AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Howdy to all! Hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend. I've been away from this website for a few days and, judging from all the notifications in my email box, I have a lot of good reading to catch up on!

By the way, I'm going to take a short break from updating my other current story, The Fire Within a Ninjago Soldier. As you know, Zane was just severely injured by an enemy soldier. Well, another of our favorite cowboys is not going to fare too well, either, but I have to determine exactly how that is going to happen.

Did everyone in the USA see where Season 6 will FINALLY air on Cartoon Network in May? YAY!

Shoutouts go to all the followers and favers of this story, plus the commenters on the last chapter: lovesgod12, AveXCninja11, StoryMaker7, and FirstFandomFangirl!

Could there be new hope that Kai will be found? Read on...

Chapter 5 - A Midsummer Night's Dream

I'm sitting in a chair in prison-like surroundings. I can't move my arms or legs.

Kai is standing in front of me. But he isn't looking at me. He's focusing on something off to the side of us.

I turn my gaze to where he is focused. Wait! What is that in the pitch black darkness over there? Two orange eyes, and above them, where the forehead would be, there's a glowing orange symbol in the shape of three flames.

The creepy image gives Kai a command: "Kill her."

Kai looks at me. The whites of his eyes turned orange! He's like a zombie. He grabs my neck.

Oh, Kai, please don't hurt me! Fight for control of your mind!

I love you, Kai!

Sam woke up in the dark from her dream, sweating with fear.

She tried to calm herself by saying it was just a nightmare, but the events of last night rushed back into her consciousness, and she realized her reality was also a nightmare.

The soft glow of her alarm clock on her bedside table told her the time was close to four o'clock in the morning.

An additional glow on the bedside table caught her attention. It was a small circle of reddish light. She looked closer.

The glow came from the crystal in the ring that Kai intended to give to her at their wedding ceremony.

OK, this is freaky, she thought to herself.

Sam recalled that at the time she and Kai first talked about wedding rings, he had mentioned that Sensei wanted to speak to him about the ring he would give his bride. Later, once the ring had been fashioned, Kai said there was a family history behind the precious crystal, and the story would be revealed to her at the ceremony.

Perhaps the story needs to be revealed to me now, she decided.

She got out of the bed quietly so as not to wake Nya, even though Nya was not a light sleeper. After throwing on some sweats, Sam picked up the necklace with both wedding rings and the heart charm and left the room to find Sensei Wu.

As Sam walked down the hallway, she could feel the vibration of the engine of the Bounty. It was not yet a sensation she was used to.

It occurred to her as she walked that Sensei might be in his quarters, sleeping. But she would wake him if she had to. She wanted answers.

As it turned out, she found Sensei sitting just inside the control room at one of the desks, studying some navigational maps. At the far end of the room, Lloyd stood with his back to them, wearing a headset and steering the ship - it was his turn to pilot. She knew, from conversations she had heard going on in the hallway as she had prepared for bed, that Jay would be flying the ship for the first few hours of their journey, and Lloyd would be taking the helm for the following few hours while Jay napped.

Though Nya was also capable of captaining the vessel, the ninja brothers were not going to ask for her piloting help on this trip - they knew she needed to rest after hearing last night's devastating news about her brother.

"Good morning, Sensei," Sam greeted the wise teacher, her eyes still getting accustomed to the brighter light outside her bedroom. At the sound of her voice, Lloyd turned around and gave her a quick wave. She waved back before he turned back to focus on his captaining duties.

"Oh, good morning, Sam. Please sit down," Sensei said, moving a few papers away to clear a space for her at the desk. "How did you rest these past few hours?"

Sam sat down in the other chair at the desk. "Not well, Sensei," she replied. "I had a nightmare, and then when I woke up I noticed something weird about the wedding ring that Kai..." - Sam swallowed hard - "...IS going to give me at the ceremony. The crystal is glowing. Let me show you."

Sam hopped up from the chair just long enough to turn off the hallway light and then sat back down, opening her hand to display the necklace on which was attached the wedding ring with the crystal. Sensei took the necklace from her and gently fingered the ring, observing the reddish glow.

"I see," he commented as he handed the jewelry back to her. "And what was your nightmare about?" he asked.

As Sam stood to turn on the hallway light again, she began to tell the teacher about her dream.

"Your words bring me hope and trepidation, Sam," Sensei Wu slowly responded when she was finished. "The hope comes from the crystal in your wedding ring. The crystal is a chip from an ancient larger crystal belonging to the family of the masters of fire. Kai and Nya's father gave me the crystal to look after, just before he passed, because at the time Kai and Nya were too young to assume the responsibility. A property of this crystal is that it glows when a fire master is in distress. So if Kai is in distress, that means he is still alive..."

Sam's heart leaped.

"...and thus I have hope we can get him back," Sensei concluded.

Sam's happiness was short-lived, however, as she remembered what else the wise teacher had said. "Why do you feel trepidation, Sensei?" she asked.

"The vision in your dream of a glowing orange symbol of three flames over two glowing orange eyes is the description of an evil witch of fire named Fiora. In the ancient times, Fiora once worked in harmony with nature to keep the balance of life steady. But her power went to her head and she began to wreak destruction upon the land, thus causing the ancient Council of Nature to banish her to the center of the earth for eternity. Now I fear she has made her way back to the earth's surface, and she may be using Kai to attain whatever dastardly goal she has in mind."

Sam's eyes widened.

Just then, Jay entered the control room, rubbing his sleepy eyes. He had awakened to prepare for his next turn at steering the ship.

"Hi, Sensei. Hi, Sam - you're up early."

"Jay," Sensei directly addressed his pupil, "there has been an interesting development that I would like to tell you and Lloyd and Nya about right now. Would you please go wake her?"

"Sure, Sensei," the blue ninja drowsily replied, heading toward the ladies' bedroom.

"I'll put on some coffee while Jay wakes up Nya," Sam volunteered. She left the jewelry on Sensei's desk as she rose from her seat and walked to the kitchen.

As the bride-to-be inserted a new filter in the coffeemaker and added the coffee grounds, she began to get angry.

Her wedding was scheduled to be taking place in just a few short weeks. Right now she should be focusing on plans for the ceremony and for her married life afterward with her man. Happy stuff. Not embarking on a search for her missing groom, whose disappearance appeared to be at the hands of an awful fire witch.

As she added water to the coffeemaker, she thought about how water douses flames of a fire.

I'm going to get you back for your evilness, Fiora! Sam vowed.