A group of warriors ran silently through the forest, their painted faces flashed pale in the light of the moon. The leader raised her fist close to her ear, signaling their halt. The leader silently pointed through the trees to the plume of smoke rising above the forest. Using hand signals, the leader sent two of their party onward. The two warriors crept stealthily through the forest underbrush.
After a few moments they returned with news, "It's definitely them, no mere hunters would need a caravan full of weapons." the first warrior whispered.
"They have two sentries awake, one of the west side of the camp and one of the northeastern side. We can take em no problem!" the second cried, before being harshly shushed, "Oh, sorry!" she replied, barely audibly.
The leader nodded, "Alright... Yui, you take a group of four to deal with the sentry on the right. Ty Lee, you take the remaining two and take the one on the left."
"But, what about you Suki?" Ty Lee asked.
"I'll secure the captive," she said smiling.
Ty Lee grinned, drawing her fans, "Sounds good!" Ty Lee signaled two of the other Kyoshi Warriors to follow her and together they dashed through the forest. Through her exquisite mascara she saw the sentry, he stood on an improvised wooden sentry tower. He looked drowsy, but he was big and an earthbender by the look of him, this could be tricky. Ty Lee turned to one of her warriors, "Jia, how's your chi-blocking?"
She looked at her, "Well, better than it was last month, but if you're thinking about asking me to block that guy's chi, I can tell you that's not going to happen."
Ty Lee nodded, "In that case, I'm going to need you both to wait here until I give you the signal." Without another word, Ty Lee crept unseen to the other side of the tower.
"Wait, what's the signal!" Jia called after her.
But Ty Lee was already in position, she just needed the perfect opportunity. The sentry's head dipped in sleepiness. That will do. She threw her collapsed fan at the sentry's forehead, he clutched his face as he fell to the ground. Accepting the signal, the two Kyoshi Warriors ran to silence him.
The sentry shook his head. Seeing the warriors close in on him, he tried to shout for help, but as he did so, a gag slipped inside his mouth. One warrior held the gag, the other tried to restrain his arms, but with a stomp of his foot, one warrior sank waist deep into the earth. He threw the other one off and attempted to throw a stone at her, but found he couldn't. He became aware of a subtle numbness in his right arm. Ty Lee sent a punch into his other arm, the strange feeling spread. She executed several similar punches to his chest and he fell over, limp.
Ty Lee suppressed the feeling of pure glee coursing through her having completed her task perfectly. She cleared her throat, "Make sure he stays quiet." she shouted making her way inside the camp, leaving her warriors to gag the sentry and dig themselves out of the soft earth. Peering behind a tent, Ty Lee saw Suki making her way to the center tent. Then watched as Suki faltered and fell, an arrow sticking from her chest.
"SUKI!" Ty Lee shouted, before clapping her hands over her mouth. It didn't matter because the blow of a horn sounded through the camp. Ty Lee ran to Suki as the camp quickly was roused to consciousness. Examining the wound, Ty Lee didn't think any vitals were damaged, but Suki was losing blood quickly.
Suddenly, a large man emerged from the center tent holding a knife to a young girl's throat, "Well, if it id'nt the Kyoshi Warriors!" his men quickly grabbed their weapons and surrounded the two warriors, "Now boys, correct me if I be mistaken, but I thought that after raiding that village we asked not to be followed, all respectful-like." he spoke in a nauseating voice.
His men grunted in the affirmative. A hooded archer emerged from the shadows and stood beside the large man.
"In fact," He pulled the young girl's hair, causing her to scream, "I be fairly certain that we said we lot would kill this helpless little one if there be any foolish enough to follow us! Now Kyoshi Warriors, what are we supposed to do? We lot are all men of our words now ain't we?"
"No, please! Don't hurt her!" Ty Lee shouted.
At that moment, a rock flew from the forest and smashed into the bandit leader's face. His men looked around, confused. Then the little girl was pulled underground and disappeared.
"Kyoshi Warriors, fight!" a voice shouted through the forest. At this signal, the remaining Kyoshi Warriors leaped into the camp and began scuffling with the bandits. A figure appeared from underground beside Ty Lee.
"Bwah! Who are you?" Ty Lee shouted.
"My name's Haru," he said cradling the little girl. The strange figure handed the girl to Ty Lee. "Is your leader alright?" he asked.
"Suki's lost a lot of blood, we need to get her back to the village as fast as possible."
"I can get her there the fastest, but will you all be okay?" Haru asked.
Ty Lee stood and opened her fans, "I think we'll be alright."
Haru rode away from camp on a giant boulder carrying Suki while Ty Lee stayed with the other Kyoshi Warriors. She led the little girl to a stockpile of stolen goods, "Just stay here until I tell you it's safe alright?"
"A-are you going to leave me?" the girl asked.
"No, not at all, I'll be right here making sure you're safe." Ty Lee reassured. The moment she turned around, she saw a bandit carrying a long spear running towards her. Deflecting the tip of the spear with her steel fan she grabbed the shaft and using the bandit's momentum, threw the bandit over a row of tents.
Three more bandits advanced on her, but another of the Kyoshi Warriors leaped to her aid.
Ty Lee caught one of the bandits' sword blades between her fans and with a quick twist threw the blade out of his hands. She then sent him flying into another of the bandits with a well-placed kick.
The other warrior judo-threw the bandit with the power of his strike.
Ty Lee glanced around the camp, and all the few bandits who weren't disarmed began throwing down their weapons. The hooded archer wept as he held his bow, now snapped in half, as one would a lover.
Ty Lee's knees faltered as she looked around at her first victory with the Kyoshi Warriors. A smile broke out onto her face as she placed her hand on the little girl's shoulder, "Now to get you home."