"How much longer until we reach the swamps?" Marcel's words called quietly from the other bison's back. Four to five hours had passed so most of them decided to get some rest- leaving only Marcel, Tyler, Lui and Arlan awake.
"It shouldn't be that much further. This is the last mountain range until the beginning of the swamp, then we still have a few miles to go before we reach the supposed area of the shrine." Tyler looked back and forth between his scroll and his friend.
"Ok." Marcel leaned back into his spot, and relaxed with a sigh. He couldn't help it as his eyes wandered over to where Evan slept on the other bison. There was definitely something different about him since their last encounter; it was almost as if Evan had become more soft-hearted. Why that was, Marcel had no idea. Maybe he finally came to realization the madness of the Fire Nation, and is actually trying to get away. Then again, anything was possible when it came to Evan.
Marcel slowly began to drift off into his thoughts, his eyes sliding closed, and was able to enjoy the beautiful sound of the wind whistling by. The shifting of the bison beneath him as it flew was calming and massaging, along with the occasional groan it let out as Arlan pet its enormous head. It was a soft, rumbly groan, like a purring cat.
The next sound he heard was anything but calming. It sounded like a wild shriek of distress, but it came not of any animal he had heard in his lifetime.
"Did you hear that?" Marcel sat up and focused on listening.
"Yes..." He got a response from many of the group. David, Jonathan, Brock, and Brian were sitting up, while Evan was still asleep.
The screaming from Evan's nightmare shook him out of his terrifying dreamland. Once again, like how his dream normally ended, the child appeared directly in front of him and was soaked to the bone in his blood. The boy caterwauled his agony and dragged Evan back into reality with his sharpened claws. There were no beautiful blue eyes where they were supposed to be, but instead were left gouged out, bloody and dangling from the sockets by strings.
As Evan peeled his eyes open out of fear, he became aware that everyone was sitting up with a scared or curious frown. 'What's going on?'
"Did you hear that, Tarak?" Jonathan asked him.
Tarak couldn't answer. Hear what? He didn't hear anything because of his dre-
The wild screech of the boy echoed through the mountain ranges. His gut flipped and his heart picked up a lot of speed, until sure enough he could hear the throbbing of his fear loudly inside his head.
"There it is again..." The leader of the group scanned the area with sharp eyes.
The unbelievable event was driving Tarak crazy. How on earth could they hear what was coming from his dream?! Or, even better question; why was the screaming still occurring? He was awake as far as he knew, which meant the dream shouldn't even be happening anymore.
"Wait;" the small air bender directing the bison suddenly spoke up. "I think I know where it may be coming from." He flicked the reigns and the bison jerked forward. Jonathan, who was sitting ahead of Tarak, must have lost his balance; because all of a sudden he found himself forced backwards and leaning awkwardly with his upper torso in Evan's criss-crossed legs.
Unfortunately for the fire bender, as Jon fell he instinctively threw his elbows back to catch himself- only instead one of them thrusted right into poor Evan's crotch. Tarak could have sworn he saw stars and heard one of those wrestling-match bells ring as it hit. The air completely left his lungs, and the only thing he could manage to squeeze out of his mouth was, "SHIII-IIII-IIIT!!"
"Ohmygosh I'm so sorry!" Jonathan tried to hold in his giggles as he sat up and tried to calm the writhing man. On the other side, David had no sympathy and completely lost himself in his hysterical laughter.
"Shut up, you asshats!" Tyler tried to keep a strict face but couldn't help it, making a noticeable smile appear on his lips. "Where is it coming from, Lui? And why are we trying to go towards it?" He questioned the pilot to change the subject.
Lui kept quiet until they speedily passed a large mountain. "It's coming from there." He pointed directly into what could have been the largest, darkest, thickest forest any of them had ever lay eyes on. "This, is the Foggy Swamp. And the screaming is coming from the exact area where we predicted the shrine to be."
Everybody leaned over the saddles with great interest. The leaves of the forest seemed to be so close that there was no sight of the ground at all. The branches that stuck out were long, dark, and very thick, giving an eery creep to them. Vines hung from said branches like webs, clustered together by the thousands. It gave all the men a really bad vibe from the first glance.
"Alright, this is where we dismount!" Lui called after another ten minutes of gliding above the forest.
"Dismount?!" David shouted back to him. Suddenly the bison dove towards the trees, stopping only a few feet above them to whisk away thousands of leaves with their violent winds.
"Ya! This part of the swamp is way too overpopulated with plant life, so our bison will have no way of traveling through the forest! And if we just keep flying, there's no way to find the shrine because the trees are too thick!" He answered the startled question with a happy-go-lucky grin.
"Don't worry, th-they know what they are doing!" Arlan called over from his perch on the bison's head. Both air benders stood up and balanced on their mighty beast's heads, then turned to direct the passengers to do the same.
"Here's the plan: Tyler, Brock, and Brian will jump first because they have the greatest chance of landing unharmed by using earth bending; plus, are physically stronger-"
Arlan quickly interrupted. "Wait, important thing to r-remember; don't land on the tops of the trees! Aim for the ground, because the trees are where the most mind-tricks ha-happen. I-I-I don't have an explanation for it, but it's almost like the air is poisonous for your mind, or s-something. I recommend holding your breath until you hit the ground, just for safety."
"Noted. Everybody get that?" Tyler demanded urgently. Once everyone nodded, Lui continued.
"Also, because of that reason, we can't slow the bison down or go any lower in case they catch whatever is causing those illusions." He turned to the rest of the group and commanded, "Next will be Jonathan, David, and Marcel; and you earth benders make sure everyone gets to the ground safely, alright?" The trio nodded in sync. "Arlan and I will follow after with Evan. At that point the bison will fly back to the mountains and hide out there, but will return when I call them with this."
Lui held up a small object. It was a white whistle in the shape of a flying bison. "A bison's hearing is so powerful, it can hear this whistle from many miles away. We can't hear it, but they can! My good pal Squee has never missed a call in her life, so there should be nothing to worry about."
"Alright, let's go! And don't forget to grab your shit!" Tyler stepped up to the edge of the saddle and prepared to jump. "Give the orders, boys." He told the air benders. They held their heads high with pride at the leader's pass of authority, and Arlan allowed Lui to do the honors.
Lui scanned the trees for any small opening below them. Upon sighting one, he pointed to it with a flick of his arm, shouting in excitement, "There! Dive in right there! Go now!"
The earth benders leapt without fear, one by one with Tyler at the lead. They disappeared into the leaves after bringing their arms into their chests for extra defense against it.
"They're in! Go up then circle around, but wait until we are sure they have reached the bottom; We don't know how long of a drop it is under those trees!"
Lui grabbed the reigns of his bison and did as Marcel ordered, Arlan following a moment after. They ascended the the skies at an extremely steep climb, nearly making the group fall out of the saddle if they had not been holding on. Evan however, since his hands were bound and he couldn't grip the saddle, began to slide near the edge. He would have fallen off if a hand hadn't wrapped under his arm and held tightly.
"Hang on!" Jonathan cried.
"With what?!"
He sputtered out incoherent words as the strain on his arms became almost unbearable. Eventually the bison leveled out and curved to the side in a u-turn action. Jonathan's hand slipped out from under Evan's arm and they both landed back on the saddle with a grunt.
"I could have handled myself, jackass." Tarak growled humiliatingly.
"Your welcome."
"Guys, get ready! We are coming around again!" The bison pilot called, directing the creature down towards the spot again. Arlan's bison flew in first, and they watched as Marcel gracefully leapt into the trees. He put his legs straight out and reached his hands to his ankles, slipping right through the plants like a slippery snake. Arlan veered his bison into the sky again, giving Lui room to get closer.
"David, Jon, your turn!" Lui looked back at them and pointed towards the opening. The water benders exchanged a nervous expression, but continued forward into their jump. David leapt first, curling into a protective ball before whizzing past the leaves.
When Jon came to jump, he felt the eyes of a certain fire bender glare into his mask. It began to pressure him but he refused to focus on it as of now.
"See you down there." Jon looked into his amazing amber eyes once more, then sprang off the saddle and bravely welcomed the terrifying free-fall experience. The leaves approached him swiftly, and thank the spirits, he was able to curl himself into a tight enough ball to avoid contact with them. Whilst holding his breath he passed by the first layer of plant life, but was completely clueless as to what approached next.
Thousands upon thousands of vines, branches, and leaves hurled towards him. By now it was impossible to dodge them, which made Jon thankful for the mask that protected his face from any bad injury.
They repeatedly slashed at his arms and legs like claws. A rather large branch caught his tunic for a moment, shredding the fabric beneath it and leaving a long, bloody gash on his arm.
He cursed under his breath but couldn't reach over to put pressure on the throbbing wound. His descent only quickened despite all the barriers in his path; until finally, he squinted through his narrowed eyes and saw an opening of broken branches- supposedly where the others broke through before him. He almost made it through when he felt his arm explode into an fiery pain.
His wound had ripped even wider and deeper from another razor sharp branch, evoking more blood to rain down along with him. As he burst out of the leaves, he shut his eyes tightly and cradled his arm; that is, until he heard many screams of his name.
'Shouldn't I have hit the ground by now..?'
"Jonathan!!" David's cry was heard above the others. Jonathan forced his eyes open and instantly regretted it. The ground seemed like it was an entire mile below him. The trunks of the trees were more massive than he ever expected, for they were as big as an oak tree in comparison to a fly! They looked to be at least a quarter mile round and too high for any measurement Jon could come up with.
Hundreds of feet below him was littered with murky water, mud, stones, and tree roots. Tyler, Brock, and Brian were all standing upon their own towers of stone, Brock having just caught Marcel and lowering him to the ground safely. Tyler launched himself further up to catch David, who was falling with his back to the ground and his icy eyes focused completely on Jon.
When Tyler caught him, he struggled slightly with David's long, stick-like body. He managed to get a firm grip without slipping off his rock, and slid down his tower gracefully. Finally, Brian stretched his arms out to Jonathan while bending himself further up to meet with him.
Jonathan collided roughly with Brian, who staggered, and almost dropped the petrified water bender. After a few seconds of scrambling for control, Brian gathered Jon's smaller body close to his and basically tripped down his stone pillar. It was a rough ride all the way down, but when they finally did make it, Brian's feet sloshed into the mud and sprayed it all over the others.
"Guys, Jonathan's hurt." Jon heard Brian's concerned comment, followed by a growl from Tyler.
"Brock, stay here with the others and help Jon. Brian, put him down and help me with the air benders when they come with Evan." Tyler commanded. Brian nodded and set Jon down not-so-carefully. The two launched themselves into the air again, dragging a large column of earth with them.
"Jon? Are you alright?" David shakily walked over to him. Jonathan looked down, mortified, at his own blood-stained tunic. The gash on his arm was glittering and oozing non-stop with the thick, scarlet liquid; but what scared Jon the most was the visible stained-red bone that lay underneath the red mush of skin and muscle.
"Holy shit!! Jonathan, we need to bandage that up now before it gets infected!" David squealed out of more fear than Jonathan had.
"Or if he loses too much blood! Here-" Brock ran up and selflessly ripped his entire sleeve off, tearing it multiple times into many long, thick strips.
"T-thanks, but that isn't necessary! I'm fine-"
David hissed, "Like hell that's 'fine'! Shut up and let us help you; This could be a seriously deadly wound!" The water bender approached him carefully. The pain Jon was feeling drove him to submit to the other's actions, which involved David grabbing his arm and lifting it high in order to slow the blood circulation.
"That's really deep... We should try to clean it out first, though, to stop any future infection." Marcel commented when he took a long look at the wound.
"Good idea." David mumbled and ordered Jon to keep his head up while he bended water from the sacs on his hips. "This may hurt a bit-" he began to run the icy cold water along the wound.
"Ouch, careful!" Jonathan growled through his clenched teeth.
"I'm trying, stop moving!" David reached up to grab his arm as it moved, but immediately let go with wide, confused eyes.
Jon raised an eyebrow. "...what? What's wrong?"
"Nothing; nothing's wrong.. Just hang on a second." David put his hand back where it was, right next to the wound. The water surrounding his hand began to glow a ghostly blue hue, along with the comforting feeling of warmth.
"Da-David, what are you doing? David?" Jonathan apprehensively watched the miracle take place.
His brother remained silent while he lifted his hand again, and placed it entirely on the wound. He saw the rip in the skin slowly stitch it's way back together like a slime. The blood stopped oozing out, and the bone no longer remained visible. When he removed his healing hand, there was nothing more than a bumpy scar.
"What... just... Happened?" Brock whispered as David pulled his magic hand back to examine it. The water stopped glowing and dripped normally off the limb.
"I think... I may have the ability to heal people.." He looked up from his hand and into Jonathan's eyes. They were just as confused as his were, only a little more startled.
"How is that possible? I thought neither of you were taught how to heal." Questioned Marcel.
"We weren't; But I've heard of this before," David bended the water back into his pouches and looked around. "When we were young, our old caretaker used to tell us stories of tribal women that served in the wars. They were suddenly gifted with the ability to heal through bending, and would nurse the wounded by learning how to use water bending to heal.
"It used to be that everyone learned by a master, who learned from masters before them; but one of the most rare occurrences in the world, now even more rare than a lightning bender, was learning how to heal without special teachings or spiritual guidance."
Marcel butted in once more, "Sooooo, you're saying that you just did something near impossible? And learned the very move that could possibly have saved all our wimpy asses for all future traumatic events?!"
"Not all." David stood up and reached out a hand to assist Jonathan. "Like I said, I can't bring someone back to life. Spirits of humans are not something meant to be tamed. This is completely new information to me... I'm not even sure if I could do it again." He gazed down at his fingers with amazement.
"You have no idea how useful that is going to be, David! This is amazing!" Brock grabbed at his copper-brown hair in excitement.
"What's amazing?" Tyler, sliding down his earth tower alongside Brian, Arlan, Lui, and Evan, overheard Brock's excitement.
"Tyler, David learned how to heal with his water bending!!" Brock and Marcel leapt over to Tyler like a couple of giddy children. "This is great! Now we have a master healer on our side!"
"Which meeeeaaaans, more of a chance to survive the war!" Marcel added.
Tyler looked between the two in front of him, and then over to David. He noticed the blood smeared on Jonathan's arm, and walked over to get a better look. He took it, examined it, and traced the scar over like a hawk.
"You healed him? Just now?" He wondered in awe.
"Ya, but don't get your hopes too high. I don't know if I'll ever be able to do it again... I think I was only able to do it because I felt really strongly about healing Jon. After all, he's the closest thing I have to a family." He smiled, and Jon pretended to wipe away a tear while clutching his heart dramatically, "..I got really scared, and along with it, a serious urge to help him. It just, happened. I don't know how else to explain it."
"Fascinating.. Good job, David. You are a literal life-saver."
"Uh- well, like I said, I can't-"
"We need to get moving. Time is ticking, and we have no idea what we are about to face in here." The group became silent, listening to the daunting sounds of the swamps. Strange, unseen creatures buzzed in their ears, squawked in the treetops, and groaned beneath the waters.
Tyler turned to the rest of the group to decide the direction they were heading when Jonathan approached Evan- Tarak.
"Are you alright?" He reached out to the fire bender, who spat towards him in return. That was understandable, though; he too would be humiliated if he had to be dragged around everywhere because his hands were useless.
"I'm fine."
"..Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure. Now get out of my face."
Jonathan was slightly taken aback, but he reassured himself that Evan was just being moody.
"Ya.. sorry."
Now it was Evan's turn to be taken aback. Why did Jonathan just back down so quickly? Part of him hoped he would continue pushing, so Tarak could have a chance to counter him and make him feel bad about himself, just to mess with his head. But.. the kid was being too patient with him. It was almost unfair!
His gaze wandered over to the tall water bender. This relationship was unfair. He cared so much about Jonathan that he learned a whole new subskill just to save him! Tarak had been training his whole life to become a powerful lightning bender.
The one type of bending that had millions of people on their knees, because nobody could counter such a powerful element. No stone could block it's mighty force, no water could deflect the godly power, and no air could redirect in the milliseconds of time it takes to reach its destination. This war was going to be won because of the lightning benders, and Tarak was going to be the most powerful one of all.
Yet... There was something that Tarak just didn't understand. How could the water bender learn such a rare skill out of care and fear for another life? A life he cares for?
Deciding to push forth and finally get an answer, he reproached Jonathan in hopes to speak alone with him. Nodding towards David, he mumbled, "He cares about you. A lot."
"Ya... So do I to him. He's my brother, of course he's going to mean a lot to me-"
"It makes him weak." He suddenly spat out.
"Excuse me?" Jonathan felt a sudden anger inside, but he shoved it away to hear more.
"Having people getting in the way of victory. It's weak, and you slow down just for them. Everyone should be taught that other humans are liars, traitors, or as good as dead in this world. Only the strongest survive." With the amount of sincerity put into his comment, he ended up scaring the wits out of Jon.
"Who on earth put that idea into your head?!" He took a tiny step back. "Surely you don't fully mean that.. Don't you have someone you care a lot about? There has to be someone that you like to be with! What about family, or friends?"
"I don't waste my time with those petty privileges. If I've learned anything in my days, it's that everyone you love will betray you or leave you-"
"That's a lie." Jon interrupted. "I don't know where you got that idea or why you believe it, but the love I have for my friends and family are all I need to get by everyday. They give me a newfound strength that you can't understand, and never will unless you accept their love in return. The care I receive is not a 'privilege'.." He looked up into Evan's doubtful eyes. They were stone cold and judgmental, but in those glimmering amber orbs, he saw the spark of the Evan he once knew.
'I was right. The real Evan is still in there, and I'm going to bring him back out by showing him things he never remembers having- gifts of kindness, patience, confidence, and love.'
"Ok, fellas." Tyler stood high and addressed the situation. "We have exactly nine days to find this shrine, as well as a nine-day food supply. Hopefully it will be plenty of time to find it and get answers, assuming we don't get lost or go insane. Stick together, don't let anyone out of your sights, and, whatever you do, do not, under any circumstances, listen to the voices."
•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•
Thank you all for reading! I appreciate comments, critiques, and especially the grammar nazi's! You push me to my limits to improve and I'm very thankful! It's not always the best feeling, but you'd be surprised how much a little critiquing can push you to be the very best you can be.
*slams head on typewriter*
~Skyz
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Behind the Flames .:H2OVanoss:.
Aventura.•H2OVANOSS COMPLETE•. June 2020- Serious talk: this is an old story. It contains Pewdiecry and Minicat, two other main ships that play an important role throughout the adventure. Due to recent events I'm horrified by the things revealed by two of t...
