A fire's shadow

Two meetings

Shadow sat on the edge, one leg dangling over the ledge and the other close to his chest, his left arm rested on his left knee and his right hand was placed on the grass.

The sun was setting and the world was pretty quiet at this moment. Only some birds in the far distance could be heard as well as the ocean waves smashing against the rocks below him.

Staring at the sunset, Shadow smiled.

The last two months had been pretty good.

Kai and Lloyd had been spending more time together, Kai also spent more time with the others.

Cole and Jay had announced that they were dating, which led to a small party where Cole ate more than half the cake himself.

Shadow had been getting better at his drawing skills and he had also been spending a lot more time with Matt. They were practically best friends by this point.

But Shadow's nightmares and sudden bad feeling attacks had become more common, which was not good.

The ninja knew that whenever he got a bad feeling then either something was bothering him, or something really bad was going to happen.

He noticed that he usually got the bad feeling when he was around, Matt, Kai, or when he thought about Amy.

And yes, he still hadn't forgotten about her. He had since a few weeks back realized that he did indeed have a crush on her. It was the only explanation to why he was thinking of her as often as he did.

As the wind blew a gentle breeze through his hair, Shadow chuckled. 

Only a year ago, he would have never seen himself in the place he is now. Back then he had always pictured him as either dead or ruler of Ninjago, but none of them became true.

Now, he is a ninja. An accepted member of the ninja team, both by the other ninjas as well as by Ninjago. From what he had heard, he was the most popular ninja, which was something he never felt like he deserved, but never argued about.

It was nice to know he was appreciated, even though he didn't help people to be liked.

Feeling the presence of someone else behind him, Shadow smirked.

"I know you're there Matt." Shadow didn't take his eyes off the sunset.

A chuckle from behind him reached the ninja's ears followed by the voice of his friend, "You are too good at this. There no way anyone could sneak up on you."

Shadow turned his head to the right giving Matt a playful smile, "That's not true. It's just impossible for you to do it."

Matt smirked and sat down on the ground next to Shadow, "Is that a challenge?"

Shadow shrugged, "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, your choice."

Matt chuckled again, "It's nice to see you again, Shad."

The ninja smiled, "Same to you, Matt. So what have you been up to these past three days?"

The blue-themed male smirked and winked at Shadow, "That's a secret."

"So you're not gonna tell me, are you?"

"Nope."

"Well, fine. So, what do you wanna do tonight?"

Matt thought for a moment before speaking, "How about you show me where you live. I've been wanting to meet you brother, as well as the rest of your family."

Shadow's smile faded and he fell quiet.

"Shad?" Matt grew concerned at the sudden change of face with Shadow.

The ninja stood up and started walking away, which caused Matt to stand up too, "What's wrong?"

Shadow stopped, "I think I need to go home. I'm a bit tired."

Matt knew he was lying, Shadow was never tired in the evenings, if anything, he became even more filled with energy the later it got. So Matt knew, it was about what he said.

Shadow disappeared into the forest and Matt was left standing alone on the edge, confusion written all over his face.

Why did he get so quiet when he mentioned his family. From what Shadow had told Matt, he was at good terms with his family. So the problem was not his family itself.

Matt was the problem.

Shadow was hiding something from him.

With Shadow

The ninja walked through the forest, his thoughts going everywhere as the bad feeling faded away.

It had hit him like a buss as soon as Matt mentioned seeing where he lived. And Shadow knew why.

He didn't want Matt to know about him being a ninja, and if Shadow were to show Matt that he lived in a flying pirate ship then it wouldn't be so hard for Matt to figure out that Shadow was a ninja.

Shadow walked without direction and soon he ended up in a place that was both familiar and new to him.

It was the glade with the lake where he had been when he was in his coma.

It was just like then. No differences at all

Shadow sat down on the ground a few inches away from the water.

He sighed and started humming in order to calm himself down.

After a few minutes, he stopped.

"That was beautiful." A sweet voice said.

Shadow flinched and quickly turned his head around, curious as to who had spoken.

The person who had spoken was a teenage girl. She had long wavy golden brown hair and blue-grey eyes. She was wearing a short white off-shoulder dress with a white ribbon wrapped around it where the top piece and the bottom piece connected. She was also wearing a pair of white ballerina shoes with white flowers on the front. On her head was a flower crown with white and light pink flowers. And around her neck hung a silver necklace with a heart locket that had a white jewel on the front.

Shadow recognized the girl immediately.

It was Amy.