Winds of Change: Rising Storm

Chapter 2

Her vision blurred as the world all around Tempest fell before her, spinning in such random directions that she could not comprehend anything. The actual fall was about ten seconds, but it felt faster. She expected to splat against the ground, as falling onto pavement usually involves, but instead she collided into something else.

"Ow!" Came a guy's voice. For a moment Tempest couldn't see anything, she just tumbled forward. When the world stopped moving, she found herself flattened on top of a guy. Instantly she scrambled off of him and backed against the house's wall.

"S-sorry!" She said, watching as the dude sat up. He was wearing jeans with a red hoodie, his hair spiky and brown.

"What were you thinking, lady?!" He asked, rubbing his head.

"I wasn't trying to fall on you!" Then she remembered the jumpsuit dude and quickly hid behind a section of wall, peeking out at the driveway. The jump-suited guy came out of the house, scanned the area, then got into the silver van.

"What are you looking at?" Came a voice from behind her.

She jumped out from behind the wall, twisting around and yelping, "Ah! What are you doing!" The boy with spiky hair glanced at the man by the truck, who had stopped the process of leaving to try and see what had made the noise. The boy grabbed Tempest's arm and pulled her back behind the section of wall, placing a hand over her mouth.

"What in the.... Itzus master's.....are you doing?!" Tempest tried to say, his hand muffling her voice.

The boy watched as the silver van drove away, and released the girl. He didn't quite understand what had happened, but the people in the van were definitely weird.

The girl pulled away, her face turning a deep shade of red. "What's your problem?! You can't just do that!"

The boy looked blankly at her, putting his hand on his shoulder while shrugging. "Those men didn't look friendly. If I hadn't covered your mouth, they would have heard your squawking."

Her mouth opened a bit, then closed, then opened again. "Y-you.. How did you know?"

He shrugged again. "It was that, or you were trying to fall on me."

She gave him an outraged expression, and snapped, "I wasn't trying to fall on anyone! And yes, they aren't friendly, at least, I don't think so." She looked a little less outraged and more confused as she spoke the last sentence.

The boy gave her a grin. "Well, you're lucky. You didn't just land on anyone, you landed on the Master of Fire." His grin widened, but the girl still seemed confused.

In fact, she seemed more confused. "Fire?"

He held up a fist, and fire expanded from it. "Yep. My name is Kai."

She took a step back, "Kai? Like, the ninja Kai?"

A feeling of pleasure filled him, it was always nice to be recognized. "Exactly." The confusion in the girl's blue eyes cleared, and she took a step forward.

Before he could move back, she punched him in the arm, hard. "If you're the red ninja, you should have taken those guys out! Not hid behind a wall!"

He stared at her, dumbfounded. "What?!"

She moved back and crossed her arms, staring disapprovingly at the ground. "If you're a ninja, you should have been powerful enough to take them out."

He shook his head in disbelief. "I saved you from whoever that guy was, and you're calling me a coward?"

The girl looked up, her eyes defiant through curls of red hair. "What exactly are you implying?"