A Winter Without Ice

Chapter Twelve: Twins

     "Why do I have to do this?" Luke asks.

     "Because, fool," Overlord replies, "I must kill the rest of the ninja and you're the only one who can do that!"

     "Not on my watch," Luke says. "Remember, I still control the body."

     "Yes, Luke. I know," says Overlord.

     "And..." Austin wiggles his way out of the ropes. "Yes! I'm free!" He quickly runs for the door and escapes the place where he was being held prisoner. "I'm coming, Kayla."

     "Come on guys! You're so slow!" Kai says as he runs ahead.

     "Kai," Lloyd says, "Slow down. Please."

     "Come on! Hurry up!" Kai says. "We have to save Austin and Luke!"

     "Wait, Kai," Cole says as something flies past them.

     "What was that?" Jay asks as it whizzes passed again.

     "It looks like..." Kai squints his eyes at the red flash in front of them. "Me...?"

     "Kayla," Cole nudges her arm.

     Kayla nods and hops into a tree. She knew her brother was telling her to use her speed to strike this strange person down. Once the person in red was in sight, Kayla pounced on the stranger like a lioness who struck their prey.

     "Let me go!" a female voice screams. The stranger turned out to be a girl wearing a red kimono and a red bandanna. Kayla nods toward Cole, who picks up the girl and pins her to a tree.

     "Do you mind telling us what your name is, little girl?" he asks as he unmasks her.

     Under her mask, a pair of reddish eyes with a scar over one eye glanced at all of them. "The name is Kylie," she says. Her hair was a dark brown and messy. She looked to be about Kai's age. 

     Another stranger ran up to them. He unmasked himself. He was younger than Kylie, but looked a lot like her. He had short, black hair and reddish eyes too. "Kylie, I-" he cuts himself off when he realizes who has Kylie and the ninja look at him.

     "Yan! A little help here?" Kylie struggled out of Cole's grip and ran to the younger boy.

     "Wait, wait..." Kai says, "Yan and Kylie... I swear I've heard those names before..."

     "Kylie," Yan whispers, "what were you thinking?! These are the ninja!"

     Austin traveled through the snow, trying to find the others. He finally comes across their house and runs inside. He walks in to find Wu and Garmadon debating on what we should do. As he walked in, the brothers completely ignored Austin. Misako ran to Austin with relief.

     "Oh, my dear!" Misako exclaims. "You're back! I must alert the others straight away!"

     "Misako!" Austin says as the brothers continued to argue. "Where are the others anyways?"

     "They've gone out looking for you and Luke," Alexis walks out of the girls' room.

     Nya walked out behind her. "They saw the falcon!" she exclaims.

     Wu and Garmadon turn tothe rest of them.

     Misako wraps Austin in a rabbit skin blanket and hands him some tea. "Thanks you," he says. He takes a sip of tea. "They did? And they went where it told them?"

     "That's what I saw," Nya said. "I hope they can find Luke okay."