I did it! I finished it! The chapter is here!
'Soon' could not come fast enough in Jinora's eyes. It had been many weeks since she had been caught during one of her nights out in the city. During this time, Jinora had decided that she would continue to drown her sorrows in books, while avoiding the book about the highwayman and the noble's daughter. However, not much time passed before she realised she had already read and reread all the books on Air Temple Island that she would have deemed interesting or worth reading. When her complaining became increasingly incessant and irritating for others, Pema brought back an impressive pile of books for Jinora after one of her regular trips from the city. To which Tenzin commented that she was spoiling her. Jinora found that most of the books revolved around the Fire Nation in some way. Not that she was complaining. In fact she was thankful for it, because most of the books she had ever read involved the Fire Nation in one way or another. The Fire Nation had always fascinated her from an age earlier than her already early age. Her mother knew her oh so well, it seemed.
Throughout this time, she continued to stay shut in her room for the most part. Though she was beginning to come out more and more often as the weeks went by. But even then she would keep to herself more than what she used to before she was caught out. Jinora simply kept a book in front of her face at all times; a clear sign she didn't want to be disturbed by anyone.
Lately she had been delving into many of the non-fiction books that her mother had gotten her. One in particular caught her interest; a book on a civil war in the Fire Nation that had occured shortly after the Hundred Year War, focusing on a group of eight soldiers loyal to the Fire Lord who would later be heralded as heroes in the Fire Nation. Their exploits were phenomenal; the stuff of legends. From delaying movements of entire battalions to a final stand against a hundred enemy soldiers.
She was deeply intrigued by these war stories. She had read about the old tales of her grandfather and his friends during the Hundred Year War. But there was something about hearing about the story of the common soldier that pulled her in. Maybe it was the camaraderie, maybe it was the struggles the ordinary man had been put through. Or maybe it was because of how professional some of them seemed to be.
Certain stories told of great plights of infiltration and escapades. Some went into great detail of how these tasks had been pulled off. That was especially interesting for Jinora. So much so that they were beginning to give her ideas.
Perhaps she wouldn't need to wait for this elusive 'soon'.
"Well hello, what do we have here?"
Skoochy was casually strolling around Republic City, without any destination or route in mind, when he stumbled upon a small leather object on the ground. No doubt something that someone had carelessly dropped. The young boy stooped over to pick up this mystery object to find that it was someone's wallet. After glancing around to see if anyone was watching, he rummaged through to see what it contained.
"Well," Skoochy said to himself as he had a look through, "seems this Khan fellow will be making a generous donation of 40… 41, 42… 47 Yuans to the Keep Skoochy Fed Trust Fund."
After extracting the money from the wallet, he placed it back on the ground where he found it. It contained someone's identification documents, so he wasn't going to hold onto it. If he left it there, bare of any money, it would find its way back to this Khan person eventually.
With his daily 'good deed' done for today, he continued his stroll as he tucked the money away into a pocket inside his new coat. Though, it wasn't completely new. He got it second hand, and he had had it for a few weeks now; snatched from a clothes line among the apartment buildings of Republic City. It was a simple, warm, grey coat that was easily two sizes too big for him. It fitted loosely on his thin frame, but it still kept him warm in the cold winter air.
Just like every other day, his aimless stroll eventually brought him out to the front of Central City Station where the statue of Zuko stood. It seemed the warm flames that the statue produced had drawn in more than just himself.
"Skooch'!" yelled a familiar voice.
Little Xing ushered Skoochy over to join him and Mei Li for a little sit down by the statue's pedestal. With nothing else better to do, he simply obliged. This seemed to be the trend of what he would get up to lately. Have a stroll around the city, scrounge up some money wherever possible and then hang around Central City Station with other homeless youths where they would try to find something to do together.
"What do you guys up to?" Skoochy asked as he sat himself on the cold ground, "Thinking of getting up to anything?"
"Nope," Mei Li answered.
As of late they have been reluctant to do a lot in the cold of the newly arrived winter. It was much more comfortable to sit around Zuko's statue where it radiated warmth. This left them little else to do but bicker with one another.
"So where's your girlfriend, Skooch'?" Xing asked.
"She's not my girlfriend!" Skoochy snapped.
"But don't you miss her?" Mei Li asked in a curious tone.
"I…" Skoochy hesitated with his answer.
It had been quite some time since the night Jinora was caught sneaking out, and of course he hadn't seen her since. Skoochy normally didn't develop attachments to many things in life, because in his circumstances things could be easily lost. He had never really given his relationship with Jinora any thought in that respect. But now that it had been brought up, it made him think twice. Jinora was different to everything else in his life. Unlike money, meagre possessions or even other homeless youths, Jinora wouldn't exactly disappear one day. Sure, she had been caught, but he sensed a rebellious spirit within her. A simple grounding wouldn't keep her away from the city, surely. So this was why she was different, she would always be around to keep things brighter.
But since being caught, things hadn't been so bright in his life on the streets. Now that he put some thought toward the matter, he did indeed feel something was missing in his dreary life. No doubt, it was the absence of a certain airbender girl.
"Yeah…" Skoochy sighed, "Yeah, I kind of miss her."
Xing exchanged a look with Mei Li before responding, "Sheesh, he's like one of those grownups in the radio shows. Kind of gross."
"Yeah, shut up," Skoochy spat as he leaned over and gave Xing a hard shove.
The cold evening air was filled with the laughter of two young children.
It had taken a lot of time. It had taken a lot of planning.
All those sleepless nights and constant demands of patience for the sake of careful observation was all finally coming into effect. The grand plan; the great escape. It all came down to this. Jinora was through with waiting. She was going to do it. Tonight was the night. She was going to run away from this prison she once called home. It all relied on the gaps in the rotations.
Jinora had carefully watched over the White Lotus sentries that had been posted outside her bedroom window. A few hours past midnight, they would rotate shifts. When they would varied, because they still weren't entirely accustomed to their new roles. But it was only a matter of time before they would be, so she had to do it as soon as possible.
Every now and then, there would be a night where the sentries coming for the next shift wouldn't show up. This caused the sentries standing by the window to walk back to the barracks to go wake their relief. They would check that Jinora was asleep before they would both walk off. This left the window unguarded for a good five minutes; plenty of time. It was very careless of them, but Jinora guessed that they weren't anticipating her to pull off something like this. But that was a good thing for her, just a bad look for them when they find out that she's gone.
Tonight happened to have been one of those nights. The relief never arrived. She could tell because she could hear the sentries complaining. In anticipation for them checking on her before leaving, she turned her back toward the open bedroom window as she lay in bed so they couldn't see her face, lest her give away that she wasn't asleep. When the complaining ceased, she waited. Jinora steadied her breathing as best she could as she listened to the sentries confirm she was asleep before stalking off. Satisfied by the sound of departing footsteps outside, she initiated her plan.
Quietly, so that she didn't alert the sentries outside her bedroom door, she crept out of bed and moulded her pillows and blanket into a shape that resembled her sleeping form. With that done, she reached under her bed and produced a satchel bag prepacked with a few essentials; clothes, some money and a good book. After shouldering her bag, she needed a means to get off the island.
Normally she would have taken her glider and flown away like the wind. But her glider had been confiscated, so that complicated things a little bit. But she had taken that into consideration. Her glider may have been taken away, but Ikki still had her's. Jinora stealthily climbed out of the room through the open window and stalked over to the room next to her's. Her younger sister's bedroom was right next to her own, which was convenient. She snuck into Ikki's room intent on finding her glider. It wasn't hard to figure it out, for she had subtly asked her where she kept it during a casual conversation the week before. Ikki kept her glider tucked under her bed, so quickly and quietly she reached under it and extracted it.
With the glider in hand, Jinora climbed out the window. She took one last look around her surroundings before she hurriedly extended the wings of the glider and set off on her escapade lest someone hear the contraption's distinctive clacking noise. As she flew off across Yue Bay, she looked back toward Air Temple Island. She was surprised she felt no regret or remorse or any form of negative emotion toward the notion of leaving. Instead, a huge smile grew across her face. She was happy, ecstatic and all the feelings in between. She was off that rock, off that prison. She was on her way to see a certain homeless boy.
And there's chapter 11. What did you think? Reviews are most welcome. Seriously. Do you have any idea how happy it makes me to see new reviews? Hint: Very
That escape plan sounded more complicated in my mind. Now that I've written and read it through a couple times, it's all very 'meeeehhh...' in my opinion. Oh well. This little arc is out of the way now. And now it's time for something different.
It's been a few months since the last update, hasn't it? During this time I've been adapting to university life. It's pretty swell; very different from high school. But it's nice to know I can still find time to write every now and then.
Apologies for another short chapter. Kind of disappointing, but there wasn't a lot else I could think of to add to this chapter. As of late I've been feeling a real lacking in inspiration for writing this fic. Book 2 really gave my ideas for this fic a beating... Oh well, I'll pull through it. Stay tuned for future updates.