The Fire Within a Ninjago Soldier

Chapter 21 - Unorthodox Idea

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

In the chapter below, several references to events from my first fanfic The Fire Within a Ninjago Cowboy appear. The original accounts are in Chapters 10, 23, 27, 30, and 34.

As the chapter below opens, the focus switches back to Garmadon Ranch. When we last left the ladies at the end of Chapter 16, the current day was June 24th. Chapters 17-20, the war action, occurred on June 22nd, a sort of a flashback to two days earlier. Now we are back to June 24th, just a few hours after the end of Chapter 16. The ladies are about to discover what happened with the cowboys...

Chapter 21 - Unorthodox Idea

Mr. Wu returned at suppertime, just like he said he would.

He and the four ladies of Garmadon Ranch sat at the dining room table for the evening meal. The atmosphere remained subdued after the delivery of the ominous letters from the cowboys.

One positive aspect of the gathering was that Brooke felt less nauseous than she did earlier in the day, and thus she had joined the group, though she didn't eat much.

The subdued atmosphere of the gathering, however, turned even more somber when Mr. Wu read to them the telegram he had picked up from town earlier in the day, along with the letters. The message, sent by his friend Captain Noonan of Company C of the 5th Ninjago Cavalry, informed him that Zane had been severely injured from the strike of an enemy's sword to his face while on a reconnaissance mission, and he would need to be transported to Sasnak City for further treatment.

The Captain concluded the telegram by commending the actions of Cole in swiftly seeking help for Zane, as well as the efforts of Kai and Jay in apprehending the enemy assailant.

A pall settled over the dining room table, with the nearly finished supper forgotten as the ladies dabbed their eyes with their kerchiefs after Mr. Wu had finished reading the telegram. They were horrified at the atrocity committed against their friend.

"Poor lad," Miss Gayle murmured, shaking her head sorrowfully at the plight of the platinum-haired cowboy.

"I'm sorry for not bringing this to the attention of you ladies earlier," the ranch owner apologized as he slowly folded the paper and placed it back in his vest pocket. "I didn't want to interfere with your joy of reading the letters from the boys. And...I reckon I needed a little time to absorb the bad news myself."

So that's why he skedaddled after delivering the mail, Sam realized.

"Well, as it turned out, there wasn't a whole lot of joy from their letters anyway," Nya pointed out, referring to the fact that each cowboy's missive to his wife discussed the topic of his possible death in battle.

"So I heard. Miss Gayle told me," Mr. Wu commented, stroking his beard. He sighed. "I'm planning to travel to see Zane. Not sure yet where I'll be going, whether it would be down south to the military camp or straight to Sasnak City. Depends on what I hear from Noonan tomorrow about Zane's condition."

He continued. "I'm also not sure yet exactly what day I'll be going. Depends on whether Lloyd can spare some time from his sheriff duties to tend the cattle while I'm gone. Bo won't be able to do it all by himself," he added, speaking of his gardener who had assumed cow herding duties when the four cowboys departed for the war.

"Seems like all the able bodied young men in the county are either in the war or taking the duties of someone in the war," he lamented. "If I could just hire an additional person, that would make running the ranch a mite easier."