Nia woke with a start as the sound of shouts filled the camp. For the second time, an angry energy erupted within the confines of their comfort, and it was all she could think that if they'd run into trouble twice in the same day, it didn't bode well for their future as a rebel faction. That, and she was ready to beat someone ugly for disturbing her sleep…
She's removed her armor, the leather cleaned and oiled, leaning up against a tent pole to dry. Beside that, her sword gleamed, free of its sheath, the edges sharpened a few hours earlier. Grabbing the sword and buckling into her boots, Nia emerged from her tent with a fury wild as her unbraided hair, "What the hell
now??"
Kazu's awakening didn't come. As he wasn't sleeping to begin with.
Sitting in the lotus position and having finally found his center after
hours of searching, his eyes snapped open as yells shook the tent. Confusion colored him from head to toe. Was there a party? How come nobody told him about it?? He wasn't really good at celebrations though, since he mostly went overboard and broke things and made everyone angrily--but still. A party! He wanted to be in it!
Quickly (and tripping over his own feet several times), he wrapped his robes about his naked torso and padded out of the tent on bare feet. "Can I pin the tail on the donkey bear?!"
Then he gave pause.
Fire. Fire, everywhere. And… a-and…
Dead bodies. Burning. Sizzling. Arrows protruding from them. The hollowed and horrific gaze of one penetrated deep in Kazu's soul and he gasped, stumbling back. If it wasn't for Nia's angry but familiar voice shattering the air, he would've been staring back at the carcass for gods knew how long. The boy sprinted over to Nia, sweat already rolling down his face and eyes wide. "Nia! Nia, there's fire and dead people on the ground--
Why is this such a scary party??"
There should not have been such relief at the sight of the young man emerging, well and good from his tent, but as Nia heard her name and looked to find Kazu, a breath of relief escapes her and she moved to meet him halfway as he sprinted over, "It's not a party, Little Pup. Another fight. Big one. Need you to stay close, okay?" Her eyes shifted from the raging battle, to the tents, as her grip on her blade tightened, "Come on. We're gonna find the doc."
Eyes still wide with reeling confusion, Kazu nodded. He didn't know why they were going to see doc--did he get cut again? He didn't think so--but he would listen to Nia. She knew best, after all. Just as the pair set off in the medical tent's direction, a sharp noise sliced through the air, close and clear.
A burning sensation rippled through Kazu's leg, forcing a pained yelp out of him. "O-ow! Ow! That's hot! And stings!" He cradled his thigh, where a gash and shredded fabric were steadily turning into a slick mess of crimson.
An Archer hidden around the corner of a tent wheeled into the open, an arrow knocked back and preparing to fire at Nia.
Eyes swinging to Kazu, Nia watched as he suddenly halted, blood blossoming through his fingers in a river. Movement caught the corner of his eyes and swearing, Nia spun towards the archer. Jamming her blade into the dirt, she ran at him. Skidding at the last moment, she dropped low, sliding along the dirt to jam her feet into his ankles.
The Archer's bow swung down to skewer Nia as she approached, only for the flaming head of his arrow to miss her by a few inches as she slid into close range. Her feet met his ankles like the blow of a sledgehammer and he found himself meeting the ground harshly. Teeth grinding behind his mask, he rolled over to swing his bow down onto Nia's face.
Meanwhile, Kazu shuffled back and forth as panic and confusion continued to rise. He had to help Nia! He had to help Nia! "Uh! Um! Uh! O-okay! Okay!" Mind scrambling, he half-sprinted, half-limped over to them--
A flaming projectile sailed past his face, eliciting a yelp of surprise from the waterbender. His gaze followed where the arrow had came from and spotted another archer emerging from the inferno like a devil enshrouded in smoke. His red eyes locked onto Kazu and reached behind himself for the next arrow.
Swinging her arms up as the bow came down, Nia caught the lower limb before it cracked into her nose, before slamming her elbow to the side, towards the archer's clavicle. Following through, flowing into the momentum, she twisted her body to the side and rolled, straddling her legs over the waist of the man, butt of her palm smacking into his jaw. Her eyes shifted, caught side of the second archer, and measuring the distance, her fingers curled around the hunting knife at the archer's side, pulling it free, "Kaz! Get down!" She cried, before hurling the blade, towards the second bowman.
"A-ah! Uh! Okay!" Kazu just barely got his words out as he dropped to the ground, hands over his head. His eyes cracked open the moment he heard a gurgling grunt emit from his left and glanced over to see the archer's bow lowering, no longer aiming at him. And no longer having the strength to remain on his feet. Blood gushed from the blade embedded into his chest and with a heaving wheeze, he collapsed dead.
Kazu's jaw dropped. "Whoa… Good job, Nia!" he said, struggling back onto his feet.
However, his features dropped as he realized the archer she was straddling had yet to be put down. Discarding the bow, one hand shot out to seize Nia by the throat while the other faced her, palm open and a thick cloud of smoke rolling from it into her face.
Fingers gripped her throat and Nia's hand shot back up to grab for the thumb, to twist it back, but as the smoke poured from his palm, acid and thick, her eyes stung and the back of throat and sinuses burned. Her free hand reached down, blind, clawing desperately for the archer's face.
The archer's grip tightened even more around Nia's neck, her blind swipes at his face barely registering. With a growl, he flipped them over, towering over her and applying more and more pressure to her windpipe. More and more smoke. Just a little longer and--
"Hey!"
Crack!
His bow smashed into his temple with an audible crack--whether it was from the weapon snapping or something else was hard to tell. The man tumbled over, sprawled on his back and vision doubling from the hit. He could barely make out Kazu's form as the waterbender suddenly dropped an elbow into his sternum with the force of a sheep bull. The archer wheezed, hacked a few coughs, then went limp.
Kazu glanced the man over curiously, lips pursed. "...Mmkay, sleep good!" However, his worry returned with a vengeance as he remembered Nia and crawled over to her, hand reaching out unsurely. "Nia? You okay?"
Wheezing, hand to her throat, Nia rolled over and spit out the taste of smoke, her other hand gesturing vaguely to the archer, "Find…" Sucking in a breath, eyes still watering, she smacked her palm into the ground, "Find something to tie that son of a bitch up with! General might want… a word."
Pushing herself upright, grimacing, she rubbed a hand over her neck, "
You okay? How's the leg?"
"Oh! Right! O-okay! Errrr…" Kazu struggled to pinpoint anything that would help with tying up the son of a dog. Did that need something special? Were dog sons especially strong? Superhuman strong? Did they need
iron cuffs or something?? The waterbender's head was spinning and spinning fast, but he couldn't just stand there uselessly, not when Nia needed him. In a mad scramble, he made his way over to the archer that had taken a dagger to the chest and patted the corpse down, not even batting an eyelash at the blood and gore.
Kazu gave out a brief cheer as he came upon hempen rope in the man's pack. He limped back over to Nia and the unconscious archer, tying him up quickly. He figured he did it right. The knot looked okay. Familiar. So definitely hard to break. It was fine. Right? ...Right. Yeah. He forgot.
At Nia's question, he blinked back to reality and flashed her a dopey grin. "I'm good!"
Nia's eyes traveled, followed Kazu as he made his way to the dead archer, and she felt a weight in her stomach that had nothing to do with her own near death experience. She had killed a man. He had attacked them, and it was justified, and yet somehow, she couldn't quite shake the horrible sense of guilt that clawed its way up her throat.
Gaze flickering back to Kazu as he returned to tie up the second archer, she nodded, "Good. Good. Nice moves, there, little pup. Thanks for havin' my back." Rising to her feet, Nia moved to collect her sword, holding it at her side, "Seems like somebody doesn't like the idea of the General's plan, here…"
Kazu followed suit, standing up with her (and staggering a moment from his disturbed balance) with his grin in tact, even as the sounds of bloodthirst and combat resounded around them. However, his expression morphed into confusion again, brow furrowed in concern, as he patted his own back. "Um, Nia? I don't know if that's a good thing, cuz like, I kind of like my own back. You've got a cool back and everything, but I want to keep mines and--"
A beat.
"Ohhhhhh." Realization struck. He flashed an eager thumbs up. "You're welcome." At her last bit, his mouth shifted to the left, eyes glazing over, falling silent… He shrugged. "I just know that I left my tent and didn't get to count my stuff." Saying it out loud was like a trigger for his body, as his fingers were now counting the scars on his hands, mouthing the tally under his breath.
"...Count your stuff? You worried about thieves, Kaz?" Looking around, Nia frowned, "Let's get Smokey here inside Doc's tent. Maybe she can fix up your leg." The first one to go in her village had been their physician… The Earth Benders had brought her house down on top of her and her family while they slept. It wasn't ideal, having a healer when one was trying to decimate a village, she supposed… But Nia had learned that night, the importance of protecting the people who could keep you alive, "Can you help me lift him?"
At first, Kazu didn't answer the woman, far too engrossed in his counting to register her words. However, he managed to tune back in around the time she mentioned Doc and his leg and lifting, all of which were quickly clumped together inside his brain. He shook the cobwebs off and nodded like a clueless puppy. "Yes! I can do that. Um," the fingers of his right hand rubbed against one another, almost anxiously, "Can I do this thing for you to help when we get there? I can sense things are like, off, in here and stuff for you." He pointed at his own chest before pointing at her.
He didn't bother waiting for an answer. The young waterbender rounded the archer's body and bent down to lift him under the shoulders…
His grip slipped, the man's head snacking into the ground with a solid thud.
Kazu winced guiltily. "Sorry, mister hot arrow man!" He tried again, succeeding this time around and waiting for Nia to help with the lower half.
Blinking, Nia looked at Kazu in confusion for a moment, before chuckling softly, "...Ain't been right in there for a good long while, Kaz. But sure, Pup. You do what you gotta do…" Moving to the archer, she bent down to grip his ankles, lifting the man off the ground, "Alright. In we go." And with a nod, she back towards the tent's flaps.
TAG | Collab with @Mobley Eats