Chapter 4: The same guilt
The sun had already raised, the birds were singing with a mocking happy tone and Kuvira lied facing the blue sky, under her the hard ground reminded her she was still alive, but she didn't want to raise herself up. What was it worth for?
She had gave up everyone hopes with her surrender, it had seemed right, a complete relief of the guilt that hammered her brain...but at the end it was selfish of Kuvira to simply give up the Earth Empire fate to the Avatar (or had it been to Republic City?). The Great Uniter betrayal to her own home had been done in a moment of panic. She hadn't even asked for conditions to the new peace treaty, it hadn't even be any. She was a traitor.
The metalbender closed her eyes tightly, visions of her people suffering at the hands of foreigners dancing on her mind, showing to her the scope of what her mistake had done. Why had she trusted the Avatar? When had the Avatar ever done something for the Earth Kingdom? The only thing was letting Kuvira do the hard work without lifting one of her avatarish fingers in three years.
Kuvira felt so tired, guilty and hopeless that even the boy prompting her to wake up wasn't enough to open her eyes. Tears began falling, making paths on her cheeks and wetting the red ground beneath her.
"What's th...
The kid didn't finish his sentence when Kuvira was grabbed by him and he carried her on his back. Running fastly away of their previous point. She had barelly any energy to see behind her, but curiosity won over.
Two Fire Nation soldiers. They had an outdated uniform but she could recognize the red colors of the people who tried to burn her country 70 years ago without a problem.
Her green eyes widened as plates and a mute scream formed on her lips. This was impossible.
The little kid finally stopped running, and began walking, Kuvira still felt shock but the change of passing awoke her of her stupor and the craziness of being carried by her charge was as cold as water on winter.
"You can let me go" she said almost in a whisper.
He ducked a little to let Kuvira get down. He was frowning and he looked pale, his eyes had dark circles around them and his green clothes had rips on them. His golden eyes bored on Kuvira without judgement. She had exposed him to danger because she was sulking and even then there was no resentment.
"We lost our bag" he looked to the ground "I should have took it"
"You did good" Kuvira said as she touched his shoulder, what had prompted him to confess something that wasn't his fault (because it was Kuvira's) was beyond her."You saved us both. That's what is important, kid"
Kuvira searched on her pockets and was happy to find a small bag of bread. A wise woman always split her reserves after all, and luck had made the bread not fall out. Without a word she put out of the bag the bread, dividing it between her and the boy.
"I can't take this. I will be fine, eat you!" the boy said as he tried to push the bread away.
"Boy, I'm in charge here. I say and you do, I though that was clear" Kuvira didn't wait for a response and throw the small piece of bread to the boy hands, he caught it without thinking. She walked ahead as she bit on her food, hopefully the road was the one that lead to the safe old Omashu.
"Come on! walk boy!"
"My name is Mako" the boy said immediately "No 'kid' or 'boy' or anything else...so would you like please...use it?"
Kuvira lowered her food and looked at him, white face with red checks, even if he wanted to come out hard it all sounded more as a nervous child. Because he was. There was still the heaviness of the previous night and the running but she was not going to give up.
"No" she answered. If Kuvira used the boy name then there would be an attachment, and that was something she didn't want to happen.
"I figured as much" he said as he put his left hand on his hip, the other at his side still held the bread "Why?"
She didn't expect the boy to try this.
"No particular reason" she lied.
He grabbed his face with his left hand, sighed and finally began to eat. In silence.
They keep walking without talking, an hour passed and the only sound were their footsteps and Kuvira was thankful about the calm, but as always something disturbed the calm.
"HELP!" a woman scream echoed on the path.
Kuvira raised her head and put a protective hand in front of the child, both halted to listen more clearly, the screams of the woman becoming more audible every second.
The metal bender took a deep breath to gather courage. Seismic sense was necessary to do, again, even if she would gladly battle wars and take scars for her people (or the kid) being pained by performing bending was always numbing and when she thought about it scary.
She touched the ground with her hand, feeling the electric pain that bending implied with stoicism.
A woman and a man on an ostrich-horse followed by a small group of people was the image that presented behind her closed eyelids. The couple were coming their way.
"I think the man kidnapped the girl!" the child had climbed a big rock and was looking at some distant point "Hide behind there, when they get near here I will deal with him!"
Kuvira stared at the boy who was still looking at the distance. She didn't care about his ability with light bending, he was just a child exposing himself to danger and talking in patronizing ways to Kuvira.
"Already said I'm in charge!" the boy cocked his head to look at Kuvira after she spoke, again holding an humorous grin. The metalbender continued to talk without losing any beat "You hide, I deal with it!"
"I got a better plan. You are first line of attack. When he is crossing this place you raise a wall of earth in front of the ride-bird thing, next you attack from the left and I from the right, deal?"
Kuvira liked the plan, it stung on her pride that a 8 years old formed it, but a good idea was one without mattering who voiced it over (Bolin had been the first asking to make laser beams "As Unavatu!")
They both hided at each side of the road behind the rocks, they had luck to be small. Kuvira planted her hand on the ground, feelings the steeps of the horse-ostrich and counting in her mind how many seconds it spend on moving. Timing was crucial. She put both hands in front of her in fists, breathed once, and channeled the earth as she raised her fists up to the right, the ostrich-horse couldn't evade on time and the two persons and the animal crashed against the wall.
A wetness traveled Kuvira arms and she took a moment to look at the reddish-orange blood, an unknown fear began creeping in her spine. Before she could discern fully what was the feeling the sound of fire took her back to reality.
The child was talented, but the man was twice his size and was good feed, so every flame was suffocated with earth, leaving smokes of dust at every blast.
"Those clothes" the man whispered with a wicked smile as he got closer to the boy. At the same moment Kuvira launched a rock against the rotten earth bender, but the man ducked and grabbed the kid with a fast movement. Kuvira halted for a second to appreciate the situation better, she took the chance and with a fast movement of her left wrist launched another set of rocks to the man.
The man fall back and did a last intent to grab the child that had removed himself of the shirt and was running at the side of Kuvira, she could take the earthbender when she wanted, he was unable to counter the power that the Great Uniter holded, she wanted him to know that.
Before she could show off more on her abilities the sound of a group of people distracted her and the man took it as he cue to raise a wall of dust. When it settled the man was gone as the coward he was.
"Thank you!" Kuvira felt a softness against her back and her brain barely registered she was being hugged, by a woman with big assets. Something about it made Kuvira flush but not so much as the little kid, who was being hugged alongside her and was totally pink.
The woman that had been kidnapped was the daughter of a wealthy and kind man who resembled Baatar a lot.
Kuvira and the boy found themselves at a feast on their honor, she dressed with a pretty blouse with yellow flowers and with trousers of the same green color. The kid had a new long sleeve shirt and a gray pant with a golden belt.
They ate and at the end of the day were took to the guest room and gave greyish pajamas. The boy was happily revising the big bed. Kuvira felt good too, she had finally used decent soap to wash.
"What a day!" the kid sighed with a grin "We made a great team back there, didn't we?"
"Sure we did...I take you were happy with being hugged the most" Kuvira teased the boy.
"What?!" he flushed red but he composed a few seconds later "No! And weren't you like checking Mister Baul"
"He resembled someone I know" Kuvira answered honestly, she had drank a little on the feast and her tongue was free to talk without fear "My first love, what is your excuse?"
"She did too..."the boy answered with raised eyebrows, then looked sadly at the floor"My first crush I mean"
"Really?" Kuvira sat down at his side "How so?"
"It's a funny history! You see..there was this really pretty girl with a really pretty voice...she sang on a concert on Yue bay, she gifted me a flower" he smiled fondly "She was kind with me, and she said that we were going to get married one day when we were at the park...but her father scolded her for talking with me, here comes the funny part" he sounded.. drunk? Kuvira realized she should had been more careful, he kept smiling "Next day she calls me 'dirty rat boy'...Ha! Ha! Isn't it funny? Like...funny, because she was right and I believed I changed but I didn't...Ha!Ha! So funny! Funny!"
The boy closed his eyes and went to sleep still muttering "funny" over and over, she expected him to cry but even if his face looked pained he didn't shed a single tear. Kuvira put a blanket over him and went to sleep. It hadn't be funny.
Kuvira awoke with a small headache but by midday she and the boy were already on the road to Omashu. Supplies filled and another set of clothes, she wore a green trouser a little below her knees and a yellow blouse, over it an olive coat. The boy had the same clothes that at the party.
The road was silent and no one else was traveling it, which was quite of odd. On the back of her head Kuvira felt guilty for not seeking information about what was happening but there was a deeper fear that something horribly wrong was happening because Kuvira had failed.
They got tired after walking forty minutes and decided to rest at the shadow of a tree, and as always Kuvira mind came back to her mistakes.
"I hope Republic City is fine, I didn't expect that the Fire Lord would do something like this" the boy said as he looked far away.
"Sure it is. It got the Avatar!" Kuvira didn't want to sound mad, but the anger she felt was overwhelming.
"Yeah...Korra" the boy bitted his lips and glanced to his boots.
"What's that? What happened to the Avatar?" Kuvira feel almost afraid to hear the answer.
"She..she had to take a vacation...with Asami. In the spirit world" his voice almost sounded hurt but it barely registered on the metalbender head.
"WHAT!"
Kuvira felt riled. Her country was being invaded and the Avatar, as expected, betrayed her trust. No one but her could help her home.
"I'm sure Korra is back by now!" the boy reassured her without meeting her eyes.
"And meanwhile everyone suffers!" in the back of her head Kuvira knew how unreasonable she was for fighting against a little boy and even her unfairness to the Avatar. Only Kuvira was to blame.
"She...has suffered a lot" the boy gulped a little "She needed it"
"And the people of the Earth Kingdom don't?! There are people dying! What about them? Don't we matter!" she said almost on his face but he standed strong on his ground, unflinching "Does the Avatar even care!?"
"I don't know!" he pushed Kuvira with his right hand "I don't know anylonger, I believed I did! But now all is wrong! I am not me! Korra is gone! With Asami! And I don't know anylonger!" he crossed his arms, lips trembling and he sniffed without crying "So! Stop it!"
He was shaking after the outburst and his eyebrows were down. He was holding his tears.
Kuvira didn't care anymore, she got up and began walking, she didn't want to be near anyone.
She keep walking, faster. Trying to bury the desire of lashing more against the boy. He didn't deserve that from Kuvira; it wasn't his fault that she had believed on the Avatar word or that the Earth Kingdom was being prey for other nations. All was all her fault. Failing her home, her soldiers and people were the only things Kuvira was good at.
She had betrayed them, let Baatar death go to waste, even if trying to defeat the Avatar would had been useless she had give up easily. She was a traitor to her country and her men. And unlike the past night she was to awake to be saved by sleep. All the feelings were too much for her, painful and growing as a mantle of thorns.
The boy hand touched Kuvira arm and she faced him with tears in her eyes.
Mako seemed confused but even then he opened his arms to Kuvira, led her to a hug, and the metalbender cried on the smaller shoulder of her companion.
The hug was similar to Korra's, but even knowing it Kuvira leaned on, happy to let her heart beat free, to let go of some of her pain. Mako was a firebender, an admirer of the Avatar, a thief. And he was as alone as Kuvira.
"Are you sure?" Alco asked his man, both seated on a tavern "I don't have time to lose"
"Yes. They must be in the road of Village Col to Omashu right now! The boy is the firebender you seek. I had almost captured him but his sister is a little rascal"
Alco drank of his bottle with glee, once they had the boy the Plan would succeed and the only thing on the way was a little girl, it would be easy.
"Lets go"