Hey guys! Man, when I stay up late doing hw, it really takes a toll. . Thanks to karanathefirebender for all the reviews.
Hope you like this chapter.
I don't own LOK or ATLA.
Book 1:Wondering
Chapter 13: Escape
Katara's POV:
I was watching Mako's grandchildren play around with their grandfather, when I heard the familiar sound of sky bison. We all rushed to the courtyard that was in front of the palace, and found Jinora's crew coming back with concerned faces.
When Branyt airbended himself down, he had a beaten down Cheryl in his arms. I quickly took a look at the poor girl, my heart broken, this was the third time I had seen something like this happen. It broke my heart every time to see the Avatar end up like this. It happened with Aang and Korra, and now Cheryl. I looked back finding Mako covering up the kids' eyes and ushering them in with Bolin.
"Hurry, bring her to the healing room." I gestured for the others to follow me. While Branyt placed Cheryl on one of the white medical beds, I took a look at the injures. She had scars, buries, scratches everywhere, even a pained expression.
"She got beat up by a both of people in Earth Kingdom clothing. They knocked her down with Earth, Fire, and Water attacks one after another." Branyt's tone was seemingly calm, but full of anguish. I nodded back and checked for broken bones. Bolin then appeared and brought in buckets of water. He winced just looking at Cheryl's broken condition.
"Akina, can you help me with her injuries?" She quickly nodded, ran out the door, and came back with bandages, towels, and other essentials.
Jinora got the others to come out, but it took some time to pull Branyt out. I knew he wanted to be by her side, but it would be harder to work with lots of people inside. Akina placed a wet towel on the girls head, while I worked on the left arm. I could tell it was broken, possibly due to shielding oneself. Then, water-bended some of the liquid out of the bucket and placed it on the lower arm, willing it to glow, indicating the healing process.
Cheryl's expression tensed up at first, but later relaxed when I got the bone pieced together again. I made a sling for the left arm, then turned her to check up on the back. The image shocked me. It was all bruised up, I'm surprised her spine didn't break. I was just about to place water on her back when the door suddenly opened.
"The Red Lotus are here!" Branyt shouted to me, with the others following him into the room. I turned to a wall without windows and opened up a secret gateway with my waterbending. I kept one there is case anything happened.
"Hurry!" I turned to them. They quickly did as told. Branyt carried a still unconscious Cheryl through the tunnel with Akina, Mako, Bolin, Kelina, the kids following behind. Finally, I too went through and closed the icy slab behind us. We had Mako and Ivy light out the path before we reached the end of the tunnel, which was the stables where the sky bison are kept. For some reason, Sona wasn't there. But we didn't have to look for her. Luckily we had two sky bison there. I gave each one a pat to wake them up, then turned to Akina and Branyt.
"You guys need to take Cheryl to safety. If we separate like this, we'll be able to knock the Red Lotus off our trails and cover you guys." Akina shook her head no.
"We can't let you guys get hurt, you'll just as important."
"We'll be able to handle ourselves." I heard Mako say from behind me.
"Yeah! We won't let grandma down." Ivy cried out from on top the sky bison. The two teenagers gave us one last worried look before climbing onto the other sky bison. Looks like Akina will be steering.
"Good Luck!" Branyt shouted to us before their sky bison took off in one direction. I got onto my own with Jinora and Korra's family.
"Yip, Yip!" Jinora told Pepper and we also took off too. I noticed Mako staring intently on a certain woman with braided hair that was looking at us with a face full of hate.
"Why is Grandpa acting weird, Mom?" Alex asked Kelina. She traced her father-in-law's gaze to the woman, but seemed to not be able to figure out what he was thinking.
"I don't know honey. Don't worry, everything will be fine." She hugged her son tighter and gave a glance to her daughter in Mako's arms. The normally feisty girl was clinging to her grandpa's sleeve.
"Everything isn't gonna to be okay, is it?" Ivy whispered in a soft tone for all of us to hear. I silently nodded, but I'll still believed that there was hope in the world. I turned to take a look at the palace, finding it in flames. Bolin gave me a worried and mouthed 'Cheryl will save us, right?' I nodded back a yes. She will, she has to, she is the Avatar after all.
Lily's POV:
I was on my knees, trying to catch my breath, and hiding in a dark corner after being chased by a bunch of Red Lotus members. Man, what is with these people? Its like they have an endless supply of them.
Someone touched me on the back of the shoulder, and I turn around ready to fight whoever is behind me. But its actually my older brother! I give him a tight hug, afraid of what is to come.
He chuckles softly before smoothing out my hair and hugging me back. Sure, he's all the cool, serious and collective type and doesn't speak often cause of that ; but he still trusts me and protects me when I need him the most. A tear rolls down my cheek and he wipes it away.
"Where's dad?" I ask him in a scared and whispered tone, even though I am still hugging him.
"Hiding. We need to get out of here and regroup with the others in the Water Tribe. Dad's gonna try to get through a secret underground passage with the other world leaders. Even that stupid President Raiko Jr." He snarled at the name. I could never get politics though, too complicated for me.
"How do we get out of here then? Do we have to leave Mom and Dad?" I ask, hoping he won't lose patience with the amount of questions I ask, and the current situation. He takes a deep breath and sighed, eyeing the Royal Palaces' walls until his eyes brighten up, most likely an idea.
"Lily, remember that time Dad showed us a secret way out?" I nod and try to get a jest of what he's trying to say. I stare at the wall my brother is looking at, a memory flashing before me.
*Flashback* About 8 years ago...
"Daddy, Daddy! What's my Birthday present?" I giggle as he picks me up and tickles me. Sean was standing next my dad, confidently as usual. Dad brings me and Sean to this certain part of the Royal Wall behind the Throne Room Building and nearby the pond area. His faces turns partially serious.
"Lily, where are we currently?" I blink a couple of times out of confusion, but nevertheless still answer the question.
"Behind your throney place and close to the garden." I answer cheerfully, but my face falls when I see his sad face. I look to my brother, he has an emotionless facial expression. Out of Dad's sleeves comes out a thin median-sized metal looking stick and he hands it to me while I'm still in his arms.
"Lily, carefully study what I am doing." I nod and watch as he creates a blowtorch version of a Fire Dagger and engraves a certain symbol onto a brick. Its similar to the Fire Nation symbol but with
a crown on top of the flame. Suddenly, I feel part of the ground shake, I cling onto my dad a bit tighter and he reassures me by hugging me back. I turn to the ground, some slabs are shifting below the wall my Dad just torched.
It reveals a secret stairway that I've never knew about. I take a look at Sean's face, he isn't surprised at all. When we enter the tunnel, the only light is the flames coming from my father's and brother's hands.
Sean then places his right hand that's engulfed in flames onto a specific brick, which closes the entrance shut. The hallway is made of plain gray stone and can have two people standing side by side to walk at the same time with enough room. I nearly fall asleep in my father's arms while he and Sean continue walking down the dull, colorless path.
When my dad shakes me awake, I see Sean doing the same action as before, but this time a entrance opens up. I shield my eyes using my arms which makes me nearly fall off my dad. When we walk through the blinding light, and I open my eyes to the surrounding area.
I gasp in awe at the sight. We landed in a beautiful clearing overlooking the capital city full of short green grass that are up to my ankles if my feet were directly on the ground. Then from afar, I see a simple cottage with a nearby farm.
It wasn't modern like ours. Instead it was old, tattered, and looked like hay was used as a roof. But it still looked decent, at least the windows aren't broken. I then see a wooden window shutter on the left break off just that moment. Then again, not.
Then an old man in his 60's with a pointy gray beard and hair appears out of the house. When he notices our presence, his eyes widen and he opens up his door again, yelling something to someone before returning his gaze to his.
Dad walks to him, and the old man does the same, except that we are faster, so we meet him when we're almost to his house. He bows slightly and Sean gives him a hug.
"Nice to see you again Sean. How are you doing Iroh?" He asked. My Dad nods back. The Old Man's eyes trace to mine, they kinda look like Mom's.
"This is Lily. Lily, this is Mommy's Dad. Your other grandfather." My Dad lets my grandfather carry me. The Old Man studies me and smiles. I smile back.
"Lily, such a pretty name. You have your Mom's smile all right." A tear slips down from his old cheek. I quickly wipe it away.
"Lily, like the beautiful flower. Lily..."
*Flashback ends*
"Lily!" My brother's voice knocks me back to reality. I shook my head to get my vision back track.
"Were you listening?" He hisses. I cringe.
"Sorry." I say in a sad tone. He sighs.
"We're gonna take that route and get help from them, okay? But the Red Lotus are still crawling all over the palace, so we gotta be quick and quiet. Got it?" I nod a yes and we quickly scramble to the spot. I kept lookout while my brother firebended the symbol.
The slab door opens up and we quickly enter and close it. I cling onto his arm, surprisingly he doesn't shake me off like normal, instead he continues walking with the flame in his hand. Eventually, we speed up our place and end up running to the other end.
When we open up the other side, its the same scene as I remember it, the same awe feeling despite the fact I been through here numerous times to visit my grandparents. We rush past the farm and knock frantically on our grandparents' wooden door.
"Coming! Coming!" I hear my grandmother's voice say. When she opens the door and sees us, her face is full of delight until she notices our desperate expressions. She ushers us in and looks around the area before closing the door.
When we go inside the living its the same old orange china tea pot china engrave with rose carvings on the circular wooden table. There are shelves to right and left full of books and picture frames, also a TV on one of its corners. The wallpaper is the dull color of yellow, but it still brightens up my day. Though Sean tells me he thinks the opposite. Grandpa is sitting on one of the wooden chairs reading a newspaper, not realizing our entry.
"Stan! The grand-kids are here, stop reading your newspaper." She scolds him. He reluctantly listens and notices our glum faces. His face grows with concern and tells us to sit. My brother shakes his head 'no', I do the same.
"What's wrong?" Sean just points to the window that faces our palace. Our grandparents give us looks of confusion before doing what they were told.
"What happened?" Grandma asked after seeing the palace n flames and partially destroyed. I sink into a chair, and slump my head onto the table thinking back to the past while Sean explains. I pull out that short metal rod tucked safely in my sleeve that dad gave me many years ago and stare at it.
*Flashback*
We back at the brick wall again after our visit to them.
"Lily, do you still have the rod I gave you?" He asked me. I nod and pull out the short metal rod out of my sleeve.
"Lily, you must keep this with you at all times," He scrapes one end of the rod onto the brick making it grow red and hot and then does the same pattern before, but with the hot end of the rod on a specific brick.
My eyes widen at awe and wonder. "If Sean isn't with you, use this rod to make the pattern okay? Tell no one of this passage. You'll need it when there's danger." His eyes are hardened and serious instead of his normal bright eyes. I nod slowly.
"Grandpa and Grandma here will help you if danger comes." He explains as we walk back through the tunnel.
"What kind of danger? Does someone want to kill us?" I say.
"You'll learn about them someday." He whispers back before we reach the exit that opened up to the garden.
*Flashback ends*
Dad knew the danger from the beginning...He knew that something like this might happen. What are we going to do?
Oka's POV:
The first stop I made was the stupid palace of the Southern Water Tribe, once home to the 'mighty Avatar Korra'. I clench my hand into a fist. The person who completely destroyed my life, my family. I'll get revenge for you, Mom and Dad.
The Earth Queen had told us that she sent some help all across the world, but according to my comrades there were none. Doesn't matter, that she didn't help. We were going to kill her last anyway.
When part of the Red Lotus and me marched in, we easily knocked the guards off their feet. Around the middle of our assault I noticed two sky bison flying away. For some reason, I was frozen onto the spot, despite the fact that I could easily blast them out of the sky with my combustion bending.
The sky bison closer to the ground had a man staring at me with intent eyes. I glared right back at him and resumed destroying the palace. It felt good getting all the my anger and pain out. Finally being able to properly release it. But I won't stop hunting for the Avatar, until she's dead.
" ! We found Dustin!" I hear someone say from afar. Dustin, I completely forgot that I had sent him here as a spy for me. The lady leads me underground to one of the prison chambers. And Dustin is sitting so still against the wall. She metal bends the cell bars and I rush to the poor guy's side.
Even though he was 30-something, he acted year a 8 year old. I had felt bad for him, so I took him under my wing. I shook him awake. He yawned and rubbed his eyes.
" ! I'm so sorry. I tried to kill the Avatar even though she wasn't in the state, but I failed. They put me into this weird cell."
"Its okay," I reply in a soothing voice "What did the Avatar look like?"
"She's strong! She was able to tell that I was going to throw a knife at her! Pretty pretty though. Fair skin, long black hair, Earth Kingdom skirt." I sighed, his descriptions wasn't getting me anywhere. I had learned that from past experience, but at least something is nothing. I helped him up and he helped me search through the rooms for anyone or clues with the others. If the Avatar was here, there's got to be some clue.
Branyt's POV:
We were roaming aimlessly through the sky, and I had taken the role of guiding the sky bison so Akina could heal Cheryl was the remaining water in her pouch. Akina had told me to continue north west by following the left side of the spot of where the sun set so we could meet up with the world leaders in the Fire Nation. I looked back to Akina, she had baggy and tired eyes from healing the rest of the injuries.
"You should sleep," I told her "I can guide the bison." She nodded a 'no' and continued healing the wounds.
"You know Cheryl wouldn't want you like this. You need rest, and besides, you can't heal properly if you are tired." Akina looked at the resting girl and sighed.
"Fine, I'll do it for Cheryl sake." She rested her back on the side of a saddle and closed her eyes. Things got hectic in just a couple of hours. Hopefully, things will get better later.
Once again, please review. And tell me what you think about the characters so far.