Chapter 4: Caught

With Zola

It's been a week since the metalbenders chased Zola and that watertribe women saved her. But during that week, her health seemed to have taken a turn for the worse. A fever had sprung on Zola after a few days and her wound brought pain every once in a while to her system. Today, her body felt weak and the fever hit even harder than the previous day.

Zola lay there panting when suddenly, Skoochy's hand was pressed softly against her shoulder. "Zola? How ya feelin?" He asked softly, kneeling beside her. Opening her eyes slowly and only slightly, Zola's tired eyes met Skoochy's. He brought a small canteen of water to her lips as she drank. A cough escaped her lips when finishing and Skoochy looked at her worriedly. "Zola… Ya sound horrible."

"I feel horrible… This wound is killing me… literally…" What if this wound did take my life? All the other orphans would be alone in this world, having to deal with all of this by thereselves. It wouldn't be right, which is why she had to keep fighting against this wound, although it was taking a toll on her system.

"I know, just hang tough, okay?" Replied the brown haired boy,

"I'll…try…" her voice was trembling and cracked, and her body shuddered as she tried to suppress the throbbing in her head.

"This looks bad…" The symptoms had started appearing the minute she came back and Skoochy took the piece of metal out. They had noticed that the tip of the metal had been rusted, making her blood infected. The fever had slowly kicked in during the first night and the wound had begun to bleed green and red. Skoochy had taken care of getting the money and buying the food and now, they only had a small sum of yuans left to buy anything since there weren't many residents out for Skoochy to talk to. Wasn't great for the both of them, that's for sure. "I'm gonna go look for a waterbender." And with that, he ran, dropped out of view and probably began running towards the busy streets.

While she was running out of time.

Who knows if she would be dead by the time Skoochy came back? At the rate her body was giving out, it wouldn't take long before her wound would kill her, maybe in a few minutes or hours but soon, that's for sure. Zola needed that healer now before it was too late.

Standing up painfully, her right arm was cradled against her chest and her left hand was against the wall, balancing herself. Zola's vision blurred slightly but it didn't stop her from limping. Zola's hand went shakily to her hat and she placed it over her head, ready to go out into the streets in hopes of finding some healer or medicine.

Skoochy wouldn't be quick enough to save her. And so she had to do this on her own, although it would probably lead to her death faster. Limping out of the alley, walking out and fell onto on the ground. Hissing at the pain through her arm, Zola slowly got out of the mud and repositioned the hat on her head, trying to hide her face in darkness as much as possible. Cradling her arm to her chest again, body sagged with weakness while standing up. Shaking the weakness off, Zola limped towards the market, leaning against the walls heavily for support.

The streets were packed once again. Many citizens were walking along, minding their own business while others were purchasing their food or house supplies. But there didn't seem to be a healer in sight. Great… More digging for her to do and not a lot of time. All this movement was taking a large toll on her. Panting, Zola limped towards the crowd but something seemed to grab everyone's attention. Someone bumped into her and even in her right arm, making Zola scream out in pain. There were so many people that were backing up that her hat accidentally fell off.

Suddenly, Zola's eyes widened at the sight in front of her.

Several metalbender marched under the archway, metal cables at their waist and a hand on their weapon. But what followed them was the shocking part. Three people followed the guards, slowly and steadily. The chief of police was at the lead of the two of them and the two followed.

One of them was the watertribe woman.

Her brown hair flowed in the slight wind and she looked around, eyeing the the bald man with the arrow on his head and what Zola assumed was her father or a friend beside her. Her blue eyes surveyed the marketplace, looking for some excitement to start probably. But then, her blue eyes fell upon Zola. She froze and so did everyone else. They stared at one another, just locking gazes.

"It's you…" Her lips said as the Avatar continued to look at her. Her companion seemed to have caught onto what she was saying and looked around, finally landing on Zola. The Avatar with the brown pony tail looked her over and realization seemed to enter blue eyes.

"The thief…?" The bald man with the arrow on his head said, making the police look around and finally land upon Zola. Oh no…

Zola's eyes widened and her legs responded faster than her brain ever could. She tried running but her legs weren't fast enough. Citizens kept getting in her way and the metalbender reconized her and were approaching her quickly. Zola's wound also made running practically impossible. Once the citizens were out of her reach, Zola tried running quicker but the metalbender came at her from all sides, grabbing both wrists behind her back and pinning her to the ground. A large scream erupted from Zola's lips as they pressed against her wounded right arm.

They tied her wrists together behind her back with a thick metalic rope and lifted her to her feet by the back of the shirt, chokingly. So much pain erupted in her upper body as they dragged her to the Cheif of police, placing the tip of their metal like dagger that projected from the inside of their sleave against her neck. Gritting her teeth against the pain, they stopped a few feet in front of the Chief of police and pressed the metalic dagger against her neck even more, nearly drawing blood.

"Chief, shall we take the life of this thief?" The metalbender holding her asked Cheif Lin Beifong. The Cheif, with her collar-length grey hair, tall figure and green eyes, stared her down, Korra's mind wondering what to do.

Just before the Beifong began speaking, she interrupted her abruptly. "Beifong, maybe it would be best if you simply locked her in the jail. The less blood loss, the better, isn't that right Beifong?" She asked, making Chief Beifong turn her attention to her. Both Beifong and Korra locked gazes and the Cheif turned her attention back to Zola.

Sighing, the Chief said: "I suppose the Avatar is right. The less blood shed, the better. Bring her to the prision." She turned her attention back to Tenzin "I suppose our conversation will be cut short. I'm off." Both Tenzin and Korra nodded and the metalbenders, the Chief and Zola began walking towards the prision.

As they walked, Zola's eyes fell upon the other orphan, standing in the distance. Their eyes widened when they saw the guards take her away.

This would be the last time she would see the other orphans, probably for the rest of her short life. The metalbeders took her away forcefully, making her sometimes cry in pain as the injury to her right arm flared in pain.

She looked ill and were they taking her away to a cold and damp cell. But… Korra had seen her again, but not in good circumstances. Maybe there was something she could do to help her. There had to be… Korra couldn't let her be killed by Bei-fongs metalbenders.

Korra was reunited with the theif… just not in the way she wanted to be.


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