Chapter Two Pain
He walked. He walked and kept on walking. He knew he had gotten out of the southern water tribe. He would have to go to the fire nation he could avenge them, avenge them all. He was unsure how long he had been walking for, it all just blended together, he didn't really know where he was, he was just walking and he wouldn't stop walking until it was over until the war ended. He heard it then. It was a scream and a sudden hacking noise. He rushed over to see what was going on and he saw it, a little girl was being held by a fire nation soldier while three soldiers lay dead on the ground. Two boys stood there frozen on the spot, with their comrade's life on hand they wouldn't dare do anything stupid.
"Drop your weapons!" the soldier yelled, "Now!"
The two kids slowly put their weapons down. One kid was rather large and muscular. He had a rather blank look to him that made him look stupid but what he lacked in brains he made up in with brawn. The other kid looked rather full of himself. He was thin, wiry and muscular for his size. He looked deep in thought, as if he was contemplating the different outcomes of this scenario.
"Now you listen to me," the soldier began, however he never finished. He gasped as he saw the knife appear in front of his throat.
"Now you listen to me," Nazca said, "let go of the girl and I'll let you go alive."
"How can I believe that if I let her go you won't just kill me?" the soldier said frantically.
"You really don't have a choice," Nazca said calmly. The soldier slowly let go of the girl. The girl sensing her relinquishment ran over to the other two boys. Nazca slowly pulled the knife away from the soldier's neck. The soldier breathed relieved that he was going to get away but then Nazca grabbed him and stabbed him in the back. The man grunted and then collapsed, dead.
The thin kid walked up to Nazca and said, "Thanks for what you did back there. You saved her life. By the way my name is Jet."
"No really, I saved her life?" Nazca replied sarcastically, annoyed at this kid. He was completely blatant and just after a few words Nazca was already irritated. He seemed full of himself and Nazca hated that.
"Listen," Jet said,"Is there any way we can reasonably repay you for what you did?"
Nazca thought for a moment, he was eager to get away from this kid but he realized that he might actually need him. His fighting techniques were basic and he knew that if he wanted to inflict some damage he would have to be more than a kid with a knife. He voiced this to Jet and Jet smiled agreeing.
Nazca spent a couple weeks training with Jet but it wasn't long before his fighting skills excelled beyond any of theirs. He seemed to improve ten times faster than any other kid, Jet remarked one sparring session. After one simple win against Jet, Jet said, "Well, that is about all that I can teach you. However if you want you can stay with me and my freedom fighters, we could use someone with fighting abilities as well as yours. Just by training with me you've become better than me"
Nazca thought about this, then said, "Sorry but I wanta go train more and see if I can become a master of fighting."
"If you want to become a master, I've heard stories about an elite source of fighters known as the Kyoshi warriors. Kyoshi Island isn't that far from here if you want to give it a shot."
Nazca thought about this then thanked them all for everything that they had they had done for him and then began on his journey to complete his training with the Kyoshi warriors.
He was hungry. He had not eaten anything in three days and he was hungry. He went into the first town he came across in search of food. He only had enough to buy a light snack but he knew that was all he needed to finish the rest of the journey. The island was supposedly only another day's hike away. As he was walking to the markets he saw something that he didn't like, tax collectors, fire nation tax collectors. Anger boiled over common sense and he decided to put his skills to the test. As he was walking towards them he saw that they where haggling a group of young girls. He was furious. Not only were they fire nation but they were also picking on girls? Adrenaline shot through his limbs as he approached them ready to slay them without a moment's notice. As he approached them he got right behind the rear guard and stabbed him in the back. The guard let out a little gasp and fell to the ground. The other guards where momentarily surprised at their comrades sudden death but then they saw Nazca and they drew their swords. The guards began to circle Nazca but were so angry that he attacked before they could get into formation. He hacked and chopped and stabbed at the guards. One guard tried to stab him with his spear but Nazca deflected it and followed up by stabbing him in the head. The other two guards proved to be slightly more difficult than the first two. One guard cut his leg before he finished him off and the other warded off most of his attacks before he finally knocked him down. The final guard hadn't intervened with the fight and waited for Nazca to finish them off before he attacked. This guard was highly skilled he attacked and kept on pressing Nazca. Nazca was soon cornered. He saw one of the girls begin to step forward to help him but she was stopped by another one. Nazca was slowly losing strength. Believing that he was soon to be dead he desperately used his knife to knock the soldiers sword out of the way and then he tackled him. Both their weapons skittered away as they landed on the solid ground. Nazca rolled away from the guard and got into a fighting stance. The soldier slowly got up and smiled at Nazca. Then he released a torrent of fire.
Nazca had never had to fight a bender, especially while he was weaponless, so he did the only thing that made sense. He jumped out of the way. The bender continued pressing his attack as Nazca ducked and dove. Nazca soon became breathless and he stumbled and fell. The soldier walked up to him and smiled then he released his final attack. Nazca saw the fire coming towards him. Believing death was imminent he searched for any energy he could to stop it. He found it. As if he was awakened he felt the new element entering him, a power he had never known before, the power to bend.
The water seemed to appear out of nowhere. The guard saw one moment this kid was facing death, the next he was. The water hit the fire bender at high speeds and sent him flying. Nazca slowly got up, feeling this new power he wanted to test it. He smiled as the water slowly beat the fire nation soldier, pounding him with all the energy he had. Then he raised the water into a spear and drove it through the man's heart. Nazca released the water and then collapsed exhausted. He felt a presence appear above him and pick him up.
"Where are you taking me?" he asked slowly losing consciousness.
A girl's voice responded, "Somewhere safe."
He relaxed hoping that they weren't lying and then passed out.
He woke up, sore and somewhere unfamiliar. He heard some people whispering nearby and he groaned, turned to them and said,"Who are you and where am I?"
One of the girls walked over to him and said, "We are the Kyoshi warriors and this is our camp,"
The name Kyoshi sounded familiar to him, then he remembered, "Wait, aren't you like known as being the greatest fighters there are,"
"That would be us," the girl said with a smirk.
"Can you train me?"
The girl frowned, "Normally we don't train outsider's especially not men but you did defend us so I guess we could help you out, however there is one condition," she said smirking, " you must follow all our customs including dressing in our uniform."
"Deal," Nazca smiled, exactly what he was looking for.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Suki. And yours?"
"Nazca."
"Well then, we had best get started, since you're awake and ready I assume."
Direct and straight into business. He got up and followed her to the sparring grounds where he began a grueling practice. He practiced and practiced, day after day. He was getting better though. Suki taught him how to walk to run to hide and to fight. She was changing every aspect of him so that he could become not only a true Kyoshi warrior but also a master of the blade. After one very long and grueling practice Nazca finally bested her. She was standing there with his sparring tool pointed at her throat. She smiled and said,"Now let's put those skills to the test."
She roused him early the next morning and told him to get ready. She gave him a black cloak that she told him was his and to be used for stealth missions. He put it on and she gave him a belt to hold his sword and knife. After putting all of it in she gave him some leather armor and grieves. When he was completely dressed he came out and said, "How do I look?"
"Like a true warrior," she responded with a smile. She then told him that they or he was going to infiltrate a fire nation base and eliminate the authority without being detected to ensure that word of the Kyoshi warriors did not become involved in the war, "Technically we just trained you." Then after that he would escape undetected.
Suki turned to ask Nazca if he was ready but he was already gone heading into battle.
As he approached the camp he saw that there were a number of tents set up and maybe twelve guards on duty. They had nearly every inch covered. Nazca was starting to sweat, it was a cool morning, a light fog covering his motion but he had no idea what to do. There where guards every where all across the forest floor. It would be impossible to try to sneak around them. Then Nazca smiled, it wouldn't be impossible to sneak over them however.
No one saw him enter the tent, no one even saw him leave when he realized that it wasn't the tent he was looking for. Nazca sighed quietly. How was he supposed to be able to know which tent was headquarters? Then he saw it. Of course; it was the tent with the fire nation insignia embroidered with gold. Who else would have a tent like them? He walked over to the tent undetected and then quietly slipped under the side. He nearly screamed. It was just his luck to have rolled right next to a sleeping general. Luckily for Nazca, the general had drank too much yesterday and was not likely to wake up for a while. Nazca sat up. There were four people total inside the tent. All of them dead asleep. They were soon all dead. Nazca lay back as he slit the last general's throat. Finally the quiet part was over and he could leave. Then the commander came into the room.
He had emerged from a section of the room that Nazca had believed was just the far side of the tent it was however the commander's quarters. The commander stopped and yawned he then said, "Rise and shine boys, we got a long day ahead of us."
Upon seeing no response the commander said it again. When nothing happened he went over to the nearest one and nudged him and then even kicked him. Upon seeing nothing he bent down to check the man and realized instantly that the man was dead. Surprised he stumbled backwards. He looked around the room and saw nothing, he was about to alert the guards when Nazca, who had been hiding under a sheet reached out and grabbed him. The man yelped in surprise but Nazca quickly stabbed him. Nazca then checked around the rest of the tent to make sure there was no one else in there. Upon seeing nothing he left.
"C'mon what's he doing?"
"I'm sure he will come out in a second, it is his first time after all," Suki said.
They had been waiting for five minutes and nothing had happened. It was aggravating that he was taking so long but Suki was also worried about Nazca. Sure, he had been great at practice, but what if something happened to him. Sensing her discomfort one of the other girls came over and said, "I'm sure he will be okay, besides he dealt with that fire bender easily enough and that was when he had no training."
"Thanks," Suki said warmly still unsure what was going to happen.
"Yeah I'm sure I'll be fine."
"Nazca," Suki exclaimed jumping towards the boy who just appeared there, "Did you do the job?"
"Yep," Nazca replied, "Look at my hands" he said, raising them.
The archer was hiding in the trees nearby. He had seen the warriors standing there and hadn't known what they where up to until the kid came back with blood on his hands. The arrow was meant to kill Nazca and it would have if he didn't hear it. He tried to dodge it but he wasn't fast enough. The arrow flew right through the bridge if his nose, cutting his eyes. Blood poured out of the gash and pain seared through Nazca as he collapsed. He couldn't see there was too much blood, he was helpless lying on the forest floor, and he was blind.