Sorry for the delay, something came up unexpectedly. Well it is time to see Avon in all his glory. Get ready now, this is a dark one. Enjoy.

Chapter 14

The Cold Dark

The Robed Man towered over me. I was frozen to the spot. He slowly walked closer to me. His piercing red eyes bored into me. I felt like he knew everything about me by just looking at me.

"Well?" Avon said menacingly. "Will you be begging for mercy or will I have to follow through on my threat?"

"I, uh," I stammered in a small voice.

"Hmm, you seemed more brave when I was just a vision, but now that I am here, your bravery has vanished along with the moon," he circled me and stopped with his back facing me. "Well, I think I see what your answer is-"

In a flash he turned and the next thing I knew, I was flying across the ground tumbling. I smacked into a burning log and it broke from the force. I struggled to my feet. Avon walked over.

"Since you did not ask for mercy, you shall receive none," he said and raised his hand.

I quickly unleashed a blast of wind. The ashes whipped around in the gale but Avon only moved back a few feet with his robe swirling around him.

"Is that really the best you can do? I actually expected a bit more from the all powerful Anzen," he mocked.

I opened my water pouches and whipped several streams of water at him. He dodged all of the water with inhuman speed. He took control of the last stream and stopped it in midair. He then shot the water at me. I could do nothing to stop it. I flew into the ground. Before I could stand, I was hit again and again. I slid close to the edge of the cliff, I hoped the others were okay. The water came at me again, this time I stopped it before it struck me.

I stood, my arms holding the water and stuggling with Avon. I realized he would win this fight if I didn't do something. I looked around quickly, an idea occurred to me. I slid my foot shooting a subtle earth bending attack to disrupt is footing. He redirected it and the whole Cliffside rumbled. I did a back flip to dodge a water strike. The Cliffside began to collaspe. I didn't have time to move so I fell with the crumbling rocks. I quickly got my staff out and opened the glider. My eyes darted around for my friends, I spotted them trhough the rees as the forest below the cliff survived Avon's inferno. I landed by them

"Hyriu, are you alright?" L. E. said looking for any injuries like a mother would.

"I'm fine we just need to get out of here," I said in a shaky voice. My whole body was trembling in fear and I could tell the others noticed.

"Okay but where can we go?" Lamara asked.

"Anywhere is better than here," I said.

"I spotted a river in that direction," Dhanu said.

"Let's go," Moji said we all nodded.

"Oh I wouldn't leave just yet," Avon called down to us.

We turned an looked up at The Robed Man standing at the edge of the cliff. Suddenly, dozens of masked, robed men walked out of the shadows next to him. They were the same men we saw at the Wulong Forest, plus several others and strange creatures behind them hiding in the smoke. At once, Avon and the men jumped off the cliff and began to fly leaving a trail of black smoke behind them. A litteral wave of Darkness swept toward us.

"Run!" I shouted.

We all ran as fast as we could. We could barely see anything so Moji, L. E. and I created small balls of fire in our hands. Jets of multicolored light shot in all directions around us. Avon and his followers could see us because of the fire but we couldn't extinguish it or we wouldn't be able to see.

"Were almost to the river," I said to my friends.

As I arrived at the water, I made an ice bridge. Everyone rushed across it. I spared a look back, in the distance I could see two red eyes moving swiftly toward me. I ran as fast as I could across the ice. The water around me exploded and steamed as jets of light connected to it.

The bridge exploded as I neared the opposite shore. I jumped on a piece of ice and water bended myself to shore. As I landed on the shore I whipped around and shot my arms forward, shooting the ice from my bridge, a large wave, and a gust of wind at the oncoming threat. I was able to take out a few of the men but Avon wasn't phased and continued forward.

We began running but he was already upon us. The masked men landed all around us. Since I knew they were just shadow men, I let loose on them. They lit up the forest with their jets of light. I whipped water around wickedly. I saw the flash of Koluk's sword as he cut through the shadow men. Moji was bathed in orange liht as she unleshed her fire power. A cloud of dust engulfed Shan as held nothing back wielding his earth swords. The twang of Dhanu's bow played a heated song. A swift breeze moved past me as Lamara bent the air to her will, but she had an unsure expression on her face. Nauture itself seemed to turn on Avon and his men, no doubt the work of L. E. who was hidden.

It was a ferocious fight. The landscape around us was being transformed into a wasteland of wreckage. I looked around for piercing red eyes. I knew if I could distrackt him from my friends then they might be able to get away.

I spotted him. I snuck around behind him in hipes of catching him off guard. Suddenly a voice eched around me.

"If you are going to try and sneak up on me, then you should rely on something other than the dark. Did you forget that I manipulate the very Darkness, it is my ally, and your enemy?" Avon said.

He turned and immobilized me. I didn't know what had happened. I couldn't move at all. A force was holding me in place, pressing down on me in all directions. Even breathing was hard.

"You are impatient aren't you? You wanted to end the fight so soon, and for what? So you could run away? Hmm, but you do have a strong mind and a noble heart, that is clear. Let me give you a bit of useful information while you are just standing there. This fight is so I can determine who my target is. Not you of course, but one of your friends. First is Koluk; he is brave and noble, the perfect soldier. He deinetly sees you as the leader, but he fears he will be forgotten in the shadow of your greatness. So he tries to prove himself a leader, and while he can do it alright, you are much more suited to the task, and he knows it. Not him. There is also Moji; it was a truly courageous thing for her to reveal herself and stand up for your cause like that. Ah, but she is seen as a traitor to her country. I can't imagine how difficult that must be, but with your support she is holding up well. Not her. Then there is Shan. I can sense he is still young and confused. He is trying to find out who he is and where is path lies. He isn't sure of what to do, but with you at his side, he knows he is doing the right thing. Not him either. And I can't forget Dhanu, a very mysterious young man. He still isn't used to interacting with people. In fact, he is actually jeleous of how well all of you interact with one another. Not even him. And I won't even consider Lalima Ekala, I know all about her and she is no ideal target. Now of course your friends keep all these vulnerable thoughts a secret from eah other. In fact I am sure that I have told you more about your friends in the last few minutes than they have even told you for as long as you've know them."

I was speechless. I couldn't believe that he was able to see so much about people. I couldn't help but notice how he had skipped over someone.

"See," Avon continued, "for beings like Lalima Ekaly and I, we fight a more sophisticated war. We don't win wars by using barbaric demonstrations of brute force. No we still fight physically but that is a cover for the real war we are fighting; the psychological war. Where the battle field does not lie before you, but lies in here," he motioned to his head. "The mind can be the strongest or the most venerable part of a person. That is where we fight. That is also why none of your other friends are good targets. They have strong minds and firm, unshaken beliefs. When fighting in a psychological war, it is best to choose a target that is already weak. that's also true in physical war. Would you be more likely to attack the heavily fortified castle that has never been breached, or the fortress that already has cracks in the walls. The latter one of course. You want a target that is already shaken, cracked. Then you widen the cracks into a gaping hole letting everything spill out and the victim falls into insanity. The victim must have under gone a great change in her life. Where some of her strongest beliefs are in question. More than just confusion, but doubt has settled in. is what she doing right? Is it worth it? Questions like those echo in her head," Avon looked at Lamara. "They make her afraid and unsure. She is no longer sure what she should believe anymore," he looked back at me. "Those are the targets I go for."

"Now you might be wondering, 'Why is he telling me this information?' Why indeed. It could be a variety of reasons. I could simply believe that you are no threat to me no matter what and I don't care what you know. I mean, I did just immobilize you to the spot without much effort. It could also be that I am giving you a helpful hint because I fight only in sophisticated war and now you are more of a worthy opponent. Or I could be making it seem like you have the upper hand to put you in a false sense of security. However, then why have I just given you these several possible answers? This is how you play the psychological game of people like me. The questions go on and on, as do the answers. Now it is up to you to decide which is the correct answer, but first you must decide which is the correct question. Well this little game is done. Now it is time for the real war to begin," he said and he and his men dissolved into the shadows.

I could move again; I ran over to my friends.

"What happened? Where did they go?" Moji asked.

"I don't know and I don't care," Koluk said out of breath.

"Let's just get out of here before they come back," I said.

"Where are we going to go? There are noting but Fire Nation colonies in this area?" Shan asked.

"Maybe if we go near a big city he will be warry since I doubt he wants to reveal himself to the world just yet," I suggested.

"It might just work," L. E. added.

"Well, what cities are around here?" Lamara asked.

"Um, there is Yu Dao, but that colony has been there for awhile so it would be hard to get in there. Well there is Gulanoth. One of the Earth Kingdom strongholds. It fell only a few months ago so people are probably still pouring in. we could sneak in as new Fire Nation citizens," Moji explained to us.

"Sounds good to me," Lamara agreed.

"Let's go," I called and we headed for Gulanoth.

We ran for several minutes undeterred, a sinking feeling soon filled with in me. A voice whispered in the wind.

"You can't run from Darkness. I am everywhere. No matter how far you run, no matter where you hide. I will find you," Avon called out.

We ran aster, but it was getting hard to see and suddenly I was tripping over everything. I could only see about two feet infont of me and it seemed the trees and rocks jumped into my path. The others were similarly effected.

"It is Avon!" L. E. shouted. "He is trying to separate us, stop running!"

But even as she said it her voice faded behind me as I continued running. I tried to stop but I couldn't. just as Avon immobilized me, now I couldn't stop running. I could hear the others calling out but they were getting farther and farther away. I suddenly tripped and rolled down a steep hill. I hit trees and rocks on the way down. I rolled to a stop in an open field.

The sky was turning light again as the sun began to rise. The field looked like a cornfield after the corn had been harvested, then it seemed to have been abandoned.

I could control myself again. I cautiously walked through the field. Something, or rather several something's, were moving through the forest behind me very quickly. I heard rocks skipped around and twigs snapping. I backed up slowly at first but then I began running.

Out of the bushes and trees burst several shadowy figures. They had two arms and legs and were a bit shorter than me. They moved so quickly that their legs were a blur. Instead of hands, their arms just came to a deadly point. They hand no faces, just a dark abyss for a mouth. They let out blood curdling cry that was a mix between a hiss and a scream. It was so piercing that I actually thought my ears were bleeding.

I actually let out a scream because they were so terrifying. I ran as fast as I could but they were gaining on me. I shot a blast of water at one. Instead of knocking it back, the water just snapped its head back; I heard the spine snap but it kept running went back into place with a cockroach like snap. I tried a wind blast which knocked a few of them down but they came back up snapping their limbs back into place. No matter what I tried, they kept coming with their screams and snaps. There was a hill in the field but the sid of it was a cliff with a wooden fence. I started running up the hill; I stumbled and the strange creatures swarmed me. They slashed and cut with their spiked hands. I did my best to dodge them but I would soon be overwhelmed. I felt every slash of my flesh with piercing agony.

'Hyriu listen to me,' Kyoshi said. 'You can get out of this. Your power is greater than their's, use it. Focus.'

She was right. Despite my pain, I focused and quieted my mind. I could feel them tearing away at my skin but my body was numb. I broke through the first barrier and a stream of power rushed into me, but that wasn't enough. I broke the second barrier and a river of energy surged with in me. A gust of wind exploded around me and I rose up on a column of air.

I looked down at the creatures from my tornado. They were all sprawled on the ground still snapping back in place from my wind blast. A great anger rose in me.

'Destroy them!' Kyoshi commanded.

I unleashed several fire blasts and obliterated the creatures. I suddenly felt weak. I had been running all night and I hadn't had any rest or food. I fell as my tornado dissipated but it lasted long enough to partly cushion my fall.

There was one creature left and it charged at me. The river of energy hadn't fully left me yet, I used the remainder of that power to unleash the most powerful earth bending move I had ever attempted. A wave of earth shot out of the rand and rippled toward the creature. Random rocks shot from the ground all around me and landed on the creature, the ground cracked and rumbled. The creature was pinned down by several boulders, but it began breaking its limbs and body to squeeze out.

'Hyriu, what do you use to get rid of the cold dark?' Kyoshi asked.

"Warm light," I answered.

'Fire,' she corrected.

I ignited a ball of fire in my hand and looked at the creature which had just escaped and was bounding at me. I shot it just as it was on top of me. It exploded.

I stood slowly and looked around. I half ran half walked up the hill, the edge of the small cliff next to me. I looked all around to see any signs of Avon or the others.

Silence.

I turned and a winged shadow was in front of me. It let out a ferocious cry letting me know it was thirsty for hot blood. I stumbled backward in shot then regained my senses and blasted it with fire. However, as I destroyed it, it knocked me off the cliff. I grabbed ont the fence but I broke and fell with me. I summoned the winds and flew back to the top of the cliff.

I heard a scream that I immediately recognized.

"Lamara!" I cried out hoping for and answer.

"Help!" she cried and screamed again.

"Lamara I'm coming!" I yelled back to her.

I ran from the harvested filed into the dark forest toward her voice. I couldn't help but think about how Avon said she was his target. Anger and fear welled up inside of me. I was not going to let him touch her.

Even though the sun was rising, the farther into the forest I ran, the darker it got.

"Lamara!" I called out to get a better judge of where she was.

"Hyriu!" a different voice called out.

I turned and saw Dhanu and Moji holding a bloody Shan.

I ran over to them.

"What happened?" I asked as they set him down.

"When everyone got separated, Shan and I managed to stay together," Dhanu explained. "We were being attacked by these things. Some weird shadow tiger. My arrows had no affect on them and they were about to kill me when Shan jumped in front of me and crushed it with a rock. But it slashed him across the chest. I was carrying him when I heard Lamara, then you. I found Moji on the way and then he went unconscious. What about you? What happened to you?"

"Nothing, I'm fine," I said and looked at Shan. His chest was bleeding heavily with five slash marks. I took off his shirt and examined the wounds.

"Come on Shan," I muttered as I began to heal him.

"Hyriu you're not fine," Moji said.

I ignored her when Lamara cried out again. She sounded terrified, "Help me! Someone please!"

"We're coming Lamara, were coming. Just - just hold on!" I yelled, tears beginning to stream down my face.

"I don't understand," Moji said. "I didn't have any problem with the shadow creatures."

"That's because you're a fire bender," I mumbled. "They are cold and dark and to destroy them you use-"

"Warmth and light - fire," she finished.

Shan still wasn't responding to my attempts to heal him.

"Come on Shan, wake up. Wake up!" I half sobbed.

Suddenly he jolted upright and coughed up some blood. We all relaxed.

"Ugh," he looked around. "What happened? I'm out of it for a little bit and I wake up with no shirt on and you crying."

I laughed weakly and couldn't help but hug him, "I thought you were dead."

I helped him stand.

"Where is everyone else?" Shan asked.

Just as he said that, Lamara cried out in complete fear, "Help! He's here! He's here! Hyriu help me! Someone please!" she was sobbing at the end.

Moji looked at Dhanu and me, "You two go, I got him," she motioned to Shan.

"I won't be of much use without arrows," Dhanu said. "Besides, fire works best against those things."

"But what if you're attacked?" Moji demanded.

"It wouldn't be as bad as Avon getting his hands on Lamara now go. Go!" Dhanu said.

Moji and I followed Lamara's screams and sobs. It kept getting darker and darker.

"Leave me alone! Help me please, don't leave me!" Lamara cried out.

"We're coming Lamara!" Moji yelled.

We came to a wall of pure Darkness. It was a solid wall of black.

"Hyriu! Moji! L. E.! Help! Don't leave me! Where are you?" Lamara sobbed just on the other side of the wall.

"We're right here Lamrara! We're right here!" I yelled.

I began banging on the wall with all my might, Moji did too.

"No! You're lying. They would never to that. They wouldn't abandon me! They wouldn't." she gave up yelling and just sobbed. "They did. They did leave me. They don't care about me, they don't care…"

"No Lamara! We're here. We didn't leave you! We do care! Lamrara! Lamara!" I screamed as I punched and kicked. "Lamara! Don't give up! Lamara!" I said but began to cry as I gave up. I sunk down next to the wall sobbing, "Lamara. Lamrar."

Moji knelt down next to me, "Hyriu remember, warmth and light. Warmth and light. Fire."

I understood and got to my feet. We both took stances and them blasted the wall with fire. It had no effect. It just seemed to be absorbing the blast. Moji began to cry now. We both fell to our knees seing no way to rescue Lamara. She was lost. Avon had won.

"Hyriu, Moji, cover your eyes," L. E.'s voice said in my head.

Moji and I looked at one another and shielded our eyes. A purple light suddenly blasted through the wall and blinded me even with my eyes covered.

When the light cleared, I could see the sun had fully risen. It wasn't dark anymore. I looked in front of me to see Lamara looking around confused with a tear streaked face. Then she saw me. I rushed over to her and hugged her. She began to sob.

"I though you had left me. He told me you didn't care. He showed me visions of you guys ignoring me and running away."

"Don't worry. I would never leave you behind. You're my friend and I would never abandon you," I told her.

Moji walked up and behind her I could see Dhanu and Shan. I looked around and saw L. E. running up with Koluk. Everyone was alright. But even though we all made it, I could only think about one thing as Lamara sobbed into my shoulder - the cold dark.

Well, how is everyone holding up? I know a lot of bad things happened. The next chapter is good but a bit short.

Chapter 15: Outside Gulanoth will go up Monday