Chapter 3 - Capture

Rebels Of The Fire

Chapter 2:

Capture



I soon realized what the voices meant by trap.



As I was spinning around, trying to locate the voices' owners, a net was thrown from my right. I quickly side stepped to avoid it, but ended up releasing another trap. This time, volleys of arrows was released, making me drop to the ground. Dropping seemed to be the wrong thing to do though, because my impact on the ground opened up their final trap.



A pit.



/Kohaku Survivors/



“It has been over ten minutes,” Niko exclaimed, while he paced around the campsite, “AND STILL NO VIBES!”



“Niko, can you do me a favor?” Ruka asked her twin, and continued without waiting for a reply, “Can you find a nice sized rock and SHOVE IT IN YOUR MOUTH!”



“No.” He answered, “Not until Rain retur-”



“She's trapped!” cried Pilina, “Trapped, trapped, trapped! In a dark scary-”



“Pilina!” Niko's voice ran out like a whistle, “Stop your crying. Rain is not captured. She will be back in a couple of minutes, so go get back into your position with the others.”



“But Ra-” Pilina protested



“Now.” The harsh tone cut like a knife. Niko's face still held indifference.



Pilina stifled a tear, but did as she was told. Ruka sent a glare to her twin before going after Pilina, trying to reassure her.



“Ru?” asked Pilina, “Why is Ni so being mean?”



“I'm not sure `Lina,” Ruka sighed, “But it might have something to do with his pride. Maybe he feels that if he was at Kohaku during the raid, things might have been different.”



“That doesn't make sense though. If he was at the raid, then he would have died.”



“…Boys are complicated creatures. We girls just have to put up with them.” Ruka smiled, “C'mon, cheer up, once Rain gets back Niko will cool his jets.”

“That is, if she gets back.” Pilina murmured



/Rain's Pit/



One never knows how good freedom feels until they are trapped with no chance of escape. As I was hit the ground of my cage, Pilina's words ran through my head.



“It's gonna be a big trap, and bending won't help you at all!”



Her prediction was only partly true, I was surrounded in my element, bending can indeed help me.



I stood up, and got into the first bending position I ever learned.



/Rain's flashback, nine years ago/



“Now Rain, spread your feet apart a little bit more… good. Close your eyes, and focus only on the dirt in front of your feet. Picture it moving upward taking the shape of a wall.” This was the advice of my first mentor, Captain Lee.



Captain Lee was a close friend of my father, Aki Tatakai. They fought many battles together against the Fire Nation. When a battle turned for the worse, my father's last words to Lee were, `Teach my storm cloud, she has potential.' Once Lee returned from that battle, he gave the news that he was captured by the Fire Nation, which was, in our minds, his death. Ever since then, Lee has taught me earth bending.



“Can my wall have kitties on it?” I asked. Oh yes, I might have forgotten to mention but, I love kitties, they are just so cute and fluffy and… I should get back to the flash back.



“…If you are able to build a solid wall, then we'll think about the kitties.” Lee answered.



“YAY!!!” I danced around, with a smile full of carefree innocence.



“But first we need to get a wall.” He reminded me. “So, take position and clear your mind. Focus only on the earth… now, send all your inner strength to your hands, once you've done that, lift up your hand, and while you are lifting them up, picture the earth coming up also… good Rain, very good, now open your eyes.”



I opened my eyes, expecting to see some magnificent wall, covered in kitties. When I saw the `wall' that I had created, my jaw dropped. The wall was only two feet tall, and looked more like a pile of dirt rather than a real earth bender's wall. And the worse part of it, there wasn't one single kitty on the wall.



“Great job Rain!” encouraged Lee, “For your first wall, you did marvelous.”



“But there isn't any kitties.” I pouted.

“Just keep on practicing on the wall, then we can do kitties.” He chuckled.



/End Flashback/



My feet were spread apart, and my fingertips grew slightly warm as energy flowed into them. My arms began to feel heavy. `Good' I thought, `that means that I am one with the earth.' I slowly started to lift my arms up, and began to feel the ground shifting. The higher I lifted my arms, the higher the ground raised. `Just a few more feet then I'll be free'



/Kohaku Survivors/



“Alright, it's been fifteen minutes, we are sending out a search party.” Niko exclaimed



“Niko, may I remind you that we are just a group of kids, NOT AN ARMY!!” Ruka yelled.



“Well, we still need to send someone out to go look for her.” Niko replied.



“RAIN IS TRAPPED!!!' screamed Pilina, “She's trapped… no way of escape… s-”



“Pilina, how do you know that Rain is trapped,” asked Niko.



“Ni, how will this help us?” Ruka asked angrily, “We don't even have the slightest idea where Rain could be.”



“Think about Ruka, it all adds up.” Niko replied, matter of factly, “Pilina said that Rain would be captured if she left to scout. Rain hasn't sent us any vibes, when I told her to send some every 100 meters, which at the pace she usually scouts at would be every two to three minutes. Since she was angry with me for yelling at Pilina, she would wait double the usual amount of time to send in reports. Or she could just neglect to reports all together and appear back right when her ten minutes are up. So the only logical reason of why she isn't back, and never sent in reports, is that she is, indeed, trapped.”



“What if she was injured?”



“Rain is a earth bender, a tough one at that. The only way that she could be injured is if she was caught by fire benders.” Niko turned to Pilina, “Now, how do you know that Rain is captured?”



“…I don't know. But when she said that she was going scouting… it was like an alert went up in my brain… Rain was going to be captured… Rain wasn't safe… there were just to many things in my head for me understand… I just don't know…” Pilina whispered.



“Can you… Do you have an idea where Rain might be?” Ruka asked gently.



“Yes… and no.” she answered, “ I know that she is in a trap, but I don't know where the trap is.”



“Thank you Pilina, why don't you go rest now.” Ruka dismissed Pilina, seeing the tell tale signs of regret forming in the young girls eyes. “Niko, if you can teach Leak and I some defense moves, then you can go look for Rain.”



“…No, it's too late to go look for her by myself. She captured, and there's nothing we can do about it, except for trying to find a way around the enemy.” He said dejectedly. “Even that maybe be impossible, Rain was our only bender. If only we had-”



CRASH



“…WHAT WAS THAT?!?!” Ruka loudly asked.



“Ruka, quiet.” Niko nudged his twin. “Get the kids and hide.”



“No way,” she protested, “I'm helping too.”



“You can help if you hide the others first.”



“Fine” Ruka grumbled as she started for the others, “Just save someone for me.”



Ruka then herded her charges into the trees that were about ten feet away from the campsite. After all the young ones were safely hidden in the foliage, Ruka started back for her brother.



“Everyone's safe?” Niko asked once Ruka come within hearing distance.



“Yes. I take it that nothing dangerous was spotted yet?”



“Ye-”



“APPAAAAA!!!!”



“What is an `appa'?” Ruka asked her sibling.



“I think it is a white furry fluffy thing.” Niko pointed to a giant bison like creature that seemed to be carrying three people on top of its head. A young boy, clad in a yellow tunic and pants, with a red sash and shawl type thing and a blue arrow on his head, he looked to be about 11 or 12, jumped down from the creature's head, and seemed to use air so absorb the impact of his jump.



“Ummm… hello.” He said cautiously, as if he was expecting an attack at any moment.



“….”



“I was just wondering….” He started, then a skinny brown haired, brown skinned boy, dressed in a long blue tunic with dark blue leggings and leather boots, he looked maybe about 13 ½ or 14, jumped down from the creature's head, but landed on his head.



“Ouch… hey!” He stood up and yelled in the two protectors direction. “Do you guys know where the closest village is? One that might have some food.”



“Sokka!” A third person jumped down. This time, it was a girl, who looked related to the brown boy. She had on a long medium blue dress with dark blue leggings underneath, white fur trim, and a tight light blue undershirt. “Don't you ever think of anything besides that stomach of yours!?….Oh…uh… Hello there. We are a bit lost, can you tell us where Kohaku Village might be?”



“…Kohaku Village was destroyed about seventy-five hours ago.” Niko responded coldly.



“Fire nation, they make me sick!” the brown boy said, anger showing in his voice.



“They make everybody sick, get over it.” A white winged lemur with brown marking hopped onto Niko head. “Lemur…head…lemur…on…head….lemur on…my head….” Niko's eyes widened slightly, “THERE IS A LEMUR ON MY HEAD!!!!!”



Niko started to run around in circles, trying to de-lemur his head. Everyone else in the clearing just sweat dropped at this display of…. Lemurphobia.



Ruka sighed before tripping her twin when he ran by her. “Lemurs are like scissors, brother,” she said in a priestess sounding voice, “you do not run with them.”



“Momo! Come here, boy.” Ruka's voice seemed to snap the bald boy out of his stupor. “Sorry about Momo… he kinda likes heads…..My name's Aang, that's Katara and Sokka.” he pointed to the girl and boy respectively, “Who are you?”



The lemu…er, Momo, leaped off of Niko's head and took a seat in a tree branch above the brown boy. Once Niko's head was de-Momo-ized, he took a breath of relief, before quickly putting up his mask of indifference. “We are survivors, nothing else.”



“…What my little brother means is, I am Ruka, and he is Niko.” Ruka said, putting great emphasis on the word little.



“Why do you have to undermine my authority, sister?” Niko asked, through the corner of his mouth.



“I don't undermine anything, I contradict everything.” Ruka answered rather smugly.



“I'm just wondering,” started Katara, “but how did you know that Kohaku Village fell?”



“Yeah, and how did it fall?” asked Sokka.



Ruka and Niko found the ground was very interesting to look at. Full of different patterns, one even looked like Rain bending. How they worried about her. Pilina said that she was trapped, but Ruka and Niko's minds still tried to hold on to the hope that she was just pissed, and maybe lost track of time.



“Y..you don't have to tell us if you don't wish too.” Aang said gently, feeling the sadness radiating from the two. “We could help you find others that might of survived, if you want. We aren't in any hurry.”



“We know where all the survivors are.” Niko stated, even though it was a lie. Those lemur-loving freaks didn't need to know about Rain. She was their friend, and it was his duty to find and rescue her, not some strangers that set their lemur on him. He will find Rain, then everything will be back to normal, or as close to it as they can get.



“NIKO, RUKA! I KNOW WHERE SHE IS!”



*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

A/N: Obviously, Niko has lemur and mental issues. He just won't admit it. I am very sorry for the lateness of this chapter, I just couldn't find enough time in the day to spend writing. Now, for the fun part, a little preview of what will happen in the next chapter.



The boy stood in front of me, barking orders to the others, “Fight the benders, and get the supplies!” The boy turned to me, “It looks like you could use some help.”

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment