[RP] Avatar: Memories of the Storm

Ling shrugged again, noncommittally, holding her hand flat out and to the side.

Might be wrong.

She hoped she was wrong. She hoped the messages that she'd been passed were days off, weeks, months, or maybe even pure fabrications, delusions from the heat of blooming war. But she was too cynical to believe that, too experienced to think optimism was anything more than a fatal mistake. She could enjoy the night for now, though, eating festival food, playing music. It was the brief moments of joy in life that made the darker parts bearable. Turning to face Kuzon, she shook her head, patting her stomach.

Haven't eaten.

Hadn't since last night, save for a small roll and a bit of dried fish she ate on the ferry. She could certainly go for a nice, large meal to settle the roiling tension in her stomach.

Several somethings near the docks exploded, illuminating the night sky, and Ling jumped, nearly knocking over Kuzon's table. Ah - no time for food, then. The message was a day off - but in the worse of the two directions. While the gathered crowds took a few seconds to register the lights and sounds, thinking them fireworks, if only for a moment, Ling was moving. She grabbed Kuzon by his wrist, yanking him into the street, ignoring any protests from the boy as she pulled him up the coast and away from the dockside of the town. A bell began to echo through the air, mingling with the explosions, adding to the growing sense of chaos as people slowly began to catch on. The festivities weren't starting early. This was something worse.

Stumbling for a moment as she glanced over her shoulder, she pulled the budding scoundrel up a flight of stone steps, turned into another street - then stopped, coming face to face with a pair of women in blue water tribe furs, one riding on the back of a massive, white monster. Waving frantically to them, she drew closer, wiggling her fingers towards the dock. It wasn't exactly the most obvious gesture. Nudging Kuzon, she made the gesture again, this time pulling her fingers down through the air. Maybe he would get the gist, at least.

Benders?

Book One: Dawn
Chapter Two: The Stone of San Se

She strained to hear, for what she didn’t quite know. The call of voices? The snarl of open flame? Whatever she found herself looking for it was not there, only the wail of the warning bell. All thought of her cabbage rolls was gone as she looked at Tika. Her lips parted, but the unsaid question hung in her throat. A question of what she should do, only that question was wrong so she didn’t say it. She needed to know what it was they were going to do because they were partners. But those words also failed her. When she had been in Kishi the adults asked her to do what she needed to, when Ybarra was to protect the younger ones she had, and when she was called upon to fight the invaders — Sakari touched the multicolored scarf with the tips of her fingers.

But here her tongue felt heavy and confidence eluded her.

The arrival of two strangers broke her from her stupor. A masked woman was gesturing at her wildly, her fingers moving like the tendrils of a jellyfish.

“What?” Sakari said, her face showing her confusion. The woman’s companion quickly translated that she was asking if they were benders. Sakari against looked up at Tika before straightening out her posture.

“I am, yeah. All she can do is make Claire roll over.” Confidence returned to her voice as she again ran her hand along the top of the bear-wolf’s snout.

Sam-Se could cry at that moment. That couple, the first nice people she'd met in days, reminded her too much of her parents. Her lips parted as she was about to give them a response, when the fireworks errupted.

No, not fireworks.

The worried gaze on the man's face revealed to Sam-Se that the explosion was exactly what she feared the most. For a second everything became quiet - or perhaps it just felt like it to her. The girl's heart began to race as she reminded herself of the last time she'd heard those cannons. They were after her.

Before she could think, or even listen to what the man had to say, she did the same thing her mother had told her to do that day. She ran.

Sam-Se had no idea where she was going, just that she had to get out of there, fast. Her hunger was the least of her problems right now, and tears began to run down her cheeks before she even realized it. She wouldn't stop running, she couldn't stop... Until she was forced to. By a big, furry animal, standing in the middle of the street.

Sam-Se bumped into the creature, falling back on her ass. She looked up, and the animal seemed a thousand times more intimidating when looked at from bellow.

"AAAAAH!" She screamed, crawling back and away from it.

Tika was careful not to breathe a sigh of relief when Sakari took her hand and climbed up on the bearwolf's back. It wasn't that Sakari got into trouble, not really, just that... wherever Sakari went, there tended to be trouble. Most of the time it wasn't her fault. Still, the girl had been through... enough. Tika had learned that it was okay to say that, to think okay, enough and let it be at that. Sakari's question was, as always, well-meaning.

It was exactly the sort of well-meaning that was going to get her into trouble.

But Sakari wasn't the only kid around here with a penchant for being surrounded by trouble, it looked like. People had started running, understandably, and the bearwolf offered a startled 'GROWF' as the kid from before ran into one of his hind legs. By her scream, she was just as surprised as he was - probably more so.

It was always kids, wasn't it? This time, Tika did sigh, but not unkindly. "Shh, shh, easy. It's all right, my boy. You're fine." Likely, he was on edge from the explosions - who wouldn't be? The girl on the ground certainly was. "It's all right," Tika told her, "He won't bite you." Tika wouldn't have been much of a trainer if her bearwolf went around assaulting random children. He was really pretty gentle unless provoked - at least right now, when he was in a more bearish state. When he got wolfish, things were different, but that wasn't for another ten days. "Sakari, give her a hand up, will you?"

The girl would be better off up here than down there, and Clair could carry three when bearish if they were smaller.

That should have been the end of it, of course, but it didn't account for the sudden wall of rock in front of them.

The bearwolf was not impressed. Neither was Tika. There was a low growl, and it was anyone's guess which one of them it had come from. Tika's voice was quiet, but it was a cold quiet - a quiet like an iceberg, just the tip of something peeking out above the water, and anyone with half a mind could put together that there was an awful lot more lurking just unseen below the surface.

"You want to put that down and step aside."

Ice. Sharp, cold, cutting.

"You are impeding the escape of the children of your town. Their deaths will be on your hands. If you want to fight, go fight - but fight the fire nation. Do not help them by getting in the way. If you want to die, go die - but don't ask others to die with you, or die for you. While you were playing your games in the markets, the Water Tribes were fighting and dying. Some of us lived - because we knew when it was time to leave. I am not fighting for you. Where was the Earth Nation when the Water Tribes were being murdered? Where were you then?"

She nudged Clair, and he bared his massive teeth. Tika wasn't about to ask him to fight with kids around, but the earthbender couldn't know that.

"Don't tell me how to survive, earthbender. I figured it out on my own."

The nest of chaos from the shore had crept up this far, people whipping up into a frenzy at the nearest inclination of nature. Among them, a young girl - she couldn't be any more than ten, could she? - who, in her panic, had ran into the bear-wolf. Thankfully, both creature and rider seemed relatively unphased, the latter even offering a hand to the child to help her onto the bear-wolf's back. Ling couldn't help but smile, beneath her mask, despite the situation. Kuzon, however, bless his reckless soul, didn't seem to want to let them go. Steadying himself, he erected a wall of stone behind the bear-wolf and its passengers, cornering them as he repeated his - Ling's - plea.

Ling stepped forward, placing a hand on his shoulder and shaking her head, then gestured inland.

If they want to go, go.

A slight shift, a tilted head at the young girl.

She's right. There's a child.

She paused, tensing at the rumbling from the shoreline. Doubtless, the few benders the town had were coming to arms, as well as any local kingdom soldiers that might have been passing by for the festival. She pointed to the docks, then clamped a hand over her chest.

But they need help.

Her eyes settled on the one who had called herself a bender. If the rider wished to leave, so be it. She was past convincing - Ling saw it in her face. But this one, this one wanted to help. This one was brave. Or, perhaps, foolish. They were often one and the same, weren't they? One way or the other, it meant another hand putting out fires, another hand pushing back invading ships. Focusing intently on the bender-girl's eyes, Ling let the silence speak for her.