Chapter 1:

An Unexpected Surprise

The fire ninja swung his blade, fire shunting out of it and toward his opponent. She jumped up and corkscrew spun, avoiding its hot singe. She held my hand out to the side. A giant, boomerang shaped sword appeared in her hand: the great Windblade, the sword of wind masters. She threw it, whirling towards him. The fire ninja back flipped, narrowly avoiding it.

“Ha! Missed me!” he taunted.

Little did he know that it came back around, and thwacked him in the back of the head. He felt a jolt of pain as he was thrown forward. He rubbed it, wincing, and the world distorting slightly. He then threw up his blade right as the wind ninja appeared a few feet in front of him. Their swords clashed as the wind ninja projected all the weight she could on him, trying to force him to yield. But then, the fire ninja composed himself and pushed her forward.

“NINJA-GO!”

Kai spun until he changed into a large, fiery-orange tornado. He crept forward towards her, but she launched herself into the air, far into the sky as she landed on top of the mast. The fire ninja stopped, and looked up at her.

“Hey! That’s cheating!” He called.

She scoffed. “There’s no such thing as cheating on the battlefield!” I called back.

Just as the words left my mouth, Kai could suddenly hear a whistling sound from behind him. In a split second, he whirled around, and deflected the incoming boomerang. He suddenly felt an elbow plunge into his back, sending him forward. He sprawled onto the deck. When he tried to get back up, a dagger appeared, inches away from his throat. He looked up, and saw his opponents glaring, pecan eyes. He wanted to try again, but his head was starting to throb. Finally, he sighed.

“Okay, you win.”

She put my dagger back in her pocket, and straightened.

.

Kamara tossed the Windblade into the air, and it disappeared. She adjusted my high ponytail. Kai panted, and leaned forward on his knees.

“Did I really get you that bad?” Kamara asked.

Kai straightened. “What? Pfft, no! Just a scratch!” he exclaimed, “You only won because I’m still digesting breakfast!”

Kamara scoffed. “Yeah, sure.”

“Yeah, we gotta figure out how to combat your flight, Kam, because no one’s gonna catch you!”

.

The other three ninja: Cole, Zane, and Jay finished the training course and were taking a break.

“Yeah, good luck with that.”

Kamara decided to take a break, and leaned over the railing to soak in the quiet drifting ripples of the water.

“All right. My turn! Who wants to get their butt kicked first?” Cole’s voice announced.

“I will take up the challenge” replied Zane’s cool-headed voice.

Kamara looked over her shoulder. The two pulled the masks over their heads. Cole unsheathed his giant, golden scythe of quakes, while Zane pulled out his small, golden shurikens of ice. Then, they began to clash together in a playful sparr.

.

Just then, Kamara felt something vibrate in my pocket. She jumped, and reached into it. She pulled out my cell phone. The caller ID read, “Odette.” She was surprised. She had barely spoken to her since Kamara left to help Wu collect the Golden Weapons. She eagerly answered the phone.

“Hi! Odette! What’s up?”

“Kamara! Kamara! You will never believe that happened!” her friend squealed excitedly.

She winced as her friend’s electrified voice shouted into my ear. Kamara lowered the volume.

“What? What happened?”

“Well, you know that big hockey arena in Ninjago City?”

“Yeah?”

“And how they’re doing a concert next Friday?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, the person who’s in charge of it called Hayden and asked us, us, to be the opening act!”

Kamara covered her mouth and gasped. She turned around and rested she arms on the Bounty’s railing.

“Are you serious!?” She hissed.

“I am not joking! He said the band that was originally going to do the act had to cancel at the last minute! Are you able to do it? Please? Please!?”

Kamara laughed. “Okay, calm down Odette, calm down!” She ran her fingers through her hair. “I…”

Kamara glanced over at the boys. Zane was currently beating Cole, who very slowly was starting to tire. Jay had completely vanished, while Kai was punching a training dummy. He noticed Kamara was watching them. Something a bit off about him. He didn’t glare at me. He had a different expression. It was almost like he was…admiring me. Kamara grew uncomfortable and quickly turned away.

.

None of them actually knew Kamara was in a band. They only knew that Kamara could play violin, and she hadn’t had much time to play lately. Kamara had hesitated to tell them, because she knew it would only be another thing for them to make fun of me about; and she just wouldn’t be able to tolerate that. The band didn’t know Kamara was an elemental master either. Kamara only told them that she found a job that would take me out of town for a while.

Finally, Kamara replied, “I’ll have to check in with my supervisor, but yeah, I think I can do that. Unfortunately, I can’t help transport any equipment except for my violin. Think you, Hayden, and Pence can handle it?”

“Yeah, I think we can. So, see you Friday at 4 o’clock sharp?” Odette asked.

“Yes! Four o’clock! Bye!”

.

Kamara snapped the phone lid shut, and took a deep breath. This was gonna be a little rough. Sure, Sensei Wu would have no problem with me leaving for a night, especially when the serpentine weren’t currently active. But the boys…The boys would be suspicious, and would poke and prod me until she spilled the beans.

“Everything alright?”

Like so.

Kamara jumped. She turned around to to see Kai standing behind her. Kamara straightened her uniform and sighed, upping her defenses.

“Yep! Everything’s fine. I just need to run by Sensei Wu on something” she replied.

Kamara awkwardly attempted to slip away from him. She was about to exit the deck area and walk inside.

Kamara heard Kai say behind me, “Kam?”

Kamara froze, wincing. She slowly turned around.

“Yes?”

Kai stood in front of me. He suddenly was having trouble coming up with what he was trying to say.

“What’s wrong? Trying to find something to make fun of me about?” Kamara inquired.

“What? Ah, no, not this time” Kai stammered.

He looked at the ground for a moment, then back up at Kamara.

“I just wanted to say, that…was a good match we had!” he announced.

Kamara squinted my eyes at him. Sge was surprised, but also suspicious. What was he trying to pull? She put my hand up to my ear.

“Was that a compliment I heard?” Kamara asked sarcastically, trying to play off my discomfort.

Kai retorted. “What? I give compliments!”

Kamara blew a raspberry. “Not to me you don’t! What’re you trying to do? Put me into a false sense of security so you can wallop me with an insult? Or perhaps a prank like Lloyd tries to do?”

Kai didn’t respond. His face went red, and couldn’t reply.

Kamara scoffed. “Whatever. I’ll join you guys in a second. I gotta talk to Sensei about something.”

And with that, Kamara quickly exited. Something definitely didn’t feel right. Kai was up to something.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

When Friday came upon me, Kamara kept the concert a secret. She wasn’t sure how my sword-brothers would react, nor did she want to give them any reason to tease and make fun of me. She only told Nya, who was Kai’s sister, and Sensei Wu of course, where she was going.

.

It was three in the afternoon when Kamara stepped on the upper deck. The breeze was drifting peacefully through my hair. She was no longer wearing my ninja uniform, but a brown hoodie and jeans. She often forget how comfortable casual wear is compared to our normal attire. She had my violin case on my back, and my fingers on my right hand twiddling. She had asked Nya to lower the Bounty enough that she could safely jump off on my Wind cycle without hurting myself. Kamara anxiously checked the watch on my wrist. The Bounty had finally gotten low enough. She was about to summon my Windblade, and transform it into the Wind cycle, when she heard footsteps behind me. Kamara froze and turned around. There was my sword-brothers: Kai, Cole, Zane, and Jay, all staring at me like they had just caught me smashing a rare antique jar.

“And where are you going, missy?” Jay demanded.

My cheeks went red. Kamara turned my back to them.

“None of your business” She replied, bluntly.

“Mmhmm, looks like you’re trying to run away again!” Jay accused.

“I’m not!” she snapped, “I just…have to be somewhere, that’s all.”

“Would you mind telling us where that is?” Cole asked.

Kamara shifted my weight, and tighten her fists. It was embarrassing enough that they caught me, but now they were interrogating me?

“No, I can’t.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

Kamara didn’t reply.

“Look, Kamara-”

It was a different voice. This time it was Kai.

“-We just want to know where you’re going in case, you know, something happens and we need to find you.”

That calm, smooth voice of his irked me. That was not normal! What was he up to?? I turned around, glaring at him with a suspicious eye, and then to the rest.

“Look, I know you’re trying to mess with me, and it’s not gonna happen!” Kamara exclaimed, “All you need to know is that I actually asked Sensei’s permission!”

.

Kamara summoned my Windblade and threw it into the air. It spun through the air and in a flash, it transformed into a chocolate brown motorbike. Kamara hopped onto the seat and roared it to life.

“I’ll be back late tonight! Don’t go looking for me! I’m sure it won’t be hard!”

And without another word, Kamara pressed the accelerator, and took off.

.

Her sword-brothers were left in silence on the Bounty as she vanished from sight.

“I don’t buy it” Jay commented, “We probably just somehow made her mad and we can’t tell on her because she asked permission.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Jay, but Kamara has gotten better at not vanishing out of the blue” Kai objected.

“You’re just saying that because you’ve got a crush on her!”

Kai retorted. “I told you not to be so vocal about that!”

“Hey, stop it!” Cole snapped, “Kai is right, Jay; and as hard as it is, we shouldn’t be bad mouthing her behind her back!”

“I know, I know, Sensei always says that” Jay groaned, “But does anyone else notice that she never gets punishments as bad as us?”

Cole shrugged. “He knows Kamara longer than any of us. He must know something we don’t…”

“I agree. As a wise man once said, ‘Treat others as you would want to be treated’” said Zane.

.

The fire ninja got into a fighting stance as the training equipment rose from the floor. It was time to train some more until six o’clock when the sun would go down, and dinner would be ready. His sister Nya was cooking that night. The smells coming from the kitchen were already making the boys hungry.

“Well, on the bright side-” Cole stated as he twirled his scythe of quakes, with a teasing tone, “-At least it will give Kai some time to plan his proposal to Kamara.”

“It’s not a proposal Cole! I just simply want to get to know her better” Kai rebuttled, narrowingly avoiding a dummy with an axe.

Jay sighed. “Yeah, maybe you’ll discover something about her that we she won’t share with us.”

Kai finished a fourth of the course as he paused to look over the horizon, where the skyscrapers of Ninjago City towered above the sun. “Yeah…Maybe.”