CHAPTER 36

THE SEARCH FOR COLE

KAI`S POV:

We traveled practically all night just to find Cole. We traveled all of yesterday. We were hoping that Cole was still at the village inside his exile home. I know it was against the rules to visit him, but we've tried everything we could do to contact him without traveling all the way here. Calling him, texting him, e-mailing him and even video chat. Nothing worked. We had to warn Cole about this ape issue somehow before it's too late. I was hoping we could find him before the apes do. We finally made it to the village. It was pretty small for anybody to live at. Sure it had some homes, stores, monuments, schools, restaurants and all that, but who would want to spend the rest of their lives here. I bet the other exiles that live here are living a life of misery.

We should've taken the train. It would've been much faster, but there was no time to be wasting our energy doing nothing. Traveling by machine was the only way we ever got anywhere. I'm really hoping Cole was still here. If he isn't, we traveled all this way for nothing.

"We have now arrived at the village," Garmadon said, walking through the borders of the town, "Cole could be anywhere, so we need to split up."

"Agreed, brother," Sensei said, "We shall travel with our wives on the east of the city. Jay and Jen will head out to Ellis Farm Village Homes to see if Cole is there. Zane and Zeah will head north. Nya and Caleb will head south. Kai and Kitty will check the village square. We will all head west and report back on any finding. Ask the villagers questions if you have to. Let's split up."

"Yes, Sensei," we all said, taking the directions as followed.

Kitty and I headed toward the village town square where we saw at least plenary of people pass by with bags and stuff in their hands or on wheelbarrows. I looked to see an older woman next to a fruit stand trying to remove the fruit out of the inside. Winter was coming close, so fruit would need to sell inside.

"I think we should help that poor woman," Kitty said, walking up to the woman, "Excuse me, do you need any help?"

"Get away from me, child!" the woman exclaimed, "I'm perfectly capable of handling this stand myself."

"Hey, my girlfriend was just trying to help," I said, "The least you could do is try to be respectful."

"I'm done being respectful to a bunch of young brats like you two," the woman said, "I don't care who you are, but I think it's best if you both leave."

"Listen, we were wanting to know if you've seen a guy with jet black hair, usually wears a black hoodie. Well, to be honest, he usually wears black. Sometimes, he wears brown."

"Does his name happen to be Cole or something like that?"

"That's him."

"That boy has caused a bunch of trouble ever since he came to this village. I told him that he needs to start doing things that will keep him out of trouble and mind his own business, but he's just like the rest of you youngsters nowadays. You never listen to a word the elderly says. He even made my own employee turn her back on me. She decided to escape with him and quit her job. You can see why I'm cleaning out the fruit stand by myself."

"Wait. He left?"

"He took some girl with him?" Kitty asked, "Looks like Cole has been making some friends around here."

"She decided to escape with him so she could escape exile herself," the woman said, "They both wanted to get out of the village. The night before, I saw my old employee and told her that she was making a big mistake, but she called me a terrible, strict old hag and walked back inside her house. I told her to never come back and try to get a job with me because I won't hire her ever again."

"What about Cole?" I asked, "Did you happen to see him anytime that night?"

"I didn't see any sight of that boy. I'm just glad he's gone. I'm glad that Carol is gone, too. One less person to have to worry about coming into work everyday. Two less people to worry about ever trying to turn this village upside down. I hope they travel far from here and never return."

"What did they travel in?" Kitty asked.

"Mostly us villagers use horses to travel with," the woman said, "If it's a long journey, we buy a carriage. I'm sure they're halfway to where they need to be."

"Do you know of anything else that happened?" I asked.

"Nothing that I'm aware of," the woman said, "Good riddance to both of them. I've never seen two pairs of troublemakers in all my life. Why do you ask so many questions about them, anyway?"

"We know who Cole is. He's a friend of ours."

"More importantly, our teammate," Kitty said.

"You better get out of here while you still can if you want to find him," the woman said, "You won't find him and that friend of his in these parks. By the way, my name is Angelina. Now leave before I find someone that will make you."

"Are you sure that you don't need any help?" Kitty asked

"I'm not old, for heaven sakes. I'm only in my seventies. Now get out of here. Don't you youngsters have anything better to do than bothering old ladies?"

Kitty laughed. "Sorry, it's just,... you just called yourself old."

"Get out of here!"

We ran off from the stand. What an old hag! How does Cole stand being around certain people like her? That may be a reason why he ran off. Why did he have a girl with him, though? Something tells me that Cole was bitten by the love bug while he's been here.

"Can you believe that woman?" Kitty asked.

"If you believe me, she seems to be in exile herself," I said, "That hag is crazy."

"Let's start heading over to the west. I'm sure Sensei and the others are over there by now."

We walked out of the village square and found ourselves close to a dense forest and some cottages. Nobody else was here, so we were the first one's to beat everyone else. Sensei Wu and his group returned a few minutes later.

"Anything suspicious in the east of the village?" I asked.

"We didn't find him anywhere," Sensei said, "I'm hoping the other found him or maybe some traces."

"We might have the same story. We'll just have to wait and see."

Soon, everyone else came back either with a piece of evidence or nothing at all. We came back empty handed, but at least we found someone who knew where Cole is.

"Did any of you find him?" Sensei asked.

"No sign of him south, father," Caleb said.

"We even talked to everyone that was there and asked them if they've seen Cole," Nya said, "None of them knew who he was."

"There was no sign of Cole heading north, but we were able to talk to the headmaster of a nearby school," Zane said.

"He told us that Cole called in for a sick day because he was not feeling up to working," Zeah said, "It seems that Cole took that time off for some reason."

"We went into the village square and saw no sign of him, but we did see this older woman who saw him," I said, "She told us that he left and he took some girl along with him. She kept saying that he was the reason the girl quit her job and everything else. I didn't understand half of what she said."

"She told us that her employees name is Carol and she left with Cole to escape exile herself," Kitty said, "She told us that her name is Angelina. So it seems that Cole left with some girl."

"There wasn't any sign of Cole anywhere around his home, but we did find a note on his door," Jay said, "It states that he left for the city and he won't be back for a few days. He knows that he's not allowed in the city."

"He meant that he was heading towards Chitow City, not Ninjago City," Jen said.

"Oh, yeah. My bad."

"We stopped by another person's house because there was a note taped there as well. It stated that she was moving to the next village and finding a new job there. Her name is stated on there as Carol."

"Looks like that's the same girl that escaped with Cole," I said.

The monitor buzzed on Nya watch and showed Cyrus Borg on the screen. "Ninja, I hope you have a good reason for going to that village. It's stated in the paperwork that you are not allowed to visit Cole. Only he can visit you."

"Well, your in luck, Borg," Jay said, "We won't be able to visit him because he's not even here."

"What Jay is trying to say is that Cole escaped from exile along with some girl that he knows," Jen said.

"She seems to be in exile," Kitty said, "Know any girls by the name of Carol?"

"Carol," Borg said, "Oh, I'm trying to remember. Does her last name happen to be Dominez?"

"That's what it states on the letter," Jen said.

"That's her. She's been in exile for two years. I'm sure she's probably the same age as Cole now. I haven't been in contact with her in a long time."

"It seems that neither of them are in the village," Sensei said, "We will find them before something happens."

"I trust that you will," Borg said, turning off the computer.

"Looks like we're heading out on a mission," I said.

"Ninja, let's move out," Sensei said, leading us into the village.

Cole had to be somewhere in these wood. If not, I was hoping he was somewhere in Ninjago. The best thing to do is to keep searching. I think the best thing to do once I return to the city is talk to Borg about taking Cole and that girl off of exile. Something had to be done. We all wanted Cole to come back.

THE NINJA WERE TRYING TO FIND COLE IN THE VILLAGE, BUT NOW THEY KNOW THAT HE LEFT THE VILLAGE WITH CAROL. THEY ALL KNOW THAT COLE MAY HAVE BEEN BITTEN BY THE LOVE BUG WHILE HE WAS IN THE VILLAGE. ALL OF THEM ARE HEADING OUT INTO THE WOODS AND KAI IS THINKING OF A WAY TO GET COLE OUT OF EXILE.

I HAVE NOTHING MORE TO SAY. I ALWAYS RUN OUT OF THINGS TO SAY.

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