Chapter 36 – Leaf Loincloths
(Near a fishing village within the vicinity of the Swamp)
P'Li and Nomu are playing with Pai Sho pieces, while using a tree stump as a table. In the background, catastrophic levels of Earth Bending ensued, but the two paid no mind.
Nomu took a sip of his wine before moving his three tiles against P'Li's two.
"Good job. My forces are on the retreat."(P'Li)
"Finally! Yes! I pursue!"(Nomu)
"Aaaaaaand my hiding forces attack from the tree line that you neglected to scout."(P'Li)
"Wha-!"(Nomu)
"And my main force turns around to create a two pronged ambush."(P'Li)
"Ughhh…."(Nomu)
"WHAPOW!" P'Li yells as she slaps Nomu's pieces off the table. "Your army is decimated!"
"Guhhhhh – Wait! From a realistic view, you can't possibly just make units appear out of nowhere just cause I didn't scout the place!"(Nomu)
P'Li only smiled.
"Remember the scenario? Your scouts brought you an accurate estimate of my forces."(P'Li)
"So?!"(Nomu)
"Take a look at the board, Nomu…"(P'Li)
He looked down apprehensively and began counting the tiles
"… The ambush numbers were within the intelligence reports…"(Nomu)
"When you get such a good estimate, you have to be cautious when an enemy appears with less than you imagined. In all honesty, the whole situation screamed ambush."(P'Li)
*Groan!* "I thought military education was over since Kuzo's busy with Earth Bending!" Nomu complained as he rubbed his head.
They had been at it for hours. All the different scenarios started to blur into one big mess in his overtaxed brain.
"Yeah. Too bad I know almost as much about strategy as Kuzo. Though I may not act like it, I was at the top of our academy!"(P'Li)
"You're… actually smart?!"(Nomu)
"Hahaha! I'm not even insulted. Seriously, back in Omashu, while you were reading textbooks, I was helping Lin and Kuzo organize the military. and Bumi with the new city policies… You really gotta start pulling your weight around here, Nomu."(P'Li)
"SORRY I WASN'T RAISED BY WARLORDS LIKE YOU CRAZY BATTLE MONGERS!"(Nomu)
"Oh? Well instead of military class, would you rather be doing that?" P'Li asked as she pointed behind her.
Kuzo and Lin were sparring with all the intention of destroying each other. It didn't look anything remotely close to a "practice" match. Blood dripped from the two and bruises were beginning to swell.
They wore light comfortable clothes that were practically torn to shreds. What made the whole scene even more nonsensical was that they were both wearing blindfolds.
The two combatants broke away from each other for a second. Almost at the same time, Lin defiantly spit blood from her mouth, while Kuzo blew some out of his nose. After taking in a breath, they stomped the ground and tuned their senses to the vibrations.
His left ankle's twisted.
Fractured left rib. I'll aim for that.
Lin dashed to the side and struck the ground. A great shard of earth emerged and traveled towards the Avatar like a shark's fin towards prey.
Kuzo gritted his teeth and crushed the attack underfoot. At the same time, he thrust his fist into the ground and summoned four great boulders. Lin felt the vibrations of the move and mirrored it.
In four rapid successions, they launched their titanic slabs of stone at each other.
*CRASH*
*CRASH*
*CRASH*
*CRASH*
As Kuzo tried to stomp the ground to send out seismic waves, it was already too late.
In the cover of the last attack, Lin had slipped behind him and put her arms around his waist. Her rib cage fractured further, but adrenaline had numbed the pain. With a great torque from her legs, she lifted the Avatar up and then behind her, executing a perfect jaw dropping suplex. His body was buried deep into ground, covered under heavy rubble.
*Whew* "Time to admit defeat Avatar. If you can still hear me."(Lin)
From the rubble flew a sharp slag of concrete that cut Lin's cheek.
"I've never understood what that means," Kuzo spoke from a pile of rocks.
Lin wiped off the freshly cut blood with a tinge of anger.
"Oh. Well, you should know what sleep means."(Lin)
Without the slightest bit of mercy, she stomped her foot into the pile of rubble. The ground seemed to sink a good six inches. This time, Kuzo seemed to be out completely.
Lin flashed a proud smile of victory before collapsing on her back, also unconscious.
Nomu sighed.
"Help me get them into the river…"(Nomu)
P'Li ended up carrying Kuzo by the hip, and Lin over her shoulder. Without any sort of delicacy, she tossed them into the nearby river like ragdolls. On the inside, she enjoyed doing this, and even began aiming at throwing them farther and farther for fun.
Nomu waded over to where the pair was tossed, and began healing them. The water around them glowed like moonlight in the evening.
Kuzo woke up abruptly.
"Hostiles to the east!"(Kuzo)
P'Li turned around at the warning and heard trees being knocked over in the distance. If viewed from above, it looked like a parade of some kind was causing the forest to shudder from its path. Whatever it was, or they were, they must have been of unfathomable size.
From the shadows, Lan scampered towards the Avatar party. What followed was nothing like they had ever seen before.
Giant twisted monsters, cloaked in a black mist. The only thing that was clearly visible were their gnarled claws, vicious teeth, and eerie shining eyes.
Dark Spirits. They were trying to attack Lan.
Kuzo tried to return to shore, but cringed painfully. His body was not fully healed, and Nomu began the treatment as quickly as he could.
A bear like spirit changed its target from Lan to P'Li. The Combustion Bender froze in fright for a second, but shifted her mentality completely in the next. She pulled her new trusty hammer from her back and leapt at the shadowy grizzly with the intent of laying it low.
As the steel lion head tore through the air, it began sparking from P'Li's Combustion Bending. When it reached the bear's head at full momentum, the pocket of air detonated in the metal animal's mouth.
*FWOOOOOOM*
Conflagration burst from the hammer like a fire breathing animal. The spirit was blown back hard. The left side of its head and shoulder had been completely obliterated.
The rest of the demonic looking beings took caution after seeing the attack. Meanwhile P'Li stepped aggressively forward and drew a line in the dirt with her hammer. The gesture was clear. The hostiles dare not pass the marked boundary and began to withdraw…
Whew… Toooootally bluffed that one…
She turned to the rest of her group and rushed to bring Lin to shore.
Nomu had finished the treatment on both of them. The patients were still suffering from the pain, but all their wounds had been healed.
"Were you the ones who stopped those spirits?" (?)
They all turned around and saw an almost naked man emerging from the forest.
He wore nothing but a giant leaf hat and a leaf loincloth.
"Well, this all makes for the beginning of a very interesting day."(Nomu)
"He is a Swamp Guru…"(Kuzo)
"That's a Guru?"(Nomu)
The supposed Guru nodded as he paid particularly close attention to Kuzo.
"And you are the Avatar."(Guru)
Upon hearing that, Nomu, P'Li, and Lin, had silently prepared to capture him. It was a measure of well-placed precaution. They trusted no one they couldn't identify without certainty. And the Avatar wasn't short any enemies, since he joined the war. In fact, there were three assassination attempts on his life since Omashu's liberation.
"Relax. I'm not an enemy, and it's not like it's obvious he's the Avatar or anything. Not to the naked eye anyway…"(Guru)
Through the concentrated vision of the Swampling he saw tiny colors of light within each person. Red for P'Li, Blue for Nomu, and Green for Lin. Kuzo on the other hand was an overwhelming white, which engulfed his whole body and particularly his eyes. Rather than light, it was something more tangible… His soul seemed to burn like a torch with wisps of fire flaring from his sight.
The Flame of Raava…
The only possible way someone could possess Qi like that was if they were half spirit. It wasn't much of a leap from there to assume Kuzo's identity.
"The Guru is no threat. But it seems the situation is more dire than I was aware of. Guide us to the World Tree. I must stop the Spirits at once."