A/N: Damn this is a great year for Avatar fans, right? A new live action movie got announced (I've got faith for this one T-T), some animated movies based on the original series got announced, and I've uploaded another chapter. . ! OK, one of those things may not be like the others, but I'm excited!
But without any further ado, here we go!
Chapter 9: Into the Cave
"If you could bend, which element would you want?"
Gohan blinked before humming with thought, his fingers lightly fiddling with the bridle. ". . I guess that earthbending would be pretty cool. It would be nice to have that in common with you and Toph. Plus there's a lot more versatility when it comes to helping people. Although. . . waterbending would be pretty fun, too! Being able to move water any time you wanted would definitely come in handy. Airbending would be pretty cool too. I'm not sure if there'd be much use for it aside from flying over ravines and putting out fires, but flying feels like it'd be so much fun. . . Y'know, speaking of fire-"
"Never mind," Shen grumbled. Paying no mind to Gohan's indignant sputtering, she looked down from her perch to their other journeying member. "What about you Toph? Would you pick a different element?"
Toph snorted as she walked alongside Jing. "Why would I want to be anything other than be the greatest bender of the best element ever?"
Shen beamed as she fixed Gohan with a pointed stare. "See, she gets it!"
Gohan rolled his eyes. He didn't bother mentioning that Toph probably wouldn't be able to see if she wasn't an earthbender. . . unless her sensing abilities could be replicated with other elements? Air and water currents could work like rumblings in earth, could they not? Shaking his head of his thoughts, he shot Shen a retort. "Hey, I considered earth first at least!"
"Should've been your only choice, Rice Cake," Toph retorted.
"Tell 'im, Toph!"
That was how the trio had been spending their days since leaving Omashu. Gohan had found Toph a lot easier to talk to. He'd never found her to be some horrible jerk or anything, but he felt a lot less intimidated by her after all that they'd been through. Shen had taken to the blind girl even more than she had before. It even seemed like Toph had reciprocated the other girl's companionship in her own odd way.
Now if only he could begin to understand how Toph viewed him. . .
He assumed that it might have been similar to how Shen viewed him; an uptight adult trapped in a kid's body, but he didn't have the history with Toph that he had with Shen. Like Shen, she also seemed gruff when it came to expressing any emotion outside of snark, happiness, and boredom. Heck, there were times when she seemed even more closed off than Shen. Knowing all of that made it a bit awkward on how to fully proceed with Toph. It didn't help that they came from completely different backgrounds. He couldn't exactly make bonding talk based around cold porridge and adoption stories.
Ridding his mind of his complicated thoughts, Gohan adjusted himself in his saddle so that he was properly facing Shen and Toph. Thanks to a few days of rest after the hell Bumi's soldiers put him through, his back no longer groaned in protest of this action. "C'mon, you can't tell me that you've never thought about having a different element?"
Shen crossed her arms and looked away in a huff. "Ya just wouldn't get it, kid."
Gohan rolled his eyes as he turned back to the front. He lightly began to scratch at Jing's back, smiling as she started give a light purr and lean into his hand. He and Jing had got along swimmingly. Even Shen had come around to the Shirshu. Toph had always loved Jing. Or at least, he thought she did. It might have been more of a reverence thing that transferred over from the badgermoles. "What about you, Toph?"
He quickly snapped his mouth shut the moment the words left him. 'Why would you say that out loud?!'
If Toph was annoyed or offended by the question, she didn't show it. Instead, she just shrugged as she continued her stride. "I'm staying an earthbender no matter what. I can't lie though. . . it would have been nice if I could've bended sand while we were in the desert."
"I'll say," Shen agreed. There was a soft thump, indicating that she'd dropped onto her back. Gohan had long since stopped chiding her lying so irresponsibly on top of Jing, considering her ankle had healed up. That and she didn't listen to him, anyway. "It wouldn't hurt to be able to bend metal either!"
Gohan hummed to himself in thought. "I think it'd be possible. Metal is made from earth, after all."
"Yep," Toph chirped. He could practically hear the smirk in her voice. "And I'm gonna be the one to do it!"
Gohan couldn't help but stare at the girl. There hadn't been a single recorded person capable of doing such a feat. Many had tried that Gohan knew for certain. He couldn't help but feel awed by her sheer certainty and confidence.
It wasn't that he doubted her ability; her prowess being better than most earthbenders he'd seen even while being blind was proof of that. He and Shen had even been subjected to her ability back at the Beifong Estate. It was just that this was different, an impossible feat.
'Not to her, I guess. . .'
Jing began to chitter and whine, which drew Gohan's attention. "What's wrong, girl? You tired?"
It was the safest bet. Jing chittered frequently whenever she started to fatigue and get in the mood for some roasted duck, a delicacy both he and Jing would miss whenever they inevitably ran out of that supply from King Bumi.
"Dang, already?" Shen asked. "I feel like we've just gotten started."
"Yeah well, you're not the one lugging around a crate and two kids. We can take a pit stop at that cave up ahead."
"Alright! I wanna see some bear-serpents!"
Gohan stared back at the madly grinning girl with a raised brow. "Y'know those don't exist right?"
"Yeah, says you."
"Why are we out in this backwater forest?"
"I told you! My intel says that the three of those brats have been high tailing it through the Earth Kingdom in the direction of Omashu. They might've even just gone through there! These mountains could be where we find these guys!" He stopped his tirade as he patted his hand on his ride's scaly skin, drawing a long high-pitched croak. "And with these eel hounds, we'll be able to hunt 'em down in no time!"
He'd been a little surprised when that stuffy, rich guy had procured three tame, eight-foot tall eel hounds for them, but then he remembered that the guy was practically swimming in money. Money that he had no problem spending to get his "beloved, vulnerable Toph" back home. Despite his disgust with the sappiness, he couldn't help but be impressed with the versatile animals.
Xin Fu, however, stared at him, unimpressed. "What are you even going to do once you find them?"
"Uh, rough 'em up a little and send 'em into the police? They've gotta be a couple of runaways! We already know the Blind Bandit's one of the runners."
The teacher guy. . . what was his name again? Who freaking knows? He spoke up, tentatively, before his brother had a chance to retort, "W-Well, I don't think roughing up children is a good idea!"
Wang Lei rolled his eyes. "These bratty kids are fighters. One of 'em, our main target, is the Blind Bandit. There's gonna be more than a few bruises trying to bring these kids back, and if ya keep that attitude, you're gonna have most of em."
That shut the coward up.
"Alright," Xin Fu sighed, "just make sure you aren't dragging me into some crazy shit. I'd hate to get arrested for murder because you couldn't keep yourself together."
Wang Lei rolled his eyes. He didn't know if his brother thought that he'd murder the kids or if his brother was insinuating a bloody reckoning for him, but he hoped his wince wasn't too obvious. "Have some faith! Now let's get a move on! We still have other places to check!"
Gohan frowned up at the cave. It definitely looked a lot bigger up close. Adding to its size, it was surrounded by a large mountain range. It would probably take the entire day to traverse through it or over it as long as they kept a straight and steady path.
Gohan glanced back at the ropes fastened to Jing's harness that pulled the crate. That crate had been a valuable gift from King Bumi to hold money and food. It certainly made travel less of a hassle. Not even mentioning all the work it had taken to get the gift and out of their ordeal, Gohan was loath to part with it.
'So entering the cave would be the best idea. . . but. . .'
His senses were telling him that things were in there. They were animals most likely from the feel of it. Their signatures always felt a bit chaotic even when they were calm.
"What's wrong, Rice Ball?"
Gohan started at Toph's voice. "Huh?"
"Your heartbeat's been going crazy since we've gotten here."
Gohan blinked at that. She could hear heart beats? Noted. "I'm fine, I just sensed some animals in there. A lot of them."
"Aww," Shen grinned a little devilish grin. "Poor kid afraid of a few wolfbats?"
Gohan's face colored as he shot Shen a glare. "N-No, I just don't know what's in there. This cave is pretty wide, and I don't know what could be in there. There could be a hive of mamba-wasps for all we know."
"Why does it matter?" Toph asked. "Wait. Are we going in?"
Gohan nodded as he rubbed at the sweat on his brow. The heat of the cave mouth was already starting to reach him. "Yeah, shirshus aren't the greatest climbers and I don't want to try Jing's chances at the mountain. And I definitely don't want to leave our crate behind. Going around the whole mountain range is definitely out of the question, so that only leaves us with going through the cave."
As if in a moment of shared telepathic joy, Toph and Shen pumped their fists, shouting, "Cave trip!"
Gohan's face sagged as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Can't you two take this seriously? This could be dangerous!"
Toph walked forward with a smirk. "We'll be fine, Worrywart. Between our senses, Shen and my bending, and your rage boost, we'll be fine."
Gohan felt his palms start to sweat at the mention of his. . . anger situation. However, more pressing than that was the fact that Shen and Toph were already walking further down the tunnel. "Wait! Where are you two going?!"
Shen turned to him with a scowl. "Down the cave tunnel. Ya coming or not, kid?"
"But at least make a fire for a torch fir-!"
Gohan was cut off as he felt a slight shove in the back that nearly knocked him over. Once he gained his balance, he turned to face Jing whose snout was still extended towards him. She watched him with an expectant expression as Gohan sighed. "You too, huh?"
Jing neglected to respond. Instead, she started to trot past him as he wisely moved to the side.
Gohan sighed as he shook his head. "Into the cave we go, I guess."
"Did ya see that?" Wang Lei asked.
The trio was perched just around the bend of the small mountain. Their eel hounds were practically chomping at the bit after seeing that shirshu, but he and the others quickly made sure that the creatures stayed crouched and out of sight. Afterwards, he and his traveling gang of pacifists had merely watched the trio enter for a while, content to plan out a method of attack.
Well, the wuss teacher and Xin Fu were content with waiting around. Wang Lei? Not so much. But majority rule won out, so they stayed put for the time being.
"Well, I'll be," muttered the teacher. "Your information was correct!"
Xin Fu grinned a savage grin, practically salivating while watching the shirshu. "That shirshu's gonna make us a lot of money on the market!"
"Yes, yes," Wang Lei snapped. "All the more reason to go in there and grab 'em!"
Xin Fu glared back at him. "We already decided that we were going to wait until we can't hear the brats anymore-"
"Toph is not a br-!"
"-before we nab them."
At Wang Lei's annoyed look, Xin Fu's glare deepened. "What? Do you want to go after them with nothing more than this rope and this pouch of grinded poppy-valerians?!" He shook them as he spoke the words before setting them back into his leather pouch. "Not a chance that works from here. Not against the Blind Bandit and a boy who could defeat your prized fighter without bending. They'll knock us out or worse before we have a chance to even make them catch a whiff of this stuff!"
"You said it yourself. He's still a boy!"
"Oh, do you want to challenge that boy right now? How well did your intel say that went with those sandbenders?"
"Wait a minute!" The wuss of a teacher looked like he might actually piss himself. "Just how dangerous are the people who kidnapped Toph?"
Wang Lei chose to ignore the man and instead reply to his brother. "Fine. . . But we're going in sooner rather than later. We've got enough to catch them off guard and we don't have much fire."
"Oh, don't worry brother," Xin Fu responded. "We'll get them soon."
The teacher threw his hands up in frustration. "Can somebody please answer me?!"
"C'mon, are we gonna get to see some wolfbats any time soon?!"
Gohan frowned at Shen for a moment as his eyes flitted from spot to spot on the roof of the cave. He'd been doing much of that for the better part of an hour. Unlike Shen, and likely Toph, he'd been quite happy about the absence of any wolfbats and other creatures of the dark. "If we can get through here without any interruptions that isn't something to complain about."
Gohan couldn't make it out, but he didn't need to to know that Shen was sticking a very mature tongue out at him. "Bo~ring!"
Gohan rolled his eyes. "I'd rather be boring and ali-"
Gohan's eyes snapped to a sudden movement on his right. He'd seen a few of those strange sudden movements. The first few times that they'd happened, Gohan had reasonably thought that it had all been in his head, paranoia from previous bad luck. He only had a bit of fire from his torch to guide his way, after all, so roaming shadows in his vision could be explained away easily.
But now, he was certain that it wasn't his imagination.
"Hey, you guys I think the wall ju-"
"What is up with this place?!" Toph exclaimed over Gohan's question. "The walls keep moving!"
"You've see- sensed it, too?" Gohan quickly corrected himself.
"Yeah, it's about all I can see in this stupid cave!"
"I thought I saw something weird, now that you guys mention it," Shen muttered. "This place feels a little off."
Gohan turned to stare at Shen. "Something spiritually off? Like spirits?"
Shen shrugged.
Gohan nodded, reluctantly. "Just great. . . This is gonna be a bit too challenging. This place is like a maze."
"So what? We go back out?"
Gohan shook his head as he swallowed down the fear he could feel building. "There's no way of knowing if the entrance is behind us like it was before. It could've shifted far off to the left or right of us by now. We. . . We have to keep going." He turned to Shen. "Shen, Toph, any time any of us see a wall move, I'm going to need you guys to shift it back in place."
"Gotcha!"
"Alright."
"Toph, can you figure out what's doing this?"
"You can't sense them?" she asked him.
"I think I can, but I don't have much to go off besides their signature. All I know is that the ones possibly doing this are all around us."
He could hear Toph sigh. "Fun. I don't know much aside from the fact that they're really big. Like, a little bit larger than Jing."
Gohan frowned. He didn't like the sound of that. Jing was likely a solid eight feet tall. If they were dealing with what he thought they were, things were gonna get a little bit more annoying.
"This is so fucking annoying!" Wang-Lei exclaimed.
"Shut up!" hissed Xin Fu. It was so dark that he couldn't make out his brother's expression in the limited torchlight even though he was riding in front of him. "You're going to give us away."
"Yeah, well, we wouldn't have to worry about that if we'd just gotten them earlier, now wouldn't we?"
"Both of you settle down," Teacher Guy chided. "If the ones kidnapping Toph are as dangerous as you claim, we cannot afford to be divided."
"Butt out of this, Sensei Weirdo!"
"M-My name is Master Yu! How dare you?!"
Ah, so that was the wuss' name. "Huh, a poet, and ya didn't know it."
"He's right, though," Xin Fu said. "All of them are dangerous. We probably should've brought some police help with us, now that I think about it."
Wang Lei scowled. "Yeah well-"
A slight bit of movement caught his eye, followed by a rumble. He watched with growing horror as his eyes locked onto the shadowy figure, illuminated by his torchlight.
A giant badgermole's rhombus-like eyes were bearing down on him.
"Ahhhhhhhhh!"
"Did you hear that?" Gohan asked.
"Yeah, it sounded like something squealing," Shen muttered. "Like a boar-q-pine. . . a really weird ass boar-q-pine. ."
Unsatisfied with their lack of knowledge, Gohan extended his senses and found one heck of a surprise. "We're not alone!"
Gohan could practically see Shen's unimpressed look. "No duh. Ya already told us there are animals in here. Animals we still haven't found by the way!"
"No! I mean, there are other people in here! And they're close by!"
"How many?"
Gohan stilled his breathing as he focused on the signatures as best as he could. "I think. . . three people and three animals. They're probably riding on them."
"They'll be mincemeat if they mess with us," Toph scoffed. "Now, let's keep moving. I can sense an opening up ahead!"
Without any further deliberation, Toph went racing down the path.
"Hey, wait up!" Gohan called after her. "Be careful!"
The trio raced through the tunnels moving aside walls as deemed necessary before they finally stopped at a clearing.
Gohan didn't need Toph's seismic senses to tell him that the place was huge. Heck, he didn't even need his poorly lit torch. The air felt a thousand times cooler, almost to the point of making goosebumps pop up along his exposed skin despite the fact that they'd only just entered the room. It was a relief considering the buckets of sweat he'd been starting to rack up.
"Hey, is that a statue?!" Shen cried, pointing at something in the distance.
Gohan used the torch as he followed Shen's finger. There was indeed a giant statue. Two to be exact.
One was a man and the other a woman sharing a kiss. The two statues were erected with a surprising amount of detail. If the old-timey clothes and the slight wear and tear were any indication, the statues had been there for a long while. Drawing his eyes elsewhere, he could see the carvings along the walls. Taking his eyes even further down, he could spot twin stones sitting in front of the statues.
Gohan peered a bit closer, unconsciously taking a few steps forward. "They almost look like. . ."
Gohan wanted to smack himself. How had he missed something so obvious?!
"This is the Cave of Two Lovers!"
"The Cave of Two Lovers?" Shen asked. "The heck is that?"
"The birthplace of earthbending! And it's filled with badgermoles that constantly reshape this place so much that it can't be mapped!"
"Ooh, lovers~?"
Gohan threw Shen an incredulous stare, forgetting that she probably couldn't even see it in the dark. "Is that all you heard?!"
"Are you and Toph gonna have to kiss to get us out~?"
That sent Gohan sputtering. "Wh-What?! Why would you even say that?!"
"This is the Cave of Lovers, isn't it? I feel like this is self-explanatory."
"Yes, it is. But you need to keep your mind out of the gutter."
Toph snorted. "You know, you could kiss Gohan, Shen."
Shen practically gagged after hearing that. Meanwhile, Toph guffawed with laughter. "Yuck! This kid's practically my brother!"
Gohan chuckled at Shen's disgust and embarrassment as he hoped his cheeks weren't as red as they felt. He had no intention of telling Shen about how the myth stated that true love would lead the traveler's way. Spirits only knew what Shen would do with that piece of information.
'But kissing Toph wouldn't be so bad would it?'
Gohan blinked as he even recoiled slightly. He was gonna kick Shen's butt for getting all of these thoughts into his head. Thanks to that little troublemaker, his face was probably redder than an apple.
"Gohan?"
"Huh?! What?! Nothing!"
. . . .
"Hahaha!"
"Shut it, Shen," Gohan grumbled. Unfortunately for him, Shen would not be deterred as her laughter became even louder. "I'm sorry, Toph, I couldn't hear you before. What is it you wanted?"
"I was asking if you could still sense those humans?"
Gohan frowned as he stretched out his senses. He'd completely forgot about the-
His eyes snapped open. "They're right outside the room! Just a couple of feet away!"
"Ya bet your gold pieces, we are!"
Gohan swung his torch in the direction of the entrance, spotting three familiar men in the center.
Wang-Lei could've danced with joy. The kids were completely shocked from the looks of their faces. The boy even looked afraid!
This was too good to be true!
"Sick 'em!"
His eel hound raced towards the shirshu, but before it could reach any of the kids, a sudden wall of earth sprung up. His hound came to a screeching halt, nearly throwing him off of his mount.
"Do not resist, Toph!" the teacher guy warned. "We have orders from your father to bring you back home."
"Yeah?" Toph asked. "Well, good luck with that!"
Wang-Lei barely registered what happened next as he tried to collect himself. One moment his eel hound was attempting to make its way around the sudden wall, the next, he found himself unceremoniously flung from his saddle and crashing to the unforgiving rock.
"Fuck!" he cursed. He'd landed on his arm and was sure that he'd heard a crack. It sure as hell felt like something cracked. He'd barely been able to crane his head back and spot his eel hound's legs encased in rock before his torchlight went out as it rolled along the cave floor.
Wang-Lei didn't get much time to focus on that as he now found his body immobilized in earth. Unfortunately for him, he was at an awkward angle when the ground swallowed him up. With his arms stretched out and bound behind him, he could feel every bit of his broken arm.
"Oh, wow," breathed the teacher guy. "That was some quick bending, Toph."
"Don't compliment the enemy ya fuckin' idiot!" Wang-Lei spat. "Ow! Ow! Owww!"
"Ha!" Toph laughed. "Not as quick as this is gonna be! Shen, aim for their torches!"
The teacher guy stumbled back with shock. "How does she know we have torches?!"
"Common sense, dunderhead! Use it!"
With that a barrage of stones came hurtling their way. To their credit, they were able to set up shields quick enough to weather most of the barrage.
"Ha!" Wang-Lei laughed. "You're gonna need to do better than-"
"Ah, my legs!"
"Gah! My torch!"
All of a sudden, a torchlight flickered out as Wang-Lei heard a clattering along the ground. He swallowed hard as he tried to assess the situation. They only had one torch left, all of their animals were probably incapacitated, two or all of them were trapped, none of their opponents had been stopped or weakened, and they were fighting the Blind Bandit and another freak of a kid.
He hated to admit to being in a shitty situation, but they were kinda fucked.
"Hey!" A voice called out. It was the boy. "We'll never get out of this cave by fighting each other, so why don't we work together?"
. . . Was that little brat trying to give them pity?! Well, he could take that weak sauce pity and shove it up his-
"Alright, fine," he could hear his brother grunt.
"OK," said Teacher Guy. "I'd like to feel my legs again."
Wang-Lei felt like his brain was melting. "WHAT?!"
"I still don't get why we had to tag these guys along," Shen grumbled.
"I already told you," Gohan sighed. "Although they're skilled benders, they don't have the sensing abilities that you, Toph, or I have. They'd never get out of here alive."
"Serves 'em right. . ."
"Shen!"
"Hey, good to see ya still have backbone," the stout man sneered. "How's your ankle holding up?"
"Just fine, thank you very much," Shen shot back. "How's Yachump?"
Shen grinned as the rude man's indignant grumbling filled the cave. "OK, never mind. This was worth it."
Gohan rolled his eyes, not even bothering to stop her anymore. Instead, he turned his gaze towards Xin Fu and the other man in the trio. Both of them were looking at them, whereas one was looking at them with vaguely disguised annoyance, the other was more curious.
He couldn't help but be a bit curious about them as well. After all, he'd definitely seen the tall, mustached man somewhere before. "So," he began, looking at the goateed man, "you know Toph?"
"Yes," the man said with a smile, "I've taught her since she was a young girl. However, I never could have anticipated that she was this skilled!"
Gohan would've been a bit worried at the implications of the man's answer before, but he felt at peace. Well not completely, he still had a bit of nerves considering whenever they got out of the cave the two groups would fight. It also didn't help that the man looked strangely familiar (and not in a good way), but he felt a lot calmer than he would have at the start of his journey. He smiled at the thought.
He glanced back over at Toph who was wearing a deep scowl. Shifting his eyes back over to the thin man, Gohan sprung up a conversation. "Say, what's your name, sir?"
"Gohan, don't get buddy-buddy with the enemy!"
Ignoring Shen's rudeness, the man answered with an easy smile. A smile without malice, he noticed. "Shuchang Yu. But my students call me Master Yu."
"You teach a lot of people?"
"Yes! I have my own school and everything! You're free to join, er, if you don't get into too much legal trouble after this." He paused for a moment. "What is this, anyway?"
Gohan suddenly became aware of their current adversarial status. He was certain that whether they succeeded or not in bringing back Toph, Master Yu was going to tell Toph's parents about what the three of them were up to. They'd definitely later relay that information to the police, and with how wealthy her parents were, they could definitely get some police help in Ba Sing Se. The last thing he wanted to do was make life harder for Toph. . .
. . . But at the same time, he could imagine how worried her parents would be not knowing just what their kid was up to. He often found himself wondering how worried his own mother had been when he left.
Before she. . .
Gohan steeled his nerves. "We're heading to Ba Sing Se to warn the Earth King of an incoming threat to the planet. There's going to be an attack from an alien named Vegeta. He's a Saiyan."
Silence.
"Well. . . that is something. . ."
"Damn, this kid is insane!"
"Why would ya tell them?!"
Gohan flushed, slightly, as he shrugged. "It's the truth."
The group fell back into silence for a few moments, until Master Yu spoke once again. "Toph, is this the reason they took you?"
Toph scoffed. "They didn't take me anywhere. I've only done what I wanted."
"Your parents are worried sick about you! You must go back home, Toph."
Toph ducked her head. Gohan felt the urge to say something on her behalf, but before he could put together what he was even going to say, Toph's head snapped back up with a glare so fierce that he found himself questioning if she was really blind. No blind person should have a gaze that intense. Heck, no one (much less a kid), should have eyes like that.
"They've always been worried about me," Toph spat. "I'm their blind, little girl. They see my blindness and that's all they ever bothered to see. They shut me away from the world in that stupid mansion because they were worried I wouldn't be able to protect myself." She turned to Master Yu for emphasis. The entire group had stopped walking by this point, instead choosing to watch the spectacle. "But I can protect myself. I'm the best damn earthbender in the world, but they can't see that."
She turned back around with balled fists as she resumed her walk. ". . . If only they could see that."
She'd whispered that last part so quietly that he almost thought that he was hearing things.
He felt like he was looking at her in a new light. She may have put up a hard and indifferent edge, but she cared. She cared like he did, like Shen did.
He could remember the looks of pity (more vividly than he'd like) and disdain that he and Shen would get at the orphanage from would-be parents. They didn't see Gohan or Shen; they saw orphans. Dirty orphans in ragged clothes to be saved, to be cast aside.
Before Gohan could think of something to say though, Toph stopped abruptly. "I think we've got company. Whatever it is, it's big."
Gohan sprang into action, immediately, stretching out his senses. He sensed a lot of somethings and some of them were uncomfortably close. "They're on our right. The big one's probably a badgermole, but there are a bunch of animals in the air, too."
He could hear Shen gasp behind him. "You don't mean wolfbats, do ya?!"
"Something tells me we shouldn't stick around to find out."
Gohan peered down the end of the tunnel as best as he could see. It looked like a dead-end, but it was hard to tell in the limited torchlight. They probably wouldn't have enough time to retreat back the way they came, so. . . "Shen, Toph, Master Yu, Wang-Lei, and Xin Fu, bend a path to the left we'll go around-"
FWOOM!
The face of a badgermole was bearing down on them as its paw fell with a thud. Gohan's attention wasn't on that though.
Slowly, his eyes trailed up to meet the horde of baby wolfbats flapping just above the mammal. He could just barely make out some of their beady eyes in the light. He drew in a long, slow gulp, not daring to take his eyes off of them. "Everyone. . . stay very, very still. It'll be fine. . if we don't set them off. . ."
"Fuck you!"
Gohan just barely caught sight of Wang-Lei, throwing what looked like his unlit torch. It went off target and hit the roof before smacking the badgermole in the snout.
"Graahh!"
"Reeeeeeeee!"
The wolfbats shriek was deafening as they soared towards the humans like a rushing river.
"Duck!" Gohan shouted, dropping to the ground.
There was a rumble as his torch went out and was nearly flung from his grasp. His eyes snapped to follow a cover of earth being erected above him. No, it was covering all of them. 'The others must've made a shield. Good thinking!'
"Reeee!"
"Hiyah!"
Gohan jumped as a thwack rang out. He squinted in the direction of some small chitters. Not able to see much, he cast out his senses and felt a weak signature. It didn't take long for him to put two and two together.
"Shen. . . Did you just punch a wolfbat?"
"I. . . I did. . . And I've never felt more alive! Bring more of 'em on! Ugh! Jing licked me!"
Shen's back and messy hair had been fitted with a thin line of saliva where Jing had licked her. Wang-Lei found it absolutely hysterical if his gut-busting laughs were any indication. "Haha! I-ha- think the damn thing likes ya, brat!"
Shen shot the man a dirty look as she swiped at her back. "Gross. . ."
Gohan felt himself take some calming breaths that he hadn't even realized he needed. Who knew flying carnivorous predators could be so stressful? "I think we should focus on getting the-"
All of a sudden, a flash of light came through a crack in the makeshift shield. As the others too began to spot more lights, they brought the shield down. The badgermole and the wolfbats were long gone (except for the one Shen had punched with was scampering away) and in their place was a trail of teardrop-like lights that stretched along the roof of the cave. Despite the circumstances, Gohan couldn't stop the fit of giggles that overtook him.
Shen didn't seem to find it very funny though. "What's the big idea, kid?"
He knew she was trying to annoy him, but it wasn't going to work this time. Especially when he could now clearly see the slobber that drenched her hair. "Th-The le- haha- legend of this cave i-is that it can't be navigated until you trust in love to get you out. It looks li-like Jing loves you!"
Shen's scowl promised vengeance. "I could do without the love slobber, Ji-woah!"
Shen fell on her side, stiff as a board.
Gohan looked at her blankly for a moment before regaining his senses. In an instant, Gohan was kneeling at her side. "Shen! Are you OK?"
"I can't move!"
"Huh. . ?"
Gohan's eyebrows furrowed as he scoured for a reason. He wasn't allowed to do much though because Jing came along, poking at Shen with her snout. If Gohan didn't know any better, he'd say she looked darn near bashful. His eyes soon found themselves drawn to the saliva now staining her hair and back.
"I think Jing's saliva is paralytic," he muttered as he picked Shen up, careful to avoid Jing's saliva of gratitude. Thankfully, she weighed pretty much nothing, so it was easy to ease her into the cart.
She wasn't too happy about it, though. "How long am I gonna be stuck like this?! I can't even sit up!"
Gohan scratched at the back of his head with a nervous chuckle. "I doubt it would take too long. After all-"
"Hey!"
Gohan turned to Wang-Lei with blinking eyes. He was so startled that he couldn't even muster up his usual politeness. "What?"
"These lights above us can lead us out, right?"
"Yeah-"
"Then let's get a move on! I've got some bounty money to collect with my name on it!"
"We all get a share of it," Master Yu quickly reminded him as he scampered after the man.
"Ah, technicalities!"
"Wang-Lei. . !" Xin Fu growled.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Spirits, take a joke!"
The group once again started moving as Gohan felt a new pit in his stomach. They had finally found their way out of the cave, but what would have to happen next wasn't anything worth celebrating, in his book.
A/N: Thanks for reading. My sincerest apologies that this took so long. I'd love to say that another update won't take this long, but life is too fickle for me to say that. . . T-T. I have to say that I took a few liberties with some things in this chapter. For instance, poppy-valerians don't actually exist within the world of Avatar. They're a combination I made (to my knowledge) of two psychoactive plants: the poppy and the valerian which can apparently fall under the compounds of sedatives.
Also, Master Yu doesn't canonically have a first name, but screw it. I gave him a first name dammit!
But yeah thas about it. Review Time!
Bapu-chale-sasural: I kinda wish that I got to this one earlier so I could ask for clarification. But, uh, if this was directed at me: no. If this was an observation about Gohan's character: also no. And if I just completely missed the point, I apologize lol.
X3runner: Spot on as always! All of the trio is gonna grow a lot over the course of the next handful of chapters, especially Gohan.
jonathonne: If my timeline going forward stays similar enough, Aang is gonna be showing up about six chapters from now. He won't be interacting with Toph, Shen, or Gohan yet by then, but he'll definitely be out of the ice and with Katara and Sokka to start his own journey. That said, a fan favorite character will be showing up next chapter!
Until then, take care of yourselves
Uploaded: July 8th 2022
