The Fire Within a Ninjago Soldier

Chapter 17 - Reconnaissance Near Jamanakai Village

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

At the beginning of the chapter below, Kai's dream is a composite of flashbacks to Chapters 39 and 25 of The Fire Within a Ninjago Cowboy...

Chapter 17 - Reconnaissance Near Jamanakai Village
(This chapter takes place two days before Chapters 15 & 16)

"Kiss me, cowboy!" Sam just said to me. She looks so beautiful in the light of the setting sun.

I gladly obey her command. Her strawberry scent makes me feel so drunk with love. What good thing did I do to deserve her acceptance of my marriage proposal just now? I want to stand here forever on Sunset Point, holding her in my arms and tasting her sweet kisses.

Wait...Now I'm sitting on the ground in the desert and she's sitting on Morro's horse, in the clutches of that scoundrel. Let her go, you dirty varmint!

"How can you just leave him here to die?" she cries out to Morro. She's struggling hard to escape his grip but she can't.

"Oh, I forgot one thing," Morro says. He points his gun at me and pulls the trigger. I hear the sound of the gun go off.

"Kai!" Sam screams.

Kai, sitting in the saddle of his horse Flame, had once again finished replaying last night's dream in his head. He was currently part of a group of a dozen cavalrymen from Company C who were riding through the woods on a reconnaissance mission, being led by one of the two lieutenants of their company, Benjamin Pierce.

Kai frequently dreamed about the day he asked Sam to marry him. It was one of the happiest days of his life. But last night there had been a new ending to the dream - the time Morro left him stranded in the desert to die. That day was one of the worst in his life.

The cowboy shook his head to clear his mind and focus on the mission. It was their first mission since the Yellow Army had advanced and made camp at a point about ten miles away from Jamanakai Village. The reconnaissance group was approaching the small hamlet to discover information about the Purple Army which would be valuable to the Yellows, such as the number of enemy troops, or evidence that their troops would soon be on the move.

The dozen Yellows were not riding all together. Six of them - Lieutenant Pierce, Jay, Robinson Murphy of the Double S Ranch, and three men from Hibiscus Falls - were in the lead subgroup. They were about a quarter mile ahead of Zane, Kai, Cole, Rusty McKanna and Michael Donlan of the Double S Ranch, and the bank teller, Rowan Birk.

While the rest of Zane's subgroup were given the rank of Private when they enlisted, Zane was given the higher rank of Corporal. Captain Noonan had wanted a Garmadon Ranch man to hold one of the eight Corporal positions in the Company, in recognition of the sacrifice his friend Mr. Wu was making by supporting the decision of all his ranch hands to join the Yellow Army.

They had been riding a while, so when the trees around them seemed to be less densely packed together, they knew they were approaching the edge of the woods.

Lieutenant Pierce rode back down the woodsy path to meet the six of them. "Corporal Falk, take your men to the edge of the woods about a quarter mile east of here," he told Zane. "Then hide yourselves about three yards apart from each other at the woods' edge. The rest of us will be about a half mile west of your position."

"Yes, sir," Zane replied as the lieutenant rode away.

The six Yellows guided their horses and situated themselves as the lieutenant ordered. From their somewhat high vantage point, they could look down into a small grassy valley, beyond which stood the village about two miles away. In the valley, about a mile and a half away from them, it appeared that a company of Purple cavalrymen was conducting training exercises.

Zane, who occupied a middle spot among the six men, looked through his binoculars.

"It appears they are practicing their lassoing."

Kai was located to the right of Zane. "Let me see!" he begged, nudging Flame over to Zane's horse, Shard. Zane removed the glasses from around his neck, where they had been hanging via a leather strap, and held them out to Kai. Kai grabbed them out of Zane's grasp and took a look.

He chuckled. "They're throwing like greenhorns! They're even worse than you, Michael!" he quietly exclaimed, teasing his comrade located on his right as he handed the binoculars over to him.

Michael Donlan of the Double S Ranch was actually a skilled roper. In the years that Kai had known Michael, they had developed a friendly rivalry over who was better skilled. Michael had taken second place during the recent competition won by Kai back at Camp Goldland.

Michael took a look through the glasses and chuckled. "That Purple just missed his target completely." As he handed the binoculars back to Kai, he joked, "Reminds me of you, Kai, on that night we were celebrating your birthday. Remember when we all tried roping your horse in front of the saloon after drinking that beer Morro imported? It was from that city in the United States, Keewaumil. That beer sure got us all moppy!"

With the exception of Rowan, the others had been present that night and so they laughed quietly at the memory. Kai handed the binoculars back to Zane, who rehung them around his neck.

"Um, pardners," Rowan spoke up, using a term he was not yet used to saying. "Look over there." He pointed in an easterly direction.

Their eyes traced the edge of the woods, which curved toward the village until it bent back again out of their sight and they could see no more of the woods. But coming toward them around this bend in the woods, along the woods' edge, were four Purple soldiers on horseback, accompanying a horse-driven wagon carrying four more soldiers and tree-chopping tools, but no trees. They were apparently setting out on their task to collect lumber and were searching for a good grove of trees.

The Purples were getting close enough so that the Yellows in the woods could hear the sound of their voices.

Corporal Zane Falk, being the ranking officer, had to contemplate his group's options if the tree cutters came much closer.

If his group were to overpower the tree cutters using gunfire, the company of soldiers in the distance would hear the noise and be alerted to the Yellow presence.

And they really didn't have the option of overpowering the enemy with manual force and take them as prisoners. The six Yellows could not fight eight purples, and procuring the help of the rest of their reconnaissance group would take too long.

A third option would be to stay hidden, but they risked being discovered if the trees of their hiding place were the ones selected by the enemy to chop down.

So the best option was to quietly retreat in the direction of the Lieutenant and the other Yellows.

Zane realized his comrades were watching him expectantly, waiting for his order.

Just then, however, the tree cutters stopped about a hundred yards away from the hidden Yellows. It appeared that they had found a grove of trees that was satisfactory to them, for they were climbing down off the wagon and the horses and taking the equipment off the wagon.

Zane quietly indicated to his comrades that for the moment, they would stay where they were and observe.