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⚜️ ~Captain's POV~ ⚜️

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Hutchins entered the tent when the general was explaining his strategies to me. I got distracted by his sudden appearance. He seemed annoyed by something he'd seen outside but I couldn't tell. He was usually in an off mood.

A throat cleared. It was the general. I immediately glanced down at my lap to indicate my apology for losing concentration. The general continued, running his riding whip over the map before us.

"The Stone Army has struck here, here and here," he articulated, pointing at various villages and settlements on the canvas. He dispatched a cluster of wooden pieces at the center of the map. "I will lead my troops to the Corridor of Elders. I'll try to stop Kozu so that his army can't pose a threat to the local villages."

"An excellent plan, General Garmadon," Hutchins accoladed, sitting down beside our table. "The Stone Army will definitely be surprised."

The general smiled, the corners of his eyes wrinkling. Hutchins would never let a moment pass where he could flatter his seniors and get on their good side. But General Garmadon never favored anyone so, in my opinion, the advisor was wasting his time.

The general looked at me and I sat up straight, meeting his eyes. He picked up a sheathed sword at his side and presented it to me. "You will stay here and train the new recruits, Captain."

I gave him a firm nod, accepting the gift. It was hard not to let my excitement overflow. It dimmed a little when Hutchins broke in. "But, General Garmadon, that is a great responsibility. Maybe you should bestow your trust upon a more experienced soldier."

I frowned at the advisor. However, the general replied before I could say anything.

"Number one in his class, extensive knowledge on different training techniques," he paused and lowered his voice a little, a slight smirk on his lips, "and a paramount military lineage."

I couldn't help but smile when Hutchins rolled his eyes. The general reached for his helmet, unaware of the exchange.

"I believe Lloyd will be excellent for the job."

Forget what I said about him not favoring anybody.

I tightened my grip around the sword, a feeling of pride swelling in my chest. "Oh, I will. I won't let you down. You can count on me, General."

"When Hutchins thinks you are ready, you are to meet me at the Corridor," the general said, standing up. He walked towards the exit of the tent, the advisor following suit. "We'll finish the Stone Army off together and toast our victory at the imperial city."

He turned to Hutchins. "I'll expect a full report in three weeks."

"Don't worry, sir. I won't leave anything out."

With that the two of them stepped outside. I was alone in the tent. I bit my lip in an attempt to control my jumpiness. It was very childish of me to get so worked up about being in charge of half the army but it was an honorable post just the same.

I strapped the sword to my belt and puffed out my chest. "Captain Lloyd, leader of Ninjago's finest troops," I muttered. "No, no. The greatest troops of all time. Yep, that's it."

With the pride still going strong, I walked out of the tent to look upon my new army. I was expecting a sturdy assembly of brave young men.

Not a free-for-all dogfight.

Bodies were slamming into one another as dust flew up in clouds. Chickens clucked madly and ran amuck, discarding feathers everywhere. The rice pot was overturned with its contents all over the ground while the harassed looking cook got tossed like a football between the men. Someone even yelled, "I'll choke you with my grandma's lingerie!" at the top of their lungs.

The disorder was hurting my eyes if not mutilating my self-respect.

The general and the advisor looked horrified but maybe not as much as me. A sorry looking, beat up lad limped out of the hustle. He grinned a nearly-toothless smile when he saw us and did a salute– then he collapsed at our feet.

"Most impressive," Hutchins commented sardonically, curling his lips at the unconscious man.

General Garmadon seemed to have gotten over his initial shock because he chuckled and clapped me on the back. "You've got this, don't you, leader of Ninjago's greatest troops?"

I went red in the face and only replied with an, "Uh . . ."

He advanced towards his own soldiers where his horse stood waiting. He placed his helmet upon his head and climbed onto the stallion. "Good luck, Captain!" he called out as he rode around the fight and out of the camp, his cavalry right behind him.

I watched the battalion disappear from sight as they rounded the corner and dove into the forest.

"Good luck, Father," I whispered.

A yell made me turn back to the fight. I rubbed the back of my neck exasperatedly, already feeling tired and disheartened without doing anything. My morale crashed to pieces just by watching the young man passed out at my feet.

"Day one," Hutchins teased, marking off a date on his clipboard with a smirk. I tried not to scowl at him. Taking a deep breath, I made my way over to the brawl.

"Soldiers!" I hollered.

The crowd paused, stared at me and parted as efficiently as the Red Sea. A few men at the front pointed to the centre where I saw two boys huddled together.

"They started it!" the men accused.

The trouble-makers were wearing cloth masks and seemed small among the others. Which was really saying something because other than a few, most of the recruits were nothing but skimpy toothpicks. I walked over to them, looking down as they lowered their arms.

One of them quickly stood as soon as he saw me. The other wasn't so quick and so I grabbed the front of his armor and pulled him up. I bared my teeth and glared daggers at him.

"I don't want anyone causing trouble in my camp," I growled, letting him go. "Got it?"

"Sorry," he huffed in a voice that seemed a little too high for a man. But I figured he was just confused. He suddenly stiffened as if he'd remembered something important then immediately switched his response.

"Sorry you had to see that," he rephrased in a nasally, raspy voice that suspiciously struck to me as forced. He lightly punched my arm. "But you know how it gets when you get those manly urges," he chuckled, beating his chest to emphasize his words.

"Uh, yeah," spoke the other one. I could see this one was taller than the first and had bright blue eyes. He shuffled closer to his little friend and pulled him a few inches back from me. "I mean, you just gotta kill somebody . . . fix things . . . and cook outdoors–"

"What are your names?" I demanded, having enough of their tomfoolery. This basic question caught them both off guard and they looked at each other as if unsure on how to reply. They stuttered for a while until Hutchins got in the way.

"Your commanding officer just asked you a question!" he chided, waving his quill in their petrified faces.

"Um . . ." started the dark-eyed one. "Yes, we have names. And they're boys' names too."

I couldn't help frowning at him, unimpressed.

"I'm . . . uh, I'm Nayal," he mumbled.

I shifted my gaze to the taller one. "And you?"

"I'm . . ." He faltered a little but stopped when his friend nudged him. He composed himself. "I'm Sky. Yes, my name is Sky."

"Nayal and Sky?" I repeated. They nodded.

I regarded them with narrow eyes before humming an approval. "Let me see your induction notice."

Nayal felt around his armor before pulling out a scroll. I accepted it and unrolled the parchment. "Ray Smith?" I read aloud, the name ringing a bell. My father used to proudly recite the tales of his bravest soldiers. Ray was the one I had heard about the most.

"The Ray Smith?" I articulated, looking up at the two. They simply glanced back at me, looking as if it was nothing to be shocked at.

"I thought Ray Smith only had one son," Hutchins said, sounding as confused as me.

"Oh no, that's our older brother," Sky threw in, flapping a hand. "We're his other two sons."

Nayal nodded rather vigorously to that statement. "He never mentioned us because we . . . uh, we were out living in a boarding school in Jamanakai to get some . . . stuff into our . . . numb skulls. It's way out there and we hardly ever visited."

"Our brother was injured and Father was sick so we came back to take their places in the army," Sky added.

"Lower your masks," I ordered.

Once again, they glanced at each other. I was starting to get tired of their strange behavior so I loudly cleared my throat to compel them to speed things up. They quickly took off the cloth pieces. I was struck dumb for a split second.

I would've been more convinced if they said they were Ray's daughters rather than his younger sons. Their facial features were soft and delicate. Not at all hard like I was expecting. I guessed their mother passed down a lot from her side.

I blinked back into the present when a hand shot up from the crowd behind Nayal and Sky. It was a short young man with auburn hair and abundant freckles. "Yes?" I said, giving him permission to speak.

"I'm Jay Walker, Captain," he prefaced, saluting. "And I've lived in the same neighborhood as the Smiths since I was a child."

I swear I saw the brothers flinch out of the corners of my eyes. I ignored it and motioned for Jay to go on.

"I don't think I've ever, ever seen or heard of Ray's children other than his son and daughter," Jay informed.

My eyes shot straight back to the two in front of me. They seemed to be stumbling over their words again. Finally, Nayal got enough courage to speak.

"Like we said, our father never talked about us. He didn't like to. We were, you can say, a flat out disgrace to him. That's why he sent us off and forbade us to return until we got some common sense planted into our brains."

Upon completing his rant, Nayal snorted and tried to spit but the saliva just dangled from his lips, slowly extending downwards. Sky only grinned nervously and leaned against his brother.

"I can see why," Hutchins whispered uneasily in my ear. "These boys are absolute lunatics."

A few men snickered and Nayal immediately wiped away the string of saliva from his mouth.

"Fine," I sighed, not wanting to waste more of my precious time. "Have it as you will." I raised my voice, aiming to address the entire crowd now. "Thanks to your new friends, Nayal and Sky, you will spend the rest of the day picking up every single grain of rice."

The new recruits all groaned. Some even directed dirty looks at the brothers. I kept my expression neutral, waiting silently till all of them agreed.

"Tommorow, the real work begins," I called out as I walked back to my tent.

My resolve and determination had deflated by the time I collapsed onto my mat inside. At that moment, transforming the hopeless cases I had into fearsome warriors seemed like an impossible task. Maybe Hutchins was right. I wasn't suited for such a great responsibility.

"I believe Lloyd will be excellent for the job."

I couldn't back down now. I had accepted this honor. Giving up would stain and deform it. And besides, if my father believed I had the potential to be a captain then I needed no other proof. I had to buckle down and deal with the problems at hand.

"I won't let you down, Father. I promise."

Little did I know, I wasn't the only one in the camp who had left behind everything to test just how far they could go. The best way to put it: I was in for a lot of surprises.

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