Chapter 10: The Former and the Ladder

Lyra whispered her warning and then spun around and glided back to the room. I pulled my spear free of the dead man's chest it was lodged in, flicking the blade clean of the most of the blood. A shrill, warbling bleat rang out from far too close and I said screw being quiet and ran in behind her and shut the heavy wooden doors.

Well. We're royally screwed. Officially. These doors didn't have any kind of locks whatsoever and it was the only way in. The hallway leading up to the doors might've been too narrow for the beetles to fit through, but that didn't apply to their riders or anyone else on foot like that woman and that man just now.

That woman. Why did her face seem so familiar?

"Van," Lyra said just barely above a murmur. She pointed at the desk.

I ran to the other side of it and started shoving it. Oof. The thing was heavy. The desk groaned against me and wouldn't budge until I turned around and put my back into it. And by budge, I mean shoot out from under me like a popped cork. I landed on my back, banging my head. A flash of pain shot through the back of my head. The desk crashed into the door.

"What the pit!" I spat as I turned over. I saw two long patches of white on the floor. They stretched from either side of me all the way to the door and under the desk. They were ice cold and with good reason.

Ice tended to be ice cold.

I looked at Lyra, comprehending. It was unusually easy to forget the girl was a waterbender, and a extremely good one at that. I never so much as heard a thing. I sighed at looking silly because of her twice in so many tens of minutes, while I climbed to my feet. The doors have been successfully barricaded.

That wasn't at all reassuring.

We were trapped. Plain and simple. We'd never hold out in here for long, even if the crude barricade held up. It felt stupid that we were even in here. But we didn't have a choice. Our only other options were head down stairs towards the killer beetles or to stand where we were and fight. I could picture how both choices would turn out. I'd charge right at the beasts, howling at the top of my lungs like a lunatic, only to get my head taken off by a casual twitching of one of those scything mandibles. What would happen to Lyra after that is anyone's guess. The pit, she might be able to kill one of those things on her own. Or maybe even kill them all.

That is if she wasn't clearly scared of them, or more specifically, the riders. Unless "bad men" somehow meant the beetles.

But, maybe I'm selling myself short. I'd do better than rushing the bugs wouldn't I? It wasn't like I didn't take a few-

Wait. I'm getting sidetracked here. Where was I? Oh yeah. Rushing to the waiting jaws of the bugs? Bad idea. Waiting for the rushing jaws of the bugs? Bad idea too. Hiding from the jaws of the bugs by locking ourselves in room with only one way out? Also a bad idea, but it keeps me alive for a few more minutes.

An even louder bleating of the beetles came. It was so loud, it felt like it was in the same room, and then something started banging on the blocked doors. The desk was plenty heavy alright, but it didn't cover the entire doorway and the top of the cherry wood doors started to splinter as something was determined to rip them down or away.

I swung my gaze to Lyra. Maybe I was looking for some kind of reassurance in the little girl, hoping to see her doing something like remaining perfectly calm in the face of this danger. But when I looked at her and saw her staring transfixed at the door like in some kind of trance, needless to say it was a downer. She iced the floor so the desk would slide, but that seemed to be all she would or could do.

I once thought that this wasn't my scenario. That I wasn't cut out for any of this and that Lyra was. But now this was the moment for me to do…something. But what?

Was all I could do was wait here? Wait here to be killed? Was there really not a damn thing I could do about it? You mean I couldn't do anything but wait in this dead end library? I was about to die the bookworm's dream? That's how I'd die? Me? The guy that beat 10 firebenders with just a spear, a bamboo forest, rope, and a pit of skinworms (nasty little things that were a mix between earthworms and leeches)? Van the Bandit with as many people who want to see him wiped out was going to finally meet his end without doing a damn thing to stop it?

I get my chance to not be pathetic and I can't think of a single thing to do but crack self-deprecating jokes?

I threw my hands up in frustration and started to shout every curse I could utter, even invent new ones for the last few moments of my life, when the butt my spear hit the metal glove display just near me.

The display rocked over once and stood like that, leaning over on its side as if frozen in place from falling. An audible click came from somewhere within the walls. Air whooshed from the fireplace. The blue crystals abruptly went out. Then the entire bottom of the fireplace started sliding down, stones grinding against stone. They vanished from view and a stone cover slid over the space from where the crystals once stood. I blinked.

I walked over and could see notches in the back of the fireplace that the fire crystals had blocked. Those same notches went all the way up. I didn't know how long the shaft went, but a very, very faint pinprick of light was in the distance. It was big enough for a person my size to crawl up through. My mouth gapped open. These weren't just notches.

These were ladder rungs.

I also heard some ticking noises, each one slightly more rapid than the one before it.

Oh. Well. Okay. A secret ladder on a timer. That'd do the trick, I guess. I started to tell Lyra to come on and climb the ladder. Then I stopped. And I looked back at the door, buckling little by little.

I felt a feeling I hadn't had in years as an idea formed in my head. I laid my hands on one of the items to relieved the armory of and started eyeing the bookshelves. It was a crazy idea, but sometimes crazy was effective.

Another hard bang at the doors.

They started to cave and I heard another shrill bleat. They were almost through. I could hear shouts as more people gathered and started trying to break the door down. Lyra was still staring at the door. I rushed over and grabbed her hand. Her head snapped around to look at me, almost surprised. As if she'd forgotten I were still in the room.

I don't know if it was the change in the rooms lighting, but I could swear the tiny diamond shaped stone in the center of her forehead was glowing.

Shaking that off, I more or less shoved her towards the fireplace. "Start climbing and keep going. Don't stop. Don't wait for me, no matter what. I'll be right behind you!"

She still looked dazed, but she did as I told her and ran to the fireplace ladder thing and started climbing. While she did that, knowing I had only seconds to do this, I grabbed the thickest book of the shelf I could find, taking note of the delicious irony involved, and went to work on a little "present" for the bug riders.

I finished as quickly as possible, taking just 10 seconds as the door began to completely give in and the ticking grew louder and more rapid. I'd made it up the ladder and was well enveloped in darkness when the ticking finally stopped and the fireplace reset itself. The timing couldn't have been better as I heard the door finally give way, and men rushed into the now empty room.

Their voices echoed up to me. "What? Where is he? You said he was in here?" said bad man #1 his tinny and slightly muffled.

"He's here. Search the room," said bad man #2.

"Why's the floor is all wet. What's with this book in the middle of the floor?" bad man #3 wondered, he sounded young but it was hard to tell as his voice was growing fainter and fainter as I kept climbing.

Bad man #1 answered, "I have no idea, but it leads to the desk. What book?"

"This one. Just laying here. 'Avatar Hoshiro and the Mad Bomber'. Weird. It's pretty heavy."

Bad man #1 finally realized something was amiss. "Does anyone else smell that? Wait! Don't open it!"

This was when bad man #3 either opened or dropped the book. The weight of the book pages I didn't hollow out were pressing down on the 3 primed blasting jelly caps. Blasting jelly caps combined all the explosive force of regular blasting jelly with none of the fear of transporting it. Inside the caps was a total vacuum and blasting jelly only ignites in air. Once the weight was removed oxygen rushed in, disturbing the mixture, setting them off. The real damage isn't from a fireball or just the concussive force, but from the shrapnel created when the cap goes off. That said, those things still pack quite a punch that can knock a man off his feet with ease even 10 feet away from the detonation zone. And if you're that close you're likely to get pieces of metal going at hundreds of feet per second through your body. Anti personnel doesn't begin to describe those nasty little balls.

Which bad men 1 thru 3 found out for themselves.

There was three rapid thuwumps and the shaft around me shuddered. Warm air rushed up the shaft and I was surrounded by intense noise. It was a blood curdling shriek from inhuman lungs. I was torn at by all senses. I could almost feel the rage clawing at the back of my head. Something rotten and putrid threatened to gag me. It was one of those giant beetles. One of them had pressed itself into the room and was letting out a shrill bleat. At the loss of its rider? Was the thing actually crying out for him? I felt my hands slacking on the notches and forced myself to cling for dear life. Some how feeling as if the thing had stuck it's head up the shaft and was waiting for me to fall into its waiting-

Something heavy hit the ground.

And then silence.

The bleating just stopped.

What the pit was that? No matter, just climb your ass out of this place. Let someone else sort the what's and who's out, I scolded myself.

I kept climbing.

The ladder was ridiculously long and nearly pitch-black. The pinprick of light at the end of the shaft didn't seem to be getting any closer. It was only through muscle memory that I was able to keep reaching for the next notched rungs. I couldn't see or hear anything from above me either. I told Lyra to go ahead, but it was more like I was in this place alone. That girl must be able to climb like a hog-monkey if she was so far ahead of me.

It was just as well though. I had time to gather my thoughts about what just happened. Like the appearance of the beetle riders. Were they the "bad men" Lyra's been going on about since the beginning? They certainly qualify as bad to me, though it was in more of the badass sense. Those things were downright terrifying. I'd hate to have to ever fight one of those beasties. I still can't figure out how those men were riding them. Whatever the reason, that was a massacre back there. No fight should ever be so one sided.

Siyo and Lin's group managed to take out one of those beetles, but that wasn't nearly enough to consider it anything but a slaughter. The bastards didn't even spare the wounded that couldn't put up a fight if they tried. I was a bandit that robbed from the elderly once, but that's lower than low. That ranks right along side child slave traders.

I took an unnecessary risk doing it, but I didn't feel the least bit remorseful for the "present" trick I left in that room.

And about that room, what was in that room that was so important that Lyra would risk trapping us in there for? Was it some book? And then why'd so go all catatonic for a moment? This girl was always unphased by all the danger, even creepily so, but this was the first time she looked down right scared.

And something about that seemed…weirder than it should have. There was something about the way she was acting now that I should be realizing. It's kind of like being back in school and the teacher would ask you a question, but you couldn't figure out the answer. And then the other kids would start snickering at you for not figuring out the totally obvious answer and the teacher would look at you and think to herself "Maybe this one should be in the remedial course…"

Or maybe that was just me.

Either way, I couldn't finger it, but something about the girl's demeanor had changed. But at the same time, it didn't seem that way. She just acting the way any normal girl her age should and-

I nearly head butted the wall in lieu of smacking myself in the forehead at the realization.

That's exactly it. She's acting her age.

When I first met Lyra she seemed and acted more like an adult than even I did. She looked older than her size would suggest, like she was just some malnourished, unthinkably short woman. She regarded me with some detached curiosity a jaded old crone might have for a wise cracking, but capable buffoon like me. But, now…she's more childlike. She's showing more emotion. Before her face was an unreadable mask that I couldn't get a lick out of. Like the mild concern on her face when she accidentally flipped me over. (I'm gonna have to find out how she did that some day.) Before, I'd have been lucky if she had some much raised an eyebrow at anything I did. Little by little, Lyra is changing.

But, what could be the cause of it?

I thought about everything that's happened since we met, but I couldn't come up with anything. I'm missing something, something obvious, but this stupid little fact just won't reveal itself to me.

I let out an exasperated sigh. "Climbing stinking ladders and heavy thinking don't mix."

_________________

After what felt like a solid hour of straight climbing and just when I thought my fingers would be worn down to the bone and the muscles in my arms and legs would turn into mush, we made it to the top. Or rather, we made it to the end of the ladder. The shaft continued overhead, ending with some kind of metal cylinder top, but straight ahead was a simple, dimly lit hallway. And standing waiting for me at the top was Lyra.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was getting impatient.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, little missy," I muttered. "I don't know about you, but I've had enough of running around through underground hallways for one day."

The hallway was fairly short and ended in a set of ascending stairs leading to a metal door with no peepholes or windows. I pressed my ear to the cold metal, just like before, and listened. I stood like that for what felt like 5 minutes. When I was sure it was safe, I gave a glance to Lyra, who just looked back at me, and slowly pulled it open.

I must've been underground longer than I thought. The sky was gray, overcast. Like I heard through the door, a steady wind was picking up and the air just smelled thick, obviously about to rain. Yet, as ugly as it was out here, it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Never thought I'd miss clouds this much. But, I tore my thoughts off scenery gazing to making sure I wasn't seen and to get my bearings.

The door's exterior was made up to blend seamlessly into the stone face of a large hill's base. The ground sloped down from where I was standing right into a liberally spaced patch of trees and shrubs that adjoined a larger forest below in a wide basin. I took out my binoculars and gazed ahead of me. I'd just tracked across a dirt beaten path when I caught some movement. Some birds were disturbed and flew away. It wasn't too far from where I was standing.

I instinctively dropped down low, and reverse tracked the bird's flight through my sights. I held my breath when I saw the snapping jaws of the giant beetle. The pit. It was 40 yards away. 50 tops. Which was far closer than I want to be to those things. But, looking through the long range binoculars it was like those jaws were close enough to gut me. I was too well hidden through tree branches and downwind for it to know I was here, but still I had to force myself to let my breath out.

But not too loud. Or too fast.

In more proper lighting, and somewhat closer up, I could see that this beetle was different. For one it looked a bit bigger than the others did. Its size was closer to the giant, but harmless beetles certain merchants use to haul cargo. Its shell wasn't completely black. This one had an undertone of green and blue to its hue, and its legs were covered in hairy spines. I didn't know if it was a trick of the lighting, but it looked like the tips of one of those great jaws was blunted somehow, as if the tip had broken off. Trick of the light or not, what remained of that blunted tip was slicked with red.

It was moving slowly that massive head sweeping left and right as it moved.

"What's it doing?" I mouthed to myself. It seemed to be looking for something. Or someone.

Its rider sat atop one of those saddles, but the tops of the trees obscured him from view. All I could make out was a leg wrapped thick cloth and a bare foot. In fact, if I didn't know any better, those clothes look like-

It happened so fast, I barely registered it.

The beast lunged off the dirt beaten path. My heart leapt into my throat thinking the thing was about to come charging at me, but instead it thrust its head into the bushes. As swiftly as it lunged, it backed out dragging out someone by the leg. The beetle's one sharp mandible was pierced in the thigh, drawing agonizing howls and spurts of blood. The high pitched screams wouldn't continue for long, because with a deft flick of those jaws it flung the person to the other side of the path. Must have struck a tree or something because at once the yells stopped. I saw the one leg of the rider swing off the beetle's back. A moment later, the bound and tied captive was slung over the saddle. Then, the rider, now walking on the opposite side of the beetle from me, his feet visible under the great insect's body, disappeared from site down the road.

Despite my best wishes, I held my breath again and had to again force myself to let it go. I wouldn't do it though until I was absolutely certain the beetle hadn't doubled back to pick up a new passenger. I shook my head slowly, my mouth set in a grimace.

I wasn't just shaking it at my own, perfectly reasonable fears, but about what I just saw. About who was just captured, but before I could think too deeply about it, I decided to just let it go. The sooner I could get away from those big bugs, the better and I wouldn't get there by worrying about things that weren't even my problem anyway.

I turned to Lyra who, to my mild surprise, hadn't pulled a disappearing act on me. She was looking east of where we were. I'd kind of forgotten she was there for a moment, but she seemed to have the same sentiment as I had. Though I couldn't be sure it was for the same reasons.

I put the binoculars away and started moving in the opposite direction of the big beetle and its unseen rider.

______________

We made it to level ground before the skies finally opened up. The rain was light at first, but was cold and getting colder, which was weird for this time of year. It must have been a strong storm blowing in from up north. This whole time, we were following along the edge of the hill. The ground had risen up in a shelf with nothing but rock face next to us. Normally, I would've just made camp under a dense tree, cut some leaves and branches together for loose cover, and ride the storm out, but the storm clouds had other ideas.

A glance at Lyra told me that she wasn't having any problems whatsoever with the cold rain. She still had her cloak thing and it even had a hood. Weird. This look suits her for some reason. Must be because the whole cloak and hood look just screams, "I'm creepy, mysterious, and stick out in public, but please ignore me."

But I wasn't afforded any such luxuries. Damn it all. I wouldn't mind a mystery cloak right now. It'd make me look a little like an assassin or something, which is sort of cool, but more than that, I'd be drier and warm. Take it to the pit if that isn't convenient. It's handy for keeping however many hidden knives or whatever killing implement you want on you, yet it's great in the rain and snow too.

I sneezed.

Great. With me and just a simple little tunic on, I was presented with a new, less threatening, but just as real problem besides killer beetles: find shelter or freeze. So, here I was slogging through rapidly muddying ground in a sky that was quickly becoming darker and darker. We couldn't run. It was too likely I'd trip over a root or some rock, and I don't feel like breaking my damn ankle right now. We had to fell our way along moving as swiftly as we could, hoping to find a more secure place to set up for the night. It was a bitter experience and my damn feet kept sinking into the muck. We might not have gone one mile yet.

Blowing into my hands as we trudged along, I sputtered, "I-I don't suppose those c-come in m-men's sizes, eh?"

Lyra gave me an almost blank look, just as lighting flashed in the air. It cast her face in white. And for the second time, I could swear that stone on her head glowed. Before I could even question it, she stopped moving and looked to her right.

The soundless lightning had just illuminated an opening in the rock face. A cave.

"What are the odds?" I asked no one. But, rather than continue tempting Fate, I unceremoniously filed in with Lyra behind me. No sooner had we entered the cave threshold did the skies let loose the water en masse, as well as driving wind. It was spraying misty water even where I was standing, so we went in deeper before we finally started to settle in.

Irony might get added to the likes of Fate and Luck, for pulling this one one me. Didn't I say earlier how tired I was of being underground in tunnels, caverns, and caves? And now what so happens to be what saves my freezing ass? I let out a low chuckle at that.

I unstrapped my spear, still in its holster, and everything else I'd taken out of the armory. I could tell from the first revealing lightning strike that the cave cut in at an angle to the face of the hill. A smallish sized fire started in here, wasn't likely to be spotted unless you were already close enough to know a cave was there. Which was good, by the way. I had the foresight to take a few spark rocks and small kindling sticks with me, all would be sopping wet, but they'd have to do for now. It was nearly pitch black, so I had to fumble around before I found them. I turned my back to the entrance, just in case the wind shifted and blew out the fire once I started it. Just when I was about to strike the rocks together, Lyra grabbed my hand. I couldn't see her face because she was squatting staring straight behind me. I got a prickly feeling up my spine. And I slowly turned on my haunches.

In the entrance of the cave stood a figure. The figure was using the side of the cave for support with one arm, clutching at its side with the other. Even against the rain, I could hear the panting, labored breaths echoing lightly through the cave. The legs were wobbly and barely looked able to support the weight they carried. Pieces of clothing hung from the body, far fewer remained covering the body than I wore on my own. The figure was soaking wet and had to be freezing cold, yet the figure stood.

For the first time during the storm, lighting weaved web work across the sky and was accompanied by the crack of thunder.

The bright light illuminated the cave and the profile of the figure's face.

With have a face in darkness the other half in bright light, Siyo, her eye burning with hatred shambled forward, pulling a piece of the cave wall off with her hand. Her bare feet hardly lifting off the floor.

Another silent lightning strike.

Her other hand remained clutching at her belly, which dripped red, a shard of obsidian like material exposed between her fingers.

Lightning strike.

I stood and faced Siyo, leaving my spear where it lay. Lyra had left my peripheral vision, but I wouldn't look away to find her. I remained, looking at the hatred in Siyo's eyes.

"All…gone," Siyo said, her voice a crackling rasp, barely above a whisper. "All…dead. They're all…dead. Because of…"

Lightning strike. Thunder clap.

A trail of blood followed her from the entrance. Her body was covered with numerous other cuts and bruises. Her right ankle looked sprained, swollen and discolored.

Siyo was within arm's length of me. She raised the stone in her hand.

Lightning strike. Thunder clap.

"Because of…" Her chest heaved, and blood leaked from her mouth. For a bare instant, the stone in her arm lowered and she began to falter.

Lightning strike. Thunder clap.

"You!" she snarled.

All at once, the immense pain that had racked her face, the wobbling legs, the limp. It all vanished. She came down on me with all she had. Her hatred of me so powerful in that instant, I could damn near feel it in my bones. All of the rage was unleashed in feral roar still audible even in the echoing thunder.

The stone came. And the stone fell.

She'd lost consciousness before she'd hit the ground.

The stone smashed into pebbles on the ground next to me.

Lightning strike.

Lyra was standing on the other side of Siyo. When did she ever move? I'll never know. I don't even know if Siyo lost consciousness on her own or if Lyra helped her to somehow. She looked at Siyo's prone body, the smashed stone, then back to me.

Her big blue eyes somehow just visible even though the cave was back in near total darkness, asking me a silent question, I knew.

I had two options. One was smart. The other wasn't.

I stood there for a long moment.

Damn it to the pit that I choose the other.