6- A Land from Forgotten Times.
After the battle and its…unexpected aftermath, a tense atmosphere of discomfort and uncertainty remained in the area of the valley and it's near surroundings. At the moment, Conrad stood in some high hill where he could see another part of the valley untouched and unaffected by the previous fight. Its great and wide river, its vast mountains filled with green of trees…all bathed by the rays of the morning sun, that gave some relief after what everyone saw and experienced. But even with that, the air was also filled with sounds of unknown creatures. Conrad used his spyglass to check out at his surroundings and when he turned to his right he could see the giant ape walking toward the beach, with the intention of destroying the ships of the human invaders. Conrad watched it walk away until it disappeared behind a cloud of smoke from the rubble from the distance.
"Well, it seems we're safe for now." Conrad said after sighing in relief. Then he reunited with his group that was nearby. Luckily, all they managed to survive their crash landing without any serious injuries and reach a safe place.
Lao was with his wife Poppy on her side, trying to comfort her the best that he could from what happened before. Weaver tried to do the same with Noriko/Ursa. Brooks, San and Nieves were also there resting and recovering, as they found them while they're escaping from all the chaos. Unfortunately it looks like they got separated from Randa and Steve during the escape and had no idea of where could they possibly be.
"Everyone is okay?" Conrad asked to the group.
"Well…all that we can, knowing what we've just seen." Lao answered still a little affected like his wife.
Conrad then noticed that there were some people missing. "Where are Bato and Hakoda?"
"They heard some suspicious noises and went through those trees to inspect. They shouldn't be long in coming back." Brooks responded.
"It better be so. I don't think is safe to go alone here. We don't know what else might be out there."
Then everyone heard some noises coming from where Hakoda and Bato went. Both Conrad and Weaver, who had bows and arrows, took aim at any possible surviving enemy or dangerous creature that could be approaching them. Brooks and San joined them, who had some crossbows as weapons. But…
"Don't shot! Don't shot!" A familiar voice called between the bushes and trees, revealing to be Hakoda's coming out with Bato, but also with someone else. "It's us!"
The Water Tribe teenagers returned with a Fire Nation warrior captured, nobody else than Slivko, who was now with his hands and arms tightly roped. How ironic, first mostly of them were prisoners of him and his comrades and now he became their prisoner. How interesting things could change suddenly.
"We found this firebender sneaking near here, probably spying on us or preparing an ambush for us or something else." Bato theorized as he and his partner forced Slivko to kneel.
"Yeah, I recognize this one." Weaver remembered. "It's a member of the group that made us prisoners onboard their balloon."
"Isn't he too young to be in the Fire Nation army?"
"Please, please! Don't hurt me! I surrender, I surrender! I'm serious!" Slivko pleaded scared.
"Where's your battalion, soldier?" Conrad requested him.
"I think I'm the only one left. I don't know if the others have made it, neither where the rest of my teammates may be. I just wanna make it out of here alive. Please, allow me to go with you. I promise not to bother or fight against you if you allow me to defend myself together with you."
Everyone from the group didn't expect the firebender to surrender and make such a request. Some like Noriko/Ursa believed his words, but mostly of them didn't. Trust in the words of some warrior of the Fire Nation? A firebender? He and his people had brought nothing more than suffering, harm and tragedy to the world since the war began, so why buying it? It could be a trick. But now was not the time to hold a grudge, as they all were in unknown territory and who knows what could be out there besides that giant ape. Besides, his pleading words sounded sincere and if they wanted to be better than the Fire Nation, they shouldn't act like them, just the opposite.
"Look. I know what most of you are thinking, but now is not the time for debating if what our prisoner said is trustworthy or not." Conrad started. "As we all have seen, they're all down. Every one of them, and ours included. We're on the south side of the island. There's a river a couple of klicks from here. If we stick to its banks, we'll make it to the exfil site on the north shore."
"Excuse me, Captain Conrad, isn't it?" Hakoda interrupted gently, not wanting to sound rude. "Do you any idea of what has happened to our captain? Have you or anyone else seen him?"
Conrad looked at them with a sad face. "I think he didn't make it."
His answer took the teenagers by surprise. They looked shocked and saddened, and they were comforted by the Beifong couple, even Noriko/Ursa tried her best to make them felt supported.
"And then what?" Nieves asked, without a clue of what to do yet. "All our forces are gone."
"We'll find a way to signal the ship." Conrad continued. "They'll send a search party. We just have to make it by the exit window."
"I should be sitting at a desk."
"So, wait, are we just not gonna talk about this?" Slivko protested, talking about what happened previously.
"Cut it off, firebender." Bato interrupted him.
"My name is Slivko."
"Then cut it off, Slivko. And let the professional decide."
"Then what should we do then, James?" Poppy asked worried.
"My best guess is we're scattered over a four to five mile radius." Conrad supposed. "We should head north and join anyone we find, no matter if it's Fire Nation or not." Next he approached Lao and Poppy and put his hands on their shoulders. "Don't worry, we'll make it."
"Alright. We trust you." Lao said nodding.
Then Conrad approached Weaver. "Are you all right?"
"I don't know how to answer that question right now." She answered still trying to assimilate the situation.
"I don't know what that was either."
"All that money that they paid you? I hope you're worth it."
Lao and Poppy didn't like that comment of Weaver and confronted her, putting themselves between her and Conrad.
"Of course he is worthy!" Poppy protested. "He has survived the worst places of the Earth Kingdom."
"If someone can take us out of this mess is him." Lao added. "Don't ever…question him again…in our presence."
Weaver was left shocked by the Beifongs' reaction as they went back with their teenage friends.
"You should be careful. My friends may be very young, but are nobility, and messing with them is not a good idea. Even if they're not Fire Nation." Conrad advised.
"I'm sorry. I didn't say it with bad purpose." Weaver apologized. "It's just…"
"I know. We're all worried, and scared."
"We're really not gonna talk about it?" Slivko said in disbelief, starting to sound a little hysterical. "You know this is not normal, right? Even in war. Stuff like that doesn't just happen!"
"And what is there to talk about?" Hakoda objected him back serious. "There's nothing else to talk. What has happened has happened, and that's it. We have been decimated by something we did not expect and we can no longer do anything about it. So you better stop saying nonsenses and let us think about our next plan."
Hakoda's speech definitely made Slivko stop his arguments.
"Speaking of that…" Bato said then. "What do we do with him?" He asked referring to their prisoner.
Conrad didn't think of that twice, and for everyone's surprise, he cut Slivko's ropes.
"Wait! What are you doing?!" Lao asked confused.
"We are going to need everyone." Conrad answered simple and direct.
Even Slivko was surprised. "For real?!"
"Yes. You want that or you prefer to be roped again?"
"No, no. I'm good with this."
"Alright, so we better start going on our way immediately. The sooner the better."
And thus everyone began following Conrad without complaining. Bato and Hakoda decided to go behind Slivko to be sure that he didn't try anything.
"Hey, just for you to know." Hakoda began warning him serious and firm. "Even if you come with us and with no ropes, don't think that we're not going to keep you out of our sight."
"Yes, we're gonna watch every movement of yours, so you better don't try anything." Bato added with the same tone.
"And what could I do right here?" Slivko defended.
"Anything, anything that a firebender could think about." Hakoda responded suspicious.
"Fair enough."
And with all that talked, they began their journey through the uncharted island, with no idea of the dangers that lurked there and that were waiting for them. As there it wasn't of any importance, Poppy let her long hair down, something for her husband's delightment. The group attempted to go down the hill right to the where the river was in order to know where to go next exactly. The descent was slowly and steady in order to not slip off and go down without control. While descending, San touched what looked like a vine, but turned out to be a 60-foot-long snake which was sleeping, and so it awakened in a bad mood, hissing at the young woman in a threatening way before coiling her body with its own with some lightning move, making San to scream frightened and everyone else to step back a few meters. The giant serpent possessed a head as large as that of a full-grown human's, and fangs the length of a man's finger. With its new potential prey totally coiled, the giant snake began constricting San by squeezing its coils more and more with each second, what made her shiver and gritted her teeth in pain because of the increasing pressure of the reptile's peril.
"San! Hold on!" Brooks yelled coming at her aid, but the snake hissed at him back, stopping him at the moment.
It seemed that everything would be over for San soon, but Brooks's action was the perfect distraction for Conrad to make a sneak attack to the snake by stabbing it in its head with a knife. Though the giant snake nearly constricted her to death, Conrad's fast move finished it in the act, freeing San from the snake's peril and saving her in time.
"Are you okay?" Brooks asked San, while helping her to get back on her feet.
"Yes, I think. Thanks." San said to Conrad before turning at Brooks with a smile. "You too, for trying to save me."
"Well, I didn't do a lot, but glad to know that it helped anyway." Brooks said a little embarrassed, and a little blushed too, but he tried his best to hide that fact of him.
After that jumpscare, everyone continued going down the hill. At the same time, far away at another part of the island, just in the crash site of his war balloon was Chapman writing a message about his situation.
"This is Fox Six, Chapman. Four klicks west, highest peak…November Alpha 3, 0, 0. We're at the Sea Stallion. Over." That's what Chapman wrote on his letter.
Next he called his messenger hawk, delivered the message to it and sent it flying to wherever his colonel could be. This hawk was not like the others, as it was faster, and thanks to that it reached the place where Packard was alongside Reles and Prince Iroh in only a few minutes. Reles had his sight in the horizon and his mind focused on what happened before while Iroh had prepared some tea in order to lower the nerves and calm the mind. He had a cup for himself and gave another one to Reles.
"Thanks, Your Highness." Reles said holding the cup of tea.
"You're welcome, soldier." Iroh said back before turning his sight to the colonel.
Packard sighed in relief knowing that his second in command was still alive. He didn't waste time and began writing his reply message, with instructions included of what to do next according to the plan he already had in mind. A plan that didn't enter in the original mission, including the next target.
"Roger that, Chapman. West highest mountain peak. Hold your position. We'll come to you. There's enough munitions on that Sea Stallion to kill this thing. Survey your perimeter. Locate possible ambush sites. Authorized by Prince Iroh. Over." He dictated before hanging the message to the hawk and sending it back to Chapman.
"What was that?" Iroh asked to the colonel approaching him while pointing to the hawk.
"Chapman, he's alive. Unfortunately, he seems to have landed very far from here, on the west part of the island. He got lucky." Packard responded before noticing of what the prince held on his hands, which made him to wide his eyes. "Do you drink tea? Where did you get it?"
"It's something that I just got used to recently."
"You look calmed. Aren't you worried about the princess? Of where she could be?"
"Of course I am." Iroh responded before sipping his cup of tea. "But getting alarmed and losing your senses is no use. We have to keep our mind calmed and focused instead. That's the way for things to work out better."
"Wise advice. I'll keep it in mind." Packard admitted.
"Anyway, we better find any survivor of our forces and start heading right north. According to Ursa's info, that's the extraction point." Iroh reminded. "If our remaining ship follows the same procedure, that's where we'll find it in three days."
"Of course. That's their orders." Packard confirmed nodding before turning at Reles. "Reles, still have to end your tea, or you good to go?"
Reles ended his tea with one last big sip. "I'm good to go, sir."
"Let's go."
And the three of them began their quest to reunite with any other survivors of their faction. As for Chapman, he already received his colonel reply message and prepared to begin with his new orders.
"Alright. Recon environment." Chapman said to himself as he took out his sword, ready for doing some scouting.
Meanwhile, very far from there, back to the south part, the last remaining group of survivors from the Fire Nation forces were the men of Packard. Well, the last of them. They established themselves near to the wreckage of one of their war balloons near a small and weak but steady river, alert of any possible menace that could come from anywhere, especially certain giant ape, the one responsible of taking them down. From that place it was able only to see by far some mountains that were nearby while the others were covered and hidden by a huge mist. That gave the place a mysterious touch, and also made it a little spooky. Cole decided to have a bite with a skewer of meat that he warmed up with his firebending while his pal Mills was checking the wreckage, trying to find anything that they could still use, but nothing.
Then Mills turned to Cole and saw him so calmed and eating, like if nothing had happened. "Cole, what's wrong with you? How you even got an appetite right now?" He said annoyed at him.
Cole stopped eating and looked at Mills, making him to shrug. "Eating's for the living."
"We just got taken down by a monkey the size of the royal palace more or less!"
"Yeah. That was an unconventional encounter." Cole responded calmed like nothing. That only annoyed Mills a little more.
"Is that really all your brain telling itself right now?"
"There's no tactical precedence. We did the best we could in the situation." Cole concluded as he ended his meal.
"Griffin Co.!" Packard's voice called loud from a nearby high hill as he was alongside Reles and Iroh.
Shortly later, the three of them went down the hill and reunited with the survivors.
"Thank the Fire Lord you guys are okay!" Packard said as he and Reles were received with open arms and warm hugs. A scene that made Iroh smile, as he understood that they were like a family and considered themselves like that, something that made them so different from the rest of the army.
"Good to see you, sir." Cole expressed as he hugged his colonel.
"We're all right." Mills reassured.
Then everybody turned at Iroh and bowed at him in respect, with him acting the same back.
"Glad to know you didn't forget about me." Iroh joked, making them laugh.
"Are you alright, Your Highness?" Mills asked.
"Yes. More or less, but nothing serious."
"Any news?" The colonel asked.
"We believe our fleet has fallen as well, sir. When that ape ended smashing each and every one of our balloons, we saw him going toward the beach." Mills reported. "Next thing we heard was some big explosions coming from there. It had to be our ships. Now we cannot go back there."
"Don't worry, soldiers. We've another plan to escape from here. We just have to go north." Iroh assured.
"That's right. How many left?" Packard continued.
"Seven survivors. Seven confirmed KIA of our battalion and more." Mills said sad. "Galleta, Saraf and Hodges. Slivko and everyone else of the army unknown. The same goes for the army of the Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom."
Next Mills showed the identification plates of their fallen comrades and friends on his hand. Packard took them in sadness with the same face of sorrow that his men and sighed in said tone.
"What about Princess Ursa?" Iroh asked.
"No trace of her. We don't know if she's fine, or where could she be." Mills answered lowering his head.
That answer made the prince to lower his head. He knew he mustn't believe such thing, but even he couldn't avoid starting thinking the worst.
The colonel put a comforting hand on his shoulders and smiling at him. "We'll find her. We have to. Otherwise, Prince Ozai would come after us."
That made Iroh to smile a little, even that weird joke. Then Packard noticed that there somebody else there besides their men, some people that they didn't expect and weren't aware about: Randa and Steve, the ones that were strayed from their group. Steve was sat over some part of the wreckage and Randa sat near one of the banks of the river.
"Who are those two?" Packard asked pointing at the two strangers.
"We don't know, sir." Mills answered. "It seems they came here with the other fleet. We found them shortly before arriving here. It looks like they went strayed from their group. We didn't know what to do with them, so we decided to take them two with us."
"Hum…they don't look like military. Perhaps advisors of some sort?" Iroh proposed.
"No, Your Highness. They told us they are scientists. That's the only thing we know of them."
The prince and the colonel looked at each other in confusion, as neither of them two expected that, mostly for a secret invasion plan for the Fire Nation's capital. But…what if there was no plan for an invasion since the beginning? What if their enemies came to that island for another and different purpose? Why choosing an island like that as a secret place for preparing a massive invasion? No, it couldn't be that. That made no sense. More than that, it sounded ridiculous. Then…that meant that their spies were wrong after all? And if they wasn't preparing an invasion for the capital city, what were they looking for there? Their real purpose for coming to said unknown island. The two of them knew that if someone could answer to those questions it was probably one of them. So they chose to talk to Randa, who was sharpening a big stick as a spear. The two firebender leaders approached slowly and with no sign of doing any harm at him.
"Greetings, mister." Iroh saluted to Randa, but when he saw them walking at him, he became a little nervous and ready to aim his spear at them. At this response of him both Iroh and Packard put their hands in the air. "Hey, hey, hey! Calm down. We're not going to hurt you, sir. We just want to know who you are."
"Randa. Bill Randa."
"Alright, Mister Randa. Some…curious name you have." Iroh complimented. "You know who may I be?"
"Yeah, I know who you are. Prince Iroh, son of Fire Lord Azulon."
"Oh good, you made some research. This is Colonel Packard."
"Hi. How you doing?" Packard saluted.
"I'm fine. Thank you. Your men already told you that…it seems my partner and I are now your special guests." Randa said sarcastically.
"Good. Glad to hear it. The prince and I were worried about you."
Prince Iroh and Colonel Packard sat down in front of Randa.
But then, Packard created a big flame on his hand in front of Randa. "You are going to tell us everything we don't know, or I'm going to reduce you to ashes." He threatened with a serious tone.
"Colonel…there's no need for that." Iroh warned him to not do anything drastic or impulsive.
"Monsters exist." Randa said at them surprisingly.
"No joking." Packard said.
"What? What do you mean with that?" Iroh asked confused.
"Nobody believed him. Long ago, he was a crackpot, just like me. But today…" Randa said next, talking about something very personal about him, but also related to his real work and motives.
Then the prince began to understanding it and laughed at how ironic and stupid everything became. "I was right. Yes, I knew it was too good to be true. Such operation in such point of the war where it could have been done long ago. So…our spies were wrong in the end. And just thinking of the fact many of us believed that you're planning an invasion to the capital of the Fire Nation."
"Well, we tried our best to ensure that no important figure of yours heard about our expedition, but…I guess that if you believed it was that, it could have been something that one of us let yourselves to believe. So, in such case it was really our doing." Randa explained.
"So this was never about an invasion to our nation, and we weren't your targets. You dropped those charges to flush something out." Packard deduced. "Who are you?"
"You heard of the Lawton flagship?" Randa asked them. The prince and colonel glared at each other before denying with the heads to the scientist. "Neither did the public. That was thousands of years ago."
"What do you mean?" Iroh asked curious.
"The very first ship manned by people from all nations. Out of a thousand young people on that ship, my ancestor was the only survivor. They told his family she was sunk in some unexpected battle, but he knew what he saw. It had no conscience. No reasoning, just destroy. Since then he and all his successors and descendants spent thousands of years trying to prove the truth of what he learned that day."
"What kind of truth? What…what are you talking about?"
"This world doesn't belong to us, Your Highness, neither the spirits. Ancient species owned this earth long before both mankind and the spirits. And if we keep our heads buried in the sand, they will take it back. My agency is known as Monarch. We specialize in the hunt for Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms."
"You knew that thing was out here?" Packard said referring to the giant ape that decimated their forces and pointing to where he went.
"I'm sorry for your men, Colonel, I truly am. Get us home, with proof. So we can send the cavalry."
Packard became mad again, this time of being fooled. He got up still with the flame in the palm of his hand looking at the scientist with bad eyes.
"Colonel." Iroh called him while grabbing his arm. "This will not bring your men back and resolve nothing. And right now we have more important and urgent things to worry about."
Packard glared at the prince before looking at Randa again. And so, the colonel extinguished the flame and turned back to where he came from.
"We are the cavalry." The colonel proclaimed as he walked away, back with his troops.
"Well, it turned out better than I expected." Iroh said at how the situation ended before turning at Randa again. "Anyway, all what has happened before doesn't matter now anymore. After all, from what you have told us, it seems that we're in no man's land. So, I think it will be better for you and your partner to stay with us until we find our way out of this island. It's safer traveling in group." The prince declared, offering his hand to Randa.
"I agree with you in that, Your Highness." Randa accepted, giving his hand to him, with the prince helping him to get up.
Meanwhile, back to Conrad and his group, they were going through a dense tropical forest slowly to not slip way down. They also seemed to be talking about something to spend some time and not to become bored.
"So, you said you and the others were scientists, right Mister Brooks?" Hakoda asked interested. "And exactly what do you research about?"
"Well, it's called the Hollow Earth theory. Randa hired me because I wrote a paper substantiating what most people think is a crackpot idea. That there are these massive underground spaces isolated from the surface world. Oh, and please, call me Brooks. Only that."
"You mean…like giant tunnels?" Poppy asked a little confused.
"Passageways." San corrected. "Randa believed this island may be one of those."
"Wow." Lao expressed impressed. "And what could be their purpose?"
"An emergence point for whatever lives below." Brooks explained. "Ancient species like what we just saw. I thought he was out of his mind."
"Well, apparently he was not in the end." Bato recalled.
After a while walking through the jungle the group came to an area where the tree branches seemed much more tangled, making sunlight to not be able to illuminate that area so much, and giving it a more creepy touch too. That made the group to become unaware of a great danger that stood motionless over their heads: it was some kind of giant predatory dark green slender insect with some big, long tree branch-like legs, big and long flat 9-12 feet long body and a small head in front. Its body looked like having also plant features, like if it was some kind of half animal-half plant creature; a Vinestrangler. The creature was so well camouflaged, blending into the trees from above where it dwelled, to the point that it seemed from some initial point of view inconclusive to see where the animal ended and the tree began. The group of explorers was walking dangerously right under the tree branch that the Vinestrangler was residing in, and because it could feel the vibrations of their footsteps traveling up the tree's roots and reaching its nervous system the insect knew that new preys were going to be at its reach in a few seconds, and because it was a carnivorous ambush predator it prepared for launching its surprise attack. The creature began opening its stomach when Hakoda was going to pass under it. But then Noriko/Ursa was able to see that when she looked up and quickly she became alarmed, realizing that her friend was in imminent danger.
"Hakoda, look out!" Noriko/Ursa yelled running at him and pushing him out of the way before the creature deployed dozens of tentacles at them coming from its stomach. The group members scattered and went a little far from there, watching in fear what was going on
Thanks to Noriko/Ursa's intervention Hakoda was safe, but she became captured instead in his place, ensnared in the creature's tentacles and screaming in horror as the tentacles continued wrapping around her firmly and began pulling her up into its open stomach.
"Help! Help me!" Noriko/Ursa pleaded scared.
"Hang in there, Noriko!" Hakoda exclaimed as he and Bato ran at her, jumped and grabbed her tightly, trying to use their combined weight to pull her down back to the ground while they tried to remove the tentacles out from her.
They succeeded in pull her down and avoiding her to being dragged into the creature's stomach, but the tentacles were too strong, tough and had a unbreakable grab on Noriko/Ursa and they couldn't be removed by their force. While this happened Weaver felt herself also being wrapped in other tentacles like those also coming from over her and pulled up right to another Vinestrangler that was also there. At her screams, Conrad and the Beifong couple came at her aid quickly, they reached at her nearly and tried to counter the insect tactic with the combined weight of their bodies.
"Hold on tight!" Conrad said grabbing her hands. Next he turned at Lao and Poppy. "Don't let it to keep pulling her up! I'm gonna try to free her!" He ordered as he returned back to the ground and started shooting arrows at the tentacles at high speed.
That forced the creature to retrieve its tentacles one by one each time that one of them was hit by an arrow. Brooks and San joined the attack using their crossbows. At seeing this, Bato tried to do some similar tactic using his sword to cut off the tentacles that had Noriko/Ursa trapped, which seemed to work too. Hakoda chose to take out his boomerang, aim at the insect's head and threw it. When his weapon hit its target, it knocked it out instantly. The tentacles retreated back to the stomach and it closed after letting them fall back to the floor, but it also lost balance and was going to fall too over them, so the trio left before the giant creature hit the ground unconscious. At the same time, the others managed set Weaver free and shot more arrows at the Vinestrangler, making it screech at them and forcing it to start moving slow but steady and leave between the trees. Then another scream got their attention: it was Slivko, who got himself captured by another mesh of tentacles from a third Vinestrangler that was also there.
"This is a trap place." Brooks said, realizing where they got into.
Bato, Hakoda and Noriko/Ursa came to help Slivko with the same tactic from before. Besides this Slivko decided to focus his firebending at the creature's weak point: its open stomach, and it worked. While letting out a battle cry, he fried the giant bug, making it to screech in pain, not only allowing himself to get free of its grab, but also making it to fall to the ground in front of them, burned to a crisp. Everyone thought that was over, until they heard some other cracking noises, coming from the remaining giant insect waking up. When it got back on its feet Slivko launched a fire wave in front of it. That made the Vinestrangler to screech back in fear, climb up back to the tree top and leave the place. It was not worthy risking its life for catching such dangerous preys like those. With all this over, now for real, everyone sighed in relief at last.
"Thank you." Weaver said to Conrad, Poppy and Lao while catching her breath. "I owe you one."
"You're welcome." Conrad said back, also recovering his breath, and the Beifongs nodded at her smiling, making her to smile back.
"Are you alright, Noriko?" Bato asked her.
"Yeah, thanks to both of you. That was too close." She answered smiling.
"Well, you saved me first. Besides, is what friends do." Hakoda responded. Next they noticed Slivko approaching them slowly and with a stunned face.
"You saved my life." Slivko said both surprised and confused of how his supposed enemies did such thing. "Why? I don't understand."
"Well, it's what should be done. Especially knowing where we're right now." Hakoda responded smiling before following Noriko/Ursa, who went to gather with the rest of the group.
"Yeah, no big deal." Bato added patting him in the back gently before following them.
Slivko didn't know what to say. All this time he was told that the people of the other nations were his, his comrades…even his people' enemies. But these boys from the Water Tribe just saved him without thinking twice and without asking for anything in return or expecting any kind of compensation or treat for their actions. This made him have new kinds of thoughts: what if he had been wrong about all this all that time? And not only him, but his teammates too. The only thing he knew for sure is that he was in debt with them. He snapped out of it and returned with the rest of the group, who was looking at the burned body of that giant insect florafauna specimen.
"By the spirits. What is that bug?" Nieves asked shocked at the creature's looks.
Lao sighed. "I don't know. But from now on we have to be more alert of everything around us, as it seems that every place of this island is not safe."
"Now I understand why of the legends told about this island and its fame, and why some ones wanted it to be like non-existent." Hakoda confessed. "This place is a monsters' nest."
"It will be better that we get out of this forest soon as possible." Conrad suggested something that everyone nodded at it.
After a while walking they exited the forest and arrived to an open plain meadow nearby to some huge calm lake. In the distance it could be seeing more mountains, even some of the biggest ones covered in mist and a flock of white birds flying over them through the clouded sky. The group stopped in order to rest after all that long walk, and the previous attack of course. Near them were three white herons resting over a big isle on the river and some branches, or that's what it looked to be. But then…for everyone's surprise, the herons flew away as the isle seemed to be rising from the water, revealing to be some kind of giant water buffalo. Slivko took a fighting position, ready to use his firebending while the others just stood still and without moving.
"Nobody move." Conrad ordered in low voice. "Easy."
The giant buffalo superficially resembled an abnormally large water buffalo, but had some distinct traits. It possessed incredibly large horns, which appeared to fork into at least three branches. It had what appeared to be algae covering a large portion of its body, most likely due to its habit of spending long amounts of time underwater. Its back was shaped like coral so as to allow it to blend in perfectly with its surroundings while underwater, and it was 38-45 feet high and 13 meters long, with horns 19 meters long. It was a Sker Buffalo. The herbivore approached the humans a few meters curious. The group became shocked and amazed by how big that animal was, even if it was smaller than the giant ape from before. They also knew that it must be also dangerous, so they shouldn't do anything that could make it anger, and Slivko was the one who was most nervous of them.
"Shhhhh." Conrad said at him while the giant bovine stopped and stood there, staring at them. "Slivko."
"What?" He responded, not knowing what to do exactly.
"Calm down." Conrad said putting his hand over Slivko's arms and took them down gently.
Seeing the Sker Buffalo was not going to attack them everyone relaxed, even Weaver took advantage to make a quick painting of the animal. Then the Sker Buffalo turned back and went back to the lake with all the flies following it. Some members of the group smiled at how the creature resulted to be, like Weaver and the teenagers.
"Come on, Slivko. Don't you ever saw an herbivore before?" Hakoda commented as a joke in order to calm him down a little more while put a hand on his shoulder.
"Come on, let's keep going." Bato encouraged.
"Yes." Slivko agreed as he followed them.
Back to where Iroh, Packard, Randa and their group were, they ended burying their fallen comrades and their belongings on some shared tomb. Now they're giving them their last respects and goodbyes.
"These men did not die in vain. I swear to the Fire Lord, their deaths will not go unanswered. And let's not forget that we still have a mission to complete." Packard declared, with also his new task in mind. Next he looked at Prince Iroh, who nodded at him before looking back at his men and putting his helmet. "Now let's get to the princess, to Chapman and those munitions." He concluded.
Iroh didn't expect the last part of that speech. He knew finding Ursa and Chapman was of prime importance, but why they could need those resources and weapons for? That made the prince rise a suspicious look and thought on the colonel, wondering what he could be up to. But it was too soon to jump into conclusions, so for now he thought it would be better to wait and watch if he was right. After a while of beginning their own journey through the island's territories the Fire Nation group reached to some bamboo forest.
"You ever heard the story of the mouse, the lion, and the thorn?" Cole asked to Mills.
"Yeah."
"There you go then. In case we ever see that primate again."
"You do know that story is about a mouse becoming friends with the lion after taking the thorn out of his paw though, right?"
"No, it's not. The mouse kills the lion with the thorn."
"Who told you that, Cole?"
"My mother."
"That actually explains a lot."
One of the soldiers stood behind a little while he drank some water from his jug, but while he was drinking his eyes widened as he heard some cracking sound from above and saw something that stroke him like lightning. When everyone heard the water jug hitting the floor and turned back at his direction they widened theirs eyes and left their mouths open in shock and horror. That soldier was stabbed in the chest by some big bamboo log, or that's what it looked like, because said bamboo log came from above…and from something unexpected, as some huge shadow appeared over them. Then everyone saw some giant arachnid florafauna species walking over the bamboo forest and over them. The gigantic spider-like creature possessed incredibly long legs that resembled bamboo stalks, allowing it to blend in seamlessly with the surrounding forests, with its legs posing as plants and its upper body held high above the canopy. The spider's face resembled a skull, being a light beige in color with large red eyes. In addition to its eight legs, the giant spider possessed two additional limbs located closer to its head, which were equipped with pincer-like claws. That was a Mother Longlegs, and it was 18 feet high and 5 meters long. Everyone couldn't believe their eyes. As the razor-sharped leg went out of the soldier's lifeless body, the rest of the legs began attacking everyone else like deadly spears.
"Look out!" Mills exclaimed in panic. "Oh my Agni!"
"Watch out!" Iroh exclaimed next.
"What is it?" Reles added.
"Watch your six!" Mills added next.
"Up above!" Cole said next.
"Up in the trees!"
Everyone got caught off guard from the spider's coordinated attack with its sharpened legs and started panicking, not sure of where these were coming from as they were camouflaged with the rest of the bamboo.
"Fire up!" Cole yelled as he began shooting fireballs at the spider, which seemed to affect it as it screeched in pain.
Every firebender of the group followed Cole's movement and counterattacked at the giant arachnid. But then this released some strange muscular tendrils from its underbelly that unluckily ensnared Mills from above and started being dragged up, right toward the giant spider.
"Cole! No, no!" Mills shouted at his friend asking for help scared and trying to free himself from the tendrils' grasp.
"Mills!" Cole yelled trying to grab him but he missed. "We got you!" He then decided to try freeing him with his firebending, but he couldn't take a clear shot on his position from below his pal. "I can't get a shot!"
Mills took out his knife and decided to cut the tendrils in order to free himself, and he had to do it fast as he was dangerously reaching for the spider, which already had its pincer-like claws ready for its next prey.
Then, an idea came for Prince Iroh at observing one of the Mother Longlegs's legs. "Cut the legs! Cut it off at the legs!" He commanded at the troops.
Everyone followed the prince's order and used their swords to cut the spider's legs. That made it to start losing its balance and had to try recovering it. One of the razor legs almost hit Reles, making him to fall backwards. The same leg tried to stab him a second time while he stood on the ground, but he dodged to the side quickly and cut it with his sword. Up there, Mills began getting desperate on freeing himself as the spider's claws were very close at him and ready to catch him and tear him apart. It looked like that was the end for him, but then a lightning coming from below hit the spider's abdomen, which blast was so strong that lifted the giant invertebrate from the ground a little, not talking about the great pain it was standing from the big screech it let out. Everyone could see that was Prince Iroh the one who shot that lightning. That forced it to free its prey, letting Mills to fall back to the ground. Once that was accomplished, everyone resumed their attack with all their firebending power unleashed on the giant arthropod, putting it on fire and screeching in pain. At the end it became too much for it to endure and started to lose all its strength.
"I got you, soldier! Go!" Iroh exclaimed grabbing Mills from his hand and dragging him fast out of the way before the Mother Longlegs ended falling to the ground almost finished.
The spider tried its best to get up again, even if it had all its legs cut, but it was too weak for that. Packard approached it and finished it with a flamethrower, courtesy of his firebending. With his eyes full of pure rage, he kept unleashing one big stream of fire until the giant spider was totally consumed by the flames. No doubt that he really hated that place already. After that unfortunate event, everyone stopped near a hill out of the bamboo forest in order to recover for that terrible experience and their lose.
"Shake it off, guys!" Packard ordered, breaking the minutes of silence. "Let's move out."
As everyone prepared to continue their quest, Mills walked to Iroh.
"Em…Your Highness." Mills called, taking the prince's attention. "Em…I wanted to thank you…for saving my life back there. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have made it."
Iroh smiled at him while putting a hand on his shoulder. "You are welcome, soldier. And don't bother with it. It's what all of us have to do while we're here."
Mills smiled back at that and bowed to him. "Yes, Your Highness. Know that for now on, I'll have your back."
With everything talked, the two of them rejoined the group and resumed their travel. In the meantime, as noon arrived at the island's sky, the group of Conrad and Weaver continued their wandering through the jungle. In the meantime, the group encountered in their path some big carnivorous plant with several dead animals inside, including a wasp the size of Weaver's hand. After leaving behind such disturbing finding and walking a few meters more ahead, the group came to some curious location in the jungle that left everyone surprised and amazed.
"Stay tight." Conrad advised.
"What in the world is this?" Slivko asked intrigued at their discovery.
In the middle of the tropical undergrowth was a clearing surrounded by strange rock structures, and they weren't ordinary rocks. They had some kind of modified form and strange and curious paintings over them, even the entrance looked like some kind of damaged stone arch while the second one was totally intact, all them covered by roots, vines and branches. A place could only mean thing: they were not the only people in the island, as those structures had to be human-hand made.
"Have you seen these rocks? Their structure is not natural, they have been modified." Hakoda observed while they entered the supposed ruins.
"What do you mean, Hakoda?" Conrad asked.
"I don't know. It's weird. But…it's like there's…a human element here."
"You're right." Lao added. "They look primitive, but good worked. Those ones even seem like some stone arch."
"Do you mean…that we could be not the only people in the island?" Noriko/Ursa asked at that curious. "That it could be inhabited?"
"It's possible. It would be a surprise knowing the creatures that roam free all around this place." Bato pointed.
While the group continued walking into the ruins Weaver decided to make a painting of the place meanwhile. But as she tried to focus her eyes on one of the stone walls she let out a little shout and stepped back when she saw a pair of eyes opening at the second. The eyes belonged to a man who was camouflaged with the wall wearing the same colors and paintings as it, at he wasn't alone. Suddenly more male and female tribal people appeared from the stone structures, like if they were coming from nowhere, pointing great spear at them as they gathered around the intruders, forcing the explorers to do the same with their own weapons or taking battle positions.
"Oh! Behind you!" Slivko exclaimed.
"Everybody, stay calm. Stay calm." Conrad advised, trying to not start a fight with the tribe people.
"Conrad." Weaver said starting to get a little scared.
"Stay back!" Brooks warned them.
"Nobody attack!" Conrad ordered.
Very soon the group became cornered by the tribal warriors. There was no doubt that they were the natives of the island, and they were not happy to see them in their land. Both men and women had some emotionless faces, even when they were seemed to be ready to attack the newcomers. Once the group was completely cornered, some other natives came from the intact stone arch and stood there staring at them motionless and with the same emotionless faces, but these ones were not camouflaged and only had the same yellow paintings and some red clothes on the lower part of their bodies and on their torsos, necks and heads. The situation became very tense, as nobody was sure of who group was going to strike first, but before a disaster could happen…
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. No, no, no." Another man came quickly passing gently among the natives and putting himself in front of the group, trying to calm things down. "No need for that. Come on now! Everybody, keep your wigs on now!"
The newcomer was an older man of grayish black hair, dark white medium beard and sideburns and light skin. He also wore a Fire Nation armor and helmet. Besides the natives, this guy was also unexpected for the group, with no idea of what to say about what was going on.
"What?" Slivko asked stunned.
The newcomer man chuckled happy. "I didn't believe it when they said you were coming. I was up all night just thinking about how me, Kato and Kalina dreamed of this moment. And now here it is." The older man expressed delighted, of course with the group having no clue of what was he talking about. "28 years, 11 months and 8 failed attempts to get back to the world, and instead the world comes to me? Ain't that a crack?" He said turning his sight to his native companions, who didn't change their expressions. "They never smile." He said returning his sight at the newcomers.
"Did you crash here?" Weaver asked him.
"Oh. Sorry, miss." The older man said recovering his manners and bowing at them in respect, Fire Nation way. "Lieutanant Hank Marlow of the 45 th. Put the old red suit on for you." He said chuckling a little again.
The group members could see that Marlow was not a bad person by it, although he looked a little crazy, maybe by staying so much time in the island.
"Are you from the Fire Nation, sir?" Poppy asked, both curious and confused.
"Yeah, I was." Marlow answered.
"Was?" Lao replied confused of his answer.
"Yeah, I'm what you can call a deserter. After more than 20 years without your nation coming to see how you're doing, it has no sense to remain loyal to that kind of faction that left you at your own luck."
That response left every one of the group surprised, especially Slivko, mostly because most of them didn't saw…least believed such thing to be possible to happen, and yet he was the proof.
"You are more beautiful than a medal, a promotion and a special meeting with the Fire Lord in person, all on the same day." Marlow confessed, showing some combination of sincere sorrow and happiness on his face. "But you're real. Right?"
"Yes, we are." Hakoda answered. That made Marlow smile happy.
"I told you. Didn't I tell you?" Marlow said to the natives. "I said, "It's fine." There we go."
At hearing those words from him the natives relaxed and retrieved their spears, seeing that they were not a threat, and so the explorers.
"There's something out there, sir." Slivko told, nervous and frightened of the memory of the giant ape.
"Oh, there's a lot out there." Marlow corrected. "Now, come on. We gotta get home. You don't wanna be out here at night."
Conrad and the others wasn't sure about what that man was talking about, but if he was with the natives and those people lived in the island, they must know it better than they do, including some safe shelter. So everyone knew instantly than that was their best option for the moment.