Carrying his suitcase, a dark-haired man with a neatly trimmed mustache walked across the rural road to the gate of a small farm. An older woman in overalls and a straw hat was using a hoe to break up soil.

“Excuse me,” the man said. “I was wondering if you’d seen my son, Cole? Bushy eyebrows, great head of hair?”

“Yup,” the woman drawled. “He’s over yonder, tryin’ to get Henry to plow the big field.”

She turned and pointed past the rice paddies that ran along the side of the farm to the large field behind the farmhouse. The man could see Cole straining to coax a fat yak into pulling a metal plow.

“You got yourself a good boy,” the woman said. “But we ain’t sure who’s more stubborn, Cole or Henry.”

The man smiled. “That sounds like Cole.”

As she walked the man over, she noticed his suitcase was covered with stickers bearing city names. “You one o’ them travelin’ performers?”

“Yes,” he replied, smiling proudly. “I’m part of a song-and-dance group called the Royal Blacksmiths. You may have heard of us; we’ve won the Blade Cup several times.”

“Nope, never heard of ya,” she answered. “We don’t have time for performers out here…. Crops don’t take a night off, so we don’t, either. My name’s Sally-Bob, by the way.”

“I’m Lou. Pleased to meet you,” the man said.

As they drew closer, Lou watched Cole plant his hands on the yak’s rear end and push as hard as he could, his feet slipping in mud. Henry seemed happy where he was. Lou also saw that Cole had a bandage around his head and bruises on his arms—like he’d been in a fight. But Lou didn’t know how that would be possible. Since losing his power as Master of Earth in the battle against the Crystal King, Cole hadn’t been in any fights that Lou knew of.

Cole’s feet finally slid out from under him completely, and he plopped face-first into the mud. Henry grunted.

“Looking good, son,” Lou said cheerily.

Cole looked up, wiping mud from his eyes, and broke into a huge smile. “Dad!” he cried, leaping up to hug his father and getting mud all over Lou’s suit. “How did you find me?”

Lou squeezed his son back. “You wrote Master Wu a letter, remember?” Lou said. “To tell him where you’d be in case he ever needed you. It’s been a while since we last saw each other, so I took a break between tour stops to come and see if you’re all right. Losing your powers as the Master of Earth can’t have been easy.”

Sally-Bob turned to amble back to her field. “I’ll leave you two to your huggin’,” she said. “Crops don’t hug, and neither do we. You’re welcome to stay in our barn with your boy as long as you like,” she told Lou.

“Thank you,” Lou called back, waving. Then he noticed the mud all over his suit. He chuckled and started to wipe it off.

“Sorry about that,” Cole muttered. “It’s great to see you, Dad. But I’m fine. After I left the Monastery, I was pretty down, wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life. All of my friends had moved on. I was just wandering…. I didn’t feel…anchored to anything. Then I found this farm. And I thought, ‘Master of Earth, farming the land…’ It sorta made sense, so I thought I’d give it a try, and see what not fighting all the time would be like. But enough about that. Come on, let’s get you settled. Henry, you take a break.”

The yak grunted again. Cole took his father’s suitcase and led him past some small houses and toward a large barn. “And I kinda like it here. The people have treated me great, like one of their own,” he said. He waved at a farmer walking in the other direction, carrying a sack of seeds. “Hi, Bob-Bob! Heading out to plant that north field?”

The man smiled and nodded, continuing on, and when he was past, Cole saw that his father was confused. “That’s Bob-Bob,” he explained to Lou. “He’s Sally-Bob’s brother. That’s one of the best things about this place—only some of the farmers are related to each other, but they all treat each other like one big family. And they’re super peaceful. I think they worship the land.”

Lou gently touched one of the bruises on Cole’s arm. “Looks like peaceful farming can get pretty dangerous,” he said.

“Oh, that,” Cole replied with a frown. “Sally-Bob’s bunch has been having trouble with her neighbor, Takanagi. He’s a big-time farmer who owns all the land around Sally-Bob’s, and Sally-Bob won’t sell. Takanagi wants all the land, though, so he sends his thugs over here every so often to try to ‘convince’ her.”

“And you’ve been defending the land for the farmers,” Lou guessed.

“Trying to, at least. I promised Mom I’d always stand up for others, and that means whether I have powers or not.” He sighed. “I thought being here would be a simpler life, one where I didn’t need to be a ninja. So far, that hasn’t happened, but I think it will work out somehow eventually.”

Lou nodded. Then he looked at Cole closely. “I know you say you like it here, but do you feel—what was the word you used?—‘anchored’ here? Maybe ‘grounded’ is a better term. Like this place and these people give you a sense of balance in your life?”

Cole shrugged. “I don’t know. I feel like something’s been missing since I lost my powers, and working here makes it not so bad. At least, I don’t think about it as much.” Lou could hear the uncertainty in Cole’s voice. He knew not feeling so bad wasn’t the same as being grounded.

As they continued into the barn, Lou looked around. A farm was hardly the place he expected to find Cole. But if this was where his son really felt he should be, then so be it.