The World is Round

Chapter Four: To The Point

The metal rails where cold to Maros touch as she leant ever them marveling at the ships taking the water passage below the bridge she was crossing. 'They're probably taking supplies from the Fire Nation to the Kolau Mountains' she thought to herself. The bridge was rather wide, having 2 paths on either side and enough space in the middle for horse carts to travel in both directions simultaneously. But on this cold gloomy day, despite all the ship traffic below, the bridge was deserted apart from Maro today. Probably because it looked like it was about to rain. Maro looked up at the sad sky. It had turned even darker since she last observed. She thought it would be a good idea to hurry along and find somewhere to sit down before the rain started.

And so she crossed the bridge into a new land she thought would be Hei Bai forest, however, there seemed to be no forest present. The ground was black and arid, as if someone has lit a huge camp fire. The young traveler could see small trees up ahead in the distance. The road it seemed, went west and Maro needed to go north, so she figured it could be up to her trusty compass and her now. She picked up her pace a little as she walked on by into the distance where she could see small trees starting to thicken up. She started wondering amongst them in the hope that she might find a place to keep dry. The sky seemed to indicated that this was necessary. Trees began getting bigger and bigger and eventually she found trees whose branches come down forming a sort of dome around the trunk. Maro heard some rustling in an area where 2 of these trees were huddled together. She pulled the branches away to go in and investigate.

Maro had never seen trees like this before. The had many branches and all twisted around each other like the end of a rope that had come undone. Inside looked spacious and cosy. So cosy in fact, that the 2 joint domes had made a home for a woman with long, light brown hair, dark brown skin, blue eyes and a strange tattoo around her right. It started raining hard, but Maro was now sheltered.

"Oh hello there... A bunch of people where looking for y...." but Maro could not finish her sentence because now realised that there was a long sword with a red handle which had gone into the left hand side of her stomach and come neatly out the back. The last thing Maro remembered before total darkness was the woman, who looked like she was in her early thirties pulling the sword out of there swiftly.

Maro regained consciousness. At first she was completely numb, and then realised the soft feel of the bed she was sleeping in. The next thing she come to realise was excruciating pain. She had yet to open her eyes, but started to roll around, desperately trying to find a comfortable position to ease the pain. She started to moan in her bed, her eyes shut tight, every second wishing that the next would allow either pain would either stop, or that her life finally end. But the pain did not stop and nor did her life end. She cried and cried until she could no longer keep her mouth open and her pillow became drenched. And then a voice came from the distance.

"Oh you're awake now! Hiiiiiiiiiiii!". It was a male voice, which was rather high pitched. It continued as it came closer slowly. "Oh deary deary. Stop struggling now, you're going to undo your bandages! Come now, come now. It's alright, it's ok". He was right next to her now. "Can you open those little eyes of yours? Yes? No? You know you don't talk much for someone who makes so much noise! Please look here, I brought you a present! Yes!"

Maro fell silent. She opened her eyes to find a large bright white haze slowly form into defined lines and figures. The large room she was in came into focus and the first striking feature of it were the beds that lay everywhere, all of which but one where empty right now. The man stood beside Maro's bed, a tray lay in his hand. Still breathing fast, she tried to sit up. The man put the tray on the desk by her bed. He was moderately old man with white hair and deep brown eyes. He handed her the cup with both his hands.

"Medicine! It's good stuff! Our speciality, in fact" He said with a beaming smile as Maro took the cup. Inside was a fluorescent turquoise liquid. It was translucent and smelled sweet, but in a very unusual way. "Drink! Drink!".