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“Why isn’t Heatwave healing faster?! Are you sure the crystal goo is still working Kai?” Wyldfyre asked, concerned and worried. Wyldfyre turned to Heatwave and Kai turned to her.
“Things like this take time.” Kai said, but then Wyldfyre turned back to him.
“No, they don’t!” Wyldfyre yelled out. “Heatwave has to get better! And we have to get that Dragon Core back to the other Ninja! And this is taking forever!” Wyldfyre grunted in anger.
“Impatience makes everything worse, Wyldfyre.” Kai told the angry teen, trying to calm her down. “It clouds your judgment, and you make bad decisions. Trust me. I know from experience.” Kai grimaced, thinking about all the horrible decisions he’s made, as well as his deepest regret.
“But we can’t just do nothing!” Wyldfyre cried out, trying to make a point. She whipped tears off of her face.
“You wanted to learn some of Master Wu’s techniques? Try this. Moving through forms. It’ll help you focus, to be in the moment.” Kai said and started to perform some of the forms his master had taught him.
“Standing in one place, moving super slow? I told you; I can’t do nothing!” The teen huffed out, before turning to Heatwave, who had whined out in pain.
“This isn’t nothing, you’ll see.”
Wyldfyre sighed out, before getting into the same position and copied him. But she kept getting distracted by Heatwave. She suddenly lost her cool. “I can’t do this! I can’t stop worrying about Heatwave!” Wyldfyre said, and turned to Heatwave, Kai following suit. “He’s never been hurt like this before.”
“When you’re worried is exactly when this is most helpful. You are not your emotions. Focus on your form, let the emotions pass through you.” Kai began to re-perform the form.
“You pass through you!” Wyldfyre yelled out in anger and frustration. Effectively breaking Kai out of his focus. “You're patient, I'm not, remember?” Wyldfyre pointed out, before Kai burst out into fits of laughter.
“Okay, no one has ever called me ‘patient’. I’m the hothead, in more ways than one. Master Wu had me practice my forms. I was never as good as the others, but Ninja never quit. So, I kept going until it worked enough to calm me down. And if it can work for me, it can work for anyone. Even you, because you kind of remind me of someone.” Kai said, staring at Wyldfyre, who looked unimpressed.
“Who? Master Wu?”
“No! Me! You remind me of me! So, if you're ready, let’s try again.” Wyldfyre sighed out, before again, copying Kai’s movements.
—
Once Wyldfyre calmed down, they both sat down around the fire. “How did you know that these…forms…and the crystal goo, would work?” The teen asked.
Kai looked down at the floor. Master Wu taught me that, but the context of the situation was the problem.” Kai told the teen, his gaze darkening.
“What is this…con-tex-t?” Wyldfyre asked, genuinely confused.
“Let me tell you a story. It isn’t an exhilarating one, but maybe it can teach you a thing or two.” Kai said, turning his head to Wyldfyre.
Wyldfyre nodded excitedly. “Yes! A story!” Kai chuckled at this, she reminded him of himself, but also Lloyd’s childlike behavior.
“One time, a few years ago, I ended up failing a mission. I was so angry , because it was a simple mistake that caused me to fail it.” Kai spoke and began recalling the memory.
—
“UGHH!!” Kai groaned in anger. He kept on punching the dummy. “It’s all my fault!” Kai yelled out. Lloyd was outside the door with a worried look on his face. He could hear Kai screaming from outside the monastery. They had just beaten Morro, and Kai was already frustrated from that. Kai kept hitting the dummy. But he was so angry that he didn’t notice that he had started to use his fire.
After listening to Kai beat up the dummies, Lloyd decided he would check up on Kai. Lloyd walked in. “Hey Kai-“ Lloyd was cut off by a searing pain in his torso. He screamed out in agony.
“LLOYD!” Kai screamed out. Lloyd had fallen, but Kai caught him before he hit his head on the ground. Kai was panicking. Everyone was gone, they were either on a mission or out doing something. Kai was forced to sit out on missions for a couple of days, and Lloyd was on recovery time.
Kai carried Lloyd to their medical room and laid him down in one of the beds. Lloyd was groaning and crying. Kai grabbed the front of Lloyd’s gi and carefully pulled it open. He cringed when he saw some of it stick to Lloyd’s injury. When he got a full view of the wound, Kai wanted to throw up. The burn was pretty bad. Kai suspected that it would be a second or even worse, a third-degree burn. He tried to remember what Zane had taught him about how to treat severe burns.
That’s when he heard the doors to the monastery open and Kai ran out of the medical room to see who it was. Hopefully it was Zane. When Kai ran out, he spotted Wu and ran to him. “Kai? What is wrong?”
“Lloyd! Fire! Accident! I’m so sorry!” Kai managed to yell out in a panic, he was having a hard time breathing.
“Kai, show me where Lloyd is.” Wu said, trying to distract the panicked ninja.
Kai led Wu to the medical room. When they walked in, Wu walked over and examined Lloyd. “Follow me, Kai. We don’t have long. Lloyd can’t go untreated.” Wu said, and gently grabbed Kai’s wrist and led him to the monastery’s entrance.
When Kai was in the forest, he began to ask questions about what they were doing, more like what Wu was doing. “Why are you smashing rocks! We can’t just do nothing! Lloyd is not getting any better from us smashing things on the ground!” Kai said he was getting more and more impatient.
“Impatience makes everything worse Kai.” Wu told the angry and frustrated teen. “It clouds your judgment, and you make bad decisions.” Wu finally broke open a rock. He showed it to Kai. “This is what we’re looking for. Find more like this.” Wu instructed his student. Kai began smashing and then finding more blue crystals.
When Wu was leading him back to the monastery, Kai and Wu found a total of 6 crystals. Kai was still frustrated and confused, but he had learned not to question his master so easily.
Wu led Kai back to the medical room and placed the crystals down. “What are we supposed to do with these?” Kai asked, turning his gaze to his little brother, whom he had hurt.
“Melt these with your fire.” Wu said, ignoring the teen's question. Kai did as he was told and melted the crystal into a gooey like substance. “Now put it on Lloyd’s burn and spread it around.” Kai again, did as he was told and placed the goo on Lloyd.
“What is this supposed to even do-“ Kai cut himself off as he had noticed Lloyd's burn was a lot less red, and the skin wasn’t as irritated. Kai repeated the same process until Lloyd’s burn was fully covered. “How did you know that this would help?” Kai asked, not letting his gaze leave his brother, who had finally calmed down and seemed to be in less pain.
Wu turned to his student. “This crystal can be found anywhere in the 16 realms and has a very great burn-healing agent. You just need to calm down and see things from a different perspective. You are not your emotions Kai.” Wu told Kai, who had turned to his master.
—
“So that’s how you knew about that crystal goo.” Wyldfyre said, she surprisingly was silent throughout the whole story.
“Yup! Like my master had told me, not all lessons are about fighting. A ninja is more than their fighting skills. It’s not about the size of the ninja in a fight, it’s about the size of the fight in the ninja.” Kai said, and Wyldfyre turned to Heatwave. Kai looked at the teen and saw so much potential. But he also saw himself. Maybe she’ll come around to the idea of being a ninja and on a team. Maybe one day.