A Hero's Protection

Camping

It took a while to plan the camping trip. The ninja weren't kidding when they said they never did this for fun. After searching up how to camp, learning where they were going and how to get there, and finished packing, they were ready to go.

Caroline was surprised at how far away this forest was. Not even the ninja knew how Wu found out about this faraway forest. The trip itself took three days on the bounty, which Pixel would be keeping close by for when they were ready to go back.

"You know, Caroline is a mouthful," Jay commented after they were dropped off by Pixel. They were entering the forest, in search of a good place to camp. "Why don't we create a nickname for you?"

"That's a good idea, only if you're up for it," Cole added, looking at Caroline. Caroline nodded her agreement.

"I'm okay with that," Caroline agreed. "It will be fun. Something to keep us busy while we walk."

They thought of many names while they walked. Line, Carol, Lynn, Caddie, and Cal were just a few of the many names they were able to come up with. Jay continued rearranging the letters to make funny names like Lono and Core.

"How about Care," Cole suggested. "You know, the first three letters C-A-R with a letter E at the end." Caroline looked up at the name, something tingling at the back of her mind. She was just about to comment when Kai started laughing out of control.

"Okay, so Care was Caring. She would Care for herself every day." Everyone seemed to think that was funny, but Caroline didn't think so. Cole glared at Kai, mumbling something.

"I actually think that's not bad," Caroline added once they had calmed down a bit. "Better than Line." Cole gave her a grateful glance as the others stopped chuckling and awkward silence filled the forest.

"This looks like a good spot," Lloyd broke the silence, stopping in a clearing. "There's firewood, a nice wide clearing,"

"This does seem to be a good place," Zane comments, "But the ground is not flat. I do not see how we will be able to put up our tent." Everyone spreads out, examining the clearing. There was a tree right in the middle of the clearing, which didn't seem to get in the way. Finally, after a long day of searching, it seems they had found the place.

"I think I have a way of clearing away all this brush," Kai piped up. "Everyone stand back."

"Kai, what are you doing?" Cole raised his voice as flames appeared on Kai's hand.

"Kai!" Nya screamed as Kai shot flames at the ground. Immediately the ground lit up, the tree in the small clearing bursting into flame. Everyone cowered away, and there was no water around for Nya to put it out. Everyone ran from the fire, Someone yelling about starting a forest fire.

Caroline, who was standing beside the tree, was unable to escape the flames. She unconsciously created a barrier around herself, protecting her from the flames. She couldn't hear anyone and looked around at the flames.

"I need to contain the fire," Caroline whispered, starting to panic. "You can do this." She closed her eyes, remembering what everyone had been telling her to do during her training sessions. Concentrate, and know what you are going to do.

Pushing away bad thoughts she was able to envision the flames being caught in a dome, preventing it from reaching the rest of the forest. She opened her eyes when suddenly there was warmth around her and realized that the barrier protecting her had disappeared. She stood her ground and looked up to see that a barrier had appeared, and it was trapping the fire as smoke started to collect.

It took lots of strength and she fell to her knees, hoping that the flames would not come any closer. She felt tapping on her barrier and was surprised to be consciously aware of something like that. Using the rest of her strength she opened that small section and closed it again, hoping that it was one of the ninja.