Anybody feel like some maple syrup?
I felt like writing something sweet and sappy for poor Ghostie-Cole's sake. And for Ronin too. Hope you enjoy!
"Keep it down!" hissed Jay, giving Zane a light shove. "You're clanking like a string full of tin cans."
"What do you expect, he's made of titanium!" Kai hissed back through the darkness. "And you're making more noise than him yourself."
"Both of you, shhhhh," warned Zane softly. "We do not know how keen our opponents' senses are."
Cautiously the three of them snuck a peek over the rock they were hiding behind. They seemed to have attracted no attention; the four figures were still hunched around an eerie green fire, one of them cast into shadow, three of them glowing a similar green. Morro and his ghost generals.
"Don't get ideas, Kai!" Jay noticed the distant look in the fire ninja's eyes and yanked him back down into hiding. "You know there's nothing we can do about saving Lloyd right now."
"But we're right here," said Kai bitterly. "We could at least try."
"We are trying," retorted Jay. "All the time. We're gonna save him soon. But right now? Come on, what would you even do? Wave a magic wand at him?"
"I know, I know." Kai rolled his eyes, sighing. "Let's just get it and get out."
"They are starting another patrol!" warned Zane, who had been monitoring the campfire situation all this time. "It's Bansha."
"Rats!" muttered Jay. "Quick, take cover!"
They burrowed under the camouflage cover they had hastily fashioned out of an old blanket and some leaf litter, holding their breaths. Silence hung heavy around them. Peeking through a narrow gap between the blanket and the ground, they saw the forest floor nearby gilded with phosphorescent green. Sharp pure-black shadows shifted through it as Bansha floated slowly by, making a broad circle around Morro's camp, her empty eyes scanning for intruders.
At last the green light faded away. Bansha completed the patrol sweep and returned to the cheerless light of the campfire. The three ninja let out a collective breath and climbed out from underneath the cover, resuming their surveillance.
"I really hope it's not Ghoultar next time," groaned Jay. "This is killing me."
Twenty minutes later, to their relief, it was Soul Archer who drifted away from the fire to perform the next patrol. Abandoning their camouflage cloak, they scurried slightly away from the campsite and took up their positions.
Soul Archer drifted closer, gliding among the trees with a cool, stern demeanor and one hand responsibly on his bow. He was as close as he was going to get . . . Jay, from his hiding spot behind a tree, took a deep breath and threw a rock.
It bounced off a tree trunk with a clatter. Soul Archer turned towards the sound, his transparant features hardening. From a different hiding spot nearby, Zane made a quick dash from tree to tree, deliberately stepping on a twig.
Soul Archer readied his bow. Fitting an arrow to the string, he drifted cautiously towards the hidden ninjas, listening and watching for another hint of movement. Kai, farthest away, slapped a treetrunk lightly with the back of his hand.
With only a moment's glance back towards the camp, Soul Archer glided farther into the woods. The ninja baited him carefully along, struggling to balance their approach so that they kept their quarry plenty suspicious without giving him cause to actually call the others. Or, you know, means of actually finding them.
After a long, tense, slo-mo cat-and-mouse game, they finally judged they were out of earshot of the camp. Kai exploded out from behind a tree.
"Hey! Over here!"
The reaction was instantaneous. He didn't even have time to wave his arms before he had to hurl himself out of the path of an arrow. The ghostly Skreemer-tipped shaft thwacked into the forest floor right by his foot, tinging a patch of leaf litter translucent green.
"Missed me!" sang Kai mockingly, backflipping off a tree trunk and vanishing into the bushes. Soul Archer plunged after him, already fitting another arrow to his bow. Kai ran for dear life. As he dodged from tree to tree, Jay and Zane stealthily kept pace with him and his ghostly pursuer. Arrow after arrow screeched perilously close to Kai's body, and Jay and Zane were never far away. Soon trees, patches of the ground, and even an unfortunate squirrel were all turned to ghostly mint-green, and still Kai kept up the chase and Jay and Zane stayed close but hidden.
"He aims too well!" hissed Jay, chagrined. "We'll never get one!"
"I'm doing what I can!" Kai had stopped to slump against a (non-ghost) tree for a second, panting, and had apparently heard the complaint. "Keep quiet, he can't know there's three of—yaghh!"
He threw himself headlong, tumbling head-over-heels just in time.
"Come on, that was pathetic. Running out of arrows or something?" he jeered to the ghostly hunter. "Getting tired?"
"Concentrate on breathing," rumbled Soul Archer, notching another arrow and pulling the bowstring taut. "You will not be doing it for much longer."
"Oooh, that's—" Kai leaped out of the way again. He came up hard against a tree, grunting in pain as his chin cracked against the rough bark. Looking a tad woozily over his shoulder, he glimpsed Soul Archer fitting another arrow to his bow, aiming it almost point-blank at the ninja's heart. Oh crud . . .
Kai's gaze flitted around frantically. At just the right second it flew upwards, and he spotted a tangle of ivy growing up the tree he'd just hit. A grin spread across his face.
Twang! Soul Archer's arrow screamed the tiny distance between the bow and its target.
Thwack! Kai sprang straight upwards, and the arrow embedded itself in the tree trunk below him.
"You really need to work on your aim," the fire ninja called down, clinging to the streamers of ivy. Soul Archer was starting to lose patience now; he deftly fitted a whole array of five arrows into his bow simultaneously. Meanwhile Kai yanked an entire strand of the ivy loose, braced his feet against the tree trunk, and swung, whooping as the "vine" creaked dangerously under his weight.
Soul Archer's five arrows sprang from the bow. By some miracle, none of them hit Kai on his uncontrolled swinging arc; one of them, however, flew straight for where Jay was hiding.
Jay was ready. With a stifled whoop, he lunged for the arrow even as it flew and slammed a mass of fabric down atop it. Tumbling with the force of his charge, he caught himself at last and felt hastily at the cloth bundle he still clutched. A squirming, screaming form was trapped within it.
"I've got one! I've got one!" he yelped to Zane, forgetting to keep his voice down. Luckily Soul Archer was too busy with Kai to catch his cry. Zane nodded eagerly, summoned his falcon, and tossed the metallic bird up off his wrist. It flew into the treetops, shrilling the sharp kee-kee! call of a startled bird of prey.
Back at the site of the chase, Kai heard the signal and stopped. His head swiveled around, his eyes searched distractedly for the bird, just for a second—
—And one of Soul Archer's arrows caught him in the chest.
Kai yelped, the force of the shaft driving him to the ground. He twitched, gasped, and lay still.
Soul Archer gave a dark chuckle. Bow still stretched tight with the next arrow, he carefully approached Kai's motionless form. There was no green light spreading over the ninja's body, but his eyes were closed and his limbs were limp. Soul Archer prodded him with the Skreemer tip of the next arrow, garnering no reaction.
At last, satisfied that his quarry was slain, he loosened his bow, put away the arrow, and turned back towards Morro's camp as if nothing had happened. Kai lay where he had fallen. Crickets, forgetting the recent disturbance, began to chirp again.
When the ghostly warrior was well out of sight, Jay and Zane broke from cover and skidded to Kai's side.
"That was awesome, Kai!" exulted Jay, grinning. "I could've believed you were dead myself!"
He tilted his head, puzzled, when Kai didn't respond.
"Hey, Kai. The ghostie's gone, you can get up now. Kai? . . . "
Blinking uneasily, he crouched down next to the fire ninja and squinted, trying to make out the rise and fall of his chest. It was too dark to tell. He glanced at Zane, then moved hesitantly to check for a pulse, reaching slowly for a wrist he was starting to worry would be deathly cold . . .
"Boo!" Kai lunged upright, eliciting a startled yelp from both his friends. Once Jay recovered from the shock, he punched a laughing Kai in the arm.
"That wasn't funny!"
"I know, I know, sorry." Kai chuckled ruefully and rubbed his chin where he'd hit it against the tree. "So you got one?"
"We got one!" affirmed Jay, holding out the squirming bundle. "I can't believe this actually worked. I thought for sure smothering Skreemers in Deepstone cloth would just kill 'em."
"Yeah, well I thought for sure that Glowie McArrowpants back there would realize I wasn't really dead," said Kai. "Good thing ghosts are terrible at recognizing signs of life."
"I thought for sure he would call the others instead of following us," Zane piped up. "Or not follow us at all. Or catch us too soon. Or decide to take Kai back to the camp to show Morro. Or—"
"Woah, woah," Jay interrupted hastily. "Uh . . . let's not talk about how much we've cheated the odds; let's just get out of here before our luck changes."
"Yeah, let's go." Kai climbed to his feet. He wasn't the only one to cast a wistful glance back towards the ghosts' camp, wishing they could have done a little more than just swipe an arrow. But like Jay said, now was not the time. For now they made the best of what they had.
A while later they were back at Steep Wisdom, where they stuffed the Skreemer, still wrapped in the spare Deepstone suit, into a shed. Then they slipped quickly to the kitchen in the back of the shop. Nya, standing over the sink, whirled around when they opened the door. Then she saw who it was and relaxed.
"Phew. You guys made it!" she smiled.
"Yep. Ahhh . . . " Jay breathed in the sweet sugary-buttery smell filling the room. "So I'm guessing things worked great on your end too?"
"Perfect," grinned Nya. "You can't smell it out in the hallway, right?"
"Nope. Good idea leaving the window open."
As Nya wrapped up the finishing touches of her half of the plan, the others quickly filled her in on the details of the Skreemer hunt. At length Zane went to fetch the Skreemer itself. He set the still-thrashing, muffledly-screeching bundle down on the table, eyeing the target they wanted to sic it on.
"Are you sure this will work?" asked Nya uneasily.
"No idea." Kai gave a rueful grin. "Best we can do is hope our luck doesn't run out."
Zane tugged carefully at the folds of the Deepstone suit, knowing that a wrong move could cause the Skreemer to leap out and dart to who-knows-where. The others watched tensely. Even if he got it right, there was no guarantee the ghostly creature would really attack the first thing it saw . . .
But it worked beautifully. A final screech, and a blob of green exploded from inside its cloth prison and latched itself onto its target. A green glow began to shine across the table.
"Perfect!" cheered Jay. "Perfect from start to finish!"
Kai chuckled relievedly.
"Great! Now, how do we cut this thing?"
A few minutes later, the three ninja and Nya approached the door of Cole's room. Nya tapped against it, but there was no reply. Cracking open the door, they found Cole curled up peacefully in bed, his head resting on an opened book.
Questioning glances were exchanged.
"You do the honors, Kai," said Jay. "You went to the most trouble with those arrows."
Kai nodded. While the three guys headed back to the kitchen, Nya slipped into Cole's room.
"Cole," she called softly, venturing to poke the ghostly form's shoulder. "Cole, wake up."
"Mmmm? . . . " Cole's eyes slid open drowsily; then he started and sat up, rubbing one eye.
"Woah. I must've drifted off . . . Is something going on?"
"Yeah it is. I need you in the kitchen for a sec, okay? There's something you've gotta see."
"Can it wait till morning?" asked Cole hopefully.
"Nuh-uh." Nya attempted to take his hand and pull him to his feet, but wasn't able to get a grip on him. "It's urgent."
"Okay, okay." Cole got up, tossing his book aside, and followed Nya down the hall. "What's so urgent?"
"Midnight," said Nya, ushering him into the kitchen. "You can't sleep, it's not midnight yet."
"Midnight?" Cole looked at her oddly, then around at the others, who were standing by the table looking expectant.
"Co-ole," singsonged Kai, hiding something behind his back.
"What?" Cole looked to the fire ninja in turn, confused. "Guys, what's—"
Kai threw. It was a pretty spectacular effect; the plate went straight through Cole and bounced off the door behind him, but the slice of cake sitting on it—being ghostly—splattered across his face. The bizarre physics of it left the others almost as startled as Cole. Almost.
"Wh—what?" gulped the earth ninja, blinking through a coating of frosting. "What just—"
"Happy birthday!" Jay exploded, unable to keep quiet any longer.
"Aww, I wanted to say it," said Kai reproachfully, but grinned at Cole. "Don't tell me you forgot the rule. Nobody's allowed to have a birthday around here without getting splatted with cake at least once, remember?"
"I-it's. . . what?" Cole, still wide-eyed, licked hesitantly at the corner of his mouth. His eyes widened even further, and he scraped a handful of the smashed dessert off his face to taste it. ". . . Cake?"
"Cake!" Jay waved back at the table, where the remainder of the cake still glowed semi-transparant on a large plate. Cole stared.
"How?" he managed at last, breaking into a disbelieving smile.
"Eh, this and that." Kai chuckled cryptically. "We pulled it off."
"We couldn't let you have a birthday without cake," said Zane simply, smiling. "Ghost or no ghost."
"And it's before midnight, so it still counts!" added Nya.
Cole started to say something, then gulped quickly and opted for a mute shake of his head. He was grinning like an idiot.
"You guys." He swiped the last of the cake from his face as an alibi for drying his eyes discreetly. "Wow. Just . . . just thanks."
Nya grinned and threw her arms around him, finding just enough materiality to hug. The others piled on as well, laughing; Cole tried to wrap his arms around all of them at once, wondering if it was possible for ghosts to suffer broken ribs. Not that he'd ever dream of complaining.
Cole was an amateur ghost; the cake was the first thing he'd been able to eat since the transformation, and he made the most of it. Nya had made a double batch, so there was a regular cake for the others to eat too. Cole took the opportunity to avenge himself on Kai. It was nice to relax for just one night, to forget for a little while the monolithic task that still lay ahead; they stayed up way too late, got a little sugar-high, and earned Ronin's displeasure when the noise woke him up from his cot in the shop. A slice of Nya's cake went a pretty long way towards mollifying him, though.
"We're going to be so bushed tomorrow," groaned Kai good-naturedly as they finally started venturing to bed—well past three AM. With a last few "Happy Birthday"s, most of them drifted off one by one to sleep. Cole lingered behind, munching one last slice of ghost cake. Ronin slipped in to cut himself another piece of the regular one.
"You like cake too?" said Cole.
"I like free food," replied Ronin drily. Cole, feeling amiable, only rolled his eyes. Ronin surveyed the half-eaten ghostly cake with interest, seemingly calculating what kind of recipe the others might have used to achieve that.
"You've got some friends there," he remarked at last.
"The greatest," admitted Cole shyly.
"Hm." Ronin stabbed a fork into his slice of cake, his eye distant. "Some dogs have all the luck."
"It's not just luck," said Cole. "I'm really lucky, yeah, but it takes more than that. You've got to put some effort into it if you want to make friends, give as well as take. Not that you'd know." He said the last part jokingly, but it only earned an unamused snort from Ronin.
"I'm here to make money, not friends."
"We noticed," deadpanned Cole.
"It's more than I can afford, hotshot," said Ronin, a touch sharply. "When you're hanging on by the skin of your teeth, you don't have enough left to just hand around. You have to keep your own skin and bones together before you can sacrifice for anyone else. It's not like I enjoy this; you think I chose to live hand-to-mouth?"
"Woah, woah." Cole raised his hands placatingly. "I didn't know you were that . . . close to the edge, I guess. What happened?"
"Bad choices." The mercenary tucked in his chin, uncommunicative. "Bad luck."
"Oh." Cole looked down, tracing the edge of his plate with a spoon. "Sorry."
"I don't need your pity," said Ronin, still sullen. "I just need to get myself out of the mess I'm in. Once I've got that out of the way, then we can talk friends."
"Good luck, then," ventured Cole. He hesitated, then smiled ruefully. "Hey. Go ahead and count all of us as friends already, if you want."
Ronin squinted at him suspiciously.
"No obligations," sighed Cole, rolling his eyes. "Look, I know you're only hanging around to cash in on the tea shop, but—well, hey, you're an okay guy sometimes, when you're not being a jerk." He chuckled. "By now you've been through enough with us that we're kind of friends already. I think the others would back me up on that."
Ronin twisted his mouth in thought for a moment, glaring at a corner of the table. After a moment he scoffed and shook his head.
"'Night," he grunted, picking up his plate of cake and heading back towards the shop.
"G'night," said Cole amusedly.
In the doorway Ronin stopped for a second and turned as if meaning to look back. Somehow his gaze never made it any higher than the edge of the table.
"Hey," he said, rushed. "Happy birthday."
Cole looked up, surprised, but Ronin was already gone. The earth ninja blinked at the empty doorway for a minute, then smiled.
"Thanks," he called, and finished his last bite of cake.