Well prepare yourselves, Hyriu is back but you won't be happy about it. Oh and, there are some pretty disgusting descriptions in this one, you were warned.

Chapter 10

The Desert

"Get up!" a gruff voice said.

I slowly came too. I was on a metal floor. I stirred just as a heavy boot collided with my ribs; I grunted in pain.

"Get up you rat!" the voice said.

I took a breath of air. It was hot and dry air that made me cough. I realized my hands and feet were shackled. I looked around. I was in a large room. Everything was metal with a red tint as if it was all rusted. There were large cages hanging in rows from the ceiling. I was able to get to my feet. My legs shook from effort. I was breathing heavily from the strain.

"Walk," the same voice instructed.

I was surrounded by guards; the one that spoke was behind me. I shuffled forward. The air dried my throat and skin. I looked in the cages. In them were broken bodies. They were all old men and women. They had paper white skin wrinkled from age. There eyes were sunken. Their hair was thin and white. They were rotting away before my eyes. The only sign of life was when their glassy eyes moved as they watched me. Some didn't move at all. A foul odor perfumed the air. It smelled of rotting meat. I realized it was the stench of rotting corpses. Some of the prisoners were dead. No one bothered to move their body; it just stayed in its cell to decompose. I retched off to the side.

"Ah gross!" one of the guards said.

A foot kicked me and I fell into the pile of bile. A hand grabbed my shirt and pulled me back onto my feet. We finally got to a cell that had no one in it, alive or dead. A guard opened the door. They unlocked my shackles. Two men picked me up and threw me in. I hit the floor hard.

"Welcome to The Desert," one of the guards said as they closed and locked the barred door.

The cell was literally a cage for humans. I didn't have much strength so I just stayed in my collapsed position. All the injuries The Butcher had given me throbbed with pain. There was nothing in the cage. No blankets or pillow, just a bare metal floor. There were over fifty cages, all the same size, about seven feet by seven feet. Most of them were empty, just filled with black grime, maybe the leftovers of a prisoner long dead. There were only ten people in the cells, and who knew how many were actually living. There were small grates in the ceiling; it was daytime. I looked at the other cells. Underneath each cage was a square hole too deep to see the bottom. The man in the cell next to mine was slumped against the bars. His face was a pile of wrinkles with two pale glassy eyes that watched me.

Two days. For two days I laid there. I was given no food or water. When they feed the other prisoners, we were all bound. Our hands to the bars and our feet to a metal loop in the floor. When the two days were up, my hands and feet were tied like everyone

else's but this time, they didn't skip me. They held a pot on a pole. They held it up to my face. In it was a pile of grains, but it was food so I shoved my face into the mound of grain. They had a stale taste and biting crunch. As I ate, I realized there were some globs of liquid here and there. A realization hit me. They didn't clean out the grim from the previous prisoners. They feed one then used the same pot on the next prisoner, just pouring more grains in. There was saliva from other prisoners in it. I also tasted blood as I chewed. It was all I could do to not vomit. Then something caught my tooth, it was hard like a rock. I spit it out to the side. To my horror, I saw it was an old decayed tooth. With my tongue I checked all my teeth, they were all there. It was someone else's tooth. That did it. I moved to the side and vomited. I heard exclamations of disgust from the guards. They moved to the next prisoner who ate like a rabid dog.

Then came the water. The same way they did the grains, no washing just filling it up with more water. As the guards were filling the pot for me, the old man in the cage next to me looked at me.

"Don't do it," he barely whispered in a voice that matched his wrinkly face.

I didn't know what he meant. They leveled the pot up to me. I began slurping the water. As soon as I the cool water went down my throat, a frenzy broke out. I gulped down the water. When I had drunk my fill, I grabbed the pots of water with my bending grip and unleashed the water. I cut my bonds with the water and attacked the guards. They shouted in panic. I saw the keys on a guard's belt. Even though it pained me, I waterbended with my arms. I grabbed the keys with a water whip and swung them into my hands. I ran to the lock and ripped it open with the help of the keys. I jumped down to the walkway, I water smacked two guards and froze the other two. More came down the gangway. I looked for an escape route. Guards came from every direction. I gathered the surrounded water and attacked. In my weakened and frenzied state, I attacked in a brutal, sloppy and violent way. I was being overwhelmed despite my efforts. They soon tackled me to the ground. I saw one guy pull a large lever. Out of the dark pits beneath the cages, what looked like a brazier lifted up. The guards wrestled with me, one of them struck me in the head. The world spun and I was dazed. They opened my cage and threw me in.

Two men marched forward and punched two blasts of fire under my cell. I was confused when their intentions hit me; they had lit the brazier. Black smoke rose around my cell; I panicked. The hot dry smoke began to burn my eyes and fill my lungs. I tried holding my breath but that was a hard thing to do in a panicked state. I couldn't help it, I took a big gulp of air, it was mostly smoke. I coughed as the smoke stung my lungs. If possible, the smoke dried out my mouth even more. I tried to moisten my lips but my tongue was dirt dry. Just as the smoke suffocated me, the metal floor grew hot. It seared my skin. I screamed and jumped up. It burned my bare feet. I could hear the laughter of the guards as they watched me struggle. It kept getting hotter and hotter. I tried to hold myself up on the bars but I didn't have the strength. The bars were also burning; I let go. I hit the burning floor hard. I screamed and writhed around in pain. I was exhausted but the pain forced me to move. I heard the turning gears of the pyre lowering. The metal was still hot though; I continued to roll around in agony, a scream still ripped from my mouth. The smoke stopped and that helped my breathing. The metal cooled after a while and I began to recover after a few hours.

"I did warn you," the old man said sadly.

I gave a grunt in response. When I had some strength I propped myself up on the bars. The man was still looking at me.

"I - I had t-to try," I managed to say.

"They all say that," the old man said. They all have to try. They all fail. They all burn."

"D-Do any of them listen to you" I asked.

"No, but it clears my conscience. If I don't warn them, they blame me. So me telling you was more for my benefit than yours."

"Who are you" I asked weakly.

"What's your name"

The man looked taken aback. "No one's asked for my name in a long time" He stopped and thought for a few seconds. His face lit up, "Shiwa, my name is Shiwa. We" he motioned to the other cages- "are what is left of the waterbenders from the Southern Water Tribe."

You made it through eh? Well that was disturbing. And the waterbenders from the southern tribe, that was surprising huh? The next chapter gets interesting, the title alone should tell you that.

Chapter 11: The Death of Hyriu will go up next.