"Run! Now! Keep going!" my father shouted behind me.
I ran up to my mother and she grabbed my wrist while we ran. We stopped behind a tree and she held my shoulders. "Keep running, Nika. Don't let them take you."
I nodded before running towards our house.
The town blew up in flames and smoke right before my eyes. I quickly got down as low to the ground as I could without being on my hands and knees. Shuffling my feet, I shifted across the ground and behind my house. I checked around the corner of the house to see if I'd been followed. I saw my father on the ground with blood pooling out of his mouth, burns stretching up his neck, reaching one of his ears. Tears burned behind my eyes.
I closed my eyes and ran back to him. Crouching beside him, I took his dagger that was sheathed at his hip. The hilt was wrapped in turtle-duck fluff with two pieces of the shell tied on with twine. I gripped the dagger before I noticed a soldier running at me. Lunging forward, I sliced through his left leg before whipping around and leaping onto his back, slicing the blade across his throat. We both landed with a thud, but only I got up. I looked back at my father's dead body a moment longer before running off to the edge of the village.
My feet lightly skimmed across the ground as I ran. Smoke billowed all around me, and it was a struggle to see more than a few feet in front of me. Luckily, it seemed to be the same way for the fire nation soldiers. I climbed up into a low branch of a tree and sprang up to the next branch. A childish move...
The branch snapped under my weight and I fell back to the ground. I rolled in the air so that I landed on my side, causing my right shoulder to scream in agony. I bit my lip, hushing my own scream as tears flooded my eyes. "Damn it..." I muttered as I got up off of the ground. I scanned around me and didn't see any soldiers, but I knew that they knew where I was. That snap had echoed through the whole village.
Taking off again, I realized how wrong I'd been.
Two soldiers stood in my path, hands glowing bright with flickering, orange flames. Both smirked when they saw me. I grimaced and drew out my father's dagger. One, who looked much older than the other one, sent a wave of flames across the field to me. I flinched and leaped to the right, crashing into the second soldier. The flames had blinded me long enough to distract me from his location.
He grabbed my left arm, sending burning energy through my veins. I screamed out and swung my foot out. I made contact with his knee, sending him backwards. As he pulled me down with him I twisted upside down and kicked his elbow in, leaping up and away from him. I crashed onto the chard ground with a thud. When I looked behind me, the younger soldier was reeling towards me. I flung out my right arm, launching the dagger through his stomach, where it stuck. Kicking off the ground, I tackled him, yanking the dagger out of his stomach and sending the blade straight across his neck.
He let out a gargled squeal as I jumped back and away from him. He hit the ground in a mass of bloodied flesh. The older soldier watched in horror for a moment before sending wave after wave of fire towards me. I ran towards him after his fourth wave smashed against a hut behind us. The smoke was becoming unbearable and breathing was seemingly a chore. I hurled myself through the air and flipped over, slicing a long gash from the soldier's chest, over his shoulder, and across the back of his neck. I hit the ground and rolled back further away from the soldier.
A chocked growl rose from his throat. He spit out a wad of blood, and as it hit the ground with a plop, he formed a long string of fire. Yelling violently he lashed it out to me. It sliced across my left arm, from my elbow down to my thumb. I screamed in both anger and pain before launching myself back at him, the dagger in front of me. I slammed into him, the blade digging into his stomach. He let out a howl before stomping his foot, launching flames up from the ground.
My feet screamed as the soles were burnt horribly as I leapt up, driving the dagger into the soldier's right shoulder. He yelled again, fire launching out of his mouth. The flames singed the bottom of my pants. I cried out as the burnt cloth brushed against my legs. He smiled as he lit his hand again, flames trickling down to the ground. I panted and stared him down. A wall of flames hurled towards me from my right. I jumped back, but not quick enough to get my right hand out of the way. I screamed as my flesh burst open from blisters.
Damn it... There's another one...
I held the dagger in my left hand as the first soldier laughed. "Stupid kid..."
I snapped. I knew how to fight. My dad taught me everything. I glared at the soldier and charged across the field, swerving to the side of his attack. I slide down and swept his feet out from under him before leaping back and driving the dagger into his right eye. He cried out for a moment before he died. I yanked the blade out and raced towards the newest soldier. My muscles were pulsing with exhaustion and adrenaline as I jumped up into the air. Flipping, I held out my foot and crashed down onto his face, cracking his nose.
I swung around, sending my foot into his neck. A loud snap told me I'd hit the target. Racing away from the scene, I held the dagger in my mouth. Three other soldiers flew in front of me. There's no way I can take them all. My breath came out in short pants and coughs. One of them charged me, a sword in his hand. I ducked down, letting him loom over me before I jumped up, pulling out the dagger in time to pierce his heart. He swerved, taking the blade in his stomach, before he threw me across the field. The other two men raced towards me and pined me to the ground, holding my arms down.
I screamed as their hands started to burn into my arms. They both smirked and pulled me up, holding me above the ground. I thrashed my feet wildly, trying to land a blow on them. Their gripes tightened and I screamed in agony. A third hand gripped my hair into his hand, burning the strands. I cried out as he pulled it back, forcing me to look at him. His face was fair, his eyes a bright gold, and his hair neatly tucked into his helmet. He grinned a wolfish grin before looking over me at the other two men.
"Let's take this one back to camp." He said with a smart-ass tone.
The first hand let go of my hair, or what was left of it, while I was carried away from the town. We approached a clearing with few trees and tents pitched around a small fire pit. I was thrown against one of the trees, my breath only coming in short rasps. Fire nation soldiers circled around me. "What do we do with her general?"
"We take her back and see how much she can fight for us."
Some of the soldiers smiled while others shrugged. Two soldiers crept towards me before slamming me against the tree while others bound me there with ropes.
"You all deserve to burn in your own flames!" I shouted at them. A hand smacked across my face with brute force. The skin on my cheek split open and blood oozed out, draining out and down my face. "What was that?!" I taunted. Maybe if I challenged them to a fight, I'd be able to make a run for it.
"A warning," he muttered.
I shrank towards the tree while the soldiers walked away laughing. The ropes dug into the open burns on my arms and blood seeped through them, I held back tears as the tree bark dug in as well. They all sat around a fire and ate food as the sun slowly set. My body was shaking from the pain and I started to see my vision blur. My head bobbed down before I would jerk it back to an attention spot every now and then. I began gasping for all of my breaths coughing up wads of blood.
Most of the soldiers traveled into their tents to rest while few stayed out and watched camp before they too eventually left. I hung, slightly above the ground, with my head hanging low. A whistle blew out softly above my head in other trees before about four or five kids jumped down from the trees. One landed in front of me.
He looked to be about nine or ten with dark brown hair and his eyes glinted brown with green specks. He was small but stood taller than me by a lot, even though I was his age or only about a year younger than him. He had a long tunic on with pants, but he seemed to have a farmer's hat tied around his neck and a read shawl over his shoulders.
I struggled, trying to move away from him and closer to the tree. He shook his head and looked around. "They took my weapon, dummy. Get out of here!" I whispered softly under my breath, using what was left of it. He shook his head and dug through a bag before pulling out my father's dagger. I thrashed towards him, cutting deeper into my burns. I almost cried out before he covered my mouth with his hand. Tears started pooling out from my eyes, and there was nothing I could do to stop them.
When I stopped whimpering, he continued cutting the ropes away. Shouts had erupted from behind us at this point. "Get...get out of here…" I breathed out before the last rope snapped away. I fell forward into his arms before noticing the short bow on his back. Cries echoed around us as he pulled out his bow, and with me leaning on him he knocked an arrow on the string. He was surprisingly strong for his small stature. I heard a soft 'thwang' as the arrow left the string.
I slipped out of his arms and took the dagger from the ground. I gasped for breath before walking around the tree and half leaping half falling onto two or three soldiers and slitting their throats. My arms and ribs screamed in agony as I moved. My vision blurred, but I could see the remaining soldiers fleeing the camp, but only the boy and I remained standing.
Even that didn't last long. A soldier squared off to me and sent two waves of fire crashing to me. I leapt back and cringed as the pain shook my body. He sent long strings of fire towards me and two criss-crossed across my stomach, slicing through my shirt. Pain shot through me as I ran towards him, my dad's dagger heavy in my left hand. I skirted to the right, dodging another shot of fire before making a circle around him, pulling my dagger through his stomach all around. He fell to the ground and I let out long gasps of air. The winter air bit at my open burns, but it was almost relieving.
Another soldier launched himself to me with fire flickering at his fingertips. I ducked down, buckling my knees so that he tripped over me and skid across the ground. He lashed out a large wave under my feet. I leaped up and flipped over, crashing my right foot onto his left elbow, snapping the bone. I spun and landed another kick onto his jaw, getting back away from him. He spun on the ground, hurling a small kuni across my leg, sending a long, narrow gash up to my knee. I cried out and panted as I stood back away from him. Gritting my teeth, I prepared myself for his assault, but it never came.
An arrow pierced the soldier's right shoulder before another landed in the back of his head. He cried out as he fell to the ground. Limp. I was panting heavily, gripping the blade in my left hand, my side in the other. I fell to my knees and felt the boy's arms around me.
His eyes burned into me and I shrugged. "You...you don't...talk much. Do you?"
He shook his head as mine bobbed back and forth before I blacked out, collapsing in his arms.
He carried her back to the treehouses, struggling to hold onto her as they flew up into the branches. Jet stood, perched on a branch as he ran towards him. "Longshot!" Jet called out before he saw the girl. "Who's he?" Jet muttered.
He gave Jet a glare before holding her closer. Her breathing was becoming shorter and shallower.
"Hey man, only you have medical experience." Jet shrugged. "Take her to your hut. Keep an eye on him okay?"
Longshot was already running, carrying her, to his hut. He pushed himself and the girl through the cloth flap before lying her on his sleeping mat. Quickly, he grabbed the leaves used to treat burns. Chewing them until they were like a slimy pulp, he then spit them out onto his hands and spread the pulp across the major burn on her stomach. After wrapping the bandages around her waist up to the bottom of her ribs, he looked at the tattered cloth that was her shirt.
Hesitantly, he lifted it up and over her head. He grabbed his spare undershirt and drew it over her head, dragging it over her torso. It was absolutely too long for her but it was better than tatters. Especially this winter.
He bandaged her shoulders and arms, covering the torn flesh. He shifted so his back was to her as he wrapped her right leg. Once he was finished, he darted out and grabbed a bowl from the kitchen hut, filling it with some of the water in his canteen. When he got back, she was still lying there, but he noticed her torso rising and falling with each breath.
He walked towards her, sitting next to her. Grabbing her old, tattered cloths he started washing the dirt and grime from her face. As he moved the cloth under her eyes, she started shifting.