Tiny Troubles

Part 5

Previously on Tiny Troubles...

Cole stared at the red ninja slack jawed for a few seconds. It was sort of out-of-character for Kai, who rarely showed off this side of him for fear of "ruining his image". But the black ninja had to admit, it was kinda...nice. A little odd, but nice.

But he could think about the sudden appearance of Kai's nicer side later. Right now, there was a stack of smiling pancakes with his name on it.

~~~~

Part 5

"So guys," Jay asked, leaning back in his chair and absently rubbing his full stomach. "What should we do until Sensei comes back with the Tomorrow's Tea?"

Almost everyone had eaten their fill, and were in various poses of relaxation. The only one who was still eating was Cole, who was finishing his third stack of pancakes, his large appetite returning and apparently transferring to suit his smaller form.

"Ah tho we err s'po t' tray," Cole attempted to speak through a mouthful of pancakes, with limited success.

"Finish chewing your food before speaking Cole," Zane gently scolded.

Cole quickly swallowed before repeating his statement. "I thought we were supposed to train..."

Kai snorted. "I think you're a little bit too young to be training, Brookstone," he replied.

"Yeah!" Jay piped up. "Remember the last time we were turned into kids? Kai tried to do Spinjitzu but ending up being out of control. And you're even younger than he was!"

Cole scowled. "Just because I can't do Spinjitzu doesn't mean that I can't train!" He insisted. "I can just train with my weapon!"

"Cole, you may be stronger than an average guy, but there's no way that you can even lift up your scythe. Much less fight with it," Kai said. "That thing has to be, like, three times your size."

"Plus, you are much too young to be training with real weapons," Zane added. "You could hurt yourself."

"No I wouldn't!" Cole protested. "I'm not Lloyd when he was younger!"

"Hey!" Lloyd cried indignantly. "I wasn't that bad!"

"Yes you were," Jay, Kai, and Cole groaned in unison.

"That may be," Zane stated, trying to hide a smile. "But my point still stands. You are younger than Lloyd was back then and it would be unwise to let you train with a weapon."

"That's not fair!" Cole shouted, glaring at his older teammate.

"Zane's right, Cole," Kai said. "You're too young to train with us."

Cole threw his fork down on his plate. "This so unfair!" He exclaimed, quickly slipping out of his chair and stomping out of the room. "Just because I'm currently a kid doesn't mean that I can't be a ninja! I'm gonna take a walk in the woods until you guys stop being such jerks!"

"Cole, come back!" Kai cried out. He jumped out of his chair and tried to grab the annoyed black ninja. But Cole saw the grab coming and dodged it, taking off faster than most of them thought possible.

"Cole!" Kai exclaimed, chasing after his now-younger teammate, everyone else soon following.

Despite all of the ninja's efforts, Cole proved to be rather tricky to catch. Five minutes after the chase had started, they had lost sight of him.

~~~

Once Cole was certain that he wasn't being followed, he allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief. Admittedly, storming off like that was kind of childish, but Cole was still kind of upset that he wasn't allowed to train with his team just because he had been turned into a child.

"It's not fair," he muttered as he walked, absently kicking at a pinecone. "Just because I'm currently a kid doesn't mean that I am one. I'm still the leader, I'm still the second most mature person and...aaaaand I'm talking to myself."

Cole shook his head and sighed. He wasn't here to be thinking about the jerks that was his team. He was here to relax and take in the wonderful world that was a forest.

And, not that he would admit it, to blow off some steam before returning to the Bounty.

For the first few minutes, Cole simply just wandered through the forest, opening up all of his sense to the wilderness around him. He inhaled the fresh scent that came with being in the woods and listened to the chattering of critters in the trees and the singing of birds in the air. He already feel himself become calmer the longer he stayed in the forest.

Eventually, Cole spotted a nice tall oak tree that was practically begging to be climbed. Feeling that little giddy feeling that he always got whenever he saw a perfect climbing tree, Cole jogged over to the tree. However, he was very dismayed when he discovered that most of the branches were way too high up for him to grab. He couldn't reach even the lowest branch, not even when he jumped with all of his might. A quick look around and Cole saw that most of the trees in the forest were similar--their branches were too high up for him.

Cole's face fell with disappointment as he realized this, then scrunched up in anger. "This isn't FAIR!" he cried out, kicking at the tree he was trying to climb. He howled when his big toe throbbed with pain and he hopped up and down until the pain faded. The ninja-turned-kid sat down hard and pulled his knees close to his chest, burying his face in his lap.

"This isn't fair..." he whimpered, trying to stop the tears gathered in his eyes from falling. He mostly succeeded, but a few stray tears still made their way down his cheeks.

Cole stood up and slowly started walking, no longer finding comfort in the nature that surrounded him.

He wandered aimlessly for a good fifteen minutes, lost in his somber thoughts, only to be startled out of his funk when his foot slipped out from under him and he ended up falling.

Cole tumbled down a small hill and came to a rest near the banks of a creek, his left foot actually dipping into the cold waters of the brook before Cole pulled it out.

Cole groaned as he stood up, wincing when he noticed that most of his ninja suit was now covered in dirt and mud. He could even feel it on his face and in his hair. As if my misery wasn't already bad enough, he thought, kicking at a rock.

The rock skipped off of the waters of the creek once before sinking.

Somewhat impressed, Cole bent down and searched the bank for another rock. He found one that was almost as big as his hand and really flat. Tossing it in his hand for a second, Cole drew his arm back before whipping it forward. The stone flew out of his hand and skipped three times before it lost momentum and sank underneath the water.

Cole felt a smile tug at his lips. It wasn't climbing a tree, but it was still fun.

The young black ninja dropped to his knees, not caring that his pants were getting more mud on them. He needed more rocks to skip.

----

Author's Note: Meant to post this last night, but got distracted. *sweatdrops* Whoops. 

Hmmm, I wonder what will happen next???