The Fire Within a Ninjago Soldier

Chapter 19 - Reconnaissance Aftermath

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

The chapter below is presented from a Purple point of view...

Chapter 19 - Reconnaissance Aftermath

A Purple captain by the name of Jacob Clouse led a group of a dozen men on horseback from his company in a search for one of his company's two lieutenants. Earlier that afternoon, the lieutenant had disappeared while on a mission to cut trees for the new stockade. The other men on the mission said that when they were getting ready to return from the woods, the missing officer had stayed behind, saying he was going to answer the call of Mother Nature, and then he would catch up with them on their way back to the village. It was now late in the afternoon, and the lieutenant had not returned.

The contingent of Purples had searched the immediate area of the woods where the tree chopping had occurred, but in the absence of any clues, they began to expand their search to the surrounding area.

Captain Clouse was not happy. He was very close to being promoted to the rank of Major, but the disappearance of one of his men - particularly if the disappearance was due to the soldier's desertion - would not please General Chen, in whose hands the fate of his promotion fell.

The ambitious handsome blond was already the youngest man to have attained the rank of captain in the Purple Army, but he wished to rise even higher, and he was willing to do whatever he needed to do to achieve his goals. He had even persuaded Skylor Chen, a Purple lieutenant who also happened to be General Chen's daughter, to accept his proposal of marriage, thus ingratiating himself with the high-ranking officer and the other top commanders. Clouse wasn't particularly in love with the girl, but it helped that she was pretty and would make a good hostess for officer parties.

"Captain! There appears to be dried blood on the ground!" The exclamation from one of his subordinates interrupted Captain Clouse's ruminations about what he was going to say to his future father-in-law regarding the missing lieutenant.

The officer guided his horse over to the indicated spot on the ground. After dismounting and examining the area, he agreed with the subordinate's assessment.

"Captain, I found something!" another subordinate called, riding up to the ranking officer while carrying two items. "This gun was lying over there," the sergeant said, pointing to an area a few yards away. "It's a Purple Army weapon. And this pair of binoculars was found nearby." The sergeant handed the metal object to the captain.

Captain Clouse examined the binoculars. The object appeared to be rather old. He looked through the glasses; there was a crack in one of the lenses. He looked at the writing on the attached leather tag.

Ninjago Town. A Yellow must have been here! the captain thought.

"Draw your weapons, men! Yellows were here and might still be around!" Captain Clouse commanded, swiftly mounting his steed after pocketing the two items just handed to him. A chorus of gun clicks immediately followed.

Upon the discovery of the Purple gun, the binoculars, and the blood spot on the ground, Captain Clouse quickly concluded that his lieutenant had been disarmed and had fallen into the hands of the Yellows, becoming badly injured in the process. "It appears our lieutenant has been taken prisoner by the Yellow Army. Retreat!" he ordered, waving his men to leave before he himself turned his horse to head back toward the village.

As the captain rode back to Jamanakai Village, he thought about how unhappy General Chen would be when he learned that one of Clouse's men was stupid enough to get caught by Yellows roaming in the area.

In order to get back in the general's good graces once again, Captain Clouse knew that when he himself came across a Yellow, he would have to take retaliatory actions.

Though the mystery of the Purple lieutenant's disappearance had been solved, another question quietly nagged at Clouse. A question about what else he had read on the attached leather tag of the binoculars.

Garmadon Ranch. Where have I seen that name before?