. What was the team thinking?

Zane POV:

I watched my friends search nonstop for the Red Ninja. They yelled his name over and over again, but I was pretty sure their cries were only getting carried away by the blizzard's wind. "We need more light, Zane," Jay yelled at me. I turned my inner lights on, my metal body glowing to give off light. "The storm is only getting stronger, Jay," I yelled back. "We should turn back so we don't get lost ourselves."

"I am not resting until I've found my brother," Nya's voice said from my left. I don't want to say I'm pessimistic, but the computers and scanners built into me always give me the statistics. It's kind of hard to remain positive when there are numbers blocking your vision of the probability of finding Kai at this rate. But I knew that the longer we waited to look for him, the larger those numbers would get.

"Me too," Jay said. I smiled a little bit. We all thought of Kai as a brother, not just Nya. We weren't just a team; we were a family.

"I'll have PIXAL contact Cole and Lloyd on the Bounty to wait for us a little longer. If we can't find Kai by sunrise, we'll have to head to another part of the forest." I just hoped he was alright.

Skylor POV:

I slept for a few hours when Kai did. I never really needed sleep. I had spent plenty of time in my life not sleeping. Maybe I often didn't even want to sleep. It wasn't like I would get nightmares often, but I guess I was like a normal person, where you would get bad dreams once in a while. I didn't like those dreams. I never had since I was a kid.

The sky was somewhat clearer outside by the time the sun rose, but it was still snowing hard. I pulled on my coat and walked out to try and find breakfast. Snowberries it was, like always. I was used to them. I was more worried about what Kai might think.

He had said a lot last night that helped me know more about him. All I knew was that he had lost his parents and had a sister and was an elemental master of fire. I had listened hard when he had talked about his friends, and it sounded like they were important to him. I admired the way he cared about those friends. I wish I could have felt like that about my friends before I left.

I was too focused in my thoughts that I suddenly realized I had stumbled into the snowberry bush. I groaned in frustration and began picking the ripe ones off the bush. When I was done, I walked as fast as I could back to the cave. I didn't want Kai to wake up and get worried when he saw I wasn't there.

Why did I feel that way? Did I care about him? I had spent most of my teenage life in solitude, and now I cared about a person I just informally met last night? I shook it off. If I had any sort of feelings for him, I would find out sooner or later.

I looked into the cave and saw Kai still asleep. Good. He hadn't woken up. I began to sort through the berries I had picked. A few minutes later, he did wake up.

"How did you sleep?" I asked, trying to sound as cheerful as possible. I know he probably felt rotten, still being hurt and all. I wish I could have done more for him than I had done. He shrugged and stood up, shaking his head covered in spiky brown hair. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Breakfast," I said cheerily, pointing to the berries. "Hope you like snowberries. Only thing I can find that's suitable for eating in this forest."

"I don't mind," he said, smiling. I smiled back, turning to the berries again. He helped me out with the rest of them, and then we ate in silence. It was awkward to just not talk at all, but I didn't really know what to say, though I wish I did. Man, I would have gotten trapped in the legendary Sword of Souls with all my wishing a long time ago, if it existed.

"You still haven't told me about your friends," I said. "Yeah, about that," Kai replied. "I need to get back to them. They'll be worried about me. We're a lot like a family. We look out for each other."

Why do I wish I knew what that felt like? There it is, the wishing again. Why can't I be happy with my own life? I've got everything I could have needed: a warm cave for a home, an endless supply of snowberries and occasional deer meat, and now the recently acquired fire powers so I don't need kindling anymore. Maybe there's just a small part of me that wants to be with Kai.

"I should go soon and look for them," Kai said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Can I come with?" I asked. He nodded.

We got more backstory for Skylor. Did you think this was good? I hope you did, because honestly I don't. Ardhoniel out! I'll try to post more as soon as possible.