Extortion:The act of obtaining something through intimidation or coercion.
Darkness claimed the young woman's sight.She had been a prisoner for weeks,maybe months now.By day the ceil was just dimly lit enough to see and by night it was absolutely impossible.
It was not the lack of sceenary that surprised Suki,it was the fact that she was awake.Through the day she would remain a silent,depressed figure huddled over in the corner,while at night she would fall into a dream-filled sleep pertaining to freedom.
And,of course,Sokka.That was her escape from the dreariness that surrounded the Kyoshi warriors.Suki's normally rational thinking had slipped into imagination,a half-awake spell of dream daze.
Someone touched her shoulder.She turned slighty and tried to move her tangled hair to catch a better glimpse when she felt five pricks of what could of been a claw digging into her flesh.
"Stop it,"Suki pleaded,her surreality falling away.Then,more agressively."Stop it!"she tried to move her hands in order to grab her opposer only to find them binded."Stop it or else!"
"Or else...what?"A familiar voice inquired amusedly.
"I'll-I'll-"
"Harm me?"It chuckled at such nonsensical notions."Maim me?Maybe even...kill me.Or maybe you want to make me suffer."
Suki seethed through gritted teeth even as the hand left from her shoulder and she could sense someone circling her.Pondering as if on a difficult decision to make and on a urge that kept coming.
"I know where they are,you know."she told her in a carefree tone."I know where the Avatar is,the bison and Sokka is also."
The sound of his name outside her mind made her erect up in her seat more.Hopeful,desperate to hear his name said again.
"And if I wanted to,I could flush them out of hiding in just a single day.But where's the fun in that?What would you say if I offered you a deal,Suki?Your freedom for their total capture?"
She didn't need to know why Azula did not catch them herself nor why she,Suki,was being asked to.It was only to cause the torment of others for the entertainment of a few horrid tyrants.
"You know my answer to that."Her mind was clearing and focusing.
"And you haven't let me finish my plan."Azula said patiently to her,as if she were a slow child.There was a tingling sensation on the back of Suki's ankle,an itchy and uncomfortable kind of feel.
"What are you putting on me?"She demanded in a high shriek.
"Snakevine,"Was the reply,smooth as silk and as bone-chilling as a blast of cold air."Though it's a baby root right now,once it reachs the top of your hip in three days you will fall paralyzed."
"What?!"
"I have the only antidote."she continued,unruffled."You will be escorted to a certain point and then continue on to ther hiding place.There,you will convince them to travel to Fire Lily Alley."
"I'll take paralyzed over betrayel anyday."Suki told her coldly.
"Oh,but it will not only paralyze you."
Her heart skipped a beat.
"It will seep an inner poison into your bloodstream."
All feeling left her body.
"You have three days."
To be continued..
