A/N: This is a fanfiction is co-written with a good friend of mine; Aimless on Wattpad. We're uploading the stories on both of our accounts, but my versions will always be different because we edit differently. She is Lei and I am Sae.
Also, names are a difficult things for me to come up with, especially when I'm not sure what ethnicity each nation has. So, if some of the names seem out of place with some characters give me suggestions for new names.
As always, R&R. Constructive criticism is always welcome. Have a great week!
Lei sat around a fire with four others, faces painted like a Yuyan Archers. In fact they were the Yuyan Archers.
She and the other four archers had just gotten back from another special task put to them by Admiral Zhao. Now they sat in silence, enjoying the peace that so rarely came. A village not too far from them was burnt to the ground, the smoke still visible from where they sat. And why had the village been burned down? Because of a rumor that made its way to Zhao's ears; the avatar was temporarily residing there.
Apparently it had been just that; a rumor.
Lei gripped her bow tightly, regretting all the chaos she'd caused, the bloodshed. The screams of the victims were still fresh in her mind, the children, the elderly... She hated her job, but it did pay well, just enough to keep her family and herself going through the war. Lei's village hadn't been doing well ever since the start of the war and everyone was either dying from starvation or sickness, and she desperately tried to prevent that from happening to her own family.
She looked up, intending to ask the others a question, but they had all dozed off.
"How can they sleep after all of this?" She muttered softly, frowning at the sleeping forms around the fire. She watched as the orange flames locked at the logs they'd gathered, eyes glazed over in thought.
She stood up and sighed, hand patting her empty stomach and headed to the forest nearby to hunt for breakfast.
After stealthily stalking through the forest she spotted a fox antelope eating its meal. Lei aimed an arrow at it, sending it flying straight through its spinal cord; a clean, painless death, the best she could do for the animal. She walked over to it, yanking the bloodied arrow out of its neck and dragging it by its horns, she brought it back to their small camp. The archers were still sleeping, peaceful looks betraying what they dreamt of.
Lei sighed and sat down on the floor next to the fox antelope, taking her knife out of its sheath. Once she finished skinning the animals, she wrapped up individual portions of the meat that the archers wouldn't use and stuffed then into her bag. She looked around at the people around her once last time before gritting her teeth, feeling the tears stinging the edges of her eyes.
"I can't do this anymore..." She whispered, squeezing her eyes shut and fisting her hands tightly by her side. And with that, she turned in her heel and walked to no specific place.
Orange sunlight poured in through the window, casting the small room in a dim, comfortable glow. Sae sat by her mother's bed, filling a cup with water she gathered before. She set the cup on the nightstand, sitting up on her knees to wake her mother. She shook her shoulder gently, and getting no response, she shook her a little more roughly, hoping she'd wake up. Her mother stirred after a few seconds, mumbling incoherently.
"Mom, please, you need to wake up. I can't let you sleep so much." Sae urged, gently tugging at the older woman's arm. She pulled her arm out of the young earthbenders grip and turned on her side, pulling the sheets over her head with frail hands. Sae sighed, rolling her eyes at the childish display her mother was putting on. "Mom, you haven't eaten anything. Drink some water at least, for me." She pulled her mother up, ignoring her refusals and her weak attempts to lay back down. She hated having to make her mother do something other than rest, but resting wasn't going to make her get better any sooner.
She lifted the cup of water to her mother's chapped lips and tilted it back slightly, letting the water pour slowly and steadily down her throat. She leaned her mother back against the headboard of the old, worn bed and set the water back down.
"Sae..." her mother croaked out, "Sae, you've been such a great daughter, but you don't need to worry so much. I'm a strong woman." she said, grabbing her daughters hand in her smaller ones and held it close to her. Sae smiled at her mother's slightly annoyed tone. Sae had been hovering over her for days, constantly asking her if she needed something. She didn't blame her mother for being irritable, but she kept on regardless. Her mother was a strong woman, yes, but that didn't mean her sickness would leave at her will.
"I know, I know." she sighed, putting her other hand over her mothers. "I'll leave you alone, then. I'll be outside. Call if you need me." Sae stood up, popping her legs and back from how she'd been sitting for hours. Walking over to the door, she glanced back at her mother who had already laid back down, sheets drawn over her head. Sae chuckled, shaking her head.
She knew her mother would get passed this sickness, but she was making it a difficult process. However, she knew her mother was right when she said she was a strong woman. That, she had no doubt about. Her mother had been through hell and back, but still always came back stronger than before.
She turned the knob and stepped out, glancing back once more. "I love you." she whispered before closing the door. She looked around, trying to figure out what she would do. The garden out back had been tended to, supper was ready to be cooked, and she'd finished her earthbending lessons earlier that day. And without being occupied with her mother, she was left with nothing to do.
Decided, she went outside, heading down the hill her village was built upon and came to a large lake, their only source of water. She knelt down on the wet earth and breathed in the fresh air.
It was moments like these she enjoyed the most; when it was silent, aside from the chirping of the birds and the rustling of wind trough trees. Silence was a rare occurrence, and she felt she was lucky to have so much silence, even when in reality it was so little. She knew at any moment the peace within her village would be gone, if the Fire Nation decided to take over. Many villages in the Earth Kingdom had already been ravaged by firebenders, taken in the name of the Fire Lord. The fact that they had not yet come to this part of the kingdom was not taken lightly by Sae or her village. They knew very well that sooner or later the soldiers would come but they would put up a fight, until the last man stands.
Or at least that's what they said before the sickness began. Before, their village was ninety-three strong but it had taken many lives and they were left with fifty. In the course of one week, three children and two elders had died. Although they still had many of their strongest earthbenders, the foundation of the village was left weak; so many families of four or five were reduced to two, maybe just one. With all the deaths, a lot of families were left hollow and many were shells of their former selves, especially her own.
Years before, her father had passed and the sickness, in an earlier epidemic, had taken her younger brother, Hiroshi. Her mother had managed to stay strong and carry on daily work but Sae wasn't so strong. The moment the news of her father's death, followed closely by her brothers, sent her into an abyss of depression and she suffered physically for it. For a few weeks she would hardly leave her home, she sought for comfort in silence, in isolation. But her mother had become sick and Sae knew she couldn't go on in her condition. She had to step up and let go of her sorrow so she could take care of her mother. She wasn't so sure how much longer she would live...
Sae was snapped out of her thoughts when two flaming arrows landed right in front of her feet, immediately extinguishing in the wet earth. She was on her feet in seconds, running quickly up the hill. Half a dozen more arrows came at her and she barely had time to bring up a chunk of rock to shield her face. The earth fell to the floor in pieces, the arrows stuck deep inside. It didn't even occur to her that she should've been scared until she got to the village; the village was up in flames, arrow after flaming arrow stuck into roofs of home, into pillars that held up the patios and broke through the glass of windows.
Smoke enveloped her and she fought through stinging tears to see where she was going. She stomped on the floor hard, bringing up a small boulder and hurled it at the trees in which the attackers hid. She saw a form fall from the trees, black outfit torn at their abdomen revealing a bloody wound. Damn you, Sae thought fiercely, gritting her teeth. She ran to the other side of the village bursting through the door where a friend of hers lived.
Kiet, one of the stronger earthbenders in the village, rushed at her and pushed them both to the ground just as the wooden frame of the door she stood under collapsed. She gasped when she made contact with the hard floor. Kiet panted as he stood up, grabbing her by the wrist and yanked her to her feet. They ran, avoiding flaming and non-flaming arrows, each time barely managing to outrun them.
"Ki... Kiet." Sae panted, stopping for a few moments. Kiet slammed her against the wall and flattened his back against the same wall, hiding. "M-my mom." she choked out through the burning in her throat. He merely nodded and they took off again, to her home. The door had already burned, the ashes flying around them as the wind blew. "Go find her, I'm going to go see if anyone is alive." he ordered, already running back outside as he said it. Sae ran inside rushing to where her mother's room would be. Through the smoke, she could barely make out an unconscious form lying on the floor. Tears stung her eyes, both from the smoke and from fear.
"Mom!" she cried out running towards her, but the wooden beams that supported the roof of their home faltered, falling right between her mother and herself. Sae jumped back, feeling the flames against her shoe. She threw it off and backed away from the intense heat of the flames and fell back against the wall, coughing and gagging as the smoke took its effect in her lungs.
Two arrows pinned her by the cloth covering her wrists, preventing her from moving. Desperately, she fought against her restraints and grit her teeth. They want me to burn alive. Those bastards.She though angrily and with one final, sharp tug of her wrist the cloth ripped and she earthbended the earth underneath the wooden foundation of the floor boards and moved what debris she could. She fell beside her mother, pushing her onto her back.
"Mom?" she croaked, the tears now freely flowing down her cheeks, leaving clean trails down her soot covered face. "Mom?" she said again, this time shaking her violently. "MOM!" she yelled, shaking her roughly, her mother's head moved limply back and forth at the force. She heard footsteps behind her and then hands clamped over her shoulders and hauled her to her feet. Kiet's arms wrapped around her and he forcefully dragged her out of the house despite her thrashing.
"Let me go!" she struggled. "My mom!" she screamed.
"No, Sae. You'll die too!" he said through gritted teeth, panting at the effort of keeping her restrained.
"I don't care." she yelled defiantly, kicking against his shins. He let go of her for only second and he turned her around, gripping her shoulders enough to bruise.
"Listen to me, I just watched my family die. I knew it was too late." he said gruffly, the smoke making his voice hoarse. "There's no use in getting yourself killed." he said, shaking her. Sae stared at him, tears still trailing down her cheeks. He let go of her shoulders, replacing his grip on her wrist once again and they ran. The archers in the trees were relentless; they sent dozens of arrows at them. The wall of rock Kiet and Sae brought up shielded them. When they thought they'd ran far enough they stopped, hands on their knees, panting.
"Are... you... okay?" Kiet asked between pants. Sae nodded numbly, breathing in the fresh air.
"Are you?" she asked after a few moments.
"Yea-" Kiet let out a gurgled noise and his green eyes widened.
"Kiet! What's..." Sae began. The answer became clear when she saw the crimson liquid flow from his mouth, trailing down his chin and his neck. Sae gasped, watching Kiet slowly sink to the floor, a stain of blood forming around the arrow in his back. Another arrow came sailing at her and she stomped on the ground, bringing her arms up to force the earth to form into a wall before her. She sank to the ground, wrapping her arms around Kiet's shoulders and hauling him up. She knew he was dead but that didn't stop her from shaking him, yelling his name with desperate hope that he somehow survived. The wall began faltering with the force of the arrows and she stood up. Getting in stance, she sent portion of the walls flying at the trees not bothering to look.
Sae sprinted into the forest, not looking back.