Sixteen: Sand Ocean
Elio and Cindra found their way to a small town, presumably where their guide was going to take them in the first place. As they approached it, they decided to discuss what they would need for their journey. It was an odd thing to be embarrassed about, but he was apprehensive to have this conversation. He didn't want to get into a disagreement, particularly a disagreement about food.
"So I think there isn't anything that I really need to buy other than food and a map of the Earth Kingdom. How are you on supplies and stuff?" He asked.
"I'm pretty good. I have what I need for whenever we set up camp. So yeah, I think we just need food and the map." She agreed.
"Alright. Well how about we get the map first and then we'll grab some food to take on our way out?" He suggested. She smiled and nodded in agreement.
"Sounds good to me."
The two of them, after walking through the town and asking around, entered into a small shop that was said to be run by an old man named Lao. Moving aside the cloth curtain that separated the outside and inside of the shop, they stepped into a small, quiet space that was decorated with various knickknacks and mementos from different parts of the Earth Kingdom and seemingly beyond.
"Well hello there! What can I do for you two kids?" The man behind the counter, who was presumably Lao, greeted them as they entered.
"You must be Lao, the owner of the shop, right?" Elio asked.
"That'd be me! You been looking for me? You don't owe me money, do you? Do I owe you money?" He asked humorously. Cindra giggled and shook her head.
"No, sir. The people in town say you're the man we need to see to get a map of the Earth Kingdom. We're trying to get to Ba Sing Se." She explained. The man's eyes widened and he nodded in understanding.
"Oh, I see! Well, you kids came to the right place! Give me a couple minutes to pull out a map for you." He said, holding up a finger as he walked into the back room of the store. Cindra and Elio waited patiently at the front counter.
"I like that stone necklace over there," Cindra commented, pointing out a thicker necklace made up of smooth stones that was on display. "It kinda reminds me of betrothal necklaces back home."
"Yeah, it's nice," Elio said, looking at it and nodding approvingly. "What's a betrothal necklace?" He asked curiously.
"Back home, we have a tradition. When a man asks a woman to marry him and she says yes, he'll carve out a necklace and give it to the woman to wear until the marriage ceremony." She explained. Elio smiled at this sweet, romantic concept.
"That's one of the nicest things I've ever heard. That's cute. And the necklaces that they make look like this one?"
"Well, not exactly. They're just similar." She said with a chuckle. At that moment, Lao came back out with a rolled up map in his hands.
"Okay!" Lao exclaimed, rolling the map out across the counter. He used his finger to direct them across the map as he talked, "This is where we are now, and you kids want to get to Ba Sing Se. That's over here." He traced his finger upwards across the map to point out the large city.
They were almost on the other side of the mainland.
"That's a long way to go." Cindra unhappily acknowledged with a small shaking of her head.
"You're absolutely right. And unfortunately, your options aren't that great either," Lao continued.
"You can take this longer, winding path," Lao traced his finger in a downward curving path that turned back up towards Ba Sing Se. "This is the safer path. It avoids any treacherous geography or Fire Nation camps.
"Or if you really need to get there as soon as possible, you can take this direct path that cuts through the desert. I wouldn't recommend it though! The conditions in the desert are terrible, and it is full of dangerous creatures. Not to mention the sandbenders!" Lao explained their two options.
"I see," Elio nodded, exchanging a glance with Cindra. "Well we'll take the map and discuss it among ourselves. Thank you for your help." Elio said with a polite, sincere smile. He paid for the map and they went on their way, picking out somewhere private to discuss their two options.
"What do you think we should do, Elio?" Cindra asked.
"I'd actually like to hear from you first. I already have an idea of what I think we should do, but I want to hear your thoughts on it."
"Hmm," She hummed. "I think that we should take the longer path. It's safer, and I can practice my waterbending more easily. I doubt I'd be able to do much in the desert."
"My head was kinda somewhere similar," He agreed. "There's no reason for us to take an unnecessary risk just to get to the city faster."
"So let's take the scenic route!" She joked with a laugh.
"Yep," He chuckled. "We'll just grab what we need from the market and get on going."
With this decision now made, they turned away from the shop and began shopping for food items that they could take with them. As they shopped, they talked about home.
"What kind of food do you usually eat up in the North Pole? I can't imagine there's a lot of options up there." Elio curiously inquired.
"A lot of seafood," She answered with a chuckle. "The merchant traders would bring in fruits and vegetables, and our fishermen would bring in anything swimming around that could be cooked."
"Oh wow, yeah I guess that makes sense. Over in the Fire Nation, we do fruits and veggies too, but replace your seafood with our meat. The Fire Nation has some of the best seasoned meat you could ever eat." Elio said, salivating at the mouth just thinking about it.
"Oh yeah?" She giggled.
"Yes, it's the best!" He answered with a laugh.
Once they had finished buying what they needed from the marketplace, Elio and Cindra were ready to set out on the trail and begin the long journey to Ba Sing Se. However, as they were again passing by the shop where they had bought their map, they overheard a conversation that stopped them in their tracks.
"It's been almost two full days now, Lao. I fear the worst has happened." An older woman's voice said sadly.
"I think you're right, honey... I could try and go out there to find her." Lao said.
"No, you wouldn't make it out there. We have no idea how far Sri has gone out there."
"That doesn't sound good," Cindra said to Elio. "We should check it out."
"I agree," Elio nodded. They entered back into the shop. "Excuse me. We just so happened to overhear. What's going on?" He asked.
"Our daughter, Sri, has disappeared into the desert. We have no way of knowing where she is, and we simply just don't have the ability to reach her." Lao said regretfully.
"Sri goes out into the desert to bring back stones and cacti that we use to keep the shop up and running. We always warn her not to go out too far, but I fear something has happened to her." Lao's wife said worriedly.
"Without her, the shop can't continue to run, can it?" Elio asked. Both of them shook their heads.
"We'll help get her back," Cindra spoke up suddenly. "What can we do to help?"
"It's a dangerous venture, kids. We couldn't ask you to do that." Lao shook his head.
"What choice do we have?" His wife asked, "Please, can you two bring our daughter back? We'd give you everything you need to go out into the desert." She offered.
"We'll do what we can." Cindra promised.
"Alright... Well, we'll get you what you need and point you in the right direction." Lao sighed.
Both Lao and his wife retreated into the back room of the shop to gather the supplies that they would need. Once again alone in the room, Elio turned and looked sideways at Cindra. Cindra turned back to him and immediately spoke up.
"I'm sorry, Elio, but I had to speak up. We have to help them, they'll go under without their daughter. We can help her!" She said. Elio nodded and placed a hand on Cindra's back, rubbing it gently.
"I'm glad that you said something. If you didn't, I was going to." He said with a smile.
"Really?" Cindra asked, her eyes lighting up.
"Yeah. We'll do what we can to help. Ba Sing Se will still be there waiting for us when we get back." He answered with a chuckle.
Now equipped with the proper gear to protect their faces and bodies from the sand and harsh winds of the desert, Lao led them to the edge of the desert. He pointed out into the vast ocean of nothingness, showing them where they needed to go.
"That's the direction that Sri went yesterday morning. Her trail has been covered over, but if you keep going in that direction, you should run into a field of cacti. That's where she always goes." Lao directed them.
"Got it," Elio nodded. "We'll do what we can." He promised again.
"Thank you both, kids. We're counting on you." Lao said thankfully before walking back to the shop, leaving the two of them to enter into the desert.
"You ready for this?" Elio asked Cindra, turning to look at her. She looked back and nodded with a determined smile.
"Let's do this."
Elio and Cindra took in a deep breath and stepped into the desert. They felt the sand compress under their feet as they made their way forward. It was a similar sensation to snow in Cindra's opinion, but it was less like crunchy snow and more like stepping in soft mounds of it.
"Can you imagine going out in this every day? Couldn't be me." Elio said with a shake of his head, clutching his protective cloth closer to his body to shield himself from the sun.
"Me neither, but then again, it isn't our livelihood. If we needed this to survive, I'm sure we'd find a way to bare through it." Cindra argued. Elio nodded in agreement.
"I guess you're right about that... Hey take a look, that looks like the cactus field that Lao was talking about." Elio pointed out a group of cacti ahead of them. There were about a dozen of them; not exactly a lot, but it was in comparison to the vast ocean of nothingness all around them.
"At least we know we've started in the right direction. We should leave a mark here; something to tell us how to get back. Otherwise there's no way we'll know where to go." Cindra suggested. Elio nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, you're right. Do you have a knife or something?"
"No. Don't you?"
"Nope." Elio shrugged. He took his staff out and started whacking the nearest cactus with it. He hit it again and again until it toppled over. Even though it was partially burst open, he was still able to rotate it so that way it pointed in the direction they had come from.
"Well, that works," Cindra shrugged. "Now we need to find something that can tell us which way Sri went." She listed, beginning to look around them. As they scanned around the cactus field, they immediately came across a couple of clues.
"Take a look at this, Cindra. Some of these cacti have been cut into. It looks like someone was collecting water out of it." Elio pointed out a cactus that had been cut open cleanly from the top.
"That was probably Sri taking a drink before continuing on. Oh, look!" She ran over to another cactus that had been toppled over. There were pieces of tattered clothing on it.
"Lao said Sri would come out here every single day. I highly doubt this is something she would do voluntarily." Elio observed. Cindra gave him a look.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that this looks like a fight happened here. We can safely assume now that Sri has been kidnapped... Didn't Lao say something about sandbenders?" He recalled.
"Yeah... He did..." Cindra said, her attention turning forward. The two of them looked forward and saw trails marked in the sand. It appeared as though someone had come and gone recently on some kind of sand-sled.
Elio and Cindra picked up their pace to follow the trail, following along with it in a straight line. As the sun began to get hotter, Elio removed his protective cloth and draped it over his head to shield him from the blistering sun. Cindra soon did the same.
"Elio, we need to be careful when we find these people. If they have Sri, we'll be at a big disadvantage going against them. I have no water to bend, and they can bend the sand." She pointed out to him. He nodded in agreement.
"We have my firebending, and you can take my staff. Once we have Sri, we'll get out of there as soon as possible. We don't have to beat them. We just have to outrun them."
"That doesn't sound much easier." She said honestly.
"I guess we'll find out when we find them." Elio said, taking his staff out of his sleeve and holding it out to Cindra. She nodded and took it.
"I guess so... The trail's disappearing." She realized. As the winds were starting to pick up, the trail they were following was being covered over.
"Just keep going straight. It hasn't changed course since we began following it. We can only assume it's a straight shot from here."
"And what if it isn't?" She asked him.
"Then we'll be out here a lot longer than we originally planned."
As afternoon began to sink into evening and the temperatures began to cool ever so slightly, they finally caught up with the sandbenders. Up ahead, they found a collection of tents. It seemed that they were setting up camp for the night. Elio and Cindra quickly ducked down low to watch them.
"There they are. The sandbenders." Cindra said. Elio squinted as he tried to carefully scan through them.
"There's quite a few of them. Definitely don't want to get into a direct confrontation with them. We need to figure out where Sri is being held." He said to her.
However, before they could decide on what to do next, they suddenly felt themselves sink into the sand and become trapped. As they yelped out in shock, they heard laughter behind them. Two sandbenders made their way around them.
"Well well, look what we have here. More spies. What should we do with them?" One said to the other.
"Dunno. I guess just take them into the camp and see what they got nearby."
"Where's Sri?" Cindra demanded. The two sandbenders lifted them up into the air, keeping them cocooned in sand.
"You two kids wouldn't happen to have any precious belongings somewhere close by, would you?" The first sandbender asked.
"Answer my question!" Cindra demanded again. As she struggled against the grip of the sand, Elio's staff slipped out and landed on the ground. The second sandbender picked it up.
"Eh? I guess this will do for now. Let's take them back to the camp. The boss can deal with them." They decided.
"Let us go! Tell us where you're keeping Sri!" Cindra continued to fight and demand. The sandbenders ignored her, looking at each other and rolling their eyes. She looked to Elio, surprised that he wasn't also protesting. In fact, he was keeping silent and calm.
"Boss, we found two more lookouts watching over our camp just now. What do you want us to do with them?" The sandbenders asked their leader. He looked them over and sighed.
"I'll deal with them later. For now just put them with the other one." He decided.
"They were also carrying this," One of the sandbenders held up Elio's staff. "Not sure what it is, but maybe you could use it to repair your broken sail." He suggested.
"It looks about the right material. It's a little short though. But I suppose it will do the job for now. Thank you." He said, taking the staff and walking away. The two sandbenders carried Elio and Cindra into a nearby tent.
"Alright, you two. Get cozy here until the boss comes to figure ya'll out. And don't even think about getting loud again, little girl." One of them warned Cindra, wagging a finger in her face. She growled and stretched her neck to bite him, but he quickly retracted his hand.
"Jeez." He said in surprise. They tied Elio and Cindra to a post in the center of the tent. Once they were restrained, the sand keeping them motionless was let loose and removed from them.
"Don't go anywhere." The other sandbender said with a laugh as they exited the tent. Cindra grumbled and adjusted how she was sitting. Elio backed up against the post.
"Well, this wasn't part of the plan." Elio commented.
"What are we gonna do now, Elio?" Cindra asked, turning towards him.
"Don't worry. They don't know it, but we're exactly where we wanted to be. Did you hear what the boss said? He told them to put us with 'the other one'. It's a waiting game now." He explained.
"Right... Right!" She realized.
"Back to your post! You got company tonight, girlie." A sandbender laughed as he roughly dragged a girl into the room. She had dark skin and messy hair that was tied back in a braid that was coming undone. With her thick jacket and bandana wrapped around her neck, she was clearly dressed for the desert.
The sandbender tied her up to the post with Elio and Cindra, brushing his hands together as he walked out of the tent. The girl grunted as she tugged at the ropes. This chafed against Elio and Cindra's wrists.
"Ow! Don't pull so hard!" Cindra quickly protested.
"Sorry, my bad," She apologized. "What'd the sandbenders bring you two in for?" She asked curiously.
"We're looking for Sri. That your name?" Elio asked.
"Yeah... Did my parents send you?" She asked softly.
"Who else? We overheard what happened and volunteered to help you." Cindra explained.
"Oh jeez," Sri shook her head sadly. "Sorry you two got roped into this...literally."
"We've been through worse," Elio said, letting his hands free. He had been quietly burning through the ropes since Sri had been tied down. "Now how about we get you home?" He suggested.
"Nice, dude!" Sri exclaimed as she and Cindra stood up and rubbed their wrists. "How'd you do that?" She asked. She looked at the ropes and realized that they had been burned clean through, "How...did you do that?"
"Escape first, questions later," Cindra quickly came to his rescue. "How do you wanna play this, Elio?" She looked to him. He peeked outside the tent.
"Sri, do you know which tent belongs to their leader?" Elio asked. Sri scooted up next to him and pointed it out to him.
"Big one in the back. That one to the left. See it?"
"Yeah, I see it. Okay... We'll sneak out the back and around. Cindra, you take Sri back towards her home. I'll be right behind you." Elio directed.
"What are you gonna do?" Cindra asked.
"I need my staff back."
The three of them crawled out from the back side of the tent and hurriedly put some distance between them and the campsite. Once they were safely away, Elio broke off from them and went in the opposite direction. He made his way to the leader's tent and snuck in through the back.
"What in the world?" The leader, who was sitting inside, turned around as he noticed the awkward movements of the tent. He saw Elio and immediately bent some sand at him. Elio sidestepped the attack and flashed him in the face with a fire blast.
The leader yelped in shock and fell to the floor. Without missing a beat, Elio advanced forward and grabbed his staff, which was laying on the ground next to him. He spun it and slid it back into its sleeve.
"Take this as a lesson. Let's not kidnap people again, 'kay?" He said. As he started to make his way back out of the tent, another sandbender entered into the tent and saw what was taking place. Elio turned back towards him and realized that he would not make it out without a fight now.
"Escape!" The sandbender yelled, running away from the tent to alert the others. Elio quickly chased him out and threw a fire blast into his back with both hands. Elio took his staff out as he realized that he was about to be surrounded.
"He's a firebender! Stop him!" One of them shouted. Elio began spinning his staff quickly, creating streams of fire and sending them all around him.
The sandbenders jumped back and all at once threw sand at him. Elio jumped upwards and pushed himself into the air with a fire kick. From the air, he threw a flurry of attacks down at the camp, aiming for their tents and sending them on fire.
As he landed on the ground, he slid his staff back into its sleeve and quickly sent out a long blast of fire with both hands. He let out as much fire as he could for a few seconds; enough to keep them from chasing him. Sri and Cindra saw all this, only a few yards away.
"Jeez, he's insane!" Sri exclaimed.
"Elio! Let's go before they put the fires out!" Cindra shouted to him. He looked at them and nodded.
"Lead the way!" Elio said, taking his staff out again. As they made a run for it, he tossed the staff to Cindra.
"How much money did my parents have to shell out to get you to help?" Sri asked Elio, assuming that he was a Fire Nation soldier that her parents had hired.
"Nothing!"
"We volunteered!" Cindra said again.
As they continued running, the air became filled with a low, buzzing noise. Elio and Cindra didn't recognize it and were confused, but Sri's eyes widened in fear at the sound of it.
"What is that?" Elio wondered aloud.
"Buzzard wasps! Get down!" Sri shouted, diving to the ground. Both of them quickly threw themselves to the ground just in time to avoid being swept up by giant bug-like creatures with wings.
"Yikes!" Elio panicked, standing up first and beginning to firebend at them. However, since they were more agile in the air, it was easier for them to avoid being hit.
"Watch out for the stingers!" Sri warned. Cindra got up and protectively stood over Sri with the staff in her hands.
"Get out of here, Cindra! Sri is the mission!" Elio shouted to her, shooting a fireball at the nearest buzzard wasp. It crashed to the ground in a wild blaze.
"We're not going without you!" Cindra shouted back. A buzzard wasp flew directly at her. She firmly took hold of the staff and batted it away, causing it to slide across the sand. Elio quickly shot a fireball at it.
"You two lovebirds quit arguing and keep shooting them down!" Sri yelled. Since she didn't have a weapon, she was completely defenseless and counting on Elio and Cindra to keep her alive.
"Just keep them off of Sri!" Elio shouted, continuing to shoot fireballs up at the buzzard wasps. He started curving his shots to hit more of them. Meanwhile, Cindra continued to bat away the ones that got close.
Several buzzard wasps suddenly charged at both of them, forcing them to duck down to the ground. As a cluster of buzzard wasps began to gather, Elio realized they would need to find a way out. He looked around and found that they were fighting within the cactus field from before.
"Cindra! The cacti! Bend the water in the cacti!" He shouted to her. Cindra's eyes widened as she looked around and realized what he was saying.
"I-I'll try!" She shouted back, quickly getting to her feet.
Taking in a breath, Cindra stretched her hands out, feeling the water in the cacti. Elio looked around and saw the cacti beginning to swirl around. A buzzard wasp hovered over Cindra, ready to come down and sting her. Cindra roared as she lifted a cactus with her waterbending and threw it directly into the side of the buzzard wasp.
"Nice!" Elio encouraged her, using his firebending to cover her.
Now with the both of them using their bending, they were more of a fight against the wasps. Cindra started lifting cacti into the air and impaling wasps with them. Elio would burn them to a crisp when they hit the ground. Sri grabbed the staff from Cindra and began batting the ones trying to attack them from behind.
"We got them on the run now!" Sri shouted, beating one of the buzzard wasps down.
Finally, the bugs turned away and retreated. All three of them dropped their hands down and sighed in relief.
"We did it! We did it! I did it!" Cindra cheered happily, looking at her hands. Elio smiled at her, happy to see her proud of herself.
"Thank you both for saving me." Sri said to Elio and Cindra. It was nighttime now as they arrived back in town. Elio and Cindra both smiled and nodded.
"Happy to help!" Cindra said.
"It was the least we could do. But please, promise us that you won't tell anyone what you saw us do in the desert. We're trying to travel quietly." Elio requested.
"My lips are sealed. I owe it to you both for saving my life." Sri replied appreciatively, shaking hands with both of them.
"Of course. What do you do out there in the desert anyways?" Cindra asked curiously.
"I collect rocks and cactus juice. My mother crafts the rocks into nice necklaces and stuff like that. My dad mixes the cactus juice into drinks for the nearby pub." She explained.
"Sounds...neat." Elio commented with a chuckle.
"It's kinda weird, but it's good! You should try it sometime." Sri invited with a giggle.
"Maybe one day." Elio laughed and shook his head.
"What will you two do now?" Sri asked them.
"Well, we were going to keep traveling, but after today, I think we both just need to rest." Elio chuckled tiredly.
"Yeah. There's an inn in town, isn't there?" Cindra asked.
"There is. We'll pay for your rooms." Sri offered.
"No, that's okay. You don't have to do that." Elio shook his head.
"Well, we're going to. It's decided now. Just let me tell my folks I'm okay now." She smiled and ran back to the shop. Elio and Cindra chuckled and sighed.
"We did good today, didn't we?" Cindra said. Elio nodded.
"Yeah. Yeah we did."