Chapter 8

Eona
Three days later, at Ilesh's house.

After knocking on the door, Eona waited patiently for Ilesh to answer. The trip back had been surprisingly uneventful, leaving Eona to wonder what had happened to the bandits. She was sure she hadn't seen the last of them, but she wasn't complaining about their lack of appearances.

She had left Charan in the nearby town, where they planned to meet up again once she had delivered the heirloom and collected the money. They had decided it best that he not show up at his parent's house, since he was supposed to be halfway across the country by now, on his way to an all boy's school in Omashu.

The door opened, revealing Jaya. "Hikari! You made it back!" She exclaimed. She opened the door wider, and gestured for Eona to enter. "Let me go find Ilesh. I will only be a moment," Jaya told her as she closed the door. She disappeared down a hall, returning a few minutes later with her husband.

"Hikari! Was your mission successful?" Ilesh asked as he approached her.

Eona bowed slightly in greeting. "Yes, it was," she replied as she pulled the heirloom from her satchel. She presented it to Ilesh, who took it, clearly delighted.

"Ah… thank you, my friend." He took a minute to study it, obviously wanting to make sure it wasn't damaged. Seemingly satisfied, he turned back to her. "And the thief? What has become of him?" he asked curiously.

Eona had to fight to keep her expression neutral. "He is dead," she replied simply, her voice void of emotion.

Ilesh nodded, his expression darkening for a brief moment. "It is unfortunate that blood has been spilt, but I am grateful you returned safely. Now! I believe I promised you quite the reward for this." He disappeared for a few minutes, returning with a large satchel. "The agreed amount," he announced as he handed it to her.

"Thank you," Eona said as she took the satchel. She took a second to glance inside, but she didn't doubt Ilesh was being honest when he said the amount was right. Suddenly getting antsy to leave, she added, "If that is all, I should be on my way."

"Of course. You must be very busy," Ilesh agreed with a nod. "Good bye." Eona gave a small wave and headed back out the door.

"If you ever need anything, you know where to find us," Jaya called from the porch as Eona started down the walk.

Turning back to them, she called, "I'll remember that!" Then she turned and continued, not looking back again. I'm glad that's over. Now let's get to the North Pole, maybe I can live in peace, she hoped silently.

It took Eona an hour or so to make her way back into town. She headed for the inn, where Charan was waiting for her. As she walked through the town, she glanced around, noticing it was eerily quiet on the streets. Few people were out, and they all seemed to be hurrying inside. She caught sight of a child peeking through a gap in curtains hanging over a window, before he was drawn away by someone else in the home. Eona slowed her pace, studying her surroundings more fervently. It was almost as if something had chased the townspeople away.

Cautiously, she continued through the town, keeping her eyes open for whatever caused everyone to act so afraid. She rounded a corner, coming to the town center, and suddenly discovered the cause of the hush over the town. Standing in the city center was a large group of men, several of them dressed in the green and brown uniforms of the Earth Kingdom. She quickly slipped back around the corner, but she already knew it was too late; as she pressed herself against the old clay wall, she heard a shout from the crowd. "Hey! I saw someone over there. Go look; it may be her."

Great, she thought. If they got the military involved, there's no way I'm getting out of the country alive. She kept her gaze on the street opening as she backed away, trying to put some distance between her and the crowd. She hadn't gotten far when about five men poured around the corner, their gaze scanning the street. It wasn't hard to notice her, and she had nowhere to hide, so instead of running she drew her sword and prepared for a fight.

"Wait!" one shouted as she started toward them. "I wouldn't do that if I were you!" she didn't let him continue, clobbering him over the head with the hilt of her sword.

The man standing just a few feet behind the first one was dressed in uniform. He watched as Eona took down her first opponent, and then cursed underneath his breath, clearly surprised it had happened so fast. "If you want to your friend again, you'll stop attacking us!" he told her hastily when he noticed her approaching him.

This made Eona pause. "What are you talking about?" she had a growing suspicion she already knew; Charan was in the town somewhere, and the bandits knew she had been traveling with him earlier.

The soldier seemed to relax a bit when she paused. "We have your friend, the boy, who was traveling with you. We'll kill him if you don't come willingly."

Keeping her face carefully neutral, she asked, "Who are you talking about?"

A man dressed like the bandits stepped forward, pushing the soldier back. She couldn't help but notice he had a fresh burn wound on his face, probably caused by the stunt she had pulled in the camp when her and Charan had escaped from them, and had to resist the urge to smirk. "The boy you were traveling with when we caught you the first time. You know who we're talking about, stop bluffing. Hazel eyes, brown hair? Calls himself… Charan, was it?" he glanced back at another companion, who nodded in confirmation.

She pretended to contemplate his words for a minute, as if she recognized the name but couldn't quite put a face to it, then exclaimed, "Oh, him? He was just someone I hired to help with a little job I picked up in town. His life is of no real concern to me." Believe me please, she begged silently. She had previously been confident in her ability to lie, but Charan had shaken that a little bit. Please don't be as perceptive as he is.

"Want to tell that to him?" the soldier asked, smirking. "He's here, if you want to see him."

An idea was slowly forming in her mind. Despite how reckless it seemed, she decided she had to get closer to Charan if she wanted to free him and get away. "Nah. Like I said, I don't care about him." She turned to one of the bandits, and met the man's gaze. "Who I would like to see is your leader. I would like to find out why you guys won't leave me alone before I kill you all." She managed to make her words sound like a real threat, even though it was an unrealistic one—there was no way she could kill all the men in the city square.

The man laughed. "You couldn't take us all, even if you wanted to." After a minute, he added, "Fine, you want to meet him? Drop your weapon and we'll let you."

She shrugged, sticking her sword into the ground with a sense of finality. This better work. It didn't bother her too much to leave the sword behind—it wasn't like she was unarmed—but it still felt weird to allow them to order her into leaving it behind. They seemed satisfied, and gathered around her. She didn't resist when they pushed her forward, moving her back toward the town center.

Once there, she quickly did a headcount. There were definitely more soldiers and bandits there than her and Charan could take together, much less her alone. Her heart sunk a bit at this prospect, but she knew she had to try and free Charan. There's still a chance this'll work out, she told herself. I may be able to get him out of this mess. She was surprised to find she had willingly given up on herself, and was simply trying to get her friend to safety.

They led her to a few men near the center of the group. One was sitting on the edge of a dried up fountain, the other two standing nearby. He looked up as they approached, and then gestured for the other men to leave, who quickly bowed and slunk away. He stood and met her gaze, a victorious glint in his dark eyes. "Well, well, well. If it isn't our illusive little ex-princess. Welcome." He bowed mockingly. Eona was tempted to kick him while his guard was down, but that would spoil her plans.

"So you're the idiot that won't leave me alone?" she asked.

He rose from his bow, meeting her gaze again. "Yes, that would be me. What, did I upset you? I'm sorry princess." He seemed unable to drop the mockery.

She continued to ignore it, shrugging nonchalantly. "Well, you were a bit of a nuisance, but nothing I couldn't handle. You almost made me lose my bounty. That would have pissed me off, but you got lucky."

He laughed. "Wouldn't want that, would we?" He smirked. "I'm glad you had the sense to not to try and run. That's good for us. I knew the moment I had your little friend in my control, you would almost come running to me, begging me to free him. Well, don't worry, he's in good shape." He turned and gestured behind him.

Eona glanced over, noticing Charan for the first time. He sat with his hands tied behind his back, leaning against the fountain. He glanced her way briefly, looking ashamed, then turned away, seeming unable to meet her gaze. Turning back to the man, she said, "Actually, I didn't come here for him. I came here for you. I was wondering how much my father paid you to hunt me down."

The man raised one eyebrow in surprise. "Really? Why does it matter to you?"

She shrugged lightly. "Guess I want to know how much money I'm worth to dear old dad."

He chuckled again. "So you don't care for the kid at all?"

"Nope," she lied, hoping she was convincing. "You kept him tied up and wasted your time catching him for no reason. Sorry to disappoint."

"Well. I guess we can leave him here then, can't we?" he asked. She couldn't tell if she had him convinced or not, but she didn't want it to be too obvious that she was trying to get him to let Charan go.

"Do what you want with him, I don't care," she told him with a shrug. "He owed me money; that debt is paid. Now I have no business with him."

The man studied her for a minute. She held his gaze, trying to act bored but sure of herself, which wasn't easy; she was a tight ball of tension, ready to react in an instant if things went wrong. She kept her arms crossed against her chest, her weight shifted on to one foot, anything but an aggressive position. Eventually, the man nodded, and then flicked his hand toward Charan. A soldier approached and untied him. Charan turned to her, looking a bit confused. "E—" he started, but she quickly cut him off.

"Go. Your debt is paid. Try not to be so reckless next time; most bounty hunters would have killed you," she told him, meeting his gaze for a few brief moments, hoping he understood the true meaning of her message. Go, Charan. Get somewhere safe. Stay out of this. Forget about me.

Charan sighed, and then started pushing through the crowd, moving away from her. She would have sighed with relief if it would have given her away. Now for the hard part—saving my own butt. Meeting the man's gaze again, she informed him, "Oh, and I'm not coming with you to the Fire Nation, by the way. I have other plans. Now that we've met, I think I'll finally be rid of you."

He raised an eyebrow in question. "And how do you expect to do that?" he asked, clearly not taking her threat seriously. "You're obviously unarmed, and I am obviously not." He rested a hand on the hilt of the sword at his side for emphasis.

She shrugged once more, finally allowing herself a smirk. "Not all weapons are easily visible." With that, she called fire to her hands and attacked him quickly, leaving him no room to react, similar to the way she had finished off the thief earlier in the week.

Except before she had a chance to turn to her next opponent, she realized the fire never reached him. Her eyes widened a fraction when she saw him lift his hands and gesture sharply downward, the fire parting to follow his movements. When it cleared, he was smirking. "So you are a bender. Good. I was hoping for a challenge." Then flames leapt to his hands, and suddenly she found herself battling with another firebender.

It had been a while since she had fought another bender, and she quickly realized she was out of practice. He pressed his advantage, pushing her back with fire blast after blast, the crowd shifting to get out of the way of the wayward flames but never straying too far. She barely managed to direct the fire away from herself in time to avoid being burnt. The heat was almost overwhelming, but she was used to being so close to such intense warmth.

She fell back on her basics, remembering her mother's teachings from years earlier, and managed to find a break in the attacks. She threw in an attack of her own, and then quickly shifted around him, taking a tactic from sword fighting and moving out of the range of her opponent's onslaught. She quickly attacked again as he shifted to face her, harder this time, putting all of her strength into each attack. She felt the fire respond to her strength, growing in intensity. Still, he managed to keep up with her, and she was starting to worry he was simply a better fighter than her.

Just when she was starting to tire, he gave some sort of hand signal, and others attacked from around her. None of them were benders, but she was already tired and there were just too many. She seriously injured several of them though before someone thought to throw water at her, dousing her flames for a brief moment, and then one man managed to tackle her from behind. Growling in frustration, she kicked out, squirming, even resorting to biting in an attempt to free herself, but it was no use; once she was down, they almost dogpiled to keep her pinned. They bound he hands together, tightly enough that she couldn't even move her hands, her fingers quickly going numb from lack of circulation.

Their leader then approached her as she continued to struggle. Two men held her by the arms, and she pulled against them, trying to get free. He grabbed her by the chin and forced her to meet his gaze. "Wasn't expecting that, were you, little princess?" he mocked. "You'll be coming with me to the Fire Nation whether you like it or not."

Grasping at one last option, she pulled away from his hand and spat, "my sister would have you killed if she found out you can bend. How do you think I ended up here?"

He didn't waver one bit, his smirk still in place. "Oh I know how much she hates benders, but she makes exceptions for those that she… favors." Eona scowled, not liking the implications he was making. He laughed at her reaction, and then ordered, "Gag her." His men quickly responded, tying a cloth over her mouth tightly. She wanted to scream, more in frustration than fear, but managed to control herself as they dragged her away to whatever fate awaited her at her sister's hands.

Avani
A week later, in a small Earth Kingdom town farther down river

Just when it seemed like her life had become nothing but dark nights and cold water, Avani found herself on land again, and during the day. The group had stopped to resupply before they journeyed out onto the open ocean, and hopefully get an update about Eona's position. Arrkun was asleep somewhere, trying to recover along with the rest of the waterbenders from the long trip. They planned to stay a day in town to give them a break, then head out again. Sadly they didn't have much time to wait if they wanted to catch Eona before she reached the Fire Nation, meaning the waterbenders were really under a lot of pressure to keep up the pace even though it was tiring. Avani felt a bit bad for them, and was amazed by their strength.

She found herself on the dock, staring out over the all too familiar river, when someone approached from behind. She heard the dock creek underneath their footsteps, and glanced back to see Iluq. "One would think you would be bored of this landscape after two weeks of nothing else," he commented with a smile.

"Maybe a bit, but I can't help but head back this way. I guess I'm just anxious to get going again," she replied with a shrug.

"I can understand. If we had more waterbenders and I could spread the work out more, we wouldn't have stopped more than a few hours to buy supplies. But we have to make do with the forces we have." She nodded in agreement, understanding. "Oh, we got an update on Eona's position."

"Really? What did you find out?" she asked.

"Ironically enough, when we were planning to liberate her, she had actually managed to free herself. Our information was delayed by the distance."

Avani stood, spinning around to face Iluq. "So this whole trip was for nothing?!" Avani exclaimed in disbelief.

"No, we still need a firebending teacher for you. Now, we don't have to rescue her, we have to find her," Iluq explained.

Avani sighed. "So she just managed to make our job harder," she grumbled.

Iluq chuckled. "I think saving her would have been harder. We'll find her, don't worry."

"I hope so." Avani glanced back at the river, her gaze turning far away. "Sometimes I still can't believe I managed to get myself tangled up in this mess. All I wanted was to find my parents. Arrkun told me you could help me. Now I can't look for them," she admitted quietly, not sure what had urged her to tell Iluq this.

Looking concerned, Iluq told her, "You agreed to help us, but if you would rather look for your parents, we can wait. Our plans have waited for a long time, a few more weeks for your parents won't hurt. They were good friends of mine."

Avani considered his proposal for a minute. There was a part of her that jumped at the chance to find her parents, to just go home with them and pretend none of this had happened. She missed them so much it hurt to think about them. But then… what about everyone else? She asked herself. Could I really turn my back on them and forget about everything? About what's happening to other benders?

Turning to Iluq, she told him, "I think my parents would be very disappointed if they found out I abandoned you to look for them. It's not what they would have wanted. I'll stay. Besides… I don't even know if they're alive." Admitting it out loud for the first time made the pain of losing them worsen. She bowed her head to hide the tears gathering in her eyes, hoping Iluq hadn't seen them.

Too her surprise, he placed a hand on her shoulder, and softly said, "Avani." When she looked up to meet his gaze, he smiled warmly, gratitude in his big blue eyes. "After this is over, I will do everything in my power to help you. I swear on my life." She nodded, and then he pulled her into a hug. She couldn't help but be comforted by his presence.

We'll figure this out, she told herself. He let her go, and she gave him a smile, despite the tears streaking her face. "Thank you, Iluq, for everything."

"You are very welcome. And thank you, Avani, for being so strong. We need that. Not every sixteen year old girl would have the courage to help us or make the decisions you are now," he told her, his smile never wavering.

She nodded, feeling anything but strong. Seeming satisfied with their talk, he turned and headed back into town. With a sigh, she plopped back down on the dock, impatient to get moving again.

Two weeks later

Avani stood staring at yet another small Earth Kingdom town, unable to believe another two weeks had already passed. The group had arrived at another riverside town, and then headed inland for a little while, taking the most direct route possible to the last town Eona had been seen. Now finally there, they had paused to make plans.

"We still have daylight for another few hours. I say we not waist that and start looking immediately. If she knows she's being hunted, I doubt Eona would have stayed here long," Iluq said behind her.

Avani reluctantly pulled her gaze away from the town, turning back to her arguing friends behind her. "I agree. I don't think I could wait any longer. I want to find out where she is now."

"But some of the members are exhausted. We need to rest," Ratna pointed out. Avani couldn't help but think he was probably one of those that were tired of all the walking, but didn't want to admit it.

"Let's split up then," Arrkun suggested. His father nodded in agreement. "Those that are too tired to continue make camp here. The rest head into town and look around. It would be better if we didn't take a large group anyway; it would draw too much attention."

"Alright then, why don't you and Avani go look around? I'll help get everything set up, and then start looking myself," Iluq instructed.

Arrkun nodded, and moved toward Avani. "Come on, let's get going," he told her as he hurried past.

"You don't have to tell me twice," she told him as she followed. She quickly caught up and the two walked down to the town together.

They spent some time looking around for Eona, asking people if they had seen a girl that matched her description, with no luck. Eventually, they approached a tavern, deciding to ask around inside. Most people, including the owner, said they hadn't seen anyone that matched their description. Some simply chose to ignore the two.

They came to a young man sitting alone in a corner, his shoulders hunched over, his gaze far off. Avani was about to suggest that they leave him alone—he didn't look like he was in the mood for conversation—when Arrkun bumped him on the shoulder. "Hey," he asked, "Have you seen a girl about our age, with black hair and golden eyes?"

The man glanced up, his hazel eyes brightening with recognition. "A Fire Nation girl? Eighteen? Yeah, I've seen her." His tone became guarded as he added, "Who's asking?"

"We need to talk to her. We heard she passed through these parts. We're old friends," Avani stated, deciding it best to make it seem like they weren't out to give Eona any trouble.

The hazel-eyed boy chuckled. "Old friends, huh? She didn't mention anything about having friends in the Earth Kingdom. Or the Water Tribe, for that matter."

"Look, we heard she's in trouble and wanted to help. We're not here to hurt her," Arrkun told him.

"Trouble. That's an understatement," the man grumbled. Suddenly, he pushed his drink away and stood, staring Arrkun in the eye. Avani backed up a bit, but she quickly noticed his stance wasn't threatening. He looked curious as he studied her and her friend with a piercing gaze. "Well, she told me to get her back if I could, didn't she?" he muttered, clearly not talking to them. "Fine then, you want the truth? She was here a few weeks ago, but some men and Earth Kingdom soldiers took her away." He paused, his hands tight fists at his sides. Avani realized he was struggling to contain some sort of emotion, weather it was anger or sadness or something else she couldn't tell. "She's probably halfway to the Fire Nation by now, if not already there. If you want to find her, you'll need my help; we're going to have to fight to get her away from the men that took her."

Avani nodded, both excited to know where Eona was and disappointed to find out they were too late to help her. "We've brought plenty of friends; we're ready for a fight." After a pause, she added, "I'm Avani, by the way, and this is Arrkun."

The man bowed formally. "Charan." Straightening again, there was a small smile on his face. "It's good to meet someone else that isn't out to kill Eona." Avani returned the smile. She couldn't help but notice how good looking Charan was, with chin length dark brown hair, and his captivating hazel eyes. Realizing she was starting to stare, she glanced away quickly, hoping she wasn't blushing.

"Let's get going; we're burning daylight," Arrkun pointed out, sounding surprisingly impatient. She glanced at him, wondering what had gotten into him. She shrugged it off, and started out of the inn, the two boys following.

Author's notes: Charan meets up with Avani and company! Yay! This was probably expected by all of you, but it still makes me excited. Once again, please comment!