CHAPTER FIVE
"We lost 'im. It ain't been a whole day and we freakin' lost 'im!" Raphael kicked the dirt and sent a couple pebbles flying.
Unlike Usagi, Raph was walking his horse. Partially to search for clues, but the other part was because he needed something to kick and he wasn't gonna take it out on Whitey. Whitey, a black horse that had been Raph's trusty steed since childhood, was used to Raph's temper and didn't seem to care.
"Do not fret, Prince Raphael." Usagi said from atop his own grey horse, "He cannot have gone far. We will definitely find him."
"Usagi, this is Leo we're talkin' about. He's got more stamina than Whitey here. Could be halfway back to the castle by now, even without his horse."
Raph narrowed his eyes at Leo's riderless horse calmly following Usagi, but the horse either didn't notice or didn't care.
"Raphael. We will find him." Usagi said, speaking slowly and confidently.
"Yeah," Raph said, kicking at another group of pebbles, "But if we don't find him by tonight, what are we gonna tell Dad?"
"Let us decide that later. Right now, let us concentrate on the matter at hand."
Raph frowned.
"The town of Dat should be closed by now," Usagi commented, "If Prince Leonardo did not make it in time before the gates closed, we will be able to catch up to him. If he made it inside, we should be able to meet with him in the morning by waiting at the city square."
"What makes you think he went to Dat Town, instead of back to the castle?" Raph asked.
Usagi was silent.
"Right, guess this way is as good as any." Raph commented.
"HELP!" Shouted a voice, causing Usagi and Raph to turn around.
"What is the matter?" Usagi asked.
"The foot, it's the foot!" A young girl screamed, running up to them.
"Looks like they're ok," Raph said, looking at her shoes.
"No no! It's the Foot! They're attacking my family's caravan!"
The Foot? Weren't they wiped out? But a danger is a danger.
"Which way?" Usagi asked, turning his horse around.
"There, down the road," the girl motioned behind them.
Raph and Usagi exchanged glances.
"He will still be there in the morning, as long as he remains in the city." Usagi said. With a nod, Raph jumped onto his horse, tossed the reins of Leo's horse to the bewildered girl, and sped away.
After waiting for another day, Leo and Karai set out from the city. Leo carried pretty much everything.
"You really don't complain at all, do you?" Karai asked, handing him a walking stick.
"Not really," Leo said, tying the walking stick to the pack before putting it back on his back.
"Wait, that's not why I handed you the-you know what, nevermind. Anyway, are you absolutely sure you're ok coming with me and not waiting back in the city?"
"Yes, it should be fine." Leo said, "They know I'm traveling to see the country. His high-I mean, my father only wanted them to come keep me company."
"Alright," Karai said, "Anyway, that's the last time I'll ask. Hey, that guy looks sketchy. Keep quiet as we pass him, alright?"
Leo looked up at someone who was sitting on the side of the trail. It was definitely suspicious to see such a dark and broody character sitting by the side of the road, a club on the ground next to him.
"What are the odds? I've seen him before," Leo commented.
"What?" Karai said, looking at him and then the creepy guy on the side of the road. "He's your friend? Really." The last word wasn't a question.
"I don't really know him, but we've met before." Leo said, "It's a long story."
By this time they were close enough that the creepy guy by the road noticed them.
The creepy guy lifted his club next to him in a sort of salute, "Have we met before?" He asked Leo, "You look familiar."
"Yeah," Leo said, "Your name is Slash, right?"
"Yeah! You're the kid who freed us from prison."
"Prison?" Karai said. She looked incredulously at one of them first, and then the other.
This guy named Slash looked exactly like bad news. What was up with her weird Friend's common sense?
"It was a Purple Dragon prison," Leo explained to Karai.
That didn't make it any more believable to her, though.
"You went to see the Damiyo after you escaped, right?"
"Right!" Slash said, "Got a job as a bounty hunter. Pays well."
"Bounty hunter?" Karai asked, "Who are you hunting?"
"There's still some stray Purple Dragons and Foot Soldiers," Slash explained, "Speaking of which, the Foot attacked a caravan recently. Almost got away with all the merchant's goods, except some Good Samaritans stopped 'em. Foot are very active lately, probably 'cause of the succession."
"Succession?" Leo asked.
"The Foot need a new leader." Karai explained. "Seriously, how do you not know this?"
"I thought they were all wiped out," Leo said.
"Not all of them." Slash said, "Things are starting to heat up. Take my advice, you two. Don't travel by the main roads if you can help it."
"We'll keep that in mind." Karai said cautiously. "Well, we should get going now."
"It was nice seeing you again." Leo said as Karai dragged him away by the elbow.
"Same here," said Slash, "Thanks again fer the save. You both stay safe, you hear?"
"We will!" Leo shouted.
"AND STAY OFF THE MAIN ROADS!" Slash called out as they got further away.
"That was nice, I didn't expect to see someone I knew." Leo said, keeping in step with Karai.
"I didn't expect you to be so friendly with a bounty hunter." Karai said, "No wonder your nickname is Friend. Don't you have any common sense, at all?"
"I do," Leo argued, "I just haven't been outside the, uh, house much."
"So you don't have any at all." Karai said, "Well, come on."
She stepped off the path and into the woods.
"That bounty hunter seems like he knew what he was talking about," she said as Leo followed her.
Meanwhile, back at the castle gate, Don was working with charts filled with random lines while Mikey did tricks next to him. They had discovered that the gate changed color when the people were happy, and whenever it changed to this green color there were visible gray lines.
Donnie had faithfully drawn the lines to scale on multiple pieces of paper, and Mikey kept the lines visible by entertaining troops of soldiers and children near the castle gate. But they still had no idea what the lines meant. The two of them had poured over every code book, sea-chart and prank book they could find just half an hour earlier, but they were no closer to discovering what the lines were or how they connected to the search for the sword that sneezes.
"They seem to have a point of origin here," Donnie pointed, "At the bottom. Everything starts from this one line here and branches upwards, except for this one line here. It starts off separately and ends here, without branching anywhere. I think this distinction is important."
"You know, if you look at it juuuuuuust right, it looks almost like the castle." Mikey commented, squinting at the gate with his head tilted a little to the left. He didn't forget to juggle at the same time, to keep the people happy.
"You know, it kind of does?" Donnie squinted and tilted his own head too. He took one of his spare pieces of paper and drew an outline of the castle around the lines. "But it still doesn't explain the lines."
"Well, what rooms do they go to?" Mikey asked, doing a handstand.
"That's a good question." Donnie said, moving some of the papers next to him so that they wouldn't be in the way of a passing horse and rider.
Maybe he'd better move to a table instead of working on the ground by the main gate.
Meh, he could move later.
"You know," Donnie said, looking at his paper and then at the lines on the gate, "It almost looks like each line goes to one of the kitchens or bathrooms."
"What, like the water delivery system?"
"Water deliv-what?" Donnie said, looking up at his brother, "Do you mean the plumbing?"
Mikey was too busy entertaining a child to answer.
"Hm, you're right, it does look like this could be the plumbing." Donnie answered his own question. "Almost all these lines come from the same source, which is probably the river underneath the castle! So our clue must be in this plumbing line, the one that isn't connected to all the others."
"But how can we tell which room it goes to?" Mikey said, "All those lines lead to like, every room with a sink. Even if we follow the gate lines like a map, we could still get the floor wrong."
"We'll need some kind of marker or something," Donnie tapped his pen against his chin, "Something that we can use to tell which pipes belong to the main line, and which belongs to the clue."
"Bro," Mikey said, stopping his antics for a moment, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Donnie looked his brother in the eye.
"I think I am," he said, "But Mikey...really?"
"Why not?"
"I mean...oh boy. We're going to get in so much trouble..."