The waitress had made a pretty long list of rules these last ten years in order to survive. Never reveal her true name. Stay obscured and quiet as always. And most important of all..Never under any circumstance airbend.
Now that that third was out the window. She had no idea what to do next.
There she stood in the middle of the street before hundreds of onlookers. All eyes on her in a deathly awed silence of fear and confusion, trying to make sense of what had just happened. What she had just done. She could here the voices of bewildered soldiers and citizens struggling to make sense of the impossible feat that had just occurred. The feat she had just performed like some trapped magician placed on center stage.
Did she just..? Said a man watching her up and down before backing away slowly in fear of her.
It cant be. Said a wealthy fire nation woman, raising a palm to her mouth in astoundment and huddling her children close behind her. Could it?
I thought they were all gone…Said one old man squinting his eyes for a better look. Praise the spirits, is it the avatar? Has hope come at last? People murmured and jabbered at the sight of her true self bare before them all. A freshly painted canvas hung out to dry in the open for all to see.
The airbender couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. She just stood there exposed behind Bin like a frozen cat deer, sweat running down her bare forehead now unveiled so carelessly. Her blue tattoo now marking her for death once again for the first time in years. Her mind flashed with horrid memories of the last time she stood frozen and helpless like this. The red blood sky with the comet racing overhead, her home the eastern air temple aflame and her air nun sisters wiped out, and her just staring at the gaping maw of a firebender's dragon as it chased her flying through the air off the mountain to safety. The smell of burnt robes and singed fabric trailing behind as her glider caught fire and she crashed unconscious barely alive. She was one of the lucky ones. Although now, she felt the hungry gaze of a dragon once again in the form of a man.
Airbender….muttered Bazan, his eyes wide in shock before grinning at the realization of what she was and what he could get out of the reward still in place on her head all these years later.
She stepped back away from Bin though it pained her to do so. She briefly met his warm eyes, affording to give him one final glance of goodbye for what would probably be the last time she ever saw him.
Kishe…He muttered, blood running down his nose. Reaching his hand out to her.
"I'm sorry bin.." She muttered as the two locked worried eyes on one another, knowing what was about to occur. I did what I could."
A pity. She thought.
He had been her favorite customer.
Suddenly the airbender slammed the ground with both her fists, sending up a thick cloud of dust to swallow and engulf the entire street block in its thick dirty haze.
AFTER HER!!!! Screamed Bazan coughing on dust. The soldiers all donned their spiked helmets and immediately gave chase like a pack of vulture wasps hungry for the last scrap of carrion. Angry, armored, men pushed and shoved people aside as they struggled to make their way through the mob after her. The sheer panic of the crowd now manifested as a tidal wave of people screaming and scrambling to their feet to either flee the scene or give chase to collect the reward before anyone else if they were lucky enough. What had only minutes ago been a calm and collected audience coming together to watch an agni kai break up the usual monotony on just another usual day had descended into pure frenzied and opportunistic chaos as what could be one of the very last Airbender in the world fled the scene with most of the city now hot on her heels.
The airbender emerged from her dust storm in a blur and raced down a darkened nearby alleyway, her green dress and brown hair billowing in the breeze that propelled her steps like air pockets while hearing shouts and screams and blasts of fire behind her. She leaped from wall to wall to spiral and flip from view over the rooftops just as arrows fired from down below to become lodged in the walls as a pathway growing after her. She couldn't look back. She wouldn't see how many there were. She could only run. Thats all she had done these past few years. Run and hide.
As she leapt weightlessly from rooftop to rooftop arrows flying overhead, she could already hear the town alarm bells ringing loudly in her ear, alerting every fire nation soldier in the city to man their stations at the ready. She begged to the spirits she could could collect her few remaining belongings and escape in time. She prayed it wasn't already too late.
Once she was sure she had lost them, she leaped down from one last building into a dirty cart filled with barley, grain, and wheat. She emerged spitting up straw and coughing flour before ducking behind a corner to dust herself off as best she could. Her eye then spotted some garments left hanging on a clothesline above her to dry in the breeze. She hated stealing. But she had no other option.
Going against her airbender morals she tore off the sleeve of an old green shirt before frantically wrapping it tightly around her forehead before anyone could see. She made knot after knot after knot making sure this time, it would stay on as if it were bloody well fused to her head.
She breathed a brief sigh of relief before ducking back behind the hay cart to hide as a patrol passed by. She could hear the heavy-footed panter of fire nation guards just around the corner growing closer repeatidly, likely already searching every corner of the city for her. Word traveled fast here, which only made her getting out of here unnoticed all the more impossible.
She took a second to glance around to make sure the coast was clear before sprinting to the alleyway across from her and grabbing an old tattered hooded cloak from the clothesline to try and make her more inconspicuous.
What felt like hours but was probably minutes she carefully bobbed, weaved, and evaded as many guards as she had seen in years. As she neared the outskirts of the city toward the bridge, the lanes became congested and bottlenecked with the sound and sight of confused angry people demanding to be let out.
She weaved her way through the crowd impatiently trying to slip through unnoticed and figure out what was holding them all from moving forward. Soon enough, she got her answer.
Her heart practically stopped cold at the sight of hundreds of Fire Nation soldiers blocking the only bridge out of town. Usually, there would be only a few bored guards disinterested in their duties. But now they were on high alert. All across the city they had set up checkpoints and were inspecting every person trying to leave town by checking their cargo and more importantly their foreheads for markings of any kind. No expectations! Roared the captain. Hats and head coverings off or else no passage through.
She began to panic and sweat as she tried to turn around with immense difficulty and her hood lowered, the flow and momentum of the crowd edging her onward toward her death. There were too many people for her to move freely as an elusive airbender. She was as trapped as the rest of them in the cramped prison of a city now.
As she emerged from the crowd for breath she glanced up to see more guards approaching to start searching the back of the line, telling one person after another to show their foreheads. She ducked behind a pile of crates and ran aimlessly into a secluded ally riddled with elephant rats that scattered at her approach to be greeted with nothing but a dead end.
For a moment there. She just stood in silence staring at the wall. This is it she thought, tears beginning to stream down her face. If they already have guards posted at the bridge then they have them at the docks too.
"I'm done for."
Her back slid against the wall as her legs gave way beneath her. She collapsed limp against the wall and resorted to burying her face in her arms and knees not knowing what to do once again. She had planned meticulously for her escape in case she was ever revealed and look how quickly those plans had crumbled into dust.
No. She muttered to herself shakily before wiping away the tears. There has to be some way out. There has to be. She stood up and saw that it was getting dark out. Curfew would soon be put in effect and anyone caught outside would be arrested. She needed a place to hide for the night until she could come up with a plan in the morning. By some miracle if she even made it until then.
Kishe? A voice came from out of the shadows before her.
She raised her palms ready to strike, not willing to hold back at all. Stay back!.. I'm warning you!!"
He stepped out of the light still limping from his agni kai burns with his arms raised in submission and total trust in her not to strike him down. Beside him were Azzai and Malo holding him up and out of breath. kishe cried as she let out the first real smile of genuine relief and safety she had felt in years.
"Bin…"
Come with me he said. I know somewhere safe. And I promise you. You'll get out of this city alive. I swear it.