For anyone who cares, my posting schedule will be highly irregular for a while until I figure things out. I don't know whether it'll make the mods' jobs easier or harder, but thank you all for letting my stuff through to this point.
Stealth and secrecy were the most important elements the ninja had to keep in mind the next morning. While Kenzo and his family went about their daily business, so as to not draw any unwanted attention from the Moon Tribe patrol cats, the group of teenagers spent the majority of their day quietly in the house, namely the stuffy attic. Once Shiro had gone to work in the mines and Suki and her children had gone to work in the fields, Lloyd assigned himself to scout out the quarry, after attaining a map from Shiro. “We need to know just how many warrior cats are out there, what the mines and warehouses look like and where they’re located, and how the warrior cats work,” Lloyd had announced that morning, once everyone had awaken and eaten. “Before we make a plan of getting in there and attacking, we need to know what exactly we’re getting into.” Jay wasn’t very pleased with the prospect of having to lie around the house all day being still and quiet. “Why can’t we just wing it?” he protested. “Just drop in, kick butt, save the slaves, ta-da! Mission accomplished!” “The last time we winged it—” Lloyd stuttered, “winged it— wing it— the last time we winged?” “‘Wung’ it?” Jay offered. Cole groaned impatiently. “Gah—‘the last time we did that’.” “The last time we did that,” Lloyd said, “it was when we were trying to recuse Little Leaf from Dog Bone. We all remember how that ended.” Everyone grimaced. Cole briefly touched his fingers to his face. Little Leaf blushed and stared at the floor. For the sake of secrecy, Lloyd decreed he would be the only one going to scout out the area. This was immediately met with protests, and it was soon decided that Zane would join him—he was the most insistent about coming with Lloyd to see the quarry. Although everyone was thinking the same thing, nobody said a word about his uncharacteristic persistence in being involved in this mission as much as possible—not in front of him, anyway.
It was still damp and cool outside when Zane and Lloyd slipped out of the cottage. Donning their face-masks and nodding to each other, Lloyd led the way—having Shiro’s map—to the quarry. Treading quickly and quietly, they kept to the line of trees that circled one area of the town. It was mostly open plains from then on, but thankfully, very few patrol cats were out, and the farmers laboring in their fields paid the ninja no mind—or, perhaps, Suki had spread the word and everyone was helping the ninja keep a low profile. Lloyd and Zane made their way out of the village and headed north, over a range of rocky hills. The dark, dismal little town of Oxstone soon disappeared. The sky overhead matched its empty grayness. The dry dust and rocks of the surrounding hills completed the forbidding look. The air was chilly, and Zane caught Lloyd shivering and rubbing his arms whenever they slowed their light run. The journey from the village to the quarry took about fifteen minutes at a jog, although it took less than that time before Zane started to detect the smell of smoke. Not crisp, wood-fire-smoke—this one was a more dank, oily stink to it. Then he could see on the horizon a thick, dark plume rising steadily into the sky. A few minutes later, he started to hear the sounds: the clang of metal. The grinding of wheels and machinery. The harsh voices of men. The two ninja crept with every shadow. Boulders sticking up here and there on the hillside provided ample cover as they neared the source of the noise. Stepping lightly—making sure not to send any loose pebbles rolling—they peered over the rise of a steep hill. Zane caught his breath.
A large quarry sprawled out before them. To the northwest of where Lloyd and Zane were hiding, they could see a large tunnel that had been blasted into a naked gray mountainside. Scores of men in ragged, dust-stained overalls trudged to and fro this entrance of what appeared to be the clearstone mines. Many carted wheelbarrows in and out of the gaping hole; it was hard to see the cargo of these wheelbarrows from the southern side, but from what Zane could tell, they were many clumps of gray rock. If there were precious minerals among them, he couldn’t see. Some clumps were so large, they had to be carried out in a mule or ox-drawn cart. Others of these large carts delivered massive crates. Several large warehouses took up the west end of the massive quarry. Each one two to three stories high, they looked to be made of a funny jumble of wood and metal clashed together hastily. Large, dirty windows interrupted the pattern here and there. The biggest of these warehouses sat the closest to the quarry, and it was there the people went in and out, hauling minerals, carts, and tools. A couple of smaller shacks sitting close to it appeared to be storage sheds for equipment and for the animals. The other two warehouses, however, sat several hundred feet apart from the largest, and it was there Zane first noticed the patrols of lion-sized cats prowling around. “Moon Tribe warriors,” he hissed to Lloyd. Lloyd’s head shifted ever-so-slightly to the left, but he otherwise did not move. Zane scanned the scene. “At least a dozen of them, although I am sure there are more.” Lloyd peered at the smaller warehouses. A pair of nekomata were pacing idly by the large front doors. “It looks like they’re guarding something in those other warehouses. I wonder what it could be.” “Indeed…” Zane’s eyes narrowed as he scanned the buildings. He wondered what—or who—was being guarded within those doors. “Zane?” “Hm?” Zane shook his head and turned back to Lloyd. “Come on,” his friend was hissing, backing away. “Time to report back. I think I’ve got an idea.” Zane hesitated, then followed. He told himself he would be back soon.
It was amazing how quickly a room could stink of B.O. with five people hanging around in it since last night. Liana wrinkled her nose against the smell. She and the rest of the ninja had only slept here in the attic and been sitting around for a few hours this morning, but already it was feeling cramped and stuffy in here. For the time being, Liana stationed herself at one end of the room, where she had located a window. She’d carefully cracked it so that a small breeze could come in, and it was there she sat in the corner. To pass the time, she alternated between restyling her ponytail, practicing some exercises with her nunchucks, and playing with her necklace. She could hear Jay, Nya, and Little Leaf together at the other end of the room now, chattering on about that movie they’d watched—“Starfarers”, as she recalled. Somebody was walking toward her. Already identifying the set of heavy footsteps, Liana felt her heart give a nervous jump. “Hey, Cole.” “Hey.” He sat down beside her. She felt oddly happy that he’d chosen to sit with her. Hastily, she tucked the smooth crystal pendant of her necklace back into her shirt; she preferred to keep it safe from breaking in any combat. “So, ah…” She attempted to make some conversation. “When will Lloyd and Zane be back?” “Soon, hopefully,” he responded. “Right.” She nodded knowingly, feeling awkward. She and Cole hadn’t really spoken to one another since last night, when she’d held his hand. It’d felt perfect then, but looking back, she realized it was kind of weird and stupid of her. Sure, she’d just woken up from that strange Dark Sleep nightmare and had been scared, but still… “How’re you doing?” Cole’s voice jolted her out of her thoughts, and she felt herself blush. “What?” “How are you doing? After last night,” he repeated. “The nightmare…?” “Oh! Oh, oh, yeah, yeah…” She fiddled with her nunchucks again. “Um, yeah, I’m OK. It wasn’t as bad this time.” But Eagle Talon was in it, and he ended you, she wanted to add. Yet she held her tongue. Some horrors she should keep only to herself. Cole sounded skeptical. “You sounded really scared…”
“I’m fine now. I slept better after that.” Impulsively, she felt for his hand and laid her own upon it. “Thank you.” She felt him stiffen at the touch, but he didn’t pull away. “Oh— OK.” He fell quiet—had her ears been deceiving her, or had his last sentence sounded shy? A brief silence settled between them before Cole ventured, “So, how’s that sight bow been working for you?” From then on, Liana and Cole made idle conversation with one another that gradually felt more comfortable. Before she knew it, Liana found herself completely at ease as she talked with him on varying subjects; weapons, the uniforms, what training exercises they wanted to do once they this mission was over—and then, “normal people” subjects: how they grew up, what school was like for them, and even some funny stories from that period of their lives. Cole sounded relaxed, too, as he got used to talking. It helped that he made a few jokes that had her laughing out loud—earning demands from Nya, Jay, and Little Leaf as to know what was so funny. Secretly, Liana was afraid one or all of them would come over to join in the conversation. Yet, oddly, the others seemed to decide to leave her and Cole alone. Liana wondered if Nya hadn’t given some sort of sign to Jay and Leaf to not interfere. Thus she and Cole spent the few hours that passed like this: chatting amiably, occasionally laughing, and both secretly realizing how better their friendship might have been if they’d taken the chance to forgive and forget earlier. However, most long conversations have a habit of transitioning—one way or another—to a deeper or darker subject, and as it turned out, this one was no different. Finally Liana was able to summon the courage to ask Cole, “How are you doing with— with the Eagle Talon and Black Blood… thing?” He fell quiet. Liana’s mouth ran dry. Did I push too far? Immediately her stomach began to squirm with guilt. Too soon. It’d been too soon for her to remind him of that. Perhaps she could— “I’m OK, I guess,” he muttered in a low voice. “Getting over it.”
Even if a cat passed away in their human body, it would naturally revert to its feline form.
**** Talon collapsed at the foot of the grave, suddenly unable to find the strength to stand any longer. The invisible weight he could feel was becoming too much to bear. Weakly, he whispered to the body buried beneath the soil he lay upon. “Oh, Dove Stream…” His heart gave a sharp throb of pain as her name fell off his tongue. His voice trailed off for a second. Then he forced himself to continue, murmuring quietly into the darkness. “Dove Stream, help me. I can’t sleep. My dreams are nightmares. I feel I did the right thing, but I’m falling apart. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Maybe if I sleep here… I’ll just…”
Finally made some time for here after these past few busy weeks.
Now that she’d already brought his mind to it, she might as well commit. Swallowing, she asked, “What will you do if you see them again?” His voice sounded cold. “I’ll show them that they can’t push around a ninja.” “Even though they’re your—?” She stopped herself, but not in time. He hesitated. “It doesn’t matter how they’re related to me, Liana. They’re trying to hurt Ninjago; they’re the enemy. My real family is the team.” The sentence itself ended technically optimistically, but Liana was still disturbed by the icy note in his tone. “Cole… you don’t have to—” She was interrupted by the sound of a door opening and footsteps trotting in. Both Cole and Liana jumped to their feet, as did the others. She reached for her nunchucks, but Lloyd’s voice broke the tension: “It’s us, relax! We’re back.” “How’d it go?” Jay demanded. “What’d you see?” “We saw enough to form a plan on the way back,” Zane responded grimly. “I will send a report to Master Wu, then we will tell you. We are going to ambush the mines tonight, and we are going to save everyone in the village.”
* * *
Each day at noon the workers were allowed to take an hour-long break to return home for lunch, but they were expected to be back promptly within that hour. After today’s lunch break, Shiro returned to the quarry leading a mule hauling a cart. The nekomata sentries stopped him at the entranceway. “What’s that you’re hauling?” a burly tom demanded. He glared at the few large crates that were stacked atop one another in the cart. The mule snorted and sidestepped uneasily when the cats drew near. Shiro patted the animal reassuringly on the neck and shrugged to the guards. “Stuff for the new hose. We came across a clump of the shiny ore, but it’s all stuck together in a pretty big gravel deposit. We’re thinking we can use the hose to spray off the outer crusts and soften—” “Fox dung, all right!” the tom snorted, rolling his eyes. “I asked what was in the boxes, not a lecture on what it’s used for. Get on already.”
Shiro nodded meekly and tugged on the mule’s lead. The mule was only too happy to oblige, as its nervous gaze never left the enormous cats glaring at it. Not until they left the Moon Tribe warriors a few hundred yards behind them did the mule—and Shiro—relax.
* * *
They hit a hard bump. The crate shuddered, and Little Leaf barely stifled a startled mew. “Shh,” Zane patted her briefly on the head. “We are almost there.” Zane and Little Leaf were scrunched up together in one of the large crates Shiro was hauling into the quarry. Earlier the ninja had agreed that they should be the ones to infiltrate the quarry first because Little Leaf would know how the patrols and habits of the Moon Tribe warriors worked and because Zane often had the best tactical plans when found in a tight spot—and also because he insisted on being the one to go. At the moment, Zane was locked up in the darkness of the crate, being hauled across the quarry. Little Leaf was in her bakeneko form and sat in his lap. She had been eager earlier to join him, but now he wondered if she was having second thoughts. Her white and calico fur was bristling all over, and she dug her claws into Zane’s thighs whenever they hit a bump. To her credit, she stayed quiet, and they were able to get past the guards undetected. Finally, the cart stopped rolling. Little Leaf looked up at Zane questioningly, but he only shook his head and made a small “shush” motion. A few minutes passed, in which he guessed Shiro was unhitching the mule and putting it elsewhere. Outside the crate they could hear the clamor of noise: the clash of metal against stone, wheels, boulders, and pulleys creaking, and men grunting and occasionally barking orders to one another. Every once in a while a mule would bray or a nekomata would growl. Heat pressed in on Zane within the stuffy crate. He was sure if he had been in his original nindroid body, he would have been sweating figurative buckets.
Both he and Little Leaf jumped when Shiro’s voice suddenly came by Zane’s head. “Stay put ‘till I come get you.” They could hear him shuffling uneasily outside the crate. “It’ll be dark soon. Just sit tight.” They heard his footsteps retreat, and they were left alone.
* * *
“I need to pee,” Little Leaf complained. Zane suppressed a sigh. By his calculation, it was the eighth time she had proclaimed that fact since Shiro had left, which was two hours and fifteen minutes ago. He was a naturally patient person, but being cramped up in the box for a couple of hours with a hairy cat who refused to sit still nor stop complaining wasn’t making it easy. By this time, the daylight had just about completely faded. “Please remain quiet, Little Leaf,” he hissed. “It should not be long now.” “But I really need to go!” She fidgeted again; this time weaving herself back and forth between Zane’s legs. It wasn’t the first time she had done it, and now a plentiful serving of white, ginger, and black hairs coated his pants. He set his mouth in a straight line and proceeded to ignore her. He stiffened, however, when the silence of the evening—now that most of the workers had gone—was broken by the sound of footsteps upon gravel. They were nearing the crate. Zane leaned over and jabbed at Leaf’s shoulder with his hand. She whirled around at him incredulously, but fell quiet when he motioned for her to be quiet and gestured his thumb behind him, signaling that he could hear something outside. The calico crouched down. In the darkness, Zane could just barely see the outline of her feline shape sitting between his legs. The footsteps stopped right by Zane’s head. He held his breath and fingered the pair of shurikens that were attached to his belt. If that was an enemy, they were in for a big surprise. He silently willed Little Leaf to stay still and silent. Something rustled above their heads. A noisy creak broke the silence. Little Leaf voiced a startled hiss and crawled beneath Zane’s arm when the lid was removed. Dim lamplight poured in, and Zane blinked several times, adjusting to the light.
“Shh.” Shiro gestured to them. “Come on.” Zane felt the metal joints of his legs ache in protest when he stood up; they’d been half-folded for so long they were now stiff and sore. He shook off the feeling and clambered out of the crate, hefting Little Leaf in his arms. Once on the ground, he put her down. “Put these on.” Shiro thrusted some gray, dusty clothes into Zane’s grasp. “It’s not much of a disguise, but at least if you’re seen, you could be mistaken for one of us miners.” Quickly, Zane slipped a long-sleeved shirt and gray overalls over his gi and slapped a dark cap over his head. “I’ll tell the others that you got through safely.” The older man slapped Zane’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. “Good luck.” “Thank you,” Zane said. Shiro nodded and turned away, quickly disappearing into the dark shadows of the evening. Zane knew he was on his way back to his house, where his family and the rest of the ninja team waited. “Ready?” He looked down at Little Leaf. Her forked tails twitched back and forth nervously. “I think so.” Slowly, silently, Zane and Little Leaf made their away across the quarry; they used objects to hide behind in case anybody from the warehouse was watching them. From the open area where the paths led into the mines, they crept from shadow to shadow, stepping carefully. Little Leaf was little more than a white-and-dark-patched shape drifting with Zane. Frequently she’d stop and sniff the air, then gesture with her tails that the way was clear. The minutes passed by slowly, but they were drawing closer and closer to the warehouses—and that was their destination. Many workers had stayed behind to pull the night shift. The musty windows of the warehouses were illuminated with a forbidding red glow, as if something within were on fire. However, there were no sounds of alarm, merely the grumble and groan of machines and the occasional harsh voice that those outside could only attribute to an irascible Moon Tribe member. People were still working within, Zane detected.
At one point, Little Leaf abruptly darted away. Zane stiffened and whipped his gaze around his surroundings, but he couldn’t see what she’d run from. When he turned back to the cat, she was a hundred feet away in a small open shed, crawling around in a pile of ashes. “Little Leaf!” he hissed. “What are you doing?” Now coated in a thin layer of dark gray soot, she padded back to him. “I’m hoping this will hide my scent. The warriors might get suspicious if they smell another cat nearby.” “Do I need to hide my scent?” he asked. She shook her head. “You just smell like metal. You fit right in.” They drew closer to the warehouses. They stopped beneath the shadow of another shed, this one with a water trough. About two hundred feet of open dirt sat between them and the large doors to the largest warehouse. The sides of the massive building were cast in ink-black shadows, and the rocky hills in the background added to the darkness. Quietly, Zane adjusted his vision settings. There. If he’d been a human, he wouldn’t have seen them. Two large, muscular nekomata stood by the doors, where the night shadows were at their thickest point. One was ginger, the other was sand-colored. They sat up, awake and alert. Slowly Zane drew back behind the shed. “All right, I believe I have a plan. Little Leaf, you will have to sneak as quietly as possible past those bushes to come around on the werecats on their right. You will walk up and pretend to be a fellow guard, coming to relieve them of their shift. While you distract them, I will make my way to their left side and ambush them. If I am swift enough, we can both—” Little Leaf interrupted his strategizing by picking up a rock and throwing it. It clattered several hundred feet away against metal, and glass could be heard shattering. The nekomata guards at the doors leapt to their paws and raced away toward the sound. Their retreating growls quickly faded away as they disappeared. Leaf looked up at Zane and grinned. “Or, we could do that,” he acceded.
They wasted no time in running to the doors. Without looking back, Zane shoved one of them open and entered. Little Leaf was close on his heels, and he quietly shut the door behind him. Then he turned around. The warehouse looked even more enormous from the inside—not to mention, more menacing. The dark ceiling rose high above their heads like a yawning mouth of a giant. Fire hissed and glowed from differing areas of the single-room building. Black, spindly catwalks made up the upper levels, often crisscrossing several hundred feet above the ground. Dark, looming shapes of machines, boilers, grinders, forges, and who knows what else crowded the ground floor. The fires gleamed off of these metal figures, shimmering like something from a fiery nightmare. Steam and smoke alike hissed and belched from some machines and drifted up to the ceiling. Zane could just barely make out several large skylights standing out from the slanted ceiling. Dozens of sweating, soot-stained workers bustled about in their grimy overalls as they tended to the contraptions. Some were purifying clearstone from dusty rocks with picks while others polished the extracted stones and collected them in large baskets. At the far end of the room, somethings that resembled iron bowls the size of cars held glowing pools of melted clearstone; beneath these melting pots large fires blazed loudly, constantly keeping the liquid minerals boiling. Some people were in the middle of tipping one of these pots over to drip the liquids into cases that had shapes resembling sword blades. Many more were doing work Zane didn’t have time analyze. The clash of metal, roar of fire, groan of engines and hiss of steam nearly overwhelmed him. His gaze drifted up to the ceiling-hung catwalks that arched above the workers’ heads; there he could catch sight of feline figures pacing idly through the screen of smoke. Sometimes a cat would peer down at what the workers were doing, as if ensuring they weren’t up to anything they weren’t supposed to. Then it would flick its tails and move on. Every once in a while, the glow of their eyes flashed against the darkness.
“How are we supposed to get the rest of the ninja in here?” Little Leaf muttered. “Lloyd wanted us to find a way to let them in from the inside, but I don’t really see a way…” Zane peered through the dim light and scanned his surroundings. After a minute, he spotted something. “There. At the far end of the right wall.” He gestured. “I believe I see a small door. It is set apart from the rest of the workers a bit, so perhaps we can let the ninja in from there.” “I can’t see it,” she complained. “Follow me,” he ordered. “If we can get past the guards, I am sure we can make it to that door without any trouble. Just try not to be seen.” If she tried to protest, he didn’t hear it. He deftly slipped into the scattered throng of machines and workbenches where the people slaved. His disguise provided ample camouflage among the workers, and Little Leaf slipped easily among the shadows. Together they passed by the smoking machines and hissing forges. Zane pulled his cap down to somewhat shield his metallic face. A few of the workers glanced at him when he walked past them, but no one seemed to take any real notice. Thankfully it was rather dark and hard to see in the warehouse. As they neared the small side door that Zane could just barely make out several hundred yards away, he realized that within the right wall, what appeared to be a large hangar had been built hastily within the interior of the warehouse. He couldn’t see what was inside, only that a large room was opening up to the side. Deciding it could be worth checking out, he neared it. He drew closer—a little more cautious now, since he was leaving the safe bustle of the workers among the machinery. A quick glance upward told him that none of the feline guards seemed to be paying any attention to him from the ceiling-hung catwalks. He picked up the pace until he stood before the entrance of the hangar. He scanned his surroundings again in case he was being watched, then looked into the room. He gasped.
![[uni]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/mPKcREJAtrpeAXSOgaOH.png)
![[derp]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/YqNTPqyQUocVMYXZgUAI.png)
You've got my attention.