I knew I had to get out of the carriage; I knew I had to go help my parents. What if they weren't dead? What if they were alive and buried under rubble and they were slowly being crushed? I took a deep breath. Time to get out of here.
I pulled my hands apart a little, testing the strength of the belt. Wow. Ghan sure could tie a knot.
I closed my eyes and sighed. I could try firebending, but I didn't want to destroy the carriage. But my parents…
And, having decided that my parents were higher up on the What-I-Care-About-Scale than the carriage, I twisted around so my feet were almost touching my hands and so I was lying on my stomach. I opened my eyes, and stared at the underside of the seat in front of me, zoning in on a coin that must have been dropped there. I took a deep breath, and then braced myself for the pain.
The fire shot out of the bottoms of my feet very quickly. The belt- and my hands- were engulfed in flames. I screamed as the heat made my flesh sizzle. I couldn't feel if the belt had been burned away; but it felt like my hands were going to be burnt away, so I ripped my hands apart. I felt the burning belt fall onto my back. I twisted again as that burned my back, and I threw my feet downwards. There was still fire coming out, though.
Right then, I remembered my mother patting my head and saying, "I'm so glad our house it metal; you would have burned it down long ago if we had gotten the house your father wanted."
The familiar feeling I got whenever I firebent and I couldn't control it (which was every time I firebent,) settled into my stomach. I saw the wall of the carriage light up, and, as hard as it was, I closed my eyes and concentrated. Soon after, I opened them again. Why wasn't the-
Oh. Oh, no.
I had stopped firebending. But the carriage was lit on fire… I heard the man driving the carriage screaming for help. I stood up, wincing as my hands made contact with the floor. Looking around and seeing that the entire carriage around me was on fire, I took a deep breath and leapt through the hole in the wall, which, of course, was also filled with fire.
I hit the dirt outside and rolled around, trying to put out the flames that had caught my hair and clothes. I could feel my skin heating up, and my lower face hurt so much. But I finally got the flames out.
I lay there for a second, breathing hard. But then I felt someone grasp my arm, and I was yanked to my feet. The carriage driver grabbed my other arm, and was began to pull me away from the flaming vehicle. We were on a road that was cut through a forest, and trees surrounded us on both sides. I tore my gaze from the flames and looked at the driver. He was shouting at me, but I couldn't make out the words over the crackle of the fire. He turned back toward the carriage and lifted his arms. The ground under the flaming thing shook and shuddered, and finally swallowed the carriage. I heard the 'sehh' as the fire went out. Some of the remaining smoke disappeared into the air, and the driver whirled around to face me.
He looked very disheveled, and he needed to shave. His hair was stringy and brown- although I wouldn't be surprised if it was brown just because it was caked in dirt. "What have you done! Why did you try to escape like that!" He stormed toward me and I took a step back. "Why? Why did you do this? You could have killed me!" He stopped suddenly and raised his hands. I knew what was about to happen. I jumped to the side just as walls of solid rock rose and trapped the air in the space of where I had just been. He swore and tried the same move again. I dodged again, but he was able to trip me with some of the rock. I flew down and cried out as my burned hands hit the ground. I scrambled up and looked back at the man, who was about to bend again. I jumped backwards, and, before he could adjust his stance, turned and ran toward the tree line. He ran to the edge of the road just as I disappeared into the trees.
"We'll find you! We'll find you, and you will pay for all the people you slaughtered!"
Breathing heavily, I ran faster into the woods.