Kay felt the weight of the necklace as the walked through the stalls and the crowds, which were gradually thinning as the day wore out. As twilight fell Kay and Ethan found themselves in on a park bench sharing a warm bag of chips. A fountain played in front of them, and Kay suspected this was why Ethan had chosen this bench.
"So is everyday like this for you?" Ethan shrugged, looking down from his position on the back of the bench rather than the seat.
"Sort of, like, there's a lot of training, and reading. But it's mostly exploring. Moving about the city. Preparing for-" Ethan stopped abruptly. Kay looked about to see the thing which had stopped him.
"Preparing for what?" He gave a goofy grin,
"Teaching." Kay smiled and turned her attention back to the fountain.
"Oh," He meant her, he was going to teach her water bending. Going into the cave didn't seem so bad. They sat in each other's company and a comfortable silence was pecked at by the wind and fountain. Distant traffic honked and rumbled. Birds flapped and the trees rustled. It felt so unreasonably comfortable, and lovely. It felt like any moment it would all be ripped away. Ethan and Kay looked at each other for a second,
"Come on, we'd better be going," He said nudging her arm and moving off the bench. They walked out of the park and along the now empty dusky streets.
"Where now?" Kay asked.
"Home I suppose,"
"Which is in what direction?" Kay thought she knew where they were in relation to her house, the high-street, school, but not the caves.
"Urm." Ethan stopped and scanned the area.
"...You don't know?"
"No, of course I know.. I just, lost my bearings for a second, here it's this way," Ethan said, confidently striding down an ally. Kay followed until they came to a dead end. She folded her arms and smirked. He laughed back,
"Well, you know, if we could go through this wall, we'd be right there I swear."
"Yeah, alright,"
"What, you don't believe me?"
"Oh sure, I believe you." Kay said sarcastically, they both laughed as they walked retraced their steps out of the ally.
"Goin' somewhere?" A man came out from the shadows, they hadn't noticed.
Ethan grabbed Kay's hand as her heart rate accelerated. Ethan tried to just walk past the guy, but he stood purposefully between them and the exit of the ally. Kay's heart started pounding.
"Right, what do you want?" Ethan said, sounding brave.
"Well," the guy gave an wicked grin. "Little birdy told me, you have someink a' might interest me."
"We don't have anything."
"Now, that's not true is it?" The man looked at them with a patronizing stare, "Get 'em," The guy said, almost casually. Ethan pushed Kay behind him, and assumed a defensive stance when another two men came round the corner. They were skinnier than their boss, and Ethan recognised one of them.
"You again? What a wonderful pleasure." Ethan spat out.
"The pleasure is all mine," The second of the henchmen pulled a rope tight around his fists, while the first aimed to grab Ethan so as to restrain him to hold his hands behind his back. Kay gasped, they were going to be kidnapped, and ransomed, or sold to a freak show, or used in an evil army. She felt helpless. She thought they were done for. All they had on their side was water bending, and she'd spilt all the water they'd had on them.
But Ethan was too fast for them, he ducked out of the first one's reach, sending him off balance and landed a blow on his kidneys. The second man wasn't close enough to grab Ethan with the rope, and out of desperation misjudged and made it easy for Ethan to avoid. Kay looked around, still helpless, for anything that would help. There was a dripping drain pipe next to her.
The first man recovered quickly and then set his sights on Kay. She screamed as he advanced and she made to water bend the drops. They froze and plinked harmlessly off of him. Ethan swiftly avoided another grab and using his water bending gathered all the water in the drain in one swift movement, and in the next was using the water as a whip. Hitting at the seconds face to make him back off. The first hesitated from the surprise of seeing water bending for the first time. Big mistake. Ethan brought the water onto him and froze it in cuffs against the wall, effectively immobalizing the first henchman, then moving on to freeze the seconds hands together.
The boss was gone. Ethan grabbed Kay's hand once again and they ran together. Kay ran ahead of Ethan, fairly certain he didn't know where they were and led him to her house. She was so petrified every time her legs and lungs complained she imagined them on her heals and it spurred her on again.
She almost collapsed on her front lawn. Between her breathing and her heart beat in her ears she hardly heard Ethan's footsteps towards her. He put her hand on her shoulder making her jumpt. He was out of breath, but, annoyingly, not as out of breath as she was.
"Come on, we have to get back to the caves,"
"More running?" She all but whimpered. He managed a goofy smile,
"Nah, we can walk this one."