The White Lotus War

Chapter 12: The Monster

Hitomi's face was splashed with water and she immediately woke up. At first, she was almost expecting Shadow to be standing above her. Instead, it was Yuko who smiled at the sight of her friend's eyes being opened. Hitomi smiled as well and Yuko helped her up from the sand.

"Are you okay?" Yuko asked.

"I'm fine," Hitomi replied, "You?"

Yuko nodded and said, "Just a little dizzy for some reason, but yeah, I'm good."

While brushing off the sand from her jeans and jacket, Hitomi looked at her surroundings. She was so happy that they actually made it to the island safely. The sand was a little wet, the trees were cutting off the beach from the forest, and she couldn't see Gao's ship or anything else from across the ocean. The speed boat was a little bit damaged, but it looked like it could still run and take them across the water no problem.

"So," Yuko said, leaning against the beached speed boat, "It looks like this thing still works, so which way do we go? I can't see any land out there; Earth Kingdom or otherwise."

Hitomi thought about this problem and suggested, "We could wait until night and see if the stars can lead us in the right direction."

"Can you read stars?" Yuko asked surprised. Her amazement was lost instantly when she saw Hitomi sadly shake her head "no". She just came up with the idea and wasn't even sure if the stars could help in their dilemma.

Yuko's stomach began growling. Yuko chuckled uncomfortably and said, "Well, maybe we can think of a better idea once we eat something." Saying that, she walked over to the forest to find berries or something else she could snack on. Hitomi just waited by the boat, thinking of another way to find their way back to the Earth Kingdom. She also tried to remember what happened last night. She remembered the storm, Yuko passing out, and going into the Avatar State, but nothing else after that.

"Great," Hitomi complained, "This is just like what happened with the Chief!"

"Hitomi!" Yuko called from inside the forest, "Check this out!"

Hitomi slowly made her way through the forest, passing along some interesting sights. She saw that some of the trees were scratched or broken in some way; one of the trees actually had a dagger sticking out of its trunk! She finally found Yuko, looking straight toward a bunch of gravestones with flowers on them! Hitomi was freaked out by the existence of the graves. Was there some sort of battle here? That would be an explanation for the look of their surroundings, but if that was the case, then there was one problem…

"Who was left to bury the bodies?" Hitomi asked silently to herself.

Thanks to Hitomi's sharp hearing, she managed to push Yuko out of the way before they were hit by a flying rock!

"Who goes there?" called out an old man's voice from a distance.

Yuko took a fighting stance, but Hitomi held her back and answered, "I'm Avatar Hitomi, my friend and I came to this island to escape some of our enemies."

"Ha!" the old man laughed, still not revealing himself, "No one has ever set foot on this island for over thirty years! You must be some more of that monster's hallucinations! Well sorry, but I'm not letting her out of that rock!"

"Monsters? Us?" Yuko angrily asked, "Look geezer, we're not your imaginary friends! We just need some food and directions to get off this island!"

There was silence for a little while, but then an old man with a very long white beard slowly slithered his way out from behind some of the trees. His Earth Kingdom style clothes were ripped, showing his boney skin from lack of nutrition. This man was not in good shape and it looks like he's been stuck on the island for years; probably thirty from his earlier comment. Hitomi almost gasped at seeing the poor old man.

"You can talk? You're not hallucinations?" he asked, in a much softer and pleasant voice. The girls shook their heads and the old man continued, "Then please come to my house. I'll make you something to eat."

The girls followed the old man through the forest until they stumbled upon a nice little cottage that looked like it had been bended from the earth. The old man must've been an earth bender, Hitomi noted. He lead them inside and the old man continually searched outside for something until he was sure that nothing was there and closed the door behind him. The inside of the house was just the stone walls, a stone ceiling and a dirt floor. There was a small bed made out of leaves and a few rocks that they used for chairs. The old man crushed a few unknown berries and leaves in a few stone bowls he bended, proving that he was an earth bender, and served them to the girls. The bowls were filled with an odd smelling and strange looking goop made out of the berries and leaves. Hitomi could barely eat any of hers, but Yuko and the old man both swallowed their unknown origin of food with no delay.

Hitomi decided to get the necessary questions out of the way, "Excuse me sir, but who are you?"

The old man wiped his face with his sleeve and answered, "My name is Lieutenant Yao of the United Republic of Nations; at least, I use to be a lieutenant until my crew and I were caught in a nasty storm and ended up here. Everyone aboard survived, but our ship was completely wrecked beyond repair. We lived on the beach for a day or two, waiting patiently for someone to come rescue us, until one of our men asked if it was okay to search the forest for supplies and such. He came back saying that there were berries inside the forest, so everyone, except for a few men who wanted to keeping watching for a passing boat, moved here and made these small cottages so we could survive off berries and other plants. We lived peacefully here and on the beach, patiently waiting in this little "paradise" until a boat came along to save us. That was before we found that monster."

"Monster?" Hitomi asked.

Yao sadly nodded and continued, "The same soldier that suggested searching the forest wanted to search deeper into the forest to see if even more pleasures could be found. When he came back, we couldn't believe our ears. He said that a bald woman in Water Tribe clothing was chained to a giant boulder!" Hitomi and Yuko looked at him in disbelief and he said, "That's the same look of disbelief we gave him! Though we didn't believe him, we followed him to see for ourselves. To our shock and amazement, we found the bald woman in Water Tribe clothing chained to a giant boulder, just as the soldier said. She was passed out on the ground, so we tried waking her up while freeing her from the chains. When the chains were finally released, she woke up and started attacking us! She was a very skilled water bender from the way she absorbed water from the plants around us and just pierced ice through our skin, killing a third of us in a matter of seconds! She was a monster, thus, the name we gave her. The rest of us fought her off, but we fought her off toward our camp by mistake. So we had to take a chance and charge deeper into the forest. We came upon a bit of luck when we came across a tar pit. When the monster came looking for us, we quickly knocked her into the tar pit."

While Yuko continued giving her look of disbelief, Hitomi could hear the honesty and fear in Yao's voice. She asked, "So you killed her?"

"We thought we did. That woman was much stronger than we thought. She actually survived the tar pit and climbed out with little difficulty! She was much easier to fight with the tar slowly her down, but she still managed to take everyone down! Everyone, except me; I was left alone to fight her off. But the spirits granted me luck that day and the tar on the monster's body hardened and froze her in place. To this day, the monster remains frozen by that tar pit, still haunting me. I thought you two might've been a sign that she was free."

"How?" Hitomi asked, becoming more and more intrigued by his story.

"This woman was no ordinary water bender; she could turn water into realistic looking people! She used such trickery to fool some of us into letting down our defenses. But her hallucinations can't talk. We made sure that before one of us did something, that person would tell everyone what he's doing so we knew that he wasn't a hallucination."

"So you thought we were hallucinations created by this monster?" Hitomi asked. Yao nodded.

"Okay," Yuko said, tired of his story, "Let's say I bought everything you said just now; how could she make hallucinations if she can't move?"

"I'm sorry," Yao said, "I've been alone on this island for thirty years and I know I don't have the same level of sanity as I did years ago; I apologize. But the story I told you is real; I remember the pain and sorrow of those battles with the monster each and every single night! I can't escape them, no matter how hard I try!"

"Right," Yuko said sarcastically and then said to Hitomi, "Can we go outside for a little bit?"

The two girls went outside and Yuko said, "Okay, so what do we do about Mr. Insanity? Should we just leave him here in his little house or should we try to put some logic back into his brain or whatever's left in his skull? I personally suggest that we get out of here."

"I believe him," Hitomi said, "I could feel how much pain he went through just by looking at him. His face was full of torture while he was remembering everything that happened to him. Besides, how else do you explain all the bodies?" Yuko looked like she was about to say something, but Hitomi warned, "If you're going to accuse the guy of murder, keep the idea to yourself." Yuko then shut her mouth and Hitomi continued, "What I think we should do this take our boat and try to get us all out of here and back to the Earth Kingdom so we can get to Tyro Town and this guy can get some much needed treatment."

Yuko coughed, "Mental treatment." Hitomi then bonked her on the head.

Yao came outside and asked, "The two of you have a boat?" The girls nodded and the old man cheered and said, "I know where to go! Follow me!"

The girls followed him into the forest where they passed a few more graves, some broken trees, and a giant boulder with a chain around it.

"Is that the chain in your story?" Hitomi asked.

Yao nodded and Yuko said to Hitomi, "He probably just put it there; the guy has more than enough time on his hands."

They proceeded past a tar pit where both the girls stopped at the amazement of a state made out of hardened tar. It was a bald figure holding out its hands like a water bender!

Yao approached the girls and asked Yuko, "Still doubting my story?"

Yuko slapped herself out of her amazement and said, "You probably just bended it so people would believe your story once you were rescued."

Hitomi and Yao were growing annoyed of Yuko's doubt, but they pushed it aside and continued their journey through the forest until they came to a beach. Yao pointed across the sea to a bit of land in the distance!

"It's the Earth Kingdom!" Hitomi cheered, "We're saved!"

They went back to the house, celebrating the fact that they were all finally going to be saved and brought back home. The celebration ended when Hitomi brought up an obvious question, "So how do we carry the boat from this side of the beach to the other side?"

Yao immediately answered, "I'm also a sand bender! I can sand bend the boat from the beach to the forest and we can earth bend it from the forest to the beach!"

"But how do we keep it from hitting the trees and possibly damaging it? It's already pretty beaten up from the storm."

"We'll just tear down the trees!" Yuko said with a big grin, "The trees are already pretty damaged by "the monster" so we'll just yank them out of the ground!"

The girls and Yao immediately went to work on this plan. Hitomi and Yao began using their earth bending to shoot the trees out of the ground like missiles that landed in the ocean or far to their right or left. Though Yao was old and not in the best of shape, he was still a strong bender, like any great earth bender would be. Yuko took the broken trees and just yanked them out from the earth with her bare hands and threw them to the side!

By nightfall, there was a clear path from the beach with the speed boat to the beach with the sight of freedom. They all decided to save the big day for tomorrow and Yao made beds for the girls using some big leaves just like the ones he used for his own bed.

Yuko went straight to sleep, but Hitomi and Yao stayed up a little bit to talk. Hitomi asked, "Is something wrong Yao?"

Yao answered, "I'm not sure if I can go back to the Earth Kingdom; I haven't been among civilized people in years. Perhaps I should stay here and watch over my fallen comrades."

"But then who would look after you? Please don't reconsider coming back with us; you belong in the Earth Kingdom and you deserve to live your last years in peace."

"Are you sure I can go back, even with everything that's happened to me?"

"I know you can. Besides, your fallen soldiers would want you to be strong and carry on. You'd want them to do the same thing, wouldn't you?"

Yao nodded and said, "Thank you Avatar Hitomi; whatever events will come to pass during your time, I know you'll become a great Avatar."

Hitomi thanked him and they both went to sleep.

[Yuko]

After having a dream about a giant bald woman drowning her with a tidal wave, Yuko woke up to find Hitomi and Yao still fast asleep during the night. Yuko yawned and was about to go back to sleep, until Hitomi's eyes shot open and she started to get up.

Yuko yawned, "Where are going Hitomi?" Hitomi just left the house without answering her. Yuko, angry about her just wandering off, decided to run after.

She caught up to Hitomi and said, "Hey Hitomi, where are you going? It's pretty late." Hitomi just kept walking, as if she didn't even know she was there. Yuko got really made at this and said, "Hey, what're you ignoring me for? If this is about me not believing that crazy story, then you-"

Yuko touched Hitomi's shoulder, and then red electricity ran across Hitomi's body and electrocuted Yuko! Yuko fell to the ground after shrieking in pain and Hitomi continued to walk on as if nothing had happened!

Yuko got up, completely amazed by what just happened, and raced to find her friend. She finally found her by the tar pit, and was walking toward the statue of the "monster"! Yuko raced up to her and asked, "Hitomi, what's wrong with you?"

She stood in front of Hitomi to get a good look at her face. She was stunned; Hitomi's eyes were locked in place, not moving a single centimeter! Her face was completely drained of emotion and she just kept looking ahead, toward the statue!

Yuko ran in front of her and stood her ground. She yelled, "Hitomi! Stop!"

Hitomi did stop, but she lifted up her hand and red electricity shot out of her fingertips and she started electrocuting Yuko again! Yuko screamed in pain as she was levitated and thrown out the way by Hitomi! Yuko was thrown against a tree and she fell to the ground in agonizing pain!

Hitomi stood in front of the tar statue of the "monster" and she placed her hand on the statue's chest. Red electricity shot out of her hand and the rock began to slowly chip away!

By the time Yuko stood back up, she saw Hitomi passed out on the ground and a bald woman with ripped, blood stained, Water Tribe clothing standing over her.

Chapter Twelve is done and we've got an awesome fight ahead of us! I hope you love the story so far and please leave a review telling me your thoughts on the story! Tune in next time when Yuko faces off against the monster that killed dozens of earth bending soldiers single handedly!