Brothers Avatar

The Legend of Two Avatars

Book 1 – Family

Chapter 14 – Gone

The Stormbender captain ran through the forest, only looking back to see if his pursuers were gaining on him. When he last looked back they were right on his heels, but as he looked back they were no longer there. He hid around a tree, hoping that perhaps he'd be able to lose them. He slowed his breath once he heard the sound of feet crinkling the leaves on the ground.

The noise of trampling feet trailed away, he sighed a breath of relief. Until the sound of a slice and a loud thud resonated behind him, he turned to see the tree he had been hiding behind just got sliced in half. He turned to run but found a ring of kids surrounding him, "No more running, it's really quite a chore chasing you." Ibera said with a scowl.

The Stormbender captain fell to his knees, "Please spare me." He hung his head in shame.

"You want grace, clemency, mercy?" Pio laughed, "That's heavenly."

After the team left Mudide, they had reached a small hamlet by the name of Weimou. The little town had recently got a visit from the local Stormbender gang. Weimou was late on their payments to their Stormbender friends and thus Weimou had to deal with the repercussions. Those repercussions were most of their houses being blown to the ground and their village elder—along with a host of other villagers—being executed live as a warning. So moved by the story, Xulo and the gang took it upon themselves to exact revenge.

Taresc looked nervous as Xulo moved in close to the captain, "If you could…" Xulo bent down to his level, "Name three reasons why I should spare you."

The captain instantly began yipping for his life, "My mother, I support her and if I'm not alive she won't be able to care for herself." Xulo looked on unimpressed, "I can get you money, a great deal of money and my Stormbenders won't bother you at all." Xulo simply kept looking into his eyes, cold, "And my squadron will tell you that I am a great person, ask any of them and they will tell you I am an honorable man!"

"No one will take care of your mother?" Minege said atop Tanton, "That reminds me of an elderly grandmother I met recently. Her son passed away from illness a while back and all she had was her grandchild to take of her." Minege had poison in her tone, "Poor Grammy, her grandson was recently executed in a Stormbender raid."

The captain was speechless, no response possible, "As for currency, we're doing just suitably." Pio said.

"And your third point." Lozulia unfeelingly ran her hands through her hair, staring into the captain's soul, "I don't think we care what a band of bastards think about a fellow bastard." Lozulia tilted her head, "Do we?"

Xulo shook his head, still maintaining eye contact, "Not one bit." Xulo stood and gripped the captain's head, Taresc heart began beating with every second, "Weimou sends its regards."

"Wait, WAIT PLEA—" Xulo snapped the captain's neck. The captain's lifeless body hit the leafy ground. Taresc gasped and looked around to see other's reactions but saw nothing like his own. Pio smiled contently and Minege looked at the corpse with vile disgust. Ibera stared mindlessly, like he was looking at some unimportant object lying on the ground and Lozulia seemed to stare lifelessly into the distance like something else preoccupied her mind.

Xulo turned around with carnal vitality filling his eyes, "Let's go."

After hours of traveling, night had fallen and the team set up camp around a fire pit. They set up their sleeping bags and sat around the fire to heat up some fish they bought in Weimou. The team lounged about and talked about all their future duties, about meeting with Hintrichi and speculating where Cersiek is right now.

They laughed and they spilt their true feelings. Except Taresc, he never spoke, not even a yes or a no. While they had a good time, Taresc sat in his corner and gazed blankly into the flames. "Tare?" Taresc nodded, not looking at Xulo, "Are you okay?"

Taresc didn't so much answer, more so he whimpered, "I'm fine."

"Is this about that sniveling Stormbender?" Pio asked flippantly. "Are you upset that we killed that son of a bitch?" Pio glared.

"Taresc…" Xulo gently glowered, "You can't be angry… that captain killed countless people, he deserved to die. You understand that, don't you?"

"Okay." Taresc's expression sunk deeper into darker territories.

Xulo gestured for the others to join in, Pio obliged, "I have no qualms with the man's fate. He knew what his trade's possible consequences could be and death was one of them." Pio's tongue was eloquently pointed, "It's practically his contractual obligation to rot in hell; we simply obliged on enforcing it."

Lozulia was next, she held Taresc's hand, "He killed so many innocent people, Tare… he needed to come to justice and death was the just punishment."

"The monks always told me that there is no justifiable reason for murder." Ibera said, "I call bullshit when it comes to people like Mr. Storm back there. Maybe it's those monks tugging at my subconscious when I see these death things happen, but usually I cringe whenever I see killing happening, but I can drown them out for cases like this."

"Besides, if we didn't kill him there, who knows what chaos he would have inflicted on poor Weimou?"

"Do you see, Tare?" Xulo looked to Taresc.

Taresc bit his lip and peeped, "Okay."

"Oh whatever, Taresc, be like that." Pio remarked, "You don't have slaughter anyone, just don't get in our way when we have to." Xulo gave an aggravated stare at Pio. Pio sighed and said, "Sorry." Pio simmered, "but the point stands." Xulo gave a thankful nod to Pio.

"Um…" Taresc said finally looking up from the fire, "Do you think we could see this town called Biffenga?"

Lozulia popped out her map and searched for Biffenga, "Eh, it's a little out of the way."

"No, absolutely not." Pio put his foot down. "We wasted a day doing that idiotic tournament and we wasted part of today tracking down that Stormbender. Hintrichi is losing patience, I can feel it."

Xulo looked at Taresc's disappointed face, "Sorry, Taresc."

"Well I'm heading off," Ibera stood up and began walking to his sleeping bag, "Murder and hunting down Stormbenders can really take a lot out of a boy."

"Get some sleep, Tare, you'll feel better in the morning." Xulo rubbed Taresc's back and went off with Pio to sleep in their special corner. "Goodnight team, there was good work today."

Everyone said goodnight and headed off to their corner. Taresc was the last to rise, he went to where he set up his sleeping bag with Ibera and Lozulia. He slipped into his bag and closed his eyes trying to choke back his tears.

"Taresc!" Ibera awoke to the sound of Lozulia's screaming, "Taresc!"

"Lozulia?" Ibera smacked his lips, "Let's keep the yelling to a minimum in the morning, hm?"

The rest of the team stumbled over to their side, "Lozulia, what's wrong?" Xulo asked.

"Taresc isn't here!" Lozulia unhinged on the group.

Pio barely moved his face, "Maybe he parted company? So distraught about compulsory executions, he needed to abscond with his purity intact." He mused poetically.

Minege said, "There's any number of things he could be doing right now." She listed them off on her fingers, "Looking for berries, going for a swim, going for a run, climbing every tree looking for the best view…"

"Ah look at that," Ibera knelt down a picked up a note off of Taresc's sleeping bag, "He left a note for us…" His mood changed as her read it over, "Or maybe not…"

Ibera handed it to Xulo and he read it aloud:

"You took someone very important from us and now we're taking someone very important from you. We dare you take him away from us."

-Stormbender Squadron #59

"We have to go get him." Xulo said earnestly

Pio grabbed Xulo's hand, "Whatever you need."

"If we're going to take down Aurut, we're going to need that mind." Ibera said, "Looks like that captain wasn't lying when he said his Stormbenders liked him." He folded his arms, "Good for him."

Lozulia's disposition changed immediately once Xulo read the letter, "I'm fine." Lozulia stared off heartlessly.

"You're fine?" Xulo was enraged, "Taresc's life is at risk and you're fine?"

Lozulia flippantly sighed and ignored his rage, "Minege and I are going to head off to the next town and wait there for you to find Taresc." Lozulia lazily brought out her map and unfurled it, she pointed to a spot, "This is where you'll find that Stormbender camp."

The entire was appalled by her behavior, "We'll see you there, Zules…" Ibera said carefully.

Lozulia and Minege boarded Tanton. When Xulo gave Minege a glare, Minege just responded with a confused shrug. Lozulia waved them off without even turning around.

Woorq sat on Taresc's sleeping bag, unmoved by the current events, "Come on parrot-toad, let's go find your owner." Pio coaxed the animal and Woorq plopped onto Pio's shoulder. He turned to the rest of the team and said impatiently, "Off to save your twin then?"

Team Avatar found themselves in the leaves of the tree in the center of the Weimou Stormbender camp. They knew of this prime spot for spying on the camp while they were hunting down their captain. Unlike last time, they had to get into the camp this time. They were able to pinpoint what tent they used to hold prisoners based on its similar appearance to the one in the camp near Cirkenad.

They wanted to go in from around the edges, but they had many soldiers orbiting the perimeter. "Why not just slide down this tree?" Pio suggested.

The tree they were hiding in was very tall, swaying high way up in the air, "Great idea." Ibera said, "Except for the part where the whole camp watches us cascade down the trunk like a bunch of arboreal pole dancers."

The tree they inhabited had its bottom used as a center pole for a tent. "What would Taresc do?" Xulo thought to himself.

"Why don't we ask? He's just down there." Ibera said, "I vote we just yell for him and have Taresc give us advice."

Xulo closed his eyes and let out an aggravate breath through his nose, "Ignore him, Xulo." Pio said, "You can come up with a marvelous scheme, I have faith."

Xulo hit the tree with a fist. He noticed something wrong with the sound, he hit it again. "Do you guys hear that?" He hit it once more. "This tree is hollow."

"Isn't that curious?" Pio said, "I suppose you've just come up with your idea."

Ibera rolled his eyes, "You have got to be kidding me." Ibera shook his head in dismay, "I have a feeling what your idea is and it's making me nervous."

"We're going down the center of the trunk." Xulo said.

"I think I heard a story about this." Ibera said, "About how a bunch of kids thought that going down the center of a hollow tree would be fun and then they got stuck and were found days later, starved." Woorq croaked, "Look at that, even the parrot-toad doesn't want to die!" Ibera pointed to Woorq's face, "And is this not the face of a creature that usually looks like it wants to die?"

Xulo began picking at the truck, "They didn't have airbending powers to blow the truck apart if they got stuck."

"And once we do that, I just assume we take on the whole camp by ourselves?"

Xulo ripped the bark off the tree, "Would you expect us doing anything else?"

Ibera had no response, only scowl. "He's speechless; do whatever you did more often, Xulo." Pio said.

"I'll try my best," Xulo got ready to drop down the trunk, "I'll send a rock up once it's clear for you to come down." He said to Pio.

"Good luck." Pio said.

Xulo jumped in and slid down the tree. Thankfully the tree was rather thick, so Xulo didn't get stuck like Ibera predicted. Once at the bottom, he poked holes in the trunk by using little blasts of air. Once he had his outline he kicked down the bark and he was in the empty Stormbender tent. He sent a rock up the length of the tree to have them come down. While he waited for them to drop, he went up to a desk and realized that they were in the captain's tent.

Pio dropped first with Woorq on his shoulder and went up to Xulo, "What are you looking at?"

He didn't look up, "This was that captain's old desk." He shifted around the scrolls, "His name was Cao."

"Captain Cao?" Pio threw the scrolls off the table, "Don't give that evil a name, he doesn't deserve for his name to be even uttered by you." Xulo had to think about things, at least from Taresc's angle. But he couldn't rationalize Taresc's thinking; Captain Cao deserved death, the end.

Ibera dropped, "Look at that, I'm not dead." Ibera gave a thumbs up, "Solid plan, Avatar. What now?"

Xulo went to the entrance and looked out the flap, and noticed something bizarre, "It's quiet out there."

"Let me see!" Ibera walked over and stuck his head out, what he saw looked like a deserted camp, "You're right," He saw only one Stormbender and retreated his head, "No one's out there."

"They're not making it exceptionally burdensome for us, seeing as they dared us to liberate your brother." Pio said. In fact it seemed to them that there were more people circling the camp than actually in the camp.

Xulo pondered, "It could be a trap."

"Bah!" Ibera said, "Honestly, it could always be a trap." They were at a standstill, "We could just walk to the prison tent…" Ibera said.

"I agree, we've squandered so much time already," Pio said, "I'd rather we not squander any more on convoluted prison-break plans."

"Worst comes to worst, we just grab Taresc, and haul ass out of here." Ibera added.

Xulo conceded, "Fine. We just walk through the camp." Xulo was annoyed, but understood their frustration.

As promised, they walked through the eerily quiet Stormbender camp. They made their way to the prison tent and peeked in to see if anyone was guarding the singular prisoner. They simply walked in and found the boy sitting, tied to the center pole, head covered with a bag. Xulo ran over and removed the bag, but what was under the bag surprised them, "Who are you people?" The boy said.

"That's not Taresc." Xulo turned around and said to his group, "That is not Taresc!"

"Good observation there, Xulo." Ibera clapped for him, "You know what your brother doesn't look like. Now tell me, am I your brother?"

"We're not with the Stormbenders, young man." Pio knelt to get on the level of the frightened boy, "What is your name?"

"Lipa, my name is Lipa." He shook in fear.

Pio spoke softly, "Lipa, that's a very nice name, are you from Weimou?" Lipa nodded, "We can take you back there." Xulo was impressed by Pio's compassion, "But first, Lipa, do you know if there was anyone else with you in this tent or anyone else taken captive?"

Lipa shook his head, "No, I don't think so, it was just me."

"Shoot." Ibera said, he went over behind the pole to untie the child, "Who knows where they took Taresc. We killed their captain and now they're going to take him to Regille."

"You killed Captain Cao?" Lip said wide-eyed, "They're going to be real angry when they hear that."

Xulo was intrigued, "What do you mean by when? They don't know?"

"No, they think he's missing!" Lip said, "They're out right now looking for him."

Xulo felt so dumb, he couldn't believe he fell for this, "If they don't know he's dead, how did they leave that note?" Ibera said.

"They didn't leave a note," Xulo said, "Taresc did."

"How did I not see this? How would the Stormbenders even know we killed Cao? Wouldn't have Woorq croaked if he noticed his master getting taken away, in fact wouldn't Taresc have at least struggled!" Pio rubbed his temples, "I feel doltish right now."

"It's okay, Pio. We all feel like you're doltish." Ibera rubbed Pio's back.

"What's wrong?" Lipa asked, watching the team collapse in front of him.

"Nothing, nothing at all." Xulo paced the floor, "He ran away… he actually ran away…"

Ibera stood up, "But where did he go?"

Xulo thought for a second and the place jumped right into his head, "I know where." He turned to Ibera, "Can you take Lipa back to Weimou?"

Ibera nodded, "Sure, are you going to get Taresc."

"Damn right." He said.

Pio stood to stop Xulo, "Do you need me to come with?" Woorq flew from Pio's shoulder to Xulo.

"I can handle my brother," Xulo said taking out the map Lozulia gave him, "just make sure Lipa gets home safely."

Xulo walked up the hill and found his brother sitting underneath a peach tree; solemnly digging his teeth into yet another peach, evidenced by the peach cores lying around him. Taresc didn't even move his head as Xulo sat next to him, "You made me really nervous, Tare." Woorq flew off of Xulo shoulder and into Taresc's lap.

"I'm sorry." Taresc said.

"You wrote that note yourself and decided to run off to this little town… Biffenga, right?" Taresc nodded. "Did you even consider the danger you put us in…"

Taresc swallowed his fruit, "I've been thinking about it nonstop, thank you for asking."

"Taresc, I get that you don't like me killing people, I really do, but you can't pull these kinds of stunts in the middle of the trip." Xulo scoffed, "The team and I can't tolerate—"

"Actually you don't." Taresc interrupted, "You don't understand my distaste."

"Yes, I do. Do you think I like killing people—"

Taresc finally turned to Xulo, "You don't understand because this isn't about you killing that captain." His eyes were red like he'd been crying, "I get why you killed him, he was a dirty rotten motherfucker who you felt needed to die, I get that! Sometimes killing is necessary, fine! I'm not okay with it, but I am fine, I'll play along." Taresc slowed down and went back to his view of the town of Biffenga, "Why I did this has very little to do with that… because I'm over that… I've been over that."

"You are?" Xulo sat back, "Then what is the problem?"

Taresc took in a deep breath, "I'm not going to lie to you, Xulo, this has been some of the worst times I've had in my life. I know that you're having fun and you and Pio are a wonderful couple. But this…" Tears began pouring and Woorq began flying and nuzzling Taresc's cheek, "I don't like this. Fighting and always being on the run, being in life or death situations all the time." Taresc couldn't speak through the tears, "I know you don't feel the same way, but I miss my life back at Dayue."

Xulo held Taresc in his arms and comforted him, "It's okay, Taresc, you're fine."

"It's not fine. You've dreamed about this adventure, but I still have dreams about when life was simpler, when you and me would go to the beach and just lay in the sand wondering what we'd do with our lives." Taresc pulled himself together, "I've been keeping this in because I really didn't want to weigh you down or make you feel guilty for bringing me along."

"Pass me a peach, will you?" Taresc hit the tree and peach fell to the ground, "Thank you." Xulo picked it up, "I honestly thought you were ecstatic about this, I guess we don't have that twin telepathy thing people talk about."

Taresc insincerely laughed and wiped a tear from his eye, "I'm sorry, Xulo, I really am."

"You're fine, Pio is going to be beyond mad but that's just Pio's temper."

Taresc nibbled on his peach, "How are you and Pio."

"Exquisite," Xulo chomped into his fruit, "He's brutally honest and it's somewhat refreshing. Also, someone to share company with when the day is over is always nice."

"Xulo…" Taresc pushed him, "Gross… I don't need to know that kind of stuff."

Xulo laughed, "What? Do you want the details?"

Taresc pushed his laughing face harder, "No!" eventually even he had to join in on the laughs.

"That's the Taresc I like to see." Xulo bumped Taresc on the shoulder, "I can't believe that you hate this crusade that much, Taresc. What about Lozulia? You must've liked meeting her, you two get along so well."

Taresc let out a sigh, "I guess it's not all bad, but that doesn't change how I feel." Taresc thought of Lozulia, "Is she mad at me?"

"From the way she acted, I think she figured out your ruse before any of us did." Xulo turned to Taresc, "I just want to know, Taresc, what was your end goal here?" Xulo was staggered, "Were you just hoping we'd never found out and think you were dead, what's your point in doing this?"

"I'm physically and emotionally fatigued right now," Taresc looked down, "My mind is like a demon right now and it told me to do this in the middle of the night. I just needed a second to breathe again before I suffocated." Taresc caressed Woorq's head, "And whatever happens happens. If you never found me, I guess I'd be fine. Maybe I'd one day go over to the capital and reveal that I was never captured."

"I'd have to kill you if you made me think you were dead for all this time." Xulo said lightheartedly.

"I knew you'd find me though," Taresc turned and gave a tired smile, "You're smart and my fake-out wasn't all that great. Lozulia figured it out right away, right?"

"She did, but she was shockingly cold about it." Xulo said, "She left just as soon as I read the letter, barely emoting anything." Xulo held the peach in front of his mouth, "Even if she knew it was fake, it was pretty harsh."

"That's just Lozulia sometimes…" Taresc said, "It was that thing I was talking about back at the mines." Xulo shrugged and they both ate their peaches. They simply looked out over the hill at the farmhouse down below for a bit until Taresc said, "I don't know if this Avatar lifestyle is right for me, but I don't want to lose you." Taresc looked down at the small village below, "That life down there, I miss that."

A girl was chasing her little sister around the garden, her father was casually throwing their clothing onto the drying line. The little girl fell down and began to cry, the big sister ran over to see what was wrong and suddenly the little sister felt better just having her sister's attention, "I know it's gone and I'll never have that back."

"You don't have to live by my Avatar lifestyle, Tare." Xulo turned to his brother, "I have a proposition for you." Taresc nodded, "Once we get to the Lotus Capital, I'm going to make Hintrichi build a nice little cottage right over there." Xulo pointed at a nice little patch of land out in the distance, "And you don't have to go with us any further, we'll take care of Aurut ourselves and you can be out of the danger. Once everything is said and done, I'll come and visit regularly. Who knows, maybe Lozulia will come and live with you, maybe I'll come live nearby, it's not too far from the Lotus Capital." Xulo looked deep into Taresc's shaky eyes, Taresc's hadn't seen such warmth since before their mission began, "I want you to be happy, Taresc."

Taresc would be lying if he said the offer wasn't tempting, a life entirely composed of farming, never having to worry about Stormbenders. "I'd like that very much," He knew that he couldn't accept, "But not yet, I'm not leaving you take on Aurut and Regille alone." Taresc wasn't selfish enough to take it however. He wasn't going to let chance be the deciding factor if Xulo came back alive or not.

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely." Taresc brightened up, "You can't get rid of me that easily."

Xulo stood up, "Darn, and I was almost rid of you." Xulo said, "We should get going, we're going to have to listen to an hour long rant about how angry Hintrichi will be and how careless this all was." Xulo took the last bite out of his peach, "Are you ready to go?"

Taresc took one last look at the scene below and reached for Xulo's hand, "Yeah, I think so." Xulo pulled him to his feet, "I think I've sorrowed long enough. Any more of those of peaches and I just might not be too fat to stand up anymore."

"Are you okay now?" Xulo said.

Taresc had to think about his answer, "No. I'm not fine," Xulo seemed disappointed, "But I feel better, thank you for that." Nothing had changed in Taresc situation, his brother's life was still at risk and he'd still be meeting with Hintrichi tomorrow or the day after. The weight should still be crushing him, but it wasn't anymore, it felt halved. He never wished for Xulo carry his weight with him; he never wanted to condemn his brother to such a fate. But as Xulo wrapped his arm around Taresc, he thought that maybe he'd allow himself some slack, maybe just this once. It just caused him so much grief, knowing his brother was putting such faith and trust into his betrayer.