Wandering Firebender
Twenty: The Night Calls For Blood
Looking all around them, this forest that Elio and Cindra were walking through had much more natural beauty to it than the swamp did. There was nothing unsettling about these thick trees with their colorful leaves hanging high above them.
"This place is really beautiful. Don't you think so, Elio?" Cindra asked, looking around with a pleasant smile on her face.
"The leaves are really pretty," Elio said, nodding in agreement. "Definitely better than the swamp." He added.
"Oh yeah! Definitely!" Cindra giggled.
"I will admit," He said. "These are the parts of the Earth Kingdom that I do actually love. You don't see natural beauty like this anywhere else in the world."
"That is very true. Even despite all the trouble it's given us, when I go home I'm going to tell everyone about the places like this that we saw." She decided, giggling lightly to herself.
"Heheh, you must be looking forward to going home." He said with a chuckle.
"O-Oh, I wasn't trying to..." Cindra stuttered, her tone quickly turning apologetic. However, Elio simply managed a kind smile towards her.
"It's okay. I'm happy for you. You have every reason to look forward to being back home. Say hi to your folks for me when you get there." He joked lightly. Cindra laughed.
"You know what? I probably will! I can't even imagine what they'll say when I tell them I became best friends with a firebender."
"Just try not to make me look bad." He joked.
Elio and Cindra paused, the conversation coming to a halt. They looked ahead of them and saw the remains of an abandoned city just down the hill. It seemed that something had leveled the town, knocking down structures and breaking down the walls around it.
"Oh wow... What happened there?" Cindra wondered aloud as they made their way down towards it. Elio pulled out his map and looked at it.
"It's hard to say. Doesn't look like a Fire Nation siege. No signs of fire... This town's on the map. Look, see here? We're right here moving upwards." Elio pointed out their location on the map.
"You're right... But if the Fire Nation didn't destroy this town, what did?" She wondered aloud.
"I don't know. But let's take a look around. Maybe we can find some supplies in the wreckage?" He suggested.
Elio and Cindra made their way through the crumbled remains of the town, stepping on broken pieces of walls to peek inside of the structures that were still standing. It appeared that the entire town had been wiped clean of any resources that could help them.
"People have been through this area before. Anything that we might've been able to use; it's long gone." Elio said to Cindra.
"Elio... Your friend is back!" Cindra realized, pointing towards Cassian's squad coming towards the town on their komodo rhinos. Elio's eyes widened and he pulled out his staff.
"Get ready! We'll use the buildings as cover!" Elio said to her. Cindra opened her water pouch and bent the water out. They both were ready to fight.
However, before Cassian and his squad could enter into the vicinity of the ruined town, a flurry of arrows suddenly came flying at them from the side. Their armor protected them, however, their animals were frightened by the sudden attack.
Elio and Cindra watched as a group came rushing out of the trees with weapons. As the firebenders twisted their bodies awkwardly to shoot fireballs at them, they all sidestepped the attacks and began climbing on top of the komodo rhinos to take the men down.
"Is that backup?" Elio said in confusion.
"We gotta help them! Drive off those guys!" Cindra exclaimed, rushing forward to join the fight. Elio looked around in confusion, wondering where all of these fighters were coming from. However, he took firm hold of his staff and rushed in to help as well.
Cindra went on the offensive, bending her water into the nearest rider and knocking him off of his rider. Cassian himself shot a huge fireball directly at her. Cindra rolled to the side, stumbling to her feet and throwing water at him. Cassian evaporated the water with an upwards punch.
She hurried towards him, bringing the water around with her left hand. She caught Cassian off-guard by hitting him from behind. The water crashed into the back of his head. Cindra closed her hand, freezing the water around him. With her other hand, she pushed ice around his head away, sending him flying back.
Cassian slammed headfirst into the ground, the ice around his head breaking on impact. He was slow to get up from this fall. He looked around and saw that his men were being overtaken. They were outnumbered and at a disadvantage in this forest.
Elio looked to his left and saw that one of these mysterious allies were struggling against a Fire Nation soldier. Elio quickly ran over to assist, swinging his staff at the soldier. The soldier ducked under his attack, but this allowed the other person to kick the soldier in the chest.
As the soldier stumbled backwards, Elio hit him with a few quick hits from his staff. The soldier shot fire at him. Elio spun his staff to block the fire. Elio's ally spun around him, using two batons to hit him a few quick times. Elio swept the soldier's legs out with the staff, and his ally delivered the knockout blow.
"Darn it! Retreat! Everyone fall back!" Cassian growled angrily, jumping on top of his komodo rhino and signaling the retreat. All of his men quickly began to fall back, using their fire protectively as a number of men from the group drove them away.
"You're pretty handy with that staff!" Elio's ally said to him as they watched Cassian's men retreat. It was a girl's voice speaking back to him. He turned back towards her and nodded.
"You too with those batons. Thank you for the assist. We would've had a tougher time dealing with them on our own." He thanked her with a faint chuckle. The girl, whose face was covered by a mask, tilted her head oddly.
"Elio? Is that you?" She asked. Elio's eyebrows furrowed at the sound of his name.
"You know me?"
"I do," She answered, removing her mask. Immediately, her face was familiar to Elio, but he couldn't remember her name right away. "What are you doing all the way out here?"
"Wait... I remember you. We worked together at the Beifong residence... It starts with an A..." Elio racked his brain trying to remember her name. She shook her head and laughed at him.
"You should be ashamed of yourself. It's Autumn!" She said.
"Autumn! Right! I'm such an idiot. What are you doing all the way out here?" He asked.
"Hey, I asked first!" She laughed again...
"Hey, you," Cindra turned her head towards the guy speaking to her. He was skinny and carried a bow and arrow. He put his bow away as he approached her. "Nice job with your bending. Way to go straight for the leader. You made things way easier for us."
"You definitely did the same for us," Cindra chuckled. "My name is Cindra. What's yours?" She asked.
"Sen," He shook her hand. "Nice to meet you. I assume you and your friend there are the reason why a Fire Nation squad came riding through here?" He presumed, gesturing towards Elio.
"Yeah, pretty much. They've been on our tail lately."
"Well, any enemy of the Fire Nation is a friend of ours. You should come with us back to our hideout. You both will be safe there." He invited.
"Hey, Sen, look who it is!" Autumn called, pulling Elio over. Sen's eyes widened and he chuckled in shock upon seeing Elio.
"No way. Long time no see, Elio."
"Yeah, no kidding, Sen. Autumn tells me that you're the leader of this little ragtag group?" He asked. Sen nodded, resting his hand on his hip.
"That's right. I'm surprised to see you out here. This your girlfriend?" Sen asked, gesturing to Cindra.
"Oh no, we're not dating or anything. But we are traveling together." Cindra answered.
"Interesting. Well both of you follow us. We'll show you our base of operations." Sen invited, leading the walk back to the hideout. Cindra fell in step next to Elio again.
"So you know these guys?" She asked him.
"I know Autumn and I know Sen. I don't know who the rest of these kids are." Elio answered, observing that most of the people in this group seemed to be younger.
"See, you never tell me anything! Why didn't you tell me that you also knew people who were in this, like, revolution group?" She teased him.
"Because when I met them, they were just workers for hire."
Sen led Elio and Cindra up into their hideout: a series of wooden homes built up high in the trees. Using a series of pulley ropes to get to the top, they were soon led into a series of connected platforms with houses and places to rest on them.
"Wow, this is impressive!" Cindra laughed.
"I've never seen anything like it. How did you all do this?" Elio asked.
"I don't know," Sen answered. "The three of us all joined this group of Freedom Fighters later on after these settlements were already built. But it's what we call home; it's been our home for the past month now."
"Wow. So what's the story there? How'd the three of you end up here?" Elio asked curiously.
"That's a story best discussed over dinner. For now, let's get you two settled in. Autumn, why don't you show the two of them to one of the empty houses?" Sen suggested.
"Sure thing! Come on, Elio, you're gonna love the arrangements we got up here!" She giggled, grabbing Elio and pulling him along. Cindra rolled her eyes and followed too.
Autumn led Elio and Cindra across a few bridges to the empty house that was available to them. As they made their way there, they looked around at the scale of the hideout. It was both impressive how much space there was and sad to see so many displaced people in one location.
"Here you go," Autumn said cheerfully as she led them both into the home. "There's cots for the both of you. You can set your stuff down, relax. We'll get you some blankets for the night. You can stay as long as you need to!" She smiled.
"Thank you, Autumn. I'm sure we'll be a lot better off up here." Elio said appreciatively.
"You definitely will! The Fire Nation hasn't found us yet."
"This is a clever hideout," Cindra complimented. "How come there's so many kids here?" She asked.
"They've all had their lives uprooted by the Fire Nation. Some lost their families, their homes." Autumn answered in a more serious tone.
"I see... And what about you? You, Sen, Tay. How'd you three end up a part of all this?" Elio asked curiously.
"That's a long story. We'll talk about it over dinner... What about you, Elio? What're you doing getting chased by a Fire Nation squad?" Autumn asked.
"I guess we'll talk about it over dinner, huh?" Cindra interrupted, "If you don't mind, Autumn, we need to get settled in. We'll catch up with you later."
"Oh okay! Looking forward to it!" Autumn smiled at them and waved as she turned and walked away.
"What was that about?" Elio asked, looking at Cindra. She rolled her eyes again.
"She was just getting on my nerves. 'Oh Elio, it's so good to see you! Oh Elio, you're gonna love it here! Oh Elio!'" She mimicked her mockingly, pretending to drape herself over his shoulders. Elio laughed and shook his head.
"It was not that bad, was it?"
"You're so clueless, Elio." She rolled her eyes and dropped her stuff on one of the cots, unpacking a bit and getting comfortable.
"Almost sounds like you're jealous." Elio joked, throwing his bags on another cot and doing the same thing.
"You trying to get hit?"
"Just kidding." Elio chuckled. Cindra shook her head and smiled a bit.
"Anyways, besides all that, it'll be nice to rest easy and not have to worry about being found. This is probably the safest place for us right now."
"I don't know about that, but it's nice to know that we're not completely alone at this present moment. We'll see how it goes at dinner." Elio said...
Soon dinnertime came around. Elio and Cindra changed into casual clothing and joined the others at a long table. As food was distributed to everyone, Freedom Fighters took their seats at the table, around the table, or atop the surrounding branches. Elio and Cindra sat with Sen and Autumn at the head of the table.
"Well well, as I live and breathe! How're you doing, little buddy?" Tay, Sen's older brother, laughed cheerfully as he joined them at the table. Elio stood up and greeted him by extending his hand out. Tay pulled him in for a hug.
"Whoa! Haha, it's good to see you too, Tay. How've you been?" Elio asked as he pulled out of Tay's bear hug.
"Not too bad, kid, not too bad! What about you? You're looking well!"
"I am well, thank you. Oh, Tay, this is Cindra, my partner."
"Nice to meet you." Cindra waved and smiled.
"Nice to meet you too! How'd a pretty girl like you end up alongside this clown?" Tay teasingly gestured to Elio.
"Haha, it just sort of happened. We ended up in a situation where we both would've died unless we worked together. After that, we decided to just keep on traveling together." Cindra summarized very generally.
"Nice. You have each other's backs. I respect that." Sen complimented.
"It's mutually beneficial," Elio agreed with a nod. "And what about you three? It looks like you all stayed together too." He observed.
"Yep! The three of us got each other's backs same as you." Tay said with a pleasant smile.
"So what happened to you guys? Did you get tired of working freelance every day?" Elio asked curiously. Right away, their faces all dropped down and became more serious.
"The business we worked for closed down. The Fire Nation came through and seized control of some of the town. They were eventually driven out, but we lost our jobs because of it." Autumn explained.
"Oh, I see..." Elio said quietly.
"After that day happened, I realized something: we couldn't keep relying on other people to give us the things we needed. So even though the Beifongs were willing to help with resupply, I voted that we take matters into our own hands." Sen continued.
"We organized an attack on the Fire Nation soldiers that were responsible for messing our town up. That's when Jet and his Freedom Fighters found and recruited us." Tay said.
"Jet? Who's Jet?" Cindra asked.
"The former leader of the group." Autumn answered.
"He was getting ready to leave and start anew in Ba Sing Se. I volunteered to take over the group and continue the work. So now I run things around here." Sen finished the story.
"Wow. Well, you guys are doing a good job of keeping the Fire Nation away." Cindra complimented.
"We're doing our best. Our territory is small, but at least we have some land to claim that the Fire Nation is staying out of." Autumn said with an optimistic smile.
"We're doing a better job than Jet ever did. His leadership was good, but he didn't have a good head on his shoulders. This way, the only ones getting hurt are the Fire Nation... Speaking of the Fire Nation, why were they chasing the two of you?" Sen asked curiously.
"Oh! Well, you see..." Elio tried to come up with an explanation that wouldn't arouse suspicion, but he found that to be difficult. However, Cindra spoke up for him.
"It's because of me. I'm a waterbender trying to get back home to the Northern Water Tribe. The Fire Nation has been trying to suppress all other bending types. They just want one less waterbender in the world." She explained.
"Oh wow." Autumn said in astonishment.
"We may have also caused a little trouble with a particular squadron while we were on the run." Elio added to explain why they were being chased. The three of them all chuckled.
"Looks like a lot has happened to you too since we last met, Elio," Tay commented. "But glad you're safe. And helping Cindra out."
"Yeah! Can we see a little waterbending?" Autumn requested excitedly. Cindra giggled and nodded.
"Sure. Watch this."
Cindra bent the water out of her cup and traced it through the air with her finger, making it spiral around and fly over the table before it went back into her cup. She took a sip and smiled. The three of them all lightly clapped their hands.
"Impressive. Too bad you've got your own destination in mind. You'd be a huge help to our cause." Sen commented.
"Either way, hope you make it home. Your bending's really cool." Autumn complimented.
"Thank you!" Cindra grinned proudly.
"Sen, sir, a word please." Another boy walked to the head of the table. Sen nodded and stood up.
"Excuse me, please," Sen nodded to them before stepping aside to speak to this scout. Once they were out of earshot, Sen spoke again.
"What's up, Boku?" He asked.
"I went through our guests' belongings as you requested. I found something serious in the guy with the staff's bag." Boku said with a serious expression.
Boku motioned for Sen to lean in. Sen leaned forward, and Boku whispered his findings in his ear. Sen's eyes widened in shock. He leaned back and swallowed nervously then nodded. He silently turned back and made his way to the head of the table.
"Forgive me. My scout, Boku, just wanted to give me the rundown of a few things we managed to snag off of that Fire Nation squad today." Sen explained.
"It's no problem! Tay was just telling me about how you all met Elio. I'm sorry that you all lost your work." Cindra said.
"Yeah," Elio agreed. "Autumn, I remember you said it was just you and your mom before. How is she?" He asked her.
"She's doing fine. She's staying with us in one of the huts. She sometimes makes our bread." Autumn answered him. Elio nodded and sighed in relief.
"That's good to hear."
"Sorry to cut off the conversation, but the sun is setting now. When night comes, it's lights out for everyone. That way our location stays concealed." Sen said.
"Alright, that's fine. We'll go and get our rest for the night." Elio said as he and Cindra stood up.
"Thank you for the meal." She said politely.
"You're welcome! Rest easy!" Tay said, waving to them as they walked away.
"Oh, and Elio," Sen spoke up. Elio stopped and turned around. "You can keep a torch inside of your hut for light. Just be careful with the fire. Wouldn't want your hut to burn down while you sleep." He said.
"Right, yeah," Elio agreed with a nod. "Goodnight, everyone."
Elio and Cindra made their way back into their hut. Cindra lit up the torch inside. They both laid back on their cots, able to breathe deeply and finally relax.
"Your friends are pretty nice." Cindra commented.
"Weren't you complaining about Autumn earlier though?" Elio teased her.
"She grew on me a little bit. But besides that, they seem pretty alright. I'm sure you four must've had fun together."
"It was fun while it was lasted," Elio agreed. "Well I don't know about you, but I'm going to try and sleep in before we get back on the road tomorrow. Goodnight, Cindra."
"Goodnight, Elio."
Nighttime rose over the treetops. After a few hours, both Elio and Cindra were fast asleep. Since they were both heavy sleepers, neither of them heard the cautious footsteps tip-toeing into their hut nor the sound of the torch being put out.
It wasn't until Elio felt hands on him that he woke up suddenly, but he was quickly knocked out before he could do anything...
When he came to, he found himself tied up with rope with his hands behind his back. He was being dragged across the ground by someone big. His mouth was gagged, preventing him from speaking. He grunted and tried to pull himself free.
"Sen, he's awake." He heard Tay's voice say. Elio felt someone kick him in the back.
"Try anything, and I'll slit your throat right here." Sen threatened him...
Meanwhile, back in the hut, Cindra had woken up but was trying to get back to sleep. She wasn't used to sleeping in a cot. She turned onto her side and realized that the torch had gone out when it wasn't supposed to. She rubbed her eyes and groaned.
"Hey, Elio, you asleep? Could you reignite the torch, please?" She requested.
When no response came, she got to her feet unhappily and lit the torch herself with two spark rocks. She turned back around to get back in bed, but that's when she noticed that Elio was missing. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she grabbed her water pouch and Elio's staff before going outside to find him...
Elio was tossed onto the ground in front of a cliff. The full light of the moon allowed him to turn back around and see his captors: Sen, Tay, and a number of older boys with torches in their hands. He moved his jaw side to side, getting the gag out of his mouth.
"Pheh! What're you doing?!" Elio demanded.
"You've been lying to us, Elio. You've been Fire Nation this whole time, you rat!" Sen growled, kicking him in the stomach. He groaned in pain and turned onto his stomach.
"This doesn't feel right, Sen," Tay said worriedly. "He may be Fire Nation, but how do we know that he's lying to us?" He asked.
"What's rule number one around here, Tay?" Sen asked to remind him.
"Never trust a firebender." Everyone said. Sen grabbed Elio by the collar of his shirt, making him sit up.
"So what is it, Elio? Are you a spy? What's the game plan here?" He questioned him.
"I'm not a spy, you idiot! I'm just trying to get to Ba Sing Se."
"Oh, so our hideout is just one little stop on your conquest plan?"
"I'm not with the army, Sen! I ran away! Is that what you want to hear? I ran away!" He yelled defensively.
Sen pushed him onto his back and stood up. He snapped his fingers and held his hand out behind him. One of the boys ran up next to him and handed him a knife. Sen sighed and shook his head.
"So either you're a liar or a coward. Either way, I can't have you anywhere near my camp." Sen said.
"Then let me go. Believe me, I will leave right now and never come back." Elio grunted.
"Can't do that either, Elio... I've seen what the Fire Nation does to people. For 100 years they've been hammering away at the world, and I've watched people die fighting them or submit to their rule. They will wipe out anyone who stands in their way without a second thought.
"It's time that their own philosophy be used against them. It's because of your people that earthbenders are being put in prison camps, and there are no airbenders left in the world... I think what the world could really use is less firebenders." Sen concluded.
Sen stepped over Elio, getting ready to kill him. Elio struggled against the rope, desperately trying to burn through them. As he squirmed, Sen dropped down to one knee on top of him to keep him from moving. Sen raised his knife, but then his hand froze in place.
"Ah...what?!" Sen looked at his hand and realized that ice had frozen around his wrist. He was suddenly pulled off of Elio by a strong, unseen force. He crashed on the ground in front of Cindra.
"Hands off my friend." Cindra said, raising her hands up again. She created a protective ball of water around herself and made her way to Elio.
"You came just in time." Elio said with a sigh of relief.
"Sorry I didn't realize sooner."
"So you defected too. I was hoping that you were just unaware of Elio's true identity." Sen said as he stood up.
"Elio is my friend! I trust him with my life! And I don't expect you to understand that because you're a close-minded, crazy psychopath. But if you come any closer, I will protect him." Cindra vowed and threatened, raising her hands again.
However, the water she was bending suddenly fell out of her control and crashed to the ground. A red hue suddenly washed over them. Everyone's eyes widened in shock as they looked up into the sky. Cindra and Elio turned and looked back to see that the moon had turned dark red.
"Oh no..." Cindra said softly, knowing what this meant. The Fire Nation had somehow reached the ocean and moon spirits.
"That's the Fire Nation! It has to be! Don't you see?! We can hold no compassion for the enemy! They hold no compassion for us!" Sen shouted. Everyone looked at each other fearfully.
"Do you know what this is, Cindra?" Elio asked, looking up at her.
"It is the Fire Nation. He is right about that." Cindra confirmed.
"This conversation is over! Step away from him or we will be forced to attack!" Sen threatened. Cindra swallowed nervously. Even if Elio could get free, they were outnumbered.
The moon suddenly turned normal again. Everyone looked up again in confusion. Cindra's face lightened up with relief, thinking that the Fire Nation had turned back. However, her hope was quickly shattered when the moon all at once disappeared from the sky. Everything became seemingly black and white.
"No!" Cindra cried out sadly. She raised her hands to bend, but there was nothing she could do. Without the moon, she had no power.
Her eyes began to tear up now that she had lost this part of her. But she wiped her eyes and held up Elio's staff instead.
"Don't come any closer." She said in a low, shaky voice.
"Take them out!" Sen ordered. Though they were hesitant, three boys advanced forward with their weapons.
Cindra spun the staff around once and jabbed at one of them. As he jumped back, Cindra spun and swung the staff into a second boy. He fell to the ground. A third boy attempted to slash Cindra with his sword. She spun the staff in a half-circle to block the attack before whacking him on the head.
"Enough playing around!" Sen growled, advancing with his knife to join the fight. Finally, Elio was able to get his hands loose enough to burn through the rope. He twisted his body awkwardly and shot a fireball at Sen, forcing him to jump sideways to avoid it.
"Don't even think about it, Sen!" Elio warned, getting himself free of the rope.
As he pulled the ropes off his feet, one of Cindra's opponents rushed to stab him. Elio spun on his back and kicked the boy's feet out from under him. He stepped on his wrist to stop him from using the knife. He pulled the rest of the rope off of him.
Sen rushed to Elio and lunged at him with the knife. Elio sidestepped the attacks, doing his best to remain calm. As Sen stumbled off-balance, Elio balled his fist and was ready to strike him between the ribs.
However, Tay quickly punched him to the ground before he could. He didn't seem to want to fight, but he had to come to his little brother's defense. Elio groaned before regaining his bearings and rolling away.
Cindra found that more of the boys were beginning to join the fight. She was doing her best to keep them away, but she wasn't as skilled or agile as Elio was. The best she could do was keep them at a distance, "We gotta get out of here now, Elio!" She shouted at him.
"I know!" Elio got to his feet and created a ring of fire around the both of them. He slowly spread it out around them, forcing their attackers to step backwards, "Grab onto me, Cindra! This is gonna be a bumpy ride!"
Cindra grabbed onto Elio, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Elio turned and wrapped one arm around her. He twisted his body to lean backwards, and with one loud grunt he launched both of them into the air. They crashed through branches and leaves, but this put a good distance away from them.
"After them!" Sen yelled. The boys ran ahead, but Tay put his hand on Sen's shoulder.
"Maybe we should let them go. No one has to die tonight." He urged. Sen, however, shook off his brother's hand.
"He does."
Elio and Cindra crashed awkwardly onto the ground. They both scrambled to their feet and began running back towards the hideout. They gripped each other's hands tightly as they sprinted through the trees.
"I can't waterbend without the moon, Elio! The Fire Nation must have killed the moon spirit!" Cindra said.
"Killed the moon spirit? Is that even possible?!"
"It is! How're we gonna get out of here?!"
"Take the trail down towards the river, where we were gonna go in the morning! Stay between the trees! Go!" Elio shouted, letting go of Cindra's hand.
"What about you?!"
"I'm going back for our supplies!" Elio said as the hideout came into view.
He and Cindra split up. She ran to the left towards the trail while Elio rushed straight for the hideout. Cindra grabbed onto the staff tightly with both hands, keeping between the trees just as Elio had instructed. As she ran, tears started to fill her eyes again...
Elio ran up underneath the hideout. He used another fire jump to launch himself by their hut. He flipped sideways and landed with a stumble. He ran inside and grabbed both of their things. Once he had everything, he rushed outside only to find Autumn with her batons in her hands.
"Stop! You... Elio?" She realized it was him and her arms fell. Elio swallowed.
"Autumn... Did you know that they were going to attack us? Did you know they were going to execute me?" He questioned. Autumn's eyebrows furrowed.
"What're you talking about? Elio...was that you firebending just now?" She asked.
"It was. I'm sorry, Autumn, I have to go. They're after me." Elio said before jumping off of the bridge, using his fire to soften his landing. Autumn's eyes widened, and she stood there not knowing what to do...
Elio hurried down the trail. He could hear Sen and his men yelling behind them, waking up the rest of the camp. He groaned as his legs started to sting from running. He forced himself to continue, taking in deep breaths and quickening his pace.
"Cindra! Cindra!" He shouted to her as he saw her waiting for him by the river. They embraced and hugged each other quickly.
"Elio! Come on, we gotta run!" Cindra said, grabbing her things off of him and taking his hand.
However, before they could continue running away, arrows suddenly whizzed past them. They were forced to come to a stop as Sen and the rest of the camp came around them. Elio began to create fire, ready to defend them both.
"It's the end of the line for you both! You're all alone now! Surrender, and I'll consider letting your girlfriend go!" Sen shouted at him.
"Not a chance!" Cindra shouted back at him.
"Are you sure?" Elio asked, looking back at her.
"We're both gonna make it." She said, doing her best to sound confident and sure of this. Elio swallowed and nodded.
"You heard her, Sen. Let us leave! I don't want to have to hurt anyone!"
"Yes, I think you do," Sen said, drawing his bow and arrow. "Fire!" He ordered.
A flurry of arrows were shot directly at them. Time seemed to move in slow-motion as Elio tried to grab Cindra and pull her into the river behind them. As they fell back, Cindra brought her hands up to shield herself. Water from the river came up in front of them, freezing over and stopping the arrows.
They both crashed into the water and came up immediately. They saw the ice wall and were confused, but they looked up to see that the full moon was back in its place in the sky. Cindra gasped happily at the sight of it. Elio and Cindra climbed out of the river.
"Enough with the threats! This is your last warning!" Cindra shouted. She brought out a huge amount of water from the river, creating two large swirling pathways in the air. Elio created fire in his hands, but he too was in awe at this display of Cindra's newfound skill.
"Why are you helping him?! He's Fire Nation! You should be on our side!" Sen yelled.
"He may be Fire Nation, but he's a better man than the rest of you combined!" Cindra shouted back.
"Cindra, I'm going to evaporate the water with my fire. We can create enough steam to shield our escape." Elio said quietly to her.
"Do it." She nodded.
At the same time, Elio shot a huge fireball into the water as Cindra brought it all together in front of them. A huge burst of steam came up, creating a wall that blocked their vision. Elio and Cindra grabbed each other's hands and began to run again.
"Let's hurry before they realize what we're doing!" Elio said.
"I got a better idea!" Cindra said, turning to the river.
She lifted up some water and created a boat out of ice. She molded it in a matter of seconds. Both of them hopped inside, and Cindra used her waterbending to push them quickly down the river.
"Cindra, you're a genius!" Elio laughed.
"I am pretty great, I know." She said with a proud smile. She looked up towards the full moon with a grateful expression and sighed in relief.
"Thank you for having my back. I would've died if you hadn't realized in time." Elio admitted.
"You're welcome, Elio. We need each other after all. If anyone around here is gonna kill you, it's gonna be me." Cindra joked. Elio chuckled and hugged her tightly.
"Same." He said with a chuckle.
Cindra smiled and hugged him back. She rubbed the back of his head. The fact that they had both made it out alive felt like a miracle, and it was a huge relief to know that they could truly count on each other. She sighed in relief and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Alright, buddy, I need my arms to waterbend us out of here." She said. Elio chuckled and let her go, sitting back in the boat.
"Yeah, let's get out of here."