"Kai, are you sure this is the right place?" Mako asked for about the fifth time.
"Yes, I'm sure. He was around here, covering the Raiders' tracks." Kai replied.
Kai had reported what he had seen in the canyon, but by that time it was too late to continue the search until morning. Now they had arrived at the place Kai had led them to, but there was no sign of the man Kai had seen the day before.
"Well, if he was covering the Raiders' tracks then he's probably gone to join them by now." Korra said.
"I agree." Asami added. "We should head through the canyon and see if we can pick up the trail again."
"Sounds like a plan. Let's go."
Megildur stood in the clearing, looking at his surroundings. So far the hardest part of tracking the Avatar and her party had been finding his ostrich horse again. True, a five day lead in a storm wasn't an easy task, but Rangers are expert trackers. Megildur himself had once helped track a target from Ba Sing Se all the way to Omashu.
The Avatar had been traveling fast, at first. Their pace had slowed in the last day, when they were closing in on their prey. But Megildur could tell they had been following a decoy. The Raiders rode single file to hide their numbers, but the tracks on the last day were much shallower than those before. This indicated that they were only made by a couple riders, rather than the deeper tracks which seemed to indicate at least a dozen or so Raiders. The Avatar's party had realized they had been duped at about midday on the fifth day. They set up camp in this clearing near a stream. It made sense they'd camp near a water source, both for hydration and since Korra didn't carry bending water. There hadn't been much activity in the camp, and it looked like at least a few were gone most of the afternoon.
The airbenders. They'd go to scout the area.
The group had spent the night here, after the airbenders returned. One much later than the others. They wouldn't have just given up and gone back to the city, or Megildur would have met them already. And they didn't split up, none of them knew the area enough for that. So they must have continued the hunt as a group, but where did they go?
The canyon. Of course. The Raiders would go that way because it would be harder to track them on the rocky terrain, and easier to cover their tracks. The Avatar's party would have figured that out and followed. They might still be in the canyon.
Megildur mounted his ostrich horse and headed for the canyon. He was only hours behind them now.
"Yep. That's them alright." Korra said as she passed the telescope to Asami.
After reaching the end of the canyon they were able to pick the trail back up. Now they sat on a cliff overlooking the Raider encampment.
"Well, ideas people?" Korra asked.
"There's at least two dozen down there, we can't risk a frontal assault." Mako said.
"We could rig up a rockslide to drive them from the camp?" Bolin offered.
"That could work." Asami said as she looked back down at the Raider's camp.
"They'd be forced to cross that stream there to get to the higher ground. Korra, you could do some serious waterbending damage that way while pick off whoever's left."
"Let's do it." Korra said. "We should wait until dark though, that way they'll be tired from the day."
The group settled in for a long wait.
Finally, with the sun just about to touch the horizon, they put their plan into action. Bolin weakened the cliff's stability with some lava while Kai and Jinora brought heavy wind on the now loosened rocks. Soon a full rockslide was underway. Korra, Asami, Mako, and Opal were crouched in the bushes near the stream, and they soon heard the sound of panicked runners heading their way.
"Wait until a few of them are across. That way we maximize the Raiders we get." Mako whispered.
"Got it." Korra said.
The sound of splashing water signaled that they were in the water. Soon Korra could see the vague outlines of the Raiders. They were all armed. After about five had made it across, Korra struck. There wasn't a lot of water in the stream, but enough sweep aside anyone in the way. Those who were already across turned to see their fellows getting washed downstream.
"Now!" Mako yelled.
At once, he and Korra were unleashing a barrage of fire blasts at the Raiders while Opal buffeted them with wind gusts. Asami charged in close, energy crackling off her electric glove. She brought down one Raider before he had even seen Asami, before backflipping over a second and taking him down as well. Just as she was about to charge again, she felt the ground under her start to shake. Before she could react she was thrown across the stream into a fresh group of Raiders, with at least one earthbender. Asami recovered quickly, and gave her first attacker quite a shock before having to dodge a barrage of rocks.
"Asami, look out!"
Asami heard Korra's warning, but it was too late. Backlit against the still burning campfires, she could see a Raider archer. But there was no arrow in the bow. No, she could see the arrow was already mid-flight. Asami moved to dodge, but she knew it was too late.
Before she had quite processed all that, Asami saw a shape moving fast in out of the corner of her eye. It looked like it was going to take the arrow instead of her, but she saw an arm come down and slash the arrow in half with what looked like a wrist blade of some sort. Having neutralized the arrow, the figure landed in a role and came up in a kneeling position, bow already drawn. He let an arrow fly, and the archer went down.
The man stood up and Asami could see he wore some sort of hooded robe.
"Thanks." she said.
"My pleasure." the man said in an even voice.
They didn't have time to rest. Another group of Raiders were charging them, weapons ready.
"Hope you don't mind if I take some of these." the man said as he drew two swords.
"Be my guest." Asami replied.
The Raiders had them outnumbered at least four times over, but it availed them nothing. Asami was soon sliding, ducking, and flipping among her attackers, delivering her glove to each one. The hooded man waded in, blocking enemy strikes with the short sword in his left hand while attacking with the longsword in his right. One Raider brought a spear up to block him, but it was easily cut by the longsword. The man then brought up his short sword and stabbed the Raider in the neck, before bringing it down so it pointed at the ground.
Soon the battle was over.
"Thanks for your help, whoever you are." Korra said rather awkwardly.
"Tree Brother Megildur of the Kurai Rangers. I'm just glad I got here in time." he said.
"Believe me, I am too." Korra said as she smiled at Asami.
Mako said "But how did you find us? And where did you come from?"
"I tracked you from Republic City." Megildur said. "I came to bring you back there, I'm afraid the situation has become much more complicated."
"What happened? Was there another Raider attack?" Korra asked.
"No. The Raiders just became the least of our problems."
Bolin, Jinora, and Kai arrived before anyone could respond.
"Hey guys!" Bolin called. "Look what we found."
He produced a letter, seemingly addressed the leader of this Raider band.
"Prototypes complete, tests continue to be promising. Drop off to be determined. Be ready to move north on short notice."
The letter wasn't signed, but a strange symbol of a gear with skull in the center was present.
"Do any of you recognize that symbol?" Korra asked. "I sure don't."
"I've never seen anything like it." Megildur said.
"Neither have I." Mako replied.
Asami continued to stare at the symbol.
"Asami, do you know what this is?" Korra asked.
"I don't know. There's something familiar about it, but I can't place where I've seen something like this before."
"Maybe someone in Republic City would know. We should get back there as soon as possible." Megildur said.
