Happy Friday everyone, time for an update. For Ninjagosbiggestfan, you have the correct answer on who Lucas meets first. And I do have a soundtrack to go along with this. I find this one very exciting to what's gonna happen to the water ninja and fire ninja. Type up the link watch?v=GueJwpn7CRw and the time to be at is 7:50, when you see the mark ,*, let your imagination unfold to this music and part. Enjoy. :)


Chapter 14: Kai Smith

I pulled and grunted as the thing I was pulling wouldn't budge. "C'mon, Storm." I complained at him. "We need to get to Ignacia Village before sunset." and pulled his reins again. "I can't train with broken sai's, ya know." Storm pulled his head back to make me let go and fall on my chest. I stood back up and dusted my grey tee shirt and sweatshirt off. I looked at my dragon as he looked upset about something. Was he sick? He looked a little sick. "Come on, what's wrong?" I whined.

Storm gave me a low rumble of a roar and drooped his head. Something was wrong with him. But what? I need him though. My sai's are broken from training yesterday and my uncle has given me the week off to get a pair of sai's and explore Ninjago. All I have was my clothes, my pouch of coins, and a backpack to survive. And the only blacksmith there was in Ninjago was a small village called Ignacia Village. And I can't get there because Storm was refusing to move.

"It's just as I thought." Garmadon said as he came back with a thermometer made for a dragon. He followed me to the keep because he wanted to check on Strom and now has a corcern look. "Your dragon is starting to molt. He's shedding his scales." He demostrated by plucking a grey scale off of Storm's neck and he didn't whine in pain and I noticed a new scale growing in.

"I don't understand." I admitted.

"You see Lucas, everything in life as to grow." my uncle said. "You have to grow because it's your birthday today. Plants grow to provide things. Understand?" he asked. I nodded a little on the human and plant growths. But what does it have to do with Storm? "For your dragon though, it's different. Every adolescent dragon experiences this stage in life and need to molt their scales to grow. Your dragon has to shed his scales to grow. He must fly East to the Spirit Coves to grow."

I was stunned to move. I had to let Storm go to grow. I was going to lose my dragon. For how long though? "How long will he be gone?" I asked.

My uncle gave me a frown. "It could take months." he replied. "Or possibly years." He placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "You need to get him outside so he can fly East. Return back so I can help you get to your destinations."

I nodded without refusing to shed a tear and grabbed the lead rope. "Come on, Storm." I commanded quietly and gave it a tug. Storm roared and leaned to the side for me to climb on. I looked at him sad and nodded and slowly climbed onto his back. Soon after, Storm began to move. My heart began to ache as I was losing my dragon. I shouldn't be upset as he'll be back again. But still he's my dragon. While I'm his rider. We've both been struck with sorrow. We came up to the gates and I pulled the reins to stop. "Kuzca, a-are you there?" I asked for my friend sadly.

I heard the familiar staff tapping the stone floor and gave a small smile as I saw the blind skeleton walk up to us. "Lucas," his voice creaky as usual. "What troubles you?"

Sighing, I stroked my dragon's scaly neck. Bits of scales fell off as I petted him. "I need to reach the surface to let my dragon fly East." I answered quietly. Kuzca scratched Storm's chin and nodded and inserted his arm into the slot and turned it. The doors glowed and opened to the tunnel and I nodded at my friend a thank you and we both ventured into the tunnel.

We finally reached the cave mouth and into dawn light. The cool summer morning air and damp humidity of dew thickened the air. It smelled great, but sighed in the end. It was time for good-byes. I climbed off of my seat of his saddle and stood in front of him. He bent his head down and I immediately wrapped my arms around him and felt stray tears run down my cheeks. I didn't want to let go, but I had to and looked into his grey reptilian eyes. "Go on." I cried. "It's time for you to grow. Please come back soon. I'll miss you." Storm gave me a small rumble and rubbed his snout on my chest and gave me one last kiss and took flight. I cried as I watched him fly East to the rising sun and dried my eyes on my sleeves of my sweatshirt as I know he'll be back, grown, and headed back into the Underworld.

When I got back into the Underworld and to the courtyard, my uncle was waiting for me with the briefcase of my sai's. Does he want me to train with them until Storm comes back? Or is it something else? "Your dragon may be gone," he said and pulled my sai's out. "but there's another way of transportation for you as a ninja." and handed me my sai's.

There is a way? What can my sai's do? "Uh...what do you mean?" I asked, confused, while looking at my sai's.

"There's more to understand your powers through your weapons." he said. "Your weapons too are the keys to your powers and you must harness the power to unlock them. Listen to your heart. Let it guide you. Think of speed and your element." and stepped back.

I looked at my sai's confused and closed my eyes. Listen to my heart. Let it guide me. I opened my eyes to move my sai's in swift motions and saw trails of water cling in the air to surround me in a orb of water and tapped my sai's together. There was a flash of light to make me shield my eyes and felt something pressed against my chest and opened my eyes to see I was inside a compartment. In front of me was a steering wheel, next to a screen was the back view and I could see in front of me. "Whoa! Did I do that!?" I asked surprised. I created a new vehicle. I could see from a monitor that showed what my vehicle and noticed it was a motorbike. But it had two wheels in the back with one in the front. A canopy was over me to probably shield me from the wind and I had to lay on my stomach to drive. This was awesome now.

"Now that you unlocked your vehicle, you must stay focus to have transportation." Garmadon said. "Now go."

I nodded and pushed the lever up. The engine whined to life and began to move forward. I turned around and headed back to the gates as I told Kuzca to leave them open for me in case I thought my uncle was giving me a horse, because I thought of it on the way back, and drove into the tunnel until I reached sunlight and continued my way to Ignacia Village. Hope Storm doesn't get jealous.

...

Finally after what seemed two or three hours, I could see the small village in the distnace. Ignacia Village. The small GPS system in my vehicle kept bothering me as it was under my chin and had to keep moving my head to see the way and road. But I finally made it. Suddenly my bike began shaking and glitching and a burst of light surrounded me and I felt like I was flying. "Whoa!" I screamed and made contact to the cobblestone ground with my sai's clanking in front of me. A groan escaped my lips and looked at my hands to see them scratched up and pushed myself to my feet. I picked my sai's up and looked at them. I began to focus to my powers to unlock my bike, but nothing happened. Why? I decided to ignore it and placed them in my backpack and began to walk the rest of the way.

The walk up wasn't too bad. It was a walk up the hill and I could see the blacksmith shop ahead. The morning sun was starting to warm up, but I kept my sweatshirt on as the air felt cold. Fall was coming soon. The farmers in the rice fields, men and woman, would arch up from the water to see who was coming to their village and would wave with a smile. I smiled back and waved to them to be friendly. I heard the sound of wood cluttering against each other and saw the children playing with wooden swords like they were samurais or ninjas. I couldn't help but chuckle. Such a nice village.

I finally reach the blacksmith shop called Four Weapons and walked up to the desk. I gazed upon the assorted weapons on display. They had swords, scythes, nunchucks, and my old favorite the shurikens, and samurai armor. In the back was a furance that I suspected was where they heated the metal to forge into weapons. And the air smelled thick with smoke and metal. A woman with jet black hair that reached past her shoulders with rich chocolate brown eyes was behind the desk and walked up to me with a smile. "Hello dear." she said sweetly. "what can I do for you?"

I smiled back at her and bowed like a gentleman to show her my manners. "Good morning, ma'am." I said sincerely back. "I would like to purchase a pair of sai's." But I looked around and noticed that they didn't have any on display. Do they make them? I felt a bit upset. "But it looks like you don't make any."

The woman still smiled. "Don't worry, dear." she said. "Anything in Four Weapons is possible." She turned her back to face the back. "Honey!" she called out. "We have a customer."

The back door opened to reveal a man walking in. The man was strong built as I could tell from his singed shirt and leather apron. He had brown hair that was messy to stand up in spikes. Unusual for a hair cut. And he had really dark brown eyes that were hard to tell the color. And by the look of his hands, they were dry and rough with callouses. Probably from years as a blacksmith. He smiled at me. "Hello young man." he said. "What is it that you want forged?"

"I would like to purchase a pair of sai's." I replied my same answer. "But it appears that you don't sell any."

The man chuckled. "Young man," he smiled. "you're the first one to ask for sai's. Most of my customers would ask for a sword or shurikens. But sai's, that's new. Let me get my son to help." He turned to the stairs. "Kai!" he yelled. "I need your help."

I heard footfalls climbing down the steps and turned my head to see a boy, that looked around my age, with the same features of his father. But his hair was in more spikes to be messier. Again, unusual for a haircut. Eyes were light brown and I could see them. But on his left eyebrow was a small notch of maybe a scar. He threw his apron, made to fit him, over his white work shirt and stood by his parents. "What are we going to make, Dad?" he asked excitedly.

His father placed a hand on his son's shoulders to smile and gestured to me. "This young man would like to make a request and we're going to make some sai's." he said and removed his hands to hand him a pair of work gloves. "Ready?"

The boy named Kai put the gloves on and walked over to the furance. "Ready." he replied and stoked the fire to heat up two bars of metal.

I watched as the father and son craft my weapons. Kai would heat the metal while his father used the hammer to craft the main shaft of my blades on the anvil with a pair of tongs. And sometimes he would have Kai hold them to use the round part of the anvil to craft my side guards to symmetric form. And even sometimes I would hear them laugh as they were having fun. Reminds me of the times I had with my father before I left him and no longer thought of them. It's been six years now and I don't care.

I watched Kai heat the two new sai's one last time in the furance and dipped them in tub of water to cool them; instantly bounding the fused metals together. A cloud of steam rose in the air and dissolved. Kai took them to a work bench and wrapped strips of leather around the handles for my grip and handed them to his father. The man gave them a quick shine and held them out for me. "How are these?" he asked.

I gripped the new leather handles and rubbed my thumbs on the smoothness of the leather. The metal gleamed in the light of the shop to show my reflection in slits. I twirled them in my hands and fingers and gripped the handles tightly. They were perfect. "They're perfect." I replied. I reached down to my leather pouch, attached to my jeans, and opened it. "Thank you. How much is this going to cost?"

The blacksmith laughed and pushed my hand away from my hip. "For you," he said. "on a specail request of weapons we hardly make, they're free."

I was stunned and unable to speak. Wow. Free sai's. This village is nice after all. I tied the drawstings closed and smiled at the three. "Thank you." I said.

"Why do you choose the sai's as your weapons?" Kai asked while removing his gloves and apron. He walked to the stairs to pick up a sheathed katana. "If you're looking for a nice weapon, the katana is the best choice to fight with." He drew it out and stood in a some sort of fighting stance while glaring at me of a challenge. Was he really challenging me?

I smirked at him. "I like the sai's because they give me balance to fight with and I like the way you fight with them." I said to him.

"You fought with the sai's before?" he asked me while raising his notched eyebrow.

Crap. Can't tell them I'm a ninja. "Not exactly." I lied. "I seen a pair of sai's before and pretended two sticks were sai's and learned to fight with them. And I thought it would be great to get a pair of my own for my birthday."

"Today's your birthday?" the woman asked. "How old are you now?"

"I'm sixteen, ma'am." I replied.

The blacksmith laughed. "You're the same age as my son." he said while ruffling Kai's hair. "He turned sixteen a couple weeks ago. But why aren't you celebrating it with your parents?"

"My parents are always busy." I lied. Oh how I hate lying to them. "They work in Ninjago City and it's always busy for them and it's hard for us to do things together. So I left them a note saying that I was on my own adventure for a week and will be back so I don't scare them." Oh my name. Can't use my real name, but an alias though. "My name is Luke by the way." and held my right hand out to Kai.

Kai took my hand and shook it. "Kai." he introduced himself. He stopped shaking my hand and grabbed his sword. "So Luke, you want to show me your sai's?" he asked.

He was challenging me. I don't want to harm, but it'll be a chance to try my new sai's though. "Sure." I replied and followed him out of the shop. Kai lead me around the shop and home of his to the side. We walked under an archway and stood underneath a cherry blossom tree. He stood in front of me and his white shirt to reveal his red tee shirt and held his sword out. I removed my backpack and unzipped my sweatshirt to show him my grey tee shirt and tossed them aside and held my sai's out. "You sure you want to do this, Kai?" I asked him, unsure of the challenge now.

Kai held his hands above his head with the blade held horizontal in a stance. "I'm sure." he replied. "This should be fun."

Fun? He's right. I've been training for six year and never done anything fun for once. I'm a teenager. I should be doing things with people around my age. Sparring Kai shall be fun. As long I don't reveal myself as a ninja or perform Spinjitzu and my elemental water powers. This was gonna be fun. I like that word. Fun. I gripped my sai's tightly and had my left leg out with my right knee bent behind me and my left sai held out and my right sai by my chest with my fingers wrapped around the side guards. "Alright I was checking." I said. "I'll make the first move." He nodded and waited for me to charge. "You're gonna lose." I warned him and charged towards him and he charged towards me.

*"I don't think so." he doubted and brought his sword down.

Adrenaline coursed my veins and I crossed my sai's to block his sword. We both pushed against each other to push the other down, but my strength as an apprentice to a dark lord and his as a blacksmith's son, we were evenly matched. We grunted and glared at each other as one wouldn't back down until Kai drew a fist back while keeping a hand on the hilt and threw his punch. I quickly saw the attack and ducked his attack and jumped back before he could retrieve his sword to swipe me. Clever move, Kai. Attacking your opponent when he least expects it. I have a few of my own.

I charged at him with my twin weapons out and swung them at him. He blocked them with his sword. Metal clanked as I slowly pushed him back as he ducked, dodged, and parried my attacks while I too ducked, dodged, and parried his attacks. I gotta say that he's expertly gifted with the katana as I am with the sai's. But by the look of his muscles on his arms to my lean muscles, we were still evenly matched somehow. He even fights well as...well a ninja. His punches to my abdomen make me recoil in pain. Same goes with his kicks. And for an odd reason, I can feel something in him like power. The same feeling when my father and uncle perform Spinjitzu. Can he too perform Spinjitzu? I shook my head as it doesn't matter right now and returned to focus against Kai.

I blocked Kai's attack and he swiped his sword underneath my sai's and swung them up. The next thing I knew that I was disarmed and my sai's went into the blossom tree and the blades struck high into the trunk. I was now weaponless and the only way to end this match was if he pinned me. Kai swiped his sword at me while I swayed my body to dodge. He brought the blade close to my face and I arched my back to dodge and felt the blade slicing through the air and over my left eyebrow. Almost like my dream once.

I quickly regained my balance and watched him bring his sword down. I used my left forearm to block his hands on the hilt and swiped the weapon away. We were both weaponless, but he looked like he didn't have much experience in fighting than I do and I quickly clapped my hands on his ears. With him now stunned, I gave him a push back and quickly ran up the tree to pluck my sai's free and hopped back down. Kai managed to retrieve his sword back in the process. "One of us has to go down." I laughed.

"Yeah." he agreed with me. "But it'll be you though." and charged towards me. I quickly got down to my hands and swiped a kick to his legs and knocked him down to his back. I quickly towered over him and placed my right foot on his chest to pin him. I won. This was fun. Kai chuckled and tried to get up. "Come on." he laughed. "I was so close."

I laughed with him and removed my foot off of him and pulled him up to his feet. And even shook hands for the good match. "My dad once told me that it doesn't matter whether you're close or not." I told him. "It only means you're getting better." while inspecting my sai's. I remember that saying when we used to train together before I ran away and kept it close. It makes me stronger everyday.

"Well your dad must be a wise man then." Kai said. He still was. Especially when I see in the Reflective Pool. Kai looked at his watch on his wrist and picked his apron and gloves up. "Say it's getting late." he said. "You wanna stay for the night?"

Getting late? "What time is it" I asked him confused.

"Ten after seven." he answered.

My mouth literally dropped. I looked at the sun and noticed it was no longer a rising sun, but a setting sun. I was here all day? How? "How?" I asked him.

Kai chuckled. "Being the son of a blacksmith it takes hours to make a weapon." he replied. "For your sai's, it took longer. You arrived here around ten and it's now seven. So you want to stay for the night?"

Wow. I never realized the time. I have been here all day. I'm glad my uncle has given me the week off to explore Ninjago. It has given me the chance to make a friend. A friend of my kind. Not a skeleton like Kuzca or a dragon like Storm. An acutal human friend. Smiling, I nodded. "Sure." I replied and held my hand out. "Friends?"

Kai smiled back and shook my hand. "Friends." he said and lead me back to the shop. I grabbed my sweatshirt and backpack and followed after him.

...

Time has passed after my match and Kai has shown me around the shop and how to make a weapon. I found it fascinating on how it happens and he even let me try it out. Did pretty bad though, but it was fun. Later that night around dinner, I found out that Kai has a younger sister named Nya. She has the same features as her mother, but her black hair was in a bop that only touched her shoulders. She kept throwing questions like what's my favorite color, animal, all those silly questions. And since it was my birthday today, the Smiths even made me a cake. For once in my life from the Underworld, I actually get a birthday. But having Storm though was the best gift anyway. I still miss that dragon of mine.

After dinner, Kai lead me to his room where I'll be staying for the night. His room was different than mine in the Underworld. He has a normal twin bed, small bookcase, personal bathroom, and his walls were lined with various weapons. Mainly swords. It almost reminded me of my old room at the Monastery Dojo, except for the weapons though. I kept gazing at the collections of his swords. "You really have a thing for swords, don't you?" I complemented.

Kai removed his tee shirt and threw it in the hamper and missed. "Yeah I do." he replied and walked over to his dresser. I turned to see his muscles on his arms and chest and noticed he has more muscles than I do. He even has ab against my flat stomach. But we're evenly matched still. I'm not jealous or anything at all because I like how my body was when I trained myself, but surprised on how strong he was from his work as a blacksmith son. "I find swords the best weapon to fight with." he said as he opened his dresser to pull out a pair of pajama pants and a tank top and threw the tank top on. "You saw what I'm capable of. I practice three hours a day with each sword we make. My dad is gonna bring in a cot for you to use, why don't you go freshen up in my bathroom? You're my guest, you go first."

I nodded a thank you and grabbed my backpack and closed the door behind me. I unzipped my bag to pull out my own personal hygiene products of shampoo and body wash and my toothbrush and paste, because I thought I would be camping in the woods, and took a quick shower. After I was refreshed, I grabbed a pair of grey shorts from my bag and threw them on along with the shirt I had on before and quickly brushed my teeth and left the bathroom after packing my stuff. I saw Kai finishing my bed for me and past me to freshen up in his bathroom. I sat on the cot and waited patiently until a few minutes later he finally came out. "Kai, I can't thank you enough enough for the hospitality." I said.

"Hey it's no problem, Luke." he said and took a seat on his bed. "It's nice to have someone over. Especailly when they're good with weapons." He let out a yawn. "Well we should get some sleep. My dad is always up early and would want us up." He threw his comforter over him and turned his lamp off. "Night Luke." he said tiredly and laid down.

I nodded and laid down on my cot and threw the blanket over me. "Night Kai." I said back and closed my eyes

...

Morning came and everything I owned was packed. I was ready to go. But to where though? I guess wherever the road took me. After a good breakfast, I stood in front of the shop with the Smith family behind me. I turned around to smile. "I can't thank you enough for your hospitality." I told them. "Thank you for everything." and looked at my sai's and slipped the side guards through my belt loops. "And thank you for the sai's."

"It was no problem, Luke." Kai's father said while rubbing his wife's shoulders. "It was nice to have company over. But where will you go now on your adventure?"

I smiled. "Wherever the road takes me." I replied and slung my bag over my shoulders. Ready. "Good-bye and thank you." and started to head down the path.

The Smith family waved me good-bye, but Kai spoke up. "Hey Luke, wait." I stopped and turned to face my friend. "The next time we meet, I'll beat you against my sword and your sai's." and held a thumbs up to me.

I chuckled. "Consider it a deal and challenge." I said back and gave him a thumbs up back. I waved them one last good-bye and left.


I hoped you like this week's chapter. Lucas has met Kai and they even had a weapons spar match. Now here's another: Which ninja do you think Lucas will meet next? Have a wonderful weekend and see you all next week. :)