AUTHOR'S NOTE (2020-03-10):
I thank MasterofCupcakes for inspiring me to finish this chapter! On her Wattpad account, she encouraged everyone to update one of their stories on March 5th, which was World Book Day in the U.K. and Ireland. Well, I'm close to being a week late in updating a fanfic, but without MoC's suggestion, I probably wouldn't be posting this chapter right now! So thanks for the encouragement, MoC!
At the start of the chapter below, Lloyd and Jay encounter a young woman in danger…
Chapter 3 - Making Their Presence Known
With the runaway horse and wagon - and its terrified passenger - about to pass by the ninja brothers on their wild charge down the middle of the street, Lloyd had little time to think. Instead, his instinct as a Protector of Ninjago kicked in, and in that moment, his singular mission became the task of rescuing the woman in the green skirt.
"Jay! Let's hop on the cart!" he hollered, beginning to sprint along the edge of the street in the same direction as the horse.
"Got yer back, pardner!" Jay affirmed, following right behind him.
The horse soon caught up to them and passed them up, but before the wagon following it could pass them up, the highly trained ninja brothers nimbly leapt onto it. Jay landed in the wagon's open back. Lloyd ended up on the bench seat next to the woman. Dumbfounded at the sudden appearance of a strangely dressed person appearing on the seat next to her, she stopped screaming to stare at him.
Lloyd struggled to stay standing on the rocking fast-moving wagon as he quickly surveyed the situation. "Jay, after I take the civilian to safety, you stop the horse!" he hollered over the noise.
"Me? How am I supposed to do that?" the blue ninja protested loudly.
"Well, uh, let the horse take you to a place where there's no people, then figure out how to use your, uh" - Lloyd hesitated as he glanced at the young woman - "skills to get him to stop." Ugh, how can I tell him to use his lightning power when she's listening?
"Skills?! Are you crazy, Lloyd? I don't have any horse skills!" Jay screeched, steadying himself as the wagon went over a bump.
He's not getting it! Am I gonna have to spill the beans about our powers? Lloyd clenched his teeth in frustration. Suddenly an inspiration struck him. "Jay, the horse is BOLTing. BOLT-ing!"
"Aha! Skills." Jay finally realized that Lloyd was trying to tell him to use his lightning bolt power. "Yes, I'll take care of it." He squeezed onto the bench seat next to Lloyd, took the reins from the woman, and sat down to take his turn at controlling the horse. "Whoa, boy - girl - whatever you are. Just stop!"
"OK, then." Lloyd turned his attention to the woman, who was still speechless. "Ma'am, don't be scared, but you and I are going to jump off the wagon. Right now."
The woman's face turned white. "Whaat?..."
"On the count of three. Ready? One…"
Lloyd purposely sprang into action early in order to prevent her from resisting. He scooped her up in his arms and, as she wailed in terror, deftly dove off the wagon with her. Meanwhile, the blue ninja, the horse, and the wagon careened off into the distance and disappeared.
Lloyd's forward momentum propelled the young woman and himself into a series of forward rolls along the dusty street until they finally came to a stop, with her body ending up on top of his. For several seconds, as a crowd hurried to gather around them, they simply lay there, catching their breaths from the exertion.
The young woman was the first to realize the compromising position in which they lay. "Oooh, I do declare my fairy tale is coming true, and my prince is wearing my favorite color," she grinned. She made no effort to move.
A second later, Lloyd also realized how they had landed, and the awkwardness immediately made him struggle to get the woman and himself up at the same time. Members of the crowd assisted both of them to their feet. Someone returned the woman's green hat to her, since she had let go of it during the jump.
"That was some stunt, pardner. I thought for sure you two were goners," one bystander commented.
"Yep, I never seed anythin' like it," added an old man.
"I never saw anything like HIM, either," the woman in the green skirt piped up as she replaced her hat on her head and dusted off her skirt and cloak. She nestled against Lloyd's chest and looked up at him with a big smile on her face. "I reckon I owe him a debt of gratitude. A BIIIIG debt of gratitude."
She batted her eyelashes at him. "My name's Katie O'Hara. What's your name, stranger?"
The green ninja cleared his throat nervously, for he had just noticed that because she was standing so close to him, he could see down her cloak and her dress' neckline and view more of her womanly charms than he was comfortable viewing. "Um, my name's Lloyd Garmadon. It's nice to meet you, Katie. Are you feeling all right after our jump?"
"Feelin' right as rain, Lloyd," Katie replied. "I sure hope you're fine, too. Wouldn't want anything to happen to these muscles," she commented as she massaged his biceps. "Though, come to think of it, it would be my great honor to nurse you back to health!"
Lloyd cleared his throat again. "I'm fine, but I'd better go see about my friend Jay."
"Why, of course. I need to come with you." Katie hooked her arm hooked firmly in Lloyd's. "To see about the horse and wagon, of course," she smiled.
The crowd dispersed as Lloyd and Katie headed down the street. "Let me buy you a drink later, to thank you for saving me," the redhead chattered. "I work at Miss Ginny's Saloon, and I was using Miss Ginny's horse and wagon to deliver a meal to her poor sweet cousin Matilda, who's been feeling poorly these last few days on account of this cold spell we're having. But on my way back to the saloon, something spooked Varina, and she suddenly took off down the street."
"Varina," Lloyd repeated thoughtfully. "Interesting name."
Katie smiled. "Miss Ginny named her after Mrs. Jefferson Davis."
Lloyd gave her a blank stare.
"Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy?" Katie looked at him expectantly, waiting for acknowledgement of the fact she had just stated.
Though Lloyd did not know what she was talking about, he figured he'd better give her that acknowledgement. "Uh, right."
"I suppose the War was a while ago," Katie continued, excusing Lloyd's slowness in remembering the name of the man who presided over the confederacy of Southern states, which included her beloved Georgia. "I was just a young girl when Sherman marched through our town."
Lloyd knew nothing about a Confederacy, or Davis, or Sherman, but he remained quiet and let Katie happily prattle on about her childhood for the next few blocks.
Suddenly they heard a man's voice roar. "Katie!"
A tall cowboy about their age, dressed in dusty clothes and needing a shave, briskly strolled toward them.
Katie immediately stopped walking and cursed under her breath. She briefly closed her eyes in frustration and waited for the man to approach them.
The cowboy reached them and planted himself in their path, his hands on his hips. "Katie, what are you doing with this...circus man?" the newcomer inquired, scowling at Lloyd and his green gi.
"Don't be disrespectful to him, Wade. He saved my life," the young woman admonished, clutching Lloyd's arm tighter.
Wade tilted his head and raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Is that so, Circus Man?"
Katie gritted her teeth. "Wade, his name is Lloyd. Lloyd, meet Wade, who thinks he's my beau." She flicked her hand toward the rude cowboy in a half-hearted gesture of societal politeness. "Wade, why are you in town on a weekday anyway?"
"Uncle Amos sent me and some of the boys to take care of some business," Wade proudly informed her. "He trusts me to do stuff. You know, Katie, pretty soon I'll be his right hand man, and I'll make enough money and be respectable enough for you to wanna marry me!"
Katie grimaced. "The day I agree to marry you, Wade Hamilton, will be a cold day in -"
"Lloyd!"
The green ninja immediately recognized the voice calling to him as Jay's. He looked over Wade's shoulder, causing Wade to turn around to see who was yelling. The two young men and the red-headed woman watched as the blue ninja, riding in the formerly uncontrolled wagon, sedately guided the formerly uncontrolled horse up the street. He wore a wide grin.
"By Jiminy, here comes another circus man!" Wade exclaimed as the blue ninja approached the group.
How did Jay manage to control the horse? And so quick? Lloyd wondered silently.
"Whoa, horsie," Jay instructed the animal as he pulled on the reins, and it made a perfect stop next to the three pedestrians. "I remembered the commands Fritz Donnegan used when he rode a jupitorse in the 'Frontier of Jupiter' episode," he proudly commented to Lloyd.
Ugh! Don't talk about Fritz Donnegan in front of the civilians! Lloyd silently chided Jay. To distract Katie and Wade from inquiring about Fritz, Lloyd immediately asked, "How'd you manage out there, Jay?"
Jay puffed out his chest. "There were some trees out in the woods that...must've fallen in a storm and formed a big circle. The horse ran a few times around the circle and eventually wore itself out."
"She does look a little worse for wear," Katie mused, stroking the mare. Then, with a sly grin, she turned to the cowboy. "Wade, honey," she addressed him in a syrupy voice, "would you be a dear and take Miss Ginny's horse to the livery stable and get her cleaned up, and make sure the wagon is all right?"
Wade raised an eyebrow.
"If you do, I'll save a dance for you on Saturday night," she promised, batting her eyelashes at him.
That sealed the deal for Wade. "Outta the wagon!" he commanded the blue ninja. Jay obliged, and Wade jumped up and immediately took his place on the bench.
Then, realizing that Katie would be left alone with the ninja brothers, he frowned.
As he led the horse away, he glared at Lloyd. "Remember this, Circus Man. Try anything with my girl, and I'm gonna make you wish you weren't born. And when Wade Hamilton makes a promise, he keeps it!"
"At least the portal brought us to a place with good food," Jay murmured quietly as he pushed his empty plate away from his seat at the corner table in Miss Ginny's Saloon.
Though Jay and Lloyd were currently the only two patrons in the establishment, due to the hour being too late for most people's midday meal and too early for a supper, the ninja brothers had kept their voices low during the course of the meal so as not to be heard by the barkeeper, who was inventorying the contents of the bar only a few yards away.
"That WAS good food," Lloyd agreed, setting down his fork. "And it was very nice of Katie to buy us lunch, though I wish she weren't so...attentive. I kinda want to leave here before she comes back downstairs to start her work shift tonight."
He sipped his sarsaparilla. "Speaking of tonight, I guess we'd better start thinking about where we're going to spend the night. Hopefully someplace where we can stay unnoticed. Or at least unnoticed by the half of Stockton that didn't see us rescue Katie," he remarked ruefully.
"And someplace where we can get a good night's sleep, so that tomorrow we can come up with a surefire plan to get back to Ninjago," Jay added, taking a sip of his own sarsaparilla. "Maybe after we go to the dry goods store for our new clothes, we can find the sheriff and ask him to recommend a place.
"Sure." Lloyd took another sip of sarsaparilla, but as he set down his glass, a small group of boisterous men entered the saloon, and his heart sank.
Wade Hamilton and three other cowboys had just come in.
They headed toward the bar, laughing and joking, but when Wade caught sight of Lloyd across the room, he paused, and a sneer crossed his face.
"Well, looky here, boys. It's the circus men!" he announced loudly, slowly sauntering over to the table where the young men sat. "Hey, boys, don't they look strange?"
Wade's friends followed him, offering a chorus of agreement.
"Oh, no," Lloyd muttered under his breath in anticipation of imminent trouble.
"In fact," Wade declared as he reached the ninjas' seats, "I think they look like…" - he bent close to Lloyd's face - "...freaks!" The other cowboys guffawed.
At that point Lloyd stood up, with Jay immediately following suit. "Look, we don't want trouble," he said, holding his hands up and open in a gesture of surrender. "We're gonna leave now." The two ninja brothers headed toward the front door.
Before they could take three steps, however, Wade grabbed Lloyd by the shoulder and spun the green ninja around to face him. "Hey, I didn't say you could leave, FREAK!" Then the cowboy clenched his right fist and struck Lloyd in the jaw.
Lloyd lost his balance and knocked over a nearby table, falling backward on top of it. One of the cowboys reached down with the intent of picking up Lloyd by his collar for the purpose of pummeling him some more, but the cowboy got a surprise. Lloyd, angry at being caught off guard by an opponent, grabbed a hold of the cowboy's shirt with his two hands and flipped him over his head, sending him flying into another saloon table.
A second later, Lloyd was back on his feet, deflecting a second punch from Wade and using ninja maneuvers to neutralize his attackers. Jay likewise busied himself with using fists and roundkicks to immobilize the other cowboys as they attempted to take him down as well.
Three short minutes and five busted tables later, a slightly breathless pair of ninja brothers remained standing while their four opponents lay sprawled out on the saloon floor, unconscious.
"How are we going to pay for this?" Lloyd worried aloud as he surveyed the aftermath. "This looks like more damage than Sheriff Madden's money will cover."
The barkeeper stood up from where he had crouched behind the bar for safety. "Don't worry, you didn't start it. I'm charging it to Amos Carver, Wade's uncle. But even if I had to pay for the damage myself, it'd be worth it, seeing that saphead knocked out cold in two shakes of a lamb's tail. You boys had better make yourselves scarce, though. When word gets around that you made a fool of Wade, he won't be too happy."
"So much for staying unnoticed," Lloyd muttered, picking up and righting a fallen chair.
"Boys!" a voice suddenly called out. "I like the way you fight!"