Fina

Chapter Seven- Goodbye Home

Chapter Seven: Goodbye Home

No…no…no…Its to soon! I hear him coming through the woods. Gahiji shouts my name and screams obscene words at me though he can not yet see me. I push away from Zilindo and in a panic frenzy run around in a circle jogging in place.

“No, no, no, no!” I say quickly. Zilindo! He can NOT be here when Gahiji gets here. I hear the sound of busting metal as it crashes to the ground ringing in my ears all the way on the other side of the house.

“Go! Go now!” I say to Zilindo, pushing him towards the woods.

“NO! I’m not leaving you, I’ll stay and fight with you.” He says and tries to struggle. I’m stronger though and keep pushing him.

“No, now you will not. I will be fine just go…NOW!” I yell and push him into the woods.

“Stay!” I say with such dominance and strength that Zilindo just stares in surprise and nods. Before I can leave his hand grasps my arm and holds me in place.

“Let go.” I growl at him.

“Remember Fina.” He says, his eyes borrowing into mine. Gahiji’s shouts are just background noise now. “Your hair might have lost it’s fire, but do not ever let your heart.” And with that he lets go, I nod and leave. My feet carry be across the sand back towards the boat. Good bye my friend.

I’m almost there when there is a sudden burst of flames between me and the boat. I come to a complete stop and shield my face with my arms, somehow a scream erupts from my throat. Gahiji’s laugh echoes in my ears from where he stands 50 feet away.

“Thought you could run?” He laughs, “That little trick in the woods only slowed me down a little bit.”

I watch him slowly walk towards me with his hands held out, ready to erupt in hot flames of anger. They seem to of healed enough to fight. Though, there are still bandages wrapping around his palm and wrist.

No, I have never given up with out a fight and I never will. I will fight him until the water comes in and the boat can go, I will fight him no matter what it takes. I will fight, and I will win. My prize, freedom. Limited it will be, my freedom is still the goal. I hold my hands to the sides like the picture in my mind from the book.

“Think you can fight?” Gahiji laughs, but his face loses all sense of playful banter and goes strait to burning anger, “You can not!” He shouts and lunges forward. The fire barrels towards me, rolling out from the center licking out in orange and yellow, yet it is dull and powerless. His fire is weaker than mine I can tell. I push out with my own hands and let loose a ball of fire twice as big. My fire envelopes his and dissipates it, my hands instinctively shoot out to the side and the fire disappears. He stands there, I can see his eyes ablaze in anger. I take careful step towards the boat and stand behind it. If only I could get in it. What to do to beat him. He has years of practice and training. He knows the forms and motions to bring out the most powerful attacks. I only know two. He has the ability to be graceful under pressure. Like he is feeling any pressure right now; ha, he doesn’t believe I can fight back. I will show him, oh yes, yes I will. I try the other move I learned. I follow through the steps quickly and shoot out a large ball of fire. I can see the distress rising in his eyes, he realizes that I am stronger. Though, I still see determination in his eyes, even though he knows I am stronger with out training he will still try to take me down. He will not get the opportunity to do that, I will never, never let him do that. I am going to fight. Have I said that already? He pulls up a wall of fire and pushes it towards me. I reach out with my arms  put together, I wait until the fire has near them and split them apart. The fire follows suit and splits into two different waves going on either side of the boat.

“You can not beat me!” I yell at Gahiji and jump into the boat. The storm picks speed and the waves start crashing against the front of the boat. I feel it lift up beneath my feet slightly. One shot. Gahiji stands with his eyes glaring and his hands ready to fire.

“Yes I can and I will.” He storms towards the boat. HERE I GO! I shoot my hands out with all the power and strength I could muster and send it streaming towards Gahiji. He will be fine. The blast is incredible, the feeling incredible. I feel the fire spreading through my body, my toes tingling as the blast pushes be back. I slam up against the pole and stay in place.

Remember those little rockets when you were little that you would light the bottom on fire and it would shoot up into the sky. Well the same principle starts applying here. I feel the boat sliding against the sand, I hear the scrapping and the shouts from Gahiji and his men. I see through squinted eyes them trying to run around to the side of the boat. This will not do. I push harder and more fire erupts the boat starts moving faster until finally the front starts lifting in the water. This is working, it’s actually working! One last look to see Zilindo smile where he hid in the bushes before running away through the forest to go home. He’s safe. If all else fails, at least he is safe. It appears though, that this plan will not fail! I close my eyes and try to focus just on pushing the boat out into the ocean. I peek open just in time to see Gahiji’s hand reach up and grasp the side of the boat, water splashing all around him.

“NO!” I shout and move one hand towards him shooting a burst of fire over his head. The hand disappears and my boat glides into the water, and out towards the sea. I let go of my fire and it sizzles away. There he stands, Gahiji, on the beach staring out as my boat slows down out in the water. I just smile and turn to the sail to pull it up. With the rope in and, just one pull and the sail screams into the sky and instantly billow up. The wind from the storm coming down from the mountains pushes me away from the Fire Nation, away from my home. One last look at the people standing on the shore watching me go. Are they really going to be the last of my people to see me? Good bye my beautiful home.

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How long? How long has it been since I left my home? I know the White lands are east of the Red Nation, so I have kept my boat heading in that direction. I just hope it not for nothing and I end up getting stranded out at sea. I’m not trained at sailing. This wasn’t so smart after all.

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I think…maybe…I’ve been a drift for a couple weeks now. My food is almost running out I have spread it out. The sun is so hot…curse you sun.

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I learned one thing useful during my time out here on this stupid boat. If I boil the water around my boat fish will float to the surface and I can pick them out of the water. That has helped with the lack of food thing. Still…stupid boat.

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I think it has been three week since I left home and still no sign of land. I think I made a really bad mistake leaving. I should have stayed and just gone to jail. Then at least…I would have lived. I miss home.

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…I open my eyes, they are dry and tired from looking for land for such a long time, my hands are shaky, my body exhausted. I lean forward and hold myself up…I…don’t feel movement. What? My body goes into overdrive as I leap up from my spot on the boat. I was right! I’m not moving! I’VE HITLAND!!!! I don’t care what land it is, as long as it is land of any kind. I can finally get off this stupid boat! I run over to the edge of the boat and look down, half my boat is in the water, half is out and it looks like the tide is receding. Which means my boat washed ashore sometime while I was sleeping and the tide was in. But…what did I get stuck on so I wasn’t pull back out. I jump out of the boat and land in water…WHOA! I have totally lost land legs. I fall over into the water and hit the shallow water hard sending water splashing over my body. Ahh, refreshing. I try to stand, wobbly at the moment, at walk over to the front of the boat, straggly. Aww…there is the problem. I hit a large rock. This…this is bad I guess. This means…if I ever want to go home…I can’t. I’m stuck here now, wherever “here” is. I look around at the island on which I have wandered. There are trees, hills, but not many mountains. Certainly fits the description of the white lands. The boat though. The boat is ruined, the front broken. There is probably water damage inside too. Come on, it’s not like I can get help from anyone. I have to stay hidden I guess once the berries run out. I don’t even know if there are any people around. Or if this is in fact the White Lands.

It appears that I am alone. Truly…I am alone now.